Welcome to Technology News October 2015
Hello everyone! Let’s recap what has happened in the Technology World in October.
Microsoft
The biggest news coming out of Microsoft this month is at the October Briefing on the 7th. They announced the Microsoft Band 2, More on HoloLens, the New Lumia 950 & 950XL, Surface Pro 4 & Surface Book.
Read our Recap of the Event Now.
Joe Belfiore, the face of Windows Phone and big contributor to showcasing Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 – in the early stages, has announced his “Extended Leave” from Microsoft to spend time with his Family and visit the world. This is his statement he wrote on his Facebook:
I have some news to share with all of you! Kristina and I are always trying to help our kids understand just how FORTUNATE our family is … we live in a great country, we both have had amazing jobs/great careers, and all of us have benefitted from a terrific educational system (and even an amazing health-care system!). Beyond those, we also try to maintain an appreciation for what a precious resource TIME is. After all, when you have young kids, you see the time going by r…eally fast. With Alexander in 6th grade, we already feel like high school is right around the corner. Eeeesh. SO… after dreaming about the idea for years… and with our kids getting ALMOST too old for something crazy… we’ve decided that we are going to take our family on the EDUCATIONAL TRIP OF OUR LIFETIME.
In January – we’re heading out on SEMESTER AT SEA for a journey around the world, along with 600+ college students and a handful of faculty and “lifelong learners” like us. We think a floating college campus will be an amazing environment for everyone in our family to get a chance to see and experience the diversity all around the world and better appreciate what we have here. We’ve coveted the opportunity to spend a lot of time with each other and our kids—and we’re taking advantage of it while we can! As for me and my job… when the trip is over, I’ll be right back at it! I’m proud to have spent the last 25 years working for a thoughtful and considerate company here at Microsoft. It’s a company and community whose values align with mine and whose management has been completely supportive of me and my family in pursuing this idea. I’m taking an extended personal leave-of-absence starting in November: we’re gonna visit family and show the kids the great cities of the northeast US before we leave on the ship. I’ll be back at MS in my same job working on Windows next summer, in time for the kids to get back into the normal US school routine. We’re thrilled to share our exciting news with all of you! At some point, we’ll figure out a blog or facebook page or… something. But for now… wish us luck and send us your ideas on what to see!
Windows Mobile 10
Microsoft on Facebook answered some crucial questions on when Windows Mobile 10 will be released, including the new Lumia Flagships.
It turns out that Windows Mobile 10 will begin rollout on current devices from December and Lumia Australia announced that the Lumia 950/950XL will release BEFORE Christmas.
Apple
The New Operating System, codenamed “El Capitan” was released to the public for free. Mac users can download the update via the App Store or directly from here. El Capitan features a Windows 8.1/Windows 10 Split View, Better Mission Control, Cursor Finding via jiggling the mouse to make it go big and App based improvements like being able to mute audio playing randomly somewhere in the webpage on Safari, plus much more. It is a good update to move too so we encourage you to move to it. Of course, it isn’t all 100% smooth sailing for OSX 11.11. It does have reports on various issues, like Installation issues, Office 2016 and other App issues, Battery issues, WiFi issues and Bluetooth issues. Many can usually be fixed or have been fixed by Apple. [line] Mac sales have also been declining with a 3.4% drop in the 3rd Quarter. PC has also been in the decline, but many have been waiting to see what new PC’s are going to be put on the playing field with Windows 10. Portability is also a factor to declining PC’s with Tablets & Notebooks slamming the market. Replacing a Desktop with a Portable device isn’t always the best choice however. [line] It also turns out that the new iPhone 6S has 2 different versions of the A9 CPU Chip being sold – 1 Samsung, 1 TSMC. When it came to performance, both stayed reasonably close together, but in terms of Battery, the TSMC technically can have 2-3% more battery life. Most consumers will most likely not notice, but if you like to push your device or need it in a crunch, you will regret getting a iPhone that came with the Samsung Chip. This controversy has been dubbed “Chipgate”. [line]
Apple have slimmed down their accessories. The Keyboard is now slim with rechargeable battery and a Thunderbolt Connector to do so. The Mouse is lighter and slightly slimmer, also using the Thunderbolt method. Finally the Trackpad 2. It also got slimmed down with recharging battery and Thunderbolt port like the keyboard and integrated with force touch. So if you want a better experience with your iMac, these are the accessories to buy. [line]
Good to get the new accessories with another new release, a new 21.5″ iMac has been released. Indeed, as usual, it does come with a older generation CPU, which keeping up with current technology, Apple never seem to grasp the concept.
Apple iMac with 4K Retina display (21.5-inch, 2015)
- Display size/resolution:- 21.5-inch 4,096×2,304 display
- CPU:- 3.10GHz Intel Core i5-5675R
- Memory:- 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1866MHz
- Graphics:- 1536MB (shared) Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200
- OS:- Apple OS X 10.11 El Capitan
It looks real good for the Mid Range buyers.
Not much has happened on the Google front. We posted earlier last month about StageFright 2.0. You can read more here. [line] Former Googler, Sanmay Ved did the most amazing thing at the beginning of October… HE PURCHASED THE DOMAIN “google.com”! But not for millions or billions, just $12USD! Of course it was short lived, Google managed to secure the domain back under their wings. Investigations were to be made on how he managed to bag a big name domain, but not blaming him for doing it on purpose. But he loved every minute of it! [line] Finally, Google is making plans on combining Chrome OS and Android together. Google had a desktop PC Operating System named Chrome OS to tackle the PC market while Android took the Mobile front. Google apparently threw both out on the table and sought to see who wins the battle. Android won. It is not clear how it will pan out so we will keep an eye on this story as it develops.
That’s it for now.
Comment & Share Below.
Thanks for reading.
See you on Technology News November 2015.
