Book an Uber car with Outlook: Microsoft teams up with apps
Culture
Microsoft Office is starting to look more like a Google product.
I'm Bridget Carey, and this is your cnet update.
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Microsoft is working on getting developers more interested in programming for Windows.
And not just Windows 10, but also mobile devices.
One way it's doing that is giving Microsoft Office the ability to integrate with outside apps.
Mobile apps, like the car hailing service, Uber, can work inside of Outlook, all on your iPhone.
At a conference for for developers, Microsoft showed a demo of how you can use an Outlook Calendar appointments To book a car pick up from Uber.
Microsoft is also showing off extensions for LinkedIn.
So you can see more information about the people you're emailing.
And Cortana, the voice assistant can execute commands for other apps.
So you could tell Cortana to send a text to someone using Viber.
But back to Uber.
Maybe someday soon, you could also use the Uber inside of your Outlook to order lunch You see, that's because the on-demand car service is expanding its food delivery service to Chicago and New York City.
The same app that you use to order a car to pick you up can be used to order an instant lunch delivered to your door.
But from my experience, you may find this more of a disappointment than a convenience.
Uber only gives you a couple of choices each day here in New York.
This week I could pick from a sandwich or a salad.
Both were about $13.
I ordered a salad, which came in about six minutes, by a delivery guy walking around with a rolling cart of food in cooler bags.
He handed me a salad and a drink.
And while that salad sure looked more filling in the photo than it did in person.
It sure wasn't worth the time savings for $13.
But if you're in a pinch, instant lunch is possible.
Uber's not alone.
The ride hailing app, [UNKNOWN], also said is planning to add food delivery to its app.
In July, but it'll go beyond just food.
It could also be used to order instant massages, manicures, even book a handyman for home repairs.
In other news, Google has created a new weapon in the fight against phishing attacks.
If you enter your Google password into a non-Google website You'll get an alert that you should change your password because maybe you just entered your password into a fake site pretending to be Google.
To get this warning, you have to use the Chrome Web Browser and download the password alert extension.
The program stores an encrypted version of your password and the warning goes off whenever you enter your google password on a form to another website.
So this also serves as a nice reminder to not use the same password you have on Google with other logins.
That's your tech news update and you can head over to Cnet.com for more.
From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.
