REVIEW: Windows 10

Introducing Windows 10

Via Engadget:

With Windows 10's launch little more than a week away, Microsoft kicked off its marketing storm last night with the first commercial for the new OS. It's a bit more direct and human than the company's infamous Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates ads, with a focus on children and how they're growing up with touchscreens and a wealth of new tech. As with any major product launch, Microsoft is planning a huge multi-million dollar media blitz for Windows 10. The big theme this time around is "people who make a difference," reports ZDNet. The software giant will likely have a much easier time pushing Windows 10 on consumers since it steps back from some of Windows 8 more dramatic (and controversial) interface changes.

Tech Industry Coalition Issues Statement Calling For Full Federal LGBT Rights

In response to the ongoing RFRA battles, a coalition of over 100 major tech industry corporations has issued a joint statement calling for full federal LGBT anti-discrimination protections.

The values of diversity, fairness and equality are central to our industry. These values fuel creativity and inspiration, and those in turn make the U.S. technology sector the most admired in the world today. We believe it is critically important to speak out about proposed bills and existing laws that would put the rights of minorities at risk. The transparent and open economy of the future depends on it, and the values of this great nation are at stake.

Religious freedom, inclusion, and diversity can co-exist and everyone including LGBT people and people of faith should be protected under their states’ civil rights laws. No person should have to fear losing their job or be denied service or housing because of who they are or whom they love. However, right now those values are being called into question in states across the country. In more than twenty states, legislatures are considering legislation that could empower individuals or businesses to discriminate against LGBT people by denying them service if it they felt it violated their religious beliefs.

To ensure no one faces discrimination and ensure everyone preserves their right to live out their faith, we call on all legislatures to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes to their civil rights laws and to explicitly forbid discrimination or denial of services to anyone. Anything less will only serve to place barriers between people, create hurdles to creativity and inclusion, and smother the kind of open and transparent society that is necessary to create the jobs of the future. Discrimination is bad for business and that’s why we've taken the time to join this joint statement.

Signees include Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin, Yahoo, Netflix, Intuit, Uber, Salesforce, Cisco Systems, and PayPal. Hit the link for the full list.

Microsoft Unveils Windows 10

Via USA Today:

Microsoft unveiled the first details of its Windows 10 operating system Wednesday, which they say will span devices from PCs and game consoles to smartphones and tablets. Terry Myerson, Microsoft's executive vice president of the company's operating systems group, says the latest rendition of Windows focused on "more personal computing." Myerson says Windows 10 targets three pillars: "mobility of the experience," trust and "the right interaction at the right time," hinting the platform can be controlled by mouse, touch or even gaze.

Among the new features is the introduction of a successor to the Internet Explorer Web browser, dubbed Project Spartan. The browser, which will work across multiple devices, includes a note-taking feature for annotating webpages, a reading mode and built-in support for PDF files. The Start menu appears to be a hybrid of the classic Windows PC interface and the tile-based presentation of applications, allowing users to go full screen with the Start menu for more information. Microsoft will also add Cortana, the personal digital assistant users communicate with through voice, to PCs running Windows 10

Take That, Putin

Russia can tear down their monument to Steve Jobs because Apple CEO Tim Cook has come out, but that won't save their stock market. Via the Telegraph:

Apple is now worth more than Russia's stock market, new data have revealed. The US technology giant's market capitalisation has overtaken the combined value of all Russian public companies for the first time in history, Bloomberg reported. Apple, the world's most valuable company, has added $147bn to its market cap this year and was worth $652bn as of November 12. The shares closed up 1.2pc to $114.18 each on Friday. Russian equities have fallen $234bn to $531bn in the same period, Bloomberg data stated. Apple, led by Tim Cook, has being going from strength to strength in recent months, culminating in the release of the company's latest smartphones in September - the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Mr Cook revealed earlier this year that his company is also working on products that "haven't been rumoured about yet". Meanwhile, Russia has been struggling to cope with a falling ruble and tough Western sanctions as a result of its conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Just let that sink in. An out gay man oversees the company whose value exceeds all of the companies on the stock market of the world's most famously anti-gay nation. I think that calls for a "neener, neener." At least.

RELATED: In other gay-related business news, pro-LGBT Microsoft has unseated ExxonMobil as the world's second-most valuable corporation. The energy giant's slide to third place comes as oil prices continue to sag worldwide. For 17 consecutive years the shareholders of ExxonMobil refused to enact workplace protections for its LGBT employees. Only in July of this year did the company grudgingly agree to comply with President Obama's executive order protecting the LGBT employees of companies that contract with the federal government. Fourth place Google, not incidentally, is now poised to overtake ExxonMobil. If that happens, the world's top three corporations will be aggressively pro-LGBT tech firms. Neener.

Microsoft Previews Windows 10

There is no Windows 9. Via USA Today:

Microsoft on Tuesday lifted the veil on the next version of Windows: Windows 10. At an event in San Francisco focused on corporate users, Microsoft previewed early elements of the next generation of its iconic computer operating system. It represents the first step in a whole new generation of Windows, said Microsoft executive Terry Myerson. The company said it will focus on one Windows product family across devices. Its corporate users will find Windows 10 "familiar, compatible and productive," Myerson said. Microsoft's Joe Belfiore gave a demo, focused on the core experience in how the PC "is evolving." There are live tiles, familiar to Windows 8 users, but also elements familiar to Windows 7 users, which is far more widely deployed. The Start menu and task bar are front and center.

Cyber Monday: AOL Urges Change Of Passwords, Feds Say Don't Use Explorer

AOL was hacked today.

AOL Inc on Monday urged its tens of millions of email account holders to change their passwords and security questions after a cyber attack compromised about 2 percent of its accounts. The company said it was working with federal authorities to investigate the attack, in which hackers obtained email addresses, postal addresses, encrypted passwords and answers to security questions used to reset passwords. It said there was no indication that the encryption on that data had been broken. A company spokesman declined to say how many email accounts are registered on its system.

From AOL's blog:

AOL's investigation began immediately following a significant increase in the amount of spam appearing as "spoofed emails" from AOL Mail addresses. Spoofing is a tactic used by spammers to make it appear that the message is from an email user known to the recipient in order to trick the recipient into opening it. These emails do not originate from the sender's email or email service provider - the addresses are just edited to make them appear that way. AOL's investigation is still underway, however, we have determined that there was unauthorized access to information regarding a significant number of user accounts. This information included AOL users' email addresses, postal addresses, address book contact information, encrypted passwords and encrypted answers to security questions that we ask when a user resets his or her password, as well as certain employee information.

RELATED: The federal government today urged Americans to suspend usage of Internet Explorer.

The U.S. and UK governments on Monday advised computer users to consider using alternatives to Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer browser until the company fixes a security flaw that hackers used to launch attacks. The Internet Explorer bug, disclosed over the weekend, is the first high-profile computer threat to emerge since Microsoft stopped providing security updates for Windows XP earlier this month. That means PCs running the 13-year-old operating system will remain unprotected, even after Microsoft releases updates to defend against it.The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team said in an advisory released on Monday that the vulnerability in versions 6 to 11 of Internet Explorer could lead to "the complete compromise" of an affected system.

The End Of Windows XP

Microsoft has announced that as of today it will no longer support its Windows XP operating system.

"It's an old operating system," said Tom Murphy, director of communications for Windows. "Think of the cellphone you were using in the late '90s compared to what you see today. XP doesn't do the things we expect from our PCs or devices today." Maybe so, but getting consumers and small businesses to dump XP has been a bigger chore than anyone could have predicted. As recently as February, nearly 30% of all PCs in the U.S. were still running on Windows XP, according to Web analytics firm Net Applications. PCs running on Windows XP will still function as they did before. But Microsoft says it's unlikely that your PC will be secure, even if you're running anti-virus software. It's not only consumers who are vulnerable. Businesses have also been slow to upgrade. According to Softchoice, a supplier of information technology to businesses, about 40% of enterprises of all sizes still use Windows XP to some degree. In 7% of those firms, XP runs on more than 80% of devices.

Businesses and consumers are advised to visit Am I Running Windows XP to check which operating system is currently in use. Microsoft is offering a $100 gift card to those wishing to upgrade.

Microsoft Cheers Grammys Wedding

Microsoft Celebrates Edith Windsor

In a new commercial for Bing, Microsoft celebrates the "heroic women" of 2013, including DOMA champion Edith Windsor and distance swimmer Diana Nyad.

Microsoft Buys Nokia For $7.2B

Microsoft has purchased Finland-based Nokia's cell phone business in a $7.2B deal that the New York Times is calling an "audacious effort" to capture the mobile market that has "largely passed it by."

Late Monday, Microsoft and Nokia said 32,000 Nokia employees would join Microsoft as a result of the all-cash deal, which is meant to turn the Finnish mobile phone pioneer into the engine for Microsoft’s mobile efforts. Stephen Elop, the former Microsoft executive who was running Nokia until the deal was signed, will rejoin Microsoft after the transaction closes, setting him up as a potential successor to Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive. Mr. Ballmer has said he will retire from the company within 12 months. The Nokia deal echoes Google’s $12.5 billion deal to acquire Motorola Mobility, which gave Google control of a trove of mobile patents and a handset business that has yet to shine under Google’s ownership.

The above-linked article notes that Microsoft is using offshore cash for the deal and will therefore avoid US taxes. Microsoft made a similar deal in 2011 when it paid $8.5B for the Estonia-based Skype.

PC Sales Down After Windows 8 Release

According to reports released yesterday by two firms that analyze the computer market, PC sales have dropped steeply since the release of Windows 8.

The ailing personal computer market is getting weaker, and it's starting to look like it will never fully recover as a new generation of mobile devices reshapes the way people use technology. As if that news wasn't troubling enough, it appears that a pivotal makeover of Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows operating system seems to have done more harm than good since the software was released last October.

"This is horrific news for PCs," said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis. "It's all about mobile computing now. We have definitely reached the tipping point." First-quarter shipments of PCs fell 14 percent from the same time last year, according to International Data Corp. That's the deepest quarterly drop since the firm started tracking the industry in 1994. Another research firm, Gartner Inc., pegged the first-quarter decline at 11 percent.

The above-linked story notes that one of the firms did not include PC tablets or any device with a detachable keyboard in its sales analysis.

Bill Gates: Boy Scout Should Lift Gay Ban

(Via Towleroad)

MS Outlook Ad Features Lesbian Wedding

(Tipped by JMG reader Alyson)

Forbes Issues 2013 Billionaires List

According to Forbes Magazine, there are presently 1342 billionaires in the world. Other notables on the list: Michael Bloomberg (#13, $27B), Jeff Bezos (#19, $25B), Sergey Brin (#21, $23B), George Soros (#30, $19B), Mark Zuckerberg (#66, $13B), Rupert Murdoch (#91, $11B), Giorgio Armani (#131, $8B),  Donald Trump (#423, $3B),  Oprah Winfrey (#503, $3B), and Peter Thiel (#931, $1.6B).

Carrier Pigeons For NOM

Visit the pro-gay March 4 Marriage page on Facebook.

Goodbye Hotmail

Microsoft says that Hotmail users will be migrated over to Outlook.

Outlook.com is coming out of beta testing and is now ready for primetime. The service, which was announced last July, now has 60 million users and will now replace Hotmail.com, Microsoft's older webmail system. Microsoft's Hotmail, which was originally MSN Hotmail, has been online since 1997. Hotmail users will still keep their Hotmail.com email addresses and their contacts and emails will all be moved over, they will just now get a new user interface and all the new features of Outlook.com. Microsoft expects the upgrades for Hotmail users to be complete by this summer.

I guess it's not really "goodbye" if you get to keep the same address, yes?

Microsoft: Child Of The 90s

Nostalgia for the under-30 set.

Morning View - Microsoft Times Square

Microsoft's pop-up store in Times Square opened in late October to launch the Surface tablet.  Planet Hollywood occupied that corner for years but closed in June in order to split the space between a smaller version of itself and the Orlando-based Buca di Beppo, which next spring will join Applebee's, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Ruby Tuesday, Chevys, TGI Friday's, and other uniquely New York joints in Times Square.  The temporary Microsoft store looked jammed and we didn't bother to cross the street for a look.

The Gates Give $500K To WA Marriage

Bill and Melinda Gates have donated $500,000 to Washington state's campaign to uphold same-sex marriage.

The donation was announced Tuesday by Washington United for Marriage, which is working to approve Referendum 74. The donation was made on Oct. 15, but didn't publicly post online with the Public Disclosure Commission until Tuesday. Referendum 74 asks voters to either approve or reject the law allowing same-sex marriage that was passed by the Legislature earlier this year. Bill Gates had made a $100,000 contribution to the campaign earlier this year. About $11 million has been spent on the campaign so far, with a bulk of it spent by gay marriage supporters. Washington United for Marriage has far outraised its opponents, bringing in nearly $11 million compared to the more than $2 million raised so far by Preserve Marriage Washington, which opposes the law.

The most recent polling shows R-74 leading by almost 20 points.