The Apple Beat: Two books and Jony Ive's rare Time Magazine profile

“Steve and I spent months and months working on a part of a product that, often, nobody would ever see, nor realize was there,” Apple's Jony Ive opens up about design in a recent interview with Time - Photo by Gadjo C. Sevilla

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

It's that time of year where the scarcity of Apple product news and announcements leaves a void that is soon filled with rumours, unbridled speculation on new products and services that haven't been announced. 

With a news cycle running dry until around June, publishers seem to have timed the release of Apple-related books focusing not just on the company but on the personalities that shape its future.

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Microsoft to reportedly debut Office for iPad this month

Following the release of OneNote for Mac OS, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella will be hosting a cloud- and mobile-focused event in San Francisco on March 27. The Verge reports that Microsoft plans to unveil the Office for iPad at the said event. The iPad version of Office will reportedly look similar to the iPhone version and will need users to have an Office 365 subscription to edit documents. Document creation and editing will be available for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

The March 27 event is said to set the stage for the announcements that will be made at the company’s Build developer conference on April 2. 

Trailer for first ‘Angry Birds’ RPG comes out

Rovio has unveiled that the medieval-themed Angry Birds game is going to be the franchise’s first RPG entry through its first trailer. Angry Birds Epic will be free to play and feature leveling mechanics and collectible items. It makes use of the same cartoon graphics with turn-based combat. Hopefully, in-app purchases and advertisements won’t ruin the experience as much. The game is coming out today in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to obtain feedback on the game before its international release.

Source: The Verge  

Twitter testing ‘Fave People’ timeline on Android

Twitter has a Lists feature that let you keep specific people or accounts you want to follow in one place. However, this list doesn’t show up on your timeline. Twitter wants to make it easier for you to keep track of your favorites with a new “Fave People” timeline. The social network is testing out the new feature on Android. The timeline will appear beside the main timeline on Android app. It is currently available on the alpha version of Twitter’s Android app so there is no way of telling at the moment if it will be available on other platforms.

Source: Ubergizmo