Microsoft says Tom Brady and New England Patriots will win NFL Super Bowl LI tonight
Today is Super Bowl Sunday, and I am so excited. Yesterday I went to the grocery store and bought chicken wings, fried mozzarella sticks, and seven-layer dip. By halftime, I will probably be in a food coma.
As a New Yorker and Jets fan, I don't have a horse in the race, but I do have a team that I am rooting for -- the Atlanta Falcons. Why? Because the Patriots have already won many championships, and quite frankly, New York and New England generally have a hardcore sports rivalry. Unfortunately for me and some others, according to Microsoft, Tom Brady and team will be victorious tonight.
US judge says Google must hand over foreign emails to FBI, even though Microsoft need not
A US judge has ordered Google to comply with FBI search warrants which ask for customer emails that are stored outside of the US. This is in stark contrast to a recent case in which a federal appeal court ruling concluded that Microsoft did not need to comply with such orders.
The FBI issued a warrant in relation to a fraud case, and Google argued that because the emails in question were stored on foreign servers, the authorities should not be able to seize the data. However, Google has been told that transferring the emails to another server for investigation by the FBI does not constitute seizure, but conceded it was a potential invasion of privacy.
First build of Microsoft's unannounced Windows 10 Cloud leaks online
Rumors have been swirling about Windows 10 Cloud for a while. The operating system is said to be a Chromebook-like version of Windows 10 -- the evolution of RT, really -- that only runs apps from the Windows Store.
Until now, there hasn’t really been any hard evidence of what the OS looks like, or how it behaves -- Microsoft hasn’t even announced it yet -- but that’s no longer the case, as both screenshots, and a usable build have surfaced on the web.
Microsoft announces open source GVFS (Git Virtual File System) with support for much larger repos
Git is a widely used version control system, but it's one that does not cope well with scaling up. As projects and codebases grow, performance can suffer massively, with common tasks taking hours to perform. Today, Microsoft comes up with an answer: GVFS.
Git Virtual File System has come into being partly because of the problems Microsoft itself has encountered with Git. The sheer size of the Windows codebase means that a simple operation such as checkout can take three or more hours. As the V in GVFS, the solution is a virtualization system that works at file system level to make it appear as though all of the files in a repo are present, saving lots of downloading.
Microsoft celebrates Outlook mobile's second birthday with the gift of iOS add-ins
Outlook mobile is, believe it or not, two years old. Microsoft is not fighting the terrible twos, but instead celebrating by bringing add-ins to the iOS Outlook app.
While it is iOS users who are treated to the first look at add-ins, there are plans to bring them to Android as well. In addition to add-ins direct from Microsoft, there are also offerings from the likes of Evernote, GIPHY, Nimble, Trello and Smartsheet which will "help you accomplish awesome things you simply couldn't do before from email."
Microsoft: Windows 10 is the most compatible Windows yet
There are so many different programs, devices and peripherals on the market, that when Microsoft makes, or updates a new operating system, there’s a good chance something will break.
It’s obviously a challenge to make Windows compatible with as many third-party products as possible, but Microsoft says Windows 10 is its most compatible OS to date, and shares some facts to back this up.
Let me tell you about Apple Fiscal Q1 2017
The measure of Apple fiscal first quarter 2017 isn't record revenues ($78.35 billion) but comparison to major competitors: More than three times Google ($26.06 billion) or Microsoft ($24.1 billion). Amazon announces tomorrow, Groundhog Day. Will the retailer's CEO, Jeff Bezos, see his shadow? The 3x multiplier nearly applies to net income: $17.89 billion, versus $6.64 billion and $5.2 billion, respectively, for the two rivals. Looked at differently, compared to Apple's same quarter in fiscal 2010, seven years later, profits exceed total revenues ($15.68 billion). That's an astounding comparison.
The results defy pundits' prognostications, including my own, about gravity pulling the company back to Earth. iPhone, as major source of revenue, can only stay up for so long, before slowing smartphone sales wreck havoc. That said, credit where it's due: CEO Tim Cook is, as I've asserted before, a logistics and manufacturing genius. He is a strategist, but not an innovation leader like predecessor Steve Jobs. Cook masterfully manages his inheritance, but he, nor Apple observers, should get lost in the quarter's glow: iPhone remains boon and bane.
Windows 10 Creators Update Build 15025 for PC arrives on the Fast ring -- but you may not be able to run it
New feature-packed builds have been coming thick and fast as Microsoft works to get the forthcoming Windows 10 Creators Update ready in time for its planned launch in April.
There’s a lot of changes in the big update, and of course that means a lot of bugs to try and squash before it rolls out. Build 15025 is the version that Microsoft wants Insiders to use for the second Creators Update Bug Bash which starts on Friday, but ironically the new build comes with a major bug that means some users won’t even be able to install it.
Windows 10 is now on one in four systems -- but can it catch Windows 7?
While Microsoft’s unconvincing numbers portray Windows 10 as an unstoppable operating system gobbling up market share, NetMarketShare’s monthly OS usage figures suggests things are going well for Windows 10, but that it will still be a long time before it starts to trouble Windows 7’s continuing dominance.
January proved to be a good month for the new OS, certainly better than December was at least.
Logitech unveils revolutionary Spotlight Presentation Remote for PowerPoint, Keynote, and more
Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote presentations are often very boring, but unfortunately, they are a fact of life in the business world. If you have ever sat through a meeting that focused heavily on these slides, you have probably feigned interest and tried hard not to fall asleep. But why? Often, the data held on the screen is quite informative, but if the presenter is a bore, the presentation will suffer regardless. To make matters worse, with more and more employees working remotely, these presentations can be nothing more than slides with audio for some -- those not physically in the room with the presenter can have a lesser experience.
Logitech decided to take a look at the deficiencies of these PowerPoint presentations, with the goal of creating a tool to improve both presentations and the presenters. True, presentation remotes are one such tool that can help, but that segment was very stagnant. Today, Logitech unveils the fruits of its labor -- the Spotlight Presentation Remote. While the elegant device looks simplistic, you should not judge this book by its cover. It is a revolutionary tool for the business world that is chock full of goodness.
Microsoft is working hard to make Edge a great browser -- but is it too late?
Bundling Internet Explorer in Windows 95 was enough for Microsoft to win the "browser wars" and consign Netscape to history, but a lot has changed since then. Bundling Edge in Windows 10 has had negligible effect on Chrome and Firefox’s dominance. After a year and a half, Microsoft Edge still only has a little over 5 percent share, according to NetMarketShare.
It didn’t help that Edge was only partially baked when Windows 10 debuted. Why swap your existing browser for one missing core features and with a far-from intuitive interface? (How to change the default search engine in Microsoft Edge quickly became one of my most viewed stories here). Microsoft is promising a wealth of new features for Microsoft Edge in Windows 10 Creators Update, but will that be enough to persuade users to give the browser a second chance?
How to stop Windows 10 automatically rebooting after updates
Windows 10, like previous versions of Microsoft’s operating system, often needs to reboot to action an update, and will occasionally do so at the least appropriate moment -- as this pro-gamer can testify.
While Windows 10 updates are mandatory, you can control (to a degree) when they install, and more importantly if and when Windows 10 restarts afterwards.
Microsoft Teams has 30,000 business customers -- but is it a serious threat to Slack yet?
Microsoft Teams, Slack's latest high-profile rival, is slowly gaining traction. The software giant has announced that 30,000 organizations, spread across 145 markets, "actively used" the collaboration service in the past month. It launched in late-November.
Where are those 30,000 customers coming from? Well, since Microsoft Teams is part of Office 365 that means that the users the collaboration service has are first and foremost Office 365 subscribers -- and there are 85 million active users there. That gives it huge potential for growth.
Microsoft shows Windows 10 market share growing steadily, but the numbers are fake [Updated]
Microsoft’s own Windows 10 share numbers have always seemed a little, well, generous. While NetMarketShare’s OS usage share figures show the new operating system doing fine, but lagging some distance behind Windows 7 (as you'd expect), Microsoft’s figures paint an entirely different picture.
Five months ago, the software giant showed Windows 10 hitting 50 percent in the US, and two months ago, it had the new OS overtaking Windows 7 globally. Today’s update though stretches the believability just a little too far.
Windows 10 Creators Update Build 15019 arrives on the Fast ring, adds new features, kills Edge extensions
After a couple of days’ delay, Microsoft finally releases a new build for Windows 10 Insiders on the Fast ring.
We already knew some of what to expect of this build, as Microsoft previously announced the new gaming features, but naturally there’s more to Build 15019 than just that.
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