Gregg Keizer, Author at NetworkingNexus.net

Gregg Keizer

Author Archives: Gregg Keizer

Microsoft covets LinkedIn’s algorithms

Microsoft yesterday announced it would buy the business social network LinkedIn for a company acquisition record of $26.2 billion, a purchase triggered by Microsoft's appetite for algorithms, an analyst argued. "There are two components to LinkedIn that Microsoft wanted," said Jenny Sussin, a Gartner research director, in an interview. "One is the data component, the other is the algorithm component." An algorithm is a set of operations that tells a computer what calculations to run on what data, then how to process that data to generate a result. Algorithms are the "secret sauce" of many technology firms, the fiercely-guarded crown jewels on which a company's fortunes rest. Google's page-ranking algorithms, for example, are as secret as the recipe for Coca-Cola, and just as critical to Google's ability to generate relevant search results as the sugar water formula is to Coke's bottom line.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple: Want apps? Then subscribe

Apple announced that by this fall it will let nearly all iOS app makers switch to a subscription-based business model, a move that could make it easier for some small-scale developers to turn a profit but risks backlash from consumers burdened by subscription fatigue."Ultimately, this should lead to more apps, better apps and more innovation," Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research, said of Apple's plans.As revealed in a pair of interviews that marketing chief Philip Schiller did with The Verge and Jon Gruber of Daring Fireball -- an unusual tactic for Apple -- the Cupertino, Calif., company will expand subscription pricing to all app categories, after previously restricting the model to just a handful: periodicals, business apps and media content services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple shouldn’t go slow on iPhone tempo

Apple would be making a mistake slowing down the cadence of major upgrades to its iPhone, said a pair of analysts today, who argued that the company should instead try to speed up the pace.Their comments were sparked by a Nikkei Asian Review report last week that asserted Apple was shifting to a three-year interval between significant iPhone upgrades. The business paper's proof was thin: That the upcoming iPhone 7 will "look almost identical to the current iPhone 6."If accurate, Apple would abandon its two-year rhythm that debuted a form factor change in even years, followed by nearly identical models that retained the exterior look in odd years, designated with an "S" appended to the label.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Petition condemns Windows 10 upgrade practices, asks EFF to investigate

A petition launched Friday asks the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to investigate Microsoft's aggressive moves to convince and cajole users into upgrading to Windows 10.The request was launched on Change.org, a popular online petition website, and by early Monday had garnered more than 470 signatures.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD Microsoft blows trust and credibility with forced upgrade +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft continues campaign to shut down stupid software pirates

Microsoft this week filed another lawsuit in federal court accusing unidentified individuals with stealing its software by illegally activating more than 1,000 copies of Windows 7, Vista and 8, and Office 2010 and 2013.The suit, filed with a Seattle court on Wednesday, was the latest in a string of cases opened by the Redmond, Wash. company in an effort to quash piracy."Microsoft's cyberforensics have identified over one thousand product activations originating from IP address 66.51.73.111 ('the IP Address'), which is presently assigned to Earthlink Inc., and which, on information and belief, is being used by the Defendants in furtherance of the unlawful conduct alleged herein," Microsoft's lawyers wrote in the complaint.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Windows PC makers hang customers out to dry with flawed crapware updaters

Prominent Windows PC makers, including Acer, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo, have made "egregious" omissions in the software updaters they bundle with notebooks that leave customers at risk from attack by cyber-criminals, a security firm contended."It's 2016," said Steve Manzuik, director of security research at Duo Security, in an interview. "[These updaters show] a lack of basic security measures that you should use."Earlier this week, Duo published a report detailing an examination of 10 Windows laptops from five OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) -- Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo -- that focused on the software updating tools the vendors pre-loaded on their machines.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft’s drastic upgrade tactic pays off with boost to Windows 10 share

Windows 10 in May recorded its largest increase in user share since August 2015, the first full month after its launch last summer, data published Wednesday showed.The impressive increase came after Microsoft began what will likely be its last big push to put the free Windows 10 on customers' PCs, a campaign that started mid-May and featured a much-derided trick to get users to approve the upgrade from Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.According to U.S.-based analytics vendor Net Applications, Windows 10 powered 19.4% of all Windows PCs in May, a 2.1-point increase from the month before. Net Applications measures user share -- an estimate of the percentage of the global PC population that runs a particular operating system -- by tallying unique visitors to clients' websites.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Hey, Microsoft! Fish or cut bait on enterprise phones

Microsoft has a shot at saving what remains of its smartphone strategy, but the pivot toward the enterprise must be quick, an analyst said today."They're essentially starting over from scratch," John Delaney, an IDC analyst who covers mobility in Europe, said in an interview. "By the end of the year, they must show commitment from major ISVs and some really good mobile apps."Last week, Microsoft announced it would take another $950 million charge against earnings for the failure of its smartphone group to meet expectations, and lay off another 1,850 employees, two thirds of them former workers at Nokia, which Microsoft acquired two years ago.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

No, Microsoft hasn’t backtracked from zealous Windows 10 upgrade tactics

Contrary to scattered reports, Microsoft has not backpedaled from its latest aggressive tactic to boost Windows 10 adoption.Accounts claiming that Microsoft has only now introduced a new warning dialog are incorrect: That secondary notice has been part of Microsoft's campaign since at least the first week of May -- before word spread about the company's unusual interpretation of a click on the red "X" in the upper-right corner of a notification that a pre-scheduled upgrade to Windows 10 was imminent.Since at least March 23, and probably as far back as February, Microsoft has been defining a click-the-X as approving the scheduled upgrade, rather than the expected behavior of ignoring the notice and closing the window. Microsoft's interpretation of clicking the X runs counter to its own design rules.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft eats another $1B as phone strategy shrinks to enterprise-only

Microsoft's announcement yesterday that it would eat nearly $1 billion and lay off another 1,850 workers, three-quarters of them from its phone division, prompted analysts to call the company's consumer smartphone business dead, deceased, departed.They agreed that Microsoft's only remaining shot at phones is the enterprise, probably with a "Surface"-branded model that apes the Surface Pro as a design benchmark that struts Windows' capabilities."They've discarded consumer," said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, in an interview. "They just tossed out the Windows fan. It's now all about business."Moorhead and others based their opinions on statements made in mid-2015 by CEO Satya Nadella, who spelled out three markets for Microsoft's smartphones after he announced a retrenchment and a massive $7.6 billion write-off for the failed acquisition of Nokia under his predecessor, Steve Ballmer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft has been conning Windows users for two months

Microsoft has been using a deceptive tactic to dupe Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users into upgrading to Windows 10 for at least the last two months, according to the company's website.An oft-revised support document that Computerworld cited in a May 16 story about Microsoft's aggressive upgrade practices spelled out the workings of a pop-up notification that Windows 7 and 8.1 users had been seeing. The notification told those customers -- primarily consumers, but also many small-to-mid-sized businesses -- that the free Windows 10 upgrade had been pre-scheduled by Microsoft.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Skeptics question Android on Chromebooks

Google's announcement last week that it will let owners of Chromebooks run Android apps was met with skepticism by analysts, who argued that it would not significantly change the market for the inexpensive notebooks that run the browser-based Chrome OS.Android apps "aren't designed for the keyboard, they're not scaled for the larger screen, so they aren't going to be ideal," said Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research. "Most people will find that frustrating."The combination of Android and Chrome OS will begin rolling out to a limited number of Chromebook models next month, with more slated for support, as the year unwinds, via updates to Chrome OS. Google Play, the Android app marketplace, will be available on Chromebooks, and those apps will run on the devices' minimalist operating system, Google has promised.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft tweaks IE11-Edge interoperability in Windows 10

Microsoft yesterday said it will introduce changes in this summer's Windows 10 Anniversary Update to simplify switching from Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) to Edge, and back.The changes will be aimed at enterprises, the only customer group Microsoft recommends running IE11 in the new operating system."We recognize that some enterprise customers have line-of-business applications built specifically for older web technologies, which require Internet Explorer 11," the company said in a Thursday post.INSIDER Review: Enterprise guide to Windows 10 Previously, Microsoft included "Enterprise Mode" in Windows 10, a feature that lets an IT staff limit IE11's operation to specific legacy websites or web apps.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google’s mobile productivity apps bury Microsoft’s

Two years after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella cut the cord between his firm's biggest money makers -- Office and Windows -- by introducing mobile productivity apps for Apple's iPhones and iPads, the Redmond, Wash. company remains far behind rival Google in the category, a researcher said today.According to data provided to Computerworld by SurveyMonkey Intelligence, the monthly-active users of Google's mobile productivity apps in April vastly outnumbered those for Microsoft's Office."I was surprised that Google was dominating as much as it is," said Bonnie Yu, a product manager at SurveyMonkey. "I really expected Microsoft to be a better competitor."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft’s sale of feature phone biz erodes smartphone commitment

Microsoft today continued to undo its disastrous 2014 acquisition of Nokia's phone business, announcing that it is exiting the feature phone market, which it had once trumpeted as a critical component of its mobile strategy.The sale of its feature phone business for $350 million prompted analysts to again question Microsoft's commitment to smartphones. "There won't be any more Lumia [smartphones]," said Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research, in an email reply to Computerworld's questions today. "It does leave the door open for a new, narrower, phone strategy in the future."MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 10 (FREE!) Microsoft tools to make admins happier In a statement Wednesday, Microsoft said it had sold its remaining Nokia assets, including its factory in Hanoi, Vietnam, to FIH Mobile Ltd., a subsidiary of Taiwanese contract manufacturer Hon Hai, better known as Foxconn, and to Finnish firm HMD Global.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft issues cumulative roll-up pack for Windows 7

Microsoft yesterday threw a bone to Windows 7 users by releasing a cumulative roll-up that collects all the bug fixes from February 2011 to April 2016, making it easier to update a PC running the still-standard OS. The Redmond, Wash. company has ditched the "service pack" moniker, and so named Tuesday's collection a "convenience rollup update." The label was meaningless, however: The update was identical to a service pack. "This convenience rollup is intended to make it easy to integrate fixes that were released after SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2," Microsoft said in a document explaining the update.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple patches 67 bugs in OS El Capitan, refreshes Safari and iTunes

Apple yesterday updated OS X El Capitan to version 10.11.5, patching nearly 70 vulnerabilities as it began to wind down changes prior to the next iteration launching later this year.OS X 10.11.5 offered few non-security bug fixes and no new features; in other words, it was a typical late-life refresh of an edition.Apple on Monday also patched the older OS X Mavericks (from 2013) and OS X Yosemite (2014), and issued updates to both iTunes and the firm's Safari browser.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 6 simple tricks for protecting your passwords Of the 67 security flaws fixed in El Capitan, a dozen also applied to Mavericks and 14 to Yosemite, according to Chris Goettl, director of product management at Salt Lake City-based LANDESK, which makes systems and asset management software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple patches 67 bugs in OS El Capitan, refreshes Safari and iTunes

Microsoft makes final, aggressive Windows 10 upgrade push

Microsoft has launched the final push in its nine-and-a-half-month upgrade offensive against consumers and businesses running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.Last week, Microsoft switched the automatically-offered Windows 10 upgrade to a "Recommended" download that in turn scheduled the upgrade process unless the user interfered."As we shared in October, Windows 10 will be offered as a 'Recommended' update for Windows 7 and 8.1 customers whose Windows Update settings are configured to accept 'Recommended' updates," a Microsoft spokesman said Friday in an email reply to questions.INSIDER Review: Enterprise guide to Windows 10 Those questions were spurred by reports from Computerworld readers, who said that they'd again been offered an upgrade after months of either ignoring the campaign or dodging the transmutation of their PCs from Windows 7 or 8.1 to 10.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Latest Windows 10 preview gets loose early

Microsoft had planned to release a Windows 10 update to the company's beta testers today, but the build got loose prematurely, ending up on some users' PCs late Tuesday.After Microsoft realized that build 14342 had escaped its confines, it continued to push it to customers."Some #WindowsInsiders have reported getting PC build 14342. We were staging this for tomorrow and looks like it published too far," tweeted Gabriel Aul, engineering general manager for Microsoft's operating systems group late Tuesday.A few minutes later, Aul added, "I think we'll just keep pushing out, but it may not be fully staged yet."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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