Category: Computers, Science & Technology

It is in Microsoft’s interest to get Windows 10 out to every PC on the planet, how will they do it!

Microsoft more clearly articulates next phase of its Windows 10 upgrade rollout plans

ZDNet – By: Mary Jo Foley – “Microsoft is seeking to clear the air over worries about its Windows 10 upgrade process and is proactively alerting existing Windows users about the company’s plans to push Windows 10 over the next few months.

In an October 29 blog post, Terry Myerson, Microsoft Executive Vice President of Windows and Devices, laid out Microsoft’s plans to make its Windows 10 upgrade more widely available to users.

The ‘reservation’ phase of upgrading to Windows 10 is over. Microsoft is now getting ready to push the operating system out to even more users. Microsoft will ‘soon’ be publishing Windows 10 as an ‘Optional Update’ in Windows Update for all Windows 7 and 8 customers. Then, ‘early next year,’ Microsoft will re-categorize Windows 10 as a ‘Recommended Update.’

For users with automatic updates enabled, the ‘Recommended’ setting may cause the Windows 10 upgrade to automatically initiate on their devices. However, users will not be upgraded to Windows 10 until they proactively choose to do so, even once it’s pushed as a Recommended Update, Microsoft officials said today.

If users end up moving to Windows 10 and are unhappy with their choices, they still will have 31 days to roll back to their previous Windows versions, Myerson reiterated in today’s blog post.

‘Our goal is you won’t be surprised’ about how and when you can go to Windows 10, Myerson told me in a phone conversation on October 29.

Over the past few months, a number of users — including me — have worried that Microsoft was pushing Windows 10 to us even though we hadn’t opted for it. In my case, I was planning to upgrade my Dell desktop to Windows 10 but changed my mind and cancelled my reservation. Yet I still saw Windows 10 listed in Windows Update as a pre-selected Optional upgrade.

Microsoft is not changing its policy of downloading part of the Windows 10 code proactively to users’ machines to make upgrading faster. That behavior will continue, Myerson said. But unless users make the final decision to hit upgrade, Windows 10 will not completely install and replace their existing Windows versions.

Myerson also confirmed what other company officials hinted in August: Microsoft will be providing users with more information about what is in the Cumulative Updates that they will be getting regularly for Windows 10. He said ‘starting next month, Microsoft will take a first stab’ at providing more documentation to both consumers and business users about what the company is delivering with each new update for Windows 10.

He said Microsoft will not be providing a full code change list, but will strive to provide the right amount of information for different audiences. IT pros, for example, will want and need information about different features than consumers will.

Myerson also said Microsoft will be adding new options to the update mechanism in Windows 10 allowing users more choices about when they will be able to install their upgrades. Instead of having to install immediately, users may get options like ‘upgrade in the next maintenance window.’

Microsoft also is simplifying the way that users with ‘Non-Genuine’ copies of Windows will be able to true up and get Genuine copies. Microsoft still is not making Windows free for those with non-Genuine copies, however.”

My personal workstation died and I had to completely rebuild it! (Ouch!) So… it sidelined me for the show. Watch for it this coming weekend!

Good news! Oracle Virtualbox, the popular FREE hypervisor for multiple platforms, including Windows, OS/X, Linux, and Solaris, now supports Windows 10 clients (or VMs!) The latest release is Version 5.0.6 and has fixed a lot of bugs, including latency issues, a LOT of work on bridged networking, which I like because I use that a lot!

VirtualBox FREE Hypervisor

Support is now available for Mac OS/X El Capitan including GUI-related fixes, caturing USB devices, and it now allows the colon character on shared folders.

Windows additions include: fixing shutting down VBoxTray when running with older VirtualBox host versions, fixed video playback with VLC and Windows Media Player when the WDDM driver is used and 3D is not used, and, preventing a possible VLC crash when the WDDM driver is used and 3D is enabled by implementing YV12 surfaces.

You pretty much can’t go wrong with the new version! I test installed Windows 10, and it runs great! I even installed ClassicShell (Release 4.2.4,) and the final product is very snappy and useable under Windows 10 (in other words Windows 10 64-Bit running on top of Windows 10 64-Bit!)

Are you going back to your evil, “all-knowing” ways, Microsoft?

Microsoft Goes Too Far, Automatically Installs Windows 10 In Some Windows 7 And 8.1 PCs

Tech Times – By: Nicole Arce – “Windows 10 may be on a roll, but it is still far from Microsoft’s lofty goal of distributing it to 1 billion devices all over the globe in two to three years. Obviously, Microsoft is eager to get people to install its operating system, or the company wouldn’t have offered it to users for free.

But is Microsoft a bit way too eager for people to install Windows 10? The latest reports say Microsoft is once again earning the ire of some people by automatically installing Windows 10 into PCs still running on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 without the permission of their owners.

The first reports have appeared on the U.K.-based The Register, whose readers have mailed in their complaints that Microsoft is stealthily changing their update settings to enable what is supposed to be an optional update that then installs Windows 10.

‘In the latest raft of MS updates, the ‘optional’ Windows 10 option on this Windows 7 PC was pre-ticked,’ says one user. ‘Can that be right? If I hadn’t noticed, it would have caused havoc here.’

Other users say going to the Control Panel no longer shows the option to install the latest Patch Tuesday updates. Instead, a message saying the ‘upgrade to Windows 10 is ready’ appears and prompts the user to restart the PC to begin installation. At least one user says the message appears with a one-hour countdown timer, which lets the user reschedule the installation but not cancel it altogether.

In one particularly disturbing instance, one user says his PC suddenly got a blue screen and rebooted. Upon starting his machine as normal, a message appeared asking him if he wanted a solution to his problem. The answer, of course, was yes, so Microsoft showed him a message to download and install Windows 10.

‘I wonder if this blue screen was/is a Microsoft-initiated one, deliberately pushing people to upgrade to Windows 10,’ he says.

The automatic installations were also confirmed by Josh Mayfield, creator of the GWX Control Panel, a tool that gets rid of Windows 10 upgrade messages. In a blog post, Mayfield says his tool can no longer eliminate the message that requires users to reschedule their installation. Neither can his tool run in the background to track what update settings Microsoft is making.

For its part, Microsoft has already responded to the complaints, saying that the automatically checked option to update to Windows 10 was a ‘mistake,’ which it promises to fix right away.

‘As part of our effort to bring Windows 10 to existing genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers, the Windows 10 upgrade may appear as an optional update in the Windows Update (WU) control panel,’ says Microsoft in a statement. ‘This is an intuitive and trusted place people go to find Recommended and Optional updates to Windows. In the recent Windows update, this option was checked as default; this was a mistake and we are removing Windows 10 from Windows Update for users that have not reserved a copy of Windows 10.’

Microsoft found itself in a similar situation last month, when it was discovered that it was downloading Windows 10 installation files into users’ PCs, even though they did not reserve a copy of Windows 10.”

Will Yahoo really be able to do away with passwords?

Kill the Password? Yahoo tries it and it Works

The Market Business – By: Donald V. Morris – “Yahoo is trying something new: telling its users to bypass a password entirely in favor of a smartphone app through which a user grants access when a login is attempted. This seems like, in the words of one Twitter wit, two-factor authentication (2FA) with one factor. Is Yahoo’s Account Key offering a strange decision that will poorly affect the security of those with accounts in its network?

My straightforward answer is: No. Yahoo wants to make it easier for its users to have the benefits of authorized logins while reducing the utility of stolen passwords to bad actors, and it chose a method that’s better than passwords in nearly all circumstances. Strong words, I know! I don’t expect other companies to follow immediately, but Yahoo is trying to stand out.

It’s borrowing a page from more sophisticated systems, like Duo Security, which has a more complicated setup and is designed for corporate-scale security, but employs the same basic principles. Yahoo is bringing this idea to the masses who can use existing apps to take advantage.

The key factor is a lack of password

Let’s break down how its new Yahoo Account Key system works. I’ve tested it, and it works just like Yahoo says it should.

First, you install their new iOS app for Yahoo Mail. Account Key works just with this app and logging into Yahoo on the web, but will be rolling out to other apps this year, the company said in a blog post.

Next, log in with your username and password. You’re essentially turning the app into a trusted device—a la Apple’s old two-step and new two-factor systems—and thus you have to present current information. Next, tap the profile icon at the top of the screen and tap Settings. Tap Account Key and you can enable the service. Yahoo wisely walks you through a demo of accepting and rejecting connections so you can practice it. This is important for its target user for this feature.

In my test, I went to Yahoo.com to log into my email account. I entered the address, and it clearly immediately recognized I had Account Key active, as the password field changed to read Click to Use Account Key, and the Sign In button transformed to read Continue. A screen on the website says its waiting for approval, and your iOS device sends a notification that opens to a view that lets you agree to allow the log in or not.

But for most people, the gulf between what Yahoo is offering and a plain password is enormous, and a boost.

I’m looking forward to more straightforward variants on Yahoo’s scheme that shift cracking from global to physical proximity while also making it a better process for people who don’t want to manage their security, while still benefiting from it.”

If you missed the Live Event, you can still see it on the Microsoft web site. Check it out, some of it is pretty amazing!

https://www.microsoft.com/october2015event/en-us/live-event

People just weren’t using it!

Google removes ‘OK Google’ voice search from Chrome

VentureBeat – By: Emil Protalinski – “Google this week released Chrome 46, adding a slew of new developer features and simplifying the page’s security icon. But the biggest change turns out to be the removal of a feature: The ‘OK Google’ hotword to trigger voice search is no more.

Google first launched an ‘OK Google’ voice search Chrome extension in November 2013. The company then built the feature directly into the browser with the release of Chrome 35 in May 2014. Chrome users simply had to visit Google.com, or open a tab if Google was their default search engine, and say ‘Ok Google’ to start searching.

The removal of this feature only affects the desktop version of Chrome: Windows, Mac, and Linux users no longer have the ability to use the ‘OK Google’ voice action. Users of Chrome for mobile, as well as Chromebooks, will still be able to say ‘OK Google’ and start searching.

Furthermore, we want to emphasize that this doesn’t mean voice search in Chrome for desktop is going away. You can still access the functionality on the New Tab Page and on any Google.com page — you’ll just have to click on the mic icon first.

So why was ‘OK Google’ removed on the desktop? As you might have guessed, Google decided to axe it because not many users were taking advantage of the feature ‘on these platforms.’

This is really not a big surprise: Talking to your phone will simply always be easier to wrap your head around than talking to your computer. Not to mention, all phones have microphones, but the same can’t be said for desktops.

Google gave a similar explanation this week when it announced that Chrome for desktop would be losing another feature: The notification center. ‘In practice, few users visit the notification center,’ it said. That removal will occur with the release of Chrome 47, which is slated to arrive in about six weeks.”

New for us Makers!

This new Arduino board is the first product to use Intel’s Curie module

The Verge – By: Sean O’Kane – “This year at CES, Intel introduced Curie — a button-sized system-on-chip module made for low-power wearables — but the company was mum on what would be the first products to use it. Now we know. Intel just announced at Maker Faire Rome that the first product to use the Curie module is a brand new, low-cost Arduino board called Arduino 101. And while that may not be the flashy wearable technology that some expected — Intel CEO Brian Krzanich did bring the CEO of Oakley on stage when he announced Curie to tease an upcoming device — the new Curie-enabled Arduino board can still be a really important piece of technology.

Inside Curie is a Bluetooth LE chip, an accelerator for gesture recognition, and a six-axis combination accelerometer and gyroscope. As Mike Bell, head of Intel’s new devices group told me in January, it gets you ‘pretty far along towards a product, you really just have to add your secret sauce on top of this and you’d have a pretty great wearable product.’ Arduino, an Italian company, has spent most of the last decade making the go-to product for anyone looking to get started with programming, coding, or electronics, particularly in the DIY and maker communities. For both sides, it’s a no-brainer of a match.

‘[Curie] adds this level of connected interactivity to a simple microcontroller board that, we think at least, is something that’s expected for kids and makers these days,’ says Jay Melican, a senior research scientist at Intel. Not only will Arduino bundle the new board with an electronics and coding course full of projects for kids, but the price will remain right around the $30 mark associated with most (new) Arduino boards.

Arduino projects may be targeted at beginners, but the list of things you could do with the boards before Curie was already a mile long. It made everything from lamp dimmers and binary clocks to universal remotes and home breweries possible. Adding Curie to the mix makes it easier to do things like control projects with your phone over Bluetooth, and access to accelerometer and gyroscope data adds totally new possibilities.

Melican’s team, known as the ‘makers and innovators’ group, was just recently spun off from the new devices group, which is where Curie was created. Asked why this was the first project to use Curie, as opposed to something like a Curie-powered smartwatch or sunglasses, he says it wasn’t really a decision. ‘Our team was first to market,’ he says. ‘Not that we’re racing.’

Arduino 101 will be available in the first quarter of 2016 for $30. It will be called Genuino 101 outside the US.“

You would think it would be there first!

Cortana won’t be available on the Xbox One until next year

The Verge – By: Tom Warren – “Microsoft is currently testing a new Windows 10-powered dashboard for the Xbox One. While the update includes a number of new features, one of the big additions is Cortana integration. Microsoft has demonstrated how Cortana works in the new dashboard with various videos, but the company is now revealing that it won’t be available with the Xbox One update in November. ‘Our plan is to add Cortana to the Xbox One experience preview later this year,” says Microsoft’s Larry Hryb (Major Nelson). ‘From there, we’ll ensure that the experience is tuned for gamers before we officially launch Cortana in 2016.”

It’s not clear what has caused the delay, but there was no mention of the 2016 date back in June when Microsoft first detailed the Cortana integration for Xbox One. In a promotional video at the time, Microsoft said Kinect was required for Cortana speech recognition, so it’s possible the roll out delay could allow the company to make the digital assistant work with headsets.

Despite the change, Microsoft is still pressing ahead with its new Xbox One experience preview. The software maker is adding more Xbox One preview members to the dashboard test this weekend. An Xbox beta app for Windows 10 also includes new features like party text chat to allow friends to message each other in a party instead of using voice. Inline notifications has also been added, allowing you to reply to a message from a notification. Microsoft is also enabling notifications for Xbox Live members adding you as a friend or liking, sharing, or commenting on a game clip or post.”

I am REALLY leaning toward the new Nexus 6P!

Nexus 5X vs. Nexus 6P – Comparison

Value Walk – By: Christopher Morris – “Android fans have reason for great excitement as Google has recently announced two new Nexus smartphones. The Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P are totally different in terms of size, design and performance, but both promise outstanding specifications and a unique smartphone experience. Certainly discerning Android consumers will already be wondering which one to purchase, so here is a comparison of the qualities of the two devices.

Nexus 5X vs Nexus 6P – Android Marshmallow
The first thing to note about the two handsets is that both will run off Android 6.0 Marshmallow. This latest Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) operating system is considered to be an improvement over Lollipop and Android fans will already be itching to get their hands on this software.

Display
It is notable that both the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P are large devices. This is not a huge surprise in itself, because the general trend in smartphones is seemingly for ever more hefty handsets. As technology moves towards 4K resolution and consuming media via smartphones on a larger scale, it is natural for screen sizes to increase in line with this.

So it is interesting to compare the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P with the previous iterations in the Nexus series:

Nexus 5X – 5.2-inch, 1080p IPS LCD display, 147.0 x 72.6 x 7.9 mm and 136g

Nexus 6P – 5.7-inch, 2K AMOLED display, 159.4 x 77.8 x 7.3mm and 178g

Nexus 5 – 5-inch, 1080p IPS LCD display, 137.9 x 69.2 x 8.6mm and 130g

Nexus 6 – 6-inch, 2K AMOLED display, 159.2 x 82.3 x 10mm and 184g

Certainly the discerning Android customer wanting the best screen quality possible will opt for the Nexus 6P. But the question of which mobile to opt for isn’t actually that simple.

Design
The design of the two new smartphones divert significantly in design terms. The Nexus 5X has retained the molded plastic finish of the Nexus 5, but the Nexus 6P has significantly broken with Nexus tradition. This is the first aluminum Nexus handset that Google has released, and the attractively crafted body has already prompted a strong response from critics. There is also a black bar that houses the camera, NFC and antennas, and although this has not met with universal approval, it nonetheless provides character to the design of the device.

Nexus 5X features a curved plastic body and visible seams, and is less obviously distinctive, but nonetheless retains a pleasant visual appearance.

Features
Google has ensured that these are state-of-the-art devices with some interesting features being included in both smartphones. However, it is notable that both the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P lack wireless charging, which is something of an Achilles heel for both devices. But Google does claim that both new phones will charge more than twice as quickly as the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus.

However, there are outstanding ‘Nexus Imprint’ fingerprint scanners included, along with a USB 3.0 Type-C reversible fast charger. The inclusion of the revolutionary new USB Type-C will be particularly welcome.

Cameras
There is little to choose between the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P in the camera department, although this is one area where Google has particularly promoting its two new devices. Both feature snappers that are ostensibly superior to the recent iPhone 6S in specification terms, with a 12.3-megapixel lens present in both devices.

The lack of 4K video recording and optical image stabilization may be damaging to both devices, but Google appears to have the latter base covered. The software and technology giant claims that the increased micron size included in the new smartphones insures that the amount of light absorbed by the devices is so great that optical image stabilization becomes redundant.

One difference between the two devices is that the Nexus 6P handles slow motion at 240fps compared to 120fps on the 5X, and also supports ‘Burst mode’ which shoots at 30fps. Burst mode also includes some nifty functionality that enables the device to select the best photograph from a number taken.

Processor and memory
The Nexus 6P is certainly the superior of the two devices in terms of performance. Featuring a Snapdragon 810 version 2.1, the device is armed with 3GB of DDR4 RAM. By comparison, the Nexus 5X is fitted with a Snapdragon 808, and 2GB of DDR3 RAM.

Battery life
Battery capacity of both Nexus devices has significantly improved from the last Nexus generation. Battery life has previously been criticized in these Google handsets, but it seems that this particular element of the smartphone range is about to improve significantly.

The Nexus 5X features a 2,700 mAh battery capacity, witch compares to the 2,300 mAh rating of the last generation. The Nexus 6P has also been significantly improved to 3,450 mAh from 3,220 mAh in the Nexus 6. The battery increases in themselves ought to ensure that battery life is significantly improved in this Nexus generation, but there is more good news for Android fans in software terms as well.

Marshmallow brings the release of ‘Doze’, which will massively improve battery life by ensuring that battery drain is reduced by limiting the ability of apps to mark a device in the background. Early testing indicates that between 30 and 100 percent more standby time is possible via this innovation. Google also states that Marshmallow is significantly faster and more efficient, and we should see massive battery increases in the Nexus range as a result.

Google has boasted that the Nexus XP is capable of lasting well beyond a day, and considering the Type-C quick charging included in the unit, it is not inconceivable that the new Google handset could lead the way in the marketplace in terms of battery life. Anyone that has used a Nexus device in the past will know that this is an extremely surprisingly scenario.

Price
The pricing of the Nexus 6 perhaps didn’t go down particularly well with Android fans last year, so Google has assessed this pricing policy accordingly with the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P. Consequently, the entry-level units for both of the smartphones are particularly attractively priced, with the Nexus 5X starting at $379 for the 16GB edition. The Nexus 6P is priced at $499 for the 32GB version, which represents the basic smartphone of this model, and prices increase up to $649 for a 128GB model.

It is notable that the premium version of the Nexus 6P is $100 less in price than an entry-level 16GB iPhone 6S Plus. This is certainly represent a bargain for smartphone fans should one wish to opt for these two new Android competitors. There are also compelling price savings over the Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) Galaxy range.

One possible criticism is that the Nexus 5X only offers 32GB of storage. This is a pretty paltry number for what is the premium smartphone of the range, and one wonders whether it will really be satisfactory in these storage-Intensive times.

Conclusion
There is no doubt that the Nexus 6P is the premium of these two offerings, and it is equally certain that both units represent outstanding value for money. Google has certainly impressed with the pricing of the two devices, and this may make it possible for many would-be Nexus purchasers to overlook the lack of optical image stabilization, wireless charging and expandable storage in the two devices.

The Nexus 5X, though, could be considered the best budget Android phone available, particularly at the price point that Google has released it. If Google has failed to challenge the supremacy of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung in the smartphone marketplace, these two new offerings from the search engine giant could begin to redress the balance.”