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Displaying items by tag: Windows

Sunday, 12 May 2013 11:08

145,000 apps for Windows Phone

wp

According to many, one of the biggest downsides of the Windows Phonea is a lack of applications, but at Microsoft they are working on fixing this problem. They recently announced that the platform now has over 145,000 titles available.

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MS-Myth

Microsoft will never learn it seems. On top of making core changes to their OS there are now trying to spin those changes as simply responding to customer feedback. The problem with this stance is that this feedback has been around since before the launch of Window 8 and Microsoft not only ignored it, but told the critics that they would get used to it. Microsoft also ignored the feedback that their Modern UI was going to look like a mobile OS on anything that had a keyboard and a mouse; they ignored this too. In short Microsoft can try to spin their way out of their admission of failure, but no one is buying it.

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nokia-ceo

Nokia could be in a tad bit of trouble with their decision to buddy up to Microsoft. It seems that investors are not willing to wait for their investment in Windows Phone to pay off and we can’t blame them. When Nokia made this decision it was more than a little controversial as Window Phone represented a mere fraction of the market and had not shown any growth potential to warrant making it the exclusive OS for Nokia. Many felt that it was only Stephen Elop’s close connections to Microsoft that enabled the deal as Elop was the head of Microsoft’s Business Division prior to taking the top spot at Nokia.

Published in Editorials
MS-Myth

Microsoft has announced that they are going to make “key” changes to their Windows 8 operating system. I think deep down we all knew this day was coming as the consumer response was not what Microsoft and many of their partners had hoped for. There are many contributing factors to this, but one of the biggest ones was Microsoft’s drastic shift from the PC being about what the user wants to users taking what Microsoft put in front of them.

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Monday, 29 April 2013 10:06

Fun with numbers Windows Tablet Edition

MS Surface

There has been a few articles that popped up over the weekend crowing about Microsoft’s Windows 8 and how it has jumped in numbers from 0 to 7.4% market share in a single quarter. The claim is interesting and also very misleading if you actually take the time to read the data used as a basis for this claim. In most of the articles that we read the data source is from Strategy Analytics which does not show ANY data that represents Q4 12 to Q1 13 they instead cover same quarter year to year (Q1 12 compared to Q3 13).

Published in Editorials
top-10-computer-viruses-631

At times it seems that the words Microsoft and Malware go hand-in-hand. I do not think that a day goes by that we do not hear about a new malware threat (often simply an old threat that has been modified). This has put Microsoft in an interesting position. They are always working to shore up holes in their operating systems we can see this by the continuous patches and hotfixes that are in existence for Windows (all versions). Of course it is not an easy task to develop an OS that is safe(er) or secure(ish) and still make it easy to operate. However recently we have seen Microsoft go to some extremes in trying to keep up with things… sometimes they appear to go way too far.

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84

One of the great arguments in the PC industry is always who (or what) is faster. We all want to know what CPU, GPU, HDD, SDD, etc., is the fastest. We might not be able to buy that particular product, but we want to know, and we will scour the internet in the hopes of finding out which is truly the king. In these cases, the issue is often settled by the smallest margin (1-2 frames per second) which might not even be noticeable to the average person. However, there is a new term that is being swapped out for speed, and that is responsiveness. Unfortunately, responsiveness is not the same as speed or power, but this term is being used very often. During a recent trip to a local box store it was used to push a system that while responsive, was actually quite slow when put it to the test.

Published in Editorials
17

The PC is dead, PC sales are declining, and we are entering the post PC era; these are all headlines that are getting pushed around the internet right now. These are the same headlines that we have heard every year around the same time and by the same people for the last 15 or so years. They are just as wrong now as they were then, at least mostly wrong. What has happened is that we have hit an interesting time in the market. This is a time when we have too many new and “cool” technologies that are not cheap to make, but no idea on how to implement them (or an OS that really takes advantage of them). This is not the first time we have seen this and it won’t be the last either and it also comes at a time when the market is flooded with companion devices that are being marketed as standalone products.

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win8logoredesigned

Is Microsoft starting to change Windows 8 and RT? Back when Windows 8 was being broken out into the three main categories (“Home”, Pro and RT) we noticed that Microsoft was making some rather unusual moves and changes to the way that Windows worked. One of the first ones we noticed is that with Windows 8 you no longer get the Media Center component like you used to. This feature is only available for purchase if you have Windows 8 Pro or if you want to buy the Windows 8 Pro Pack (if you have the basic edition). This is odd in that most people that would want Windows 8 Pro are probably not interested in having Media Center. Sill Microsoft wants you to have the “pro” version of Windows 8 before you can have that feature. It is pretty obvious that they are trying to kill of that little feature and replace it with their Xbox Live Services. With Windows RT Microsoft pushed this as a great productivity device because it comes with a stripped down version of Office 2013. Unfortunately Microsoft messed this one up too as we found out very soon after they announced the full details on Windows RT.

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Microsoft-Surface-Pro-1

Microsoft’s upgrade of Windows, known by the codename Windows Blue, could allow several innovations in the mobile segment. Microsoft through Windows Blue intends to begin issuing new versions or major upgrades of Windows, on an annual basis, which applies to operating systems for mobile devices.

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