At the launch of Microsoft® Surface® early last month, we had the opportunity to show off some of the apps we've been creating for the Education market. Since then, one of those has been given the honour of being only the third Surface application in the world to bear the Certified for Microsoft Surface badge.

Late last week, Microsoft asked us to supply some business-focused apps for display on their Surface unit at the Gartner Business Intelligence and Information Management Summit that was held on Tuesday and Wednesday this week at the Sydney Exhibition centre. We provided them with some ideas that we’ve been working on and that were ready to demo. We have other projects we’re working on in this space and hope to show you more in the coming months. For now, on display at the Garner conference were:

1. nsquared Schedules – uses tagged business cards to view and share the details of your exchange account calendars. It's also designed to allow you to reschedule, follow up, delete, and create new appointments all with the touch of a finger (or two).
2. nsquared Office Images allows you to view, share and discuss business information created in Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents using Surface. Great for the Board Room or for international Board meetings with connected Surface Tables.
3. nsquared Stock Exchange – a visual application that lets you view your share portfolio in real time and respond to changes in the market.

Take a look and let us know what you think!

Great news - the results are in, and nsquared is on the podium!

After a short wait, we're very proud to be able to say that our latest app, MakeWords 1.0, is certified by Microsoft®, as part of the Microsoft® Surface® certification program. We're told that to date it is one of only three (3) Microsoft Surface applications worldwide to receive certification.

The next thing we're waiting for is to see it posted on the official Microsoft Surface site.

There are more plans for "MakeWords 1.0" and its friends, and we'll be letting you know how they go as soon as we have more to show. In the mean time we're looking forward to being able to share MakeWords 1.0 with as many people as possible.

About MakeWords 1.0
It seems everyone who sees MakeWords 1.0 on the Surface device is instantly captivated, including "grown ups". We designed it as an educational app for lower to mid-primary school students as a fun way to help build literacy skills. Once we'd finished sketching it out, we realised that it provided far more in lessons than a spelling test ever could. Better than that, it's far more fun. On top of the spelling lesson, students develop better object recognition skills, and learn how to participate in an environment that is both collaborative and competitive.
As with all high quality Surface Applications, MakeWords 1.0 capitalises on the unique qualities of Surface to deliver far more than initially meets the eye, and we're looking forward to bringing more fantastic Surface Apps to the business world.