Windows 8.1 doubled its market share among operating systems in its first half-month on the market, according to a new report by web analytics firm Net Applications. The OS rose from 0.87% market share to 1.72%, for a 0.85% gain. The trend is expected to continue in November and beyond as Microsoft herds its customers […]
Just yesterday CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, announced he will retire within the next 12 months in order to bring in a new CEO who can stick around during the company’s transition into a services and devices company. A slew of interviews have followed and during one with Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet, Ballmer identified […]
Windows 8 is continuing its slow climb up the charts in market share, finally surpassing Windows Vista to claim 5.1% of all desktop operating systems during the month of June, while Vista settled for 4.62%. Windows 8 has been steadily gaining ground month by month, gaining almost an entire percentage point from May. However, while
Thanko released a totally waterproof MP3 player “Waterproof MP3 Player LITE 4GB”. You can listen to music under water with this product and it’s perfect for using while you surf, swim in the pool, ski, etc.
The earphone jack is not a plug-in type but screw-in type, so it doesn’t allow water to enter the main body. 2 kinds of ear pieces come with the product: regular ones for a regular life and ones for underwater that have 3 small plugs lined on each side.
Price: 7,980 …
President of Samsung‘s memory business division, Jun Dong-soo, has had less than favorable things to say about Windows 8, stating that it is just as bad as Windows Vista. This was said at a press meeting at the COEX InterContinental Hotel in Seoul earlier today. He went on to discuss the PC industry, blaming its faltering on Microsoft’s operating system.
It’s no secret the PC industry has been stumbling, no small part of that being due to the proliferation of smartphones and tablets. But Dong-soo says the blame also falls on Microsoft, with its Windows 8 operating system having received a mixed reception among consumers. Back in November 2012, for example, a survey by Avast showed that a mere 9-percent of users in the US planned to upgrade to a new PC with Windows 8.
Said Jun Dong-soo, “The global PC industry is steadily shrinking despite the launch of Windows 8. I think the Windows 8 system is no better than the previous Windows Vista platform. MS’s rollout of its Windows Surface tablet is seeing lackluster demand. Meanwhile, previous vigorous pitches by Intel and MS for thinner ultra-books simply failed and I believe that’s mostly because of the less-competitive Windows platform.”
He went on to say that it is expected the PC industry itself will fade away, an expectation that has prompted Samsung to greatly reduce the amount of memory chips it produces, instead ramping up production of chips for smartphones and tablets. He then discussed the Galaxy S IV and Samsung’s unveiling of the device in New York next Thursday.
[via Korea Times]
Samsung’s memory business president compares Windows 8 to Vista is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This week the folks at Socketeq have been pushing for a widespread testing of their software setup known as WindowsAndroid, running Android natively inside Windows OS. This system takes the Android mobile operating system and runs it on the Windows kernel – instead of Linux, that is, and therefor making everything move ultra-swift as it takes away the emulation layer that would otherwise be present. Sound like a fun project to you? Have at it right this minute!
This setup is currently working with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and requires a little more than base knowledge of how to work with Android outside of its standard smartphone housing. That means if you’ve never hacked your smartphone or tablet before, this might not be ready for prime-time for you at the moment. Once you’re in-the-know, on the other hand, you’ll be running apps and games of all kinds – including 3D games, so Socketeq promises – like a wild animal!
What’s extra fun about this whole situation is that it’s possible, depending on the setup you’ve got on your Windows machine, that you’ll be able to work with full touch controls as well as mouse and keyboard. Google added native support for both keyboards and mice (USB, Bluetooth, or otherwise) so you’ll almost certainly be working with those two ancient devices, but the future is wide open! It’s important to note here also that Android will still need your help running apps as this build comes with basically none – you’ll want to download Gapps (from one of the many sources we’re sure you’ve got a hold on right this minute) and flash them on your own once you’ve got WindowsAndroid running.
NOTE: WindowsAndroid currently runs on Windows 8 as well as Windows 7 and Windows Vista – good luck!
You can download WindowsAndroid from the Socketeq website by entering your email and basic info which they promise they’ll do no evil with therein. Be sure, again, to know what you’re doing before you download or start up any apps such as those spoken about above, and understand that SlashGear claims no responsibility for you destroying your systems for the fun of it. That said, have lots of fun!
Also be sure to check out BlueStacks, a system made to push Android apps to Windows and Mac computers that’s been in business for over a year – great stuff! Now the war will begin, users deciding whether they’d rather run natively or in an emulated environment. Which one will you choose?
[via Reddit; via Android Police]
WindowsAndroid runs Android without emulation on Windows 8 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apple has had to take security more seriously when a larger user base and the cloud have opened up greater risks. Thanks to a just-discovered hire, we now know 1 Infinite Loop isn’t messing around. While many of us were fixated on new iPhones in September, the company was quietly recruiting Kristin Paget as a Core OS Security Researcher. She’s had stints at eBay and Google, but she’s best-known for helping Microsoft while she was a security researcher at IOActive: not only did her team burst the bubble of Windows Vista engineers who thought their code was airtight, the group ultimately delayed the entire OS release to get security up to snuff. Given that Vista avoided most of the malware chaos that affected Windows XP even after Service Pack 2, Paget bodes well for the future protection of Apple’s platforms. Just don’t expect her to talk shop when she’s a security expert at a firm that tends to really, really value its secrecy.
[Image credit: Kristin Paget, Twitter]
Filed under: Internet, Software, Apple, Microsoft
Via: TUAW
Source: Wired
Relax, Gabe Newell. If you buy a new Windows 8 Pro PC and discover that you really do detest the OS that much, you may be able to switch back to an older version — either Windows 7 or Vista, but not near-death XP — under the same OEM license. Will many folks want to do that? Probably not, and in any case these so-called downgrade rights are actually only helpful in specific circumstances and they don’t come with boxed retail versions of the software. The main practical benefit (albeit still a niche one) is that a manufacturer could technically offer a Windows 7 disc in the box with a new Windows 8 machine and give customers a choice of OS. Alternatively, the manufacturer could install Windows 7 by default (effectively a factory downgrade) and supply Windows 8 Pro installation media so that customers can upgrade for free when they feel good ‘n ready. At some point, of course, staring at a redundant UI-switching button is going to grate.
Filed under: Software
Hate Windows 8 already? The Pro OEM edition will let you downgrade as far back as Vista originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Sep 2012 08:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Whether you see Windows Vista and Windows 7 Gadgets as handy tools or a blight upon a pristine desktop, you might want to shut them off for safety’s sake. Mickey Shkatov and Toby Kohlenberg have found that the desktop widgets’ web-based code have flaws that would allow malicious Gadgets, or even hijacked legitimate Gadgets, to compromise a PC without having to go through the usual avenues of attack. Microsoft’s short-term answer to the vulnerability is a drastic one, though: a stopgap patch disables Gadgets entirely, leaving just a barren desktop in its wake. There’s no word on a Gadget-friendly solution arriving before Kohlenberg and Shkatov present at the Black Hat Conference on July 26th, but we suspect Microsoft’s ultimate answer is to move everyone to Windows 8, where Gadgets aren’t even an option. We understand the importance of preventing breaches, of course — we’re just disappointed that we’ll have to forgo miniature stock tickers and weather forecasts a little sooner than expected.
Filed under: Software
Microsoft advises nuking Windows Gadgets after security hole discovery, we mourn our stock widgets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink Computerworld | Microsoft, Black Hat Conference | Email this | Comments
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