Technology Ramblings

Today - MS released Windows 10 Build 14383 to Fast Ring Insiders for both PC & Mobile. First and most importantly - MS removed the "Evaluation" watermark from the lower right corner of the desktop indicating that this is a Sign Off release.  A Sign Off release is effectively the beginning of the "RTM" cycle as final code is being checked in.   Some other enthusiast sites have mentioned that 14386 may be the actual Release Build. The 14383 announcement called out about a dozen or so fixes for both PC and Mobile.  As with many of the recent releases I was not experiencing any of the specific calls outs - so not much to report on that front. Is the Anniversary Release ready for public consumption and should you upgrade ? For PC - I definitely say yes.   Redstone is a very measurable improvement over Threshold and I highly recommend upgrading. As I have stated repeatedly in recent posts - if you have not upgraded to Windows 10 - do so NOW.  The Anniv...

Late last week several of the Windows enthusiast blogs posted very excited comments regarding the rumors reported by Windows Central and DigiTimes that MS may be planning to release a Surface branded All-in-one (AIO) PC - potentially as early as Q3 2016 so meaning before the end of September.   The reports description vary from this being a traditional AIO PC to "something targeted for the living room".  Tempuring the rumors however was some discussion that any new "Surface" PCs would be based on the new Intel 14nm Kaby Lake chipset.  If so the new devices would probably not show up until next spring with the refresh of the entire Surface line. There is yet another article regarding a company called Kenti from France who are selling a 42" Windows 10 based AIO built into a coffee table format for 5,000 Euro.   According to the Digitimes article some 14M AIO units were sold in 2015 with Apple and Lenovo leading the market.  But the AIO market is expected to...

Today June 30, just 1 day after the release of build 14376, MS released Build 14379 for both PC and Mobile to the Fast Ring. So much for my thoughts that MS might slow the pace of build releases as the Anniversary date approached.   14379 is actually the 9th build released this month.   The announcement only called out 4 fixes for PC We fixed an issue where the size of the Credential UI might not be big enough to display the contents on a PC with High DPI.  We fixed an issue where Action Center might crash after dismissing a large number of notifications.  We fixed an issue where Centennial app launches from Start or Cortana wouldn’t count towards those apps bubbling up in Start’s “Most used” list.  We fixed an issue where no note would have keyboard focus after minimizing then reopening the Sticky Notes app.  and 2 for Mobile We fixed an issue that could result in a stray focus rectangle becoming visible in certain apps, such as Groove or C...

On June 28, Microsoft's Terri Myserson confirmed Tuesday Aug 2, 2016 as the release date for the Anniversary edition of Windows 10 for PC, Mobile and xBox. In that press release Terri mentioned that in the 11 months since Windows 10 initial release that some 350M devices are now running Windows 10.  That is obviously a combination of new devices plus those who took advantage of the free upgrade from Windows 7 and 8/8.1 and Enterprise upgrades. That keeps MS on schedule to meet their goal announced last year of having 1B devices running Windows 10 in 2.5 years.   Another key takeaway from the announcement today is that the free upgrade offer from Windows 7 & 8/8.1 to Windows 10 ENDS on July 28 - 11:59p.  So just a few days before the release of the Anniversary Edition.   So if you are interested in Windows 10 - please do NOT wait.  Upgrade NOW if your machine qualifies and is capable of running Windows 10 and then you'll get Anniversary Edition for fr...

On June 28, MS release Windows 10 PC & Mobile build 14376 to Fast Ring Insiders. MS have gotten into a pretty consistent rhythm since the beginning of the June Bug bash campaign of releasing 1 to 2 new builds per week as the run up to the Anniversary date release date of August 2nd approaches. The August 2 date was confirmed this morning by Terri Myerson and the expectation is the PC, Mobile and xBox editions will release on that Tuesday. One of the key takeaways from today's confirmation of the August 2 release was that the free upgrade from Windows 7 and 8/8.1 period ENDS on July 28 - 11:59P.   So meaning if you think you should wait until the August 2 date to upgrade - you'll going to end up paying for Windows 10 - which you just should not do.  Upgrade NOW for free and then you'll get Anniversary for free as well. What is interesting is that MS called out that 14376 actually contained some 1800+ fixes over 14372, but only listed around 20 in the announcem...

June 28 marked the 5 year Anniversary of Microsoft Office365.  Office365 combined Microsoft's core user productivity apps - Microsoft Office and the associated back end services, Exchange, Sharepoint and OCS/Lync into a bundle that enterprises could consume to provide that functionality in a by-the-user subscription model. By providing capabilities like 50GB Mailboxes and integration with on-premise services, along with the by-the-user pricing model, Enterprises saw real value and began migrating in droves. Over the last 5 years, Office365 has become a multi-billion dollar line of business for Microsoft and has effectively replaced the traditional on-premise model that effectively drove the careers of many an IT professional and well as sold a ton of compute, storage and networking gear and licenses. While in the early days of Office365 there were some very notable outages that drove a lot of press, today the service is pretty much as you would expect from a moder...

As typical with most corporate organizations - I was provided a phone and most recently I chose an iPhone 6s.  Previously I had also had a Galaxy S5 and in my case this time was not even given the choice of a Windows Phone. As a user of all 3 phone platforms, it's pretty easy to see why iPhone maintains a nearly 44% Market share here in the US while Windows Phone is under 2%. Let's start with the obvious - "it's the apps stupid" The app portfolio available on iPhone is second to none.  From Financial, to Travel, to Social, to Corporate, to Home - for every touch point that I want to have a mobile capability for is available on iPhone.  It's night and day from the Windows experience.  Even the MS apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, through MSN apps, Groove, etc are better than their native OS counterparts. Regardless of all the promises MS made around apps - they never got the traction with the developer communities and never will.  The modern mobi...