Gadgetory

the smartphone is becoming your all-in-one remote I'm Bridget Carey and this is your cnet update Microsoft has always boasted about the TV features of the Xbox one because the game system connects to your cable box but it hasn't been all that impressive well that may change Microsoft invited some Xbox Live members to test out new TV control features which include the ability to set DVR recordings and watch recorded shows from a tablet or smartphone and the one guide which is xbox version of a channel guide can be viewed on a tablet so you can keep watching the current programming on your TV now for those that haven't been invited to test it out well the rest of the world has to wait until later this year to see these new perks technology is getting better at replacing paper why carry a heavy book when you can load it on a Kindle why get newspaper ink on your fingers when your news is in a smartphone app and it's simple to take notes at a meeting with your iPad but sometimes we just grab paper and pen because it can be easier for scribbling down notations or marking up documents Sony is trying to replace the legal pad with a new toy it's the digital paper slate and it's like a really big touchscreen Kindle it's a 13 inch e-ink screen that's about as thick as 30 sheets of paper the idea is that you would load up all your PDF documents onto this and use a stylus to make notes on the big screen and then you save the notes or you can share them but at a price tag of a whopping 11 hundred dollars I think most folks who prefer handwriting will stick with a two dollar legal pad and speaking of digital notes microsoft recently launched Office for iPad and although it cost one hundred dollars a year to access the suite of office apps like Word and PowerPoint there's a little loophole that some folks can exploit to get around paying the fee Cena discovered that someone can share their office login credentials with numerous iPads to unlock the software and Microsoft is not strictly enforcing the limit of how many times one account is installed on a tablet microsoft says one paid subscription lets you install it on up to five tablets but it doesn't seem like Microsoft will stop you if you install it on more than five it's kind of like sharing your HBO GO or your Netflix password with all your friends and family sometimes technology can spice up the most typical household items like a lamp check out this new desk lamp from LG which uses OLED technology instead of a typical bulb many of the top TVs and smartphone screens use OLED with oled lighting we're getting closer to a world where we can put up sheets of illuminated wallpaper in the home imagine that that's your tech news update head to cnet.com for more details on these stories from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey