People who support freedom of speech are "foolish people" in Donald Trump's book. This is just the latest in a seemingly endless stream of sweeping generalizations and misguided utterances to fall from the mouth of the Republican presidential candidate.

Positioning himself as the spokesman for the "noisy majority", Trump yesterday appealed to the xenophobic electorate in suggesting "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States". This is the statement that has, understandably, grabbed the headlines, but Trump also wants to exert control over the technology we use every day. Specifically, he is interested in "closing up the internet in some way", and he wants to speak to Bill Gates about it.

Continue reading →

After announcing the subscription-based service in 2014, Microsoft has now made available three new Office 365 small/mid-size business plans to its existing business customers.

The three plans -- Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business and Office 365 Business Premium -- are replacing the current Office 365 Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business plans.

Continue reading →

This might come as a surprise to Microsoft, but not everyone wants to upgrade to Windows 10. As the slowing pace of the updates shows, there are plenty of people who are more than happy with Windows 7 or 8.1, and who don’t want to switch to the new OS.

While some people are simply delaying the upgrade, plenty of other users have no interest at all in Windows 10, and are actively taking steps to avoid it. But "no" doesn’t mean "no" to Microsoft. It apparently means "Yes, I want to upgrade"!

Continue reading →

It's that time of the year where predictions start flying. Most companies have a roadmap for what will really happen, but predictions about what's possible are always fun. It's shocking how many old science fiction books got it right with things like video phone calls and more. Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov did an especially good job nailing things down.

Now Microsoft is getting in on the action, with predictions for 2016 and beyond. These come from Microsoft's technology and research division, so it gets more attention, given these are the people working on these things.

Continue reading →

When you look at which smartphones are most-popular with the Windows Phone crowd, you will not see many mid-range or high-end offerings making the top 10. That is because low-end devices, like Lumia 520, dominate the charts, a trend that is unlikely to change with the launch of Windows 10 Mobile.

This makes Microsoft's new Lumia 550 the most important Windows 10 Mobile device for the foreseeable future. Officially available starting today, it is first being released in Europe, with other major markets across the globe to follow shortly.

Continue reading →

Enterprise users are always looking for ways to protect their systems, and Microsoft recently unveiled a new opt-in feature to protect against Potentially Unwanted Applications (PUA). PUA is a broad term that covers everything from adware to browser extensions, and users of Windows 8 and Windows 10 can enable the feature to block such nasties at a download level.

PUAs are described by Microsoft as "a threat classification based on reputation and research-driven identification", and includes unwanted components bundled with legitimate software. Venture into the registry, and a tweak can be used to enable protection against such unwanted elements.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has always licensed Windows Server on a per-socket basis, but with the 2016 release this is due to change. When Windows Server 2016 launches in the second half of next year, things are being shaken up. As well as the two versions -- Standard and Datacenter -- including different features, there is also a move to per-core licensing.

In a couple of PDF datasheets, Microsoft reveals not only the change in licensing, but also that Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 Standard and Datacenter Editions are scheduled for release in Q3 of 2016. The licensing change is unlikely to be welcomed by many, as it complicates a system that had become familiar -- and could also push up pricing.

Continue reading →

At JSConf US Last Call in Florida, Microsoft today announced that ChakraCore will be open-sourced. This means that the core components of the Chakra JavaScript engine used in Microsoft Edge -- as well as Windows 10 -- will be made available for developers to tinker with as they see fit.

The ChakraCore repository is expected to hit GitHub in January, and Microsoft envisions it being used to power the Internet of Things as well as cloud services. The company says that it will be working with the likes of AMD, Intel and NodeSource to help develop a Chakra community as it aims to drive the progress of the 'modern web'.

Continue reading →

Microsoft is continuing to refine and polish its new mobile operating system, and is working to address feedback and issues reported by Windows Insiders.

The latest Windows 10 Mobile build doesn’t contain any exciting new features but rather is a cumulative update, which explains the new build number -- 10586.29. Microsoft is also planning to make this build available to additional devices early next week.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has launched a new premium Office 365 package for its enterprise customers, accompanied by a significant price increase.

Office 365 Enterprise E5 replaces Enterprise E4, which will be dropped by June 2016, and will cost $35 per user per month, compared to $22 per user per month for its predecessor.

Continue reading →

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are in the books as the big holiday looms ever larger on the horizon. But what gifts will be given this year? According to Microsoft a number of people will be unwrapping its products that morning.

Xbox Live chief Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, says that Xbox One had record sales on the biggest shopping day of the year. Not only that, but he claims Windows 10 gaming continues to rise, which is hardly surprising. The operating system is only recently on the market and consumers are switching to it. Hryb claims that in November Windows 10 gaming hours exceeded Windows 8 for the first time.

Continue reading →

Microsoft held its yearly shareholder meeting this week in Bellevue, Washington. According to executive vice president and chief financial officer Amy Hood, the company did well during the fiscal year of 2015 and it has already reported a strong start when it comes to the current fiscal year.

However, former CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer was displeased with the level of disclosure at the meeting concerning Microsoft’s revenue. He believes that revenue is a key metric and that it should be reported as opposed to the run rate.

Continue reading →

Often, when there is a tragedy in the world, you can depend on people and corporations to offer help. Sure, some companies do it for publicity, but regardless of motive, the recipients of the aid will appreciate it.

Today, Microsoft is showing compassion for the flood victims in Chennai -- a city in India that is experiencing its worst rainfall in over 100 years. The company is offering free intentional Skype calls to the Tamil Nadu section of the country. Microsoft deserves major kudos for this generous move.

Continue reading →

Now that Windows 10 Mobile is ready for prime time, having launched alongside Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL earlier this month, Xiaomi has released a fresh build for its Mi 4 smartphone. The device received support for Windows 10 Mobile earlier this year, with a developer preview arriving in June.

The Windows 10 Mobile build that was just released is only for the 4G LTE version of the smartphone. And, also, Xiaomi warns that there might be "some unpredicted bugs still".

Continue reading →

To quote my main homeboy Charlie Brown, "Good grief!" -- 2015 has been a very difficult year. While no year has ever been perfect, this one has felt particularly long and taxing. Sure, there were positives, such as Caitlyn Jenner's courageous gender change, and the royal birth of baby Charlotte. But sadly, there were also horrific moments, such as the terrorist attacks in Paris, the Germanwings 9525 crash, and the heart-breaking EU refugee crisis.

While the importance of each moment varies in importance from person to person, overall, we have a shared societal experience that makes all of these things impact our lives. Whether you like it or not, the Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy break-up -- as silly as it may be -- has changed the world. A great way to see what is on the minds of people is to analyze search data. Today, Microsoft shares the top Bing searches of 2015. And yes, Kim Kardashian is once again making the list.

Continue reading →