Gregg Keizer, Author at NetworkingNexus.net

Gregg Keizer

Author Archives: Gregg Keizer

Both Apple and Microsoft take tumble in Gartner’s latest device forecast

Shipments of devices powered by Apple's and Microsoft's operating systems will end 2016 down from the year before. But Apple's will recover next year, while Microsoft's will continue to struggle toward growth, research firm Gartner said this week.In 2017, Apple's combination of iOS and macOS -- the former powering iPhones, the latter Macs -- will have taken second place from Windows on the devices shipped during the year. The gap between the two will widen slightly in 2018.According to Gartner, which provided Computerworld with its forecast broken out by operating system, Windows will power about 260 million devices shipped in 2016, a 12% decline year-over-year. The 260 million represents 11.2% of the total of 2.3 billion total devices, which overwhelmingly run Google's Android.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Satya Nadella’s comp package slips 3% to $17.7M

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella received a compensation package for the year ending June 30 worth approximately $17.7 million, a 3% reduction from 2015, according to security filings.A preliminary proxy statement submitted Monday to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission showed that Nadella's pay cut was about a third of the 9% downturn in Microsoft's revenue during the same period.The chief executive received $1.2 million in salary, the same as the year before; $4.5 in a cash performance bonus, or 3% more than in 2015; and $12 million in stock awards, or 6% less.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Windows 10 growth comes to screeching stop

Microsoft's Windows 10 beat a retreat last month, losing user share for the first time since its debut more than a year ago.According to U.S. metrics vendor Net Applications, Windows 10 lost half a percentage point in user share during September, ending the month on 22.5% of all personal computers.Windows 10 powered 24.8% of all machines running Windows: The difference between the user share of all PCs and only those running Windows originated with the fact that Windows powered 91% of all personal computers, not 100%.September's decline was the first since Microsoft officially launched Windows 10 in July 2015, and the only since January 2015, months before when Microsoft offered only a preview to beta testers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Where’s the bottom for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer?

Millions more deserted Microsoft's browsers last month, adding to what can only be described as a collapse of the company's place in the browser world.According to analytics vendor Net Applications, the combined user share of Internet Explorer and Edge fell 1.9 percentage points in September, ending the month at 30.6%.The string of losses showed no sign of letting up: September's decline was the sixth in a row of 1.9 percentage points or more. IE and Edge have shed 18 percentage points so far this year, a 39% decline in just eight months. Simply put, no other browser has bled user share this quickly, with the possible exception of Netscape Navigator in the 1990s.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft confirms Windows 10 adoption slowdown

Microsoft today acknowledged that the Windows 10 adoption pace had slowed when it claimed the new operating system was running on approximately 400 million devices.The company reset the Windows 10 uptake status on the same day it kicked off the 2016 edition of its Ignite conference in Atlanta.Microsoft's last Windows 10 update was at the end of June, a month before it halted the free upgrade for consumers and small businesses running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Then Microsoft pegged the number of "active devices" -- a metric of those machines that ran the OS at least once in the past four weeks -- at 350 million.The increase of 50 million over more than 12 weeks -- or about 17 million every four weeks -- was lower than during the free upgrade offer period. For example, in the eight weeks from May 5 to June 29, Microsoft claimed 50 million active users were added to the Windows 10 rolls, or 25 million every four weeks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

iOS 10 slower off the uptake mark

iPhone and iPad owners adopted Apple's iOS 10 at a slower tempo during its first dozen days than they did last year's upgrade, according to data from an analytics vendor.At the 12-day mark, iOS 10 accounted for 41.9% of all iOS editions detected by Mixpanel, whose metrics platform is widely used by mobile app developers to track usage and user engagement.That was significantly lower than the 52.4% accumulated by iOS 9 last year at the same post-release point, but slightly higher than iOS 8's 40.6% in September 2014.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD 25 iOS 10 features that will change your life +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Impending cumulative updates unnerve Windows patch experts

Microsoft's decision to force Windows 10's patch and maintenance model on customers running the older-but-more-popular Windows 7 has patch experts nervous."Bottom line, everyone is holding their breath, hoping for the best, expecting the worst," said Susan Bradley in an email. Bradley is well known in Windows circles for her expertise on Microsoft's patching processes: She writes on the topic for the Windows Secrets newsletter and moderates the PatchMangement.org mailing list, where business IT administrators discuss update tradecraft.Bradley's anxiety stems from Microsoft's announcement last month that beginning in October it will offer only cumulative security updates for Windows 7 and 8.1, ending the decades-old practice of letting customers choose which patches they apply.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Impending cumulative updates unnerve Windows patch experts

Apple delivers free macOS Sierra upgrade

Apple today released Sierra, 2016's edition of the Mac's operating system. Sierra is the first under the "macOS" label Apple introduced in June when it retired the older "OS X" and synchronized the Mac's moniker with other operating systems from the Cupertino, Calif. company, like the iPhone's iOS and the Apple TV's tvOS. Also known as macOS 10.12, Sierra's launch followed the first "golden master," or GM build, by two weeks. Sierra was available Tuesday for free download from the Mac App Store. Although the upgrade was not immediately visible on the front page of the e-mart, a search using sierra quickly located the 4.8GB installation file.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft sues repeat software pirate who owes company $1.2M from prior case

Microsoft has sued a Wisconsin man for allegedly selling stolen Windows and Office activation codes, claiming in court documents that he is a repeat pirate who still owes the company $1.2 million from an earlier judgment.In a complaint filed Sept. 8, Microsoft accused Anthony Boldin, of Brookfield, Wisc., of selling software activation codes to company investigators from four different websites he maintained. Two of those websites are now shuttered -- only a message stating that the sites are no longer selling software remained Monday -- but two others continued to operate.The 25-character activation codes are a core component of Microsoft's anti-piracy technology. Although the software can be copied an unlimited number of times, the keys individually lock a license to a device or a specific user. Minus a legitimate key -- and thus, activation -- Microsoft's software retreats to a hobbled or even crippled mode.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft sets dead date for Insider builds

Microsoft will soon pull the plug on older builds of its Windows 10 previews to again force testers to either abandon the program or update to the newest version.As the company released the latest beta of Windows 10 -- identified as build 14926 -- Microsoft's Insider spokeswoman reminded users that they would start to see on-screen expiration notices.Testers on the Fast "ring" of the Windows Insider program, who receive more builds at a faster clip than others, will begin seeing expiration notices today. "On October 1, these PCs will start rebooting every 3 hours and then on October 15, these PCs will stop booting all together [sic]," said software engineer Dona Sarkar in a post to a company blog.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

iOS 10 adoption tops last year’s 9 uptake rate in first day

Although Apple stumbled yesterday as it issued iOS 10, the new mobile operating system has gained traction to outpace last year's upgrade by the end of its first full day.At the 24-hour milestone, iOS 10 accounted for 14.5% of all iOS editions detected by Mixpanel, whose metrics platform is widely used by mobile app developers to track usage and user engagement.That was higher than the 12.4% accumulated by iOS 9 last year at the same post-release point, but still significantly lower than the record holder iOS 7, which collected a whopping 29.9% within 24 hours of its 2013 debut.Apple released iOS 10 yesterday at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google offers $200K for top prize in new Android hack challenge

Google yesterday announced a six-month bug contest that will pay up to $200,000 for an Android "bug chain," one or more successful exploits of previously unknown vulnerabilities.Dubbed "Project Zero Prize," it differed from hacking contests that take place over one or two days: Researchers can submit entries from now until March 14, 2017. In that regard, Google's contest resembled the limited-time bug bounties that rival Microsoft has offered to focus on, among other areas and applications, in Windows 10's Edge browser.In the case of multi-exploit entries, Google also departed from the usual contest or bounty rules by encouraging researchers to submit each link in the bug chain as the flaws were uncovered, rather than wait until all were in place and exploitable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google offers $200K for top prize in new Android hack challenge

New Yorker sues Apple over botched iPhone Upgrade Program pre-order

A New York man yesterday sued Apple in federal court, claiming that the company misled him and others when it pitched the iPhone Upgrade Program last year.The lawsuit asked for class action status, a move that if approved would let others join the case.Emil Frank of Brooklyn, N.Y., complained that he had not been able to pre-order an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus on Friday because Apple limited the number of devices for Upgrade Program participants while letting others reserve new phones."[Apple] allowed non-iPhone Upgrade Program customers to snap up the limited inventory of the new devices while telling countless iPhone Upgrade Program customers to 'check back later,'" Frank asserted.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple takes iPhone 7 preorders, quickly exhausts supply of Jet Black

Apple began taking pre-orders for its iPhone 7 and 7 Plus earlier today, and not surprisingly, some models quickly exhausted their supplies, leaving customers with weeks to wait.The scramble to order an iPhone began at midnight PT, 3 a.m. ET, when Apple and U.S. carriers opened the doors to their online sales sites.By business hours, Apple's iPhone 7 Plus in Jet Black -- a new, highly-polished finish -- faced a delay in shipping that stretched into November, with the smaller iPhone 7 Jet Black reporting a shipping delay of 3 to 4 weeks. The matte black iPhone 7 Plus was also in demand, with shipping dates out two to three weeks. However, other colors of both the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were still available for pre-ordering with Sept. 16 arrival dates.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google puts screws to HTTP with new warnings in Chrome

Google today continued its campaign to tighten the screws on unencrypted web traffic as it outlined the next steps it will take with Chrome to warn users of insecure connections.Starting with Chrome 56, which is currently scheduled to ship in stable format on Jan. 31, 2017, the browser will mark sites that transmit either passwords or credit card information over HTTP connections as "non-secure."The move will be "Part of a long-term plan to mark all HTTP sites as non-secure," Emily Schechter, a product manager in the Chrome security team, said in a post to a company blog Thursday. The plan, Schechter continued, "will take place in gradual steps, based on increasingly stringent criteria."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google puts screws to HTTP with new warnings in Chrome

On eve of iPhone 7, a third of iPhones are 3+ years old

A third of the iPhones now in use are three or more years old, an app analytics vendor said a day before Apple unveils the new iPhone 7. According to Boston-based Localytics, 32% of all iPhones used in August were models that debuted in 2013 or earlier, with that year's iPhone 5S the third-most popular device at 17%. Others, including 2012's iPhone 5 and 2011's iPhone 4S, accounted for single digit shares. Localytics measured share by tallying the models among more than 100 million iPhones that reported data to the app developers that use its analytics tools.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple quashes 3 zero-days with emergency Mac update

Apple yesterday issued an emergency security update for the Mac, patching the same trio of vulnerabilities the company fixed last week on the iPhone. According to one of the groups that first revealed the flaws, the vulnerabilities could have been "weaponized" for use against OS X, the Mac's operating system. The out-of-band update was aimed at OS X El Capitan (aka 10.11) and Yosemite (10.10), the 2015 and 2014 editions, respectively. Older versions, including 2014's OS X Mavericks, went unpatched: Apple is nearing the release of its annual Mac operating system upgrade and thus the end of support for the edition of three years ago. Like the urgent update Apple released last week for the iPhone -- iOS 9.3.5 -- the Mac patches quash three bugs, two in the operating system's kernel and the third in the Safari browser.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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