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Microsoft
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July 29, 2019Google posted a strong quarter this past week the company is reporting revenue of $38.9 billion, up 19 percent year-over-year. Microsoft reported revenue of $33.7 billion, net income of $12.4 billion, and an operating income of $12.4 billion. Google profits hit $9.9 billion, up 201 percent over a year ago. Google went on to say on their earnings call that the launch of Pixel 3A in May, there much cheaper of the flagship Pixel phone series is part of the reason Pixel unit sales in Q2 grew more than two times from the previous year. Googles hardware division which is boosting revenues up 40 percent to $6.2 billion. Which covers all of the Googles outward-facing consumer services is bigger than Microsoft entire Surface hardware business as Microsoft Surface revenue has grown by 14%, totaling $1.3 billion. Microsoft does not release Xbox numbers often, but my guess is Microsoft entire hardware business of Surface and Xbox do not even come close to Googles entire consumer market share even with Xbox live. Google’s Cloud generated revenues of about $2 billion in the quarter, a far cry from the $8.4 billion that Amazon AWS generated and Microsoft $11 billion in the same time period. Google is a distant number three after AWS and Microsoft Azure in the cloud market. Google did not mention any more Gsuite subscription numbers they are still reporting 5 million paying users and 70 million G Suite for Education users. I would like to point out Google or Microsoft for education customers do not pay. Microsoft is boasting 180 million active Office 365 users and 1.2 billion people paying for some form of Office365 service. Microsoft Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased by 14%, with Office 365 Commercial revenue growing by 31%. Office Consumer products and cloud...
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June 14, 2019In the latest version of the Windows 10 Insider Preview release Microsoft unveiled their Windows Subsystem for Linux 2. Unlike the previous version WSL 2 includes a full Linux kernel tailored by Microsoft to run more Linux programs than ever before. Microsoft says in their blog post “WSL 2 is a new version of the architecture that powers the Windows Subsystem for Linux to run ELF64 Linux binaries on Windows. This new architecture, which uses a real Linux kernel, changes how these Linux binaries interact with Windows and your computer’s hardware, but still provides the same user experience as in WSL 1 (the current widely available version). WSL 2 delivers a much faster file system performance and full system call compatibility, which lets you run more applications like Docker!” You can experiment with it today, although you’ll have to join the Windows Insider program for Windows 10 on your PC. Microsoft command line tools for developers has instructions on how to install and configure the new Linux Kernel. Microsoft spoke about WSL 2 and a full Linux Kernel at Build in May. Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 uses Hyper-V features to create a virtual machine with the Linux Kernel. The Hyper-V virtual machine will automatically launch at startup and use a bit of memory in the background, but Microsoft promises a small memory footprint. What surprised me is Microsoft has mentioned that even users of Windows 10 Home will get access to the full Linux Kernel even though Hyper-V is not a feature of Windows 10 Home. I found that to be an interesting note and I am not sure why Microsoft is doing this but it’s interesting to see how that works out for them I am not sure many home users will use the Linux Kernel but you...
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The battle to lead in cloud computing narrows down to two key players of the internet named Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Both have made massive investments in their services and get profits of billions. “95% of Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft Azure while AWS (Amazon Web Services) has a hold on 62% of the market. As a result, AWS revenue got increased by times of Azure´s revenue.” Microsoft Azure, formerly called Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform is the top vendor in the launched in 2010. Today it is available to 140+ countries across 54 regions, provides hundreds of services and best end-to-end tools. AWS launched in 2006; today spans 19 geographical regions around the world. It is an evolving and comprehensive cloud computing platform provided by Amazon. While Microsoft offers Platform As a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure As a Service (IaaS), and Software As a Service (SsaS), Amazon also provides all three major categories of Cloud computing. However, Microsoft Azure greatly deals with PaaS and SaaS. But, AWS IaaS services are divided into five different categories Storage, Database, Computes, Networking, and Content Delivery. According to Synergy Research Group, AWS is leading the public cloud infrastructure with 34% market share whereas Microsoft is at 14% market share, IBM Cloud at 7% and Google Cloud at 6% market share. “Thus, AWS stands out to be the first company offering pay-as-you-go cloud computing service model.” AWS vs. Azure: Basic Highlights Both companies offer similar services, such as microservices, DevOps, Big Data, and databases. So let’s first check basic things about both AWS vs Azure: AWS Basics Amazon’s AWS Infrastructure-as-a-Service has services in four different classes: Content storage and delivery Compute Networking Database Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are the core platforms on which everything is...
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Microsoft announced today that Apple’s iCloud app is now available in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10. Apple put a lot of focus on iCloud at their WWDC conference, so it is not surprising that Apple would launch its new iCloud app for Windows 10 this week. Back in April of 2018, Apple launched iTunes in the Microsoft Store which looks to be the final version of iTunes. iCloud is home to iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders and Safari Bookmarks which sync to Apple iPhones, iPads and Macs. Microsoft announced on their blog “The new iCloud for Windows app introduces a new iCloud Drive experience for Windows 10 users powered by the same Windows technology that also powers OneDrive’s Files On-Demand feature, enabling users to be more productive offline on mobile devices and quickly share files on iOS.” iCloud added some additional features to their client Access your iCloud Drive files right from File Explorer, without using up space on your PC Choose the files and folders you want to keep on your PC Safely store all your files in iCloud Drive and access them from your iOS device, Mac and on iCloud.com Share any file right from File Explorer and easily collaborate with others – edits will be synced across your devices iCloud for Windows is now available to download as an app in the Microsoft Store worldwide.
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Microsoft today announced the preorder of Microsoft To-Do for the mac via Twitter. Microsoft has been improving Microsoft To-Do across all platforms but has yet to ever put out a Mac App. It’s almost here! Pre-order the Mac app today—https://t.co/iHVNnmHT9J pic.twitter.com/1d4sydJSu4 — Microsoft To-Do (@MicrosoftToDo) June 10, 2019 Microsoft To-Do is free or can be part of the Office365 package. On the app page on Apple’s website, the following features will be available on the launch date. Stay focused with My Day, a personalized daily planner with suggested tasks Get your lists anywhere, on any device Share lists and tasks with your friends, family, colleagues, and classmates Create color-coded lists Set one-time or recurring due dates and reminders Break your tasks into manageable steps Add notes to any task Attach files up to 25 MB to any task Sync your tasks between Outlook and To-Do Add multiple accounts and quickly switch between school, work, and personal lists The Microsoft To-Do app on the Mac is overdue with many Mac users complaining about using the web app that was offered by Microsoft since the web version of To-Do is slow to get as feature updates like the Windows 10 or mobile apps gets regularly.
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June 5, 2019Microsoft is rolling out a screen sharing a new feature for Skype on iOS and Android. Skype now lets you screen share your phone’s screen with your friends on Skype without the need for a third-party solution or app. The feature works for iPhones running on iOS 12 or newer and uses the native Screen Recording feature on iOS to record your screen and stream it live on video calls. As for Android, it should work for devices running Android 6 or newer. Skype blog notes “Whether you have a last-minute meeting on the go, or your dad doesn’t know how to use his phone—screen sharing on Android and iOS lets you get it done from anywhere. Maybe you want to shop online with your best friends, or you need to collaborate with someone on the other side of the world from the comfort of your couch—no need to drag out the laptop! Simply start a Skype call, tap the brand new “…” menu, and start sharing your screen.” Skype went on to announce the redesign of mobile calling features. That brings features, like screen sharing, call recording, and subtitles to the new clutter-free design seamlessly. “A single tap will dismiss the call controls and let you fully experience the most essential Skype feature—a video call without any obstructions. Want to make it even cleaner? Try a double tap to remove it all. A single tap brings all the controls back, with everything you need the most at the front and center.” I think these features will be most useful for Skype Users on the go every day.
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June 4, 2019WWDC had some big announcements one that iTunes will be broken up into three separate apps Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV on all MacOS devices but what does this mean for Apple music users who use Windows. According to Apple, they have 100 million users on MacOS but Microsoft Windows is the most popular desktop platform with 1.5 billion users. Many Apple Music users like me that run Windows were wondering what is going to happen to Apple Music on Windows. Arstechnica reports on their blog “Apple says users of iTunes under Microsoft Windows will not see any changes. It won’t be broken up into several apps; it will work just like it does now. However, Apple did not provide any clarification about what support will be like for future features. The company simply says that Windows users will continue to have the same experience as before and that it is not announcing any plans to end support for iTunes in Windows. But keep in mind: that only means for now. Apple might one day bring an Apple Music application to Windows just as it has to Android. But just as the iTunes era seems to be ending for the Mac, it will continue for the immediately foreseeable future in Windows—so iTunes is not really dead. At least not yet.” Many people have brought up that Apple Music and Apple TV will be on Android. My take on all this is Apple Music is on Android for the same reason that iTunes was on Windows back when the iPod was released. Apple simply has no choice, due to the popularity of that platform and the edge it gives to competing services. Apple needs to be on Android to compete with Spotify. Apple needed iTunes for Windows at the...
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May 29, 2019I recently purchased a Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 to replace the aging HP that I have been using to test and work on Windows 10. Microsoft has been pushing the Microsoft Surface brand for many years now and has become one of the top five computer manufacturers in the world by selling only premium Microsoft Surface laptops and tablets to consumers. I really like the Surface Laptop 2 as it’s a big improvement over my Surface Pro 3 and my HP laptop for one the screen is better with the 2256 x 1504 (201ppi) this is a huge jump for me over my HP. I find the display very sharp and the fact that its touchscreen does make me favor it over my MacBook Pro for reading. I got the Intel i7 which is a great processor and I am guessing that Microsoft will release the Surface Laptop 3 or make an upgrade to the Surface Laptop 2 to allow the Intel i9 as Apple did recently. I was surprised as well that I cannot add more than 16 gigs of ram to this computer there is no option on the Microsoft Site I am again guessing that may be an option for the next model. I did get a 512 Solid State Drive to make sure I had enough storage I thought the 1 TB might be overkill and decided to save a little money considering the 1 TB drive added another $500 dollars to the already $2,000 purchase. I did order my Surface Laptop 2 with Window 10 Pro you can order it with Windows 10 Home and save a few dollars on the cost I would rather pro personally. I like how the front-facing camera is 720p Windows Hello facial authentication since I plan on using Windows...
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May 28, 2019Microsoft has been pushing their new Edge browser which is based on the open-source Chromium browser standard. The truth is Microsoft needs to standardize Edge on the Chromium standard since their current edge browser has little to no mark share. Microsoft made a big mistake tying Edge to the operating system in the first place a few years ago when Windows 10 was released. Windows 10 gets updated with features twice a year where Chrome gets updated every six weeks which right from the start put Edge at a disadvantage. Then the lack of browser extension support for Edge I think was the final end for Microsoft and the reason the shift to Chromium happened. If Microsoft would have made Edge available on every platform like they did with Internet Explorer and now Edge built on Chromium they would have not fallen to a four percent market share in the browser market. Microsoft needs Edge to be Chromium based because they need a browser that has a rich browser extension store to offer users of Edge. Using Chromium as the browser base allows Microsoft to port their apps over and allows users to install extensions from other stores like the Google Play Store. Using Chromium allows Microsoft to break the browser off from Windows 10 and develop for other platforms like Windows 7, Windows 8 and MacOS. Since Chromium looks like Chrome it allows Microsoft to possibly make users stay with Edge and not download Chrome. Going with the Chromium standard allows Microsoft the ability to update Edge every six weeks like Chrome rather than twice a year with the cumulative update packages. Going with an open standard like Chromium helps Microsoft by making it easier for developers to make extensions. Before making extensions for Edge was complex and developers...