Goodbye MSN Messenger: Bidding a final farewell to Microsoft's much loved chat service
Like most teenagers growing up in the late 90s / early 00s, MSN Messenger made me realize that there was more to life than having to talk face to face.
Maybe you didn't want to go to that party, for example, so you could just send your friend a message with some poor excuse about homework. Or maybe you just wanted to sit up in front of a desktop computer until 3.00am, discussing the wrongs and rights of the world through a series of awkward 'lols,' 'brbs' and emoticons. You could even declare your undying love for someone behind the safe smokescreen of your computer by just typing it, which let's be honest, is much, much easier.
Using an older browser version? Google wants you to move on
Google has begun displaying old versions of its search page to users of out-of-date web browsers.
Over the previous weekend, many people reported seeing the 2013 version of the Google homepage when using an older version of certain browsers.
Netflix won't tell your Facebook friends what you're watching
Netflix has bowed to customer pressure and rolled out changes to its recommendation feature that it hopes encourages deeper integration with Facebook accounts.
Users will now be safe to link accounts to Facebook without fear of automatically disclosing every minute of programming they have watched, which is something that has famously discouraged users from linking social media accounts to Netflix ones.
Isn't Siri just terrible in Microsoft's Windows Phone ads?
The advert wars continue with comparative ads aplenty fired at each other by the big tech giants, and the latest one extols the virtues of Microsoft's voice assistant compared to Apple's effort.
The "mirror mirror" commercial (spotted by the Verge) tries to promote the natural voice and manner of Cortana, and contrast it with Siri, which is made to sound clipped and robotic in comparison.
Microsoft China reveals Windows 9's logo
Microsoft Windows 9's logo may have been accidentally outed by the company’s Chinese arm just 28 days before the company reportedly plans to officially unwrap the new version of Windows.
A post on the Microsoft China Weibo page, reported by CN Beta, showed a number nine made up of Windows tiles that have become a familiar feature of recent versions of the OS with the word Windows written underneath.
Say goodbye to invites -- OnePlus One will go up for pre-order
OnePlus has announced that it will soon be launching a pre-order system for its elusive smartphone, the OnePlus One.
The handset, which offers a premium Android experience for just $299 (£230) is currently only available via a random invite system.
Samsung will introduce a soundbar to match its curved TVs
Samsung is unveiling the world's first TV-matching curved soundbar, the HW-H7500/H7501.
The device is being introduced for this year's IFA event, and is designed to complement the firm's range of curved television sets.
Windows Installer celebrates its 15th birthday
With many businesses still focused on the "end of XP", an important milestone in the story of software integration will slip by largely unnoticed this year, but it should be celebrated by anyone involved in end user computing.
2014 is the time to appreciate that Windows Installer (MSI) technology is 15 years old and still going strong. That is a very long time for a technology to be as relevant and as useful in today's enterprise environments as it was when it was first released in 1999. Originally developed to facilitate the installation of Microsoft Office 2000, there remains a surprising multitude of reasons it's stuck around for so long.
China gives Microsoft 20 days to play ball in antitrust probe
China is turning up the heat in its antitrust probe into Microsoft, with the authorities laying down a deadline for Redmond to respond regarding allegations of the software giant unfairly leveraging its products.
The State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) has laid down a time limit of 20 days for Microsoft to provide a satisfactory response to the antitrust probe which is focusing on Windows and Office (Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player have also been previously picked out as bones of contention, as well).
Yo, about that security! We're good, right?
In case you haven't heard of Yo, it's the latest breakout mobile app to go viral. Despite its single-feature capability, or perhaps because of it, the app struck a chord and rocketed to the top of Apple's App Store. Even Yo's own developers describe the app as "a fine line between stupid and genius".
While Yo was basking in the unexpected spotlight at the top of the apps chart, the next thing that happened was also unexpected. Yo got hacked. Three college students exploited a way into the app, snagged 300,000 Yo users and engaged in message spoofing. Yet Yo is hardly the first app, nor will it be the last, to get hacked.
Fear: The biggest barrier to change for IT
A new piece of research has found that while IT budgets may have grown over the last year, companies are still holding back from making changes in IT policy due to a lack of resources, and a fear of possible downtime.
Software testing and quality experts SQS conducted said research at the World Congress for Software Quality last month, and found that fear was the biggest barrier to change for IT departments.
Microsoft raises Azure availability, lowers prices
Microsoft has announced service enhancements and a reduced price scheme for its Azure SQL database, as a result of customer feedback.
Microsoft has now promised to deliver a service-level agreement (SLA) of 99.99 percent availability, equivalent to a downtime of just 53 minutes per year.
Lenovo introduces the EMC-based VNX5150 Storage Array
Lenovo hopes to put a smile on the face of penny-pinching small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) through a new storage area network (SAN) solution based on EMC's VNX unified storage family.
The Lenovo|EMC VNX5150 Storage Array is a dual-processor SAN that offers full redundancy for all major components as well as dual paths of connectivity throughout for a price that SMBs will be able to afford.
Here's what you can expect to see at IFA 2014
The rejuvenation of the tech scene at this time of year is heralded by one of the oldest and largest trade shows on the circuit, with Germany taking centre stage for Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin -- known simply as IFA.
At IFA 2013, ITProPortal witnessed the unveiling of the Sony Xperia Z1, realized that convertible laptops are here to stay, and learned that no-one is impressed by Samsung's Galaxy Gear. This year we're looking forward to seeing the year's developments in wearable tech. And I'm not just talking smart watches. This year we're talking infrared thermometers, Bluetooth home cinema speakers and something called the "D30 Smart Skin".
IBM: Watson, go help those nice scientists with their research
IBM's Watson supercomputer is set to tackle scientific research head-on after being re-programmed to analyze big data in the cloud.
Currently, the testing of scientific hypotheses and theories often takes days or months of arduous work, but with Watson's Discovery Advisor program, this can now be carried out at a significantly faster rate.
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