After leaving Solitaire off Windows 8, forcing PC users who needed to fill that procrastinatory urge to download the program separately, Microsoft made many customers happy when it announced that it’d be including the game in Windows 10. While that’s all well and good, some players might be irked to know that the new Solitaire is a freemium — meaning if you want an ad-free experience and access to other premium features, you’ll have to pay. [More]
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The Pros & Cons Of Windows 10 Sharing Your WiFi Passwords With Your Contacts
By 7.29.15
All around the world today, Windows users are updating their operating systems to Windows 10, better known as Microsoft’s attempt to atone for the sins of Windows 8. However, the newest version of Windows has a feature that is either — depending on who you speak to — a huge privacy concern, or maybe not that big a deal. [More]
From Apple To Walmart, Over A Dozen Of The Biggest Businesses In The U.S. Sign On To White House Climate Pledge
By 7.27.15
A huge number of the world’s nations are coming together in Paris this December to negotiate an agreement to stem emissions and forestall further climate change. Ahead of this winter’s United Nations talks, however, some well-known names here at home are pledging their own contributions to the cause. [More]
Microsoft Now Accepting Requests To Remove Revenge Porn From Bing, Xbox Live & OneDrive
By 7.23.15
Microsoft joined the growing list of tech companies taking steps to crack down on so-called revenge porn – the posting of nude photos or videos online without the consent of the subject – by honoring requests to remove links to the images or the content from appearing in results on its search engine Bing and other platforms. [More]
Starbucks, 17 Other Companies Partner To Provide “Opportunity Youth” With Jobs, Internships
By 7.13.15
Teaching young adults responsibility — and showing them that responsibility can have financial benefits — pays off in the long run by cultivating a solid work ethic. That’s the thinking behind a new multi-company initiative spearheaded by Starbucks. [More]
How Do Video Game Publishers Continue To Get Away With Mistreating Their Customers?
By 6.17.15
It’s E3 time: the annual video game conference — still, barely nominally, a trade show — is taking place this week in Los Angeles, drawing developers, publishers, and media from around the world to gawk at titles large and small. From Facebook games to Fallout, everything is on display… including the long history of the contentious, adversarial relationship between the companies that make the games and the consumers who play them. [More]
Xbox One Getting A Lot More Useful With Backwards Compatability
By 6.15.15
When Microsoft and Sony announced their current slate of gaming consoles in 2013, neither manufacturer included backwards compatibility, meaning all your Xbox 360 and PS3 games still needed the old console to play those games. Today at E3, Microsoft finally announced that the Xbox One will include the ability to play previous-generation games on the current-gen console. [More]
Windows 10 Will Come Pre-Loaded With Candy Crush Saga Because That Is The World We Live In Now
By 5.15.15
Get your best “back in my day” grumble face on: Solitaire and Minesweeper might’ve been good enough procrastination tools in times past, but Microsoft is getting hip to the times, and will pre-load Candy Crush Saga into its upcoming Windows 10. [More]
Microsoft Reportedly Adding DVR Feature To Xbox One Over-The-Air Broadcasts
By 5.6.15
When Microsoft announced last month that its Xbox One would have the ability to provide users with live over-the-air content from local broadcast networks, the company said the new feature would allow viewers to pause the action for up to 30 minutes. But a half-hour just isn’t a lot of time for today’s busy TV watcher, which is probably why the company is reportedly looking to add a DVR feature to the console [More]
Windows 10 Users Will Be Able To Flip The Bird With New Emoji
By 5.5.15
Sometimes, words just don’t do the trick. For those times, using certain gestures can express everything you’re feeling with just the upward flick of one particular finger. Microsoft better hope people like Windows 10 a lot more than they did Windows 8, or they’ll be getting a lot of the middle-finger emoji included in the newest iteration of its operating system. [More]
Played With That Viral Age-Guesser This Week? You Just Gave Microsoft A Bunch Of Free Photos To Use
By 5.1.15
If you use Facebook, Twitter, or basically any part of the internet at all, sometime in the last 24 hours you’ve seen Microsoft’s newest tool, the age-guesser. Everyone’s sharing it, using it, and laughing over (or feeling insulted by) the results. But the tool’s rapid spread also accidentally highlights one of the biggest challenges of the digital age: the fine print. [More]
Microsoft Edge Revealed As Replacement For Internet Explorer Web Browser
By 4.29.15
The final nail in Internet Explorer’s coffin came today, as Microsoft revealed its erstwhile web browser’s replacement: What had been known as Project Spartan is being introduced to the world as Microsoft Edge. [More]
Rejoice, Procrastinators: Microsoft Bringing Back Solitaire For Windows 10
By 4.23.15
Because it’s not a work day without procrastination, the enduring presence of Solitaire on the PCs of workers everywhere used to be a comfort many relied on to get through those long hours at a desk — until Microsoft left the program off Windows 8. Someone must’ve been listening to your sad cries of longing, as Solitaire is coming back as a standard feature in Windows 10. [More]
Google, Bing To Block Search Result Ads For Unlicensed Payday Lenders In California
By 4.8.15
Government officials in California found a few unlikely allies when it comes to ensuring online payday lenders aren’t illegally advertising their services to residents online: The nation’s top search engine providers. [More]
U.S. Xbox One Users Can Now Watch Over-The-Air TV (With $80 Add-On)
By 4.8.15
Some days it seems as if the uses for the Xbox One are unlimited; you can play games, watch on-demand programing from HBO GO, Netflix and other apps and you can live stream content through a subscription to Sling TV. One thing you haven’t been able to do? Watch live over-the-air content from local broadcast networks. But that’s about to change. [More]
Sling TV Adding More Channels To Base Package, Now Works On Xbox One
By 3.17.15
Dish’s standalone streaming Sling TV service continues to add more value to its $20/month subscription price, with the announcement today that Sling is now accessible through Xbox One consoles and that four channels are being added to the standard Sling lineup. [More]
Microsoft Putting Internet Explorer Brand Out Of Its Misery
By 3.17.15
It’s been a long, slow march toward the end, but now Internet Explorer as a brand is facing the executioner: Microsoft confirmed that it’s ditching the IE name for its upcoming browser, which is known as Project Spartan at the moment. [More]
Here’s How To Get Rid Of That Nasty Superfish Vulnerability On Your New Lenovo Laptop
By 2.20.15
Computer manufacturer Lenovo rightly caught heat far and wide from every corner of the internet this week after security researchers discovered a massive security flaw that shipped pre-installed as advertising software. Lenovo should never have put the intrusive software on their computers in the first place, but there is some good news today, as the company is now sharing a list of what computers were affected, and how owners of their machines can remove this junk crap from their systems. [More]
