Microsoft releases fixed Office 2011 SP2 update

Microsoft has released a fixed version of its Service Pack 2 update for Office 2011. The update was originally on April 12 and offered a number of improvements for Microsoft's Outlook e-mail client; however, soon after its release a number of people found that the update had caused corruption in their identity databases. This resulted in the suite's programs not opening correctly.

Microsoft initially addressed this problem by issuing instructions that users could follow to prepare their identities for the upgrade, or restore their identities if they had been corrupted after the upgrade; however, these did not help all people affected by the bug, and Microsoft subsequently removed this update from its AutoUpdate servers.

Today Microsoft made a new version of the update available, which should upgrade Office installations without adversely affecting users' identities. Microsoft states in a blog posting that this latest update is targeted for those who have not yet installed the SP2 update, but recommends that everyone install it to ensure their installations are at the latest version.

The update should be available for Office users via Microsoft's AutoUpdate utility, but also can be downloaded from Microsoft's Office for Mac support site. As with the initial version of the update, this one is about 110MB in size.

Unfortunately this update will not fix corruption that may have occurred in users' identity databases, so if you installed the prior SP2 update and are experiencing problems, first try ourinstructions on addressing the issue, but if this does not help then you will likely need to delete the current identity and create a new one.

Google Drive for Android is a beefier Google Docs app The Google Drive app is available for Android, and it has all of the old Docs functionality, plus some other goodies under the hood.

If you haven't noticed, Google Docs for Android has just morphed into Google Drive. Or perhaps more accurately, it has been sucked up by the brand-new file-syncing and file-sharing app. This means that not only does it give you access to all of your old Docs, it also lets you access and store any kind of file in your cloud-enabled Google Drive account.

Similar to the experience on the Web, Google Drive for Android opens up to a main navigation panel, from which you can see a list of all your files (My Drive), files that have been shared with you, starred files, recently modified files, or offline files. There's also a button at the top of the screen that lets you create new documents or spreadsheets, or upload a file to be stored on your Drive.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jaymar Cabebe/CNET)

Next to each item in your list, there's a tiny arrow icon that brings up options like Share, Rename, Delete, and Send. This should feel familiar to anyone who previously used the Google Docs app. There's also an option to make files available offline, which is a godsend when traveling to areas with questionable data coverage.

Just as it was in Google Docs, file editing with the Google Drive app is pretty basic. The Documents editor offers a few alignment options, lists, Bold, Italic, and Underline, as well as a rudimentary color tool. The Spreadsheets editor isn't any better, though, as it offers a slightly clunky interface for editing cells. Meanwhile, you can't edit presentations or drawings through the mobile app, which isn't much of a loss, since these types of documents are typically better handled with a mouse and full-size monitor.

On top of all the old Google Docs functionality, Google Drive is really just a simple file storage platform. Like Dropbox, it automatically syncs with the cloud, so that everything is consistent across all of your devices. Also, it lets you share (add collaborators to) any kind of file, including music, images, and videos. Altogether, it is a fantastic option for storing, syncing, sharing, and collaborating.

Also, Google Drive doesn't let you share files with download links. This is something that Dropbox does exceptionally well. It would be nice to be able to create a download link for any file in my drive, and send it to friends who don't use Google Drive.But as great as as the new Google Docs, er, Google Drive app is, it is still missing a few key features. For one, it's impossible to move files around within your drive from the app. You can't transfer files between collections (folders) or even create new collections. This means that all of your housekeeping will need to be done from a desktop.

Finally, and this may be nitpicky, I wish the app would let you sort files by type. With so many different types supported, it wouldmake life a lot easier for power users who store massive numbers of files in the cloud.

Regardless of its shortcomings, I still highly recommend downloading the Google Drive app for Android. It nicely integrates all of the Docs functionality, plus it gives you the extra power to access and share other types of files.

Google Drive (download) is available now for free on Google Play. But before downloading, make sure you've enabled Drive on your Google account.

Soccer fans set tweet-per-second record Soccer viewers are leaving football watchers in the dust when it comes to tweeting during games.

In the Twitter world of sports, soccer proves to be king. During the peak of the Champions League match between Barcelona and Chelsea in London yesterday, 13,684 tweets per second were sent out globally -- setting a Twitter record for tweets during a sporting event.

"The conversation reached its high point immediately following Fernando Torres' late goal, which tied the game and sealed Chelsea's victory in the semi-final," Twitter said in a blog post today.

This means that soccer fans have now beat out football fans on the social network. According to the blog post, the high mark of this year's Super Bowl was 12,233 tweets per second. That spike of tweets happened in the last three minutes of the game when the New York Giants scored a touchdown and won the game. Madonna's halftime show was also popular, peaking at 10,245 tweets per second.

But soccer remains the stronger Twitter hitter. Last July, a tweet-per-second record was previously set during the Women's World Cup final soccer match between the U.S. and Japan with 7,196 tweets per second.

This news also comes at the same time as Brazilian soccer player Kaka, who plays for Real Madrid, has been crowned as the first pro athlete to amass more than 10 million Twitter followers.

Sports aside, the overall tweet-per-second record was set last December during the television broadcast of the Japanese anime movie "Castle in the Sky," with 25,088 tweets. And Lady Gaga holds the title for having the most Twitter followers with more than 23 million

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Oracle and Java were no match for Android, Google says Google is trying to drive home the point that Oracle is suing now because it couldn't make enough money off Java and couldn't bring its own platform to market.

SAN FRANCISCO - Besides arguing that the Java APIs were free to implement on Androidbecause they are necessary for using the Java language, Google is holding onto another strategy as well.

That would be arguing that Oracle is only suing Google now because it couldn't bring a smartphone platform of its own to market to compete with Android.

Specifically, Google counsel Daniel Purcell focused on the development of full stacks while rolling through witnesses on Thursday morning at the U.S. District Court, starting with former Sun Microsystems and Oracle exec, Craig Gering.

Purcell sped through a definition of a full stack, which basically entails an operating system's framework and other relevant software. For instance, Android and iOS are examples of full stacks.

Gering worked at Sun Microsystems from 1990 until it was acquired by Oracle in 2010. Thereafter, Gering served as the vice president of the Java unit at Oracle until he left in early 2011.

Purcell pointed towards a number of different full stack projects and attempts at Sun, including "Project Acadia," which stemmed a Sun purchase from SavaJe.

Purcell asked Gering if Sun had gotten Project Acadia to market, would it have had a full-stack platform to compete with Android. Gering said he couldn't recall the details. Nevertheless, Sun never got any such competitor to market.

Purcell also showed to the jury a presentation at Sun from March 2009, titled, "Java in Wireless Business Review." Gering's name was on the title slide as the author of the presentation. Purcell pointed towards a slide that discussed "Project Daneel," which Gering clarified that this was similar to another project at Sun, called "Project Sundroid."

However, this was a gray area as Gering said he couldn't remember if they were the same projects or not. Nevertheless, Project Daneel nearly evolved to a full stack, but it never game about.

Finally, Purcell showed an email to Gering, among other Sun employees, from Sun CTO Vineet Gupta in January 2009. In that email, Gupta discussed that Sun was working on several proposed partnerships with major mobile OEMs and carriers, including Samsung, HTC, T-Mobile, and Sprint.

After Purcell asked if these were some of the top mobile phone companies in the world, he mumbled that was correct. Purcell pressed Gering by concluding that these must have been opportunities for Sundroid, but the project still never made it to market.

After a lightning fast appearance on the stand in comparison to some of the other witnesses called so far in this trial, Purcell called current Oracle executive Hasan Rizvi.

Currently senior vice president of development, Rizvi has been at Oracle since 1990, with a brief departure in 1998 until 2001. Rizvi is responsible for managing Oracle's Java business unit, among other tasks, since the Sun Microsystems acquisition in 2010.

Continuing down the same path, Purcell asked Rizvi if Sun's Java platform was not a full stack platform, to which Rizvi replied it was not, adding that "the java platform is OS agnostic."

Rizvi also confirmed that neither Sun nor Oracle has ever had a full stack -- at least for the Java platform -- on the market.

Through another line of questioning, it looked like Google was trying to also convey that Oracle hasn't been making enough money of Java as it might have previously expected -- thus, another incentive to sue Google for a cut of Android's revenue.

Citing a presentation made at Oracle shortly after Oracle acquired Sun, Google counsel Daniel Purcell highlighted a slide about Java's financial issues.

The slide read that "Java Clients is a $296 million business growing 13 percent year-over-year," and that "it has been historically split into five business segments," including platform and mobile.

Purcell asked Rizvi if this is still the case or if it is at least still growing at roughly 10 percent year-over year. Rizvi had trouble answering initially, replying it has been almost flat since then.

Yet, when a video clip from his deposition on July 28, 2011 was played back for the jury, Rizvi had said that the 10 percent figure was based on a recent memory, adding that "I wouldn't be able to make it more precise by saying it's 13 percent right now."

This story originally appeared at ZDNet's Between the Lines under the headline "Google: Sun, Oracle couldn't compete with Android.

Learning To Code Apps? Programr, The Codecademy For Higher-Level Languages, Adds Support For Android

Programr, an online lab for learning to code – yep, sort of likeCodecademy, but for higher-level languages, has just introduced Android coding support. With the added option, aspiring student developers can create Android apps right in the browser. When the project is complete the apps can be downloaded into APK format, then loaded up on your Android devices, shared with friends or sent off to the Android Market…Google Play store.

And, says company co-founder Rajesh Moorjani, the startup is working on doing the same for iOS apps next.

For a little background, Programr is a new entry in the “learn to code online” space, which has seen growing interest over the past several months, thanks in part, to Codecademy’s “Code Year” initiative which saw some 100,000 users sign up in just 48 hours of going live..

This year, everyone wants to learn to code, it seems.

Programr isn’t as n00b-friendly as Codecademy, however – it’s more of a complement to that service. Where the latter is really about teaching you to code, Programr is like an online practice ground for creating projects, sharing them with friends, participating in contests, and taking online IT classes. Programmers can even earn points in the contests that allow them to gain free entry to the online classes (normally $30).

There’s also more of a focus on higher-level languages at Programr. Over the past month, the company has added support for new languages including console (C++, C#, Java, Objective-C), web (PHP, Javascript, JQuery, Java Server Pages, AJAX), rich media (Flex, Processing), desktop (Java Swing), and database (SQL, SQLite). Others on the site include Ruby, Python, VB, AJAX, Flex, Flash, and more.

The startup is also working with regional coding clubs to provide access to its online labs. For example, it recently teamed up with CoderDojo, a club created by Xing co-founder Bill Liao and James Whelton to offer them a co-branded online lab. And Programr is making code widgets available to book publishers in order to make their code listings in their digital books interactive – these “live code listings” can then be run within the book with just a click.

With the newly launched Android support, developers can create their mobile apps online and view in them in a web-based emulator. Besides games with a fast refresh rate, says Moorjani, there’s not a limit to the types of Android apps that run on the service.

“Students can learn Android coding by checking out the live code of the many Android apps created by other students at Programr. They can tinker with these existing live apps, enhance them by adding features, or then proceed to write their own apps from scratch,” Moorjani explains. “Once created, apps can be shared via a link, embedded in blogs, or then downloaded straight to Android devices.”

To create an APK file, the code is compiled online and then a student clicks the “Download APK” button. You can see an example of the Android APK option here.

Now the folks over at Programr are working on bringing iOS coding to the browser and adding sophisticated granular debugging support for all apps on its supported platforms. They’re also working on a Facebook app that would allow the site’s daily coding challenges to run right within Facebook itself, where the startup has some 33,000 fans (more than double Codecademy’s at last count, incidentally).

Interested student programmers can sign up for Programr here.