Microsoft and Dropbox announce surprise partnership for Office integration

Microsoft has cozied up to Dropbox with a new partnership.

Soon you'll be able to easily access, save, share and collaborate on your Office 365 documents stored on Dropbox without leaving Office.

Office 365 is Microsoft's paid cloud version of Microsoft Office.

But wait, there's more. Dropbox will also be available as an option for Microsoft's freebie version of Office in its cloud, known as Office Online.

And this isn't a Windows-only deal. You'll be able to use your Dropbox account inside of Office on your iPhone, iPad or Android tablet.

It's yet another symbol of the kinder, gentler Microsoft under new CEO Satya Nadella. He's willing to partner with companies instead of compete with them, and customers win.

Office 365 comes with its own cloud storage, called OneDrive — and now OneDrive offers an unbeatable deal: the paid version comes with unlimited storage.

But Dropbox is a major go-to cloud storage option for Office documents, particularly those using older, not-cloud versions. Dropbox users have currently stashed away more than 35 billion Office files, which allows them to collaborate on documents with co-workers without buying into Microsoft's cloud version of Office.

So this partnership is super smart on Microsoft's part. It's another on ramp to encourage people to ditch their old version of Office and sign up for the fancy new cloud version, and they can still use Dropbox with their existing files and and work with colleagues just like they are used to doing. And of course, there's now an extra incentive to switch over to OneDrive.

Microsoft will make more money on its cloud app over time, since users must pay annually for it. But it's not a bad deal for users, because you get more features for the extra money, such as the ability to install the software on multiple devices.

Dropbox support will be available to Office 365 users in 2015, Microsoft says.

This partnership isn't unique, by the way. Dropbox competitor, Box, has been working with Office 365 since last month.

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Scientists create world’s first technology that can connect battery-free devices to Wi-Fi

LONDON: Scientists have created the world's first technology that can connect battery-free devices to Wi-Fi.


University of Washington says a world will soon become a reality where your wristwatch or other wearable device will communicate directly with your online profiles, storing information about your daily activities where you can best access it - all without requiring batteries. Or maybe battery-free sensors embedded around your home could track minute-by-minute temperature changes and send that information to your thermostat to help conserve energy.

The university engineers have designed a new communication system that uses radio frequency signals as a power source and reuses existing Wi-Fi infrastructure to provide Internet connectivity to these devices.

Sensors could now be embedded in everyday objects to help monitor and track everything from the structural safety of bridges to the health of your heart. But having a way to cheaply power and connect these devices to the Internet has kept this from taking off.

"If such devices are going to take off, we must provide connectivity to the potentially billions of battery-free devices that will be embedded in everyday objects," said Shyam Gollakota, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering. "We now have the ability to enable Wi-Fi connectivity for devices while consuming orders of magnitude less power than what Wi-Fi typically requires."

This work builds upon previous research that showed how low-powered devices such as temperature sensors or wearable technology could run without batteries or cords by harnessing energy from existing radio, TV and wireless signals in the air. This work takes that a step further by connecting each individual device to the Internet, which previously wasn't possible.

The challenge in providing Wi-Fi connectivity to these devices is that conventional, low-power Wi-Fi consumes three to four orders of magnitude more power than can be harvested in these wireless signals.

The researchers instead developed an ultra-low power tag prototype with an antenna and circuitry that can talk to Wi-Fi-enabled laptops or smartphones while consuming negligible power.

These tags work by essentially "looking" for Wi-Fi signals moving between the router and a laptop or smartphone. They encode data by either reflecting or not reflecting the Wi-Fi router's signals, slightly changing the wireless signal. Wi-Fi-enabled devices like laptops and smartphones would detect these minute changes and receive data from the tag.
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