Technology Ramblings

On Friday Jan 27, Microsoft released Windows 10 build 15019 to Fast Ring Insiders.  This was a PC only build. Build 15019 was yet another large update.  One of the big focuses of this build was the new xBox gaming features Game Mode along with Beam streaming support and an updated Game Bar.  The build also includes updates to Edge, Hyper-V and the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) along with nearly 40 fixes. While all of that is good, once again the update process was a nightmare.  Shortly after the announcement, I launched the update from my PC and tablet.  On the PC, it recognized the update and then showed a new icon called Initializing Updates than utilizes the new UUP delivery Optimization process. That initialization ran over 2 hours, before the update began to download.  It then took another hour+ to download, prepare, configure and apply.  All in all a 3.5 hour process to install 15019.   On the tablet it was another story.  Th...

In recent weeks, there have been patent filings from Microsoft and some rumor shots from Samsung regarding a potential new form factor for the smartphone - what I am calling the foldable. These new devices utilize multiple screens, upwards of 3 - so a "top" screen, then a hinge with dual screens inside.   As anyone who has owned a smartphone in the last 10 years knows, one of the challenges is screen size.  We started around 4", then grew to 5", then 6" and even 6.5".   The problem with the current slab format however is as the size of the screen increases, you run into both carrying and one handed operation issues.  Plus folks really don't like holding some huge device up to their ears.  At the same time they love the larger screen for readability and apps.   Foldable attempts to address that.  You can now have an easy carry device with key notifications and phone capabilities on the "top" screen, then a larger format "workspace...

On Jan 11, IDC posted their 2016 Q4 PC Sales based on their Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker.   As I had discussed in posts earlier this year I was estimating a 250 - 260M unit market for 2016 and we came in @ 260.1M.  2015 finished with 275M units so a 5.7% decline.  This marks the 5th straight year of sales declines and I don't expect that to change. The rankings are pretty much the same as expected.  Lenovo, HP and Dell are the top 3 with 21.3% (55.5M units), 20.9% (54.2M units) and 15.7% (40.7M units) market share respectively.  Of the 3 Dell and HP showed small growth at 4.3% and 1.3% while Lenovo saw a 3.0% drop. Asus and Apple are #4 and #5 with 7.4% (19.2M units) and 7.1% (18.4M units) respectively.  Asus saw a small drop of 0.8% in 2016 but Apple saw a 9.8% drop.  These two had a market share of 7.9% each at the end of 2015. The "Others" category continues to drop rapidly.  In 2016 this group saw a 1...

On Jan 19, MS released Windows 10 Build 15014 to the Fast Ring.  This build was for both PC and Mobile. The build included another round of new features around Edge, Cortana, Color Settings and a specialized power settings UI for some machines.  It was a much smaller list of new capabilities versus 15002.  It also contained over 30 PC and 8 Mobile fixes.   One new feature that MS has finally addressed is book sales through the Store. The books are published in the ePub format.  Like many I agree that it's too little / too late to really change buying habits.  In addition the only "reader" available today is the Edge browser.  Now that may change in future builds, but compared to the experience that many have had for years with products like Amazon Kindle, Edge is not really an optimum experience. One call out made during the announcement was that there was a known issue with the Windows Update progress bar where it may stay @ 0% for an exten...

With a rare Monday release, Microsoft released build 15002 for the Creators Update over a month after the 14986 build on Dec 7.  This was a PC only build. 15002 contains a very large number of updates to Edge, Ink, Cortana, Settings, Input Method Editor (IME), etc, etc. It also introduced new start folder capabilities that had been available in Mobile.  The build also contained over 20 fixes to known issues. This is the second release that leveraged MS's new deployment approach that utilizes a differential update approach to in theory shorten update cycles. What I experienced with both traditional desktop and tablet updates was that although the download phase of the update got to 100% quicker.  It stayed at 100% for quite some time before moving onto the preparation phase.   The prep phase along with the configuration and working phases took the same time as they were local to the machine.   All in all the update still took between 50 minutes and 70 minut...

Taking a look at where consumer technology is headed in 2017, in my opinion focuses on 4 major areas - 4K, Virtual Reality (VR), All-in-One (AIO) and IoT (Things) - especially those that integrate with Amazon Alex, Apple Siri or Microsoft Cortana. Let's take a look at each... 4K - The 4K or 3840 x 2160 pixel UHD resolution is becoming the new normal. Every major TV manufacturer has 4K products and the question that is being raised in the industry is will anyone still be making HD 1920 x 1080 products by years end.    4K is not just twice the number of pixels but actually 4 times.  And prices are dropping like a rock.  A quick check at Costco or BestBuy and 55" 4K TVs are selling for $500.  If you buy a new TV in 2017 chances are it will be a 4K unit. The big question though is the availability of native 4K content.   Much like Blu-Ray players, that could "uplift" DVD (480p) content to 1080p HD, these TVs do the same with 1080p content - uplifti...

Unlike last year when I waited until nearly April to make my annual Technology Trends post, I figured I'd get it done at a more traditional time.    So here's where we are heading.... The big three trends continue to move forward.   Hyper Convergence, Open Networking and Micro Services.    The Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) market has started to get more crowded as more and more vendors jump into the market.  But the overall movement to local storage based compute using all flash or SSD/HDD hybrid will continue.  It's a very compelling technology and the vendors are rapidly pushing to support more and more enterprise application profiles (i.e. Oracle RAC) and larger capacity.   While traditional storage models are still viable, the trend will be to buy them less and move towards HCI. Open networking is moving forward but not as quickly.   Networking purchases tend to be on a slower pace than compute, and with Cisco promoting one...

In recent years the term "cutting the cord" has become popularized by folks attempting to replace cable or satellite television services with internet based services.  The goal is typically to reduce cost and provide the ability to stream content easily to mobile devices. Starting with NetFlix, then Hulu and Amazon - internet based options allowed you in my opinion to augment your Live television options. Or like Apple TV would allow you to view purchased content from their store. Now every major broadcaster (i.e. ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox) along with many of the cable content providers (i.e. ESPN, HBO, etc.) offer some sort of streaming option.   But in many cases, these options require that you already have a subscription with a cable or satellite provider.  Some do provide a stand-alone option (like HBO Now) but then you are paying a separate subscription. Most recently ATT/DirecTV came up with DirecTV Now.  A pure streaming option with up to 100 channels (on sa...