James Farrell

James Farrell is the former editor-in-chief of Chiang Mai CityNews, where he wrote and managed daily news, features, op-eds and blogs on a diverse range of topics. Prior to this, in the same city of Northern Thailand where he lives, he was the longstanding deputy editor of the monthly magazine Citylife. He has written on culture, politics, travel, tech, business, human rights, for local, national, and international news services and magazines. He has a keen interest in the role technology is playing in the transformation of society, culture and politics, especially in developing nations. This is reflected in his not-so-successful first novel.

Latest from James Farrell

Editing files in the cloud just got easier with Microsoft and Dropbox web integration

Microsoft Office Online and Dropbox, who formed a surprising, and very cozy partnership last year that made it possible to edit Dropbox files from Microsoft Office apps, and also access Microsoft Office docs in the Dropbox mobile app, have announced that from now on there will be integration between Dropbox on the web and Office ...

Ni hao dude! Skype real-time translator gets down with Italian and Mandarin

While we may have been a little sceptical as to how efficient real-time voice translation will become, due to the mind-boggling complexities of languages, it’s great tech companies are putting in the effort to overcome the many multi-lingual hurdles they face. Skype announced last December the release of the Skye Translator Preview and as a result of ...

Microsoft and Getty Images make-up after hardy battle and form new partnership

Microsoft and Getty Images might have been fighting it out for the last few months in court, but as the dust has settled it seems the two companies have made-up nicely and even formed a new partnership. If you didn’t know the dispute started when last September Getty Images filed a lawsuit against the Redmond company ...

Bill Gates reminisces and looks to the future on Microsoft’s 40th birthday

Does life begin at 40? For Microsoft perhaps not, as the company has had it fair share of pinnacles, but there is no doubt as it enters middle age there seems to be an emergence of new ideas and innovations coming out of Redmond. Microsoft was born, April 4th, 1975, and it soon became the ...

Microsoft releases preview for Android and iPhones of the handy scanner you can fit in your pocket: Office Lens

Microsoft today announced its new OneNote app, Office Lens, a useful little OneNote app that works with your phone’s camera. The app basically works as a kind of scanner, helping you to take snaps of things like menus or business cards, making the text visible and clear, and then you can save to OneNote with ...

Microsoft ditches Xbox branding in its new music and video preview apps for Windows 10

Microsoft announced that Windows Insiders can now try music and video apps for PC, available as a download here (music) and here (Video) from the Windows Store as long as you are already part of the Windows 10 Technical Preview 10 (10049). Notably Microsoft is no longer using the Xbox name for its music and video apps, ...

Microsoft releases its vastly affordable Surface tablet: is this the best non-pro Surface yet?

We reported last week that Microsoft was working on a successor to its failed Surface 2 tablet, an affordable non-pro alternative to the Surface Pro 3 that will not run Windows RT. The rumors have now been confirmed as Microsoft has officially launched the Surface 3. The tablet, which will start at $499 (half that of ...

Microsoft’s new browser ‘Project Spartan’ unleashed in Windows 10 Technical Preview

The successor to Internet Explorer, Project Spartan, is now available in the Windows 10 Technical Preview. The new build (10049) can be downloaded by Windows 10 testers today, and it will feature the new browser. If you’re already running the technical preview you can follow the Windows Update, and if you’re not you can check ...

Microsoft’s Windows 10 Technical Preview coming to many more phones

Microsoft has announced that its Windows 10 Technical Preview will be coming to a much greater number of phones, far-outnumbering the few devices the build was available for when first released on February 12th. Commenting on why the list was so paltry at first Microsoft said in a blog, “the reason for this is that ...

Microsoft acquires another app-making start-up: PowerPoint plug-in LiveLoop

The acquisition of LiveLoop by Microsoft has been confirmed for an undisclosed amount, making it the third notable app-specific start-up, after the popular email app Accompli and Android calender app maker Sunrise, Redmond has acquired recently. LiveLoop is a San Francisco-based web service that converts PowerPoint presentations into Web URLs, that can be shared on any device ...