Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is pushing developers To that end, Microsoft has published a new
Are you too lazy to open the door or switch on a light? Let Windows 10 and its Cortana voice-activated digital assistant do the job for you. Microsoft’s vision is to make home automation a breeze in Windows 10, and the company featured several related Internet-of-things announcements at its ongoing Build conference. Windows 10 will work with a wider range of devices and appliances by integrating new Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) protocols, scheduled to be released in 2017. Additionally, Cortana will allow users to easily automate tasks using a Windows PC, mobile device, Xbox console or Raspberry Pi 3. Users will be able to program “actions” so Cortana can be used to switch on lights, air conditioning or even unlock cars. For example, users will be able to speak, “lights” to their smartphones, and the bulbs will turn on.
Grab these new and updated Android apps for the weekend ahead.
Brave, a new privacy- and speed-focused web browser helmed by Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich, has a plan to get you to unblock ads. First
After a slow February, Windows 10 boosted its growth in users during March, data published today showed. According to U.S.-based analytics vendor Net Applications, Windows 10 powered 15.6% of all Windows PCs in March, a 1.4-point increase from the month prior. Net Applications measures Net Applications’ Windows 10 growth last month was 25% larger than the gains in February and the fourth largest since the operating system’s mid-2015 debut. Windows 10 continued to put distance between it and other versions of Windows, including Windows XP (with a 12% share of all Windows) and the combination of Windows 8 and 8.1 (13.3%). Windows 10 has been Microsoft’s second-most-popular OS, behind only Windows 7, since last month.
Critics of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have flooded the U.S. Copyright Office with tens of thousands of comments complaining about a process that often forces websites to kill user-generated content when faced with a copyright complaint. Before Thursday, the Copyright Office had received only about 80 public comments about
The only thing Google loves more than creating doodles on random anniversaries is April Fools’ Day. Google went too far with one Gmail prank during the 2016 online laugh-fest, however. Before you could said “April fools!” Google had to pull the joke after people complained of missed business opportunities and lost jobs. It all started out innocently enough. Who doesn’t love a good “drop the mic” joke—like this one featuring
Microsoft has quietly announced a few early partners that plan to bring their Windows 10 apps to the Xbox One. In a
When you open a data file, Windows uses the file’s extension (such as .docx, .mp3, .jpg) to see in what application it should launch. But this association between extension and application is malleable. Installation programs can change it, and so can you. Keep in mind that many file types can be opened by multiple programs. For instance, I have eleven programs on my main PC that can open a .jpg file. But only one of those can be .jpg’s default application—the one that loads when you double-click the file.
Tesla’s $35,000 Model 3 won’t be out until late 2017, and yet its reveal Thursday night at the company’s Hawthorne, California design studio put all other electric vehicles on notice. “We have an amazing product to show you tonight. I think you’re going to be blown away,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised. Unless something even more amazing comes out in the next year, the Model 3 will be the EV to beat. Full specs were not immediately available, but here’s what we do know: The base model will cost $35,000 before any federal or state incentives. As with other Tesla models, you’ll be able to choose pricier upgrades. The EV range will be at least 215 miles, Musk said—a little more than the expected EV range for the
CloudFlare is tweaking its systems to make it easier for legitimate Tor users to access websites that use its network to deliver content. Tor users have complained that CloudFlare-powered websites too frequently display The problem is that many computers employing Tor are engaged in abusive activity, resulting in CloudFlare displaying CAPTCHAs when it detects a computer using the Tor network. Legitimate Tor users thus have a poor browsing experience given the wide use of CloudFlare’s CDN.
There’s nothing quite like finding free Wi-Fi when you’re down to your last 200 megs.
Why might you want your favorite apps recoded into Microsoft’s UWP format? According to one Microsoft executive, it's because your app will help your PC run more efficiently over its lifetime. Longtime PC owners often refer to “bit rot”—the general slowdown that affects PCs as they age. “You probably notice that on day one, when you buy a brand new PC, it’s really fast,” explained Jason Ronald, the principal group program manager of Microsoft Game Studios. “It boots fast, it logs in fast, it’s just really fast." Over time, however, it just gets a little bit slower. "A big part of that, especially on the boot time," Ronald continued, "is what people refer to as ‘registry bloat.' That’s because each time you load a traditional Win32 .EXE application, the registry file within a PC grows and grows."
Geek up the grand old game with data feeds, social media, and other interactive enhancements.
