Best Windows apps this week
One-hundred and twenty seven in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows in the past seven days.
This week saw the release of several high profile apps and games such as the latest addition to the Halo franchise, Halo: Spartan Strike, and the relaxing Game Over.
Zuckerberg says Internet.org is not anti-net neutrality... but it is
A few days ago Mark Zuckerberg conducted a Q&A on Facebook. Despite tens of thousands of comments, very little of interest came out of the session -- he works 50-60 hours a week, likes Oculus (surprise, surprise), and he stands behind his Internet.org project which is providing internet access to people all over the world, including those in remote and developing locations. As is to be expected from a Q&A session, Zuckerberg also found that he had criticism levelled at him in addition to questions, including criticisms of his beloved Internet.org.
Some people pointed out that even in the US there is still a digital divide, while others complained that Internet.org goes against the principles of net neutrality. This obviously struck a nerve because the Facebook founder felt the need to defend the program and express his support for net neutrality. My colleague Manish Singh wrote about this, but is Zuckerberg right? Can Internet.org and net neutrality really live happily side by side?
Google Chrome on Windows XP support extends until the end of 2015
Believe it or not, a year has passed since Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP. And even though the 13 year-old operating system no longer receives security updates -- at least not officially -- it is still being used by roughly 17 percent of Windows users. For some companies it is reason enough to continue to support Windows XP today, even though its maker has long left it for dead. And Google is one of them.
Six months after Windows XP support ended, Google announced that its Chrome browser would continue to be supported on the OS with "regular updates and security patches until at least April 2015". That was done in order to give its users more time to finish migrating to a newer Windows release, one that would, hopefully, be officially supported by Microsoft for many more years to come. Obviously, that hasn't gone as expected. But instead of pulling the plug, Google is now giving Chrome users on Windows XP another reprieve.
Red Canary seeks to bring simpler endpoint security to businesses
The endpoint is the most vulnerable link in enterprise security, constantly under attack and prone to human error. Yet the security products designed to protect it are subject to high levels of false positives.
The result is that providing effective protection can be complex and stretch the resources and budget of even quite large organizations.
Huawei P8 vs Samsung Galaxy S6: Which should you choose?
Huawei has officially announced the P8, the flagship for 2015. It is the Chinese company’s attempt to compete with Apple’s iPhone 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy S6, two of the biggest devices this year.
Even though Huawei won out against Samsung last year in China and some other markets, the Galaxy S6 is a formidable smartphone and shows the South Korean giant is back in business -- but which flagship is better?
Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries release Halo: Spartan Strike for Windows and iOS
When I was a young man, I loved video games more than anything. Not only did I play the games, but I bought magazines about them and had fun discussing them with friends. Back then -- in the 80s' and 90's -- things were much simpler. You put in your cartridge, started the system and were playing in seconds. Nowadays, however, games take forever to load, are super complicated and offer in-game purchases. It can feel like a huge money-grab. Hell, sometimes you spend more time installing updates than playing the actual games!
When Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries released Halo: Spartan Assault last year, I was in heaven. The game was a throw-back to the glory days of gaming -- pick up and play. You shot stuff and tried not to die; a wonderful concept! Today, the follow-up to that game, Halo: Spartan Strike, sees release. You can download the game now for Windows, Windows Phone, iPad and iPhone. The best part? A paltry $5.99 price tag (and no in-game purchases)!
Instagram is OK with a little nudity, preferably at a distance
Photo-sharing site Instagram has updated its community guidelines to make it clear what sort of images are acceptable. If you were hoping to use your account to supply your followers with a stream of pornography pics, you're out of luck, sadly. Nudity is -- for the most part -- out (we don’t allow nudity on Instagram), including "close-ups of fully nude buttocks"; distant shot of butts are, seemingly OK, as are close-ups of partially clothed cheeks.
Whether we're talking about Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or any of the other countless social networks out there, users frequently fall foul of acceptable content guidelines. Images of nudity and violence are frequently complained about and Instagram's latest guidelines now make it abundantly clear what’s OK and what's not.
Microsoft makes mobile image searching a (nearly) typing-free experience
Microsoft thinks that typing on a mobile device is difficult. At the same time it understands that "you love to discover images" on the very same devices. To help make your mobile searches a little easier to conduct, the company is introducing a number of tweaks and changes to the iOS and Android Bing app.
Of course it is not possible to entirely eliminate the need to input words in order to conduct a search, but Microsoft has taken steps to reduce it to an absolute minimum. How has this been done? Enter simple search terms and you're provided with a couple of new ways to drill down to exactly what it is you're looking for with just a few taps.
Bing lobotomizes Yahoo Search, while Google stands by laughing
Yahoo's search deal with Microsoft just gets worse by the day. Six years ago, when announced, I called the agreement "Christmas in July" for Google. My prediction then: The combined entity would cannibalize from Y while taking little from G. Bing would be the big beneficiary, and its painful gains have been punishing.
March 2015 U.S. search share figures are out from comScore, raising a milestone that is no cause for celebration. Bing reached 20.1 percent, or about where Yahoo was in the months before announcing its deal with Microsoft, which essentially came to power Y searches. Yahoo is 12.7 percent. Combined they're at 32.8 percent, which is up from 28.6 percent five years earlier. The dent to Google is minimal, with share falling to 64.4 percent last month from 65.1 percent in March 2010. Aggregated gains came from other providers, such as AOL. not from the market leader. In fact, if not for Mozilla swapping G for Y as Firefox's default search engine, there would be no meaningful gains from Google whatsoever.
Tweet the Star Wars emojis, Luke
Yeah, it doesn’t have quite the same ring as "Use the Force", but it gets the point of the story across which is that, starting today, Twitter is rolling out new Star Wars inspired emojis.
Naturally this is in anticipation of the theatrical release of the new Star Wars movie, 'The Force Awakens' (which hopefully won’t be anywhere near as dreadful as the Star Wars prequels). Watch the new teaser trailer for that below.
ASUS Republic of Gamers GR6 desktop offers big gaming performance in a small package
Nowadays, computers seems to be trending towards more diminutive packages. It's not hard to see why -- people value having as much workspace as possible; an enormous tower taking up a desk can be an inconvenience. Just look at Apple's new MacBook; people are willing to trade performance for size while also paying a premium.
Unfortunately, this just won't do for gamers. This particular segment of consumers does not like compromise when it comes to performance. With that said, plenty of gamers also value style and size. Luckily, we are beginning to see more and more svelte gaming machines. Today, ASUS Republic of Gamers announces the GR6 desktop. If you are like me, the design alone will have you salivating. Beauty is more than skin deep here, however, as the specs are impressive too.
The Apple Watch launch is a brand-damaging botch job
It really is amateur hour at Apple. The tech giant’s first major product line launch in years has gone badly wrong, with the original in-store sales date scrapped, and no word of when the Apple Watch will actually go on sale for people to, you know, buy.
Sales predictions, and online pre-order numbers look great, but that’s about the only thing that’s good about the launch of the first new product line to come from Apple under Tim Cook’s stewardship. Frankly, everything else associated with the launch has been a balls up from start to finish.
Keep an eye on your network with EasyNetMonitor
We’ve always liked tiny single-executable utilities, the type you’ll find at NirSoft and Sysinternals. The developers don’t waste time with gimmicks, massive icons or interface themes: they just concentrate on the core functions you need to get the job done.
So it is with EasyNetMonitor, a free tool for monitoring the availability of network and web hosts. While not up to NirSoft standards, it crams a lot of functionality into its very compact file.
WildPackets becomes Savvius and switches focus to security
Internet performance specialist WildPackets is changing its name to Savvius and at the same time is also launching its first security appliance.
"This name change comes at a defining moment in our history," says Tim McCreery, CEO of Savvius. "We are deepening our commitment to network performance management solutions and expanding our focus to include support for security forensics. Our team is united in providing great solutions and world-class support to our customers and partners".
Cyanogen will bundle Microsoft apps with its Android ROM
Future Android-based builds and ROMs from Cyanogen Inc will ship with bundled Microsoft apps, as the startup has signed a deal with the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant. The partnership will result in Microsoft apps and services such as Bing, Skype, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, as well as productivity suite Office among others being prominently showcased on Cyanogen’s software.
The collaboration between the two companies doesn’t come as a surprise as many similar rumors started to crop up when a news outlet reported that Microsoft was making an investment in Cyanogen Inc. The partnership is a win-win situation for both of the companies.
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