My previous job was making software for big touch tabletops, and sure, you probably won't get much by running Word on there. On the other hand, they work really well in K-5 classrooms; special ed has been another success, and I am very very proud of having been part of what makes this sort of thing possible:
There's no reason why MS's bright future can't include the Surface line. I like my Pro 3, it's still working good. It gives me some frustrations, but so does my work laptop. I got lucky in that my battery is one of the ones that was potentially affected by the firmware bug that fucked up the life of them, but mine was not affected. Touch screens are going to be more and more of a thing with laptops, and as the all-in-one form factor becomes more of a thing, touch will make sense there. Side note, my mum got an all-in-one Dell and it's fine, except that for some insane reason, you can't option an SSD in it. They will only come with 5400rpm mechanical drives. Leaving money on the table there.
Windows 10 on phones on the other hand.. phew. I have one (Lumia 950), I bought it intentionally, I like the general operation of the OS on there and I think over the years it's copped a lot of unneccessary flack from people who've not ever considered using it as it was meant to be used (Windows 8 really didn't help there).. but it's still a good idea with a glaringly poor implementation in parts. I've recently tried to switch my music and podcasting over to it to get away from itunes, and while the music side of it does some things well (I can update the metadata on songs/albums!) there are other.. quirks.. to get used to (if an artist is first imported as part of a mix album, every other album of that artist will be sorted under the artist nominated for the mix album.. but see the previous point, this can be pretty quickly fixed). The podcast app on the other hand.. eugh. No option to keep all unplayed episodes, no view to show all unplayed episodes, sometimes when on bluetooth it just stops playing.. it's pretty bad.
It's true that i find almost everything about technology over the past few years to be utterly fucking horrific
But it's only because I know what it looks like, and was engaged professionally, when it's done correctly. (For example, Apple desktop and mobile environments, 2007-2010)
I think the future for ms is extremely bright but the surface is not part of that
i'm curious why you think microsoft has a bright future
0
Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
do I need to get you to certify an MLA formatted reference before I express my harmless opinions? shouldn't there be some sort of form for that?
I'd settle for you simply not being shitty about them. I understand this is a technology thread and we're all supposed to act like tribalist pricks, but this isn't that type of forum.
I'm in the running for least technology tribalist person in this thread.
In the running maybe, but you've got a long way to go to catch up to T4CT, just Blais it man! Quick, go buy two (2) Ouyas!
It's true that i find almost everything about technology over the past few years to be utterly fucking horrific
But it's only because I know what it looks like, and was engaged professionally, when it's done correctly. (For example, Apple desktop and mobile environments, 2007-2010)
I think the future for ms is extremely bright but the surface is not part of that
i'm curious why you think microsoft has a bright future
I'm curious to know why you think they don't?
Yeah mobile wise they're done, but PC wise they are the dominant home and business OS?
And PC gaming wise, almost all games get developed for Windows. Can't say the same for IOS (I'm not a mac user so I don't know what the latest version is called).
Macs are getting a significant amount of games developed for them! Mainly due to how many games are being developed in cross platform engines, so game companies can fix up a Mac version with a few bug fixes as opposed to having to ship out the whole porting process to another company.
So Macs have a bright gaming future ahead of them!
Or they would, if Apple gave a shit about gaming and released hardware that would work for it, i.e. with swappable video cards. But they don't, so gaming on Macs isn't going to go much further than it is now, with most big budget releases skipping the platform entirely.
Macs are getting a significant amount of games developed for them! Mainly due to how many games are being developed in cross platform engines, so game companies can fix up a Mac version with a few bug fixes as opposed to having to ship out the whole porting process to another company.
So Macs have a bright gaming future ahead of them!
Or they would, if Apple gave a shit about gaming and released hardware that would work for it, i.e. with swappable video cards. But they don't, so gaming on Macs isn't going to go much further than it is now, with most big budget releases skipping the platform entirely.
That was my point. I do know that some games come out on Mac, but compared to Windows PC it's not comparable.
Anyone who actually thinks Microsoft is on it's way out....well they must know something I don't because I've worked for several multinational corporations with hundreds of thousands of employees each. They all use windows. The only alternative to Mac is a windows PC on a commercial scale.
It's true that i find almost everything about technology over the past few years to be utterly fucking horrific
But it's only because I know what it looks like, and was engaged professionally, when it's done correctly. (For example, Apple desktop and mobile environments, 2007-2010)
I think the future for ms is extremely bright but the surface is not part of that
i'm curious why you think microsoft has a bright future
I'm curious to know why you think they don't?
Yeah mobile wise they're done, but PC wise they are the dominant home and business OS?
And PC gaming wise, almost all games get developed for Windows. Can't say the same for IOS (I'm not a mac user so I don't know what the latest version is called).
Windows has a whopping 91% market share of computers worldwide. There are more computers installed with Windows XP than there are installed with any version of OSX (9% vs 7%), and Linux is a distant third at a combined 2%. I believe Windows will be fully entranched in the PC industry at least for the next 15 years, and likely far beyond that.
It's true that i find almost everything about technology over the past few years to be utterly fucking horrific
But it's only because I know what it looks like, and was engaged professionally, when it's done correctly. (For example, Apple desktop and mobile environments, 2007-2010)
I think the future for ms is extremely bright but the surface is not part of that
i'm curious why you think microsoft has a bright future
the short short short SHORT version...
I think that Apple is pivoting back to being a Media company under Cook (which is what saved them from extinction in the first place, and is just a better avenue for growth anyway)
All the techno people left at Apple are (according to Rumor Mill Inc) working on a fucking car
They have left a few IMPORTANT problems either unsolved or poorly solved, particularly cloud-based computing at the consumer level (iCloud files management, etc)
Microsoft has the nerds and the patience (and frankly, the record) to get those things done correctly
They had an apocalyptic false start under Ballmer when they misdiagnosed what it was that made the iPhone popular, leading to Windows 8 and everything about it.
Nadella is STILL cleaning up the mess. But Windows 10 is certifiably decent, MS Azure and the new generation of dev tools around it are quantum leap for the company that shows they are ready to get out of the rut they were stuck in w/ Ballmer
I expect them to release a whole new phone platform soon (Rumor Mill Inc says potentially even this month), and I am hoping that it's well considered, and appropriately backed by 1st-in-class developer support and an App Store that is closer to what the old Apple App Store used to be, which rewards developers more than it punishes
I think they are rich enough to not sell out on certain things (like the way Apple is basically just doing AdWords for app store listings now), and maintain a certain level of quality because their organizing principle is NOT "sell as many phones as possible". They make so much money from so many other things they can afford to do bold work and take risks that Apple no longer can (see: The Surface, and everything around it). They bought Nokia, and basically lit it on fire Joker-style, and it was barely noticeable on the stock price.
THAT is power.
Someone else posted here about liking their Windows Phone, I too had a Windows Phone once, and apart from the fact that I cannot get any apps for it at all, it was my favorite phone from a purely functional viewpoint... that + apps + smarter form factor choices (Lumia was too huge) = a serious Android competitor
I've heard that from the few Windows phone owners that I know. The phone itself is great, but the dearth of apps made them switch out to a man.
If windows had decent apps, I'd of course switch out so I could have a unified platform with my PC
+4
Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
Huh. My Pebble Time suddenly left an irritation mark around my wrist. This is a first int he year I've had the thing. Going without it until this clears up.
So what service is currently the way to go for cloud storage? I don't use that much space currently (like 3gigs or so) but the free Dropbox account I had for quite a while is reducing the available space from 50 to 2 gigs and now I'm looking for an alternative.
I'm a big fan of Box.com. It's basically the same as dropbox, but free accounts get 10GB of storage. Just note that individual file sizes may not exceed 250MB.
So what service is currently the way to go for cloud storage? I don't use that much space currently (like 3gigs or so) but the free Dropbox account I had for quite a while is reducing the available space from 50 to 2 gigs and now I'm looking for an alternative.
So what service is currently the way to go for cloud storage? I don't use that much space currently (like 3gigs or so) but the free Dropbox account I had for quite a while is reducing the available space from 50 to 2 gigs and now I'm looking for an alternative.
I think my gmail account give me 15GB free?
Do you know if Drive has a file size limit? I can't find one on initial inspection.
So what service is currently the way to go for cloud storage? I don't use that much space currently (like 3gigs or so) but the free Dropbox account I had for quite a while is reducing the available space from 50 to 2 gigs and now I'm looking for an alternative.
So what service is currently the way to go for cloud storage? I don't use that much space currently (like 3gigs or so) but the free Dropbox account I had for quite a while is reducing the available space from 50 to 2 gigs and now I'm looking for an alternative.
I think my gmail account give me 15GB free?
Merp, of course. I should have that. And Google knows everything about me already anyway, so that's probably the most convenient option.
So what service is currently the way to go for cloud storage? I don't use that much space currently (like 3gigs or so) but the free Dropbox account I had for quite a while is reducing the available space from 50 to 2 gigs and now I'm looking for an alternative.
I think my gmail account give me 15GB free?
Do you know if Drive has a file size limit? I can't find one on initial inspection.
Files you can store in Google Drive
File sizes
These are the documents, spreadsheets, and presentation sizes you can store in Google Drive.
Documents: Up to 1.02 million characters. If you convert a text document to Google Docs format, it can be up to 50 MB.
Spreadsheets: Up to 2 million cells for spreadsheets that are created in or converted to Google Sheets.
Presentations: Up to 100 MB for presentations converted to Google Slides.
All other files: Up to 5 TB.
Supported file types
These are the most common file types you can view in Google Drive:
It's true that i find almost everything about technology over the past few years to be utterly fucking horrific
But it's only because I know what it looks like, and was engaged professionally, when it's done correctly. (For example, Apple desktop and mobile environments, 2007-2010)
I think the future for ms is extremely bright but the surface is not part of that
i'm curious why you think microsoft has a bright future
I'm curious to know why you think they don't?
Yeah mobile wise they're done, but PC wise they are the dominant home and business OS?
And PC gaming wise, almost all games get developed for Windows. Can't say the same for IOS (I'm not a mac user so I don't know what the latest version is called).
I'm just not in the industry enough to know much about where microsoft stands. 10 seems to have had a lot of issues (I'm still using 7 for example because I don't like auto updates and the privacy issues in 10), but other than that I'm not sure.
It's true that i find almost everything about technology over the past few years to be utterly fucking horrific
But it's only because I know what it looks like, and was engaged professionally, when it's done correctly. (For example, Apple desktop and mobile environments, 2007-2010)
I think the future for ms is extremely bright but the surface is not part of that
i'm curious why you think microsoft has a bright future
the short short short SHORT version...
I think that Apple is pivoting back to being a Media company under Cook (which is what saved them from extinction in the first place, and is just a better avenue for growth anyway)
All the techno people left at Apple are (according to Rumor Mill Inc) working on a fucking car
They have left a few IMPORTANT problems either unsolved or poorly solved, particularly cloud-based computing at the consumer level (iCloud files management, etc)
Microsoft has the nerds and the patience (and frankly, the record) to get those things done correctly
They had an apocalyptic false start under Ballmer when they misdiagnosed what it was that made the iPhone popular, leading to Windows 8 and everything about it.
Nadella is STILL cleaning up the mess. But Windows 10 is certifiably decent, MS Azure and the new generation of dev tools around it are quantum leap for the company that shows they are ready to get out of the rut they were stuck in w/ Ballmer
I expect them to release a whole new phone platform soon (Rumor Mill Inc says potentially even this month), and I am hoping that it's well considered, and appropriately backed by 1st-in-class developer support and an App Store that is closer to what the old Apple App Store used to be, which rewards developers more than it punishes
I think they are rich enough to not sell out on certain things (like the way Apple is basically just doing AdWords for app store listings now), and maintain a certain level of quality because their organizing principle is NOT "sell as many phones as possible". They make so much money from so many other things they can afford to do bold work and take risks that Apple no longer can (see: The Surface, and everything around it). They bought Nokia, and basically lit it on fire Joker-style, and it was barely noticeable on the stock price.
THAT is power.
Someone else posted here about liking their Windows Phone, I too had a Windows Phone once, and apart from the fact that I cannot get any apps for it at all, it was my favorite phone from a purely functional viewpoint... that + apps + smarter form factor choices (Lumia was too huge) = a serious Android competitor
Thanks for the writeup! I'm really interested in a windows phone just because I'm starting to get tired of the way Android operates. What's microsoft's look wrt AI?
Yeah, MS is firing on all cylinders right now, I think because of a few key things (much of which Jasc highlighted):
1. Business integration - MS has finally figured out that Enterprise is a different, custom game and the real margins are in small to mid size business. If you go full MS, you can go full cloud including advanced analytics capabilities and not really lose out on anything. You'll employ maybe an MCSE and another dude, but that's all you need. This is massive for cost reduction in small business. Also, the linkedin stuff could be big along with the changes to Active Directory, as hiring and provisioning consulting expertise could be a "couple clicks" endeavor soon.
2. Mobile is a fad - note that what I mean by this is that eventually, phones will be just another UI for your virtualized info. The deep Azure, Hololens and other UI/Integration investments will make this pivot painless for MS. Apple will be straight fucked by this if they don't start partnering/spinning up more cloud and system integration. Even Gabe Newell said in a random podcast that he doesn't expect phone UI's/separation to be a thing in 5-10 years.
3. Barrier to entry - Everything MS is doing is based around not making assumptions where and how you're going to use stuff, you just need to use it. From Azure integration to security provisioning and analytics availability, they want everything to be available to everyone all the time. They're back to the old "get them in the toolchain" with Visual Studio and Open Source investments as well, so if you're looking to make a career or business, you can go full MS tools and you'll be generally fine. This is incredibly powerful.
+1
Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
edited October 2016
OneDrive will be a lot better once they re-implement that file placeholder feature from Windows 8 they subsequently ripped out. I think Dropbox is also planning to integrate a similar system?
re Microsoft: Jettisoning Ballmer, who was seriously miring the company in a lumbering, lethargic mass trying to bludgeon everything like it was still 1992, was the best thing they did in recent history, and this new Microsoft era is the most agile and interesting it's been a in a long time.
3. Barrier to entry - Everything MS is doing is based around not making assumptions where and how you're going to use stuff, you just need to use it. From Azure integration to security provisioning and analytics availability, they want everything to be available to everyone all the time. They're back to the old "get them in the toolchain" with Visual Studio and Open Source investments as well, so if you're looking to make a career or business, you can go full MS tools and you'll be generally fine. This is incredibly powerful.
This of all things is what MS has that Apple and Google will never have but for different reasons
Google is obvious. The quasi-open-source thing is just a travesty in practice and only appeals to... well, people who get force fed Java in college? I don't know. I can't believe they even got as far as they did with their model.
Apple tries to do the toolchain thing, but they are extremely casual about just ripping the tooclahin out from underneath your feet and then screaming at you when you don't adapt. Apple's relationship with developers is almost openly hostile, and they overcome it with, basically, bribes.. privileged access to WWDC, privileged app store positioning, pre-beta API access for their favorite vendors... this was all fine when the app store was making millionaires every week, but those days are gone. You can't run a company on iOS apps. This is a BIG PROBLEM that Apple is pretty casual about.
MS has the right ingredients but they are still a little stale. When they finish the refresh (ASP.NET Core is step 1), it could be good times
If you're referring to Cortana stuff I think it's all dead end nonsense. Everyone's approach to those digital assistants is like building a pyramid starting with the top brick.
You need data structures to make those things work, and they just don't exist for the kind of stuff you want the assistants to do. You basically need a HealthKit-quality database for every single aspect of your day that you want an AI to participate in.
Until someone can show me something that isn't just Wolfram Alpha with a female voice, I'm out
I think MS has some deep potential around AI, but they're only rolling it out where it makes sense. Buying Revolution means they're open to you plugging your own machine learning in, as they aren't going to necessarily offer expertise on your data. MS is back to being mostly about business to make money, which makes sense as they're not great at understanding the fickle consumer.
Are there portable battery chargers available for laptops, or adapters to charge laptops with regular portable phone chargers?
I've never used one myself so I can't make any personal recommendations, but is there a reason not to simply buy an extra battery?
Bunch of devices nowadays don't have removable batteries anymore.
well changing the battery for me involves 12 screws to take off the bottom of the laptop, then another six screws to remove the battery. It's not difficult, just super annoying to do.
Re: Google Drive - There's also a yearly security check up that Google has where they give you a small bonus for reviewing certain account security information. I think it's a bonus 2gb (I currently have 19gb available in Drive), and the promotion is usually reported on when it comes up.
If you're referring to Cortana stuff I think it's all dead end nonsense. Everyone's approach to those digital assistants is like building a pyramid starting with the top brick.
You need data structures to make those things work, and they just don't exist for the kind of stuff you want the assistants to do. You basically need a HealthKit-quality database for every single aspect of your day that you want an AI to participate in.
Until someone can show me something that isn't just Wolfram Alpha with a female voice, I'm out
Yeah Cortana
I don't know if AI will ever become a major thing with personal assistants, but I think if a tech company was able to take a machine-learning AI and apply it to industry they'd make serious Texa$.
The problem with personal assistants is that we have serious cultural and privacy concerns with it. Those assistants require serious data fed into them to make it work, which would dissolve our privacy culture. I think that kind of thing is way far off because it's a very serious political and cultural issue that won't be solved within a decade or two. But applying this kind of work to industry, like they're doing with HealthKit databases, could be highly profitable and really change productivity.
+1
Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
My newest acquisition. The greatest of 1960's design today!
Original Series Communicator that can connect via Bluetooth to your smart phone to control it. It is currently playing a podcast off my phone. The speaker is surprisingly good quality. The red light on it flashes in sync to the voices.
I ended up grabbing one of those ZenPad Z10 tablets from Verizon, since my Lyft discount made it super, super cheap to add to my service plan. I really like it! The build quality is really great, and it's very responsive. It actually feels a little faster than my S7 Edge, which is crazy.
Posts
Windows 10 on phones on the other hand.. phew. I have one (Lumia 950), I bought it intentionally, I like the general operation of the OS on there and I think over the years it's copped a lot of unneccessary flack from people who've not ever considered using it as it was meant to be used (Windows 8 really didn't help there).. but it's still a good idea with a glaringly poor implementation in parts. I've recently tried to switch my music and podcasting over to it to get away from itunes, and while the music side of it does some things well (I can update the metadata on songs/albums!) there are other.. quirks.. to get used to (if an artist is first imported as part of a mix album, every other album of that artist will be sorted under the artist nominated for the mix album.. but see the previous point, this can be pretty quickly fixed). The podcast app on the other hand.. eugh. No option to keep all unplayed episodes, no view to show all unplayed episodes, sometimes when on bluetooth it just stops playing.. it's pretty bad.
i'm curious why you think microsoft has a bright future
In the running maybe, but you've got a long way to go to catch up to T4CT, just Blais it man! Quick, go buy two (2) Ouyas!
This makes me a god, right
You might like the Note 7
I'm curious to know why you think they don't?
Yeah mobile wise they're done, but PC wise they are the dominant home and business OS?
And PC gaming wise, almost all games get developed for Windows. Can't say the same for IOS (I'm not a mac user so I don't know what the latest version is called).
So Macs have a bright gaming future ahead of them!
Or they would, if Apple gave a shit about gaming and released hardware that would work for it, i.e. with swappable video cards. But they don't, so gaming on Macs isn't going to go much further than it is now, with most big budget releases skipping the platform entirely.
That was my point. I do know that some games come out on Mac, but compared to Windows PC it's not comparable.
Anyone who actually thinks Microsoft is on it's way out....well they must know something I don't because I've worked for several multinational corporations with hundreds of thousands of employees each. They all use windows. The only alternative to Mac is a windows PC on a commercial scale.
I've decided to grab a cheap Nexus 5x 32GB (it's £245 on amazon) to tide me over until the upgraded pixel comes out in 18 months ish.
Windows has a whopping 91% market share of computers worldwide. There are more computers installed with Windows XP than there are installed with any version of OSX (9% vs 7%), and Linux is a distant third at a combined 2%. I believe Windows will be fully entranched in the PC industry at least for the next 15 years, and likely far beyond that.
the short short short SHORT version...
I think that Apple is pivoting back to being a Media company under Cook (which is what saved them from extinction in the first place, and is just a better avenue for growth anyway)
All the techno people left at Apple are (according to Rumor Mill Inc) working on a fucking car
They have left a few IMPORTANT problems either unsolved or poorly solved, particularly cloud-based computing at the consumer level (iCloud files management, etc)
Microsoft has the nerds and the patience (and frankly, the record) to get those things done correctly
They had an apocalyptic false start under Ballmer when they misdiagnosed what it was that made the iPhone popular, leading to Windows 8 and everything about it.
Nadella is STILL cleaning up the mess. But Windows 10 is certifiably decent, MS Azure and the new generation of dev tools around it are quantum leap for the company that shows they are ready to get out of the rut they were stuck in w/ Ballmer
I expect them to release a whole new phone platform soon (Rumor Mill Inc says potentially even this month), and I am hoping that it's well considered, and appropriately backed by 1st-in-class developer support and an App Store that is closer to what the old Apple App Store used to be, which rewards developers more than it punishes
I think they are rich enough to not sell out on certain things (like the way Apple is basically just doing AdWords for app store listings now), and maintain a certain level of quality because their organizing principle is NOT "sell as many phones as possible". They make so much money from so many other things they can afford to do bold work and take risks that Apple no longer can (see: The Surface, and everything around it). They bought Nokia, and basically lit it on fire Joker-style, and it was barely noticeable on the stock price.
THAT is power.
Someone else posted here about liking their Windows Phone, I too had a Windows Phone once, and apart from the fact that I cannot get any apps for it at all, it was my favorite phone from a purely functional viewpoint... that + apps + smarter form factor choices (Lumia was too huge) = a serious Android competitor
http://steamcommunity.com/id/pablocampy
If windows had decent apps, I'd of course switch out so I could have a unified platform with my PC
I think my gmail account give me 15GB free?
Do you know if Drive has a file size limit? I can't find one on initial inspection.
Google Drive gives 15gb free
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Merp, of course. I should have that. And Google knows everything about me already anyway, so that's probably the most convenient option.
Files you can store in Google Drive
File sizes
These are the documents, spreadsheets, and presentation sizes you can store in Google Drive.
Documents: Up to 1.02 million characters. If you convert a text document to Google Docs format, it can be up to 50 MB.
Spreadsheets: Up to 2 million cells for spreadsheets that are created in or converted to Google Sheets.
Presentations: Up to 100 MB for presentations converted to Google Slides.
All other files: Up to 5 TB.
Supported file types
These are the most common file types you can view in Google Drive:
General files
Archive files (.ZIP, .RAR, tar, gzip)
Audio formats (MP3, MPEG, WAV, .ogg)
Image files (.JPEG, .PNG, .GIF, .BMP)
Markup/Code (.CSS, .HTML, .PHP, .C, .CPP, .H, .HPP, .JS)
Text files (.TXT)
Video files (WebM, .MPEG4, .3GPP, .MOV, .AVI, .MPEGPS, .WMV, .FLV, .ogg)
Adobe files
Autodesk AutoCad (.DXF)
Illustrator (.AI)
Photoshop (.PSD)
Portable Document Format (.PDF)
PostScript (.EPS, .PS)
Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG)
Tagged Image File Format (.TIFF) - best with RGB .TIFF images
TrueType (.TTF)
Microsoft files
Excel (.XLS and .XLSX)
PowerPoint (.PPT and .PPTX)
Word (.DOC and .DOCX)
XML Paper Specification (.XPS)
According to google
I've never used one myself so I can't make any personal recommendations, but is there a reason not to simply buy an extra battery?
Bunch of devices nowadays don't have removable batteries anymore.
I'm just not in the industry enough to know much about where microsoft stands. 10 seems to have had a lot of issues (I'm still using 7 for example because I don't like auto updates and the privacy issues in 10), but other than that I'm not sure.
Thanks for the writeup! I'm really interested in a windows phone just because I'm starting to get tired of the way Android operates. What's microsoft's look wrt AI?
otherwise they're almost all virtually the same
I have high hopes for OneDrive because they seem to try to emulate a Windows network drive and that's cool
1. Business integration - MS has finally figured out that Enterprise is a different, custom game and the real margins are in small to mid size business. If you go full MS, you can go full cloud including advanced analytics capabilities and not really lose out on anything. You'll employ maybe an MCSE and another dude, but that's all you need. This is massive for cost reduction in small business. Also, the linkedin stuff could be big along with the changes to Active Directory, as hiring and provisioning consulting expertise could be a "couple clicks" endeavor soon.
2. Mobile is a fad - note that what I mean by this is that eventually, phones will be just another UI for your virtualized info. The deep Azure, Hololens and other UI/Integration investments will make this pivot painless for MS. Apple will be straight fucked by this if they don't start partnering/spinning up more cloud and system integration. Even Gabe Newell said in a random podcast that he doesn't expect phone UI's/separation to be a thing in 5-10 years.
3. Barrier to entry - Everything MS is doing is based around not making assumptions where and how you're going to use stuff, you just need to use it. From Azure integration to security provisioning and analytics availability, they want everything to be available to everyone all the time. They're back to the old "get them in the toolchain" with Visual Studio and Open Source investments as well, so if you're looking to make a career or business, you can go full MS tools and you'll be generally fine. This is incredibly powerful.
re Microsoft: Jettisoning Ballmer, who was seriously miring the company in a lumbering, lethargic mass trying to bludgeon everything like it was still 1992, was the best thing they did in recent history, and this new Microsoft era is the most agile and interesting it's been a in a long time.
This of all things is what MS has that Apple and Google will never have but for different reasons
Google is obvious. The quasi-open-source thing is just a travesty in practice and only appeals to... well, people who get force fed Java in college? I don't know. I can't believe they even got as far as they did with their model.
Apple tries to do the toolchain thing, but they are extremely casual about just ripping the tooclahin out from underneath your feet and then screaming at you when you don't adapt. Apple's relationship with developers is almost openly hostile, and they overcome it with, basically, bribes.. privileged access to WWDC, privileged app store positioning, pre-beta API access for their favorite vendors... this was all fine when the app store was making millionaires every week, but those days are gone. You can't run a company on iOS apps. This is a BIG PROBLEM that Apple is pretty casual about.
MS has the right ingredients but they are still a little stale. When they finish the refresh (ASP.NET Core is step 1), it could be good times
If you're referring to Cortana stuff I think it's all dead end nonsense. Everyone's approach to those digital assistants is like building a pyramid starting with the top brick.
You need data structures to make those things work, and they just don't exist for the kind of stuff you want the assistants to do. You basically need a HealthKit-quality database for every single aspect of your day that you want an AI to participate in.
Until someone can show me something that isn't just Wolfram Alpha with a female voice, I'm out
well changing the battery for me involves 12 screws to take off the bottom of the laptop, then another six screws to remove the battery. It's not difficult, just super annoying to do.
Something else to consider!
Yeah Cortana
I don't know if AI will ever become a major thing with personal assistants, but I think if a tech company was able to take a machine-learning AI and apply it to industry they'd make serious Texa$.
The problem with personal assistants is that we have serious cultural and privacy concerns with it. Those assistants require serious data fed into them to make it work, which would dissolve our privacy culture. I think that kind of thing is way far off because it's a very serious political and cultural issue that won't be solved within a decade or two. But applying this kind of work to industry, like they're doing with HealthKit databases, could be highly profitable and really change productivity.
Original Series Communicator that can connect via Bluetooth to your smart phone to control it. It is currently playing a podcast off my phone. The speaker is surprisingly good quality. The red light on it flashes in sync to the voices.
Google Now (google assistant now I guess) owns