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Virtual: My Friends Thought I Was a Genius→

This week Federico and Myke talk about their experiences with Grim Fandango Remastered and the Code Name S.T.E.A.M demo.

A great game and a promising demo featured in this week’s Virtual. You can listen to the episode here.

For more Grim Fandango reads, I recommend this story by Polygon on how Grim Fandango came to life again, Laura Hudson’s article on playing the game today, and Kotaku’s guide to why so many people love Grim Fandango.

Sponsored by:

  • Igloo: An intranet you’ll actually like, free for up to 10 people.
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The iPad Introduction, Five Years Later→

Five years later, Federico, Myke and Stephen re-visit Steve Jobs’ announcement of the original iPad.

On January 27, 2010, Steve Jobs introduced the iPad. Five years later, the iPad has sold over 200 million units and it has become my main computer. So, obviously, we’d have a special episode of Connected to revisit the keynote and its message after five years.

I’m very happy about how this turned out. We put a lot of work into it – don’t miss the rumor section before the actual keynote – and it’s been fun to look back at the origin of the device I now use every day. You can listen to the episode here.

Sponsored by:

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  • Igloo: An intranet you’ll actually like, free for up to 10 people.
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Igloo: An Intranet You’ll Actually Like [Sponsor]

Why invest in the latest, sleekest devices if you are going to use them to stare at an intranet website that looks like it was built in the 90’s?

Not only can Igloo be customized to look exactly like your brand, but with its responsive design, it’s automatically optimized for almost any device you’re using, including the latest iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. And just like your favourite Apple devices, Igloo helps you do your best work.

Share files, coordinate calendars, provide status updates and manage projects. Igloo’s not just for your traditional intranet stuff like HR policies and expense forms. It also lets you work better together with your teams. And it keeps getting better.

Our latest upgrade, Viking, gives you more control over how you interact with documents, gather feedback and make changes. We’ve even added the ability to track who has read critical information (like read receipts in your email, but less annoying) to keep everyone on the same page.

Not convinced yet? We understand love doesn’t happen overnight. If you sign up now, we will let you try our platform for free for as long as you want.

Our thanks to Igloo for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Microsoft Releases Outlook for iOS→

Microsoft today released an iPhone and iPad version of Outlook, their well-known email app from the Office suite of productivity apps. The app is free and does not require a subscription to Office 365.

Outlook for iOS supports email accounts from Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com, iCloud, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail - but does not yet support custom IMAP accounts. Interestingly, the app also directly connects to online storage services such as OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive so you can easily attach and send files.

Outlook makes it simple to share files stored in the cloud. With just a few taps, you can insert a link to any file from OneDrive, Dropbox and other popular accounts in your email message. Recipients are automatically granted permission to view these files, with no extra steps.

Need to find a file quickly? No problem. Outlook provides a view of your recently received email attachments, so you don’t have to go searching through email to find that document you need. Outlook also lets you search across both your cloud storage and your email attachments at once, with Quick Filters to let you quickly sort by file type.

Be sure to read the full announcement blog post from the Microsoft Office team, they highlight a number of neat features that might convince you to try the app out. And if you’re ready to try the app out, here’s the direct link to Outlook on the App Store.
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Andy Baio on The Internet Archive→

Andy Baio writes about a topic that is dear to me: The Internet Archive and software preservation.

The Internet Archive is a chaotic, beautiful mess. It’s not well-organized, and its tools for browsing and searching the wealth of material on there are still rudimentary, but getting better.

But this software emulation project feels to me, like the kind of thing Google would have tried in 2003. Big, bold, technically challenging, and for the greater good.

Read the post, then go listen back to episode 13 of Connected if you missed it.

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Slack to Add Voice, Video, and Screen Sharing→

Today, Slack announced they have acquired Screenhero, a real-time collaboration service with support for video and audio. Their technology will allow Slack to integrate voice, video, and screen sharing in the main Slack apps.

Around the same time we started building Slack, another team began building their vision; a service specializing in voice, video and screen sharing that would allow people working remotely to work as if they were in the same room, and people in the same room to work better than ever.

That team was Screenhero. And the more we got to know them, the more we liked the cut of their jib.

We use Slack at Relay, and, like many others, I like its integration with other services and apps. I always wondered if Slack would ever take on Skype, and I’m curious to see if what they’re building could be a possible solution for podcasters who are forced to use Skype today.

See also: The Verge and TechCrunch on today’s news, and Mat Honan’s profile of Slack founder Stewart Butterfield from last year.

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#MacStoriesDeals – ‘Get Productive’ Sale

We’ve collected the best #MacStoriesDeals for January 28, 2015, so be quick and get them! Today, a lot of productivity-related iOS and OS X apps went on sale in what appears to be an organized promotion across the App Store. If new deals become available, we’ll include them at the top of each section.

For more deals, you can find us as @MacStoriesDeals on Twitter.

Update, January 29: Apple has confirmed the App Store sale with a special section called ‘Get Productive’.

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Spotify Gestures and History

For the past couple of months, I’ve been using Spotify again (I moved from Beats Music) because my girlfriend and I were looking for a Family subscription that wasn’t Rdio and I was interested in Spotify’s iPad app. Beats Music is still extremely dear to my heart, but I’m missing the ability to create a Family account and I find their iPad app to be inferior in terms of navigation and presentation to Spotify’s. When Apple fixes these aspects, I expect to reconsider a switch.

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Snapchat’s Discover: Daily Mini-Magazines from CNN, Cosmopolitan & More

Snapchat yesterday released ‘Discover’, a big new feature that sees Snapchat partner with news and entertainment brands such as CNN, National Geographic, MTV and Cosmopolitan to produce and publish content for the Snapchat app. The easiest way to explain the content is to try it out yourself, or watch the video below (which shows the CNN and National Geographic packages from January 27). But essentially, each partner will publish new content every 24 hours and that content can include video, articles, pictures, and other editorial content.
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