Microsoft has finally announced its new OS. The Wi-Fi password at today’s intimate San Francisco event was "Windows 2015", leading some to speculate that Microsoft might have chosen to return to naming its OS after the year of launch (a nod to Windows 95/98), but that turned out not to be the case -- a wise move. So what name would the tech giant choose? Not Windows 9, the obvious and expected pick, nor Windows One, the rumored alternative.
Microsoft, which recently announced the consolidation of several of its conferences, is now going in the opposite direction and resurrecting WinHEC, which was last held in 2008.
WinHEC, first held in the early 1990s, was an annual engineering conference aimed at Microsoft hardware partners, with the goal of helping them better integrate their devices with the company's operating system and other software.
A two-day conference on high-skilled immigration policy, which attracted researchers from the U.S. and Europe, offered Microsoft an opportunity to voice frustration over U.S. immigration policy.
William Kamela, a senior federal policy lead at Microsoft who detailed the stakes and options his company faces, said the firm will apply for “roughly” 1,000 H-1B visas in next April’s application period. “And we will get maybe 50% of those,” assuming there is another visa lottery, he said. Lotteries are held once the overall 85,000 cap is exceeded.
Microsoft is trying to attract developers to its Windows Phone mobile operating system, having reduced the cost of a developer membership and improving its benefits.
Microsoft is now offering lifetime accounts for Dev Center, with a one-time registration payment enabling developers to submit apps for Windows Phone and Windows, which costs $19 for individuals and $99 for companies. Previously developers would have had to pay this subscription fee once a year.
Microsoft will shutter its standalone Trustworthy Computing group, folding elements of the unit’s work on security, privacy and related issues into its Cloud & Enterprise Division, and its Legal & Corporate Affairs group.
It’s the latest change related to the company’s new round of layoffs, announced this morning. A spokesman confirmed that an unspecified number of jobs are being eliminated from the Trustworthy Computing group as part of the changes.
At Microsoft's own request, a judge has held the software giant in contempt of court for failing to comply with an order to give US authorities access to customer emails housed in a data center in Dublin, Ireland.
Redmond's request was made jointly with government prosecutors, with the aim of expediting its appeal of the July 31 ruling that it must disclose its customer's data, Bloomberg reports.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft is in talks to buy Swedish game developer Mojang, best known for its block-based zombie survival building game Minecraft. Citing a "person with knowledge of the matter," the purchase would value the developer at more than $2 billion.
Cyberattackers curious about the contents of users' hard drives will now have a tougher time finding that information, thanks to a new patch that Microsoft issued Tuesday in the latest round of "Patch Tuesday" bug fixes.
This iteration of Patch Tuesday fixes, which Microsoft releases on the second Tuesday of each month, was a relatively small one for the company, said Amol Sarwate, director of vulnerability research at IT research firm Qualys. This edition contains four bulletins covering 42 vulnerabilities.
Linux doesn't have any kind of PR, and in the collective mind of the people, there is still an impression that Linux users spend their time inside the terminal and in dreary desktops. In fact, most of the current Linux desktops are much better than anything made by Apple of Microsoft.
Microsoft has started to push out updates that will re-brand the Nokia apps that are on your Windows Phone. An app, for example, previously called Nokia Cinemagraph, is now called Lumia Cinemagraph.
These updates should not come as a surprise as we fully expect Microsoft to slowly transition over the entire Nokia portfolio into its own branding. From these apps, it looks like they will stick with the Lumia branding for Nokia related products which is likely a smart move considering the strong brand recognition with that name.
