Microsoft’s IFTTT alternative is now open to everyone

Microsoft Flow, the company’s own take on IFTTT, is officially available to the general public after being released in beta back in April. The tool lets you connect cloud services like Slack, G Suite, Twitter, Office 365, and Dynamics 365 to create action “Flows” for the workplace.

A Flow is an action that takes place after something else happens — like having a photo uploaded to Dropbox after emailing it to yourself. Unlike IFTTT, which lets you link two single actions with each other, Microsoft’s version can perform multiple actions in a single Flow. For example, you can choose to have a tweet containing a certain keyword trigger both a push notification and an email simultaneously instead of creating two separate recipes.

Compared to IFTTT, Flow is compatible with fewer third-party apps (58 supported apps to IFTTT’s 366). This makes sense, though, given that Flow is designed to be used at an enterprise level while IFTTT targets Internet of Things users.

Microsoft Flow is available for free and starts at $5 per user monthly if you want to run Flows more often (the free version limits you to 750 runs per month). It’s being released alongsidePowerApps, a business app building tool for non-coders. You can sign up for Flow with any email — no association with Office required.Flow’s public release also lets system administrators control which apps and services can be used within the company, and which teams or geographic regions specific Flows can be targeted to. Like IFTTT’s Do suite of apps, Flow’s mobile app lets you make buttons that can trigger actions on the go, such as emailing a colleague if you’re running behind to a meeting.

Slack shows it’s worried about Microsoft Teams with a full-page newspaper ad

Microsoft is just minutes away from unveiling its Slack competitor, Microsoft Teams, at an event in New York City today. The software giant is expected to position its Teams software with tight integration into Microsoft Office, Skype, and the company's Office 365 services, and as a direct competitor to Slack. Microsoft hasn't even officially unveiled its Teams service, but that's not stopping Slack from getting some words out before the software maker's event.

In a full back page ad in the New York Times, Slack welcomes Microsoft's competition into the messaging market with some "friendly advice." In a long note, that's also published on Slack's blog, the company warns Microsoft that it's not the features that matter, it's the craftsmanship and human aspects of the software. "We've spent tens of thousands of hours talking to customers and adapting Slack to find the grooves that match all those human quirks," says the Slack team. "The internal transparency and sense of shared purpose that Slack-using teams discover is not an accident. Tiny details make big differences."

Dell just teased its own Surface Studio PC

Microsoft announced its Surface Studio all-in-one PC last week, with a plan to appeal to creatives. At Adobe's Max conference in San Diego today, Dell aired a teaser video for its upcoming all-in-one PC that looks like its own take on Microsoft's Surface Studio. Spotted by SurfaceProArt on Twitter, the teaser doesn't mention specs or pricing, but it looks like a PC with two screens and additional input through its own Surface Dial-like hardware. In a subsequent tweet, Dell confirmed that the machine will be unveiled at CES 2017. Apparently it's been in development since 2014.

Microsoft unveiled the Dial as an additional input tool for creatives, and Windows chief Terry Myerson told The Verge last week that Microsoft was open to letting partners use its own technology to bring similar devices to the market. It looks like that's about to happen with Dell's all-in-one. Dell's machine appears to include stylus support, with input primarily driven from a touchscreen that lays on a desk where a mouse or keyboard would traditionally sit.Dell ends its 90-second teaser with a mention that this unannounced device will be unveiled soon, and "welcome to your new workspace." That sounds a lot like Microsoft's pitch: turn your desk into a studio.

Xiaomi’s new affordable Redmi 4 and Redmi 4A launched

After the launch of two premium smart phones just a few days back, Xiaomi has launched its new budget handsets in China.The new Redmi 4 is an upgraded its previous version of Redmi 3 that was launched earlier this year that has proved to be the benchmark smart phone model in the market, which makes for a phone with exciting specs at an affordable price.

Backed by a nice unibody metal design, the phone also features a fingerprint scanner mounted at the back, similar to that of the previous phone. It share a similar design detail like that of the Note 4 that has small bezels and over all features a 5 inch HD display with a resolution of 720p, where as speeding the handset is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 SoC that clocks at a speed of 1.4GHz along with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage for saving your precious data, that can be increased to 128GB with the help of an expandable storage. It also has an inferior variant that hosts Snapdragon 430 processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM.

The back metal panel also hosts a 13MP camera sensor where as the front comes with a 5MP selfie camera. It runs on Google’s v6.0 Android Marshmallow OS, skinned heavily with MIUI. For long usability, the phone also uses a 4,100mAh battery and also has support for VoLTE-ready and 4G LTE.

Alongside, the company also launched the Redmi 4A that runs n Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 CPU paired with 2GB RAM, 32GB internal storage and uses a 3, 120mAh battery. This handset too comes with a fingerprint scanner.

The Redmi4 Snapdradon 625 version is priced at CNY 899( Rs 8,888 approx.), while the Snapdragon 430 is priced at CNY 699 (Rs 6,905 approx.).There is no news on India launch as if now for these handsets, as the Redmi3 too did not come to India, but were launched later in different versions of Redmi 3S and 3S Prime in India.

Lenovo's mobile shipments increase; Massive boost in Motorola sales in India

There is good news for Lenovo all around. Right after dethroning Micromax from 2nd place in the Indian mobile industry, Lenovo got a boost from its smartphone division during Q3 2016. 

Substantial increase in Mobile shipments 

The company announced that it sold a total of 14 million smartphone in the third quarter of 2016, which was up 25% compared to Q2. Lenovo’s overall revenues for the quarter stood at $11.2 billion, 8% down from the same period in 2015. On a more positive side, Net income cam in at $157 million in Q3, a radical improvement compared to a loss of $174 million in Q3 2015.

Massive boost from sales of Moto Z 

This is where the news gets a little interesting. Lenovo’s mobile division, which has been struggling a bit as of late, saw a 40% increase in sales this quarter thanks to the Moto Z, Moto Z Play and the innovative Moto Mods. You can read about our initial impressions of the Moto Z here and the Moto Modshere . However, despite the increase in smartphone sales, the mobile division still posted a loss of $156 million (against a revenue of $2billion). Although, this is still a 4.4% improvement over last year.

Major sales of Motorola smartphones in India 

 Majority of the increase in smartphone shipments came from Asia, with India in particular seeing a massive 15% increase in shipments compared to last year. Lenovo’s Motorola division, thanks to the Moto Z, Moto Z Play and Moto Mods saw a 40% boost in sales.

CMRA camera band turns your Apple Watch into a first-gen Galaxy Gear

Remember the original Galaxy Gear? Hard not to — gadgets don’t get much gadgetier and clunkier than Samsung’s first big attempt to figure out why folk might want computers on their wrist. One of its key features was the camera embedded in the watch strap, letting you quickly snap photos without the need to get your phone out, and now a company is aiming to bring similar functionality to the Apple Watch.

The CMRA band comes from Israeli startup Glide, who already makes an Apple Watch-compatible video chat app. It looks like one of Apple’s rubber Sport Bands but incorporates an 8-megapixel primary camera as well as a 2-megapixel module angled toward the face. While it’s not quite clear how CMRA integrates with the Watch, it does require its own battery — Glide includes a stand that charges both the Watch and the CMRA and can also be used on the go.

"The camera is only valuable when it is out and ready to take a photo or video," Glide CEO Ari Roisman tells Recode. "Our phones live in our pockets." If CMRA is able to be used without too much reliance on the phone, that’ll certainly be the selling point. But that’s probably a big "if."

CMRA won’t ship til spring next year, however — preorders open today for $199, or $149 if you’re quick. The regular selling price will be $249.

Here’s what 1Password’s Touch Bar support might look like

All the hype around the new MacBook Pro has been about what its flashy new Touch Bar can do, but there’s good reason to be excited about its Touch ID sensor, too.One early example: the maker of 1Password, AgileBits, is already showing off its planned support for the laptop’s fingerprint sensor. It plans to allow users to log into 1Password without typing in their (quite possibly complicated) master password.

Basically, the change would take the app from 1 to (mostly) 0Password, since you’d only occasionally need to type it in. For users of the app, that’s a big convenience.

AgileBits is already starting to imagine what it’ll do with the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar, too. There’s nothing necessarily crazy here compared to what Apple showed on stage yesterday, but it’s good to see that some of the Mac’s staples are already thinking about Apple’s new hardware.

The mockups place some of 1Password’s key options, like the ability to create different types of entries and to change the length of a new password, right on the Touch Bar. These aren’t supposed to be final designs, but they suggest that AgileBits — and other interested app developers — will be able to launch custom Touch Bar layouts pretty quickly.

There’s no timeline on when 1Password will get these new features. But, you know, no one actually has this computer yet so it doesn’t really matter for a few more weeks.