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Microsoft Exec Says No New Features or Hardware for Windows 10 Mobile (Oct 9, 2017)

This feels more like a confirmation of how I think many of us were already thinking about Microsoft’s approach to Windows 10 Mobile, but we do now have official confirmation now from one of the erstwhile champions of Windows Phone and Microsoft’s smartphone hardware that the platform is essentially dead in terms of future development. Yes, there are companies that have deployed devices on the platform, and Microsoft will support them, but that’s about it. Notably, Joe Belfiore, an exec in the Windows team and for quite some time the face of Windows on mobile devices, says he’s now using an Android device. This outcome has seemed inevitable for a long time now, and Microsoft arguably took far too long to make it official, giving a small number of fans false hope that the platform would somehow live on. The actual number of users must be absolutely tiny at this point, while Microsoft’s main focus in mobile for the last several years has been making or acquiring really good apps that could run on iOS and Android, albeit without an obvious strategy for monetizing most of them.

via Windows Central

★ Microsoft Announces Samsung VR Headset, AltspaceVR Acquisition, More (Oct 3, 2017)

Microsoft today held what it called in its unique terminology a mixed reality event, at which it made a number of announcements. Perhaps the biggest announcement was that Samsung is making a Windows VR headset, which will cost $499 and therefore land towards the higher end of the spectrum of Windows VR headsets, and well into the territory covered by the premium VR rigs from companies like HTC, Oculus, and Sony, a problem that I outlined a while back in this column. It and other headsets will be available in the next couple of weeks from a variety of vendors and at a variety of prices, though none of them at the $300 price point Microsoft originally touted for the space. That’s reflective of the fact that no-one wants to be the Google Cardboard of PC-based VR, as they all want to provide something of a premium experience. Also announced today was the quiet acquisition of most of a company called AltspaceVR, which was backed by Comcast and was effectively shuttered over the summer, and provided a social angle on VR, something Microsoft itself hasn’t had but which Facebook has made an obvious focus with Oculus and Facebook Spaces. Lastly Microsoft announced the number of apps available on the Microsoft Store for VR – 20,000 – and the fact that a basic Halo game will be coming to the platform this month too.

Overall, it feels like Microsoft is finally getting to the point where its VR push is bearing fruit after a lot of talking about it over the past year or so, and that’s a good thing given how marginal its AR push still is outside of very limited commercial and educational deployments. Its mixed reality terminology isn’t going to do it or its partners any favors from a marketing perspective, and it remains to be seen how many PC owners really want VR experiences enough to spend hundreds of dollars on new hardware rather than going the mobile VR route and buying a $100 add-on for their smartphones. Samsung’s entry into the market certainly creates an interesting opportunity for it to take its so far mobile-only strategy further up-market, and based on the response to its headset, it seems it may be one of the best on offer right now for Windows VR.

via Microsoft

AR vs VR

Microsoft Offers Additional Details on Mixed Reality Headsets (Aug 28, 2017)

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AR vs VR

Microsoft’s Windows Store has and Promotes Copyright-Infringing Apps (Aug 21, 2017)

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Microsoft’s First Windows VR Headsets Go on Public Sale (Aug 1, 2017)

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AR vs VR

Microsoft Adds AI-Powered Search and Automation to Photos App in Windows (Jul 28, 2017)

Microsoft is adding some clever AI-powered image recognition, search, and automation features to the latest version of its Windows Photos app. It doesn’t sound like there’s anything here that will exceed the functionality of existing apps from Google or Apple, but just achieving parity would be a big step forward for Microsoft, which has always been bafflingly slow in addressing people’s needs to manage their photo libraries. Given how many people must store their photos on Windows computers, this is something Microsoft should have addressed long ago. Nokia was another company that always emphasized photography and yet never gave people a great way to manage the pictures they took on their phones, so the fact that Microsoft didn’t jump on the opportunity when it acquired the devices business from Nokia was another odd omission. At any rate, Microsoft now seems to be taking some of these advanced consumer features more seriously, as evidenced by the fantastic video creation tools in the forthcoming version of Windows, and these Photos changes are another positive move in this direction. This is low-hanging fruit as Microsoft looks to burnish its consumer and creativity credentials.

via Engadget

Microsoft's Consumer Challenges

★ Microsoft Announces Stronger Than Expected Growth, Modest Guidance (Jul 20, 2017)

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Microsoft’s Windows 10 Starting to Reach End of Support on Some PCs (Jul 17, 2017)

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Gartner Says PC Shipments Declined 4.3% in Q2, 11th Straight Drop, Hit 2007 Levels (Jul 12, 2017)

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The Decline of PCs

Microsoft Begins Bundling Windows and Office for Businesses (Jul 10, 2017)

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Windows 10 S is Not as Secure as Microsoft Says Because of Word Vulnerabilities (Jun 23, 2017)

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Intel Fires Warning Shot over x86 Emulation as Microsoft Preps Windows on ARM (Jun 9, 2017)

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IDC Predicts Slightly Faster But Still Modest Growth in Smartphones in 2017 (May 31, 2017)

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Maturing Smartphone Market

Microsoft Announces Dell, Asus, and Lenovo VR Headsets (May 31, 2017)

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AR vs VR

Microsoft Announces Some ARM PC Partners But Downplays the ARM Element (May 31, 2017)

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The Decline of PCs

★ Microsoft Announces New Surface Pro, Custom Windows 10 for Chinese Government (May 23, 2017)

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Microsoft's Hardware Push

Malware Leveraging Leaked NSA Windows Hacking Tools Triggers Widespread IT Meltdown (May 12, 2017)

The UK National Health Service and many other corporate and government systems around the world are being attacked by ransomware which is enabled by NSA hacking tools for targeting Windows leaked earlier this year. Though Microsoft issued a patch for the affected vulnerability in March, many organizations haven’t applied those patches, which is not uncommon especially in large distributed organizations with many computers not “owned” by a particular end user or subject to any blanket policy on such updates. Though the motive appears to be financial – the hackers are demanding bitcoin in return for unlocking the affected machines – its immediate impact has been disruption, as operations have been canceled and medical centers closed, among other things. It’s a salutary lesson on the importance for both individuals and business of applying OS upgrades and patches in a timely fashion, but also of the vast reliance on aging machines and software across the corporate world. It’s also the kind of thing that’s dramatically less likely to affect web-based or more locked down systems like ChromeOS, Apple’s iOS or macOS, or even Microsoft’s new Windows 10 S. But given the prevalence of older versions of Windows in enterprises and government departments, that’s not going to help much anytime soon.

via BuzzFeed