Microsoft Surface Mini slated for May 20th release

The Microsoft Surface Mini is coming sooner rather than later. Microsoft's smallest Surface device is slated for a May 20 product launch with availability coming soon after. Expected to be an 8-inch tablet running Windows RT 8.1, the focus of this mini is notetaking and we can expect the same type of stylus integration as with the Surface Pro.

The 8-inch Windows tablet market has become an interesting area as a number of devices from Acer, Dell and Lenovo are bring the full Windows 8.1 experience to a smaller form factor and while some offer a stylus, the functionality is rather limited.

The Surface Mini has long been rumoured but was not included in the last Surface refresh that saw the launch of the Surface 2 and the Surface Pro 2. Pricing, feature set and accessories are all expected to be revealed during the event which takes place in New York City on May 20th.

Source:WindowsITPro, Surface Mini render from Tecnopasion

Windows Phone to get an official file manager by month’s end

An official file manager is sorely missing on the Windows Phone. But that might change very soon if we are to take Joe Belfiore’s word for it. The head of Windows Phone at Microsoft said in a recent “Ask me Anything” on Reddit that their team is hoping to release their file manager by the end of the month. Belfiore even showed screenshots to authenticate this feature. There are third-party file managers out there but it is always better to work with an official one baked into the system already.

Source: Engadget

Microsoft updates OneNote app for iOS and Mac

Microsoft isn’t just focusing on its Office for iPad apps. The Redmond, Washington-based company has updated its OneNote app for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.  The iOS 7 apps have been redesigned to make it easier to navigate the interface and to let you create new notebooks and sections right from the iPhone. They also ported the Office Lens feature on the iPad to the iPhone to help you digitize documents or notes written on whiteboards.

Meanwhile, the Mac version gets the ability to print notes. You can also save pages as PDF; copy and paste formatted contents from other sources with the formatting kept; as well as drag and drop photos and format them on OneNote. You can now also add a display name for hyperlinks so you would be able to identify the links you’ve saved and you can keep consist text format for notes with Format Painter. 

Microsoft releases patch for IE zero-day flaw, includes security update for unsupported Windows XP

It looks like the security flaw discovered in version 6 to 11 of Internet Explorer was serious enough that Microsoft released an “out-of-band” fix for it. (The company usually releases security patches on the second Tuesday of every month.) This means all supported versions of Windows will be getting the patch. Unusually, Microsoft decided to issue a security update for Windows XP, which they discontinued support for already. This might be a bad move on the company’s part because it encourages its users to keep on using the old operating system. Here’s the link to the security update just in case you haven’t activated automatic update for your Windows OS.

Source: The Next Web