Pixotri Technologies: windows updates 2016

Showing posts with label windows updates 2016. Show all posts

Friday, February 19, 2016

Windows Phone sales have almost ground to a halt

Android and iOS now own 98 percent of the smartphone market.

Gartner has released its smartphone stats for Q4 2015 and the news is especially bad for Microsoft. In Q4 2014, the software giant owned 2.8 percent of the smartphone market -- not great, but still good enough for around 10 million units sold. In the same quarter of 2015, however,Windows Phone sales fell to 4.4 million, giving the OS a mere 1.1 percent of the total market. That means that it's basically in a death spiral, as consumers and app developers alike lose interest. Microsoft's rumoredSurface Phone now looks like its last hope to rescue the division.

The rest of the smartphone news ain't great either, as the overall market grew just 9.7 percent, the least since 2008. Apple, for one, saw a big dip in its market share from 20.4 percent to 17.7 percent year-over-year, which jibes with reports that iPhone sales have dropped after booming earlier in the year. The good news for Apple is that it boosted its share a touch in 2015, and that it's reportedly introducing a lower-cost iPhone to compete in the mid-range market.

Meanwhile, Huawei keeps booming. The company saw a big boost in its worldwide market share from 5.7 percent in Q4 2014 to 8 percent in the same quarter of 2015. That came mostly at the expense of Lenovo, which dropped from a 6.6 percent to a 5.0 percent share. Samsung also gained a bit in the quarter, though it fell considerably in 2015 to a 22.5 percent market share from 24.7 percent last year.

Since most of the growth in smartphone sales is coming from emerging markets, companies like Huawei are taking advantage with affordable handsets. That puts Apple in a bind, growth-wise, as it either has to deliver a more affordable phone or try to steal high-end sales away from Samsung, Sony and other Android device makers. Given this snapshot of the current market, it will be interesting to see what kind of new devices emerge next week at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

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Tuesday, February 16, 2016

You can now watch Hulu on your Windows 10 device

You could always watch Hulu on your PC or Mac, or for that matter, on multiple other mobile devices. Now the streaming service wants to integrate much deeper, using Windows 10 as its launchpad.

This doesn't mean it will cease to be accessible in all of the previous ways, it just adds one more option for customers of the service.

This comes with a big extra, as Stephen King's11.22.63 appears and will be available to Xbox One customers, including non-Hulu Plus users, for a limited time, running February 15th to the 21st. Right now, it's only episode one available for viewing, but it will be an eight-part series.

There's some interesting integration in this also. Microsoft points out "Hulu's new app works beautifully with Windows 10 features like Cortana and Live Tiles and features an adaptive, responsive layout. The Hulu app on Windows 10 is the only version of Hulu available today that uses universal voice search through Cortana".

An example of the integration would be something like say "Hey, Cortana. Play Hulu Sleepy Hollow". This also supports Live Tiles and can be pinned to your Start menu.

This was created as an all new Universal App, and users can easily choose from the multitude of shows available from Hulu. No matter what your tastes are, you can likely find something to watch.

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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Microsoft Updates Windows 10 and Publishes Tracking Resources for IT Pros

Microsoft updated Windows 10 today and it also released a new update history page that likely will be of interest to IT pros.

The Feb. 9 updates, like all Windows 10 updates, are "cumulative" updates, which mean they contain all changes since the last update release. The new updates this month address both quality and security issues with Windows 10, but there are no new features added to the operating system.

Today is also Microsoft's "patch Tuesday" for the month of February, and so Microsoft released 13 security bulletins plus one security advisory today. A summary of the security updates is available at this SANS Internet Storm Center page.

Two Updates, One OS

There are two Feb. 9 Windows 10 updates, per the new Windows 10 history page. The update that arrives for an organization will depend on which service branch they are using.

Update KB3135173 is for systems using Windows 10 version 1511 (the November update of Windows 10). It will update these Windows 10 systems to build 10586.104, which is now most current build. Microsoft's new update history page shows a bulleted list of improvements included in this update. It's worth checking out as IT pros may spot problematic issue getting fixed. For instance, the first bullet states that Microsoft "fixed issues with authentication, update installation, and operating system installation," although no other details are provided.

Update KB3135174 is for systems using Windows 10 version 1507 (the July update of Windows 10). It will update these Windows 10 systems to build 10240.16682. Microsoft's update history page also provides a bulleted list of improvements that come with this update, although it, too, contains limited information.

Update History

The new Windows 10 update history page doubtless will be well received by IT pros. Traditionally, they've been used to getting detailed information about Windows client changes, but Microsoft switched its approach with Windows 10, offering scant or no information. With the new history page, IT pros now have a bulleted list, although it no doubt just shows highlights and omits many other changes. The bulleted list does not include links to get more information. However, there is a Windows 10 release information pagethat offers a few more details about the overall release history. Michael Niehaus, directory of product marketing for Windows at Microsoft, pointed to both resources in this Microsoft blog post today.

Tracking Service Branches

The update history page isn't too friendly for IT pros just getting their minds wrapped around Microsoft's current Windows 10 servicing scheme. That scheme involves a "current branch" release, followed by a "current branch for business" release, which happens about four months later. Only the "long-term servicing branch" option permits traditional update deferrals by IT pros, but Microsoft sees that option as only being used for Internet of Things device-management scenarios. Organizations are expected to want to use the current branch for business update approach, according to Microsoft's thinking.

The update history page does have this link to a page that explains Microsoft's Windows 10 servicing options, although a more nuanced explanation can be found here.

The new history page doesn't use Microsoft's servicing branch nomenclature. IT pros have to look at the Windows 10 release information page to get those details. At that page, it's shown that the July Windows 10 update (version 1507) was both the current branch and the current branch for business release, while the November Windows 10 update (version 1511) was just the current branch release. That's really very obscure (and confusing) information, but it's missing in the main Windows 10 history page.

The tools for IT pros to track service branch changes seem to be lagging a bit. Microsoft showcased how tracking will work in a future update to System Center Configuration Manager back in January. Under that concept, organizations will get a graphical view of Windows 10 use per service branch, but we don't know when that capability will arrive in the System Center Configuration Manager product (Microsoft now updates System Center Configuration Manager like Windows 10). In addition, using the free Windows Update for Business management capability to track service-branch changes seems to be a work in progress at this point.

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Tuesday, February 9, 2016

How to Import iPhone Photos to Windows 10

If you've switched from a Mac to a PC, but still use an iPhone, you're probably wondering how you're going to start managing your smartphone's camera roll. Fortunately, you don't need Apple's Photos image management app to easily access the images on your phone, you just need to know how to set things up.

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Below we'll show you how to sync the photos from your iPhone to a Microsoft OneDrive account and then download them your PC. Once everything is set up, your images will be constantly syncing in the background, with or without taxing your mobile data plan.

Before you get started, make sure you've created a Windows Account with Microsoft, as it will be necessary for this process. Each account comes with 5GB for free, just like Apple provides.

How to Import iPhone Photos to Windows 10

1. Click the Start button.

2. Type "Phone companion" into the search prompt.

3. Select Phone Companion from the top of the Start menu.

4. Click iPhone or iPad.

5. Enter your Microsoft account information and click Sign in.

6. Click "Sign in to just this app instead" to proceed if you don't want to sign into your PC with your Microsoft account, or fill in your PC's sign in password and click Next. You will not see this window if you already log into your PC with your Microsoft account.

7. Select the "Get started" button underneath "Get photos you take with your iPhone or iPad onto your PC, automatically."

8. Tap Yes, This Is Me! to confirm your identity.

9. Enter your email address and click Send. Microsoft will email you a direct link to OneDrive in the iOS app store. If you tap this link on your iPhone, you'll be prompted to download the app. You can also search for OneDrive in the app store on your phone.

10. Select Get next to OneDrive on your iPhone.

11. Tap Install.

12. Select Open.

13. Enter your Microsoft account name and click Go.

14. Enter your Microsoft account password.

15. Tap OK or No, Thanks to agree or disagree to have OneDrive send notifications. It doesn't matter which you choose for our purposes. We selected No, Thanks"

16. Tap the User icon in the upper left corner.

17. Select the Gear icon.

18. Tap Camera Upload.

19. Move the switch next to Camera Upload to the On position.

20. Select OK.

21. Select either Don't Allow or OK, it doesn't actually matter, so defer if you're trying to limit notifications.

22. Turn the switch next to Upload In Background to the On position.

23. Tap Turn On in the bottom right corner to agree to Location Tracking for OneDrive. You might not want to, but it's necessary for background uploads.

24. Tap Allow to give Location permissions to OneDrive. Yes, it's a little redundant, but this is the tap that actually grants permissions to the app.