Microsoft and Apple lead the way with modern PC designs

This week, Microsoft and Apple will stage dueling events, a day apart. The rumor mill says both companies will be introducing new PCs -- Microsoft with one or more additions to its Surface lineup, Apple finally refreshing its MacBook line.

Longtime watchers of the PC/Mac space will be tempted to evaluate these new devices using familiar touchstones and benchmarks, especially CPU speeds. But if you do that, you're living in the past.

Modern PCs and Macs have most of the same subsystems that their predecessors did, but their real strengths aren't in the traditional specs we've come to know and trust over the years. I got a few hints of what to expect when I toured the big IFA tradeshow in Berlin last month, and I fully expect Microsoft and Apple to stake out the high end.

So, in advance, of this week's announcements, I offer four criteria for helping you decide whether a new PC design is truly modern or is a holdout from a bygone era.

BIOMETRIC SUPPORT IS A MUST

Fingerprint readers and facial recognition can do an incredibly good job of minimizing the friction of signing in to a PC using a strong password. Both the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book support facial recognition, and my experience with that technology has been overwhelming positive. The real proof: It's downright annoying when I sit down at a PC that doesn't support biometrics and have to enter a password instead.

Given Microsoft's commitment to Windows Hello, I expect that any new Surface device launched this week will have biometric support as a key feature. And if the latest wave of leaks from Cupertino are any indication, the new MacBook Pro will finally include the TouchID tech that's been part of iOS devices for two years.

At this year's big IFA tradeshow in Berlin, I saw several PCs equipped with Windows Hello compatible fingerprint readers. Including Lenovo's Yoga 910 and Acer's Swift 3 and Swift 5. I can't find anyone besides Microsoft using facial recognition

HARDWARE-BASED SECURITY IS NO LONGER AN OPTION

If you're a Windows OEM (and that includes Microsoft's Surface division), any new PC series must include a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to meet the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 10. 

The obvious advantages of a TPM include the ability to store encryption keys for Secure Boot support and hardware-based encryption of the system drive. But having a TPM on board also unlocks some important new features in Windows 10 Enterprise. That feature set includes Credential Guard, which uses virtualization-based security to protect credentials from attacks like Pass-The-Hash.

Apple's iOS devices include a feature called Secure Enclave that offers similar protection for credentials backed by TouchID. I'll be curious to see whether anything similar makes it into the new Macs.

USB TYPE-C IS THE FUTURE; EVERYTHING ELSE IS LEGACY

If the rumors are correct, Apple's new MacBooks will have four (four?!) USB-C ports, which might be a bit of an overreaction to the criticism the company faced when it released the New MacBook with just a single port.

Presumably, any new Surface device will also have at least one and perhaps more USB Type-C connectors.

Those newfangled connectors are incredibly versatile and fast, and they're also reversible, which eliminates one of the biggest aggravations of the Type A and Micro-A plugs.

Still, that convenience comes at a cost. A USB Type-C connection is capable of an amazing array of capabilities, including supplying power, Gigabit networking, superfast data transfer, and even driving a high-resolution display. But here's the catch: There's no way of knowing exactly what that connector is capable of on a particular device without inspecting a detailed spec sheet.

And unless you're willing to throw out all your old devices, you'll need to shell out for a collection of dongles and adapters to connect your older devices to your new PC.


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Microsoft High On Office 365 Success

Summary

Do you know how popular Office 365 is compared to Google Apps for Work? You'll be surprised!

Microsoft's sales strategy for Office 365 has been aggressive and controversial, but it has been extremely effective.

The ball is now in Google's court. Can they respond with an equally aggressive strategy and astonish us with their numbers over the next few quarters?

When I first read about how Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) was slowly edging out Google (GOOG, GOOGL) Apps from the office suite space, I was a little surprised. To be honest, I didn't really know the numbers, but I had a bias towards Google Apps. I'd been using it for quite a while and everyone I knew used it as well, so in my mind it was the best option in the business.

But the moment I started digging for the facts, I was shocked by how cleverly Microsoft has been going about decimating Google's position in the top three - along with salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) and Box (NYSE:BOX). I also found several interesting things about both Google Apps as well as Office 365.

A Primer on Office Suite from Google and Microsoft

An office suite from a cloud application perspective is a set of tools designed for businesses to operate more efficiently and with a much lower investment in IT infrastructure. It's not an infrastructure service as much as an appealing cloud environment, where company employees can collaborate more effectively, access their files from anywhere without major security concerns and access the tools they need to do their jobs.

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Microsoft kills Project Astoria, its tool for porting Android apps to Windows 10

Above: At the Build developer conference in San Francisco on April 30, 2015.

Image Credit: Jordan Novet/VentureBeat

Microsoft today announced that it has stopped working on Windows Bridge for Android, a tool for turning Android apps into universal Windows apps that can run on all types of Windows devices.

Microsoft announced at its Build developer conference last year that Android would be an app type for the Windows Store, and to help developers deliver such apps Microsoft came out with Windows Bridge for Android, also known as Project Astoria, in a limited developer preview. Microsoft said it would become available as a public beta last fall, but that never happened. Earlier this month, my colleague Emil Protalinski wrote that Project Astoria was “rumored to be all but discontinued.” Now we have the full story — a day after Microsoftannounced that it had acquired cross-platform application development company Xamarin.

“We received a lot of feedback that having two Bridge technologies to bring code from mobile operating systems to Windows was unnecessary, and the choice between them could be confusing,” Kevin Gallo, director of program management for the Windows Developer Platform team for Windows 10 at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post. “We have carefully considered this feedback and decided that we would focus our efforts on the Windows Bridge for iOS and make it the single Bridge option for bringing mobile code to all Windows 10 devices, including Xbox and PCs. For those developers who spent time investigating the Android Bridge, we strongly encourage you to take a look at the iOS Bridge and Xamarin as great solutions.”

Microsoft open-sourced the Windows Bridge for iOS became available on GitHub in August and has been updating it on a regular basis, Gallo wrote. Meanwhile the Web Bridge for web apps was included in the Windows 10 software development kit (SDK) last year, while Project Centennial, aimed at porting Win32 and .NET apps to Windows 10, is currently being tested, with “an early iteration of the tools” coming soon, Gallo wrote.

Microsoft started building the bridges because it wanted to minimize the complexity of delivering apps for the Windows. Ultimately keeping developers happy any launching apps on Windows translates into keeping end users happy and not abandoning Windows to go to other platforms. So this is important stuff for Microsoft. It’s just that Microsoft didn’t want to inadvertently fragment its Java and C++ developers across multiple tools.

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Microsoft’s Xamarin acquisition opens door to truly universal Windows apps

Xamarin’s cross-platform .Net development tooling could extend Windows Universal Platform development to iOS, Android, and beyond

After years of “will they, won’t they” speculation, Microsoft has finally announced it will purchase Xamarin, the company that brought native Android and iOS development into Visual Studio. The acquisition makes perfect sense, but why now? Although the move should have been made a year ago, it’s not too late for Microsoft’s wider development ambitions.

By building on .Net and C#, Xamarin has provided Windows developers with an easy route to building applications outside the Windows ecosystem, without alienating users. Microsoft has struggled to deliver cross-platform development tooling on its own, relying on hybrid HTML5 applications for Android and iOS, making it hard to deliver the user experiences that Android and iOS users demand. Xamarin fills this gap.

Bringing the two organizations together adds cross-platform UI tooling to Microsoft’s developer platform, along with the compilers needed to deliver native code to mobile devices. By incorporating Xamarin into the official .Net toolchain, Microsoft could make Windows 10’s Universal Windows Platform truly universal.

Microsoft’s original Windows 10 bridge strategy was about bringing non-Windows applications to Windows, an approach that left many Windows developers feeling abandoned. Adding Xamarin’s tools to its developer platform gives Microsoft the missing piece in its cross-platform story, helping Windows developers build cross-platform apps that deliver native user experiences on Mac OS X, iOS, and Android, as well as various versions of Windows 10. These apps might even extend to Google’s and Apple’s smartwatch platforms.

Xamarin recently retooled to take advantage of the latest .Net compiler technologies, and it’s currently working on a new version of its development tools. According to CTO Miguel de Icaza, the new tools will include scratchpad features similar to Xcode’s Swift Playgrounds -- replacing much of what was delivered using Mono with Microsoft’s Roslyn. Bringing features like this to Visual Studio should help Microsoft bring non-Windows developers to the Windows platform. It should also speed up the process of delivering Universal Windows Platform apps to other OSes. Developers will need only a single code base, with separate UI modules for each device class they want to target.

Recent Xamarin developments have also included Xamarin Forms, a single set of UI controls that map to native functionality. Using Xamarin Forms, a developer can quickly lay out an application GUI and have it render appropriately on target devices, using iOS features on iPhone and iPad and Android features on Android phones and tablets.

While developer tools are a key component of Xamarin, Microsoft is likely to have found the company’s Test Cloud an attractive part of the deal. Automating cross-device testing, Test Cloud fills another gap in Microsoft’s devops strategy, giving it more of the tools needed for an automated cross-platform build chain. Other devops tooling from Xamarin should help add user acceptance testing and cross-platform application analytics to Microsoft’s tool chest.

Xamarin has gradually shifted its focus from independent developers to enterprise development teams, and it will now be able to leverage Microsoft’s existing enterprise relationships and sales processes. Similarly, Microsoft now can approach enterprises with a complete native cross-platform development model, rather than its previous mix of Universal Windows Platform and Apache Cordova hybrid applications. Through the free Visual Studio Community edition, Microsoft will be able to deliver Xamarin’s development tooling to a wider selection of student, open source, and independent developers than the current MSDN subscription that included Xamarin was able to reach. Integrating Xamarin subscriptions into the new Visual Studio subscriptions shouldn’t be hard, as both have comparable tiers.

Adding cross-platform tools to its development platform makes a lot of sense for Microsoft, opening up the Android and iOS worlds to .Net and helping deliver the endpoints that Satya Nadella’s cloud-first, mobile-first world needs. The acquisition should close before Microsoft’s 2016 Build developer event at the end of March.

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Microsoft Corporation Increases Cross-Platform Strength with 74 Android OEMs

Microsoft announces adding a total of 74 Android manufacturers to its list that would pre-install its apps and services in their next models

While there are rumors that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) plans to discontinue manufacturing smartphones, it doesn’t mean that it has forsaken the mobile industry. The software giant wants its applications on your next-gen mobile device before you buy them. Today, the company announced that it has partnered with 74 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) across 25 countries that either will pre-install or have started to pre-install its products in their Android smartphones and tablets.

The latest big-name addition to start installing Microsoft apps and services in its hardware is Acer, which it intends to do so in the second half of 2016. The recruitment of 74 partners by Microsoft shows that it has been working fast, as it announced its partner program hitting the count of 20 in May last year, including Cyanogen and Samsung.

The program focuses on getting Android OEMs to embed its premium branded Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, OneDrive, and Skype applications in their products. Microsoft OEM division’s corporate VP, Nick Parker, made the latest announcement in a blog post.

He wrote: “These partners offer or will soon offer Android devices pre-installed with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype. Office and Microsoft services are available on a wide variety of Android devices today, such as the LG G Pad II, Samsung Galaxy S6, Sony Xperia Z4, and many other tablets and phones offered by our partners. Specific offerings may vary by device.”

The company’s officials don’t publicly say that the deals are related to its patent campaign, through which it collected patent royalties from Android manufactures. While exact details of these agreements have not been disclosed, Microsoft is most likely licensing its patents to its partners for pre-installing its apps.

Mr. Parker wrote: “Our strategic agreements with these partners, in which IP alignment is an important feature, demonstrate how Microsoft is leveraging the scale of the hardware ecosystem, and working with partners in new ways to deliver rich experiences to our customers.”

Under the present Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, Microsoft has shifted its focus from Windows and hardware to software, applications, and services. It brags that Microsoft apps have been downloaded over 100 million on the iOS and Android with 20 million paying customers for the Office 365 suite. It even acquired Groove, a music streaming service from a Canadian startup Zikera.

While Microsoft’s Windows Phones have been rejected by the majority of global market, it doesn’t want its name to be forgotten. According to comScore’s data, Android powered 53.3% of all smartphones in the US by the end of 2015, which is why the software giant is particularly focused on this operating system (OS).

Recently, Microsoft brought its personal digital assistant, Cortana, to Android platforms. In October, its Arrow Android launcher was introduced from the beta phase, before which it acquired the company that made Android’s Echo lock-screen app, Double Labs. During its financial results last month for the December quarter, Microsoft announced how it is adjusting its approach on software-services, which is why it is now focused on becoming the primary source for apps and services for both, iOS and Android users.

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Watch an iOS game get ported to Windows 10 in under 5 minutes

The classic game Canabalt was originally a Flash game, but it was successful enough that it ended up being ported to the iPhone (Apple’s App Store). The iOS game was open-sourced on GitHub, and now it’s being used to showcase Microsoft’s tools for porting iOS code to the Windows Universal Platform (UWP).

David Burela is a developer for SSW, but he also happens to be a Microsoft MVPfor Windows Azure. That means Burela is not employed by Microsoft, but he’s certainly interested and knows about some of the company’s technology.

MVP or not, Burela doesn’t do anything special in his video, as it is quite a simple game to port:

At its Build 2015 developer conference in April, Microsoft unveiled four new Windows Store app types: Web, desktop, Android, and iOS. The pitch was simple: Developers would be able to reuse their web code, Windows desktop applications (.NET code), Android apps (Java and C++), and iOS apps (Objective C) to build universal apps that work across all types of Windows devices.

Each of these tools is at a different point in development (for example, the Android one is rumored to be all but discontinued). Microsoft open-sourced the Windows Bridge for iOS (previously called Project Islandwood) in August, but it’s still only available as an early preview: dev.windows.com/bridges/iOS states the latest version is 0.1 Preview.

Most iOS apps and games will not be anywhere as easy to port using Microsoft’s tools. The bridge will do some of the initial work, but developers will still have to invest time and effort to rewrite iOS-specific code that doesn’t have equivalents on Windows 10. Indeed, the fact that this game wasn’t originally for iOS means it doesn’t leverage any features that are specific to Apple’s mobile platform.

To solve some of this, Microsoft plans to launch a web tool that will automatically analyze your iOS app for compatibility with the bridge. The hope is that you’ll be able to gauge how much actual work is required to bring your app to Windows 10, plus get “suggestions, tips and workarounds for any libraries you’re using that the bridge doesn’t support yet.”

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Microsoft fails Windows Phone fans again by delaying Windows 10 Mobile

Windows Phone fans and fanboys have a tough job. They have to stand by an operating system with a new name every few years, significantly fewer apps than the competition, and a distant third place spot in the market. The latest news out of Microsoft isn’t making their lives any easier.

This week, Microsoft failed to deliver on its promise of rolling out Windows 10 Mobile devices to existing Windows Phone devices in December. The new target? 2016.

“The Windows 10 Mobile upgrade will begin rolling out early next year to select existing Windows 8 and 8.1 phones,” a Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat. That means not a single Windows phone will be upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile in 2015.

n October, the promise was different. “Broad availability of Windows 10 on other devices, including mobile phones, will begin rolling out in December.”

Delay after delay.

Of course, releasing software before it’s ready is never a good idea. But that’s not the issue: It was Microsoft that said Windows 10 Mobile would be ready by December.

To be fair, Microsoft did manage to release the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, the first Windows 10 Mobile devices, this November. But the phones didn’t generate much excitement. Furthermore, the company limited carrier availability, almost as if it didn’t want the new phones to reach maximum sales potential.

If you’re a Windows Phone fan looking to get the latest and greatest from Microsoft, your best bet is to become a Windows Insider and help the company test new builds (the latest cumulative update came out on December 17). Looking to buy a new device? Your only choices are the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL (if you can find them). Looking to get Windows 10 Mobile on your existing device and take advantage of the free upgrade from Windows Phone 8.1? You’ll have to keep waiting.

Above: The Nokia Lumia 950 and 950 XL phones.

Image Credit: Microsoft

Many of course expected to be waiting a while before they could get Windows 10 Mobile on their phone. After all, not all Windows Phone devices will be supported on day one (Microsoft still hasn’t released a list), and certainly not all at once. Carriers will, of course, slow down the upgrade process. Furthermore, Microsoft explained that Windows 10 was coming to PCs before phones, and the release gap made a lot of sense.

Windows naturally has a much bigger user base on the PC than on the phone, so Microsoft focused on getting users to upgrade there first, especially given its goal of hitting 1 billion devices running Windows 10 “in two to three years.” Test builds of Windows 10 Mobile were always behind their PC counterparts in terms of features and stability, largely because Windows 8 was released before Windows Phone 8, so the latter simply got a late start. On top of all this, add that Windows 10 Mobile has to go through carrier testing, something Microsoft naturally has little control over in various parts of the world.

But the part that Microsoft did have control over, it failed to get out the door. Had the company released Windows 10 Mobile upgrades for a handful of existing Windows Phone devices, it could claim there was no delay. Just a rolling release. Hell, even upgrades for two phones would have been a start.

Remember, Windows 10 for PCs was released in July. December already meant a five-month gap.

The worst part is that Microsoft is no longer committing to a month. “Early next year” roughly translates to Q1 2016, which could be January, February, or March. So anywhere from six to eight months after Windows 10 for PCs rolled out. And again, that will just be a handful of devices. Let me put this another way: Many Windows Phone owners will be waiting for Windows 10 Mobile through the most of 2016.

And the next two months won’t be easy for Windows Phone 8, ahem Windows 10 Mobile, fans. They will have to ignore all the new hardware coming out of CES and Mobile World Congress. Assuming they aren’t buying a Lumia 950 or Lumia 950 XL, which received lukewarm reviews at best, they will have to tell themselves it’s not worth looking at what other platforms are showing off, because their Windows 10 Mobile update is coming.

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Microsoft app tries to lure you from Android to a Windows phone

It's true that Windows Phone (and now Windows 10 Mobile) doesn't have as many apps as Android or iOS. However, the perception of that app deficit may be just as problematic -- why would you switch to a Lumia 950 if you assumed that none of your favorite apps had Windows equivalents? Microsoft clearly isn't happy with this state of affairs, as it justreleased AppComparison for Android to help set the record straight. The app (a spiritual sequel to the old Switch to Windows Phone) tries to match the Android apps on your phone with their mobile Windows counterparts, either giving you an exact parallel or the next best thing.

Whether or not you agree with the findings is another matter. It's good at finding some third-party software (such as Dropbox and Spotify), but it's evident that the company is reaching when it comes to apps from Google, Windows' best-known holdout. It tends to suggest apps and services that either aren't really analogous (UC Browser may be fine, but it's not Chrome) or would require a ton of reinvestment. Are you really going to transfer years' worth of Google Drive files to OneDrive? There are also some conspicuous gaps -- AppComparison didn't find a Windows match for Sonos' controller app, even though Phonos has been around for years. The tool should still be useful, but you'll want to double-check its findings before kicking your Android phone to the curb.

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Microsoft delays tool that will bring Android apps to Windows

Microsoft has confirmed that a tool that lets Android apps easily run on Windows 10 is "not ready," according Windows Central and other sources. The software giant introduced the Windows Bridge for Android, dubbed "Project Astoria," earlier this year as part of a larger effort to help app-builders easily convert Web, iOS and Android apps to Windows. Developers complained that it still isn't available (unlike the other apps), though Microsoft hasn't said the project is in trouble. However, the Project Astoria forums have gone dark and Microsoft removed the Android subsystem from the last Windows 10 Mobile preview, suggesting it may be killed altogether.

The Android bridge is essentially just an emulator, and has been beset with technical problems and weak app ports, according to Windows Central. On the other hand, the "Project Islandwood" tool for iOS requires that apps be reworked and recompiled before they can be imported to Windows. With the latter tool, the end result is high-quality apps that take advantage of Windows 10 features -- in fact, it's reportedly being used on the next Facebook app for Windows 10. The fact that many Android developers also build iOS apps may mean Microsoft feels the Android tool is no longer necessary. For the others, Redmond hopes that its Windows 10 universal apps, which run on both desktop and mobile versions, will convince developers to take the plunge on mobile.
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Apple, Microsoft, and Google are trying to incite a quiet app revolution

Apple

Apple iPad Pro

Google, Microsoft, and Apple are all slamming full-speed into the same wall at the same time: The future they've built is so pleasant (or at least lucrative) that nobody wants to leave for the next thing.

Reports have been circulating that Google is working on a hybrid operating system that combines the best of Android and Chrome OS, while simultaneously promising to keep supporting the two independently.

It's the perfect example of this dilemma in minature.

Google, a company famously and perpetually focused on the next big thing, is alread thinking about what comes after Android and the current smartphone market. And yet, Android is the most popular operating system in the world.

So Google has to take some seriously cautious steps forward so as not to overturn its immensely successful (but not very profitable) apple cart.

Google's Pixel C, Microsoft's Surface Pro, and Apple's iPad Pro all show that these companies are thinking along similar lines about the future of computing. The big bet here is that the shrinking tablet market will give way to gigantic supertablets, primed for productivity with hefty hardware and keyboards.

Unfortunately, it also highlights a sad truth: The next few years of major apps from Google, Apple, and Microsoft alike, are all going to be awkward, and likely pretty much suck.

Google tries to push things forward

Just look at the Google Pixel C, the tablet/laptop hybrid announced in late September.

At the time, I got a little hands-on time with the Pixel C, and found it to be lacking - just a nice Android tablet with a nice keyboard, but otherwise nothing special next to the similar Microsoft Surface Pro and Apple iPad Pro tablets. Android doesn't even support multi-window views, like Windows and (more recently) iOS do.

With the benefit of hindsight, though, the Pixel C basically gave Google's whole game away. As a product, the Pixel C is just kind of like, sure, whatever, do your thing, Google. But as a taste of Google's Android-centric vision for computing, folding in Chrome? It makes a lot more sense.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Google Pixel C

That said, the Pixel C also demands Android developers to rethink their apps, to better take advantage of both the larger screen size than most of the devices they're used to, and to integrate better keyboard functionality.

But until Google sells a bunch of Pixel Cs, developers don't have a lot of incentive to put in the time and energy. Their existing Android apps run just fine on existing devices, thanks, and unless the Pixel C is a surprise smash hit, there's no reason to bother.

And so, even if you buy the Pixel C because it's shiny and new, there's likely to be a dearth of apps that really take advantage of it.

Take the long view, and you can see that Google always intended the Pixel C to be the first taste of a cross-platform future. But in the short term, it's not especially compelling.

The same boat

Both Apple's iPad Pro and the Microsoft Surface Pro and Surface Book have similar issues.

Microsoft's issue is a little more existential: Its strategy with the new Windows 10 hinges on the Windows Store, an app market that lets developers code their app once and sell it on any Microsoft device, from PCs to tablets to smartphones to, eventually, the Xbox One and HoloLens holographic computer.

Matt Weinberger

The Microsoft Surface Book with Surface Pen.

But Windows 10 also lets you run any old Windows app, from Windows 7 and 8 forward. Which means that for the majority of developers who build Windows software, there's no real reason to scrap them and start over with a Windows Store app.

Apple's iPad Pro has a different struggle.

Apple is aiming its new giant-size tablet at creative-types and businesspeople, just like the Surface Pro. But the regular, mainstream iPad hasn't been especially lucrative for productivity software vendors.

The whole App Store economy has gotten customers used to paying less than $10 for tab;et apps, where the desktop versions of popular business productivity software like Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop on Mac and PC can sell for hundreds of bucks.

That means super-serious developers aren't tripping over themselves to make sure their apps run great on the iPad Pro, either.

The long game

Google, Apple, and Microsoft are all playing a long game here.

If they keep pushing their next-generation devices at people, eventually developers will have to catch up - first slowly, and then once it hits critical mass, all at once.

Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

The Asus Chromebook Flip

It'll be slow. In some ways, the big companies are victims of their own success. Again, look at Google, which is bascially forced to continue supporting Chrome OS so as not to alienate the PC manufacturers happily selling Chromebooks.

And so, it's going to be a long, slow, protracted tightrope walk: Support the old thing until the new thing picks up enough steam to carry its own weight.

Until then, get ready for some awkward fits and starts, especially in productivity software, as developers gradually work their way around the new normal in computing, as dictated by Apple, Microsoft, and Google.

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Microsoft To Forcefully Upgrade Windows 7, 8.1 Users To Windows 10 Through Automatic Updates

Windows 7 and 8 users will be prompted to upgrade to Windows 10 for free very soon

Oct 30, 2015 at 11:54 am Est

Windows 10 currently runs on more than 110 million computer systems all over the globe.  

Now Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) plans to further accelerate its strategy to get   Windows 10 on more and more devices by the turn of the year, focusing especially on older machines that run Windows 7 and Windows 10. 

Microsoft has already offered a free upgrade to Windows 10, and this latest aggressive 
strategy is a part of Microsoft’s plan to significantly increase the numbers.

Microsoft stated that from early next year, it planned to provide a ‘recommended update’, including an upgrade to Windows 10 in its Windows Update system. This means that on
systems with settings that allow automatic Windows Updates downloads,
Windows 10 will be automatically downloaded and updated. On other systems,
when a user turns on his computer, he will find an update to Windows 10 that needs approval.

Microsoft’s head of Windows and devices, Terry Myerson, said this update dialog will only be presented once to users, and Windows 10 will download and update the
Windows depending on the settings. He commented on pirated Windows copies and their attempts to upgrade to Windows 10 and said that if you tried to upgrade on a pirated
Windows, it says that the update is available only on genuine Windows.
He also acknowledges attempts to get around this setting, and he commended those
users who have purchased genuine licenses at the Windows Store for Windows 10.

Microsoft has stated that it aims to reach 1 billion systems that will run Windows 10 in the next couple of years, and this latest strategy will help it to reach this impressive milestone. Microsoft also aims to make the upgrade to Windows 10 easier for users who run Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, as users will appreciate efforts to simplify the process. As long as the update isn’t forced on the users with repeated dialogs, it will be appreciated.

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Microsoft Corporation Adds “Office Online” Extension To Chrome, Announces Skype Updates

Microsoft has introduced a number of new features, including cross-app integration for Skype and a new Chrome extension for Office Online

Oct 30, 2015 at 10:39 am Est

Microsoft has announced on its Office blogs that, among other new features,
the company will finally be launching a Chrome browser extension for Office Online.
The company is committed to improving the experience provided to its customers on
 Mac, Office Online, Windows,Android and iOS. Users can get get the Office Online Chrome extension to freely open Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Sway, OneNote and
OneDrive documents from the Chrome browser.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has also promised to regularly incorporate customer feedback in its updates for MS Office. In the Office blog post, authored by
Office Corporate VP Kirk Koenigsbauer, Microsoft announced the introduction of an improved Navigation pane which will facilitate scrolling through extensive documents
on the online version of Word. Excel Online now sports better formatting options, while PowerPoint Online now performs better.

Office’s Android apps feature considerable improvements, with the Office apps’
“footprint” reduced by as much as 40%. Microsoft has promised to introduce more reductions in the footprint, while the process of signing onto the Microsoft service has
been streamlined as well. The Office apps are also compatible with Android for Work
and Android M now. Office 365 subscribers can take advantage of PowerPoint’s
Presenter View on the platform, allowing users to see speaker notes on a presentation
on an Android device.

Office’s Mac updates see improved Visual Basic Editor features based on customer feedback. From Project Viewer, users can Add Modules; A Dialog can be used to add Library References , while debugging can be carried out using shortcut keys.
Visual basic carries two new commands in the form of AppleScriptTask and GrantAccessToMultipleFiles, and also has “a new conditional,
MAC_OFFICE_VERSION.”

Microsoft has also provided better integration for Skype using Office Online,
which will be available globally to customers with a Microsoft account in November.
Skype provides video and audio integration on the online versions of Excel, PowerPoint, Word and OneNote. Outlook.com also gets the upgrade which allows users to chat up Skype contacts directly from the apps. Skype hopes to provide better integration and collaboration by allowing users to co-author documents. The IM history is linked to the relevant document, which is a helpful feature. Microsoft plans to bring Skype’s in-app integration features on the desktop version of Office 2016 as well.

Microsoft will roll out the features over the coming months and encourages feedback withOffice UserVoice. Office.com/2016 contains all the information about the new
Microsoft productivity suite. The latest additions are interesting, but are not necessarily things that were needed as such. Given the speed of computers these days, switching from one app to another is not as difficult or time-consuming as it used to be, and some users (like myself) would prefer to use distinctly separate applications for distinctly separate functions. The ability to place a call from Word is nice, but one can just as
easily open up the Skype application on the side and continue the conversation while working on a Word document in another window.

That said, there could be some potential time-saving uses for the in-app integrations. Microsoft’s Office Online offering has certainly been given a boost with the latest
features, while the introduction of an extension for Chrome is particularly interesting. It goes show how Microsoft is acknowledging Chrome’s popularity and how the company
is willing to restrict Office Online’s presence to just its Edge browser and the
now-defunct Internet Explorer browser.

For Microsoft, it represents another improvement for Skype this month after the
company earlier launched an upgraded Skype for Windowswith a built-in translator, released an iOS version of Skype for Business and more recently introduced video messages with filters for its Skype apps. With Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)
beefing up its Google Docs offering, Microsoft needed something stronger to
fight back and it appears that Office Online has enough to keep customers hooked
on to the iOS, while the Chrome extension allows Microsoft to add more customers
to its Office Online offering.

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Microsoft Officially Unveils Its Arrow Launcher For Android

There are a number of ways to customize an Android smartphone, but one of the more unexpected tools to emerge earlier this year was Arrow, an Android launcher application designed by Microsoft. This summer, an unfinished version of the launcher was discovered by way of a Google+ group for beta testers. But, today, the app has gone live on the Google Play store for all to try.

While it may seem surprising to see Microsoft building a tool that lets you customize the way you use your Android smartphone, it’s reflective of the company’s new strategy to embrace cross-platform development instead of trying to lock everyone into Microsoft’s own software and services. You can see this with the release of its flagship Office application for competing platforms like iOS and Android, for example, as well as with its virtual assistant app Cortana.

With Arrow, however, the idea is to offer a different interface for Android that makes it easier and quicker to access your most frequently used apps, as well as message friends, take notes, or access your favorite apps and settings.

The launcher has a bit of an iOS 9 feel, at times, though without being a direct clone of the iOS interface.

It somewhat mimics Apple’s recent Spotlight search update which now offers suggested apps and contacts when you swipe right on the iOS homescreen. While Apple’s “Siri Suggestions” are based on more than recency – iOS also considers how you use your phone or what apps you launch at different times of day  – Arrow’s “Recent” screen offers a similar ability to access apps, files, photos, or contacts you need quickly. That is, things you want to get to having to swipe through screens or dig around in apps.

In addition, Arrow organizes your applications based on your usage, which means that those you launch the most will appear at the top of the list.

You can also customize a dock that you swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access – yes, a lot like iOS’s Control Center, right down to the semi-transparent interface. Here, you can access favorite apps or commonly-used settings, like airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a flashlight and more – Settings you would find in Control Center, too.

Another feature lets you quickly find people, then message, email, or call them with a swipe, while another lets you create notes and reminders.

Similar to some other Android launchers, you can use Arrow to re-arrange pages, set pages as your homescreen, organize and use widgets, theme your icons, and more. The only notable Microsoft integration (for now, at least) is the addition of wallpapers from Bing.

While some of Arrow’s interface is reminiscent of iOS, the larger strategy here could be more similar to Yahoo’s Aviate – an Android launcher Yahoo bought to get it a position in the mobile ecosystem where it doesn’t have its own platform, only software applications. Microsoft is in a similar boat. Though it does have Windows Phone, that OS and related devices only represents a tiny percentage of the overall smartphone market. That’s why Microsoft has embraced cross-platform development, and why it’s experimenting with customizations like this with Arrow.

If Arrow established traction, Microsoft could take advantage of the app to push or recommend its own apps and services like Office, OneDrive, Outlook, Bing and more to end users.

To be clear, Arrow is a Microsoft Garage project for the time being. That’s the internal R&D group that rolls out experiments to see which may have staying power or be worthy of further development. It’s not even the first Android app to emerge from this idea tank – previous Garage efforts have included an Android lock screen called Next and an Android Wear search assistant Torque, for example.

Arrow, in fact, was built by the same team behind Next and is now available in English and Chinese. The app is a free download from Google Play.

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