Software & Apps - Page 79

AMD has just released its new Catalyst 14.9 drivers, which has a massive list of performance improvements that it provides to various benchmarks, and some of the hottest games out right now.

The biggest improvements come to games like Murdered Soul Suspect on the Radeon R9 290X at 2560x1440 with 4x MSAA and 16x AF enabled, where there's performance improvements of up to 50%. Plants vs. Zombies receives an improved CrossFire profile, with the R9 290X in CrossFire at 4K seeing 92% scaling. Batman: Arkham Origins also sees improved CrossFire scaling, bumping up to 70% improvements.

Mantle improvements are also at play here, with Mantle being supported on AMD Mobile products with Enduro technology. Battlefield 4, Thief and Star Swarm all see improvements. You can read the full list of improvements, and grab the new Catalyst 14.9 drivers right here.

Microsoft Indonesia has reportedly confirmed that the upcoming Microsoft Windows 9 operating system will be a free upgrade for current Windows 8 and 8.1 users. The company is expected to host an event on September 30 to detail Windows 9, where pricing and release information should be revealed.

Although Windows 8/8.1 provides significant security updates and a "modernized" interface, many users refused to upgrade to the touch-centric OS. Microsoft has accelerated its operating system road map to meet changing consumer and business user demands, and Windows 9 should help gauge where the company stands.

It's also worth noting that as users become familiar with major software updates, such as Apple iOS or OS X and Google Android, for example, the updates are available for free. This is a great opportunity for Microsoft to prove it has listened to users and is prepared to make changes for the future.

Microsoft is expected to announce Windows 9 during a September 30 press event, which was unexpectedly confirmed by Microsoft France President Alain Crozier during a recent speech to employees. A "Windows Technical Preview" should become available shortly after the event, with numerous leaked images and details about the not-so-secret OS already available.

During the recent chat with employees, Crozier used the phrase "Windows 9" instead of the code word "Threshold" when discussing the upcoming OS.

Microsoft has an accelerated operating system roadmap, especially as users were unimpressed with Windows 8/8.1 - an operating system that was supposed to highlight touch capability - but instead left many users frustrated.

One of the big issues with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, is high resolution support, and DPI scaling. Well, it looks like Microsoft is listening to feedback, with Windows 9 reportedly supporting up to 8K displays, and improved DPI scaling.

PCportal has gotten its hands-on a build of Windows 9, with the image above showing off the new sizes for the Windows Explorer icon in Windows 9, with the image below showing the scaling for classic apps that can use the higher DPI. Higher resolution monitors are becoming the norm now, with 4K getting cheaper with every display released, and 5K even being teased.

We know Windows 9 is coming, but it looks like Microsoft is going to unveil its next desktop operating system on September 30, at a "Windows event" in San Francisco.

Microsoft has started emailing out its invites, with Joe Belfiore and Terry Myerson to lead the talks about the future of Windows. The event itself will also cover enterprise and power users, with a "Windows Technical Preview" expected to be unveiled shortly after, or hopefully even at the event itself.

We already know that Windows 9 will feature a new, new Start menu, virtual desktops, and a Notification Center. I'm sure we'll see some surprises in Windows 9, something we'll find out much more on in just a few days time.

Cyanogen is definitely doing alright for themselves at the moment, with the company meeting with some of the biggest companies in the world recently. Microsoft, Samsung, Amazon, Yahoo and more have met with the company "to see whether it becomes a potential partner or acquisition target."

Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, recently sat down with Cyanogen, which could be interesting for the company. Given that Cyanogen is a modified version of Android, which is owned by Google, Microsoft acquiring the guys and girls at Cyanogen could be something interesting for the future of Windows Phone.

Cyanogen is currently in search for a "big" Series C funding round, and with recent staff movements from EA and Facebook, it could get quite serious, quite quick for Cyanogen.

The clock is still ticking on Tizen, but Huawei boss Richard Yu thinks that Android and iOS will continue to dominate for the foreseeable future. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Yu said that his company has no plans to use the Linux-based open-source mobile OS, an OS that is backed by companies like Intel and Samsung.

Carriers have reportedly been asking Huawei to build a Tizen-based smartphone, with Huawei considering it at one point, researching into it. The project was cancelled, as the company feels that Tizen has no chance at being successful. Yu was also asked if Huawei was thinking of building its own mobile OS, but Yu was quick to point out that it isn't hard to build an OS - using Microsoft and Windows Phone as an example - that its the ecosystem behind it that is more important, and much harder to build.

Building a Windows Phone-based smartphone isn't profitable to Huawei, as it finds it hard to convince customers to use a Windows Phone device compared to an Android device. The company has now put all of its future Windows Phone devices on hold, concentrating solely on Android. Yu is aware that Huawei is putting all of its faith, and the future of the company (as we know it now anyway) into Android, but they have no other choice. Yu added that Huawei has a strong relationship with Google.

It looks like Microsoft could unveil its new version of Windows as previously reported, with Windows 9 to be unveiled at a special media event on September 30, according to The Verge.

We should see this event have Microsoft unleash a preview version of the OS, codenamed Threshold. Windows 9 will deliver an evolution of Microsoft's ever-changing desktop OS, where we'll see a new Start Menu, virtual desktops, the removal of the Charms bar, and much more. We should also see Microsoft include its digital assistant Cortana, but we don't know if this will make it into the preview build or not.

AMD has released the new Catalyst 14.7 RC3 drivers, which no longer support Windows 8 - something that AMD hasn't supported since the Catalyst 14.6 Beta driver. AMD recommends that Windows 8 users upgrade to Windows 8.1 for free, so that they can take advantage of the new features found in the Catalyst 14.7 RC3 drivers.

The new Catalyst 14.7 RC3 drivers offer "display interface enhancements to improve 4K monitor performance and reduce flickering" with the Radeon R9 290, R9 270 and HD 7800 Series all benefiting from this. The new drivers also offer some perofrmance improvements at 4K when gaming on Assassin's Creed IV, with up to 93% more performance with CrossFire.

You can download the new Catalyst 14.7 RC3 drivers here.

Companies should prepare sooner rather than later when it comes to upgrading from Windows 7, even though there are years left before support ends. Mainstream support for Windows 7 ends in January 2015, while end of extended support is scheduled for January 2020.

The end of extended support of Windows XP seemingly caught many businesses off guard, as they were reluctant to bother upgrading to Windows 7 or 8/8.1. Moving forward, Gartner recommends users deploy Windows 8/8.1 on new PCs, in an effort to phrase out Windows 7 slowly overtime. If companies are planning to phase out Windows 7 - but don't show interest in Windows 8 - then be prepared to upgrade to the latest-generation version of Windows.

"Organizations that have already deployed some Windows 8 PCs, or that decide that Windows 8.1 Update 1 provides an attractive platform, should not shy away from deploying new devices with the OS," according to Stephen Kleynhans, Gartner Research VP, in a blog post. "However, we expect that by the time an organization is ready for a broad rollout, Windows 8.1 Update 2 will have entered the market. Shifting deployment to Update 2 should be relatively straightforward for most organizations, and in that case, Windows 8.1 Update 1 should be seen as a pilot for that ultimate deployment."

There's not much reason to be excited over DirectX 12 just yet, but Intel was showing off the performance and power benefits of DirectX 12 at SIGGRAPH 2014. Microsoft used its Surface Pro 2 with Intel HD4400 graphics, showing off some impressive performance improvements, with heavily refuced CPU power consumption.

Intel had a demo that was rendering an asteroid field with 50,000 unique asteroids, each equating to 50,000 draws per frame. Each asteroid then had a unique combination of vertices, textures, and constants. Intel's demo was able to switch between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 with a single key press, but it could also lock the frame rate in order to keep the workload on the GPU at a constant level.

The company was showing people the benefits of DX12, with massive power gains being unlocked from Microsoft's new API. Intel locked the frame rate of the demo, rendering it for a period of time on DirectX 11, and then switching over to DirectX 12. As you see in the graph above, the CPU power consumption was reduced by over 50% when DX12 was enabled, highlighting the fact that DX12-enabled games could offer some serious reductions in power consumption on our devices.

Microsoft has launched a new iOS app that aims at people who are into knowing what is going on with their favorite celebrities at any time. The app is called Snipp3t and it launched recently. The app lets users follow celebrities to get news in a timeline style format.

It sounds sort of like Facebook for celebs, only communications are a one-way street it seems. The news from the people followed via the app is offered in a timeline-style format with news specifically from those you follow mixed with more general trending posts.

Each of the events that are trending will have multiple media reports, images, tweets, and related videos. The app does connect via Facebook so users can sign in and share stories to the social network. The app is available now in the US and only on iOS with no word on more countries or Android/Windows Phone support.

Microsoft has announced through its by the Numbers webpage that its Windows Phone Store is now home to over 300,000 apps. This doesn't begin to compare with Apple and Google, but it's a big milestone for Windows Phone, and Microsoft.

A Microsoft spokesperson spoke with The Next Web, where they said: "We have more than 300,000 Windows Phone apps today and the Windows Phone Store continues to grow. In the past year alone the Windows and Windows Phone app catalog has grown 94%, while the number of active developers has grown by 50%".

The company was asked when it reached the 300,000 app milestone, where TNW was told the data: "is as of end of June 2014". If we rewind to December 2013, Microsoft had 200,000 apps and rewinding further to June 2012, it had just 100,000 apps. So we're seeing many more apps uploaded to the Windows Phone Store as time goes on, with over 100,000 apps uploaded within the last six months alone.

We're starting to hear more and more about Windows 9, but what big changes should we expect with Microsoft's new desktop OS? For starters, we should be treated with a new Start Menu, as well as windowed "Metro-style" apps.

Beyond that, it looks like Microsoft will be removing its Charms bar, which is an overlay from the right hand side of the OS that gives users quick access to search, share, the Start screen, devices and settings. This new information is being reported by The Verge, which has seen the changes in the latest builds of Windows Threshold, the codename for Microsoft's upcoming OS. Charms are useful for touch-based systems, something I often used to quickly search for something on my Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro Ultrabook, but outside of that, it's close to useless on traditional mouse and keyboard setups.

Another new addition to Windows 9 is the rumored virtual desktops feature, that will see power users and enterprise customers welcoming the new OS. Windows has supported virtual desktops before, but always through third-party software, but now Windows 9 users will be capable of creating their own separate active desktops, with the ability of switching between by clicking, or tapping a button on the taskbar. The addition of virtual desktops shows that Microsoft is getting serious about its focus on the desktop.

Apple TV owners who also like NFL football games and content will get a new channel to enjoy this month. The NFL Now app is heading to the Apple TV according to an image that was leaked by a NFL employee during testing for the app. The app will offer personalized NFL content along with other content.

That other content includes on-demand highlights, extensive archives, and news broadcasts. The channel will also feature content produced by NFL teams with locker room interviews and player features. NFL Films content will also be included on the channel.

Live events and press conferences will be featured as well. The NFL Now app will hit Apple TV in time for fans to enjoy it during the 2014-2015 NFL season. NFL Now app will also be landing on other platforms includes iOS devices, Xbox, and Roku set top boxes.

Microsoft has issued an update for the popular Office for iPad app that brings some new tricks for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The update brings several user requested features to the apps, with one of the big new features being the ability to export files as PDFs.

Each of the apps has also received new Picture Tools that allow users to the ability to crop to focus on the portion of the image that's important. All three of the apps also get support for third party fonts in the update.

Excel also gets improved support for external keyboards and support for "Flick to Select" so you can select data in a cell with a flick of your finger. The new features for Word include the Picture Tools, fonts, and PDF feature. PowerPoint received more improvements with a new Presenter View, new presenter tools for highlighting and drawing, and more.

The latest numbers from market research firm Strategy Analytics for Q2 2014 see that Google is completely dominating the mobile OS market, with Android hitting a global market share of 84.6%, up from 80.2% in the same quarter of last year.

Google's biggest competitor, Apple, has just 11.9% market share, which is down 13.4% from the same period of 2013. Microsoft has also lost market share to Google, dropping from 3.8% in Q2 2013 to 2.7% in Q2 2014. BlackBerry is barely hanging on, dropping from an already low point of 2.4%, to just 0.6% this year.

When it comes to smartphone manufacturers, Xiaomi has become the world's fifth-largest brand, which has Strategy Analytics calling the company a "star performer" for taking control of 5% of the global smartphone market by shipping 15.1 million units. Samsung is still number one, with 74.5 million smartphones shipped in Q2 2014, down from 76 million units in the same quarter of 2013. Apple shipped more units this year, hitting 35.2 million shipments, up from 31.2 million in Q2 2013.

NVIDIA launches its kick ass new Shield Tablet today, and alongside it the company has launched its new GeForce 340.52 WHQL drivers. The biggest feature of the new GeForce 340.52 WHQL drivers is Shield Tablet support, as the company needs to update its drivers to bake in support for GameStream for its Shield Tablet.

The latest drivers are GameReady, which will include support for the upcoming Metro: Redux which arrives on August 26, and the Chinese launch of Final Fantasy XIV. There's not much else included in this release, other than the usual bugfixes. We do have WHQL goodness here, instead of a beta release that most people were running prior to the launch of 340.52 WHQL. You can grab the new drivers right here, or if you're like me, GeForce Experience will download them for you.

Hot on the heels of Microsoft's so-so fiscal fourth quarter earnings, CEO Satya Nadella has pledged that the Windows experience is set to be unified across all devices capable of running a variant of the OS.

Speaking with analysts during an earnings call, Nadella suggested Windows is currently a fragmented experience. "We will streamline the next version of Windows from three operating systems into one single converged operating system for screens of all sizes," he said in the call. It is thought the efforts could also provide a much-needed boost to the company's ailing app ecosystem, which pales in comparison to the marketplaces on iOS and Android.

It was also confirmed that the company had scrapped a "new form factor" being developed - which could well be the Surface Mini, a teeny tablet running the much-mocked Windows RT, details of which leaked earlier this year. "During the quarter, we reassessed our product roadmap and decided not to ship a new form factor that was under development," CFO Amy Hood said in the call. Of course, it's unclear right now just what this means for the future of Windows, other than users hopefully getting a more seamless experience between devices, and perhaps a rethink of the future for Windows RT.

There are many mobile wallet apps out there that allow you to do things like store credit cards and debit cards. There are also different wallet apps that allow you to send money digitally to other users. Amazon has launched a new wallet app called Amazon Wallet that is designed to be used at the point of sale in stores.

Amazon Wallet lacks some of the features you might expect with an inability to store credit cards or debit cards and no ability to send payments. That may not be a big deal to some security conscious users out there. What Amazon Wallet can do is store your gift cards and loyalty cards.

Using the app, you can scan or type in gift card and loyalty card numbers. The goal is to help you reduce clutter in your wallet. Perhaps future updates will let you add in credit and debit cards for use at the point of sale. The Amazon Wallet app is available on the Amazon Appstore and Google Play.