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Rumor Patrol: Windows 9 To Release April 2015

Posted by Unknown Thursday, 6 March 2014 0 comments

Whether you love the increased speed of Windows 8 or think it’s the worst thing to happen to PC gaming since Daikatana, there’s no denying that Microsoft’s most recent OS offering has been met with a lukewarm response since its release. As with any new OS, heated debate is expected as gamers attempt to discern the most efficient platform on which to run their game collection but with Windows 8′s larger focus on the implementation of tablets, many gamers felt left behind after Windows 7′s success. Luckily for them, rumor has it that we might be getting our first look at the next Windows OS sooner rather than later.

According to SuperSite for Windows, it is rumored that Microsoft will be giving the world its first look at Windows 9, codenamed Threshold, during their BUILD developer conference this April with a possible wide release of April 2015. This comes following the news that Microsoft plans to better link their Xbox One, Windows and mobile platforms. While this is all well and good for the typical consumer who wants to access their movie or music collection between all their devices, what could this mean for gamers?

While Windows 8′s Metro interface marked improvements to the implementation of social media and made the transition from home computer to tablet even simpler, features like these may not be the most conducive for users looking to simply access their game collection in the most efficient manner possible. For this reason, if Microsoft hopes to grab hold of the gaming masses once again like they did with Windows 7, they will need to accept that fact that not every one of their users is looking for a simplified, tablet-like interface.
This is not to say that Metro needs to make its exit – even if Gabe Newell (Valve) and Markus Persson (Mojang) have major issues with Win 8. Rather, giving users a sense of choice could be part of the answer to maintaining their hold on casual users while also drawing PC gamers back in. Metro is definitely a sleek interface, even if its confusing at first to learn and master, and has its uses when it comes to quickly accessing simple social features, but it would benefit Microsoft even more to provide its users with an interface option akin to the Start menu of old. Games – and apps in general – need to be accessed more easily and they should be found in one place, instead of some opening in Metro, others opening in the traditional desktop mode.

With the rumored introduction of Windows 9 on its way and two other Microsoft-branded OS’s currently on the market, another question to ponder is how this new OS could affect their existing platforms. As it stands, the Xbox One and mobile interfaces have very distinct aesthetic qualities. If Windows 9 will attempt to draw an even stronger link between these, can we expect to see some drastic design changes on all three platforms in the near future? It’s no surprise that a unified aesthetic style and interface would aid in jumping between platforms but as it stands, there is still quite a schism between them: particularly in regards to the Xbox One. With the Xbox One still in its infancy, how likely is it that such a change would become reality?

It’s just a rumor at this point so there’s no way to know how Microsoft will handle the upcoming BUILD developer conference. If Windows 9 is announced, it could be a pivotal moment for PC gaming, dictating whether gamers will want to take the plunge into a new OS for the upcoming years or whether they would rather hang back or transition to Linux or a Steam Machine. Only time will tell. Until then, gamers can only cross their fingers in hopes that Microsoft will keep them in mind throughout the development process.

How did you feel about Windows 8 as a gaming platform? Do you think Microsoft needs to go down an entirely new path with  Windows 9, or should they return to their roots?

Windows 9, codenamed Threshold is rumored to be announced this April and released in April 2015.

CrowdPilot App Lets Strangers Invade Your Privacy

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Forget the NSA. The real threat to web privacy could turn out to be you, if you decide to download a new app called CrowdPilot.

What does it do?

It allows the user to let others in their social network “eavesdrop” on phone calls with the goal of getting “crowdsourced” advice. This can only lead to disaster.

According to the app’s FAQ on Apple’s App Store, “Crowdpilot lets you crowdsource your social interactions by bringing a group of your friends or strangers along to listen in and assist you in any situation. Whenever you need help, turn it on to stream your conversation to the web where the anonymous crowd – optionally supported by a team of your Facebook friends – will tune in, follow along and assist you. Or become a crowdpilot yourself, and watch and direct others!”

Sounds pretty chipper for the demise of phone privacy as we know it.
Actually, the app does have some social value. It allows “experts” in your social circle to listen in on conversations you have with others, motivated by the chance they might have some good advice.

But, seriously, what are the chances of that when it comes to romance, career choices or whether or not you’re being ripped off by a used car salesman?

The developer of CrowdPilot, Lauren McCarthy, claims the app was created as a social experiment, and that she doesn’t profit from the 99 cent fee.

“Will it make us more connected or turn us into total robots?” asks McCarthy. “We’re trying to make people directly confront these questions. Maybe you’ll think it’s terrifying. Or maybe you’ll find it’s actually kind of wonderful and fun.”


It doesn’t seem likely. It’s more possible that CrowdPilot will be used in a way to make fun of unsuspecting acquaintances (and strangers) who would be mortified to realize their conversations were being eavesdropped on. That’s just the crowd mentality.

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Google exec: Android adoption most successful in history

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A Google executive claimed Wednesday that Android has seen the fastest and most successful adoption of any operating system in history. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Nikesh Arora, senior vice president at Google, said the following, courtesy of Seeking Alpha:
I mean, look, in the history of operating systems, I think Android has been the quickest and most successful adoption of an operating system in the world. So you just sort of stop, take pause and say, oh my God, that's crazy. Nobody could have ever predicted that we're going to get an operating system adopted in an industry, which has so many different OEMs, manufacturing with their own operating systems having adopted around the world.

A report back in 2012 claimed that both Android and iOS were growing 10 times faster than PCs did in the 1980s. And it's clear that iOS on the iPhone and iPad had blistering adoption rates (with one study, back in 2010, showing iPad had the fastest adoption rate ever). Also, the adoption rates of iOS upgrades, such as iOS 7, tend to outpace Android. But recent data from IDC and App Annie (December 2013) show Android, for example, with a big lead over Apple in the installed base of smartphones (see chart at bottom), while Apple leads in game monetization.

And there are plenty of other studies too -- usually focusing on smartphones -- that show Android leading.
The success of apps on iOS, however, has been a strong suit for Apple, as a recent Piper Jaffray study, released in January, shows. In the same report, though, Piper Jaffray argued that the quality of apps on the two platforms is now equalizing and that services will now be the key differentiator. The initial release of Android was in September 2008. iOS made its debut in June 2007.

BlackBerry promises no ads on BBM chat

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BlackBerry is attempting to draw a line in the sand when it comes sponsored ads reaching BBM users. In a blog posted Tuesday, BBM product and brand marketing head Jeff Gadway acknowledged that BBM Channel creators will be able to send sponsored posts and invites to their subscribers, but such content won't seep into the actual chats. The sponsored content itself will be "direct, relevant, friendly," Gadway promised.
BBM Channel users will potentially see three different types of sponsored content from channel owners, according to Gadway.

Featured placements will be promotions designed by channel owners looking to pick up new subscribers. These placements will appear on the Featured Channels landing page. Sponsored invites will be sent by channel owners to select BBM users inviting them to join a particular channel. People will be chosen based on age, location, interests, and other information already provided by each user. BlackBerry will control which brands can use these invites and limit them to three per month per user, Gadway said.

Sponsored posts will venture a bit further into advertising territory. Labeled as sponsored, these posts will include updates from other channels and will appear alongside the updates from BBM Contacts and BBM Channels. But BBM users will be able to control which posts they see. As Gadway explains it: Let's say you're a Toronto Maple Leafs fan and you are presented with a sponsored update from a competing hockey team. You can easily block future sponsored updates from this other team. The benefit to you, the user is clear -- you won't see sponsored updates from channels you're not interested in. But the benefit also extends to channel owners as well as they won't be wasting time and resources reaching uninterested BBM users. BBM users who filter their updates to show only contacts won't see any sponsored posts.

Finally, Gadway made it clear that sponsored posts and similar content won't butt into your actual chats.
"We will not be inserting sponsored content of any kind in to BBM chats with your friends, family, and colleagues," Gadway said. "We understand that keeping the BBM chat experience you know and love free of this type of content is important to you."

Sponsored content was an inevitable development as BlackBerry struggles to raise money. With 85 million users, BBM is a ripe area for monetization. At last week's Mobile World Congress, BBM chief John Sims spoke to CNET about his plans for BBM in both the enterprise and consumer markets.

Sprint approves KitKat update for more Samsung smartphones

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Sprint on Wednesday confirmed plans to issue Android 4.4.2 updates to a number of Samsung Galaxy devices.

 According to a post on the carrier's blog, the Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S4 Mini, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Mega, and Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 are in line to receive KitKat updates. As a result, the mobile gadgets called out will benefit from features such as enhanced messaging options and a more intuitive interface. In addition to the standard fare of OS features, the lock screen will be updated to allow for quick access to cameras.

 While Sprint did not discuss exact timing, it's a good bet we'll learn more details in the coming weeks. The carrier recently pushed 4.4.2 to the the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3.

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Apple's hiring binge could point to more iPhone development

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With a massive hiring binge in China and Taiwan, it looks like Apple is working to boost product production.
The tech giant has reportedly poached engineers from smartphone maker HTC and other companies to create new Apple teams in Shanghai and Taipei, according to The Wall Street Journal. It's said that the company now has more than 600 engineers and operations staff in China.

The Journal reports that the hiring push is due to Apple's focus on developing components for the iPhone and iPad, which could lead to more product releases more often."Apple is building an engineering team in Taipei to drive new iPhone product development," Apple said in a LinkedIn recruiting e-mail, according to the Journal.

In September, Apple introduced two new versions of the iPhone for the first time ever, including the less-expensive but more colorful iPhone 5C. Apple also rolled out the new iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina Display the following month.

The iPhone has proven to be a popular product in China. Last month, research firm IDC reported that Apple's iPhone 5S broke sales records in the country as market share rose from 6 percent in the third quarter of 2013 to 7 percent in the fourth quarter. These numbers are sure to increase since Apple recently inked a deal to sell the iPhone through China Mobile -- the world's biggest wireless carrier.

Microsoft Windows

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, 5 March 2014 0 comments
Microsoft Windows is a series of graphical interface operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUI). Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced in 1984.
As of October 2013, the most recent versions of Windows for personal computers, smartphones, server computers and embedded devices are respectively Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Embedded 8.
Windows 1.0, the first version, released in 1985
The history of Windows dates back to September 1981, when Chase Bishop, a computer scientist, designed the first model of an electronic device and project "Interface Manager" was started. It was announced in November 1983 (after the Apple Lisa, but before the Macintosh) under the name "Windows", but Windows 1.0 was not released until November 1985. Windows 1.0 achieved little popularity and was to compete with Apple's own operating system. Windows 1.0 is not a complete operating system; rather, it extends MS-DOS. The shell of Windows 1.0 is a program known as the MS-DOS Executive. Components included Calculator, Calendar, Cardfile, Clipboard viewer, Clock, Control Panel, Notepad, Paint, Reversi, Terminal and Write. Windows 1.0 does not allow overlapping windows. Instead all windows are tiled. Only modal dialog boxes may appear over other windows.

Windows 2.0 was released in December 1987 and was more popular than its predecessor. It features several improvements to the user interface and memory management. Windows 2.03 changed the OS from tiled windows to overlapping windows. The result of this change led to Apple Computer filing a suit against Microsoft alleging infringement on Apple's copyrights. Windows 2.0 also introduced more sophisticated keyboard shortcuts and could make use of expanded memory.

Windows 2.1 was released in two different versions: Windows/286 and Windows/386. Windows/386 uses the virtual 8086 mode of Intel 80386 to multitask several DOS programs and the paged memory model to emulate expanded memory using available extended memory. Windows/286, in spite of its name, runs on both Intel 8086 and Intel 80286. It runs in real mode but can make use of the high memory area.
In addition to full Windows-packages, there were runtime-only versions that shipped with early Windows software from third parties and made it possible to run their Windows software on MS-DOS and without the full Windows feature set.
The early versions of Windows are often thought of as graphical shells, mostly because they ran on top of MS-DOS and use it for file system services. However, even the earliest Windows versions already assumed many typical operating system functions; notably, having their own executable file format and providing their own device drivers (timer, graphics, printer, mouse, keyboard and sound). Unlike MS-DOS, Windows allowed users to execute multiple graphical applications at the same time, through cooperative multitasking. Windows implemented an elaborate, segment-based, software virtual memory scheme, which allows it to run applications larger than available memory: code segments and resources are swapped in and thrown away when memory became scarce; data segments moved in memory when a given application had relinquished processor control.


In November 1988, a new development team within Microsoft (which included former Digital Equipment Corporation developers Dave Cutler and Mark Lucovsky) began work on a revamped version of IBM and Microsoft's OS/2 operating system known as "NT OS/2". NT OS/2 was intended to be a secure, multi-user operating system with POSIX compatibility and a modular, portable kernel with preemptive multitasking and support for multiple processor architectures. However, following the successful release of Windows 3.0, the NT development team decided to rework the project to use an extended 32-bit port of the Windows API known as Win32 instead of those of OS/2. Win32 maintained a similar structure to the Windows APIs (allowing existing Windows applications to easily be ported to the platform), but also supported the capabilities of the existing NT kernel. Following its approval by Microsoft's staff, development continued on what was now Windows NT, the first 32-bit version of Windows. However, IBM objected to the changes, and ultimately continued OS/2 development on its own.
The first release of the resulting operating system, Windows NT 3.1 (named to associate it with Windows 3.1) was released in July 1993 with versions for desktop workstations and servers. Windows NT 3.5 was released in September 1994, focusing on performance improvements and support for Novell's NetWare, and was followed up by Windows NT 3.51 in May 1995, which included additional improvements and support for the PowerPC architecture. Windows NT 4.0 was released in June 1996, introducing the redesigned interface of Windows 95 to the NT series. On February 17, 2000, Microsoft released Windows 2000, a successor to NT 4.0. The Windows NT name was dropped at this point in order to put a greater focus on the Windows brand.


Windows XP
The next major version of Windows, Windows XP, was released on October 25, 2001. The introduction of Windows XP aimed to unify the consumer-oriented Windows 9x series with the architecture introduced by Windows NT, a change which Microsoft promised would provide better performance over its DOS-based predecessors. Windows XP would also introduce a redesigned user interface (including an updated Start menu and a "task-oriented" Windows Explorer), streamlined multimedia and networking features, Internet Explorer 6, integration with Microsoft's .NET Passport services, modes to help provide compatibility with software designed for previous versions of Windows, and Remote Assistance functionality.
At retail, Windows XP was now marketed in two main editions: the "Home" edition was targeted towards consumers, while the "Professional" edition was targeted towards business environments and power users, and included additional security and networking features. Home and Professional were later accompanied by the "Media Center" edition (designed for home theater PCs, with an emphasis on support for DVD playback, TV tuner cards, DVR functionality, and remote controls), and the "Tablet PC" edition (designed for mobile devices meeting its specifications for a tablet computer, with support for stylus pen input and additional pen-enabled applications). Mainstream support for Windows XP ended on April 14, 2009. Extended support will continue until April 8, 2014.
After Windows 2000, Microsoft also changed its release schedules for server operating systems; the server counterpart of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, was released in April 2003. It was followed in December 2005 by Windows Server 2003 R2.

Windows Vista, 7 and 8
After a lengthy development process, Windows Vista was released on November 30, 2006 for volume licensing and January 30, 2007 for consumers. It contained a number of new features, from a redesigned shell and user interface to significant technical changes, with a particular focus on security features. It was available in a number of different editions, and has been subject to some criticism. Vista's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 was released in early 2008.
On July 22, 2009, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 were released as RTM (release to manufacturing) while the former was released to the public 3 months later on October 22, 2009. Unlike its predecessor, Windows Vista, which introduced a large number of new features, Windows 7 was intended to be a more focused, incremental upgrade to the Windows line, with the goal of being compatible with applications and hardware with which Windows Vista was already compatible. Windows 7 has multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows shell with an updated taskbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup, and performance improvements.

Windows 8, the successor to Windows 7, was released generally on October 28, 2012. A number of significant changes were made on Windows 8, including the introduction of a user interface based around Microsoft's Metro design language with optimizations for touch-based devices such as tablets and all-in-one PCs. These changes include the Start screen, which uses large tiles that are more convenient for touch interactions and allow for the display of continually updated information, and a new class of apps which are designed primarily for use on touch-based devices. Other changes include increased integration with cloud services and other online platforms (such as social networks and Microsoft's own SkyDrive and Xbox Live services), the Windows Store service for software distribution, and a new variant known as Windows RT for use on devices that utilize the ARM architecture. An update to Windows 8, called Windows 8.1, was released on October 17, 2013, and includes features such as new live tile sizes, deeper SkyDrive integration, and many other revisions.

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