Windows Weekly 484: Microsoft for Life!

It's time for Windows weekly with

Paul Thurrott and Mary-Jo Foley.

Microsoft wants you for life,

and their ready to kill the next screen.

Paul is excited for the new Xbox and

Mary-Jo talks about Microsoft's

bad cloud day. Window's Weekly is next.

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This is Window's Weekly with Paul Thurrott

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September 21, 2016 Microsoft for life!

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It's time for Windows weekly with
Paul Thurrott and Mary-Jo Foley.

I'm Father Robert Ballecer in for
Leo Laporte

who is currently looking for the answers

to life, the universe and everything

acrossed the pond. Of course Paul Thurrott

is the guru behind Thurrott.com the

previewer of news, reviews and analyzes

for tech enthusiasts. Mary-Jo Foley the

mastermind behind ZDnet All About

Microsoft blog. Together their here to

bring a light to the deep cave of

Microsoft news, like a over charged light

bulb battery exploding in the darkness.

Paul, Mary-Jo so good to have ya.

(Mary-Jo laughs)

(Paul) It's like your introducing

Bond villains there.

(Mary-Jo) I know I was like Wow!

The masterminds.

(Paul) Master of Disaster Mary-Jo Foley.

(Father Ballecer) Do you have a cat?

and can you do this with your fingers?

- I think I need that on a business card.

If I still used business cards I would.

That is one of those strange things.

At these conventions that we go to
these shows

we all do the business card thing and

I've even got down the whole Asian thing

of handing like this and a bit of a bow.

But, um, those collect dust afterwards,

I almost never use them.

- No, No! I don't even have one.

- I was going to say I think I have some,

but I've never brought them anywhere.

-Wait!, You two go to shows, don't you?

It's kind of a thing, it's how you say
hello, right?

- uh

-Well now people just say, "where can

I find you?" and I just day "All About

Microsoft"

- Mary-Jo and I just bump our phones

together and say "Power twins activate."

(Mary-Jo laughs)

- No, I don't know every once in a while

someone will hand me a business cards

and I have a momentary bit of confusion,

like I don't have one of these things,

or I don't have it with me.

You know I feel, it's like a weird moment.

I feel like I need to give them something

in return, it's like someone comes over

with a gift and you don't have anything

to give them.

-Yeah, that's what it is. I know
I'm handing

out cards like they are candy, but it's

just because I want to give you something.

It's like thank you very much for
your time,

uh, here's something, and stop talking

to me now.

(laughing) yes, right!

(Paul) I've met the social obligation

(Father Ballencer) And if you actually
want to see

where this is gonna be put up you
can contact

ma at this other wise I'm just gonna
assume

that you just don't care (Mary-Jo) Yep
(laughter)

(Paul) I needed a resume for something,

you know, like a year ago or more, I. . .

Thurrott.com, what do you mean I...?

(laughing) I don't keep track of my

accomplishments, I'm not even sure what

I would do with that.

(Father Ballencer) Our Field producer,

Colene Goldstein, she's actually

really good LinkedIn. Before she
hands over

her card, she'll just say can I find
you on

LinkedIn and she's just building up
this huge

network of all these people that she's
connected

to and she says that's far more efficient

than trying to take a card and then
remember

where it came from and who they

represented six weeks ago.

Because remember a lot of the people that

you meet don't actually work for
that company

they work for a PR company that represents

the company that you are talking to.
(Paul) Right.

and you won't remember who that is unless

you actually write it on the back of
that card

and even then sometimes you don't remember

- I have to look at the lower third to
remember

Mary-jo's name. (laughing) you know I'm

really not good at that kind of thing.

(Mary-Jo) He's bad at this thing.

(Fa. Ballencer) I have to look down here

If I don't see that?

(Paul) Hi! I'm Fr. Rob, What does
that say?

(laughing) Sir Foley, no let's not
do that.

I'll right let's get away from social
convention

cuz we've got some pretty spectacular
windows news

who's got this first one, because
eventually

Microsoft has finally "oh! that's right
we're not

offering the free version anymore,
maybe we

should kill that nag screen"

Mary-Jo - Yeah I can start it off a bit.
Um,

Yesterday, the 20th, Microsoft put out a

KB article that said "Hey we're finally
going to

push through Windows update, an update

that takes away the Windows, get
Windows 10 app.

So if you remember July 29th was the
actual day

the offer to get a free Windows 10 ended.

And at that time they said it might
take us

a little while to faze this out
because we've

so thoroughly inundated everyone
with this app

and the promotion. So actually the real

day when this ended at least when
the app ended

was yesterday. And it's starting to roll

through the Windows update. It replaces

the get Windows 10 app and it goes away.

But the weird complication
not complication

but the weird kind of coincidence is

you can actually still get Windows 10
as free upgrade

You just have to use your existing
Windows 7

or 8.1 product key and you can still
unlock the free

upgrade, which is something Microsoft
is not

actively advertising, but Paul has been
verifying it daily.

(Paul) well weekly

(Mary-Jo) I've been asking him
is it still up

(Fa. Bellencer) Cuz, I was told
that if you do

the get Windows 10 thing and then
you roll it

back you're always set you can always
re-download it

(Paul) Oh! yeah, yeah this is for
new installs.

In other words you have never
done this before

you have a key you can do a clean
Windows 10

right now and it would still work.

(Fa. Bellencer) Wait! What? That's not how

it's suppose to work.

(Mary-jo) Yep
(Paul) I know, and by the way

one day it won't, I mean maybe
this weekend

or the weekend after that, someday,
I'm gonna

wake up, I'm gonna test it and
it's not gonna work

you know it's just.. It's going to
happen eventually.

But, um, I wrote an article about this

not working probably a month ago
in anticipation

of it not working and it's just
kept working

the things been sitting here at
my desktop since

August. (Fa Ballencer) So you just try and

do an update everyday just to make
sure it still goes?

(Paul) not everyday and least once a week.

- Now does this

(Mary-Jo) Yesterday, I said to him can you

still do it? And he's like, Yep you can!

-So does this now increase the
value of the

Windows 10 upgrade, because now
you can't get

it except maybe if you know this
super secret,

now do people actually want it?

(Paul) I.. No.. I suppose..
I think the issue

is.. Well if you wanted to save some money

I suppose you could go buy Windows 8.1

product key and you know, well you

wouldn't actually buy Windows 8.1

I should say, it's possibly you can
buy a copy of it

somewhere cheaper because nobody wants it

anymore and than you could upgrade
now for less money

than buying Windows 10. Or maybe you just

had keys for some reason, maybe a
company that has

keys allotted or you bought the
package version

at some point, maybe you bought
the Windows 7

family pack back in the day and you
only used

two of the three keys and you've got
an extra

one sitting around for what ever reason.

If you have a key it will work. If you

got them from TechNet that will work.

um, and someday it won't. So, we'll see.

-Microsoft won't say when they think

it will no longer work in fact they aren't

really publicly saying that it still works

if you ask them, they just don't answer

when you ask about this.

And I assume it's the same thing
that they said

about the get Window 10 app

that it might take some time for them

to shut it off. But the other
theory is they

are just leaving it open for those laggers

who didn't get around to updating by
July 29th

and they can say to them "You know what,
psst

by the way."

- It doesn't hurt anybody, I think
that's the

point that if they are people out there
in the world

with Windows 7 install that they've
never done

Microsoft would much rather see them be on

Windows 10, if they're going to do a
new Windows

install. Why wouldn't they want that.

- I can also see this heading off a lot of

complaints from people who said "oh man

I tried to upgrade and I totally forgot
and I

did it in August and it didn't
work anymore"

No that's not actually a valid excuse.

You know September 21st, October 21st,

It's starting to get to the point where

you can't pretend you've been

procrastinating and than just forgot
I mean,

You know at some point it's just. . .

Their just leaving it open, its fine.

I have no problem with this.

- This is actually a huge opportunity
for us

because I know Alex has been trying to

update the Tri caster to Windows 10

(Paul) Actually Padre, Let me correct you

you shouldn't run Windows update on the

Tri caster, New Tech doesn't say
you should

So I really hope that nothing. . .

Oh Crap! (Laughing)

- This is what happens, You get a
nag screen

in the middle of Windows weekly

that's oddly blocking me out entirely,

that's different (Mary-Jo) It is

You know we're going to have to live
with this

for the next 20 -30 minutes because

unfortunately, click the initiated
and it'll

take that much time to install and

uninstall it. (Mary-Jo) They'll see
us though

we're off to the sides. Not when you zoom

on us, but the big picture you can see us.

(Paul) How do I know that this
graphic hasn't

been used more gleefully on
Macbreak weekly

and whatever morning show I'm sure you do?

(Fa Ballencer) Uh, this weeks it's Google,

I think this is actually the
new title card

for Floss Weekly. Um Floss Weekly will

never reserve your copy.

Do either of you still have Windows 7,
8 & 10

Machines in your environment?

(Mary-Jo) Yes, I have 7,

(Fa Ballencer) So no 10 at all?

(Mary-Jo) Yeah I have 10 and 7, but no 8

(Fa Ballencer) Really? I have 7, 8.1
and 10

(Mary-Jo) You have all of them.

(Fa Ballencer) Well because I mean 10

does still kill some of my USB devices

so my production machines have to stay 8

and I have one laptop and that just works

better at 7.

(Mary-Jo) I just have the desktop I still

use because it's just an older machine,

the Dell that I've had for awhile
I just left

it on 7, cuz I'm like Eh, when I need to

replace the machine Ill just get

Windows 10 machine.

(Paul) But what about all those
gotta have it

apps you can't run?

-Um?!

(Fa Ballencer) Now a quick question,

this really did hurt Microsoft's
reputation,

right? I mean Yes, That number of how

many deployments they have of Windows 10

is forever going to be asterisk.

People said "Well how many of those were

accidental upgrades or how many of those

were installs and then rollbacks almost

immediately. This. . Will people
forget this

or will Windows 10 upgrade nag screen

be the butt of jokes for the next two

decades. (Paul) Honestly I think they've

irreparably harmed their reputation with

this and not just Microsoft generally but

the reputation of Windows as well.

The forced upgrade thing was a
huge mistake

on their part and a very risky gamble and

the recent people aren't going to forget

it is because they came out and said we're

going to hit a billion within two to three

years and then right before Windows the

windows ten free upgrade ended they said

you know what we're not going to make that

goal and so even though they did that they

were unable to you know meet
this reasonable

goal, I thought, of reaching a billion

users in that timeframe.

- You know Mary Jo there's two ways to

look at this. There's one way and
this would,

I think this is where Paul lines up, there

was an executive or some marketing person

who said you know what we want to hit a

billion because it sounds like a
great number.

So let's just force this on people. The

other way to think of this is that some

engineers said you know what people

will like ten if they just try it if
we just

get it on the machine they will understand

what all the hoopla is about.

Which of those do you fall with?

- So I also, like Paul, think this was a

big mistake and the part that really

kind of riled me the most was when

Microsoft was taking the tack of saying

it's for users own good that were doing

this and you know I was like wait this is

so paternalistic How can you say what's

for my good or my mother's good who

accidently got Windows ten and
like flipped

out when she got it you know I just think

that argument didn't work. I'm happy. They

made a free upgrade available very easily

to people but I don't think they should

have rammed it down people's throat.

But it's also, I don’t know
if it qualifies

as ironic but, You know one of the kind of

contracts you enter into with Microsoft

when you do install or get Windows 10 is

you're accepting a constant stream of

upgrades and you really can't do anything

as an individual to befriend that from

happening. Least not elegantly or easily

and your introduction to this new world is

Microsoft seamlessly and inelegantly

jamming Windows 10 down your throat

you know it's it's kind of a nasty preview

of what the future holds for you when you

do this and it's just the wrong first step

you know to resent, it was a
terrible mistake

- Yeah and then the, you hiding of the way

that you would actually accept the upgrade

where people were closing the window.

That was really bad. That made like a bad

situation worse. So yeah not a good look.

- In writing about this topic today

I decided not to go back and hit on every

single little milestone in this because

frankly it's kind of depressing.

You know, when you go back to look at the

sheer amount of stuff that both of us I'm

sure have written about this get
Windows 10

thing since last year and the various ways

they changed it silently some Windows

Update, or group of Windows Updates would

go out, some of them would prevent the

blockers from, you know or the un-blockers

I guess from you know working.

some of them would change the way the

dialog looked or worked. You know in the

past when you close the window, it would

just go away but at one point when you

close the window you silently
have accepted

the upgrade and that's purposefully evil.

It's terrible.

-For me I think that hurt more
than anything

else because I understand wanting to

force out the update. Especially since

they believe it's going to be much more

secure, it's going to be much more feature

rich. But the fact that they kept playing

cat and mouse with people who just didn't

want to be nagged anymore. That's the

reputation strike it's like ok
if I went to

the trouble of removing that nag screen

then obviously I'm a savvy user if I can

do that. So the fact that you're trying to

work around what I did. Now I feel as if

we're playing Microsoft nanny state.

-Right -Yeah, yeah

A lot of times you know they keep saying

you know what, we're letting people get

around it, if they go in and edit the

registry settings. I'm like, wait a second

hold on, that's not something most people

should do. In fact, probably very few

should do it. And so when that was

like “Hey were give you an alternative

to get out of it. I was like uh, that's

not a good option.

-That's not an alternative.

–No

- I mean the funny thing they get looking

back over a year of articles
for this topic.

What I reminded myself of was in late June

one month before the free offer ended.

They finally added something to that

box that said I don't want this please

stop asking me. It took them eleven of

the twelve months to get to that point.

That's how it should have been on day one.

You know it's just uh, you just can't

recover from this. We don't know, we may

never know the psychological impact that

had on what may or may not have been

very good to Microsoft customers that day,

who upon looking for a new computer at

some time in the future may decide they

need, they are going to get a pro book

instead or a mac book or well probably not

a Linux computer that's crazy.
But you know

what I'm saying. That they're
going to look

at an iPad even or something, whatever.

And just make that decision because they

don't want to be harassed which is a

completely reasonable request. You know.

-Let's close the book on this bad chapter.

–Yeah, yeah I think so.

It's not a mulligan but it's since you say

OK you know what, you kind of hit some

of the numbers you wanted not the big one

but now actually show us that our faith in

you is not misplaced. But to be fair, we

could look at other companies in the

industry, like Google that are doing the

same sort of strong arm tactics.

Google right now is making a big push for

HTTPS, they want everything to be encypted

end to end on the internet, that's a good

goal, but some people feel that their

approach is heavy handed. Now, the new

updates to Chrome are going
to automatically

mark any site that doesn't have
HTTPS built

into it as insecure so that little icon is

going to pop up, warning people that maybe

they shouldn't visit the site.
People think

that's heavy handed, but those looking at

it say, "well this is ultimately going to

lead to a better internet." you could make

the same call here. You could say "Look,

this was heavy handed, this was

Microsoft being the worst of the nannies,

but a more secure OS ultimately is a

better experience."

-All of the goals that Microsoft had for

this were valid right. Even the
self-serving

ones you know, the notion that we would

all be better off if more of us run the

very latest version of the O. S. and were

always updated to be on that version would

make us all more secure because it's less

work for Microsoft to do to fix
the problems

you know, are going to occur down the road

Everyone benefits from that there's no. .

you can't really dispute it. But the

problem is when they say oh good, everyone

agrees? Good! Now you're all getting the

new upgrade is like whoa whoa hold on a

second, you know, you mention for example

that you have U.S.B. devices that don't

work on Windows 10. I'm sure anyone.

listening to this has some examples of

some things whatever might be, uh…

that don't work you know or some reason

whatever it may be that they couldn't

upgrade. I mean you can't. . . I don't

believe you can I mean they
tried you can't

really just jam this kind of thing down

people's throats.

-And for our few fruit flans in
the chat room

right now. Why is it that Microsoft trying

to force Windows 10 on people was a

boondoggle. Whereas another company's

decision to remove a standard
port was brave?

(Mary-Jo laughs) Courage

(Paul) Good marketing.

(Fa. Ballencer) Maybe this was just

Microsoft’s courage, and we’re all just

misunderstanding it.

-Uhm –Ok (Laughter) -Well OK

(Paul) It was courageous of them
to attempt.

(Fa. Ballencer) It was, it was. Although

I will say something I really don't like

is the fact that they've disabled
something

from 8 because if you do Windows stacked

side by side it's pretty seamless but if

you do one on top of the other there's

always a hard break as you move between

screens. In 8 you used to be able to

disable that sticky window, you just move

right through it. You can do the same

registry edit in 10 but it doesn't fix it.

That never goes away and that's why I

don't understand that, Go figure.
All right.

When we come back. We need to talk about

something a bit more cheery because we've

we've been hammering on Microsoft
so rather

than talking about a forced
Windows 10 update

I think maybe we should talk about some

Layoffs -Yeah. (laughter)
-Oh boy!

–Yay let’s get pumped. But first let's go

ahead and take a moment to thank the first

sponsor of this episode of Windows weekly.

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OK this is one of these stories that it

almost feels as if a
continuation of stories

that we've already covered but who

wants to talk about the bad news for

pink slips over at Microsoft.

(Mary-Jo) Oh wait, can we talk about the
Skype thing first.

(Fa Bellencer) OK sure. OK You know

what that's hold off on the super awesome

(Mary-Jo) I mean it's related but we can

we could kind of mix it up a little.

-The people getting pink slips got
them over Skype. (laughter)

(Mary-Jo) That would have been interesting

(Paul) Which explains why some of them

have been home. Some of them got it
seventeen times. (laughing)

(Mary-Jo) Burn, burn
(Fa Bellencer) ok Skype, let’s do Skype.

-Ok so this um, Paul should the S.M.S.
relate because you, I think you've

actually looked at it, right?

-No, well not exactly, so, Err,
how do I explain this,

but earlier this year Microsoft announced
a feature that was going to come

in the Windows 10 anniversary
update called messaging everywhere

and the idea is that you have a Windows
Phone or an Android phone

and you can use your computer to send
text messages and receive text messages

right like you can do in a Mac if you
have an iPhone as well.

And everyone was really excited about it,
some insiders started testing it

and then very late in the game they said
you know what.

Actually we're not going to put
this in Windows ten.

This makes more sense for Skype
we'll put it in the Skype preview app

but sometime later in the year they
yanked it out of Windows 10

some people were disappointed you
know because they were using it

but you know I think we can agree that
a messaging feature makes more sense for

Microsoft's messaging solution than it
does for Windows specifically so

it's going to be part of Skype. So
in the most recent Windows insider build

which was released last week I think
Microsoft's added this feature in for

the first time and now they're calling it
S.M.S. relay actually been calling

about for some time but it's a slightly
more technical and less interesting name

and the functionality is supposed to work
the same way in this initial version

however you need to have the latest fast
ring version of Windows 10 from

windows insiders. I think 14 9 23 or
something like that. And you also need

to have that same build on Windows 10
mobile it only works on those two systems

so I have both of these things
but I couldn't get it.

I'm not seeing it on my phone
I don't know why.

but the idea again is that you can from
the Skype preview app on Windows 10

for P.C.'s send and receive text messages
and so if your phone is over the corner

charging somebody sends you a text message
you get a notification on your P.C.

click on it you can reply to it right
there. It sends out over your phone

as you would expect so it's coming.
And it will come as part of Skype, right?

so we won't have to wait for the next
major version of Windows 10 to get it.

Which by the way is another one of
the advantages of putting it on Skype.

-You know what's weird though I think I
messaged you about this that I have an

Android phone. I have a Windows 10 P.C.
and I am seeing my text messages

from my phone show up on my Windows 10
P.C. and I'm not on

the insider program right!
–Which is really interesting.

-Yeah, So I think it's because of Cortana
though because I have Cortana on both

and I believe that also gives you some of
that functionality but that then

I'm like OK So is this in the future
going to be taken out of Cortana?

-Yes so, right. Actually it's kind of
confusing because this is hum,

I wrote a book about Windows 10 that I'm
still updating for the anniversary update

and one of the things I put off literally
to the very end that I will wrote right

in the last of all the new content is
phone integration because it's actually a

little convoluted there are three ways
right now that you can get information

back and forth from your phone through
Windows 10 as I understand it. One is this

new S.M.S. relay feature in the Skype
preview. One is the thing you're seeing

which is the Cortana integration but
there's also like a Windows phone

integration I will get Windows Phone
notifications in Action Center on

Windows 10that are notifications that
came from Windows 10 in the phone and so

they could be about anything it will be
like Facebook updates.

You know different things from different
apps on the phone and those things will

actually surface in Windows 10 of my P.C.
as well. So I'm still trying to kind of..

where and how all these things happen
and why you know it's interesting I have

three different phones, so I have and
Android phone like you do and I have the

Windows Phone and also an iPhone
So the iPhone doesn't really do anything

but the expectation is that you'll have a
pretty decent level of functionality

through Android if you have Windows 10
and then obviously if you have

Windows 10 mobile you would have
the best experience

because those two things would
be tightly integrated.

-You know that's something in a
feature I actually would really like

something in Windows that shows me how
the various services integrate because

it's always an crapshoot for me about what
notifications I get on what devices like

you I've got I.O.'s devices I've got
Windows devices I've got Android I think

Windows Mobile and it always, I’m never
really sure what is syncing and what's not

-It's like a roulette wheel and I just was
speaking Skype specifically, this morning

I was chatting with Brad on Skype & we're
you know we're texting back and forth

he writes, I write you know five minutes
goes by, 15 minutes and all of a sudden

one of my three phones in this case it
was my iPhone the screen lights up and

I look over and it's a Skype notification
of something. Brad had written me on Skype

about two minutes earlier. And so for
some reason that one version of the app

on that one phone lit up. It was like all
my devices or weight are in the back and

one of those are like I got it. I got it,

and it just kind of like I'm having an
active conversation in Skype on Windows.

You know why? Why would these other
things? You know how it is, if I go to my

Android phone and I turn them on right
now and I go into Skype. You know thus

waking it up which is a mistake. It's like
Jason from Friday the 13th or something

but if I do wake it up briefly it will
flash those one two three conversations

that are marked unread the conversations
I had earlier with Brad actually this one

from Twit and the conversations I had
with Mary Jo according to this version of

the app these conversations are unread.

-I know, that happens to me too. Yet when
I when I've had my Windows 10

laptop off for a while I turn on you know
they all the messages filtered through

but then some show up as unread
and some show up as read.

-Yep.

-So I'm not sure what makes
both of those things happen.

-Yeah I ended up going into Windows 10
notification I just turning off everything

because I was so tired of
receiving the same notifications 15 times

-Yep

-Actually there's something else that I
do love the syncing across accounts

that actually does work nicely except
for the fact that at home. I've got this

monster set up with two 4K. monitors
and a bunch of little monitors around the

periphery and it tries to import those
preferences into my laptop and it doesn't

matter how many times I tell it not to do
that it. There's always an update in the,

the switch gets turned back on & suddenly
all the text on my laptop is tiny.

Because it's adjusting with what it thinks
I want to the desktop, which that's again

I want some sort of central control panel
that shows all my devices and which

settings are moving between which devices.
It sounds like that's an absolute

necessity now with all the different
devices that we use. And with all the

syncing that Microsoft trying to build
into the products. That's a necessity.

-Yeah you know obviously Microsoft doesn't
have a big presence slash

any presence in Mobile and so one of the
concerns that they have that maybe Apple

doesn't have and Google only has to a
lesser extent say with IOS Devices is the

cross-platform stuff you know Bart W on
Twitter's ask Mary-Jo and I if S.M.S.

relay is coming to the Skype apps on IOS
and Android as

well and it's a reasonable expectation
that it would but

you know of course on Android you have
a Microsoft has a

much easier way of getting into the
system and making

this more seamless whereas in IOS,
if you think about how

Cortana works you kind of have to go
in and run the app

for some things to happen. You know it's
never going to be as. .

even though it can you know, it can sort
of run in the background a little bit

you can never be sure that it will always
be there. This is more easily done on

Android and Windows Phone So if you…
Mary-Jo do you know off the top you head

has Microsoft ever spoke to S.M.S relay
on IOS Android?

-I don't remember them saying that.

–It seems like it would have to the right?
(Mary-Jo) I know it does seemed like it would have to
-What would be the point of S.M.S relay to Windows 10 mobile?
-Right.
- Mary Jo I've got an enterprise question for you. Do we know how many versions of messaging Windows has.. uh Microsoft has because you've got Skype. You've got Skype for business. You've got Skype for broadcast and then you've got the link stuff which was actually supposed to take over for the Skype stuff but then that seems to be flipped. Now that we've got the Dela
do you see what's in the strategy going forward or we just keep getting fractured off into different types of Skype and do they still have that artificial delineation between consumer and enterprise?
-They do. They still have the delineation there is still Skype consumer and Skype for business are not the same product even though they're both called Skype and you're right. Link is still kind of hanging around for some on promise the stuff but ultimately Link, the Link name will totally go away and link will be completely superseded by Skype for business that will happen.
-Because that was going the other way. I mean Skype was going to go to go away and they were going to keep Link and so now they've reversed on that.
- Yes So I think they're being pretty consistent on length being supplanted by Skype for business.
-OK.
-I think next week which is Microsoft ignite we might hear some new things about Skype for business and kind of where that's going because every time we ask Microsoft about Skype they'll answer Skype consumer questions but they won't talk at all about Skype for business. And I think next week's show because it's a very I T pro focus show we probably will hear some new things about Skype for business and hopefully about how it's going to be syncing soon with OneDrive and OneDrive for business. That's something people are really waiting anxiously for and last we heard that was going to happen in the final calendar quarter of this year. So we're almost in the final calendar quarter. Seems like we should get some new News on that next week.
- Wait Skype for business will sync with OneDrive?
-With OneDrive for business, yes!
-How does that.. Wait what is it syncing?
- They’ll be integration. Sorry. Am I saying OneDrive business or my thinking Share Point. I’m thinking about Share Point.
-OK OK that makes sense
-Sorry I'm thinking about Share Point when I'm saying OneDrive for business but um, it may, Microsoft talked about Share Point and OneDrive business being able to actually have better sync across those two products and they said that was going to counter Q four and I think that's what we might hear about next week. But yeah you know every time we ask about Skype. You know we've heard recently that Skype is moving to this new kind of universal next generation client and when I asked Microsoft you know does that also mean Skype for businesses is going to be on that same universal client. They said we're not really talking about Skype for Business
-You're like whoa.
-Don't get ahead of yourself here.
- And don't forget the upcoming Skype for Web R.T.C. because I mean that's also another universal client and universal, universal.
-But we should talk about this thing that surfaced this week called Skype for life. Speaking of .
-Oh good I was just hoping we would have another Skype.
- Speaking of Jason from Friday the 13th. (laughing)
-OK what is Skype for life?
OK So ARS Technica Dr Pizza over there got a tip from one of his sources or maybe multiple sources that Microsoft was working on a product called Skype for life and he and a lot of us have first kind of thought maybe this was a name for the universal Skype client that would work across all different platforms that would be kind of like what Microsoft has described as the universal Windows platform equivalent but for the other platforms like IOS and Android. But then Paul dug around a little and thought it through and he says no but that is not what that it is. -No! No I mean I talked to Peter about it., Skype, Ironically. And I don't doubt that he was told this and I don't doubt that the person who told him saw this and thought that they understood what they were seeing but you know I talked to the Skype guys back in June or July about the strategy Mary Jo just discussed where they're moving to a new generation clients they have updated their back end infrastructure they temporarily have to maintain the old P.D.P. infrastructure for certain applications or services but that's going to be going away. The combination of these two back end services explains the Skype reliability issues that we've all seen over the past you know several months I was told. And I thought you know, Skype For Life and making yet again new, some new client that would somehow run across all those platforms didn't make any sense to me and if you look at that next to their previously stated strategy it's clear to me that Skype For Life is just a marketing term and what they're describing internally I think is the culmination of that previous existing strategy that the new infrastructures switched over to their new clients are all available. They all interact and all have the new features and it's not that it's one client's I mean obviously Windows will have P.W.P. clients, IOS and Android will have native apps there, Linux will have what they have and there will be the web version as well. And these things will have some baseline of functionality that works across all of them on this new infrastructure that's the point of it.
-You know what I'm going to still be a doubter here. OK I don't think, I think the more I think about this the more I think you're right that it isn't a new totally new Skype client. I think that would just be crazy and kind of going back to what they just got away from but I think Skype For Life is something else and the reason I'm thinking that it's a marketing slogan but, maybe it's something like you know they call Skype translator a feature of Skype like that. That's how they brand that and Skype for teams which is what they're going to be doing to compete with Slack. I also think they'll call that a feature of Skype. I don't think they'll call of a new version of Skype. So I'm thinking Skype For Life might be something like using Skype to improve your life in some way. So maybe it's like I don't know I'm just I'm totally reaching here but Skype like maybe Skype and the Microsoft Health platforms somehow connected or you know Skype being used for some specific thing that's more about health and welfare and maybe a very specific almost like a vertical I'm just guessing here again but I think it's something else.
-I mean that seems very far reaching. It might be simpler that you know it's funny we were just kind of joking around and slash complaining about how you know Skype will ring on various devices and whatever because we have various devices because we're nerds and so Skype For Life could be as simple as what I think of a Skype everywhere this this feature you know that a normal person with a computer and a phone or a tablet and a phone would want to get messages everywhere and that's the For Life. In other words. Whatever your life is whatever your habits are whatever devices you choose to use Skype will be there. You know.
-That could be
-I just you know regardless of what it is I mean I think it's mostly a marketing term. Right. Not so much a product. And it's almost just a way to describe functionality to normal people.
-I'd be down with the marketing term. I spoke with a rep a Microsoft rep over at IFA in Berlin last month and or no this month and of course didn't want to talk about it but what he was describing was that this is Skype UC this is the unified communication promised the idea of we don't want Skype to be an app. It shouldn't be something you start up it should be something that is just everywhere. They're using Microsoft products. You should be able to say Cortana call Paul Thurrott and it will automatically kick out Skype and it doesn't even call a Skype it just connects. Hum, and I can see that I mean that UC promises has been something that's been around for ten years maybe this is Microsoft finally saying let's do.
- Or saying we finally have enough pieces in place for it makes sense right. I mean even the things like integrating Skype into Outlook.com and OneDrive.com on the web or the Outlook 2016 Mail clients in office 2016 which you know depending on your view of things you might find incredibly useful
or incredibly annoying because it certainly on the web, they don't do a good job with that but
I think that these things are all part of … how do you describe a bunch of little things? It's a.. what's the theme? You know universal communications is how we would say it in the enterprise and maybe Skype For Life is how they want to say it to people.
-You know what Padre just gave me a crazy idea another crazy idea.
-Oh good
-What if Skype For Life is a bot?
-Oh
-Now they’re intergrading more bots into Skype right and there's been all this talk about a concierge bot that Bing was working on for a while to be kind of like your personal assistant for a life. You know somebody who you could say hey what movies are playing can you get me some tickets. Maybe this is Skype For Life?
-But then Skype for life would have to fight Cortana to the death.
-I know. Yeah. BOTS and Cortana they... I think they're siblings I think they're friends but yeah
-Their twins, Skype For Life is the twin they kept in the closet until he was a teenager so he’s a little stunted.
We've actually got people in the chat room, we've got ‘hey it's Todd’ who suggested that Skype For Life is actually the name of a new form of judicial punishment and then you see the really really bad, you only get to use Skype (Laughing)
-It sounds like a big punishment.
-And a guy could be like oh I’ve been Skyped.
-Should it just be Skype 10? I mean, cause that was the whole idea of Windows 10. It is the last Windows you will ever own is this Skype 10 is it like look it will always be this way.
-And what you're supposed to do everything to ensure it. That’s windows. God bless
-The ultimate Skype.
-Honestly Windows 10 is a terrible name right. That should have just been Windows I don't think we need to go 10 I think if anything we should be stripping the numbers off of the products that still have numbers.
-Maybe they really want it to be Windows X.
-Apple's doing that right? Apple's changing back
-they've kind of moved to the right because they still have version numbers obviously you have to have the stuff behind the scenes but you know they talk about the new version MacOS as Sierra. You know and they've been doing that for years. I guess but they really they emphasize that you know it's a friendly name and I think that's a nicer approach than some godly book like H.P. product names or version or just not version numbers because numbers or even using the version number the name is just it's just it's I think that's just old fashioned
-Yeah
-Yeah it's kind of I mean because you have to…
-I know especially if its the last right last version of something, supposedly
-It should have just been Windows ultimate, Oh wait, we've already used that. Never mind!
-Calling something the last version of this product is like the worst way to market something ever invented. You know this is the last version we're ever going to make a Windows. Oh know we’re gonna keep updating it, but this is the last one.
–There’ll be some serious updates to it but no, this is it. -So it really is just not smart mart. (Sigh) I'm going to be… I'm going to change my name to Padre 10. I will be the last Padre, you’ll ever know.
-Actually if you can change it to 10.01.
-There'll be updates to Padre, but this is really the final version. (Paul) There will always be that little hidden miss. (Mary-Jo) Padre Hena-versary.
Don't we… the Padre anniversary edition. It's ten pounds lighter but has all the features. (laughing)
All right, we're going to bog down a bit too much and it is a fun story, but there is one more story that has so much fun it has to be dispelled. Paul. There were people screaming all over the Internet that Microsoft is being the big bad by trying to lock Linux out of new P.C.'s Is this true?
–No! And that's all we need to say about that. If I could somehow make a career out of just debunking stupidity. Right. I mean I just… you get into these conversations of people on Twitter who see these stories and they.. I think it's the way conspiracy theories work right. It's.. it hits on your internal beliefs and so you instantly throw common sense to the wind and say oh course their doing this. Microsoft is evil. It's like guys it's not 1998 anymore it could be maybe upgrade the way we think about Microsoft and their relationship with Linux in particular. The topic and if you don't know what it is I guess we should probably step back a second and say that somebody had discovered that a Lenovo P.C. bought from the Microsoft store so it's a signature P.C. and thus is running something called Windows 10 signature edition which doesn't exist. Somehow has the magic capability of preventing Linux from ever being installed in that computer. That's not a capability of an operating system that’s something that would have to be built into the firmware I guess of the computer I mean I obviously there's always going to be some way to brute stall anything on there but you know, read it happens. There’s one of the guys from ZD Net wrote a very calm and collected article but anyway I appreciated that. But here's the thing, signature P.C. is as I describe it. I think the smallest province of the windows empire that exists in Microsoft. They have no power at all the very notion that they could require a P.C. maker to do anything is ludicrous. Let alone the world's number one P.C. maker. Microsoft is not the business of blocking Linux. They never really were. But it's one of those things like a lot of people kind of like want to believe is the case. Some guy supposedly from Lenovo got into a support forum somewhere and said Yeah. This might this is part of our agreement with Microsoft. That's not true. By the way because Lenovo came out with a statement and said no that's not what's happening. It's one of those things like you don't actually have to know the answer to know the answer. It's a little bit like the Skype For Life thing like if you think it through. It's like this is not what's happening and so I ... I'm not the one that got the statement so I think it's Tech Republic. They've got the statement but I did a write up about it and uh debating it…
-This is just secure boot on the UEFI right?. I mean that's all it is.
-It's not exactly but it's that exact kind of topic yes but Lenovo has a one of, it's probably just one Lenovo computer actually but there is a Lenovo computer that has a very strange raid S.S.D. configuration and as people are discovering if they try to clean install Windows 10 on that computer it won't work either. It's. It's a very unique configuration. It's not part of a secret cabal with Microsoft to screw Linux users out of their new computer but you know I think I said this to Mary Jo privately or maybe Brad we were I was chatting with somebody earlier today and so consider the market out there for people who are going to buy a Windows based computer and install Linux on it right and there is some number it's a small number but the some group of people do that. And now let's consider the subset of those people who are going to drive to a Microsoft store pick it lovingly pick out their… you know favorite signature P.C. configuration from the store, buy it from Microsoft. You know their favorite company. And then put Linux on it. I mean like I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm not saying it's not going to happen but c'mon. I mean and this is Microsoft's.
Path to world domination we're going to do it through the signature pieces that nobody even knows exists at the stores and you can't even find there where you live. It's just the whole thing is loaded it's just typical. Watching this cascade across the Internet today. It's just as depressing. That's just so typical. You know it destroys your faith in humanity or reconfirms my belief that we're all idiots. I mean it's just it's sad.
-And he thought Lenovo did show. I mean I can't remember what they call it it's like software services but then on boot up you actually get the option of what packages you want to install. So you could make it a signature…
-You mean..?
-All the crapware.
-That’s interesting. So Lenovo not the only P.C. makers starting to do that kind of a thing and I really like this approach it's because it's something P.C. makers are not familiar with called customer centricity.
You know H.P.’s newer machines will do the same thing and in the past you get a bunch of utilities and things running in the tray and whatever was. Now you have to seek out those applications and at the time that you run it. It says hey we have this tray thing we can put it and you want to use it and if you say no that's in the end of it you know and that's the way things should be you know don't you think. Yeah so.

-Well it sure beats me having to spend the first thirty minutes of my new pieces life. Uninstalling everything that came pre-installed. Yes right. Actually
we will never be deemed intelligent beings by future civilizations because of things like this it's like when you buy an electronic device and spend the first thirty minutes. Updating the software or when you buy a smartphone and you install apps and you spend the next seven days. Removing or changing notifications or like what you just said you buy a new P.C. in the first thing you do is take things away from it. It's like this is so counter. Intuitive and counterproductive and yet we just sort of sort of accept that this is the way it is you know that's what makes me so sad that signature seems to be kind of not an emphasis anymore because I remember when I got my Acer A seven it came to me as a signature device and I didn't even know it was going to and it was such a different experience. Oh yes it's the way. So let's see four years ago this month.
Microsoft opened their store in Boston and I bought the very first computer that was sold at that store which is a fifteen inch Samsung ultra book.
It was one of the last Windows seven computers they sold right because one was a came out. Thirty or forty five days later and to this day when I restore that saying and it goes back to that clean windows seven signature edition thing with beautiful wallpaper and you know no crap anywhere it's still like this calming almost transcendental moment like you open the thing up in like nice you know and that's not the reaction.
Typically happen the P.C. is right it's too bad I mean seriously there is something about having to do a hardware store for you to go back to the factory disks and you know yeah when in any time you do that there's going to be hours and hours if not days of updates it's going to go through round and round and round but that's not the infuriating part for me because that I can just leave off in the corner the interior infuriating part is I know I'm already going to have an anti-virus it's going to take five restarts to fully get rid of it because it just sticks in there and you have to do a little bit of registry editing to get rid of the stuff that doesn't know an install at all. Which we probably I know we've talked about this on the pod cast whatever. You know some months ago but as part of the windows tenth anniversary update there's a new tool it's not actually included in the O. S. but you could it's linked to from the O. S. And so I think people are probably familiar with the reset your P.C. functionality of that they Butin Windows eight also available one is ten thing is if you use that on a P.C. that came from a P.C. maker which is you know most P.C.'s. The P.C. maker can
edit that image that's installed so your crapper all comes back right when you reset the P.C. you get the crapper. But there's a separate tool called refresh Windows it's linked to from the same place in the settings up in Windows time with the anniversary update you download the tool it downloads windows ten it's a clean version of Windows ten and then you can install that and then so instead of getting the crapware laden version you might get from say whatever peace maker Dell H.P. whoever you get Microsoft's clean image right. And so the pro there is you don't get the stuff you're talking about at the end of R.S. whatever stupid utilities people put on there. The minus side is you may not get the driver you know little bonus piano and probably Dell have decent utilities for keeping that particular machine up to date with drivers for example you don't get that thing. And so you might have to do a little bit of extra work if you want some of that stuff or if you need it you know if you look in device manager and some of your stuff hasn't been recognized you know you might find yourself going to the H.P. or Dell or lead over whatever website and dolling the drivers but at least you have that option. And so I think that's a lot closer to
a signature P.C. type experience
except that it's not fine tuned for YOUR exact computer which was the point of signature one of the signature
and if anyone wants an almost Signature Series just deny the retail version of the operating system and that's what you get and yeah it sounds stupid but it really there is something that is so nice about starting the P.C. and realizing the only thing on here is the bare O. S. everything that gets added on is my choice. And that's by the way another thing I think we all do with these devices doesn't matter what you're talking about a phone tablet computer. That first day you install the things you know you need right. The just the absolute necessity. You have to examine or use I.E. to install chrome. Yes exactly which I believe is you only reason. Exist. Over time as you use the device whatever it is you know P.C. tablet whatever you realize oh wait i need this thing too and you listen to it it spirals right so over time you fill the thing up and you. You know there's a bunch of junk on there but those first couple days wonderful. It's like the.
You know the out of box thing is kind of like it should be. I mean it's not always with the P.C. If you get the wrong kind but
but you know that's what it is. And so we we kind of try to recapture the magic.
Let's reset it back a little. But we do have to talk about the layoffs at some point because it is a big story and it's not it's not it's not totally happy but it's also not totally unexpected right. Rate. And we saw sales. You know we did and you know I think a lot of people forgot but in July Microsoft announced during S.E.C. filing that they're going to be laying off.
Almost three thousand more people this fiscal year which is their fiscal twenty seventeen.
Over the weekend there was a report by the Fed Financial Times that Microsoft was closing Skype London and I saw some people report this says and laying off four hundred people but actually the number that Microsoft is laying off is closer to two hundred and thirty. I think I called them and asked them how many as how many people is it and they said it's about two hundred thirty and that's a combination of people who work for both Skype and yammer in London.
Some people be moved to the Paddington office some are just going to be let go. They also last week. Paul and I kenna were catching bits and pieces of this through Facebook because we saw different people we knew posting a Facebook that they had been cut but they cut another three hundred people on top of that mostly from the Puget Sound Redmond area and a few people from other geographies around the world. These five hundred plus layoffs that happened last week are part of that two thousand eight hundred fifty that they announced in July. This isn't a new group of people. Well who didn't you know who bikes upset and were adding another five hundred right. These are people all different divisions not all concentrated in one division. Except for the Skype and yammer part that are being let go across the company.
Microsoft's definitely continuing to tighten you know felt tight doing belt tightening across the company getting rid of people before the layoffs were largely Windows phone related and Windows Mobile these new ones are not because they pretty much laid off all of those people
originally it was a bunch of the Microsoft sales people because they had a sales for York this year when Kevin Turner left. Now we're getting into the product areas some people in one doze some in office people across different parts of the company. So if you hear about layoffs that happened recently that is what happened.
Yeah a lot of my Microsoft contacts are heads down right now. You know not necessarily because they're fearing this round but because they realize you know what Microsoft is actually they're not doing the. The cutthroat competition anymore but they are looking to the various departments and finding out. Do you have any personnel that have not really contributed anything in the last five years. I think the H.R. term for these people is dead wood and it's a it's always difficult to talk about someone like that but if you've been at a company for twenty years. And you haven't really been challenged or maybe you've become really really cynical it might be time to move on. You know I've seen that I in over the past year or two as we talk about layoffs obviously there's the human side to it. It's always very tragic people to lose their jobs but looking at the company from sort of a Microsoft watching perspective I think Mary Jo would agree this is a very big and in some ways still bloated company with lots of levels of hierarchy and management so forth and.
You know the people I know personally for Microsoft are two to one very smart people they they do want to change the world but I think the system they're in might be a little too
big and complex. You know for things. Happen so it's possible that the Dell is making these changes
like many of the changes is made to speed response time make sure they're focusing on the right things and all that kind of stuff so. As C.R. one in the chat room is saying how well they're downsizing their way to success and I know it's very easy to see it that way but there's another view and if you take a step back. You can actually see it. I know Mary Jo and Paul you've both seen this is because you cover Microsoft so deeply but especially during
the Balmer years. There were little fiefdoms that developed in Microsoft and the freedoms were all about how many employees were under your thumb and so you had reason to some was a minute ago you had these little who are accumulating kingdoms not really caring about the predictive productivity they were getting out of people they were just cared about how many people they were in charge of and that there's no action on the side to this with power comes the ability to influence direction and I always think back to this one example. I'm not saying that this product would have been successful but at the time when Steven Sinofsky was running the Office group there was a project that came up from I don't remember what group it was but it was an office but it was basically an attempt to put office in the cloud at the time that it called the cloud but it's called Net docs and he killed it because it competed with Office
right and the theory here is that Microsoft might have come out with something that was Google Docs and all that stuff years earlier. If they just hadn't been so or if the people in power hadn't been so concerned about protecting their products. You know that you couldn't compete with something like Windows or Office if you did that you were out you had to support that right now. It's possible and probable that not talks was a joke that it was based on Active-X. that it was stupid. Whatever I don't know but you know but that's the type of thing that happens in that kind of organization. Plus you know we've talked about this a lot but the emphasis of Microsoft these. Days is very different from the old Microsoft you know Windows was the main cast of Microsoft for years now everything has to be about the cloud for them and the shareholders want that The Wall Street analysts want that. So if you're working in a group that's Windows related. You know they're they're definitely kind of putting the squeeze to you. I think. And if you're doing something that's more cloud focus enterprise focused. Something that's about collaboration teamwork that kind of gives you an edge and I think it's also just about job kind of
not restructuring but more and more just like changing of the emphasis set at about what matters. And what's going to make the money for Microsoft right. So some of that's a play to
let you know I think we talked about this. So when does weekly The notion you know the new newer surface devices say Microsoft on the right. And this one Microsoft notion that we're moving forward as one company not as the you know the guns pointed at each other all the little fiefdoms
that we were just talking about you know it's a new way for Microsoft. You know a new way of doing things right and that's why that's why I actually still I'm very bullish on Microsoft I love what Nadella has done that idea of taking down the ramparts and making the little princes actually work with one another. Yeah it doesn't work any other way all the ranges are though you know a lot of these because you know externally. I agree with you right. I think this stuff is necessary. It's exciting for Microsoft as a company that in many ways to become so calcified you know for to see them reacting to things quickly and moving quickly as it is it's very exciting in hitting that the right products and things but I know from personal experience with different people
that this change is very hard for some of the people. There's been a not just the ones who've been like Oh no. But just people who see projects just disappearing. You know there's some other people who are the opposites true like they've been champing at the bit for ever to like work. Teams across teams and they're like oh finally they're letting us talk to each other before and that wasn't really encouraged or even allowed right. So those people are really happy. And not to hammer on Steven's Nasi of it. What the heck you know when they did Windows eight right. They went to the Windows Phone team and said Trump shows the mattress stuff and they say here you go and for the Windows Phone perspectives are great. We're going to collaborate this guys we're going to come out with this cohesive system. Nope they never talked again you know the Windows Phone guys are always the B. team to the Windows guys now in Windows ten with him gone and you know different people in place that is what's happening but it happens. Three to five years too late. This is stuff that should have happened on day one. It's these thing should have evolved together. You know you could have made the case back in I guess we're talking two thousand and ten two thousand and eleven two thousand and twelve. Certainly that Windows Phone had been in market at mature to some point. Ned if you're going to go to market with an R. T. style tablet device. It should have been Windows Phone No US was already there. It had to happen. It was all there but no they started over from scratch. They created another Windows system that ran out arm. Instead of you know basing it on the thing they really had very strange but ten years ago I I had a contact in the X. Box division and a contact in the Windows division and we had a weird exchange of the course of six weeks where basically they were using me as an intermediary to pass messages. That's another and I was like you work little one hundred yards away from each other. What's going on here and by the way if they're still there and then same teams they all work for the same guy I know exactly example. That's one organization and that's why they were emailing through me. They're like we can't be seen to be emailing one another. Someone will see it and get really upset I was thinking that is so dysfunctional. That's what he had is the worst kind of triangulation ever. Even you know like Ray Ozzie remember when he was the chief scientist or whatever to the chief software architect stop. Protect You know you know he allowed teams to compete on you know file sync technologies and things like that and instead of determining you know that you're the best ideas from each group let's make one thing you know you allow this internal competition to occur and what happens on the outside is you see that they have three different file sync solutions at the time or four and which one do I take a bet on and why are there so many and doesn't the show a lack of leadership. You know and I'm sure there are
management strategies or theories that this is a good way to do things but we know from experience with this particular subject that you know that didn't go very well.
When eventually it all became one drive you know but for several years there were many many different solutions. There were I remember when all those think engines are out there and it was like it was a time I should think you like which one are they talking about red. I'm not I'm not going to remember all. I mean now there are a lot of those life sink in and you know it was a struggle one single team was doing a whole different sync thing which are you
know it's like don't wash pits theory of management like let them fight it out
I prefer the days of active sync where there was active sync and then act as a snowball and active scene for enterprise ACAS security for exchange because that really made it. You know very easy to understand we call it when you re use an acronym. It's a called the You example it up or whatever it's like they did that with active SEC like Active Sync was which is ever used. You know as a term someone just thought it sounded like a really cool name so they wanted to use it on their the products as possible and it took me a while to realize that two products that were called Active Sync actually had and it was no sharing of the code base tween them those guys probably hated each other. Yes. Well because it was the exchange side and then it was the mobile side and they didn't I mean they were competing. With each other. I remember the spring green circle very well I still have nightmares about it. And that's what happens when you build a dysfunctional company. All right. When we come back. What's going to be wearables ignite. What do we want to talk about big night would be like to know it's yeah.
It's too soon too soon man to think we're let's do wearables because everybody wants to know what's going on with the band of course. So we'll be bending up in jest a bit but first let's go and take another break. Because we need to thank another sponsor of Windows weekly Hey folks do you read. Of course you read but you probably don't read as much as you want to I know I don't there came a time when my schedule just got so full that I don't have those free evenings to curl up with a book I can't do that. Hour of reading in the mid day I I don't have the breaks. I'd like to to pick up my favorite pieces of fiction and nonfiction. Well there's a new way to read with your ears. That's right. It's called audible now I spend a lot of time in the car probably about two hours every day coming up and down from San Francisco to Petaluma and I spend a lot of time in the air in fact I just spent twenty seven hours in the air coming going to and from Berlin. I'm going to spend another thirty hours going over to Rome at the end of this month. It's nice to have my favorite books the books that I want to read that are on my wish list ready to go with a touch of a button. Well that's exactly what you get with audible audible is a leading provider of audio books across all types of literature including fiction nonfiction and periodicals they offer a language instruction in foreign language course in audio book format so you can always be improving yourself no matter what you're doing. No matter where you're going no matter how busy your schedule might be for listeners of Windows weekly audibles offering a free audio book to give you a chance to try out their service a one audio book that I absolutely recommend I recommended to everybody in fact I've been recommending it since it first came out and that is the Martian by. Andy we're this book is absolutely fantastic. If you liked the movie you will love the audio book. I'm actually addicted to this. I do a lot of trips over the last Vegas and this is just about the right length to get me from here to there. It's all about a man trying to survive on his own with nothing but his wits and his biology skills. If you want to find out what it's like to live on the red planet if you want to listen to a premise that is fresh that is not based off of a comic book that is not based off of a series. You've got to try the Martian it's free. Because you're a listener of Windows weekly now to download this audio book for free or another one of your choice you can go to audible dot com slash windows that's audible dot com slash windows of course I don't want to give you just my pick. I know this is supposed to come later in the show but Paul you're a big audio book listeners Well yes maybe maybe you were teasing me with that. That was going to change my life. Well you know I liked. I like personal tech industry picks from possible there really aren't that many really good ones we talked about masters of Doom which is story about the it's software guys read by what we've done which is fantastic.
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you know how and intended and then eventually. Sega and assume Sony you know kind of just changed things through the early ninety's. Well there you have it. You've got a older fiction pick for me. You've got a nonfiction pick for Paul you can pretty much find everything in between at Audible dot com Now this offer works for one credit books there are very few that are to credit that won't work with the software but if you want to try out Paul's book if you want to try out mine. You need to try Audible dot com And we think auto will for their support.
Of Windows Weekly. OK So we've got some wearables I did see a few of these in Berlin and they looked they looked wearable they looked interesting. But should I be excited Mary Jo. I you know I still I'm I don't have a smart watch. I did use the Microsoft band for a bit of time and I thought it was OK I use the band too but I'm I still haven't really seen anywhere Bill device and I'm like yes I would pay that I would wear that. And now if you are a fan of Microsoft band. We talked last week on the show that we had heard some rumors that Microsoft may be no longer making the band after band two. Right after the show ended a day later we found out that Microsoft was rebranding the Microsoft health application to band. So people who are downloading the Microsoft updates to the Microsoft health application for i O S Android and Windows. We're seeing suddenly that it was called Band instead of health
Microsoft hasn't really said what's going on with that but my sources said to me that what they think is that Microsoft's rebranding health to band because right now Microsoft the Microsoft health app that exists really just is meant to sync with the band. It's supposed to work with my band.
I think what they're going to do is come out with a now their new app that will be called Microsoft health. And that will work with the Microsoft Health Service on all different kinds of devices not just the band. They'll be able to work with. Android devices different kinds of phone platforms and all all different kinds of thanks and I think the reason they're doing this is Microsoft's priority going forward in the space is the health
the health service and the health applications and not so much the actual band hardware which has been something that a lot of people love but has had kind of mixed success. And in fact the Bantu a lot of people have had problems with it. Splitting and they've had to return it and I just I just think Microsoft's kind of in a place right now where maybe they're thinking about a new wearable at some point maybe it'll be another kind of a fitness band that'll be branded surface some day but I think the band line as we know it is done and now we're going to see them talk about how the health service and the help app and not so much the band. I think are going to fall and a band for life. I think is no God don't give them any ideas please
don't you find out about our secret plans. Maybe Mary Jo is right. Maybe that band is now called Skype the life. You're going to wear sky. He is because that makes sense. I'm telling him.
Do either of you wear a band I like the band I did try it out. But do you wear it on a daily basis. Now that I mean well I switched to Fit Bit
three months ago issue I mean you know I really I like to mix up and for what it is I think it makes a great compromise a compromise that is around place. It's a nice middle ground between an expensive and complex smartwatch and in a lower end kind of fitness tracker right it I think it's got the right mix of functionality. I think the thing that really kills it be on the reliability issues which you know came to light over time is just you looking at one day battery life. That's the problem with the Apple Watch it's a problem with a lot of these devices. You know if it bit. I think is the one I have the thing lasts for seven or eight days on a charge it's incredible and. It accomplishes the same basic things that I like the most about wearables today which is somebody texts you and you can see what it is you get you know reminders to get up and move around.
It's it does the fitness tracking kind of stuff so
I think I think they just running into
a marketing issue and on the one hand where you know no one even knew this thing existed they didn't do good job of selling it and just a battery life limitation you know an apple. I know wanted to put solar kind of to video a new Apple Watch and they didn't because of the battery life stuff there was no way to cram a thing in there make it work. Well let's let's not say that because Samsung did. Says absence got their new three D. which does have a cell radio in it. Absolute Truth and wife high and it runs for four days.
That's what I meant was Apple couldn't do it. Apple. So you know one of the things that Microsoft did with the original Microsoft and it was pretty impressive was just put that much in there in a sensor sense I think there were eleven sensors in the first advice. You know the second went out it wanted two other sensors you know they were Brahman or for for altitude and so forth
you know that kind of data collection is really exciting you know let's see what we can do with that promise and ever really did much with it. You know and of course we don't do a good job of selling it and then as Mary Jo pointed out sadly the second one at the same exact reliability issues as the first and that's
if there was this kind of the end of it right there.
They also
at least at some point were at kind of contemplating the idea of putting windows some variant of Windows ten inside the band the bands that the band want to ban to both had firmware inside that was not windows inside. And right before Linux
isn't really in him
right before we get all these tips about Mike. Maybe ceasing work on the band I had heard from one of my contacts that they are the team that was put to try to get Windows tend to work on the band had been disbanded. So I think. So yeah I think I think you know that the idea was let's make this part of the windows ten family right. Like everything else has everything else is running what the core of Windows ten the Common Core. So why not have the band do that too but for whatever reasons they decided that was going to work not feasible. And so maybe it's they go back to the drawing board. Now come up with a new wearable that is Windows ten core from here and that was thinking as you were talking about other wearables which Brad who I work with has heard as well. I was thinking you know they have to be looking at windows ten this is the point you know the universal platform that they can add that to the list of targets you can have as a developer. I think that has to
maintain. I'm just I'm still not really sold on the wearable tech and I've covered it extensively I threw out a bunch of really good pieces of tech in my lab but ultimately I don't want anything on my wrist in fact this is you mentioned battery life this is the problem with the. The the technology that was generously donated by Leo Laporte. Basically because I waited for him to remove things from his office to go on the free table and I just followed them and I got myself a modern three sixty. It's a fantastic piece of tech but because I take it off and because you have to charge it on that little awkward station. I sometimes forget it on my lap. So if you were to say do you have a band and I
went upstairs and change I actually took the Fifth it off or left it up to my better. So I actually have it on right now it's not. That's just a coincidence but
the problem I have with that exact advice you're talking about. I have one as well. The Moto three sixty or the Apple Watch is that these are you would get you would get used to it because if you just use the one device but it's as a kind of a strap that you have. Kind of connected everything it's a fairly you know you balance the thing on your wrist and you turn to try and not you know it it's because I test different devices like I sometimes don't spend enough time with any one device like the Fitbit is very simple to class the Apple Watch I find in the Model three sixty.
You know you have to get used to it right. It's kind of like time shoes you have to do it a bunch of times you know so you can get good at it. I have to think adventurously I would get used to it because I wore a watch for the first twenty years of my life but since then I just I don't want to hitting on my wrist it just feels weird even even after a couple of hours of it being on my wrist I still feel it there. I still want to take it off.
I wear regular watch still and I feel weird when I don't have it. What do you do with that
I actually use it to. Hell
I know what I thought. And I thought watches only do things like give you really abbreviated versions of the text messages so that you have to reach in your pocket to take out your phone when they let you know he had one and I used to you know. When's people got laptops and then
spawn phones you know you get into that kind of meeting joke where like people are sitting there doing their own thing on their devices and not paying attention
to whatever the person is speaking or saying. And that's considered rude it might be unprofessional whatever and so you know one of the big defenses about a wearable is like you know if you're a smart watch you can casually classed any watches not as obvious or as terrible as looking at like a phone screen or tablet or a P.C. or whatever but you know I think nothing signals to the people you're talking to the in opting attention more than when you do this kind of thing really. And now you know I mean it's just like you're bored right and you're like it's just a little or you know we almost done here. We were up to subsume. I do. I love sitting at a table when someone's wearing a smartwatch and I think you could tell they don't want to be rude but their eyes keep going down in their. Risks like this you know like I know what you're doing just take out your fellow man
you should start asking Siri questions. Siri delete that e-mail. Yeah. As my daughter once did she walked into my office and she said X. box off. And actually across the Internet there are cries of anguish because people are watching windows weekly playing thirty four per time I watch the weather.
So
you know I don't know I understand that wearables have a bright future I understand that it's a big profit center in or send it has to be a part of any cloud strategy because it's a great way to get data metrics but I'm still not completely sold
to figure anything else about wearables or should we start looking at last when I watch I missed what you know. That's about right. How are we done with wearables Let's talk cloud Let's talk cloud because this actually is exciting interesting and where the of a post-mortem. What happened. Microsoft suffered a major cloud hic up and a few people picked up on it quickly and actually merger you were one of the very first who was able to confirm that there was outages of various Azure services. What happened. Yeah I didn't it wasn't any kind of a great great thing that I did or Also my came on Twitter last Thursday morning and everybody was was tweeting to me like as you're is down. It's a huge outage so I looked at the status page and they were having a giant D.M.S. outage for Azure So that took down ended up taking down like almost every How's your service or at least limiting service on it. I mean everything was going down as your media services as your search
H.T. insight
everything everything was it was like a cascading thing and then
there were no workarounds being posted and people were just saying I can. To anything. I'm like totally stuck. I cannot do anything. I'm just sitting here twiddling my thumbs. So after a couple of hours. Microsoft got D.N.A.'s back up but then in the central part of the United States. People were still having sequel outages. Then after everything seemed to be solved. I started getting people tweeting me about one drive being down and. I don't know if the one drive part was connected to the original D.M.'s outage because parts of one drive do run on Azure. I never could confirm that was connected but it seemed to be right around the same time and that outage hit a number of people in Europe and the US I think also India for number number of hours and Microsoft wouldn't say anything about that one and I couldn't get anything just that we know some customers are experiencing problems and we're working on it. That's that. So if you if you want to know more about the specifics about what happened and what Microsoft saying they're going to do going forward to try to prevent this. If you go to the as your status page that you could you could just search for that as your status page and you look up in the history September fifteenth. You'll be able to see the whole poll postmortem and dissection of what went wrong and what they intend to do to try to assure that up going forward. I think it wasn't a good day. It wasn't a good day and I think the official position was that it was a spike in the work traffic that brought down. D.M.'s which I mean suspiciously says suspiciously sounds like it's was attacked and that's what especially some people thought. Now some people thought that some people like it must be a denial service some like but I don't know if it is but they're not saying it. That's what it is but who knows what I'm with you at the far more interesting part of the story is not that there could have been a denial of service against Microsoft Yes because that could happen anywhere. The more interesting part is the services that are actually linked together by azure. Yeah it does give you a sneak peek into some of the inner workings that Microsoft has been very recalcitrant to explain right. I'm. We know there are tons of services available on Azure if you go on at the as your page you can see they have so many different products now working on Azure plus a bunch of other services that are parts of things like not all of X. Box Live runs on measure but some pieces of it do to so when as your has a major problem. It affects pretty much everything. Obviously sixty five. I mean they they're connected in there too so you know when you have something like a D.M.'s outage pretty dire and something they needed to fix as quickly as possible. I will give them credit that they were giving people very regular updates but the updates weren't very encouraging. It's like yeah we know this is down and we're trying to fix it. That was kind of it. At least at least they were acknowledging they knew and they were working on it because sometimes the health dashboard goes down to an asher and then you. It looks when you look at it like everything's good. But nothing's working so at least this time. That was not the case.
All right and the thing about Azure is it is a self healing network and it should be able to route around problems and the fact that it did come back up relatively quickly for such a large network that is a testament to the technology but there is no such thing as a network that cannot be brought down. There's always going to be and as long as it's using the networking protocols that we have today. You can take it down if you want if you had enough resources but but Paul let me ask you about this. There was a saying in the early days of cloud computing in the early days of say like the Google Chromebook that. Oh this sounds like a good idea to move everything into the cloud until you lose internet connectivity and then that one bad day makes the entire investment worthless. This was the bad day. This was just misses in the middle of the workday not being able to access Office three sixty five their one drive to different degrees. Does this did this kill it did this make it an incredibly bad day and now it makes the investment useless. You know I you know the thing that's always lost in these discussions is that. Cloud computing is not an all or nothing affair when you talk about things like e-mail or obviously if it's cloud hosted I mean it is close to it even before we have a cloud. If that thing is is down is down it has nothing to do about that but you know your data should be sent to your client your application should be running on your P.C. I mean as an officer a sixty five user you should have access to functionality and so it's not that it's not all or nothing. You know and I still think that the
the promise of the cloud is
met by today's infrastructure you know but that it can only get better with more pervasive contact of it sort of course but I don't know.
Honestly for all of the kind of Chicken Little stuff that goes on with cloud computing even today
these things are kind of rare aren't they. I mean we don't really have weekly office three sixty five or G. Mail outages it doesn't really work that way. Now I think I think one thing the bug a bunch of people in Europe about this one last week was the week before that there had been a pretty not not as pervasive but another outage that affected as are people like wow twice and two weeks what the heck Microsoft you know come on. So I agree it isn't something happens every day and I don't think it's a reason to just abandon cloud computing or say oh that's why I'm not doing the cloud because you know your own company's servers go down to it if you're running your own servers. But I think I think the fact that those two things happen back to back that some of the people especially in Europe kind of agitated and understandably so.
Yeah. You know this is why you've got a company like V.M. Ware which has admittedly had some bad years as they've as people been moving away from virtual machines into containers. But they're betting everything on their N S X platform and the next X. platform in short is a way for enterprises to be able to do hybrid deployment so on. On premise and not just on premise and cloud but on premise and in multi cloud in other words they want to make it as easy to run in Azure and WS and Google Web services and the premise at the same time so that theoretically as long as your network is up has some sort of connectivity. You should still be able to continue working and I you know I think we're going to see more of the big players including Microsoft who will take that that view of we will let you run your Azure services on another web service to to give you that measure of security that you will always be able to get to it even if one of these services goes goes down. I see that being becoming popular. Or no he I and heard about that actually so that's kind of mentioning thing something to listen for next week. See if Microsoft talks about that and ignited Well you know it will be. It will be a brave brave new world. Speaking of a brave new world. There was a story that we actually talked about the last time I stepped in for Leo I think it was back in June of Microsoft announcing a new Azure service that was in Germany and the big news about that was it would be entirely in Germany. So all the data would be stored in Germany they would never allow any of the data to go to a data center that was not in Germany because Germany has really good privacy laws and Microsoft is saying we will not even have access to it. We're going to give everything to a caretaker third party environment. And Brylin are then I.D.'s and if you were a citizen of the cloud you were a citizen of Germany and I say to you it been I as your lawyer as your
but Paul what's puts what's this all about. It's finally out as a I don't I have no idea what this is this is Mary's me
out of jail right. You've heard of Germany. So today is the day that this new Microsoft region in Germany. There's two data centers that and that it actually was turned on an open for business so. Oh yeah it's a big data sovereignty story like you just said Padre it's something you know Microsoft hasn't been able to completely block
access to customer's data from governments when requested and that's what their whole Ireland case is about that they've been fighting there but they're trying to kind of get around this in different ways and this German data center idea where T. systems which is a Deutsche Telecom subsidiary is acting as the data trustee in the state a center is coming to play. So if you can decide you want Microsoft to be the one accessing the data there or you can say no I don't even want Microsoft in here. I WANT I WANT TO systems to be my administration here in Germany. So any as your service a camera in these data centers is going to have the same protection. So for example I O T I O T is running in these data centers I believe Officer sixty five also so you'll still have that benefit an offer of having an extra nl trustee be the one administering your data and the data will stay on premises there in Germany so kind of cool kind of like a workaround for Microsoft to try to say you know what we're taking your privacy. Seriously people and here's what we're trying to do to get to kind of. Not get around the law but find another creative way to ensure Davis aren't. I don't think they're getting around the law. I think they're trying to fill in the void where the law has not caught up exactly the great some very high profile cases involving Microsoft and data security that the most high profile of them would be the case in Ireland about whether or not a U.S. court could compel Microsoft to give them information that was stored on a server that was on the land of another sovereign country. And Ireland was a little bit iffy because they were going back and forth about what was allowed by treaty and what was not but with Germany. It's very clear. You cannot step onto German sovereign soil and demand something from a data center and that's why Microsoft's at the So. But
who's going to who's going to buy this who's who's going to want the service who's going to demand the service.
I think a lot of your customers and you're right.
For sure.
I've even had people asking me if I'm not based in Germany could I transfer my data from another data center to this one and I don't know the answer to that I think I did ask Mike is not that but I haven't heard back. So people I think people are very interested and curious about how that's going to work and. You know I'd be surprised a lot. I would too. But. Actually P.S. chops in the chat room has an interest interesting point. He says as the law catches up. We could have a data privacy Cold War you have different countries saying well I mean if if you let them into the data for our citizens will let them into the data for your citizens. So I was right up a situation where who's going to be the Cayman Islands of or the Switzerland of you know data storage data is that you don't see. Yeah we're not going to let anyone in and then you'll have you'll have the country saying well if we didn't do this. Another country would so we're just providing a service that's necessary
to do we just come up with a new data laundering scheme. Yeah I think we're doing
well. I have to declare my data for for tax purposes. Is this is how this is going to me. Yes I don't like this. All right. You know what we talked enough about enterprise I want to get into some gaming and
only if only there was a member of this panel who knew something about gaming. I'm ready. Let's go. Mary Jo I understand you're a big guy Gears of War fan right Mary Jo. Oh yes I am sure you're all about the shooting and what weapons do they have in Gears of War. I don't even know this game but weapons. I'm assuming there's some guns and some nights right. Cats and there. That's it. Cats are ultimate weapon. No but Paul and the chances. Can you tell me a little bit about the the X. Box ass and their Minecraft bundle because Microsoft has been conquering the world with Minecraft. My ship. You know since the X. Box One S. came out in early August they've been kind of bulging out the lineup with different bundles you know they have is a Gears of War for bundle for example which is ridiculous looking but the Biograph one looks really good actually. Especially if you haven't bought into this yet in the Microsoft ecosystem because it's no bunch. It's no more expensive than the normal console. But you get the game for free. Obviously an X. box when you get the game for free on Windows ten and then you get a bunch of favorites and builders tax just you know downloadable content that you normally would have to pay for all bundled into this thing and so for three hundred bucks I mean this is actually
it's a it's a great deals and then Minecraft is amazing and so if you've never experienced Minecraft I mean this is a great way to get into it. So that's kind of a cool one. And then the Gears of War for news is that the game was completed this week. So it's gone gold.
It's being released in October and if you preorder it. You can play it. I think it's four days early so I believe it comes out on October eleventh and those who preordered it. I don't know if probably digitally obviously. Can start playing it on the seventh and so this is a new
kind of a rejiggering of the story you know so there was a trilogy of Gears of War games that came out on X. Box three sixty was made by a third party developer Why can I think of the name of a company that's crazy.
It doesn't matter they sold it to Microsoft and so now Microsoft and using this. Thanks again
no Gears of War
was not just three sixty studios.
Know it was the cliff. Liz.
Icas kills mentioned that it's a no no bunches News I'm guessing
is the same studio that did the Bio Shock.
No
this is embarrassing.
So anyway they were one of the
Epic Games epic in sight
so they did the truly original trilogy on the three sixty three sixty exclusive. Well it was a Microsoft it's a the first Gears of War game actually shipped on Windows
and then they did the three sixty version and so now on the X. Box when we have the original
game is available remastered the other games are available backwards compatibility and now we're getting a new Forth game which takes place you know twenty year years later there's you know you don't you know the story the hell breaks loose etc etc So it's a pretty big deal because you know exclusives kind of drive console sells and so forth so Microsoft has had Halo and Gears two and so gears have a new series again as games coming out for the X. Box was kind of a big deal. So
we shall see someone included with us as in software. No.
It's kind of interesting that's October eleventh because that's also a big day for Dynamics three sixty five. Thanks. Yeah I'm sure that's not coincidental. I'm sure it's not. Well I mean dynamics is one of the most profitable division in Microsoft currently and I mean that
a tie in right well let me ask you this we're thinking about doing a little Gears of War thing here at the studio because Lee has got his X. box. I've actually got an X. Box one S. on his way along with Gears of War when it comes out but I will be in Rome. So it's shipping to me in Rome. We're all going to have our little Kingston Gears of War branded headsets. I think we need a death match. Yeah OK. I'm not great at deathmatch I will say
here's the war those games. The single player stuff has been really good a story has been good for the most part
the deathmatch stuff if you're really used to the fast moving kind of twitchy. You know Call of Duty type stuff it's a little more grounded. They've got it a little bit more vertical over the years but you know it's fresh the first gamers you come across down low to the ground and that was pretty much where you stayed so I'm not I'm not great at it but. Well I mean if you play with us. I'll try to get Pope Francis on the on the controller. I've heard that he he can frag like nobody else. I just want to hear him swear like a sailor and
then the Gears of War is pretty good but the one that I was most impressed with at E three in the one that I really really want to play is cup head because that looks fantastic. And I know I don't know that you love it and. Well actually I will say even Mary Jo is look I was curious about that one actually a kind of you know like forty style animation. It's been about Willy. But I think there were a few there was the ship of thieves or ship of yeah ship of Ship of thieves or sea of these. So much. And then there were a few at three that actually were kind of interesting three realms. No it wasn't three sorry. I'll be back in just naming of studio. All right. When we come back it's time for tips and picks and to close out the show but first let's go ahead and thank another sponsor of this episode of Windows weekly Now let me ask a question do you need money off course you need money. Everyone needs money maybe it's to buy a new house. Maybe it's to start a business and the way that you normally get that is by leveraging what you already own with a mortgage. Now a mortgage is the most fun you will ever have No I'm just kidding it is a horrible process. The idea of gathering together all your receipts all you little financial transactions. So that you could bring them into a bank lay them out on a desk and try to prove to a. Passionate bank manager that you're a good investment that you're worthy of a mortgage that's probably the worst possible thing that you could do with a weekend. Well folks don't do that anymore because there's a new way and that way is rock and mortgage by Quicken Loans. Now rocket mortgage brings the mortgage approval process into the twenty first century. First of all it's fast it's powerful and it's completely online I mean this is the way that it should be rocket mortgages taken all of the complicated time consuming parts of applying for a mortgage out of the equation. Do you hate searching for those stacks of old files and paperwork. You don't have to do with Rocket mortgage you can easily share your bank statements and your pay stubs at a touch of a button. It helps you get approval in minutes instead of days weeks and months that gives you a custom mortgage solution that's been tailored for you no longer do you have to fit into this cookie cutter template of what a mortgage will be rocket mortgage looks at your finances and helps you find the mortgage that works for you now even better with rock mortgage you can do all of this on your phone or your tablet so you get to work where you want to work. It's a quick online process that you can manage from the convenience of your couch. If you are looking at doing a mortgage and you're not using rocket mortgage if you're working too hard. Folks if you need to refinance your mortgage or buy a home check out rocket mortgage today at Quicken Loans dot com slash windows that's Quicken Loans dot com slash windows equal housing lender licensed in all fifty states and L S consumer access dot org number thirty thirty and we think rock mortgage by Quicken Loans where their support of Windows Weekly. Alright. I always get confused by the Q. and A who's the Q. and who does the a. Hit. I don't even know if we need to do a Q. and A today because we have so much in the pics. Oh yeah actually I love your picks this was an interesting one. I saw this and I was I was wondering where we were going to go with it but says find out. D.
Apple find your i Phone I don't even know what that means.
Oh well let me explain.
I'm a Microsoft guy obviously read it. Been writing about Microsoft technology products for twenty something years.
I approached things from kind of a Microsoft standpoint but I think it's fair to say that in the mobile world. Things have gone in a slightly different direction and so like Microsoft itself you know we kind of have to adapt and you know before Microsoft shipped Windows Phone I was an i Phone user because Windows Mobile was so terrible.
I used Windows phone for several years obviously things have kind of fallen apart over the past couple years and so I've spent a lot of time looking at Android and i Phone and I I would say to people who are Microsoft people you know Microsoft fans are Microsoft uses customers whatever it is probably the
closest thing you're going to get to a Microsoft type experience but more important because the system can be
you know adapted and customize so much you can change the the lock screen in the the larger screen. I mean it basically everything about it it affords you the opportunity to have a real Microsoft experience because Microsoft makes lock screens and launchers and you know and keyboards and all kinds of things for Android so you can have a real Microsoft experience on the internet but
people who use. I Phones do so for a reason there are good reasons on an i Phone you might get one from work you might have to have one and so
I've been using an i Phone for years really. In fact I've owned I've owned almost every i Phone model that Apple has ever ship I've only didn't purchase two of them but
I've always worked very hard to
kind of keep the distance from some of the Apple products and services. I don't use things like AAPL music or i Cloud or Siri or any of that kind of stuff and so I wrote an article about this but I've been doing a series of tips about using Android from kind of the perspective of a Microsoft I have written a few articles like this for i Phone but not nearly as many and so recently I kind of.
A bunch of thoughts around what it's like to use an i Phone from a you know from a Windows or Microsoft user perspective and you know again you can't there's not much you can't change the larger screen you can't you know there's no Microsoft lock screen that you can install you kind of stuck with some aspects of it because that's you know what Apple does but actually i OS is open up you can change the keyboard you can use fifty which Microsoft owns you want to do that and Microsoft all of Microsoft's high profile apps are on i Phone as well. And so the point of this is just that you don't have to give up your soul. Per se to use an i Phone. No I think I had. I Phone you kind of gave it up already. But
actually it's actually so by the way that's more fair than ever because with this version of the i Phone the availability was so limited that I had to get a gold version and
that was not a proud moment. Rose gold or just going to go rose gold but I do get playable. Is that actually part of the price you do give your credit card and a piece of your soul. Again a piece I actually. That's not that we're literally one pound you know. I hope this doesn't even sell way. Isn't that. Well good because I know I can give away a couple of grams and still be good. Yeah mine's a little fatty. But it's good eating. Actually I just got all my bloodwork back and I am surprisingly in good health and I didn't expect that. That's good. Except for my triglycerides I guess park rides are really bad for you. But I'm somewhat surprised by that you eat them in like the cheese bathroom. I bathe in them. Yes I sleep in a bed apart friends. That's
it's good for the skin. It's for that fresh pork smell you know. All right so we've we've got a D. Apple find your i Phone. We've got an app pick of the week. Who's got fire watch. I do so. I have a bunch of epic. So the big one is yes far right so far watches again that ship like think last year on Playstation four and also in P.C. through Steam. I played through day one on raw feels Playstation is kind of a shot. I really really enjoy the scam and so just today. Literally it shipped on X. Box Once you can get it now on Microsoft's platform and so same exact game it's a wonderful game it's kind of a it's kind of a
like interactive adventure basically it is there's a mystery and it's got beautiful graphics and you know immersive sound and all that kind of stuff but it's I mention that when I talked about this in the park just a few weeks ago I said I'm going to try to get my wife and daughter to play this I think this is a game
that would is compelling to people to people don't play video games in the same way that a you know a mystery series or something which is interesting to people I think people can get into this. So it's a great great story. It's a really neat game and the X. Box One version has some unique stuff as an audio tour and when you finish the game you can actually free roam around the environment you can see the whole world that they created for the game. This looks a little like mist. It's got it's looks like it's got that same sort of artistic. Don't ever compare this to mist again.
OK well I guess what I would say is you know mist for the day was seems photo realistic I guess I'm sure we would look at the Quite same way today this obviously has a bit of a I don't want to say cartoon but it's clearly graphics like they don't attempt to pull you into thinking that this is you know real photograph quality graphics but that the graphics are beautiful. It's a beautiful game. You know really really well done the whole thing the whole presentation is great but it's not a horror game is it down now but there's a mystery. It's like it's the type of thing where you know you show up at your new job out in the woods and you go investigate what's going on when you come back. Someone has ransacked the tower that you live in and you know the music kind of kicks in like didn't do you know. You can tell it's like it's getting a little stressful like what's going on here. And so it's just it's a mystery that you want to cover and the audience Slenderman is a jump out. Well it's sort of sort of a really
not exactly but
then it just a few other things I want to throw out for maps because a bunch of stuff happens speak. I do it operates in the lab pick of the week a preview up here to talk about this but if you're on the inside a program it's certainly worth looking at I haven't got it's work but I know people have if you're interested in the estimates relay stuff that is available if you have both Windows and Windows to mobile Microsoft has also updated a bunch of its mobile apps on the Internet West and so on Android Word Excel and part point the kind of the core apps have much simpler sharing capabilities down and else are kids and here and collaboration features and in one drive. I don't actually it's funny I read the description of the new one drive up on
us and I
don't think the graph. I don't think graphically looks any different. That they're calling it a file centric U.I. or whatever but it looks the same to me but there's a new me tab and a U.I. that lets you access all of your account information and a bunch of other stuff that was just hidden away before so that's kind of cool and then the Do a look to com which by the way I still don't have I think I'm on what are we on the day four hundred fifty seven or something. If you have it. I know Mary Jones.
They've added integrated support for a Google Drive and Facebook photos meaning that if you're going to if you want to you know you're sending out an e-mail had just one on this great vacation here are some photos you can pull those photos in from other services now include you know the Google Drive and Facebook photo. I'd love to test that feature Microsoft. If you're listening. They're calling it one try for life.
Yep. And if you want to work you're going to be the last one the very very last one to get to know about now that you've asked for it. That's how that were. Sorry it's a yeah I mean I observed on Twitter. The other day that hearing that other people have the new Outlook dot com is like when you're at war and you find out that the buddy you're in a foxhole with is going home and you're happy for him and in one way but you're also like you're really upset with him you know because he's leaving and you're not you know I mean it's the same kind of weird mixed feeling so what Paul is telling us is if any of you get the new outlook. He will will show you in the back
he wants to know immediately.
There's a place is good. This is good to know good information to major fully your enterprise picks of the week. OK so my enterprise pick is going to be what to think about and look for next week at the Ignite show that Microsoft's having in Atlanta. Paul and I are going to be there a lot of other journalists will be there but looking ahead I'll tell you what I think we're going to hear a lot about. So it's very interesting to egg night this year. There is only one day of keynotes the morning keynote starts at nine A.M. on Monday September twenty sixth. It goes till ten thirty. Microsoft's going to be webcasting that and then there's an afternoon keynote which is four to five on the same day. That's it for keynotes So there's going to be a lot of recording of all the different sessions attic of a night and it'll be up on Channel Nine Microsoft Channel Nine. I think we're going to hear this is this is kind of a no brainer. A lot about Windows Server two thousand and sixteen there because that's where Microsoft's going to quote launch the product. It won't be available that week which is next week but right after it. I think you know first second week of October. You'll see it starting to be generally available. So expect a lot of Windows Server two thousand and sixteen all the new stuff that's happening with containers in Windows seven twenty sixteen will hear a lot. Will probably also hear a lot about nano server which is a new rule for a stripped down role in Windows seven twenty sixteen next week. We're going to hear a lot about Azure stack as your stack is basically as sure that you can run in your own data center or that your club provider can run in their data center for you. I think maybe we'll hear about Technical Preview two of Azure stack next week it will be around the right time and Microsoft said recently that as your stack won't actually be available until mid two thousand and seventeen. So it's running late. But I think I think they do want to get the Technical Preview out there there's a lot of sessions about Azure stack. I think there's going to be some meet ups and they'll be a big representation for as your stack. Also we haven't said this word on Windows weekly lately data Lake's I know every wanted to hear it. So I think next week. Exactly. You're going to hear. Let us read a lake's everyone drink data lake is the big data repository technology that Microsoft had in previews since last September. I think maybe at Ignite we're going to hear them talk about data like technologies being generally available so we'll hear a lot of big data talk a lot of a dupe tock probably will be tied in with some of the data some at
data summit presentations that are happening simultaneously with that night in Atlanta next week. More probably more about Microsoft's data scientists degree program which they gave a little sneak peek of at the world why Partner Conference. I think the first class they graduated from that degree program is going to be announced or
somehow represented at Ignite That's my guess because Microsoft said that that group of people would be graduating in September. So we're in September. Still I think that could happen next week and then there's a thing that I've talked about before in the show called open mind studio which I think is kind of like Visual Studio except for machine learning. I would be very surprised if we don't hear about that next week too. So all of these things and more. I'm sure. Probably a lot of office Content Officer sixty five office craft Share Point all your favorite office topics will be there as well and we've said this before. Paul and I are doing windows weekly live next week with Padre from ignite at our usual time two P.M. on September twenty eighth two P.M. Eastern and then we finally know a better meet up or meet up is going to be held on the twenty eighth right after the show. It's going to be five to eight P.M. It's at a bar craft beer bar called Argosy A R G O S Y in Atlanta. And I guess it's the Argosy East version of Argosy So if even if you aren't at Ignite and you don't have a badge you can still come to our meet up at five to eight P.M. We've tweeted out about it a couple times more about it. So definitely if you're an Atlanta or New Year. You can come and join us there.
And while I'm talking about events. I want to throw one more poll and I also are going to be in Las Vegas the last week of October. At a couple of shows that are held together called intersection and I T. intersection. We're going to be speaking there too and probably will have a meet up there. If you want to know more about that there's a lot of really good mix of speakers. Stephen Guggenheim ors going to be there. Scott handsome and who else. Brad Anderson a lot of big Microsoft names plus a lot of the M.V.P.'s and big well known speakers in the community there. Dave intersection dot com You can find out more there. So that's my mega enterprise pick that is that we picks. Of course we've got a guy coming up. So that's expected. And it closes out we've got the code name Pick of the week and the beer pick of the week which I'm actually looking forward to because we're going to be doing a beer episode of know how I drink beer but I do like the smell.
OK so. So I do code a man
couldn't pick of the week is project Bletchley and yes it is named after that lets Lee if you know what I'm talking about here. Let's see the one in Bletchley Park in England so this what project Bletchley is is
Microsoft's code name for
as your block chain as a service middleware. So far since last year. Microsoft's been trying to work out a way to make as sure as a blocked as or block chain as a service be something that people might use in various industries not just for bitcoin mining and all but also in a lot of enterprises especially banking and finance because what is blocked chain it's actually a distributed Ledger technology so that makes sense in a lot of different enterprise type applications.
What they decided to do was to try to use as your technologies to make it easier for people to build applications that could take advantage of block change as a service. So they came up with this idea of project Bletchley in July. They put out a white paper and said This is how we think this might work this week they actually put out what they are calling version one of project Bletchley what it is is a template so version one's just a template basically a but it's a pretty powerful template. It's a template that is made to help people figure out how to kind of on board into Project Bletchley. I wrote a blog post about this. I have a whole bunch of links with different things about The Crippler technology that's part of the project much really how that works and architectural diagrams for people like that stuff. And Microsoft has a walk through of how to use this template so if you want to just start kicking the tires now and seeing what is this thing as you're blocking as a service. You can start doing that now through this template that is available through the Azure. Manager portal.
That's the code name fantastic. And of course the got to do the beer part of the week right. Yeah so this is a very interesting bear pick stone bearing San Diego area makes a lot of excellent beers of all kinds. They have a very famous series of beers that they've done called the vertical epic series. So every year like on February second.
The second of February which is two to two thousand and two they put out a beer. That was called the Stone vertical epic series two two two they did one in three three three four four four and these are huge collector's items like people pay hundreds of dollars to try to get these old very rare beers from stone so that they can have different taste from the vertical epic series so stone being the smart burgers that they are decided on their twentieth anniversary to remake some of these famous beers that they've proved over the years and one of the first that they remade is the two to two vertical epic. So they call this the stone twentieth anniversary encore series this is two to two and two to two I've had it a couple of times I've had the original and I've also had this remake. It's really good Paul would love this. I know strong Belgian Golden Ale like all the things you love in a Belgian beer. It's almost like a a strong with beer. It has become of that. Orange yellow area. It is pretty much. Orange flavoring very effervescent very it's not light like a lot away it's because it's a strong Belgian but around seven percent really good really really good and the remake I can tell you is equally good. So if you see this vertical epic. Series called The encore series definitely give it a try and know eighty eight is also available now and I think will be others coming out
there you have it. All the news that's worth having if you're a Microsoft fan all throughout many. Joe Foley thank you very much for making this an entertaining enjoyable and very informative two hours. Paul thought of course again behind the raw dot com poll. What are you working on what should people be heading over truth to write dot com to find. Who are working on.
I can't tell you that. Ten year hint.
No I mean I
know. But you are in as little of a
we're rolling out like a premium service on the site and so I've been a little preoccupied with a bunch of that stuff lately so it's coming soon. That's all I can say. So just go to throughout dot com and find everything there is to know about the man who writes the book.
And that would be a slogan If I were making slogans I would be the slogan I would cut it for you. Not quite as good as the Man With No Name but yeah. No woman who does have a name is Mary Jo Foley of course of the all about. I always say Android but it really is Windows all about Windows blog over at Z.D. Net Mary Jo you always are my source for Microsoft happenings in the enterprise anything interesting going on your side that you're particularly jazzed about. I'm just I'm like really jazzed about ignite next week because I think they'll be some pretty cool enterprise announcements. And it's going to be great that we're right there on the ground with all the big guys like Marc recent invention snow over all all the who's who. So I think we'll have some really good news stories next week. And I asked. Again thank you for making my job that much easier by being absolutely brilliant and entertaining hosts. Don't forget that we do windows weekly Here T.V. every Wednesday at one eleven o'clock P.M. Pacific. One o'clock. No two o'clock two o'clock Eastern. I'm not good at this Leo does all the time zones. All I know is come to live that with the T.V. and you can watch and as long as you're watching live why not jump into the chat room and I. T.V. It's a good way to talk to the host talk to me and just enjoy the experiment that is Twitter T.V. Also don't forget that you can find us at our show page twit.tv/ W W In case you want to download some back episodes check the show notes or maybe even subscribe. If you want to support the show that really is the best way to do it. Of course you can also find Windows weekly wherever fine podcasts are aggregated till next time and father Robert Palace are in for Leo Laporte we're going to be coming to you live from Microsoft ignite next week but until then take your with Newsweek.