The Transport Guy: You get a bizarre answer when you ask Siri to divide 0 by 0

Steve Kovach June 30, 2015 at 08:06AM

Fire up Siri and ask it "What is zero divided by zero."

You get the true mathematical answer:

But Siri goes on a bit of a rant after that.

Here's a transcription of the bizarre answer Siri gives you:

Imagine that you have zero cookies and you split them evenly among zero friends. How many cookies does each person get? 

See? It doesn't make sense. And Cookie Monster is sad that there are no cookies. And you are sad that you have no friends.

Strange, right?

And if you're interested, a math lover, or just think Siri is plain wrong about the whole idea of 0/0 being indeterminate, Wolfram MathWorld has the technical answer to squash your fears:

Division by zero is the operation of taking the quotient of any number x and 0, i.e., x/0. The uniqueness of division breaks down when dividing by zero, since the product 0 • y = 0 is the same for any y, so y cannot be recovered by inverting the process of multiplication. 0 is the only number with this property and, as a result, division by zero is undefined for real numbers and can produce a fatal condition called a "division by zero error" in computer programs.

SEE ALSO: These are the DJs Apple hired to revolutionize radio

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NOW WATCH: The 6 best new features coming to Apple computers

You get a bizarre answer when you ask Siri to divide 0 by 0 from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: There's actually a strong case for connecting everything in your home to the internet

Steve Kovach June 28, 2015 at 08:13AM

Even with the biggest names of tech working on the so-called smart home, the odds aren't in favor of smart devices taking over everything we do any time soon.

Companies like Google and Apple have made splashy announcements about their smart home plans, but 62% of potential consumers aren't even aware such technology exists.

It's one thing to get someone to buy a smartphone or smartwatch, but the benefits of a smart door lock, light bulb, or refrigerator are too vague to rally significant interest outside of geeks and hobbyists.

But if you take the long view, the concept of a smart home isn't that strange, and could bring a lot of unforeseen benefits beyond just dimming your lights with your smartphone. 

Last fall, Samsung bought a relatively small startup called SmartThings. SmartThings began as a project on Kickstarter that promised to help you control everyday objects in your home from your smartphone. SmartThings makes a router-like hub that can talk to all the connected devices in your home and control them through an app.

Since acquiring SmartThings, Samsung made a big promise in January to connect all its products from TVs to air purifiers to the SmartThings platform. It was a bold statement, and left a lot of people asking, "Why do I need that?"

However, the vision is more nuanced than that. The expectation isn't that everyone is going to suddenly replace all their appliances with smarter versions or upgrade their toasters every two years. SmartThings CEO Alex Hawkinson told Business Insider in a recent interview that people will start slowly by buying smart appliances and other gadgets as they need them.

After that, the real benefits start to take shape. Hawkinson said that connected homes and connecting other normal gizmos to the internet have a few immediate perks:

• You can save money. Some insurance companies are toying with the idea of giving customers discounts if they have things like smart smoke detectors and flood sensors in their homes. You can also buy a web-connected security camera and monitor your home for much cheaper than other professional systems.
• It could save lives. Health monitors can detect potential problems before it's too late. Doctors and family members could also monitor the elderly and eliminate the need to send them to a nursing facility or hire live-in help.
• It could save energy and have a real impact of global warming. Having devices that intelligently know to turn off or go into low-power mode when you're not using them could reduce the amount of energy we use. And with enough smart home adoption, it could help reduce carbon emissions and potentially undo some of the damage we've done to the environment.

So the change may not be as rapid and fundamental as it was when everyone started adopting smartphones over the last few years, but the benefits could be drastic.

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NOW WATCH: Kids settle the debate and tell us which is better: an Apple or Samsung phone

There's actually a strong case for connecting everything in your home to the internet from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: There are only three good apps for the Apple Watch (AAPL)

Steve Kovach June 22, 2015 at 08:44AM

After wearing an Apple Watch for nearly two months, my biggest complaint with the device still holds true.

The apps stink.

In fact, besides the apps from Apple that come preinstalled on the watch, I've only found three apps so far that are actually useful. The others are either too slow or try too hard to mimic the smartphone experience on a tiny screen strapped to your wrist.

Here are the third-party apps I enjoy the most.

Sunrise

Sunrise is the best calendar app for iPhone, and it's now one of the only good third-party apps on Apple Watch. It syncs with all major calendar services like Google Calendar, which is great for me since Business Insider uses Google services for everything.

On the Apple Watch, Sunrise sends you a nice, clear notification for upcoming events.

I also added Sunrise to my Glances panel, which you access by swiping up from the bottom of the watch face screen. Glances are sort of like mini apps on the Apple Watch that can display real-time information. I set the Sunrise app as the first Glance that pops up, which makes it easy to see when my next meeting takes place.

This is what the Glance looks like:

Dark Sky

Dark Sky is one of the best weather apps on iPhone. It tells you basic stuff like the temperature, but it can also use radar data to predict when it's going to rain and for how long.

Dark Sky notifications are great on the Apple Watch. It sends you a quick nudge when it's about to rain at your location. And that's it! It's really nice not having to open the iPhone app and check for the information. Dark Sky's iPhone app is proactive and tells me something useful when I need to know it.

Uber

Uber's app is dead simple. You launch the app, tap a button, and a car comes to your location. You also get a nice notification when your car is close. It's much easier to use than the iPhone version.

The downside: Uber on Apple Watch can be slow at times. (More on that in a bit.)

Why are these apps so good?

All three apps have one thing in common: They give me relevant information at a quick glance or have greatly simplified the full smartphone app experience. I don't have to go poking through the app to find what I need. Getting info from Dark Sky, Uber, and Sunrise is just as easy as quickly checking the time. More developers should look to these three apps for inspiration.

More Apple Watch apps are about to get better

At Apple's big developers conference in June, the company announced that developers will be able to write apps that run natively on the Apple Watch. Today, Apple Watch apps actually run on your iPhone and feed information to the watch's display via Bluetooth. That slows things down a lot, and is the reason why apps like Uber often take forever to load.

The new Apple Watch operating system will launch this fall and developers are already working on these so-called native apps for it. Third-party apps will get a lot better by the end of the year.

SEE ALSO: The full review of the Apple Watch

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NOW WATCH: This 50-year-old theory is the reason we all use iPhones and iPads

There are only three good apps for the Apple Watch (AAPL) from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: It doesn't matter that Taylor Swift and a bunch of other famous musicians won't be part of Apple's new music service (AAPL)

Steve Kovach June 20, 2015 at 06:05AM

Taylor Swift gave Apple's new music streaming service the cold shoulder this week.

And it's not just Taylor. A lot of big-name artists like Metallica, Def Leppard, The Beatles, Jay Z, and Beyonce all have odd relationships with the various music streaming services out there. They're the superstars of the music world, and they have the clout to circumvent the labels' negotiations with streaming services and do pretty much whatever they want.

But at the end of the day, a handful of superstars revolting against Apple and Spotify won't destroy the music streaming business. It's the only segment in the industry showing any real growth, and Apple Music has the potential to provide a massive boost.

Ideally, you'd be able to get any song or album you want for that $10 per month you pay for Apple Music or Spotify. But there are far too many wonky contracts, egos, and other moving parts keeping that from ever becoming a reality.

Taylor Swift and some other indie artists appear to be upset because Apple Music gives you a free three-month trial for unlimited music streaming. The artists don't want to participate because they won't be getting paid while new Apple Music users are gobbling up all their music for free.

Of course, Apple has plenty of cash to compensate artists for the three-month free trial period for Apple Music. But that's not a wise investment. Taylor Swift has a lot of fans, but just because her most recent album isn't going to be on Apple Music doesn't mean the service will flop. When she did the same thing to Spotify about a year ago, Spotify's paid user base continued to grow. People didn't suddenly ditch the service because they couldn't listen to Taylor Swift.

Taylor's most rabid fans have probably already purchased the album through iTunes or — yikes! — at a record store. And if they did that, "1989" will be available within the new Apple Music app when it launches at the end of the month.

And that highlights a big potential advantage for Apple Music over Spotify and the rest. Apple Music syncs with iTunes, the largest digital music store on the planet. If for some reason you can't find the song you want in Apple's 30 million-track streaming library, you'll still be able to buy it through iTunes and listen to it in the same app.

Music streaming isn't a perfect alternative to buying individual songs the old fashioned way. It's a wonderful supplement, but you're still essentially renting the music you listen to. Apple Music can bring the best of both worlds together.

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NOW WATCH: The 6 best new features coming to Apple computers

It doesn't matter that Taylor Swift and a bunch of other famous musicians won't be part of Apple's new music service (AAPL) from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: These are all the changes coming to your Mac in a few months (AAPL)

Steve Kovach June 15, 2015 at 12:00PM

Apple will have a new software update for many Mac computer models this fall called OS X El Capitan.

While the current version, Yosemite, came out last year with many noticeable tweaks, you probably won't notice much of a difference this time around. El Capitan wasn't built to revolutionize the way you use your Mac. It's an iteration of what already exists.

Apple's preinstalled apps like Mail, Maps, and Notes have all been improved. Spotlight, the feature that lets you search for files on your Mac, can now search the web for information like sports scores and weather. And Apple Maps can finally give you public transportation directions in certain cities, something that's been missing since the app was first launched on the iPhone in 2012.

I've been testing an early version of El Capitan on a MacBook Pro. A lot of the new features are nice to have, especially if you rely on Apple's apps and services to do everything. But those who use alternatives like Gmail, Google Maps, Evernote, Wunderlist, and the slew of other third-party apps and services out there won't see a huge difference. In most cases, there are better third-party apps than the ones Apple gives you with your Mac.

Then again, El Capitan will be a free upgrade for a large portion of current Mac users, and it includes a lot of useful performance boosts. You'll probably want to get it. If you're unsure, Apple is letting the public test a beta version of the software in July if you sign up through the company's website.

The features in El Capitan aren't final, but here's a quick look at what you can expect when you get the new operating system as a free download in a few months. 

When you wiggle your mouse, the cursor blows up so you can find it easier. It seems minor, but it's one of my favorite features.

You can run two apps in a split view so they run side-by-side and take up your entire screen. You can resize each window too. This is very similar to how split-screen apps work in Windows 8.

If you have a lot of apps running at the same time, you can swipe up on the trackpad with three fingers to view your Mission Control, which shows all of your app windows.

Spotlight lets you search for stuff like sports scores and weather. You can also use natural language searches to find files and other stuff stored on your computer. For example, you can search for "photos I edited yesterday." However, it can't do everything that Google search can do. You're better off using Google for most web searches and Spotlight for finding files stored on your machine.

Here's what it looks like when you search sports scores:

The Notes app is more robust, letting you drop in pictures, PDFs, and other file types. Other Apple apps like the Safari browser can sync with Notes, so you just click a button to send content like a web page to Notes. However, Notes is not as robust as other note apps like Evernote.

The Safari browser is pretty much the same as before, but it does have a useful feature that lets you "pin" your favorite sites so they always stay open. These tabs work differently than regular tabs. Whenever you open a new link from a pinned site, Safari opens a new tab so you don't lose your spot. Think of pinned tabs as a cross between a bookmark and an open tab. You can keep your favorite sites running at all times. It's especially useful for sites like Twitter, Gmail, and Facebook that are always updating.

You can see a few pinned tabs in the screenshot below. They show up as tiny icons instead of a full tab.

Mail has a bunch of minor new features, and they're very similar to what you'd find in the web version of Gmail.

For example, if someone sends you a message about a meeting, you can add it to your calendar just by clicking on the time and date. You can also add someone to your contacts if she's emailing you for the first time or has updated contact information. Mail also lets you compose multiple messages at once in a tab view.

Finally, search in Mail is a lot better. It uses natural language just like Spotlight, so you can search for something like, "messages from Jay Yarow sent last week."

Apple Maps can now give you public transit directions in select cities like New York and San Francisco.

The iPhone version of Apple Maps will get this feature soon too. But Google Maps is still a better option for a lot of people living in cities that Apple doesn't support yet.

Those are the most important changes you'll notice in El Capitan. Again, it's really an upgrade for people who already enjoy using Apple's preinstalled apps and services for everything. They're not the best, but they are pretty good if you use them on all of your Apple devices.

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NOW WATCH: The 12 best new features coming to the iPhone

These are all the changes coming to your Mac in a few months (AAPL) from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Facebook has a new way to share a bunch of photos with all your friends at once (FB)

Steve Kovach June 15, 2015 at 10:01AM

Facebook is launching yet another app out of Creative Labs, the company's studio for experimental projects.

This one is a photo-sharing app called Moments, and the concept is pretty simple.

When you first launch Moments, the app pulls in photos from your camera roll. It then uses the same facial recognition technology Facebook's website has to identify your friends in those photos. You then have the option to send the batch of those photos to those people.

Facebook gets all the information about you and your friends from your Facebook account. You can log in the old-fashioned way, or use Facebook's integration with Android or iPhone. If you try to send photos to someone who doesn't have the new Moments app, that person will get a message in the Facebook Messenger app prompting them to download Moments.

And that's it! The idea is to have an easy way to share big groups of photos with the people in them without having to email or text them one by one.

Facebook Creative labs has launched several social networking apps over the last two years or so. None of them have been massive hits, and a lot of them borrowed heavily from features found in other apps.

Facebook will tell you it's not trying to create the next social networking phenomenon with Creative Labs apps (although it certainly wouldn't mind stumbling on to something like that), but instead uses the apps to test features for the main Facebook app. 

For example, some navigation features in Paper, the company's news app, can be found in Instant Articles, the native publishing platform partners like The New York Times and BuzzFeed have used to post stories directly to Facebook.

Moments will be available on iPhone and Android on Monday.

SEE ALSO: Everything you need to know about Apple's new music streaming service

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NOW WATCH: 5 cool tricks your iPhone can do with the latest iOS update

Facebook has a new way to share a bunch of photos with all your friends at once (FB) from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Everything you need to know about Apple's new music service (AAPL)

Steve Kovach June 09, 2015 at 11:19AM

The biggest news out of Apple's developers conference Monday was its new music streaming service called Apple Music.

If you've used services like Spotify, Rdio, or Rhapsody, you're probably already familiar with the concept. But there are still a lot of open questions about Apple Music ahead of its June 30 launch.

I got a brief demo of Apple Music Monday following the announcement. Here's a quick breakdown of the most important things I learned:

• Apple Music will replace the current Music app on your iPhone. You'll still be able to listen to all the music you bought from iTunes and/or ripped from CDs.
• Beats 1, the new streaming 24/7 radio station from Apple, will be available for free for everyone. It's supported by ads, but you won't hear traditional commercials. Instead, sponsorships will be read by DJs, sort of like you hear on NPR or PBS. For example, a DJ might say something like, "Beats 1 is brought to by Business Insider, the best business news website in the world."
• iTunes Radio is dead. It'll be replaced by a new streaming radio service that's curated by humans, not computer algorithms. Each station (alternative, pop, dance, etc.) has human curators picking songs they think you'll want to hear.
• If you pay for Apple Music's streaming service ($10 per month), you'll be able to save any song to your phone so you can listen if you don't have an internet connection. Spotify, Rdio, and other paid streaming services let you do this too.
• Apple told me the streaming library will be almost exactly what you can buy today in iTunes. However, there will be some exceptions for certain artists that have negotiated with their labels to block their songs from streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify.

Beyond that, I only got a few minutes to explore the app. It was an early version, not the final version that will launch on June 30. Still, I got a general idea how things will work.

Apple crammed a lot into the app. When you use it for the first time, you select the music genres you like (pop, hip-hop, alternative, whatever). Next, Apple asks you to pick a few artists in those genres that you like. Based on that data, Apple Music builds a profile of songs you'll probably want to stream. They're stored in a tab called "For You." You can also stream any other song or album you want on demand and save them for offline listening.

Then there's radio, which includes Beats 1 and all the genre-based stations. Beats 1 is similar to a traditional radio station and will have celebrity DJs guiding you through the music.

There are also a bunch of genre-based stations that will replace iTunes Radio. Like I said before, all the songs are curated by humans instead of algorithms like competing services from Spotify and Pandora. So if you select the "Dance" station, you'll get a bunch of songs one of Apple's expert curators thinks you'll like to listen to. Apple emphasized that human curation will be a key differentiator between Apple Music and the rest of the competition.

The most curious part of Apple Music is called Connect. It's sort of like a mini social network that artists can use to upload photos, videos, song lyrics, or any other supplemental media to their music.

Connect is reminiscent of Ping, the defunct social network for music artists that used to be part of iTunes. The version I saw had some extra media from Pharrell, but nothing that got me too excited. Assuming artists actually use Connect, I see it becoming a new-age version of exploring materials like album art, lyrics, photos, etc. that artists stuff in CD and record packaging. But my gut tells me most people will just want to listen to music. I'm not that excited about Connect.

Of course, it's too early to fully judge Apple Music. The final version won't launch until June 30. But based on what I've seen, I think it's very similar Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, and the others. But Apple has a few things the competition doesn't: Marketing muscle (other services don't really advertise), human curation, and an app that will soon be preinstalled in tens of millions of iPhones around the world. It probably won't be enough to get current Spotify users to switch, but there's a lot of opportunity to snag first-time streaming music users.

SEE ALSO: A big hint that apps are coming to the Apple TV

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NOW WATCH: Apple finally introduces split-screen multitasking on the iPad — here's what it looks like

Everything you need to know about Apple's new music service (AAPL) from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: A lot of people accused Apple of copying today, but they're missing the big picture (AAPL)

Steve Kovach June 08, 2015 at 06:46PM

It's an old argument.

"Someone else did that first" is the common cry we hear every year when Apple announces updates to its software for Macs, iPhones, and iPads.

At Apple's developer's conference Monday, there was a lot to point out too.

iPads now let you run two apps side by side, just like you can on Microsoft's Surface tablet. Siri is now more intelligent and proactive, just like Android's virtual assistant Google Now. Apple Maps can give you public transit directions just like Google Maps. Safari can tell you which tab is making noise, just like Chrome.

And so on. The Verge has a good roundup. 

It is objectively true that other platforms have had a lot of the features announced today for a long time. Years, in many cases. But that doesn't make them superior products.

You don't see people buying 10 million or more Surface tablets per quarter because you can run two apps side by side. You don't see Samsung's poor fortunes turning around because it allowed you to watch a pop-up video on its tablets years before Apple added that feature to the iPad. Google still has trouble getting Android phone makers to adopt new features in a timely fashion.

It's not about cramming as much as you can into one product and bragging that yours can literally do more than the competition. It's about picking the right features at the right time.

Since the launch of the iPhone, iOS has improved incrementally year over year. Just look how terrible the original iPhone seems compared to today's iPhone. There was a lot it couldn't do.

But in the long run, these incremental improvements to Apple's platforms add up to superior products. You may have seen similar features from others before, but Apple carefully curates what it decides to include to give you what it thinks is the best possible experience.

SEE ALSO: The Apple Watch review

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NOW WATCH: Watch Siri fail live on-stage at Apple’s huge WWDC event

A lot of people accused Apple of copying today, but they're missing the big picture (AAPL) from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: LIVE: Here comes Apple's biggest event of the year

Matt Rosoff and Steve Kovach June 08, 2015 at 09:08AM

Apple is kicking off the biggest event on its annual calendar today, and we're on hand to bring you the highlights from the keynote as it happens.

This is where Apple usually introduces new versions of its software and services, giving the army of people who make apps for your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, ample time to start building before the next versions come out. 

This year, we're expecting to see:

• Apple's long-rumored answer to Spotify, which will let Apple owners pay $10 a month to listen to millions of songs on demand. The rumored name is Apple Music.
• The next big software update to iPhones and iPads, called iOS 9. It's supposedly going to include an improved version of Siri and the ability to run apps in a split screen on the iPad. But the big focus is actually going to be better stability and making sure it runs smoothly on older devices — important, but not very exciting.
• A new set of tools for app makers to build better apps for the Apple Watch
• More information about HomeKit, Apple's plan to let your iPhone or iPad serve as a remote control for home devices.
• A new version of Mac OS X.

There could also be some surprises, like a new version of Apple TV (although the rumor mill said that Apple scrapped those plans at the last minute) or information about the next iPhone or iPad's hardware.

The conference is for developers, after all, so we polled some of them to see what they were hoping for. Wishes include better tools to build apps, more stable iOS and OS X software, a way to respond to user reviews in the App Store, and way more access to the watch.

Follow along below as we bring you the keynote speech — the only part of the event that Apple opens to the press. Our coverage will kick off around 11:30am ET on Monday.

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LIVE: Here comes Apple's biggest event of the year from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: The biggest rival to the Apple Watch clashed with Apple this week

Steve Kovach June 05, 2015 at 12:13PM

Pebble, the startup that makes smartwatches for iPhone and Android devices, blamed Apple earlier this week for delaying its iPhone app, but the software is now live in the App Store.

In a post on its Kickstarter page Wednesday, Pebble said the Pebble Time app, which allows users to connect the new Pebble Time watch to the iPhone, had been under review at Apple since May 22, which is longer than the typical review period.

An update to the the original Pebble app, which connects older Pebble watch models to the iPhone, had been under review at Apple for over a month.

The Pebble Time began shipping to users this week. The Android version of the Pebble Time app was in the Google Play app store in time for the first customers to use it. But iPhone users couldn't use the Pebble Time they purchased until Apple approved the companion app.

The implication in Pebble's Kickstarter post from Wednesday was that Apple seemed to be purposefully delaying the Pebble apps. In an update to its Kickstarter page Friday, Pebble thanked its customers for their patience. However, the company didn't say why the app was delayed. It's unclear if Apple was purposefully delaying the Pebble app, or if there was some sort of mixup on Pebble's end.

In April, some third-party Pebble app developers complained that Apple was denying Pebble apps under a rule in the developer guidelines that says apps can't mention rival platforms. Pebble wasn't technically a rival to an Apple platform until April 24 when the Apple Watch launched. 

However, an Apple spokesperson told Business Insider at the time that Pebble apps would be allowed on iPhone, so the controversy appeared to stop there. At least one of the Pebble apps Apple initially denied was later approved.

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The biggest rival to the Apple Watch clashed with Apple this week from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Microsoft is taking over my iPhone (MSFT, AAPL)

Steve Kovach June 02, 2015 at 10:47AM

My iPhone is starting to look like a Microsoft phone.

Over the last year, Microsoft's acquisition strategy has been to buy the best mobile productivity apps. The latest is Wunderlist, a to-do list app Microsoft officially acquired on Tuesday. It's my favorite way to keep up with what I have to do each day both at work and in my personal life.

With the Wunderlist acquisition, Microsoft now owns three of the most important apps on my iPhone's home screen: Sunrise (the best calendar app), Outlook (formerly known as Acompli, which is the best email app), and Wunderlist (the best app for managing to-do lists and other tasks). 

Microsoft isn't buying buzzy social networking apps or games. It's buying great productivity apps that people love. But more important than that, Microsoft is buying apps that are better at performing the same core functions as Apple's preloaded iPhone apps. For example, the closest thing Apple has to Wunderlist is the Reminders app, which is far too simple and lacks a lot of the features that makes a to-do list app great. Same goes for Apple Mail and Apple Calendar.

There's a better alternative for every Apple-made app, and Microsoft is snapping them up one by one. 

Microsoft altered its mission last year to make people more productive no matter what device they use. Part of that process is making sure it has great apps on your home screen, even if those apps were originally made by third parties. And so far, it's picking nothing but winners.

SEE ALSO: The Apple Watch review

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NOW WATCH: 5 cool tricks your iPhone can do with the latest iOS update

Microsoft is taking over my iPhone (MSFT, AAPL) from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

The Transport Guy: Microsoft is about to buy another of the best productivity apps in the world (MSFT)

Steve Kovach June 01, 2015 at 12:07PM

Microsoft is close to buying Wunderlist, a to-do list app that lets you do everything from manging grocery lists to scheduling assignments for colleagues at work, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Wunderlist is one of my favorite apps. I've been using it for the last several months to keep myself on task for what I need to do each day both at work (call sources, schedule meetings, write reviews) and in my personal life (pay rent, clean my apartment, call my mom). I'd be lost without it.

The app isn't just a simple list-making tool, though. You can also share and tasks and lists with other Wunderlist users over the internet. For example, if you share a grocery list with your spouse or roommate, he can add stuff to it from his app and it'll appear on your phone too.

Recently, some of my colleagues at Business Insider started using Wunderlist to share and assign story ideas, and it's worked out really well. You can set due dates, manage tasks you've assigned, and add notes and other details for certain assignments. And it all updates in real time, so everyone is on the same page. It's already changed the way a lot of my colleagues and I plan and collaborate.

Wunderlist would be the third major productivity app acquired by Microsoft within the last year. The Redmond, Wash.-based tech company also bought the email app Acompli, which later relaunched as the new Outlook app for iPhone and Android. It also bought Sunrise, my favorite calendar app that syncs with Google and other major calendar services.

Microsoft's acquisition strategy seems to be focused on popular productivity apps that run on all platforms, not just Windows devices. (Wunderlist is available for iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows.) The idea is to get users hooked on great apps and services made by Microsoft, with the hope those people will eventually make the jump to Windows computers, phones, and tablets.

It's working too. Microsoft isn't just picking any old apps to acquire. It's picking the best. Six months ago I had zero Microsoft apps on my home screen. I'll have three if and when the Wunderlist acquisition goes through.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft is taking over my iPhone

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NOW WATCH: Watch Microsoft's Insane Holographic Computer In Action

Microsoft is about to buy another of the best productivity apps in the world (MSFT) from Business Insider: Steve Kovach