Microsoft makes the Office 365 App Launcher look like the Windows 10 start menu

#OFFICE 365

By tech2 News Staff /  29 Sep 2016 , 15:33

Microsoft has upgraded the user interface on the Office 365 App Launcher to make it look more like the Windows 10 start menu. The experience is designed to be consistent across desktops and Microsoft Surface devices. There is now a tabbed layout with three sections, home, new and all. The home screen where users can organise and pin their most used applications.

The tabbed layout with the “New” Section.

There are tiles available for the applications, and these can be positioned or resized as per requirement. The ellipses menu on the top right of application tiles contains three size options, small, medium and wide. The New section is an easy way to access the most recently installed apps. When new apps are installed, a badge with a notification appears. The All section lists the entire catalogue of applications that are subscribed to, and has a handy search field to search anywhere within Office 365.

Resizing the tiles.

At the right end of the navigation bar, three applications can be pinned. There is now a support for Office 365 themes. The settings menu now has options to select themes, and organisations can create custom themes for use by their employees. A feature to display recent documents on clicking or tapping of the ellipses menu is being planned. Apps from Office 365, the Office store, Azure, SharePoint and Line of Business will be displayed by the launcher.

Themes in office 365.

System administrators also have the option of including custom tiles for the employees of their organisations. Only customers with the Exchange service can pin, resize or customise apps, and access the tabbed layout. Those who have opted in for the First Release program will see the updates by the end of September. The First Release program allows an organisation to recieve new updates first, and the ability to control which employees receive the updates. Those who have not signed up for the First Release program will see the new update rolling out in October.

Lenovo lays off over 700 Motorola employees

Lenovo has started its latest round of layoffs that is set to hurt Motorola employees, yet again. Lenovo had acquired Motorola back in 2014, and the new move is aimed at streamlining workforce after another sluggish quarter. However, it is said to impact two percent of the overall workforce, which is 55,000 employees globally.

The new number is pegged to be more than 50 percent of the remaining Moto workforce. According to DroidLife, over 700 out of the 1200 Motorola employees will be informed they’ve lost their jobs.

An official statement from Lenovo states:

Lenovo today announced a resource action impacting less than two percent of its approximately 55,000 employees globally. The majority of the positions being eliminated are part of the ongoing strategic integration between Lenovo and its Motorola smartphone business as the company further aligns its organisation and streamlines its product portfolio to best compete in the global smartphone market.

The company is also making adjustments in other areas of the business as part of a continued effort to manage costs, drive efficiency and support ongoing improvement in overall financial performance. While these actions are never easy, they are a necessary part of our continued efforts to ensure long-term, profitable growth across all of our businesses.

Lenovo is absolutely committed to Chicago and we plan to maintain our Motorola Mobility headquarters there. Chicago has a well-deserved reputation for technical excellence and as the hub of our global R&D for our smartphone business we expect to take advantage of local talent to continue developing Moto products there.

Many see it as the last step to merge Motorola completely into their own business. It was not too long ago that Motorola was renamed Moto by Lenovo. The move, as stated above, is also a change in its strategy to improve financial performance.

Meanwhile, AndroidPolice claims that Motorola has lost more than 95 percent of its employees in the last four years. It should be noted that Google acquired Motorola in 2012, and sold it to Lenovo in 2014