Software & Apps News - Page 101

Early this morning, local time, news was spread by the mainstream media on a hostage siege taking place in Sydney's inner CBD involving 'Muslim Extremists' laying claim to an unknown number of hostages. If you're unaware of what's going on, one of the reputable news sources covering this unfortunate news (News.com.au) released a very simply laid out 'what we know' on the matter.

In light of local business evacuations and people rushing away from this threat, users began noticing that popular rideshare app Uber was charging users around the CBD a $100 AU to flee safely to their homes, this is said to be a "result of automatic surge pricing meant to get more drivers online" as according to News.com.au.

Mashable first reported on this issue, being sent screenshots of Uber's iOS application charging a $4/minute, $9.59/KM, $100 minimum cost, being clearly labeled in bold writing as "4.0X the normal fare".

The roads leading into France's capital city may be in jeopardy this Monday, as Parisian taxi drivers are vowing to block major highways to protest the rise of Uber's ride-sharing service application - adding to yet another countries Taxi demographic unhappy with the company's offering.

The court has refused a ban on the urban ride share service application Uber, seeing French cabbies threaten massive retaliation against the service that they claim is promoting unfair competition of their services.

UberPOP has a claimed 160,000 French users, with people being able to use their personal cars to transport passengers around at low rates. Taxi drivers are fed up with the recent rise in popularity of these services, bidding to the French commercial court to make a new law ot ensure Uber drivers have a harder time soliciting businesses. However, last Friday this law could not be enforced "until the government had published full details of the restrictions", as according to Business Insider.

The Microsoft Windows 10 leaked consumer build (9901) indicates users will be able to enjoy an Xbox app, giving them access to friends list, Store, activity feeds, achievements, and additional features. Microsoft previously promised increased gaming integration into the Windows 10 OS, and this early build shows what the company has in mind.

Meanwhile, Cortana in Windows 10 closely resembles the same orientation as Windows Phone, revealing Microsoft is serious about its efforts to make Windows similar across all platforms. Cortana was shown in early Windows 10 builds, but has been refined and looks significantly better in 9901, according to reports.

Microsoft will continue to promote its Windows 10 OS, as consumers and business users never truly jumped onboard the Windows 8/8.1 bandwagon.

According to a press release issued yesterday, TomTom's navigation technology will be featured in the 'Uconnect' infotainment systems installed in new Fiat 500X cars being sold throughout Europe, starting early 2015.

These Uconnect systems will come pre-installed with TomTom software including their traffic, speed camera, weather and 'places' services. TomTom will also see their navigation systems featured in these new production models, reportedly offering highly accurate traffic services, which are said to receive over 100 million kilometers of real-time traffic measurements daily.

TomTom's Vice President of Automotive, Jan-Maarten de Vries, commented that "We [TomTom] are delighted to extend our relationship with Fiat," further stating that "by adding TomTom's LIVE services and software including accurate traffic information, the latest road closure information and better routes, Fiat empowers drivers with more advanced knowledge of the road ahead, to help make journeys faster."

Microsoft's latest KB 3004394 update for Windows 7 is causing a myriad of issues for users, with the company asking users to remove it. The first issue is that some users are reporting that the new update blocks people from installing AMD's new Catalyst Omega drivers.

But AMD users aren't the only ones in pain over the latest update for Windows 7, with NVIDIA users confirming that it's now hard to install new GeForce drivers. It's not just graphics drivers and their installations that are problematic, some users are reporting that USB 3.0 drivers are now broken, and User Account Control (UAC) prompts are playing up. Microsoft has said it is aware of these issues, and that it even prevents the installation of future Windows Updates.

One of the worst things that this new update does to Windows 7, is disable the Windows Defender service, which is completely disabled with the new update. Microsoft has since issued a patch for the broken update, which is known as KB3024777, and is available directly through Windows Update.

The Windows KB3004394 update was issued on December the 10th and has just been confirmed by Microsoft as a major problem causer for many users - reportededly effecting only Windows 7, not Windows 8, users.

This update will not only possibly stop you from installing newer updates, but AMD's Robert Hallock has claimed that this update will prevent you from installing new software like graphics drivers - severely effecting the roll-out of their new AMD Catalyst Omega drivers which were launched on the same day as this update blow-out.

There have been many more reported issues on Microsoft's support forums, with users complaining that they are unable to run programs such as Windows Defender, VirtualBox and are receiving constant User Account Control errors.

We've just received reports that Microsoft will be releasing their "next chapter" of Windows 10 on January 21, 2015. This will be hosted in the form of a Webcast and in-person event held in Redmond.

Led by Chief Executive Satya Nadella and accompanied by senior executives from Microsoft's Operating Systems division (Terry Myerson, Joe Belfiore and Phil Spencer), this forum will see new operating system specifications and information as expected announcements.

After the reveal of Windows 10 in September by Myerson, this version was originally quoted as an enterprise product containing an interface that would look and feel familiar to those using the previous versions of 7 and 8 or 8.1. He went on to mention that "they [users] will find all the tools they're used to finding, with all the apps and tools they're used to today".

Microsoft plans to show off its Windows 10 operating system to the consumer world in January, while analysts believe it should be made available in a freemium format. There were previous rumors that Microsoft could introduce a "Windows as a Service" cloud-based, subscription service, which would be a significant shift in tactics.

If Microsoft plans to have Windows 10 run on billions of devices, then providing a freemium approach could be a lucrative option. It's possible Microsoft could offer Windows 10 free for end-users, and provide features and services based on a subscription fee.

"Microsoft is the only company who still builds a significant business selling an operating system," said Steve Kleynhans, Gartner VP. "Today, consumers see the OS as part of the device and don't really distinguish it as a component to be paid for separately."

Google has released an early Christmas present for Android users, with Android 5.0.1 factory images for the Nexus 9, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10 last week. Now the Nexus 6 and Nexus 4 smartphones can enjoy those same images.

You can grab the Nexus 6 Android 5.0.1 factory image here, while the Nexus 4 Android 5.0.1 factory image can be obtained here. Android Central has a great guide on manually updating your Nexus device before you use these factory images, something we definitely recommend. It shouldn't be long until Google pushes these updates over-the-air (OTA) but until then, you've got some factory images to play with.

MKV files are finally receiving some desktop support from Microsoft, where Matroska Multimedia Container (MKV) file support is now native under Windows 8.1, meaning you won't need to find a third-party piece of software to play them.

Even though MKV files are mostly associated with high-end pirated copies of TV shows and movies, Microsoft baking native support for the container could see this change. Windows 10 will also have native support for MKV files, as well as FLAC files. The company recently rolled out an update for the Xbox One that provided support for MKV, too. Microsoft is really changing lately, especially with this type of news happening, and it's a good thing.