Windows 8

Announced Monday morning, and partially released over the night, Bing’s AppEx team has updated six core Windows 8 applications: News, Weather, Finance, Travel, Sports, and Maps. These are among the applications that are pre-installed on Windows 8, meaning that they are present on north of 60 million computers that run Microsoft’s new operating system. Before Continue Reading →

Despite ill omens, the IDC report about PC volume decline hitting -14% in the first quarter shows once again how much trouble the tech industry is having when it comes to dealing with the ongoing computer meltdown. As I wrote last December, IDC has been completely out to lunch about this key trend for years. Continue Reading →

Barnes & Noble content and tablet subsidiary Nook Media, part-owned by Microsoft specifically to help boost content for its new Windows 8 platform, put some of that strategy into action: it has announced that people who download the Nook app for Windows 8 will get five books and five magazines free of charge. This is Continue Reading →

Microsoft has tweaked its Mail, Calendar, and People apps for Windows 8 and RT users with some much-need improvements. The three core apps, which are bundled together, received some long overdue tweaks last night that make them a bit more user-friendly. But along with those improvements comes one negative: the Calendar app will no longer Continue Reading →

MetroStore Scanner (MSS) indicates that the Windows Store has passed the 50,000 application mark. MSS, an unofficial tracker, has been generally accurate in the past. That said, treat the 50,000 number with caution, and keep in mind that not all apps will be available in your area. The growth of applications present in the Windows Continue Reading →

Up until last year, it seemed to be an unwritten (or maybe written) policy that the Windows client team wouldn’t pay developers to write apps for Windows 8. But that edict seems to have been rescinded. Microsoft is now offering developers $100 for each Windows 8 and/or Windows Phone 8 app they write, up to Continue Reading →

There was a spate of Windows Phone scaremongering over the weekend, after speculation that the platform would be discontinued in mid-2014. This came about after it was noticed that Microsoft had published Windows Phone’s support lifecycle, just as the company does with almost all its other software. Per Microsoft: Windows Phone 7.8 is supported until Continue Reading →

Google Now is arguably the single best feature found in Android Jelly Bean, and soon, it seems, it may be coming to iOS, Windows 8 and Chromebooks everywhere. Google Now brings you search results before you even go looking for them. Just swipe up, inside of Google’s search app (or from any home screen on Continue Reading →

It’s safe to say that Jun Dong-soo, the head of Samsung’s memory chip business, won’t be getting a Christmas card from Steve Ballmer this year. The Korea Times reports that Jun told reporters on Friday that Windows 8 has failed to boost demand for personal computers and even compared Microsoft’s newest operating system to the Continue Reading →

The signs of doom are all aligned for Windows RT, which looks like it could soon inhibit the same plane of oblivion currently occupied by Microsoft Bob. Ars Technica’s Peter Bright has written a thorough pre-obituary for the current incarnation of Microsoft’s first attempt at creating a tablet-centric operating system, which he calls “a lemon” Continue Reading →