It’s official: Microsoft will hold an event in New York at the end of October where the company is expected to roll out a new Surface all-in-one PC. As we reported on Thursday, photos of a Surface-themed mouse and keyboard have already appeared in FCC filings.Interestingly, however, the term “Surface”—or even “hardware”—doesn’t appears anywhere on the invitation, which beckons reporters to a New York event on Oct. 26. Instead, Microsoft has invited reporters to “see what’s next for Windows 10,” which implies some sort of strategic update to the company’s software initiatives. “Imagine what you’ll do,” is written backwards on a window.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Windows has a feature it doesn’t like to talk about. While the OS lets you scrawl notes with a stylus, log in with you face (or secure the Web) via Windows Hello, and even order Cortana to set a reminder, what it’s not so eager for you to do, apparently, is use its speech recognition engine to issue commands or take voice dictation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
At the heart of every Apple iPhone is usually an upgraded chip, and this year’s iPhone 7 is no different: the A10 Fusion, which Apple executives claimed is the fastest smartphone chip ever. ‘If you’ve been paying attention, you know that Apple’s chip team has been killing it in performance,” said Apple has an existing license from ARM, the British smartphone chip designer that was recently acquired by Softbank. Rather than licensing a fixed design, Apple’s deal apparently permits tweaking for its own purposes, allowing the company to optimize it for new iPhone releases.
Apple’s new A10 Fusion chip is orders of magnitude faster than the original iPhone.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A year ago, we characterized Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile as a second-tier OS, but not one that’s second rate. Fast-forward nine months later to the Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update, and we’re still seeing signs of slow progress—but perhaps not quite fast enough for an operating system the market has largely given up on.My impressions of the Windows 10 AU are of tweaking, patching, and catching up. The most important additions include the new Wallet app, which finally allows tap-to-pay NFC payments for Windows 10 AU smartphones—something that both Android and iOS have had for years. The simplified Skype Preview app debuts, as it also has on PCs. An existing app, Continuum, now projects screens wirelessly onto a PC without the need for a Display Dock, and Windows 10 now exchanges messages and notifications between the phone and PC better than ever. Otherwise, there are other, minor adjustments, scattered throughout the updated OS.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Thirty years of WindowsImage by Jeff ChristensenFor better or for worse, Windows has defined the modern era of personal computing. Microsoft’s signature OS runs on the vast majority of PCs worldwide, and it has also worked its way into servers, tablets, phones, game consoles, ATMs, and more. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As expected, Microsoft said Tuesday that its Windows 10 Anniversary Update is beginning to roll out. Surprisingly, perhaps, Windows phones aren’t on the approved list.We found the Windows 10 Anniversary Update to be a positive step forward for users, with substantial updates to features you use the most. Since the AU is a standard update, you really don’t have to do anything to receive it: It will be downloaded and installed automatically.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A year's worth of features within Windows 10Image by Mark HachmanSince Microsoft rolled out Windows 10 at the end of last July, the company has been busy adding features to the code. Cumulatively, these additions and tweaks have produced the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Windows 10: What users wantIf you’re still running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you probably have a good idea of what’s “wrong” with Windows 10—some of which may be the reason you haven't upgraded yet. But time’s running out on that free upgrade offer. Microsoft has said it’s willing to make changes to the OS based on user feedback, but how do you know it’s fixing that one key feature that bothers you?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Though deciding between the Surface Book and the Surface Pro 4 was an agonizing choice for PCWorld editors, customers apparently know what they want: The Surface Pro 3—yes, the older one.AdDuplex, a Windows-specific ad network which compiles data on Windows machines, estimates that an even third of all Surface users are using a Surface Pro 3, a convertible tablet Microsoft phased out when its successor, the Surface Pro 4, began shipping in late 2015. SP4 sales are closing fast, though: AdDuplex said they’re about 30.9 percent of all Surface tablets that it detected.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The image above says it all: Microsoft spent $26.1 billion to ensure that you’ll never walk into a meeting “cold” again.Picture a typical business trip: meetings all day, drinks at night. A good salesperson knows his or her contacts before he or she steps foot in the door. But that goes for coworkers as well: How you you make them feel comfortable? How do you make them part of a team? How do you let them know who to approach, both inside and outside the company?All of this usually takes some effort on your part, or at least a competent assistant. And that’s the role that Microsoft hopes to play, especially with its digital assistant, Cortana, and Office 365.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
On Monday, hordes of angry Windows users pelted Microsoft with complaints about being lured into upgrading their PCs over the weekend. For months, Microsoft has been urging users running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10 before the free offer expires on July 29. But the series of dialog boxes and other messages that Microsoft has sent users have become increasingly deceptive, burying the opt-out links amid text that appears to commit users to the upgrade.Normally, closing the dialog box by clicking the red box in the upper righthand corner automatically opted out. Over the weekend, clicking that red box started opting users in to the upgrade.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google confirmed that it will have an Amazon Echo competitor, called Google Home. Announced during the keynote of Google I/O 2016, Home will serve as a hardware avatar of sorts for its new Google Assistant conversational language search tool.Google Home will be available later this year, executives said, for an undisclosed price. The company showed off the small, cylindrical device in white, but it will feature bases in custom colors.
Google Home being held by Mario Queiroz, vice president of product management and a member of the Chromecast team.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We now know the tradeoff for free Windows 10: Microsoft wants data about what you do with your device. But you don't have to send everything you do back to Redmond.You can control the data you send back, and how often, by delving into Windows 10's privacy settings (we've taken you here before) and looking specifically at Feedback frequency and Diagnostic and usage data. The former is typically just an automated survey, but the diagnostic component actually peers into your machine.INSIDER Review: Enterprise guide to Windows 10
These features comprised the Customer Experience Improvement Program, or CEIP, in previous versions of Windows—and they were voluntary. In Windows 10 they've become mandatory, but you can control some aspects.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft is tightening control over Cortana. Only its Microsoft Edge browser and Bing search engine will work with searches initiated through Windows 10’s digital assistant, the company said Thursday.Microsoft isn’t prohibiting third-party browsers like Opera and Chrome from working with Windows 10, and you can still configure the operating system to launch those browsers by default, when, say, a coworker emails you a link to a Web page. But, if you launch a search via Cortana, only Edge and Bing will be used to complete it, Microsoft said in a blog post. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The traditional tablet may not be dying, but it’s increasingly being relegated to the low end of the market, according to an IDC report released Thursday. Users are migrating toward convertibles instead, and the vendors are following.IDC said worldwide tablet sales fell 14.7 percent to just 39.6 million units during the first quarter of 2016. Excluding some seasonal holiday upticks, tablet sales have generally declined from their all-time high in the fourth quarter of 2013, when worldwide sales reached 78.6 million units. IDC analyst Jitesh Ubrani said traditional slate tablets still dominate the market with 87.6 percent of all units sold. Increasingly, though, they’ve become “synonymous with the low end of the market,” IDC said in its report. The firm said it believes the market for iPads will continue, but only as replacements, not as new customers purchasing an iPad for the first time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The message has trickled down in speeches, earnings calls, and analyst presentations, but on Tuesday, Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich drew a line in the sand: Intel is not a PC company any more. In what only can be called a manifesto of Intel’s new values, Krzanich described how Intel is transforming itself “from a PC company to a company that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices.” To drive the point home, Krzanich noted that the PC is just one among many connected devices.What might be called the “new” Intel will be built upon five pillars, Krzanich said:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Poor little Windows phone could have a bigger effect on Microsoft's business than you'd think. As the company's mobile device strategy continues to disintegrate, Microsoft may feel compelled to push harder on Windows 10 adoption and paid services to prove it can survive without a viable smartphone—and that could be bad news for consumers. The raw numbers are shocking: Microsoft sold a minuscule 2.3 million Lumia phones last quarter, down from 8.6 million a year ago. Phone revenue declines will only “steepen” during the current quarter, chief financial officer Amy Hood warned during a conference call. That’s dragged down Microsoft’s results as a company, too.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Right now, inside Intel’s headquarters, a deadly serious game of “Gladiator” is pitting Intel’s client products against one another. During its quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Intel said it now expects the PC market to decline in the “high single digits” throughout all of 2016, rather than the mid-single-digit drop it previously expected. IDC and Gartner said recently that the PC market dropped between 10 and 12 percent during the first quarter. “Our projection of the PC market...is more cautious than third-party estimates,” chief financial officer Stacy Smith told analysts.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
For $21,999, I expected a little more from Microsoft’s new Surface Hub.Don’t get me wrong: the Hub's 84-inch 4K touchscreen, flanked by a pair of eye-height, 1080p cameras, videoconferencing, and full Windows 10 capabilities—all makes for one very impressive package, especially when it dominates one wall of a room. Heck, it practically is the wall. Mark Hachman
Microsoft’s Surface Hub is, in a word, enormous.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft founder Bill Gates says he supports the U.S. government in its efforts to unearth the contents of a terrorist’s iPhone, countering a trend by other tech leaders to back Apple’s refusal to code a backdoor into its iOS operating system.Gates appears to have made the case, however, that he is in favor of the government’s request because he feels it is narrowly worded. “This is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information,” Gates told the Financial Times in a story published Monday night Pacific time. “They are not asking for some general thing; they are asking for a particular case.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Mark Hachman