Software & Apps News - Page 92

It looks like we could see Microsoft offer up Windows 10 on USB flash drives, compared to the usual DVDs that we've seen the company do with previous versions of its operating system. Intel has also teased its new Skylake-based Core i7-6700K for the week after Windows 10, if you were waiting on a new CPU upgrade.

German site WinFuture has the rumor, stating that Microsoft will sell USB flash drive versions of Windows 10, alongside the DVD copies of the OS. The report states that both Home and Professional versions will come in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, with a USB flash drive allowing Windows 10 to be installed and licensed for use on a single PC.

Microsoft will reportedly have a more expensive price tag attached to the USB flash drive versions of Windows 10, with a $25 increase on the $199 price of Windows 10 Home, while a $38 price increase on the $199 price for Professional. Not too bad, especially given the super convenience and increased speed of installing the OS from a USB flash drive provides.

With Microsoft all systems go for the release of Windows 10 on July 29, just a month from now, we're hearing about Intel's next generation processors. Intel is set to release both a new processor lined based on its Skylake family, as well as a new 100 series chipset, which will have the likes of GIGABYTE, ASUS, MSI and the rest with new motherboards on the Intel 100 series, lead by the Z170 chipset for enthusiasts and gamers.

Intel will be releasing the new Skylake processors in two stages, where during the "Intel Extreme Masters Cologne" in Germany on August 7, Intel will unveil the new Core i7-6700K alongside the Core i5-6600K. The rest of the next-gen Skylake offerings will be announced at IFA 2015 in Berlin, Germany between September 4 and 9.

We are to expect the new desktop-class Skylake-S processors in the form of the Core i7-6700 / 6700T, Core i5-6600 / 6500/6400 / 6600T / 6500T / 6400T. The high-performance mobile Skylake-H offerings will include the Core i7-6820HK / 6700HQ, Core i5-6300HQ, Core i3-6100H. Next, we have the low-power mobile Skylake-U series with the following processors: Core i7-6500U, Core i5-6200U, Core i3-6100U. Finally, the ultra low-power mobile Skylake-Y will include the Core M-6Y75 / 6Y54 / 6Y30.

The US Navy was unable to upgrade from Windows XP before Microsoft pulled the plug on support, and will pay at least $9 million for additional help. Specifically, the Navy will receive critical hotfixes and additional software patches for Windows XP and other software.

The deal is expected to run until July 2016, though both sides agreed to the possibility of support until June 2017 - and would cost over $30 million. Without going into details, the Navy has "legacy applications" that must run on Windows XP - and it is taking longer than expected to make upgrades and improvements.

"Nearly all the networks and workstations afloat and ashore will benefit from the Microsoft Premier Support services and Microsoft Custom Support services for Windows XP, Office 2003, Exchange 2003 and Server 2003,"said Steven Davis, spokesman for Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, in a statement published by ZDNET.

If you're a Google Chrome user, on the 17th of June your browser will have downloaded and installed an audio listener onto your computer as reported by We Are Change.

This was discovered by a user noticing that microphone and audio capture were now switched automatically to "Yes" on their PC, allowing Google to listen in to what's going on through the help of your beloved internet browser without consent.

Said to be added in order to ensure "Ok, Google" working quickly and efficiently, many users are upset about this claimed breach of their privacy as it basically means Google can listen in at any time without asking you to install this update.

Google has recently done the world some good, by detecting and shutting down any unnecessary Flash content in Chrome, which improves battery life on mobile devices and notebooks.

But the company isn't just stopping there, as it's just the first change in Chrome in order to reduce the battery consumption foorprint of its popular browser. Senior Chrome Engineer, Peter Kasting, recently took to Google+ to talk about some of the changes the Mountain View-based search giant is going, which has them starting with how Chrome renders background tabs.

Up until now, Google has rendered all tabs with the same priority, but as you can imagine this isn't great on battery life. From now on, Chrome will be prioritizing foreground tabs over background tabs, which is sure to save some battery life. The team is also working on reducing the CPU usage that is used during Google searchers, by shifting the number of wakes down from around 390, to just 120, cutting CPU usage from 0.3% to 0.1%.

Apple has unveiled iOS 9 at its developer conference in San Francisco, but the Cupertino-based giant has also unveiled WatchOS 2 for the Apple Watch, and OS X El Capitan for Macs.

First up, iOS 9 is set to deliver some big improvements to features found in iOS like Siri and Spotlight, as well as the usual performance improvements, and revamping the experience of iOS for iPad users. Apple has completely revamped Spotlight Search, with some Google Now-like features. A new screen will show users relevant information based on external factors such as your location or the time of your day, just how Google Now works.

One of the areas that iOS users should be happy with improvements is Apple Maps, where maps of transit routes and public transportation maps now available on a city-by-city basis. This will expand as time goes on. Apple Maps in iOS 9 is lso capable of showing you information on nearby stores, where you can then search by category, as well as look at detailed information on businesses like their phone number, opening hours, and whether or not they support Apple Pay.

Since Windows 10 launches on July 29 and will serve as a free upgrade of sorts for Windows 7 and 8/8.1 users, it's expected there will be plenty of users trying to upgrade. The ATM Industry Association is recommending financial institutions and businesses look to upgrade their active ATMs to Windows 10 as soon as they are able to.

It was only a recent shift from Windows XP to Windows 7, and with support for Windows 7 ending in five years - now could be a time to make use of Windows 10, which includes security enhancements. Don't count out Google Android as OSes that could find their way to ATM machines in the future.

"ATM deployers should start their 2020 migration without delay," said Mike Lee, CEO of the ATM Industry Association, in a statement, "as ATM hardware purchased now will still be in use when support for Windows 7 OS ends in that year. This means terminals would need to be upgradeable and compatible with the next big operating system. It's important to know which ATM configurations are going to be Windows 10-compatible."

Following our recent news which saw Firefox place 'read-it-later' support directly into the browser, Mozilla has now launched a marketing campaign titled with the slogan 'FoxYeah' in a bid to win over more users.

The spiel at the top of the page reads "know someone who needs to download Firefox? #FoxYeah you do! Go ahead, send them a personal invite below," and seems like a bid to turn its users into some form of fan-boys, advocating for a brand they support.

With panels on the foxyeah.Mozilla website telling users to do things like invite followers, 'invite your peeps' and more, he page continues on for quite some time telling you which people you should invite from random walks of life.

Microsoft will publicly release Windows 10 on July 29, with the company making an announcement courtesy of its "Blogging Windows" blog. Windows 10 was expected sometime during the summer, and Microsoft wants to make good on its promise.

However, there could be a mad scramble to upgrade starting on July 29, and Microsoft is preparing for possible chaos:

"One of [the] things that we can do for people who reserve is pre-download some of the bits to their PC so that those people aren't blocked on the Internet pipe trying to deliver lots of and lots of Windows bits starting on (July 29)," said Joe Belfiore, corporate VP for the OS group at Microsoft, in a statement published by USA Today.

Worldwide PC shipments will drop 6.2 percent in 2015, marketing the fourth consecutive year of declining market volume, according to the IDC research group. Microsoft will release Windows 10 this summer for the PC, and additional rollouts will take place shortly after, the company has confirmed.

"Microsoft and PC vendors still need to convince users of the advantages of the new OS and new PCs, which will take some time," said Loren Loverde, VP of worldwide PC trackers at IDC. "In addition to educating clients, they'll face tough competition from other devices, and weak spending in many regions. As a result, we see PC shipments stabilizing in 2016, followed by limited growth for the next few years."

Looking ahead, Microsoft expects Windows 10 to be on more than one billion devices in just three years, and will help consumers upgrade. When do you plan to install or upgrade to Windows 10?