Andy Patrizio
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Andy Patrizio
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XML is toast, long live JSON
If you haven't heard much about XML lately, you're not the only one. XML has been rapidly falling out of favor with developers and has been replaced with a more flexible and faster format.XML, the Extensible Markup Language, rose from the SGML format in the 1990s. It reached the 1.0 spec in 1997 and grew from there. The primary appeal of XML is that it was ideal for transferring data between other formats. It required far fewer filters for data conversion to share data between different applications that might have their own proprietary format. That's one reason why with Office 2007, Microsoft shifted its Word and Excel file formats to XML-based format. Conversion to other formats was made much easier thanks to XML.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft Surface 5 could be powered by Intel’s Kaby Lake CPU
With the Surface 4/Surface Book doing very well and grabbing more and more market share, Microsoft isn’t saying much about the next generation of its tablet/notebook products. However, a leak from China may have some clues.All that’s known is that the next generation of Surface products was pushed back to early 2017. A leak to Indian publication Mobipicker.com says one reason for the delay is because Microsoft wanted to use the latest processor from Intel, code-named Kaby Lake. Kaby Lake is expected in the third quarter, which would make shipping by year’s end pretty tough. So, Microsoft simply pushed Surface 5 into next year rather than rushing it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft boosts support for Spark-based big data analytics
Microsoft kicked off the Spark Summit in San Francisco with news of "an extensive commitment for Spark to power Microsoft's big data and analytics offerings, including Cortana Intelligence Suite, Power BI and Microsoft R Server."Spark started as an open source project at the University of California, Berkeley AMPLab in 2009 and was given to the Apache Foundation in 2012. A company to further Spark development was formed called DataBricks.Spark is a significant accelerator for Hadoop, the primary software used in big data analytics, because it does all of the work in memory. Hadoop ran primarily as a disk-based batch process, using a framework called MapReduce to execute a batch process, often overnight. You got your insight the next day. That’s why despite big data’s promise of real-time analytics, it often couldn't deliver.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft Research comes up with a workable low-end VR system
There is one inevitable real-world reality when it comes to virtual reality: you need high-end gear. It’s no accident that VR headsets like Oculus Rift and Vive are taking off this year because both Nvidia and AMD are launching very powerful video cards that can generate the realistic graphics needed to make VR work. There are more low-cost VR alternatives, such as Google Cardboard and Samsung’s Gear VR, but they don’t give the same experience as Oculus and Vive. However, Microsoft Research may have come up with a workaround that can lower the barrier to entry for VR systems and make underpowered devices viable VR platforms.FlashBack is a new system from Microsoft Research that eliminates real-time frame rendering and instead relies on cached, pre-rendered frames that are displayed based on the user’s actions. According to a research paper just published (PDF), the system provides eight times improved frame rate, 97 times less energy consumption and a 15-fold latency reduction in mobile devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Don’t expect a self-driving car from Microsoft
While its fellow tech giants work on autonomous, self-driving cars, Microsoft has opted out of a similar pursuit and instead is taking a strategy of working with car makers and other vendors in the market. Peggy Johnson, the head of business development for the company, made these comments at the Converge technology conference hosted by The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong Friday. She had been asked about whether Microsoft would follow in Google and Apple's footsteps in making self-driving cars. In the case of Google, that project is well-known. In the case of Apple, it's all rumor.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft ships a major update to its HoloLens platform
Just as the month was about to end, Microsoft announced the release of the May 2016 Update for HoloLens, the first major software update to the virtual reality (VR) headset it's developing since it offered the developer edition.Considering it's been just two months since the Developer Kit and first wave of devices went out at the Build 2016 conference, Microsoft sure has added quite a bit to this update. The company also announced it was shipping headsets to a second wave of developer applicants.The full list of additions and changes to the May 2016 Update for HoloLens is rather lengthy, so we've boiled it down for you:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Could the iPhone lose FaceTime and iMessage?
Back in February, Apple took a big hit when it lost to patent troll VirnetX to the tune of $626 million for supposedly violating four patents related to Apple's messaging technology. Now, VirnetX wants more money and for a federal judge to permanently turn off those features. download Download the VirnetX vs. Apple injunction court document (pdf) VirnetX has been labeled a patent troll because it is a patent holding company and sells a single product, the Gabriel Security Platform, but has more than 80 patents. With just 14 employees in its Nevada office, the company makes most of its money by licensing patents to other firms and by suing businesses that it believes has infringed on its intellectual property. It has also sued Microsoft and Cisco.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Surface Books get major driver updates
Microsoft issued a number of driver updates for both the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book that ought to make owners very happy because they should improve performance of the two devices.The updates are all centered around driver support to improve stability and usability, along with improved battery support. So, these are all features that Surface users will definitely want. It's interesting to note that the Surface Pro 4 updates were not back ported to the Surface Pro 3.+ Also on Network World: Surface Book vs. Surface Pro 4: Picking the best came down to just one thing + To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Why I stay with Firefox
In a recent Network World column, guest author Susan Perschke discussed why she switched back to the Firefox browser, with its piddling low teens percentage of market share, from the dominant browser, Google Chrome.Perschke illustrated many good reasons to use Firefox, all of them legitimate and valid, but I have two good reasons of my own. Firefox has two feature Chrome just doesn't have.First is the URL bar. Its absence is what kept me away from Chrome in the first place. That and Chrome's constant failure to render certain HTML pages. I like being able to click the pulldown menu and see sites I visit infrequently but not enough to bookmark. My bookmarks are hard enough to manage without saving every page I visit.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Windows 7 updates have been broken for several days
If something goes wrong with a patch, it's usually a problem that emerges after people download and install the patch. But in this case, fixes issued for May's Patch Tuesday batch just plain won't install at all for some people.The most recent batch of bug fixes was issued on May 10, and within days people were complaining of problems with the installation. It's always the same problem: Windows Update runs for a long time stuck at 0% progress before finally failing to install.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Windows 7 updates have been broken for several days
If something goes wrong with a patch, it's usually a problem that emerges after people download and install the patch. But in this case, fixes issued for May's Patch Tuesday batch just plain won't install at all for some people.The most recent batch of bug fixes was issued on May 10, and within days people were complaining of problems with the installation. It's always the same problem: Windows Update runs for a long time stuck at 0% progress before finally failing to install.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft is working on a new digital assistant
Once again a job posting has tipped the hand of a company's product plans. This time it was Microsoft who gave away its intentions. The company appears to be working on an assistant bot that looks an awful lot like Google's new Assistant bot.All due credit goes to Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet for catching it first. The project is called the "Bing Concierge Bot." Unlike Cortana, it makes heavy use of messaging apps, both Microsoft and third-party apps. That's the emphasis from the job posting, which has been removed since Foley discovered it:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft releases ‘service pack 2’ for Windows 7
One of the most vexing aspects of a Windows 7 reinstall is that even after you install the operating system and Service Pack 1, you can expect to spend a ridiculous amount of time applying patches that came post-SP1. Service Pack 1 came out in 2011, and there have been dozens and dozens of fixes over the past five years.For the longest time, this was a sore spot among users. That and the fact that Microsoft was reluctant to issue a second service pack with just a rollup of current fixes.Well, that wish has been granted. The company today announced a "convenience rollup" for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 that contains all of the security and non-security updates it has issued for the two operating systems since the Windows 7 Service Pack up through April 2016.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Nearly all App Store sales come from a handful of vendors
The top 1 percent of U.S. publishers on the iOS App Store with paid or in-app purchase (IAP)-supported apps accounted for approximately 94 percent of all revenue on the store.That’s according to Sensor Tower, a vendor of App Store marketing and sales tracking software, which published its latest findings in its Store Intelligence blog. The company monitored app store revenue and download estimates from Jan. 1, 2016, to March 31, 2016. It compared the estimated net revenue of publishers on the U.S. App Store with at least one actively ranking paid or IAP-supported app. It does not include Google Play or Android.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft closes in on Apple as top tablet maker
Microsoft’s smartphone business may be a flop, but the company is really taking it to Apple in the area of laplets, a new category somewhere between laptops and tablets. It's for devices with a detachable screen to be used as a tablet, but with a bigger screen than your average tablet.According to new research by 1010data, laplets are making big gains this year. The numbers are being released in advance of a full report that is due this week. While the Apple iPad is still the dominant tablet at 32.5 percent market share, Microsoft has come on very strong with the Surface Book, which is in second place at 25 percent, up 9 percentage points year over year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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WhatsApp finally comes to PC and Mac
Instant messaging between desktops and phones hasn't exactly taken off despite the ubiquity of both. There is Skype. Microsoft has done a good job of making it available everywhere, but most instant messengers are limited to either the PC or mobile phones, and PCs do a surprisingly bad job of supporting SMS texting.Well, things took a step forward now that WhatsApp, a popular smartphone instant messenger, has finally launched on PC and Mac. The smartphone app, which Facebook bought for an incredible $19 billion last year, has over a billion users worldwide.Up to now, if you didn't have it on your smartphone, you had to use the Web site, WhatsApp Web. The desktop app, like the Web site and smartphone app, is designed as "an extension of your phone," as the company put it in announcing the app, synchronizing your conversations and messages between the two devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Windows Store for Business finally opens for business
Microsoft introduced Windows Store for Business (WSB) last year as an enterprise app store solution for businesses to install Windows apps across their corporate PCs. Things have been a little slow, but that's about to pick up.Effective last week, Microsoft made it easier for developers to sell their apps to IT professionals by allowing them to sell organizational licenses to companies via WSB, giving administrators the ability to acquire, manage and distribute apps faster and easier.WSB is similar to the consumer Windows Store, with some differences. For starters, it is managed according to countries and regions to handle licensing and other local issues. Also, companies can make volume purchases, an option consumers don't always have.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Lenovo software has a major security risk
Just as the dust has settled on the Superfish controversy, another piece of software installed on Lenovo PCs is causing problems. This time it's due to a major malware exploit.The problem is with Lenovo Solution Center (LSC) software, which the company describes as "a central hub for monitoring system health and security." LSC is supposed to monitor your system's virus and firewall status, update your software, perform backups, check battery health, and get registration and warranty information.Unfortunately, it also has a vulnerability that allows a malicious attacker to start the LSC service and trick it in to executing arbitrary code in the local system context, according to researchers at Trustwave SpiderLabs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Lenovo software has a major security risk
Just as the dust has settled on the Superfish controversy, another piece of software installed on Lenovo PCs is causing problems. This time it's due to a major malware exploit.The problem is with Lenovo Solution Center (LSC) software, which the company describes as "a central hub for monitoring system health and security." LSC is supposed to monitor your system's virus and firewall status, update your software, perform backups, check battery health, and get registration and warranty information.Unfortunately, it also has a vulnerability that allows a malicious attacker to start the LSC service and trick it in to executing arbitrary code in the local system context, according to researchers at Trustwave SpiderLabs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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How Microsoft keeps the bad guys out of Azure
Microsoft has published its latest Security Intelligence Report (SIR), which it does twice a year, covering security issues for the prior six months. This latest edition covers the second half of 2015, analyzing the threat landscape of exploits, vulnerabilities and malware using data from Internet services and over 600 million computers worldwide.It is a massive effort, with dozens of Microsoft staff from different groups contributing. For the first time, they looked at not only PC malware but threats to its Azure cloud service as well, which the company says "reveals how we are leveraging an intelligent security graph to inform how we protect endpoints, better detect attacks and accelerate our response, to help protect our customers."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here