SOME INTRESTING TECHNOLOGY NEWS-
Windows 10 Universal Apps Won't Work, Says Former Microsoft CEO: Windows Phones Should Run Android Apps
Steve Ballmer openly criticized Microsoft’s way of handling financial reports and the number of featured apps for mobile devices. According to the former Microsoft CEO, Windows 10 Mobile should be compatible with Android apps to increase its appeal.
Ex Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, was less than jolly at the annual shareholder meeting of the company, after a discussion over financial performance and app implementation.
He pointed out that the way in which the Redmond-based company reports the financial results for hardware manufacturing and cloud business gives a skewed image of reality.
Ballmer thinks that one "key metric" of business is the revenue, and any enterprise that wants transparency should report it. Microsoft, according to Ballmer, does not disclose profit margins or sales figures. Instead, the Windows OS developer reports yearly revenues run rates - which means that they approximate how much the company's revenue might be if current sales levels extends for 12 months.
"Bu**sh*t. They should report the revenue, not the run rate," Ballmer commented on the procedure, according to Bloomberg.
Apart from revenue value, margin is another essential indicator for a company. Software margins are traditionally high, as they can be replicated at zero cost. However, hardware and cloud margins are lower, as they involve additional and often significant investment. Microsoft began to shift its focus from software solutions to cloud services, and this hints at the fact that margins will modify. What Ballmer advocates is that these margins be made visible, so that all shareholders have a clear grasp on how the company fares.
During the meeting where Ballmer harshly underlined Microsoft's poor choices, CEO Satya Nadella received a question regarding the absence of important apps for Windows Phone.
Nadella noted that Microsoft has been working for some time now on a universal-working ecosystem. The theory goes that it would make it easy for developers to write apps compatible with tablets, phones, Xbox consoles, PCs and HoloLens, thus reaching far beyond the scope of Windows Mobile users.
"[It] won't work," Ballmer said referring to the all-platform strategy.
In his opinion, the success of Windows Phones will happen when they will "run Android apps." Microsoft even had the idea on the drafting board: dubbed Project Astoria, the concept was a subsystem that would allow Android apps to work on Windows 10 Mobile.
As more and more apps can be found on Apple Store and Google Play, but not on Microsoft Store, it becomes clear that Microsoft needs to work on its app-related strategy.
Mark Zuckerberg Answers Critics Of His Move To Give Away 99 Percent Of His Facebook Shares
Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan's announcement of giving up 99 percent of their personal shares of the company have stirred a lot of unwarranted criticism.
For the unfamiliar, on Tuesday, Dec. 1, Zuckerberg announced the birth of his daughter Max and also divulged plans of giving away 99 percent of his personal Facebook shares during the course of his life. These shares - currently valued at $45 billion - would be used to fund charitable causes via the initiative Chan Zuckerberg LLC.
The pledged money would be used to "advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation." Theannouncement was made through a letter to Max, which Zuckerberg posted on Facebook. Coincidentally, he posted the pledge on #GivingTuesday - the national day of giving.
However, the pledge garnered an incredible amount of attention which was primarily owing to the CEO's net worth. Zuckerberg received both bouquets and brickbats for his generosity. While some like Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg lauded his generosity, several others questioned his motives and even called it a tax evasion ploy.
Zuckerberg addressed the apprehensions regarding the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative through a post on Facebook on Thursday, Dec. 3, clarifying how the funds would be delineated and said that he was not evading taxes through this structuring.
"By using an LLC instead of a traditional foundation, we receive no tax benefit from transferring our shares to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, but we gain flexibility to execute our mission more effectively," wrotethe Facebook CEO.
Zuckerberg further explained that transferring the shares to a regular foundation would have resulted in a tax benefit, but that's not the case if they use an LLC.
"Just like everyone else, we will pay capital gains taxes when our shares are sold by the LLC."
He also answered comments from Facebook users pertaining to paternity leave and the LLC. On being asked to enjoy the paternity leave he wrote "So far paternity leave is great! I love telling her stories and reading her books, even though she doesn't understand them yet."
Another user commented that the initiative was "Just a way to get your billions tax free ... Yeah well done," to which Zuckerberg responded by saying the information is not correct and politely asking the commenter not to spread false information.
SPACE
With humans pushing deeper into space more often, space junk could become a bigger issue as time goes on, and what's there now poses a threat to satellites and spacecraft orbiting the Earth. A number of ideas have been proposed to clean up the junk, but the most recent idea definitely takes the cake.
The idea, developed by researchers from China, is for a space engine that can roam around space and eat up space junk, turning it into fuel for the rocket. Basically, it's a self-powered rocket that eliminates the threat of space junk.
"Space robotic cleaner is adopted to capture the targeting debris and to transfer them into the engine," says the paper. "Debris with larger size is first disintegrated into small pieces by using a mechanical method."
As mentioned, this isn't the first idea for a way to clean up space junk, but one of the biggest problems of other ideas has been that they need massive amounts of fuel to be able to operate. To get around this, researchers came up with the idea that the space junk could be turned into fuel.
To do this, the cleaner will capture debris, then turn large chunks and pieces into dust using a ball mill, which is a type of grinder. The engine will the generate a high temperature, turning the particles into plasma that will propel the craft onward. Basically, the debris takes the place of gases normally used, such as argon.
As Motherboard reports, however, while the idea is good, it's a little more complex than that. The researchers suggest that the cleaner could be either nuclear- or solar-powered, but it's not yet known if these power sources will suffice. Not only that, but there are some questions as to whether or not it's a good idea to have a nuclear-powered spacecraft orbiting Earth.
NASA
NASA announced on Thursday that the scheduled resupply mission involving the Cygnus freighter spacecraft has been delayed because of unfavorable weather.
The unmanned Orbital ATK cargo ship was supposed to transport supplies to the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, Dec. 3, at 5:55 p.m. EST.
Bad weather, however, has forced the American space agency to scuttle the launch and reschedule, with the latest update now showing a Dec. 6 liftoff at 4:44 p.m. EST.
The Cygnus spacecraft has been grounded since October of last year following a launch mishap. The Antares rocket that was set to carry the freighter to space suddenly exploded a few seconds after it launched.
Officials from Orbital ATK said that the company has decided to replace the Antares' first-stage engines with RD-181 engines. A modified version of the rocket's booster is also in production and will be made available in 2016.
For now, the Cygnus spacecraft will be launched into space aboard an Atlas V rocket made by United Launch Alliance.
The space cargo ship that was meant to launch on Thursday has been outfitted with around 3,500 kilograms (7,700 pounds) of supplies including food and scientific gear for ISS astronauts.
It also carries a small cubesat made by students in Virginia, which in turn contains a golden medallion that the Pope has blessed.
Aside from Orbital ATK, NASA also has contracts for transporting supplies to the ISS with other companies.
The California-based space transport company SpaceX currently has an agreement with the American space agency, which is valued at $1.6 billion, to launch around 12 unmanned ISS missions using its Falcon 9 spacecraft and Dragon capsule.
SpaceX was involved in the last successful resupply mission of the United States in April.
"I'm guessing that Santa's sleigh is somewhere inside the Cygnus, and they're probably excited about their stockings coming up, too," said Frank Culbertson, Orbital ATK's space systems president.
SAMSUNG S6 AND ANDROID
New images of what is reportedly the Samsung Galaxy S6 Android 6.0 Marshmallow update have leaked. The images show a flattened version of TouchWiz, updated pull-down status shutter, Pro mode for the camera app and more.
Samsung is well on its way to releasing its Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for its latest flagship smartphones and phablets, which include the Galaxy Note 5, S6 Edge+, S6 and S6 Edge.
We recently reported that a leaked internal "roadmap" provided a rundown of when each of the devices would receive its official Android 6.0 Marshmallow update, and the Galaxy Note 5 leads the pack, with a release expected sometime this month. The leaked document also showed the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and S6 Edge+ with an expected OTA Android 6.0 Marshmallow update being released in January 2016.
Leaked images of the Galaxy Note 5's Android 6.0 Marshmallow update recently made their way online and showed Samsung's interpretation of Marshmallow, complete with a flatter TouchWiz UI that now more closely resembles Google's Material Design language, which was introduced with the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop in 2014.
Now, Galaxy S6 owners are getting their first look at how Android 6.0 Marshmallow will look on their smartphones, as well as confirming a major new feature coming to the Camera app, in a series of leaked images.
The leaked Samsung Galaxy S6 Android 6.0 Marshmallow update images show a new version of TouchWiz that has been given a new overall flatter look. Samsung has also updated the pull-down status bar with a more elegant-looking white background and blue text, which is used to quickly access common settings and notifications.
The Camera app on the Galaxy S6 has gained a new Pro mode, which is already present on the Galaxy Note 5, and allows users to access new features, such as being able to set the shutter speed, ISO, exposure, white balance and more.
Microsoft Drops New Windows 10 Mobile Preview Build For Insiders: What Does It Bring?
Microsoft just released the latest Windows 10 Mobile Build, dropping the new firmware as an Insider beta preview.
Windows-powered smartphones hold a meager share of the smartphone market despite Microsoft's best efforts to turn the tide, but the company is keen on improving things and releasing new updates to Insiders so it can perfect its mobile software.
Build 10586.29 is a "Cumulative Update" for previous build 10586 and adds a few tweaks and changes to make things smoother for Windows 10 Mobile users. Microsoft dropped the update late on Friday, Dec. 4, taking many by surprise.
Microsoft noted that it received valuable feedback from Insiders on the 10586 Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview build and the latest build now starts to address some of that feedback.
"While this is the same base build that we are shipping with new Windows 10 devices, we are continuing to address feedback on the upgrade experience from Windows Phone 8.1 as reported from Windows Insiders," Microsoft explained.
"Today we are releasing our first Cumulative Update to the Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 10586 to Insiders that begins addressing this feedback," the company wrote in its Dec. 4 blog post.
When it comes to changes, build 10586.29 brings some improvements that aim to enhance the performance of the new Microsoft Edge browser. If you already have Windows 10 on your desktop, you probably already tried the new Edge browsing experience.
The latest Windows 10 Mobile build for Insiders also brings forth a new set of code that aims to facilitate the way people upgrade their smartphones. The code includes improved application backward compatibility for Silverlight applications in Windows Phone 8.1, Microsoft pointed out.
The new build is not the largest update in terms of new capabilities, but it should nonetheless polish more rough edges and get the update closer to a public release.
Microsoft also noted that its Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL Windows 10 smartphones will be added to the Windows Insider Program within a few days, which means they will soon get the latest code. The Microsoft Lumia 550 and the LG Lancet will join the party early next week as well, becoming available for Windows Insiders.
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