Microsoft buys Minecraft, reasons are uncertain
There's no denying Minecraft is a wildly popular game that many people, both old and young, enjoy. It's also multi-platform, making it extremely profitable and available to many customers. Perhaps that's why Microsoft has announced it has purchased the franchise.
It's hard to say the motive behind this move -- the game does run on Xbox and Windows, of course -- but how does the software giant hope to recoup the money? After all, $2.5 billion is an awful lot to recover from.
Flipboard for Windows Phone: It's coming, damn it!
I remember it like it was yesterday: when Lumia 1020 was unveiled, Microsoft and Nokia were very happy to announce that Flipboard would "soon" be coming to Windows Phone. That was in mid-July 2013. Fast forward to today and the app is still not available. "Soon" has a certain urgency to it, which, for some strange reason, always seems to be missing in its association with Windows Phone.
Microsoft and Nokia could have jumped the gun more than a year ago by touting that the app would arrive shortly after Lumia 1020's announcement, and Flipboard could have inadvertently delayed the launch since. No matter, "soon" sure ain't soon. Regardless, Flipboard is still on its way as its public listing on Windows Phone Store implies. This is one of the major missing titles; the sooner it is available the better for the platform.
Take a look at Windows 9's new Notifications center
Last week, thanks to a series of leaked screenshots and videos from build 9834, courtesy of WinFuture.de, we got our first real look at the next version of Windows, including seeing the new Start menu and virtual desktops in action.
That’s not the only new feature being shown off however. In yet another new video we get to see the Notifications center which Microsoft is introducing.
Surface Pro 3 stock sellouts and record iPhone 6 pre-orders make for nice headlines but are meaningless
My colleague Brian Fagioli reported some news a couple of days ago that had me smiling. "Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 is a worldwide success -- strong sales cause limited supply" his headline declared. It’s the sort of headline Microsoft would have hoped for when it announced the news that some overseas retailers had run out of Surface Pro 3 stock.
"A worldwide success" is pushing it. What happened was demand outstripped supply, in some countries, and the supply was probably on the low (prudent, if you like) side to begin with. Microsoft announced no numbers, and posted a cleverly worded blog which makes it sound as if Surface Pro 3 is a huge hit. Unless you read what it actually says.
Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 is a worldwide success -- strong sales cause limited supply
When Microsoft introduced the first Surface Pro to the world, the reception was tepid at best. This is understandable, as it was expensive, had a small screen and ran a much maligned operating system in Windows 8. In a short time however, Microsoft transformed the negative perceptions with a new CEO, Windows 8.1 and eventually, the much improved Surface Pro 3. Yes, the 3rd iteration was the game-changer that the world was waiting for.
Unfortunately, the Surface Pro 3 was initially only available in the USA, Canada and Japan; it only expanded to countries like Australia, Germany and China on August 28th. Apparently, people across the globe like what they see, as sales are strong and Microsoft's hybrid computer is in short supply. I guess Apple is not alone in its success.
Latest Windows 9 videos show live tiles and the virtual desktop feature
After having released some screenshots from Windows 9 build 9834, an early build of the forthcoming Technical Preview which is expected to debut later this month, WinFuture.de released a video showing off the new Start menu in action.
The site has now followed that up with two new videos. The first gives us another look at the new Start menu and live tiles, while the second shows us how the new virtual desktops will work.
Yahoo resisted NSA Prism requests -- US government threatened $250,000 daily fines
It's transparency time once again! After Edward Snowden opened the can of NSA surveillance worms, internet users' collected attention has been focused on online privacy. We still don’t know the full extent of the monitoring that took place, but more information continues to leak out. All of the big names -- Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and the rest -- have slowly trickled out little snippets about government data requests. A new blog post from Yahoo's general counsel Ron Bell sheds further light on the resistance the company put up against requests for data.
Just like Google and Microsoft, Yahoo is keen to let it be known that it tried to stick up for the privacy rights of its customers. A new cache of documents -- stretching to War And Peace baiting 1,500 pages -- from seven years ago shows just how much of a fight Yahoo tried to put on its users' behalves. Way back in 2007, the US government started to request information about users from a number of online companies. Yahoo was one of the companies who -- initially, at least -- refused to comply, and tried to fight the government in court.
Watch a video of Windows 9 in action -- See the new Start menu and more
Want a proper look at the next version of Windows? WinFuture.de, the website behind the recent batch of leaked screenshots, has recorded a video showing Windows 9 Technical Preview (build 9834) in action.
The video focuses on the Start menu, and we get to see how well it all works. The tiled section on the right is unobtrusive, resizable, and disappears when not required. Microsoft has done a superb job of making a Start menu that functions as you’d expect, but which is modern and beautifully presented. The video also shows Modern UI apps running on the desktop, and more.
Leaked Windows 9 Technical Preview screens show big changes ahead
Microsoft is, according to several reliable sources, planning to announce its next operating system on September 30, with a developer preview arriving on the day or shortly after, and the finished OS expected to appear in spring next year.
We already have a good idea of what the next operating system will look like, and the changes we can expect to see (you can get up to speed on Windows 9 here) but new screens from build 9834, which was created just a couple of days ago, have surfaced on the web that reveal the new Start menu, Modern UI apps running on the desktop, notifications center, virtual desktops and more. Plus something interesting regarding the Start screen.
Microsoft is a hero -- defies US Government, held in contempt of court
By respecting the law and following the rules, you should live a relatively calm life. However, not all laws and rules are just, and heroes are not born from serenity. As a loyal citizen of the United States, I grew up being told stories of the revolutionary war. Had colonists followed the rules and obeyed all British laws, the USA would likely never exist. You see, sometimes it is necessary to take a stand against the status quo. After all, if we all bury our heads in the sand, positive change will never happen.
The latest American hero is an unlikely one -- a corporation named Microsoft. While it is odd to call a company a hero, from a security and privacy standpoint, it is justified. While not on the same level as a fireman, police officer or the troops, Microsoft is taking a risk and standing up to the US government to fight for what it thinks is right. As a result, the company has been held in contempt of court.
OneDrive file size limits jumps to 10GB, while syncing, sharing and uploading improve
A couple of weeks ago it looked as though Microsoft was lifting the 2GB file size limit for OneDrive users. Although no announcement was made, some users of the cloud storage service found that they were able to sync files larger than 2GB. Now, the increase in supported file size is official. OneDrive users can now upload files up to 10GB in size, bringing Microsoft's service in line with Dropbox and Google Drive. This is the latest example of Microsoft responding directly to user feedback, specifically a UserVoice thread in which users called for the 2GB file size limit to be banished.
Today Jason Moore, Group Program Manager of OneDrive, responded to the demands with a simple message: "We're proud to announce OneDrive now supports up to 10 GB files". While this is not quite the unlimited file size some people were looking for, it is a big improvement and something that will be widely welcomed. Considering the free version of OneDrive offers 15GB of storage, it is now possible to fill up your account with just two files. If you're an Office 365 customer with access to 1TB of space, you'll need to upload at least 100 files.
What do you want from Windows 9? Can Microsoft get it right?
Microsoft has its listening ears on these days. When it comes to Windows Phone, Xbox One, and Office, the company has been far more responsive to user feedback than ever before. For Windows users who found Windows 8.x to be a disappointment, this bodes well for the follow-up release. Windows 9 (we can drop the Threshold placeholder now, I think) is now not all that far away -- we could see a preview release in just a couple of weeks. Now that Apple's iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch announcements are out of the way, this is going to be the next big launch in the world of tech, and the computing world eagerly anticipates what the operating system may have to offer.
One of the biggest complaints people levelled at Windows 8.x -- and there have been many -- was the lack of Start menu. Sure, there's the Start screen, but for Windows stalwarts it's just not the same. These complaints do not necessarily stem from an unwillingness to try something new, more that the Start menu's successor seems less powerful, poorly thought through, and a road hump to established workflows. Rather than helping to improve production and efficiency, many users found that it actually slowed them down.
Nokia Lumia 830 will be available through AT&T
When Microsoft announced Lumia 830 earlier this month, it made no specific mention of the so-called "first affordable flagship" arriving in US stores. The price was also listed in Euros (€330, before taxes and subsidies) from the get-go, reinforcing the idea that, like many other Nokia-branded devices before it, Lumia 830 was destined for other markets.
However, that does not appear to be the case, as US mobile operator AT&T has revealed that it will offer Lumia 830. But it remains to be seen whether the new Windows Phone will also make its way to Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint.
Calling all RSS fans! Inoreader now supports Microsoft OneNote
They said RSS was dead, but when Google decided to close the door on Google Reader, there was a vocal clamoring of disapproval. A flood of tools popped up to filled the vacuum left behind by the absence of Google's service and one that quickly grew in popularity is Inoreader -- thanks, at least in part, to the fact that it can be customized to look and work in much the same way as Google Reader.
No RSS reader worth its salt would be complete without offering integration with a number of other online services of course, and now InoReader benefits from OneNote support.
Microsoft takes down Bing Image Widget after Getty legal action
Following a lawsuit from Getty Images Inc, Microsoft has taken the beta version of its Bing Image Widget offline. The stock image firm had complained that Microsoft's widget infringed on copyright by enabling people to embed protected images in websites without attribution or authorization.
In opting to willingly pull the widget, Microsoft may have managed to sidestep at least some of the brunt of the legal action taken against the company. Getty had called for the immediate blocking of the tool and filed a lawsuit at US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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