Software & Apps - Page 74

Microsoft wants people to be excited about Windows 10, which will be available later this year for PCs, smartphones, and other devices. However, it looks like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is especially excited about Cortana, the digital personal assistant currently available on Microsoft-powered smartphones.

Cortana is able to browse the Web, find things on a PC, remind users of calendar updates, and serve as the ultimate personal assistant. If used properly, Microsoft hopes Cortana will become a frequently used tool that can make interacting in the OS - and on the Internet - even easier.

"Cortana, that's perhaps the thing that's going to change personal productivity even most and especially with Windows 10 and how Cortana comes to Windows, both to the browser as well as to the Start [menu]," Sadella recently said during a financial analyst briefing. "I think it completely changes what personal productivity software means from a day-to-day experience."

Microsoft has previously announced that Windows 10 would launch in the summer, but according to AMD, we could see it launched as soon as July. The news is coming from a slip during their recent conference call, that Windows 10 would launch in July.

AMD's CEO, Lisa Su, said during the conference call: "What we also are factoring in is, with the Windows 10 launch at the end of July, we are watching the impact of that on the back-to-school season, and expect that it might have a bit of a delay to the normal back-to-school season inventory buildup".

If that's the case, we should expect two things: first, Microsoft will most likely make a very big push of Windows 10-powered devices during Computex in early June, and secondly; AMD will unveil its next-gen Radeon 300 series at the same time. This is just speculation, but AMD did say it would launch its new GPU sometime in Q2 2015, and the Q2 window is quickly running out.

Cyanogen has announced a new strategic partnership with Microsoft, something that would see the company "integrate popular Microsoft services across the Cyanogen Operating System".

The new partnership will see Cyanogen integrating and distributing Microsoft's consumer apps and services "across core categories, including productivity, messaging, utilities, and cloud-based services". The press release adds "As part of this collaboration, Microsoft will create native integrations on Cyanogen OS, enabling a powerful new class of experiences".

Cyanogen's CEO, Kirt McMaster, said: "People around the world use Cyanogen's operating system and popular Microsoft services to engage with what matters most to them on their mobile devices. This exciting partnership with Microsoft will enable us to bring new kinds of integrated services to mobile users in markets around the world".

With Microsoft not even releasing Windows 10 to the public yet, we're hearing about "Redstone" which is the codename for Microsoft's updates for Windows 10, due in both June and October 2016.

Redstone will be a series of updates that will reach Windows Insiders before the public, which will give enthusiasts some time to play around with the updated operating system. Microsoft isn't saying much about what Redstone will offer, but with the company hard at work polishing Windows 10 before its release, Redstone will most likely include whatever misses the RTM version of Windows 10.

Don't confuse Redstone with Windows 11 (or whatever Microsoft call the next version of its OS after Windows 10), as Redstone will be what Windows 8.1 was to Windows 8.

The current marketplace for mobile apps is maturing and usage is mellowing, according to a survey from the Gartner research group.

Users are integrating apps more deeply into their lives, but it's now becoming more difficult for app providers to try to stay one step ahead. App creators must focus on development, marketing and branding as even more apps seem to hit the market for smartphone and tablet users.

"It's not that smartphone users have lost interest in apps, users remain excited about what apps can do for them in their daily lives, including for work and nonwork app scenarios," said Brian Blau, research director at Gartner. "However, app users need to be convinced about the value of the app. Their willingness for new app experiences is open-ended, but their plan is to keep their same patterns of use. Users will try new apps, but they need to be convinced of an app's value before they adopt them and change use patterns over the long term."

Google has released an updated version of Gmail for Android that includes a new "All Inboxes" option which does exactly what it sounds like; offers all of your inboxes in one spot.

Even if you have inboxes from Outlook or Yahoo, Gmail for Android will display them, and you'll be able to read and reply to each e-mail, without swapping tabs or logging out. The Mountain View-based search giant has also teased that e-mail threads from external accounts will now be displayed with the same threaded conversation format that internal Gmail e-mails use.

The new integrated accounts will also make use of the improved autocomplete function, larger attachment previews and one-touch saves to your Google Drive account.

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor will be tasked with leading the Beats Music evolution, with Apple hoping the service could one day compete with Spotify. The Silicon Valley company dished out $3 billion for the company known for trendy headphones and earbuds - and a lot of people wondered what would happen to Beats Music.

Apple reportedly failed in its efforts to get music labels to lower licensing costs, as Apple wanted to sell a subscription to Beats Music for just $8 per month - $2 less than Spotify's $10 per month service. However, Apple - which once held great influence in the music industry - must adapt to changing times, with more users turning to streaming services over paid music downloads.

"They're used to being a shaper rather than a responder," said Toni Sacconaghi, financial analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, in a statement to the New York Times. "This is one of the few times where Apple is playing catch-up and not necessarily coming from a position of strength."

We've heard some great quotes from the CEO of Stardock, Brad Wardell before, but in his latest interview with Niche Gamer, he had some surprising things to say about DirectX 12.

During his interview, he had his attention most from the Game Developers Conference, where Wardell replied with "For me, it's the tech, what is going to be the tech story that comes out of here? What I hope most users get, I've had a lot of meetings with Microsoft, AMD, and a little bit of NVIDIA and Intel - they really need to hit home the fact that DirectX 12, Vulkan, and Mantle, allow all of the cores of your CPU to talk to the video card simultaneously".

"But everyone's really iffy about that, because that means acknowledging that for the past several years, only one of your cores was talking to the GPU, and no one wants to go 'You know by the way, you know that multi-core GPU? It was useless for your games.' Alright? No one wants to be that guy," he continued. Wardell also added: "People wonder, saying 'Gosh, doesn't it seem like PC games have stalled? I wonder why that is?' Well, the speed of a single core on a computer has not changed in years. It's been at 3GHz, or 2-something GHz for years, I mean that's not the only thing that affects the speed, but you get the idea. Now, with DirectX 12, Vulkan, and Mantle, it's how many cores you've got. We've got lots of those. Suddenly, you go by 4x, 5x, the performance".

First being released solely to Windows OS, we've seen HERE maps now expand to the Android and iOS platforms.

As according to the HERE team, the old version of this app was based on HTML 5 and an unworthy product for general use, however, it has now been updated and completely redesigned.

Nokia Press Services has told us that HERE has already seen 4 million downloads of its Android version alongside being provided to users for free - making it a serious competitor for Apple's and Google's standard maps offerings.

In this day and age, you really need to have some form of defense on your system, keeping the various nasties at bay. Enter Bitdefender Total Security Multi-Device 2015, which can protect not only your Windows-based PC, but your Mac and Android-based mobile devices.

With so many new threats and hacks being detected everyday, it's incredibly important to have some kind of software installed on your system to protect you. Without it, you are really leaving yourself open to attacks and other nasties if you don't know what you are doing.

The new security software also comes with something Bitdefender calls 'BRAIN' which stands for Bitdefender Reflective Artificial Intelligence Networks. The way the BRAIN works is by "using reflective machine-learning algorithms, Bitdefender can single-handedly identify and block threats on Windows, MacOS or Android devices".

Google has announced Android 5.1 Lollipop, the latest update to its mobile OS, which comes with some improvements and new features. We have the usual stability improvements and performance-enhancing code supplements, but the new features might have you happy.

Android 5.1 now includes multi-SIM support, and cross-platform HD Voice support - depending on the network, of course. Google has also provided Device Protection, where Android will keep your smartphone safe from intruders, even if they perform a factory reset on your smartphone after they've stolen it. This new feature binds your Android 5.1-powered device to your Google account, unless you choose otherwise.

The latest version of Lollipop has an updated Quick Settings menu, giving you more granular control over things like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi network switching. The latest Android 5.1 update should be rolling out to Nexus 6 owners soon enough.

Apple's media event has now finished, where we were introduced to a new 12-inch MacBook Air that is thinner and faster than ever, as well as a much more detailed and price run-down of Apple's first wearable, Watch.

With the newly released iOS 8.2, Apple has forced an Apple Watch application to your homescreen. The app itself doesn't do anything, as Watch doesn't launch until April 24, but this isn't just a forced app. This is an advertisement, forced onto all iPhone users, for Apple's largest launch since the iPhone.

You can't delete it, you can't remote it, it's an app that will stay on your homescreen for the foreseeable future.

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX Titan X is right around the corner, so it's time for AMD to come stomping on its parade with a new FreeSync-capable driver. We're sad it's not the Radeon R9 390X, but this will do until then.

AMD is seeing FreeSync monitors in multiple regions so far, with the company talking about its FreeSync drivers coming on March 19 recently. AMD said: "AMD is very excited that monitors compatible with AMD FreeSync technology are now available in select regions in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). We know gamers are excited to bring home an incredibly smooth and tearing-free PC gaming experience powered by AMD Radeon GPUs and AMD A-Series APUs. We're pleased to announce that a compatible AMD Catalyst graphics driver to enable AMD FreeSync technology for single-GPU configurations will be publicly available on AMD.com starting March 19, 2015. Support for AMD CrossFire configurations will be available the following month in April 2015".

This is great to see, as it means that NVIDIA has competition against its G-Sync module and G-Sync powered monitors that are on the market. AMD has plenty of monitors coming out this year with FreeSync baked in, with sizes between a 34-inch ultrawide monitor from LG (which we have on the way), right up to 4K, and back down to 1440p and 1080p, giving gamers and consumers plenty to choose from.

GDC 2015 - Unity Technologies has just announced Unity 5 at the Game Developers Conference, which will include a free, no-royalty Personal Edition to be used by small companies.

Unity 5 is capable of some pretty delicious graphics, as you can see from the screenshots above. Unity CEO John Riccitiello has said that Unity 5 is a "graphics powerhouse", and while it's not as good looking as some competing engines like Unreal Engine 4, we're still impressed. Oculus VR is right behind Unity 5, with Oculus VR founder and VR God himself Palmer Luckey also taking the stage during the Unity 5 announcement.

Luckey said: "The majority of the virtual reality experiences we've seen have been built with Unity technology. We're trying to make virtual reality available to everyone, not just consumers, but developers". Unity 5 will have Oculus Rift support very shortly, with Luckey adding "We've been collaborating for over two years with Unity and the results are awesome. It is really smooth and seamless now ... we have the ability to preview and publish to GearVR and Rift instantly".

It looks like Microsoft will soon announce officialy support for USB 3.1 Type-C for Windows 10, with both the standard and USB Dual Role to be supported. The company will be hosting its WinHec conference next month, with the official website teasing the new USB connectivity scenarios in Windows 10 to be discussed.

The page says: "Windows 10 introduces support for USB Dual Role and Type-C, which will enable new wired connectivity scenarios such a phone interacting with USB peripherals, or laptops connecting to an external display using the USB Type-C connector. This session will go into detail on how Windows supports these technologies and what you need to do to enable them. Topics include: Overview of the new use cases introduced with USB Dual Role and Type-C, What scenarios are and aren't supported for Dual Role devices, Using Alternate Modes (e.g. DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, or MHL) over Type-C, Support for Power Delivery, enabling devices to provide/consume up to 100W over USB, Hardware and software architecture changes for Dual Role and Type-C, and Building a Windows system with Dual Role and/or Type-C support. Intended Audience: OEMs, ODMs, IDHs, IHVs, Peripheral Manufacturers, Driver Developers".

USB 3.1 will be delivering a huge increase in transfer speeds, right up to 10Gbps, up from the current ceiling of 5Gbps that USB 3.0 provides. Thunderbolt is still faster, but the adoption of USB 3.1 should hopefully be much higher.

Apple may be the largest company in the world, but when it comes to the global smartphone OS market share, Google completely owns it with Android according to the latest report from the International Data Corporation (IDC).

With Google pushing out over 1.1 billion smartphones in 2014, a number that is up 32% from the 802.2 million Android devices shipped in 2013, Google is simply not stopping. Its mobile OS dominance was already there in 2013 with 78.7% of the global smartphone OS market share, but Google is out for more in 2014 with a huge 81.5%.

IDC has noted that Samsung is the top OEM of Android-powered devices, shipping more units than the five vendors under it. The report says: "At the same time, Samsung's total volumes for the year remained essentially flat while Asian vendors including Huawei, Lenovo (including Motorola), LG Electronics, Xiaomi, and ZTE fueled the most growth for Google's platform".

Lenovo was busted preloading the Superfish adware software on consumer notebooks, and its customers were clearly not happy. Following its Superfish headache, Lenovo wants to become "the leader in providing cleaner, safer PCs" to its customers.

The company continues trying to repair its public relations nightmare, recently promising a reduction in preloaded applications. In the future, pre-loaded software will include Microsoft Windows, security software, Lenovo applications and programs that must be installed so built-in hardware can function - but Lenovo will list what is installed.

Cybersecurity experts and US government officials said customers should remove Superfish because it leaves users vulnerable to SSL spoofing techniques that can compromise security. Lenovo will also offer a free six-month subscription for the McAfee LiveSafe service, with additional information expected in the next week.

When people think of a vulnerable operating system, the first thing that comes to mind is, well, Windows. But, according to a new report from GFI, that's not the case. The most vulnerable operating system in the world is actually Apple's MacOS X, followed by Apple's iOS.

GFI's report sees Apple taking the top two spots when it comes to OS vulnerabilities, with OS X having 147 vulnerabilities, and iOS with 127. Third position goes to Linux Kernel with 119 vulnerabilities, and Windows Server 2008 in fourth position with 38. Windows 7 funnily enough, comes in at fifth place with just 38 vulnerabilities, and comparing this to the huge 147 holes found in MacOS X, this should wake people up.

Over the course of 2014, there were 7038 new security vulnerabilities, up from the 4794 found in 2013. Out of those 7038 vulnerabilities, just 24% of them were deemed 'high risk'. GDI's Christian Florian explains: "2014 was a tough year for Linux users from a security point of view, coupled with the fact that some of the most important security issues of the year were reported for applications that usually run on Linux systems. Heartbleed, for example, is a critical security vulnerability detected in OpenSSL while Shellshock is a vulnerability that affects GNU Bash".

How much time to you spend being entertained by your phone? Presto has joined Stan and Quickflix, fighting for your eyes by providing another video streaming subscription option in Australia.

With Netflix said to launch in 'The Land Down Under' next month, Citrix Mobile Analytics claims that "the mobile user experience is, increasingly, a video experience," which would explain the sudden surge in openings.

Compatible with iPhone 5S, 5S and higher Apple models, Android users will see multiple devices supported across Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony and ZTE. Access can be granted through the Presto app on either the Apple App Store, Google Play or the Samsung App Store.

Lenovo has released a new Superfish adware removal tool for customers, which will allow them to verify the software application and certificate are removed. The company recommends running the automatic removal tool executable so Superfish is completely removed - but also provided manual instructions to the public.

The tool is available here.

Just a few days ago, Lenovo confirmed it disabled the adware program after public complaints. "We apologize for causing these concerns among our users - we are learning from this experience and will use it to improve what we do and how we do it in the future," the company said in a public statement.