Windows Weekly 404 (Transcript)
Leo Laporte: It's
time for Windows Weekly. Paul Thurrott is here, he´s
in Fort Collins, Mary Jo Foley is in Vietnam, so we´ve
got Daniel Rubino from Windows Central. and a great show for you, we´re going to give the reaction,
a reasonable reaction to the Apple announcement, including why the Microsoft
band is really your better choice. It´s all up next, on
Windows weekly.
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This is Windows Weekly with Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley, Episode 404, recorded March 11 2015
Sleepless in Fort Collins
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Leo: It's time for Windows
Weekly, the show where we cover the latest news from Microsoft. Mary Jo Foley
is still on assignment, so Daniel Rubino´s here, Paul Thurrott is here, we got a
show, thank you guys for showing up. Paul´s in Fort Collins,
Colorado.
Paul Thurrott: It´s such a weird angle.
Leo: His
Surface Pro 3 is on a stack of towels so as the show progresses, Paul´s head
will slowly sink off the screen. Nice to see you Paul. Paul´s a little bit of, got a little bit of a cold.
That´s the way you want to look, that´s good yeah. Nice hair by the way, it´s
coming in well.
Paul: I
know, I got to get a cut, it´s getting too long.
Leo: Look
at that, I´m so jealous. I´m so jealous you actually have hair.
Paul: It´s
like the mat pelt of a mink.
Leo: He´s
got hair like a mink!
Paul: Like
a weasel.
Leo: And
then there´s Daniel Rubino who has lovely nice
Italian hair.
Daniel Rubino: Yes, it´s still here, it´s
the only thing I´m psyched about getting older.
Paul: Yeah, you´re not going bald.
Daniel: Nope, I actually crossed that boundary, it´s going to be here for life I think,
so yeah.
Leo: That´s a good head of hair he´s got there. Daniel of course is at Windows,
actually I got the wrong thing, it says WPCentral here, we have to fix that. They´ve rebranded to
WindowsCentral.com because it´s just not about phones, it´s about life.
Daniel: It
really is, Windows everywhere.
Leo: Is
there a short URL or do we just have to type the whole thing out?
Daniel: Well
actually if you type WPCentral it redirects you to
Windows Central.
Leo: Let´s use WindowsCentral.com. There you go, Fixed it
for you on the fly. Thank you for filling in, Mary Jo is in, we said Vietnam,
right?
Paul: Yeah, so she started in Hong Kong and then she, well just for a couple of days,
and then she went to Vietnam but she sent some photos that you can display on
screen if you´d like to.
Leo: She
has swayed, she said she´d sway. So, do I just scroll, is there a ?
Paul: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Leo: This
is beautiful, this is in Cambodia. Ho Chi Minh City, this is nice! Look at the
way this is assembling, kind of motion graphics.
Paul: So
you can click on a photo to show it full screen if you wanted to do that.
Leo: Can
I arrow through them maybe? Uh no. Is that her? On the motorcycle there?
Paul: I
think so.
Leo: There´s a lot of flip flops. Wow, here´s a fish, nice looking
fish with some.
Daniel: Where´s the tartar sauce?
Leo: There´s mint. Minty fish. Ooh, don´t know what that
is.
Paul: That
is actually a fish by the way. It looks like it´s got gross stuff on it but I
think that´s just probably
Leo: Probably garlic. The neat thing about Vietnam is that it´s of course Asian but
it´s highly influenced by the French. It was a French colony for a long time,
so it´s really kind of amazing food.
Paul: And
who knew you could eat a coelacanth?
Leo: Looks like it, doesn´t it?
Paul: It
looks like a giant dinosaur fish.
Leo: Here´s a US Army helicopter, a duplicate of the one that flew the embassy staff
out of Hanoi after we ended the war. There´s a war, looks like it says war
remnants, but I don´t, I can´t, it does, it says War Remnants Museum, I guess
these are left behind from Americans. There´s Hue, we took the overnight train
to Hue, this is beautiful. So this is, is this public? Can I give people the
link?
Paul: Yeah, I think so, I would say so.
Leo: Sway.com, I guess search for Mary Jo Foley on sway.com
Daniel: I
haven´t even tried it yet.
Leo: Well
that´s the thing, she wanted to try it, I think we´re all in it now right, it´s
no longer a private beta I think anybody who is an Office subscriber can try
sway. Wow this is great Mary Jo.
Paul: I
think my favorite picture that she took is the last one and I think it´s from
Hanoi, and it´s just kind of a city shot, I´m sorry the second last one. The one in the middle there.
Leo: Do
you think she took these? This one, I love this, you know what, I caught it too. Do you think she took these with her Icon?
Paul: Yeah, she did. I´m pretty sure she did.
Leo: That´s pretty nice, wonder if it has an info, no
there´s no, you can share it though, it´ll give you a link to sway. Anybody
with this URL will be able to view it. That´s neat. Gorgeous, that is really gorgeous.
Paul: I
went to Colorado.
Leo: Do
you have a sway to your trip to the brewery?
Paul: No,
I will though.
Leo: There you go. Sway it. This is nice. I love how it´s put together, not only are
pictures great but I love the, they fly in, and the way that all works.
Sway.com is a new Office tool, we´ve talked about it before on the show, I´m
not sure exactly how to characterize it, is it a presentation tool?
Paul: Yeah, it is. It´s a standard tool, like a plug in for Powerpoint,
those documents are sways I guess, they exist only in the cloud, there´s no
offline version. It´s kind of a, like a multimedia project.
Leo: It´s
a photo album but you can do more, like Powerpoint stuff with it.
Daniel: Yeah, it feels like an outgrow with Powerpoint, with some more consumer friendly applications
and just for general stuff. Because you can tell though, all those animations,
they are very powerpointish.
Leo: yeah, they are, aren´t they? Oh Paul, you´re breaking up really bad here.
Should we try calling him back? Alex is here. I don´t think it´s going to
improve it, I think it´s the bandwidth in your hotel.
Paul: By
the way I asked for a wire and I didn´t bring one stupidly and I had to go WiFi.
Leo: That´s alright. I think the problem is not particularly WiFi,
it´s bandwidth issue. We´ll just hope.
Daniel: Tell
everybody to get off, for the next hour.
Paul: I
paid for the more expensive, I can´t understand why it´s not perfect.
Leo: The
funny thing is your image is gorgeous, you´ve never looked so good.
Paul: From
a clarity perspective, yeah.
Leo: Anyway, when will Mary Jo be back? Next week? The week after? What do we know about that? Just miss the next one, alright. So, we´ll get her
back in a couple of weeks but having Daniel Rubino here is always a thrill, he´s filled in for Paul, now he´s filling in for Mary
Jo, we love having you on. Um, Microsoft has revealed how the Xbox will get
Windows 10. I am really excited about this because I don´t know.
Paul: Actually let´s
Leo: You
don´t want to do that?
Paul: Well
I was going to say maybe Daniel should speak this because I´ll go off and then
the same rant that no one will hear because of my internet connection but,
there´s been a lot of stuff about the preview release and they kind of posted a
blog post that frankly didn´t explain anything but maybe, maybe you could handle
that from a more even kill than I would.
Daniel: Alright. So yeah, I mean, the big issue is that since the January update
there´s been talk of faster refreshes to this preview, and that really has to
do with the fast ring slow ring thing going on so when you sign up for the
preview you can do fast or slow. The idea is fast would go faster obviousy but
Leo: Do
you mean more updates? More often?
Daniel: Yeah
exactly, that you would, and so people are really sort of, it´s sort of like
Chrome right, the Chrome browser, like they have the canary build and they have
the beta, and they have the public. They have those different levels right?
Canary is the nightly build, and it just comes out, Canary and Chrome are so
like dangerous, it doesn´t actually install, it doesn´t overwrite your existing
Chrome installation. So I think what people are sort of arguing for is like,
give us more, you know, I don´t say dangerous builds, but, more frequent
builds. And so this has to do with Microsoft reevaluating what they call the
risk speed ratio. And so, they went to a blog to sort of explain you know,
their process, which I actually thought was kind of neat from an engineering
perspective, as consumers we tend to be like, just push it out, like how hard
is it, but when you see how many images they compile every day for Windows 10
and how they´re sending those out testing them internally and all the different
hardware they test on it, it actually is a difficult process. But it does look
like there´s going to be movement on this in the next couple of weeks where
we´re going to be able to start getting more frequent builds. In fact last
night there was, that they accidentally, so there´s an app on Windows 10 called
Insider Hub that´s actually really cool that you launch it and it´s like a way
for Microsoft to talk to you directly about the preview you´re using. So a
message had got out saying you know, things are about to speed up, we´re going
to start doing daily builds of Windows 10 and if you don´t want that choose the
slow ring method. But it turns out that was posted in error, it was supposed to
be internal but it went external. And so what that means exactly, we don´t know
but it´s obvious that they´re, Abe has spoken to this all on twitter a little
bit that they´re definitely looking into speeding up the rate of updates that
people will get and the frequency of them including new features and all that
kind of stuff. Because it´s been kind of like what? 6 weeks now since the last
update and so people are just getting kind of antsy. And this also ties into
Windows Phone, which only has had that one release for Windows 10 so far and
hasn´t had any more, so.
Leo: And
by the way, and we mentioned this in a previous show, but it´s worth repeating,
you should follow Gabe Aul if you are not, on
twitter, because he´s the, it says general manager OSG data and fundamentals
team, but for some reason he´s become a real conduit for information from the
Windows team.
Paul: Gabe´s a great guy, it´s unfortunate because, I mean right now they´re just
kind of disappointing enthusiasts, and I mean I love the guy.
Leo: Why
is it disappointing? Why are you upset? Give me the rant, understanding that
you only do about 4 words before you break up.
Paul: Alright.
Leo: So
do a 4 word rant.
Paul: Okay, they said there would be more and faster and there has been less and
slower. And it´s just getting silly and I mean the notion that some build has
been held up because of like a bug, you know we used to get builds every single
week back in the day. You know, whatever, we know you´re testing, if you´re on
the fast thing whatever, I, there are people that really want to participate in
the development of this product and their voice isn´t being herd because they
never give us anything to test.
Leo: You
share that disappointment Mr. Rubino?
Daniel: To a
certain extent sure. You know it does make sense, the idea here is like, well
for instance, Windows 10 on Phone version, it´s that one version honestly after
about the first half hour I as kind of like okay, I´m kind of done with it,
it´s not stable enough to use on like a regular phone, you know, so I´m not
carrying it around with me and there´s really no new features. You can give
feedback on things they have done but people are definitely looking for, you know
if it comes every, even once a week, twice, every 2 weeks, something like that,
at least you´re presumably getting new features, new improvements, polish the
UI, then we can give feedback to that, and that sort of, we´re looking for that
punctuation but when it goes 6 weeks at a time, and you get that same build,
even Windows 10, I have an old XPS 13 and I put it on there and it´s like, it´s
good but I wouldn´t use it as my daily device because the fan kicks on all the
time, and there are a lot of these kind of issues. But, um, I guess they have
to worry about whether they´re going to damage people´s devices and blue
screens of death and all that kind of stuff. So I don´t think it´s an easy task
that they´re dealing with but they do, they should probably speed things up.
Leo: You
think that some of this comes from the fact that more people signed up for it
than they thought and now they´re worried oh it´s normal people too that are
using this. I mean they´re more sensitive to issues that might be.
Paul: I mean
you really have to opt into this faster.
Leo: It´s
not automatic, you have to actually say I want to be on the fast track.
Daniel: Yeah, I mean, I think also what Paul was saying before you know this is the
real enthusiast crowd that´s doing this stuff. Those are always going to the
most focal people that want to download and install this and have all the
opinions on every little thing. And so those people are the ones who are going
to get bored the quickest too and want the latest stuff, even with all the
leaks that come out about the new build, you know, they still want that
information even though they tend to be running a leak of an operating system.
In one way it´s like, it´s a problem that can never be solved, you´re never
going to really satisfy enthusiast users if you do it once a week they´re going
to start arguing for once a day then twice a day, there´s this slippery slope
of updates, but this is definitely, 6 weeks is definitely a long span.
Paul: I
don´t think the phone is as critical, but then again, you know, phone is
obviously not doing well in the marketplace, Microsoft hasn´t shipped a new
flagship in a long, long time. You know one of the bones you could throw these
enthusiasts would be, actually there´s several you could do but, you know one
would be putting this thing out on the devices that people actually have you
know, letting them test it on the 1520 or an Icon or whatever. It´s the little
thing you know, it´s the lack of communication building up to that when they
could´ve said by the way we are going to ship this but just so you know, it´s
only going to work on a couple of low end phones, don´t get all upset when it
comes out and it doesn´t run on your phone. I mean, that would´ve helped
tremendously, and um, it´s not how much the actual speed is, it´s just the,
either lack of communication or the inaccurate communication, it gets
frustrating overtime.
Daniel: But
it´s getting better.
Paul: Well, is it? It can really get better.
Leo: Paul
we´re going to turn off your video return just for a, just so you don´t freak
out when we do that. See if that helps, Ah, can´t see you. And if that doesn´t
work we´ll turn off your video to us and we´ll just listen to your audio but
this might help, that takes some of the bandwidth off.
Paul: So if
I pick my nose, you won´t see right?
Leo: No,
we still see you! Please, please. Put your pants back on. Okay, so I was
noticing in the rundown though that they´ve kind of talked about what Xbox
Windows 10 might look like. I am intrigued by that.
Daniel: Well
there´s still way more questions about that then there were answers. I would
say in fact a lot of the talk I was given at GDC was more, um, almost philosophical about what Windows 10 is going to be on Xbox. They didn´t
actually show it, there was no, like, we still don´t know what it´s actually
going to look like, if it´s going to be like, desktop OS on my Xbox which I
kind of doubt. You know, these questions about how it´s going to update and can
you run apps that are on your desktop on there, like a lot of this stuff still
needs to be teased and figured out, and between Build and E3, obviously they
have their road map you know plan, even copy text I heard they´re going to be
out there, they have a road map of when they´re going to be releasing this stuff.
Paul if you want to talk about some of the Xbox stuff because I know you´re a
pretty big.
Paul: I
just, to speculate on the questions you just raised, I would imagine that Xbox
One with Windows 10 looks like Xbox One, just like Windows Phone with Windows
10 kind of looks like Windows Phone. I don´t think it´s going
to be a duplicate of what we see on the desktop. But I think the things
that it will enable, you know, DirectX 12 gaming, cross platform play, game
streaming and the possibility, well not the possibility, but the ability to run
universal apps that will work on Windows and the phone and the Xbox is very
exciting. It doesn´t mean that every single app will just kind of happen, but I
think we´re going to see, you know, more apps on the platform because of this.
Leo: Well
I can tell you right now, I mean, we were debating whether we should do a
Windows Phone app if we do an app, we´re thinking of doing official apps for
Twit. We´re going to do iOS for sure, we´re going to do
Android for sure, and we´re debating should we do a Windows Phone app? But the prospect of a universal app makes it much, much more appealing. And
wasn´t just for the desktop, it´s for Xbox, that´s really, that would, by
itself, justify doing this. So, it´s of great interest to us, it would be so
nice if there were kind of seamless integration on the Xbox. If
I have to go into a Window 10 mode, that´s not going to be great.
Daniel: Yeah, it´s going to be very much like what Paul said, would
be a universal app, you download it, you can pin it to your start screen and
then launch it. It´ll just be like running a full screen modern app.
Leo: Oh
good. So that´s what we´re thinking, I think we talked about this last week, we
get a Xaml programmer, we do a modern app and then
that would run cross platform, which would be great.
Paul: Yeah, you know, the big, well there´s a bunch of steps
that have to come but obviously we keep talking about Build because that´s the
developers show but I think a big chunk of answers will come there. And of
course E3 might be a logical place for Microsoft to show off, you know Xbox type stuff, on Xbox. But I think another big part of this push is
Xbox on Windows right? Which is something they´ve had for a while but in real
half-assed form and I distinctly remember the 2 big pushes that Microsoft made
with Xbox on Windows, one was with Windows Vista because they knew that was
going to bomb, they released Halo 2 on Windows Vista, and the other one was
Gears of War, the first Gears of War game which actually had an additional
level or whatever on Windows for whatever reason. You know aside from that,
it´s been pretty tepid on the Windows side, and so honestly, I mean Xbox on
Windows in some ways will be better than it is on the console maybe as a
payback because PCs are more complex, you know you won´t have to pay for an
Xbox live gold subscription to do a lot of the multiplayer stuff or whatever.
But I think that the cross platform stuff is interesting, there don´t appear to
be any rules with that, I mean it´s up to the game
maker. Someone like Activision probably is not going to enable cross platform
playing Call of Duty because it doesn´t make sense, but if you make a more
casual game where it doesn´t matter or you can make a game where you require
the Windows player to be using a game controller let´s say, instead of a
keyboard or the mouse, I think this might open it up in interesting new ways.
Daniel: And
you´re leaving a lot to the developer, so if a developer writes a game and they
want it to run on Phone and PC they can basically choose to do that, so, just
because you create the game doesn´t mean that it´s automatically going to go to
those types of devices, it´s still up to the developer to go you know I don´t
want my game on a Phone, I don´t want that small screen.
Paul: Yeah
and it´s not forced on them either, which I think that´s a big thing. You know
you don´t have to, you know this is how we´re going to get Windows Phone out
there, we´re going to force developers to write Windows phone apps. It´s not
like that.
Daniel: And
they open up Xbox live right? They have that SDK now, and that´s how she sort
of a thing that, this is a problem that´s been out for a long time now. All
we´ve ever done on Windows Central is talk about the problems with Xbox live
and developers, publishers getting their apps certified through the system,
it´s just not worth it for them. An so you´ve seen
games that were Xbox live on Windows phone that dropped the certification
because they´re like, you know what, we just want to update our game and we
can´t even update it.
Paul: It´s
just so terrible.
Daniel: Yeah, and that´s why we saw such a slow buildup of Xbox live games on Windows
Phone, it was just, the process was a nightmare and developers had nothing but
terrible things to say about it. Now they´re opening it up as an SDK, I mean,
it´s like anybody can jump in on this, you can just create your game.
Leo: Exactly. I mean, that´s us! I do not want to go through the certification process, we talked to Rob Greenlee when he was still at
Microsoft in the broadcast division he said, that´s going to be about a
$100,000 dollars by the end of the day. Here´s one of our certified developers,
you could do it on your own, good luck. Now, you know, I´m thrilled. I´m really
thrilled.
Daniel: Yeah
the id Xbox program for independent developers and if they can get Xbox live
achievements, I mean that´s just going to be like, people love achievements
right? so, it´s just like, I don´t actually think
they´ll get achievements but the people who do.
Leo: You´ve
listened to a hundred Windows Weekly episodes, you´re a Windows weekly
champion, I love that idea!
Paul: I
firmly believe there needs to be achievements in Windows,
that would be so awesome.
Daniel: Yeah, well, I mean, you know, we´ll talk about later with beers, untapped. Untappd has achievements. yeah, I don´t know, I find it
like, it´s hilarious when you get that achievement, although it reminds you
maybe you´re drinking too much, it´s fun.
Paul: I
was with Mary Jo in New York a couple of weeks ago and I got an achievement
from untapped. She was actually kind of incensed by this. I said, you have
every achievement you can get you know, you got to leave some for the little
guys.
Leo: I´m
a much bigger drunk than you are Paul. Alright let´s take a break, Daniel Rubino´s here filling in for Mary Jo who is having a great
time in Vietnam, you can tell by her Sway, if you go to sway.com you can see
those from Vietnam and Cambodia and thank you for being here Daniel from
Windows Phone central , Paul Thurrott is in Fort Collins, he´s just checking the atomic clock to make sure it´s on
time. I get a sore throat just looking at you Paul, I got to tell you. Don´t you? It´s like, you´re like the Contact commercial.
Does it hurt to have a temperature Paul?
Paul: I´m
the monkey from Contact or from whatever.
Leo: Contagion or uh, not Contagion, the Andromeda strain, or the 12 monkeys, I
don´t know, there´s a lot of monkeys, lot of dangerous monkeys out there.
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Back we go, to sneeze fest at Fort Collins, Paul Thurrott, he is.
Paul: Yeah, we buried the lead, Leo. There´s a new Chromebook pixel
out today.
Leo: We
spent an hour talking about it on Twig earlier today, I ordered one.
Paul: That´s an expensive browser.
Leo_ $999 dollars
Paul: Not
as expensive as lots.
Leo: Yeah, and it´s got i5, they do offer an i7, why you´d want an i7 with Chrome
OS? I don´t know but, they, Google said at one point that 85% were owned by
employees. So really I think the reason they put this powerful stuff in, you
know 8 gigs of ram because they´re running Linux on it really. For executives. They sell well at schools, Microsoft loves that kind of sell through in schools.
Daniel: That´s why Google made that one right. It was richer because the executives
wanted a nice Chromebook to carry around.
Leo: Yeah, instead of a cheap, plasticky one, I agree. Uh,
there´s a new Macbook too you know, by the way.
Daniel: I
heard something about that.
Leo: And
a new watch, we´ll talk about that. It´s got to grape Windows guys a little bit
that Apple gets all that attention for like, they own the news cycle for a
week, right?
Paul: It´s
not just that they own the news cycle, it´s like the fawning the get, you know.
It´s like, HBO shows the Game of Thrones, (Roar), like it has a band (roar), Well yeah, it´s a watch.
Daniel: We
talked a little bit about this on Twitter, Paul, with just how some people in
the media just, uh, I´m going to say sugarcoat things, but there´s like,
there´s a lot of compromises coming with the new Macbook,
and I´m actually not like, even hating on that stuff like I get what Apple´s
doing.
Paul: No,
but the people accepting of it. It´s like you don´t understand you´re setting
the agenda for the future. It´s like, no you don´t understand, I live in today.
Leo: Let´s talk about that, because that´s probably the most controversial thing,
there´s only one connector on here, it does multiple duty, not just triple
duty, it´s a power connector, it’s a USB data connector, it´s a charger, in and
out, it´s a video, it´s a, I don´t know what else, everything.
Paul: It
actually is none of those things by itself, the only thing it can do by itself
is power the machine, you know you need a cable or
something to connect, or an adaptor.
Leo: Well
they make USBs, this is a , well for one thing, and I would think you guys
would applaud this, this is the first time that I, in living memory, that Apple
has used a standard for its power adaptor, that´s never happened before. And it
doesn´t happen in the pc world either, I would love to see, look what we´ve
gained, look what we´ve gained in phones by having micro USB everywhere right?
Paul: But
Apple didn´t do that right? So, there are Windows PCs today that use USB for
power by the way.
Leo: Are
there?
Paul: Yeah, mostly tablets.
Daniel: Sure, Lenovo´s.
Paul: They
were first to USB-c.
Leo: So
this USB type c, we´re going to see on, I mean we already seeing them on
Windows machines, we´re going to see this everywhere? Is this the new thing?
Paul: I
think so, actually I would be surprised if they didn´t put this on their
phones, they should replace the lightning adaptor.
Leo: I
agree.
Paul: Why
not just have one cable that does everything?
Daniel: It´s
good for the industry, I mean I´m really psyched about having a standard for
all the stuff, the problem of course with this device is that it´s the only,
there´s one plug and that´s it. Even on, like, Samsung has their new, what´s it
called? The ATIV book 9, which I almost ordered and I´m going
to get one real soon. It´s basically the same device as the Macbook, it has the same core processor in it, it´s got a
12. 2 inch screen, it´s actually higher resolution but non touch as well. But
they ended up putting in 2 USB 3.0 ports on it and a I
think micro or mini HDMI out, on top of the Kensington and stuff, so that´s
still all on there.
Paul: That´s actually what bothers me about the Apple, you can fit those things on
there.
Leo: Well
okay, but let me just pose the opposite point of view, I just think about,
maybe you could tell me, I mean certainly there are plenty of people who need
all those connectors, but generally when I´m using my laptop, I don´t connect
it to anything, it´s a stand-alone device.
Paul: You
know what? This is like, um, this is like the argument for Windows 8 versus
Windows RT, you know you´re saying, I want the reliability of Windows RT, I
don´t want to run desktop applications, I don´t need this, blah, blah, blah,
except when you do. You know for that one moment when someone hands you a USD
stick it says just copy the file over, and you´re duh, like, there´s an easy
fix for the solution which is don´t be so hard lined about everything. One of the old and one of the new. You don´t have to go
kicking and screaming into the future.
Leo: This
is Apple, remember when they took the floppy out of
the iMac? And everybody said well how are you going to compute without a floppy
drive? This is Apple, that´s how they do things, they cut, they go boom you´re
dead, you´re dead to me.
Paul: The
flip side of that is the number one selling peripheral for the iMac was a USB
floppy drive.
Leo: Initially, I agree.
Paul: I
guess what I´m saying is, the excuse that it´s Apple is not like a reason, you
now, Jobs is gone, can we be a little more reasonable as we go to the future?
Leo: They
still make their other laptops, if you want connectors you can get an air, you
can get a Macbook pro, it´s not they´ve killed, it´s
not that they´ve said as they did with the iMac we´re not going to make
machines with floppies anymore, there´s plenty of choice, but there are people,
I think there are people who, I look at my Acer S7, I chose it because it was
so thin and light. And I don´t think I´ve ever connected anything on to it,
except a power cord.
Paul: I
guess what I´m saying is.
Leo: It´s
just one slice of the market.
Paul: Yeah, that doesn´t have to be the level of compromise that this thing has. I
think the other shocking thing to me is, I think
everyone expected when Apple came out with a Core M machine that this thing was
going to get like 25 hours of battery life.
Leo: It´s
only nine, I know, that´s a little.
Paul: Right, and Daniel knows this because he´s tested. It´s kind
of surprising on the Windows side how Core M machines actually typically don´t
have amazing battery life compared to a core I , whatever. So you sacrifice
performance, obviously there´s no fan noise which I think is important to some
people, but you don´t gain any, I mean, when you talk about portability, I mean
the smallness of it is fine, the thinness is nice, you know the weight
obviously great, battery life, uh, you know.
Leo: Apple does sell a $79 dollar dongle, which everybody will buy, that adds power,
another type c connector, a standard USB 3 connector and an HDMI adaptor.
Paul: Yeah, and what that thing is, that they started selling for the
Leo: Of
course they should´ve put, right, or the flop, as you said, the USB floppy,
that´s going to be the.
Paul: Except that they´re selling it this time.
Daniel: But
people pointed out that it´s not that different when you buy a Surface, you
have to buy the keyboard, you know, and that´s an extra cost too. You know it
is kind of funny how basically companies pull out features and then sell them
back, like a separate product.
Paul: You´re putting me in the weird position of defending Surface. Surface, the
Surface keyboards are different colors so you can choose at the time of
purchase to buy some color, but you can also choose at any time to replace it
or augment with it with different colors if you have some kind of mood thing
going on. I mean, no, I´m just saying, personally, that doesn´t, I don´t care,
you know, myself. But I do think that that kind of aspect of that stuff, is
interesting to people. So, I would say to anyone who´s looking at a Surface,
you got to tackle a $130 bucks on whatever price you see.
Leo: The
price is not really the price, yeah. The advantage you get is that they´re
interchangeable now.
Paul: Yeah, I mean, that´s nice.
Leo: What
about this M processor, this is a Broadwell, it´s a Broadwell Y. Are there PCs with Broadwell Y out there?
Daniel: Yoga
3 pro
Leo: So
what kind of battery life is a Yoga 3 pro?
Daniel: So
this is controversial, when they first announced it, they were claiming I think
10, 11 hours, something ridiculous. And then I got one, a lot of people got one
and if it pushed 6 hours I would have been happy with it, and then now.
Paul: I´m
sorry to interrupt you Daniel, that was the worst
thing that happened to Lenovo this year by far.
Leo: No,
it was not. Okay, even I know that´s not true. So, well that´s the same thing
that happened to Dell XPs 13 isn´t it Daniel? They claimed 15 hours.
Daniel: Well, that´s a little bit more controversial, if you look at Nantech they reviewed it and they did the 2 versions, the
core I 5.1 with touch screen and one with the Quad HD touch and they actually
got 15 hours out of the non-touch version, and their batter life, they compared
it to, at least their tests are very consistent and then they compared it to
the Macs and other PCs out there, and they said no, it actually does perform that
well. I just think it´s, um, real world stuff is going
to be a little bit different of course you know how actually people use it. I
can easily, in real world, push my computer, get 10
hours out of the non-touch version.
Leo: But
you have the non-touch version right?
Daniel: Well
I have both.
Paul: By
the way, what you just said is very interesting because that´s sort of what I
was hinting at with the Mac. You have that choice, In other words, you can say
I don´t want touch because the battery life is more important to me, you know.
I think that kind of choice is important you know just like throughout this
thing.
Leo: No,
we don´t have any choice. There´s no touch choice in the Mac
world.
Paul: It
doesn´t have to be touch, there are other choices.
Daniel: Resolution, yeah, you know.
Leo: That´s 576 I think, dots per inch, but it´s a 12 inch.
Paul: Whatever it is, so, people, I don´t, this drives me crazy, but I have a Macbook air 13 inch, the most recent version, granted it´s
1440 by 900 I think is the resolution. A lot of people would say it´s
unacceptably low res, but I got to be honest, the productivity tests that I do
on that thing, it´s fine. And this is what I mean by choice, they should offer
a 1440 x 900 version of that machine, and that would be the one I would choose
because that thing would get significantly better battery life, yeah.
Daniel: I
don´t think that the Yoga 3, that has a ridiculously high resolution display,
and it´s gorgeous but you know that´s also going to kill the battery and so.
But I agree, I think Dell what they did with the XPS line, the 13, you know I
complimented them big on it, that choice between an I3, I5, I7, different ram
configurations, different memory.
Leo: Yeah, but Apple´s never done anything like that, that´s not Apple. Ever since
the days of Gil Amelio ended Apple doesn´t do choice.
Daniel: Or
except for one though, the watch.
Leo: The
watch you have 20 models.
Paul: it´s
worse than that, I´m sorry to say this but I just figured it out the other day,
I guess yesterday. Every version of the Apple watch,
and by version I mean there are 3 product lines but then there are multiple
models.
Leo: 2
sizes within each and then many, many, many, bands and so forth.
Paul: Here´s the thing, it´s worse than you think, those bands come in different
versions for the different size watches, the bands are not interchangeable. Oh
my God! How are they going to do that?
Leo: Well, the watch business is a different business let´s face it.
Paul: This
is a crazy product line, remember when Steve Jobs used to get up on stage and
show 4 items, we sell this, we sell this and we sell these 2 things. Now it´s
like, you know it´s like a graphic of the universe, reach little stars across.
Leo: Worse than that if you´re a developer it turns out the resolution screen is
different on the 38 millimeter and the 42 millimeter. Slightly,
but enough that you have to do different versions.
Daniel: Also
going back to the Core M, it was interesting when I was talking to Dell about
when they announced about that device and what they were anticipating with
Apple, and what they were saying, they were predicting that their new laptop
was going to be a Core M, they said it was going to be about 2 pounds, they had
it pretty figured out what they were going to do. But Dell purposely chose the
Core I5 route and I7 and doing that whole thing with the high res screens
because they said they wanted that extra power and they thought that they could
put this new display, where battery savings comes a lot from the new Dell,
that´s actually in the display it´s a new technology. And you
now, um, for Dell.
Paul: Where it refreshes only parts of the screen.
Daniel: Yeah, I think, something like that. Something with Sharp. It´s Sharps technology, so you know, for Dell they could´ve made this a Core M
device, super thin, 2 pounds as well, and that´s sort of what Samsung is doing
with this Ativ 9 book, it´s a Core M, same thing it
weighs 2.1 pounds, it´s exactly like the new Mac, it just has more ports.
Paul: And
13 inch screen too.
Daniel: Yeah, and so, know Dell purposely decided, because running a Core I5 which is
the Core M, it is a big difference, it´s a big difference comparatively. Now
it´s another question if you just use that device by itself I think it´s
actually probably fine, you know with productivity you know, and word and stuff
like that, email and stuff it´s probably fine. But you´re not going to, you
know, Chrome browser with YouTube gets a little, a little shaky.
Paul: Windows set up brings this thing to its knees, I mean, the worst experience you
have with it is the time you take it out of the box, you know, there is
something weird about it, I mean once it´s up and running, it´s good.
Leo: So
this is good to know for those of us who are interested in this Macbook, it´s not a very fast chip it sounds like.
Daniel: No,
no. I mean it´s a work in progress but it´s an interesting category, I´m
curious to see how they´ll position it and how people react to it, but so far
I´m just more disappointed, I could take slower performance, I´m fine with that
but give me like ridiculous battery life, give me like, if it had 15 hours
battery life, okay, that´ll make sense to me.
Leo: It´s
got to be a tradeoff.
Paul: Honestly when this thing was, when they first mentioned it, it said Macbook and I thought from here it could go 1 of 2 ways.
They´re literally resurrecting the Macbook brand,
which used to be their low end laptop, or at some point they´re going to you
know, fly in like a new word, you know, Nano or Neon, okay. But once it became
clear that this thing was a Macbook, not a Macbook air, not a Macbook pro, I
thought well the pricing is going to have to be lower than the Macbook Air.
Leo: No,
no, no.
Paul: Well
that´s what´s make this thing weird.
Daniel: Core
M’s aren´t cheap.
Paul: What
they should´ve done is gone Retina on the Airs and made this thing low res. And
they should´ve made it you know, $899 and they could´ve bumped up the price. I
mean, that would´ve been, I mean it would´ve been, it will probably do fine anyway,
Apple people love this stuff.
Leo: You
know there´s an Asus that´s almost identical, this is the Zenbook UX305, it´s maybe 1 millimeter thicker, it´s about half a pound heavier, of
course it has connectors, probably no fans, retina display, I don´t know if
it´s an M, let me see. Um, it´s USB 3, oh but not 3 type C maybe not type C,
and it´s a lot cheaper of course, it´s a Centrino? Is that the same as the M?
No.
Daniel: That´s the fine thing about the Core Ms. The Core Ms by chip aren´t necessarily cheaper than the Core I
series, not now. And so what you´re really getting with the Core Ms is it´s a smaller board and
that´s why you´re getting this ridiculously thin laptops and that´s sort of the
angle all, that´s what the Yoga 3 pro is, it´s just ridiculously thin. The
Samsung Ativ 9 is actually I think it´s 11
millimeters thin versus 13 of this new Macbook, so
it´s actually even thinner. It´s been around for a while now, it´s not just
Apple doing it.
Paul: Really because I was reading the press and I´m pretty sure.
Leo: It
feels like the first time anybody´s ever done this.
Paul: Yep,
the first, first, first.
Leo: Haptic trackpads are not new either are they? The little
buzzy.
Paul: The
feedback thing. Yeah, I don´t know. The funny thing about that loss of it, when
you read the hands on with people, there were, a lot of people were hesitant,
oh it´s different, it´s kind of weird, it´ll take some time to get used to,
same thing with the keyboard.
Paul: One
of the little stats Apple didn´t throw up on the screen and I don´t believe is
in their little specs pages, what´s the throw on the keys? You know, I´m
guessing it´s not as good as the.
Leo: It´s
pretty short I would guess.
Paul: So I
don´t think anyone has ever walked up to a Macbook air or pro keyboard and wiggled the key and thought, man, if I could fix
anything on this keyboard, you know, I´d make it less throw and the wiggle,
it´s like a non-existing problem.
Daniel: And
it´s fine, you know, I get this right, we´re talking about the Acer S7 that too
had very little key travel on it.
Leo: The
first generation keyboard was terrible, frankly, very hard to type on.
Daniel: I
got used to it, I had no issues with that.
Leo: They
fixed it in the Haswell version.
Daniel: I
get used to the argument that, like, you get used to it. It´s not that bad you
know, that kind of thing. I just wish that the reviewers were as kind to, like
they say on surface pro 3 too, oh the keyboards terrible, a lot of it is just
getting used to it and once you do it´s actually pretty good. But Apple, you
know, people are just like, no, it´s weird, but you´ll get used to it after a
while you know.
Paul: What´s the phrase they have? For when, you know, you´re
testing something scientifically, out in the wild, just by testing something you´ve
changed it. Yeah, so there´s a part of that that goes into reviewing
devices which is this. If you review 12, 15, 20 devices a year, you´re not
using any devices, you´re just testing devices, so one of the things that it´s
important to keep in mind is that most people buys a device and use it for
years, and so, it might be a little weird to use the keyboard for 15 minutes
but they use that keyboard or that trackpad or that device whatever it is, for
years. So to them it´s just, you know, it becomes the way it is, you get used
to it. And that´s something a lot of reviewers never experience because they´re
moving along to the next thing all the time.
Leo: Right. Ah, pec Tuesday was yesterday, um, a couple of critical bugs in
Explorer.
Paul: I
just wanted to mention this because the freak vulnerability was fixed, as was
stocks net, by the way, you might´ve though that was fixed. Microsoft contends
that this is in fact a different bug but security researchers all around the
world all agree it´s the same one. And there were some Windows 10 stuff and
then of course they issued some firmware updates for Surface which they haven´t
done in a few months, just one each on Surface RT the first one and then
Surface pro 3. And then they answered that most burning question we all had
which was, they just introduced the Surface Hub hardware, but that have a
Surface Hub app, how are they going to handle this? They rename the Surface Hub
app to Surface, so, all that stuff happened.
Leo: All
that happened.
Daniel: Although and also with the firmware update with the Surface, it had something
to do with the pen functionality, but I think they´re laying the groundwork, I
think what´s going to happen is that Surface app now in the store will get an
update and it´s going to enable some feature with the pen that isn´t there,
that´s typically how these things go, we don´t know what those are, it´ll be
kind of curious.
Paul: Yeah
like the app could be updated with some new functionality for the pen now or
whatever.
Daniel: Could you imagine what a Surface pro 4 might look like?
Paul: A
lot like a Surface pro 3.
Leo: That
would be pretty soon, wouldn´t it? Like maybe with Windows 10 in the fall?
Daniel: You
would think that would be perfect timing. I couldn´t imagine them not doing
something like that because they´re going to do Windows 10, they want a big
device to launch with it and you know you got to give the Surface team some
credit here, well I give them a lot of credit, with each generation and
specially with version 3, they´ve really started hitting their strive now with
what people want, what works. So I´m really curious to see what comes with 4
because I think whatever drawbacks 3 had, they´re pretty addicted in fixing
those things.
Paul: Out
of USB port, modern processor platform that would be very obvious changes,
right?
Leo: But
form factor mostly the same right?
Paul: I
would think so.
Leo: It´s
got a great screen, nothing to change there, They´re not going to make it
bigger or smaller. It could be thinner, Why don´t you
replace the USB with type C connectors and make it thinner? Or add it, right. I
want to see type C everywhere.
Paul: How about
replacing the power with USB-C?
Leo: Now
there is, I don´t know what the limit is, but there is a limit to how much you
can power with a type C connector.
Paul: So
maybe I couldn´t do like an I5.
Leo: You
may not be able to do a big juicy you know, 25 watt.
Paul: What
about a Core M based Surface that´s like a non pro Surface.
Leo: Aaaahhh.
Paul: A
Surface M as it were.
Leo: That´s interesting, I would buy that.
Daniel: Surface lite
Leo: Yeah.
Paul: But
only if it gets like 20 hours of power life. I don´t know how they´re going to
fix that.
Leo: Let
me just see, I´m looking to see what the power rating is for USB-c. Is it 3
amps? So we go up to 15 watts. It´s hard, I´m reading specs. It´s hard to
figure this out, but, I´ll keep looking. While I´m looking
let´s talk about the biggest news to hit Apple all week.
Paul: Huh?
Leo: Office 2016, as a preview, a beta preview right now. You don´t even have to pay
for it right? You don´t even have to be a subscriber right?
Paul: Yeah, I get free Office for a little while, I´m really only using word and so
that´s all I can speak to. I don´t know if Daniel, if you have a Mac or
whatever to test this on. The testing I´ve done, first you look at what
commands are there, whether it matches the Windows version.
Leo: It
looks a lot like the Windows version I would say.
Paul: Which I think is smart you know. I noticed some default style differences
between the 2, you know the default document, which I think is actually a huge
problem, which I hope they fix but, honestly I´ve always thought that Office
for Mac was terrible and very confusing user interface, mix, mismatch of ideas
all over the place, you know, stack toolbars, ribbons and Mac UIs and stuff. I
think this new, at least Word especially, I think it
looks clean, it´s nice.
Leo: It´s
reconciling with 2 versions, I think, yeah. I don´t know enough about Office to
be able to say whether it´s a preview of something that might be coming in
Office for Windows, it looks pretty much like Office for Windows.
Paul: Honestly I, maybe I´m missing something, but I haven´t seen any major new
functionality that´s not in at least Word 2013.
Daniel: Well
I´m running Office 2016 preview whatever that is, and it looks very much like
the current Office, you get the dark background now, which is awesome.
Leo: Specs on USB type C by the way, 2 channels, I didn´t realize this, 2 channels
of 10 gigabit USB data, so, it´s pretty darn fast and it does support up to 100
watts, 100 watts of power, so that´s enough for any laptop. So you could do a
Pro, I don´t know what the pro is but it can´t be more than a hundred, 100
watts.
Paul: Right.
Leo: I´m
surprised to read that frankly. That´s pretty powerful.
Paul: They´ve thought of everything.
Leo: They´ve thought of everything, Um, don´t know what to
say about Office 2016 except you can go get it right now if you´re a Macintosh
user and there you have it.
Paul: It
was a big deal last week, this week, eeh.
Leo: Yeah, whatever. Did you get some audible books for your trip?
Paul: i did.
Leo: Good, because guess what? There´s an audible add, right now. Audible is the
place for your audio books, more than 150,000 titles. I´ll tell you the book I
can´t wait to get, you have read and we both have read a number of Erik Larson
like the devil.
Paul: Oh,
that´s my pick!
Leo: Is
it? Oh, good! I´m excited about this, he has a new one on the Lusitania.
Paul: Yeah
Dead Wake, which sounds like the name of a B level horror movie, and maybe for
all I know, and yeah, it´s, you know what, the thing that bugged me about this
book is they didn´t put the preview of the audio up early, so I would´ve
preordered it but I couldn´t.
Leo: It´s
Scott Brick who is really a great narrator.
Paul: Kind
of a classic audible narrator, it´s good. Yeah, I listened to it on the plane,
between passing out.
Leo: Did
you? This is Scott Brick. Erik Larson who wrote the
story of the Devil in the White City, is that what it´s called? He´s good. I love his stuff.
Paul: And
the World War 2
Leo: Yeah
you recommended that one, I haven´t read that yet. The Garden of Beasts, it´s
called. So what he specializes in is going back and shining a light on little
known, you know the truth of historical matter. Everyone knows the German sank
Lusitania in 1915, it got the United States into World
War I but there´s a lot more to this than we´ve read about in the history
books.
Paul: And
there´s a lot of stuff that people think they know about it that´s not true.
Leo: Well
I found the Churchill stuff fascinating and I haven´t read the book yet. I´ve
just read reviews of it, but I cannot wait to read this.
Paul: Yep,
it´s good.
Leo: They
had broken the German code, much like the enigma in World War 2, they had broken the German code and knew that the U boat,
yeah, they knew that the U boat was headed.
Paul: It
was not sophisticated.
Leo: Well
anyway, the point is that Audible has great stuff and if you are flying or if
you are driving, or if you´re doing your workout in the morning, on the
treadmill I love audible, this is a great way to pass the time, to pump some
information into your head or entertainment. Fiction, non-fiction, all the big
new ones come out on Audible so you´ll never miss your favorite author.
Paul: Oh!
Leo: What? He´s browsing through Audible, this happens every time, if you´re an
Audible subscriber that is the sound, you recognize that sound, oh! I want to
listen to that one.
Paul: I´ll
put that down.
Leo: What
did you find? Something good?
Paul: I´m
going to hold on to that one.
Leo: Yeah, save it. He´s holding out on us. Um, I am very
excited about Audible and I´m really thrilled they´ve been with us almost since
the beginning, if you´re not an Audible subscriber you ought to be, we´ve got
of course a deal for you. If you visit Audible.com/Windows, ooh David
McCullough´s got a new one on the Wright Brothers, is that new? Maybe not. I love David McCullough, oh yes it´s not out yet,
it´s the preorder. His John Addams was fantastic! Fantastic! I love history on
Audible but I love sci-fi too. Get your first book free, go to
Audible.com/Windows. You'll be signing up for the Gold Plan, a book per month. Your first
month is free though, and you'll also get The Daily Digest, New York Times, and
the Wall Street Journal. I think a lot of audible subscribers forget about
that. Command Line Kung Fu, oh that can't be good in audio... Bash scripting
tricks. What? What? People sometimes say, why aren't
there more computer books on Audible?
Paul: That's why.
Leo: I have to hear
this.
Command Line Kung Fu: Repeat the last command
that started with the given string. This is another example of an event
designator. To recall the most recent command that begins with a particular
string-
Leo: They have Java Script
programming, Python programming for beginners. What? This is new, they did not used to do this. And they do have the gray courses, which is
great.
Paul: Leo, you know what
this means...?
Leo: What?
Paul: They'll have Super
Bible in Audible.
Leo: I want to hear it.
Paul: You really don't.
Daniel: Kudos to the
narrators, for working their way through.
Leo: I'm surprised they
haven't approached me. They have approached me for technical books that they
want well-read but I haven't had any programming books yet. Actually if you
want to learn as you're driving down the road and you can't read, you can
listen to Audible. Get your first month free, audible.com/windows first 30 days
are free, cancel any day during that time you keep the book but-
Paul: Do they actually
read the source codes?
Leo: Well they have to.
Audible.com/windows, you're going to love it. I actually saw an interesting
story and we talked about it on TWiG, that Google is going to work with Microsoft on TypeScript for angular 2.
Paul: You know what else
they're going to use, Leo? Most pointer events, suck
it Google. It's become accepted as a standard or whatever.
Leo: I love it.
Somebody comes up with something that's good we should all use it. I don't know
what you're going to come up with on that tissue but I don't want to-
Paul: Let's see how high
resolution the screen is.
Leo: All yours. Windows
phone, any news? I think everybody has Denim now, right?
Daniel: AT&T.
Leo: AT&T has
Denim.
Daniel: No.
Leo: No? I got it on my
1520.
Daniel: Right that's the
only one.
Leo: Aw man.
Daniel: Even E30 doesn't
have...
Paul: I know,
it's unbelievable. AT&T is hell bent on proving that they can beat Verizon at
everything. And as it turns out, they can.
Daniel: They used to be
really good with this stuff but now Verizon actually has Denim on all of their
devices. I was going to say on Samsung but they have 8.1.1/
Paul: Does the 820 have
it or-
Daniel: 822.
Leo: You know what is
updated on the Windows phone? The Audible app, we were complaining about that last
week. I'm so excited. Is it beta still or is it updated?
Daniel: It's still beta
although it was updated again today. And usually betas in this case, they were
up front with beta testing and they said, we actually have a new version that works, it's going to be awesome. And then someone found a
link to the app. Usually these are private betas but
this one is open. Anyone can just download and use it. I don't know if that's
going to change once this gets out but you can just go get it now. Paul you
probably use it more than I do.
Paul: I love it. Here's
what I love about it, when I press play, audio plays. It's nice and is a nice
looking app.
Leo: You have an
article on it but can probably go to windows central and find out more. Is
there a way to search for it so you don't find the old Audible app?
Paul: Yeah, you've got
to go to the link. If you search for Audible Beta in the store you can't find
it.
Leo: So of course, if
you set this up from your Windows phone you can do that from your web as I'm
going to do right now.
Paul: By the way, you go
to the web, you find an app for Windows phone, you've logged in to your account
and selected the one you want to install you click install and it works for a
little while and then they say, we're sorry something happened. That's okay
we'll send you an email and you can install from there. Has anyone ever
successfully solved an app problem like this for Windows phone?
Leo: Really? It doesn't
work?
Paul: It's never worked
for me, ever.
Daniel: I've had it work,
but it's been a while. I don't use that method anymore because I have the
limit, like 4 or 5 phones always installed and so you have to go and select the
phone. I should try it again, it's been kind of hit
and miss.
Leo: I think it works.
Paul: I haven't gotten
it to work.
Leo: It must have
worked. If I had my 1520 here I would show you. Contacting your phone...
Paul: Here's where it
fails, Leo.
Leo: Oh, it says
Congratulations.
Paul: Really? I wonder
if it's the number of phones thing.
Leo: It must be because
I have one and only one Windows phone. I don't have the 1520 to confirm but
I'll tell you when I get home tonight.
Daniel: Some companies are
still making apps for Windows phones so it's not all-
Leo: Yeah, this bugs
me. Major league baseball decided not to do At Bat this year.
Daniel: Yeah, this came
from a customer service interaction that came from a customer who was asking-
So we used to get the Major league baseball app At Bat but it used to always
come late to Windows phone but at least we got it. And now this year they're
not going to do it. Maybe the rep was wrong on this but I saw the email and
they were pretty specific that they weren't going to do it this year.
Leo: Now you can use
the web right, for some of this...
Daniel: Right.
Leo: That's a bummer.
That's really a bummer, I pay for that every year to hear the audio and all of
that stuff.
Daniel: It's a general
thing with all of the sports apps for Windows phone, all the major ones, it seems to be sort of an ongoing problem so...
Leo: First Banks, now
Baseball. What's next Apple pie and Chevrolet?
Paul: No apple pie for
you.
Leo: No apple pie for
the Windows phone crowd.
Daniel: The funny thing is
though, I do hear about quite a few companies having apps commissioned out for
Windows phone that will be coming out in the next couple of months.
Leo: As I said, in the
universal changes- We haven't decided against it, but it's a tough debate. It's
expensive to make an app, it's a small market, I said
we have to do it because of Windows Weekly but the debate went away with
Universal. Because now I'm hoping to be able to write one
Metro app that will work everywhere.
Daniel: And that's going
to be the real story for us over the next year and a half, to see does that
message resonate. My issue, is companies like Bank of
America, who literally today killed their app. If you had it on the phone it
stopped working. So you're the company that's not waiting for Windows 10,
they're not saying oh yeah- Because otherwise, they would have left their stuff
working for a couple of more months. They basically pulled their support-
Leo: That's bizarre.
But I guess, for security reasons they can if they're not going to update it.
Chase is going to continue to use theirs right?
Daniel: Yeah, Chase is not
supporting the app anymore but if you have it you can still use it. They're not
changing that, but there is that issue with security and legality and
maintaining that stuff but I guess what wows me with this Bank of America thing
is like, it's gone. Packed up and went home. In order to get to Windows 10 that
whole process will have to start back over. They have to hire developers,
Microsoft will probably have to get involved to try to persuade them, pay some
bills, and then the certification. But that's a potential long wait until that
comes again. But I don't know if you've written about this but the web app
stuff that's coming in Windows 10- So there are web apps coming in Windows 10,
which on the face of it sucks. But these web apps are going to have a deeper
interaction with the operating system to where you can actually tie into the
notifications. You can use the camera if you want to and you can actually
access the hardware so it's not just a shell wrapped around the app that's
hiding the webpage, these are sort of web app plus I would say. And I think
that's going to be one area where you see a sort of compromise where Bank of
America may go, you know what we aren't going to do a full native app or a
universal thing but we'll do this web app stuff you know...
Leo: It's better than
nothing.
Daniel: Exactly.
Leo: Somebody in the
chat room says, maybe Chase is thinking we'll do a universal app we're just not
ready to announce it so let's not kill the back end yet.
Paul: You people are so
positive it's hilarious.
Daniel: Every time an app
gets pulled, we always get the conspiracy people who are just like maybe they
pulled it because they're going to release a new version.
Leo: It's not dead yet!
Daniel: Yeah it's like
there's no reason for a company to pull an old app only to release a new
version. They could just update the-
Paul: I know, I love the
positivity, I do. I just don't have it in me.
Daniel: When companies
pulled the third party, like when they go after the third parties, they're like, yeah they pulled those because their app is coming.
And I'm like I would love to believe that but sometimes companies are just
forcing their way-
Leo: Yeah, but
according to Paul Thurrott we're huge in Italy.
Daniel: Well Italy has
actually gone down quite a bit.
Paul: We're still pretty
big.
Leo: 17% market share
in Italy.
Paul: We're pretty close
to iPhone. That's almost iPhone.
Leo: Yeah but Android
is 67%.
Paul: No I get it but
it's almost iPhone.
Leo: IPhone, it's
actually besting iPhone in 2014.
Paul: I pledged on
Twitter, after the kids move out of the house my wife and I plan to move around
more, kind of like what Mike Elgan did for a while.
Leo: Oh good, when is
that going to be?
Paul: Forever from now.
So I'm sure communications will be better by the time my daughter gets out of
school. Anyway, I'm just going to live in whatever country and Europe has the
biggest Windows phone market share and I'll just move quarterly to accommodate
whatever changes there.
Leo: Well I think some
time in Italy is indicated. It would only be followed by Russia, but okay.
Paul: Someone said, I hope you're interested in living in India.
Daniel: No one knows the
penetration, I think, in India. We just know it's high because India is just
too chaotic to measure actual sales on market penetration. But yeah, Italy does
pretty well, France does pretty well.
Leo: How much of that
is the Nokia brand though?
Paul: It's 95% I would
imagine.
Daniel: Yeah, but like if
you look at ad duplex numbers like the Lumia 535 is a good example of a
non-Nokia phone and it's a Microsoft brand phone.
Paul: That's right I
wasn't including Lumia. Yeah, I didn't think of Lumia.
Leo: Well I was saying
Nokia because of their brand recognition in these countries.
Daniel: Right, and that's
what the theory was that in those countries when Microsoft stamped their name
on it this stuff was going to tank and if you look at the Lumia 535 it's been
quickly racing up the charts, it's going to challenge the 520 and it's a good
device so there's no reason why it wouldn't. But it doesn't seem to have much
to do with the naming stuff anymore so I think that was hogwash but-
Leo: Well that's a
relief. Now, I've seen some people raving online saying, forget the Apple
watch, the best band out there is the Microsoft brand watch and it's going to beat
the Apple watch.
Daniel: If you could just
buy one.
Leo: If you could only
get one.
Paul: Well Leo, they're
sold out what can I say? They must be doing well.
Leo: So what makes it
better?
Daniel: Well it's cheaper.
Leo: So is an Onion, it
doesn't mean it's going to be better on my wrist.
Daniel: I actually don't
have a problem with paying for good technology. I think the weird thing with
paying a lot of money for the Apple watch is it's going to be updated next year
and yours won't be. So it's sort of a weird thing to commit $200 to in my
opinion but that's a decision people have to make.
Leo: Jason Ward is
writing this on Windows Central. Why does Jason think the Microsoft band will
beat Apple's watch?
Daniel: So his main thesis
there, which I agree with, is that the band- And I've been saying this for a
while. -Is more of a demonstration device, right? And this is sort of where I
think the issues with Microsoft and how to position this, the debate comes up what's in the company. But the band itself started out as
an Xbox project and it branched out but it's really about the Microsoft Health
back end that's the real story here. And basically, Microsoft is making all of
their stuff sort of open to other companies. So Health itself has a sort of
platform in Cloud computing and it's all going to be available for other
companies to sign up for. In fact, I think there is already one Wearable that
is going to be using it. The sensor technology in the band is also open up to
licensing so you can do all of that, the same technology behind there to put in
your own Wearable. The way Microsoft is positioning the band right now is
they're taking in a lot of feedback and seeing how they use it and I think to
some people who follow this stuff, it seems very obvious. It's like just go
sell millions of these things but this market is still very untested. It's just
like the smartphone market was pre-2007. Where, companies aren't 100% sure what
people want, what they'll put up with, what they'll pay for it, and what they
actually use and desire. That's why you're seeing sort of a schizophrenic
approach to these things where some companies are doing full-on watches, some companies are doing full-on watches that you
have to turn on. Some are doing Wearables and it's kind of all over the place
right now and Microsoft is definitely feeling that out before they decide to
commit advertising money to this and millions of dollars.
Leo: Or even making
more.
Daniel: Yeah, well we did
do an article that Best Buy is going to start stocking these this month. So
that's going to be the first retail presence that you're going to see a big
push for and I think they're holding back some of their own stock to build up
for that. But long-term-- And I think that's what this is really about is long-term.
--Microsoft I think is actually in a better position because their stuff is
going to be able to be licensed and open where other companies are going to be able
to use it, whereas the Apple watch- And this is fine. -Apple is purposely
making it a closed system that only works with the iPhone and by its natural
design it's just going to have a limited market. And you jack up the price to
limit it more. And I'm sure Apple is aware and made that conscious decision to
do it and people who ride off the bands are looking six weeks ahead, going
what's the band doing right now? But Microsoft's play on this is much, much
longer. And so they're positioning themselves, I think, for a more strategic
move on this market, which is still like I said, undefined. So I'm real curious
on how the watch is going to be received.
Paul: It's almost like
they're going to compete by not competing. These platforms, the watch platform
itself but also the back end Microsoft Health service, they're all open and
it's system so like Daniel just said, other people can make devices with
Microsoft technology and other people can make devices with no Microsoft
technology but work with the Microsoft Health service. They've made this whole
thing open and they want everything to interchange and they want everything to
work.
Leo: It's so funny how
times have changed. It used to be Apple had to work with other people because
they didn't have any market share and now it's Microsoft that has to be
cross-platform. Not because they don't have market share, it's just because-
Paul: It's a new world.
Daniel: Yeah. I mean, you
can also make the argument that Apple is going to sell the watch by sheer
force.
Leo: Absolutely.
They're brute forcing the watch.
Daniel: I mean just that
night I saw commercials all over TV for it and I was like, geeze that started fast. But they're already building that up and that's why I think,
despite all of the criticisms out there about the watch, I still think it's
going to do pretty well. The issue was, it's just like
tablets where with the iPad everybody thought people would get the next iPad.
But the thing with watches, I don't think people are going to want to update
their watches every year or two. Most people buy a watch and keep it for quite
a few years. So far with tablets, that cell phone shift has not happened.
People get a tablet and they stick with it for longer than some companies would
appreciate. So I'm curious with watches, if you get the $300
watch or $350 maybe, what about the people committing to the $500 or $1,000
versions.
Paul: Well those guys
might end up just buying new bands. Maybe that's the upper end.
Leo: Speaking of which,
somebody in the chatroom is saying his Microsoft band is starting to wear out
already. I mean, you wear it all the time right Paul? Is it doing well?
Paul: Yeah, I mean it's
beaten up I don't know if you can see it but-
Leo: It's pretty
durable though...
Paul: It's scraped, I
don't make any attempt to protect it, I don't wear it in the shower but I don't
care about it getting wet.
Leo: How much is it?
Daniel: $199.
Leo: So if you had to
replace it yearly, it wouldn't be the end of the world.
Paul: If I had to
replace it I'd be screwed, I can't buy one.
Daniel: Well if you buy it
at the Microsoft store you can get the insurance which is $19. My band itself
is fine, like the actual band but the face of it, I don't have a screen
protector on it, it's pretty dinged up and scratched.
But it's one of those things where it's not a piece of jewelry and I honestly
don't even notice it unless I hold it up and have the light reflect off of it
since it's black.
Paul: Yeah, we're not
Apple users, Leo. We don't sit there and stare doe-eyed into our devices.
Daniel: But I think that
when they do version 2 they definitely should put Gorilla Glass on the screen,
I think it was a cost-cutting thing that they did. But this is one reason why I
think they're not mass selling, they're seeing how
people respond to their form factor. People complained that the form factor
wasn't watch-like and you had to do this weird twisting of your wrist and all
this kind of thing, which I actually enjoy I love wearing it on the inside.
Have you tried this yet Paul? The one cool thing about having this elongated
form factor is it's got a keyboard on it and the keyboard works, like it's
actually kind of-
Leo: What?
Daniel: Yeah, they came
out with an update about two weeks ago so when a text message comes in, you
have multiple ways of replying so you can just reply with a canned phrase and
just choose phrases on the screen, they have Cortana which you can tap and
dictate your message through it, but there's also a physical keyboard now and
you can actually type in a message. We have a video on Windows Central about
how it works. And it's one of those things where cognitively, you're going
there's no way I can type on this little screen, and they figured it out, and it really works. I tell you, it's really cool to
not have to pull your phone out of your pocket and just send a text message
back by typing on the screen it feels no different.
Leo: Can you dictate
with Cortana?
Daniel: Yeah.
Leo: So you can also do
that?
Daniel: It actually works
very well.
Paul: But you have to
have Windows phone for that.
Daniel: Right, yeah.
Leo: Paul Thurrott, Daniel Rubino, we're
talking Windows on Windows Weekly. Daniel Rubino from
Windows Central, Paul Thurrott from Thurrott.com and
Colorado.
Paul: Yeah.
Leo: He has a massive
cold, poor guy.
Paul: I could tell my
daughter was going to get me sick, I told her- I will not forget this. -She
nervously giggled and was like okay?
Leo: Questions from the
chat room anybody have questions for Paul or Daniel. irc.twit.tv if you're watching live. If you're listening to this as a podcast on-demand,
don't go to the chat room and ask a question, nobody's there.
Leo: Phil Harris is
leaving the Xbox division out of frustration, is that a fair characterization?
Daniel: That's the report,
yeah.
Paul: Frustration over
what though?
Daniel: It's internal
stuff about him not getting a promotion or moving up in the company.
Leo: So that's not a
knock on the Xbox?
Daniel: No. It's just one
of those divisions in companies that have changed and so some people's jobs
have changed and they aren't moving in the direction that they prefer. And
that's a legit complaint. It's just not like somebody's abandoning ship because
the platform is sinking kind of thing.
Paul: It's not sinking,
two things that I find interesting about the Xbox, one I believe Daniel will
appreciate because he was there at the January event. When Phil Spencer came
out I thought it was a little awkward, this guy from Xbox talking about
Windows. I thought he felt a little awkward. By comparison at GDC I thought he
felt very natural so something good has happened there. You know, I'm not
saying he's bought into it more, more comfortable with it or whatever, I don't
know. The other interesting aspect of it is, remember they were embarrassed by
Windows 8 when the Xbox One was first coming out and Xbox One is based on
Windows 8 but they never talk about it because they're embarrassed. But there
has been a real subtle shift in language. In fact if you go back and watch the
video of Phil Spencer from GDC, he occasionally says Xbox One but what he
really says all the time is Xbox- This is sort of like the band thing where the
way they compete is to not compete. Obviously you would prefer to beat PS4 but
if you can't beat PS4, well we sell Xbox's. There's a low-end model, and
there's a high-end model. If you don't want to buy an Xbox you can have Xbox on
Windows tablets, PCs, and phones. And it's kind of a more consumer centric
message in a way. Where it's just Xbox, you don't have to worry about so maybe
technically this one comes in 2nd place, fine. We're still going to sell 10's
of millions of these things and the important thing is Xbox and I like that
change of focus, I think it's smart.
Leo: Here's a surprise
to me, this comes from Dan3 in the chatroom, he says, My Windows update on 8.1
is letting me download the Windows 10 preview. I didn't know it would show up in
the update. He wants to know if it's safe to do or ready to go as a build? And will the OEM require a system update?
Paul: The reason he's
seeing that now is because he signed up for the developer preview, the Windows
10 preview using the Microsoft account he has signed on to his PC.
Daniel: As far as the
updates another big question is do you need to like reformat the computer when
the official Windows 10 comes out, what happens to the license? I mean, we
don't 100% know but from past experience with the 8.0 update and the 8.1- I
mean the preview stuff isn't new for Microsoft. It's new in the fact that
they've opened it up more and it's more frequent. This is really cool with the
more modern Windows PCs, like if you bought one with Windows 8 on it. The licensing
key is actually put on the chip on the mother board so you don't need to enter
it in anymore. The computer I'm using right now, the Dell XPS 27 came with 8.0
and I flashed it with the 8.1 update because it came out and leaked so I put it
on there and there was that question, will I get upgrades on there and that
kind of stuff- I didn't have a Windows Key and I had no documentation but I
didn't need to because it's on the chip set and works magically. There should
be no problems with the upgrade, I mean the upgrade is
free for Windows 7 users.
Leo: You guys,
yesterday was Microsoft Bob's 20th birthday says 3137, you guys come on get with it. And Battlecam wants to
know whatever happened to the Cloud rendering on the Xbox One? Didn't they
promise there would be Cloud rendering?
Daniel: Titan Fall is a
good example of Cloud Processing they use it for that, but what was that game,
it was an Xbox Live game for Windows phone and Windows PC and it was the space
battles. And you would do these massive space wars and verse other people. You
would move your armada and the battle itself was rendered in the Cloud and then
it would download a video to your device and that video was your real ships and
your battle, but it was rendered in like the 3-D cinematic stuff.
Leo: That's neat. And
you had to do that because it was so complex. Weren't there thousands of people
at once playing that?
Daniel: Yeah and so your
battle would get queued and then it would come back down within a couple of
minutes and then you could watch the battle and see who won. It was like a two
minute video.
Leo: Was it Galactic
Rain?
Daniel: Galactic Rain,
there you go. That's what it was. And it was a real fun game with a lot of
potential. It was an experiment kind of thing for them and they pulled the plug
on it which sucks because a bunch of us were really into it and it was one of
the few games where I was like here's a great usage of Cloud Computing being
actually really useful. And I keep waiting to see how that- They should just
bring that game back...
Leo: Yeah. I want to
play it.
Daniel: The cinematics on
it where really awesome.
Leo: Somebody in the
chat room says Forsit does server side rendering, I
don't know how they'd do that. Anyway, what else? Don Matric is on the
Microsoft dart board. I don't know what that means.
Paul: It's a joke.
Leo: Yeah, I haven't
heard of him in years.
Paul: I think he's on a
submarine.
Leo: Okay, he's the guy
that said you can't use Xbox One on a submarine. The Microsoft contest for
insiders, to win a trip to Redmond, the insiders are disappointed about the
lack of builds. Nooo...
Daniel: No, they did the
contest too to Mobile World Contest, this is just them being-
Leo: Just promotion.
Daniel: Yeah.
Leo: TechnoSquid wanted to show Paul this...
Paul: I can't see it.
Leo: Okay I'll read it
to you it's a Family Circus and it says, "Daddy, are you feelin' under the weather or over the weather?" Can
you make Paul more sick, folks? Let's not make him more sick. Alright, I think it's time to take a break. Let
Paul blow his nose and we will come back. I have an urge for a snack, I wish I could push one down the pipe to you. My
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free trial today, Naturebox.com/twit. Poor Paul, you just look terrible.
Paul: Sorry.
Daniel: He's smiling at
least.
Leo: He's smiling but
you can tell- I've been there, I know what he feels like. Tip of the Week Paul Thurrott let's get an Xbox One Tip here.
Paul: I'm going to burn
through these really quickly. It seems like every week or two Microsoft has a
sale on Xbox One and this week's I guess is the entry-level version of the
console, the connectless version with Masterchief collection. 4 Masterchief games.
Leo: Nice.
Paul: Yeah, so for the
price of just the console you get all of the Halo games so if you're a Halo
guy, haven't bought an Xbox One, kind of a no-brainer. I wish they'd do a Call
of Duty thing like Masterchief Collection but-
Leo: That's a great
idea, all of the games. It'd be so awesome.
Paul: I don't know where
you can get this other than the Microsoft store but my understanding is you can
get this at various retailers for this price of $350, you can probably get it
locally but it's worldwide too. Availability difference depending on where you
are. And I have a second Tip of the Week and I guess I would have picked the
Audible app as my software pick but I wrote an article this week about two
factor authentication and multi factor authentication, which in Microsoft's
world is two step authentication and the importance of protecting your online
accounts with this technology even though it's a little bit of a pain in the
butt. The important thing to do is to enable this on every account that
supports it, Microsoft accounts do, Hotmail, Outlook, etc,. Google does, Dropbox does, Twitter does all kinds of different companies do with online accounts. And typically,
you'll use an app on a smart phone. This is an odd one, for whatever reason,
the Microsoft authentication is actually called the Microsoft account app on
Android it's way better than any app on any other
platform. The reason is most of the apps work by sitting there and generating
codes. The Microsoft account app only on Android works a different way so that
when you go to authenticate online with your user name and password it asks you
for your code and you actually get a notification from the app and then you say
accept or deny and when you accept it the code is entered in automatically, you
don't have to type it.
Leo: I love that. I
wish they had that on Windows phone.
Paul: I know, it's a really great app. But regardless, you can use
Microsoft authenticator on Windows phone, you could
use Google authenticator on iOS but if you’re on Android, get the Microsoft
account app.
Leo: That's important
to know, is that Microsoft does have an official authenticator app for Windows
phone and there are a lot of third-party unofficial ones.
Paul: Make sure you get
the Microsoft one.
Leo: This is an open
standard the way they're doing this authentication. Basically the way it works
is you're given a secret number and you put that number into the application
and it creates a hash of the current time and every thirty seconds recreates
that. And Microsoft knows what your secret number is and can actually duplicate
that hash so it's like sending a secret number but that's a standard and I just
feel like I want to go to the big guys that I trust instead of the third-party
apps.
Paul: I could be wrong
about this last point but I think this is true, with most authenticator apps if
I go to put my Microsoft account on the iPhone using Google authenticator app-
Leo: Here's what I do,
I take a picture of the QR code and because I install on new phones all of the
time so I keep all of my QR codes and when I get a new phone I take a picture
of them and since it's the same secret number it doesn't validate any of the
other ones.
Paul: Here's what's
weird about the Microsoft account app, you can install that in addition to
another authenticator app and it works fine.
Leo: Right, I just did
it. I love that, as long as you use the same secret
number you can use multiple authenticators.
Paul: The other thing is,
when you're setting up your account make sure that you have different ways for
Microsoft to contact you. If for some reason you're somewhere and you need to
generate a code but you don't have your phone, they can text or call you. They
will actually call you and read it over the phone.
Leo: Somebody in the
chat room is saying if you use the Microsoft account app it will invalidate the
Google authenticator on the same phone? Maybe, as a word of
warning.
Paul: Well why have two
on the same phone?
Leo: Right, it's one or
the other.
Paul: It's handy having
it on two different phones.
Leo: So I'm doing set
up now. I'm logging into my Microsoft account and I have last pass so it will
just fill that in. Use with caution I guess I would say. I used to use Duo Security,
and it's not a six digit number it just authenticates.
Paul: What's amazing
about it is when this happens and it's accepted on the mobile app on your
phone, that authentication on whatever other devices just goes away it just
works. It's really cool.
Leo: I'm going to try
it. Let's get Daniel Rubino and his Pick of the Week.
Daniel: Pimp My Band. This
is a third-party app one of the few that are hitting the stores now. There are a couple but it modifies a Microsoft Band, which is what
people love with technology. This app is a multi-faceted app, it was $.99 but I
believe it's free right now and its main feature is it lets you change the Me
Tile image on the band to whatever you want so you can do solid colors or
import any photo you want like your family or your dog and it looks really
good. One thing you can say about the Microsoft Band is the display on it is
actually really solid. So you can change that but a new update came out and it
lets you change the language on the band to Spanish, French, Italian, and I
think maybe German. So although in those countries people can't buy the bands
they are still paying more money to buy online so for those people they don't
have to settle for an English language Band and they can change it directly
using this tool. This tool also lets you do a couple of other little things and
I just think it's a great example of the ingenuity that's coming out with the
band and what people are doing with it.
Leo: So Paul, after I
set this up I got a text message from Microsoft to this phone validating it
with a link and now it's just going to sit there, right? And if a new request
comes in- But it doesn't give me, like it's not going to work with Google or
other two factor authenticators it's just for the Outlook account.
Paul: Yeah, the other
authenticator apps support multiple accounts and multiple accounts at the same
time too.
Leo: But this is great,
it's not a problem. So what do I do? I would get a request that would show up
somewhere on this phone when I log in to my Microsoft account.
Paul: You could be on
that phone but you could be anywhere on the computer or tablet or whatever. You
know, you go to onedrive.com on a different computer, type in the user name and
password and when the thing for the code comes up you're going to get a
notification on that phone that you just installed the app on and the
notification is going to say accept or deny. It's really cool how it works.
Leo: Now if I don't
have my phone with me, I'm screwed.
Paul: No, you always
have a chance to use a different-
Daniel: Yeah, they could
email you.
Leo: Good. Pimp My Band
is free by the way, there's a nice diamond on the icon so you know you'll have
the right one.
Daniel: They also have
some similar apps out there that if you lose your band you can send a signal
from your phone to vibrate it and wake it up. Which,
hopefully- And there's another one to clear your notifications.
Leo: I love it. Your
pick number two.
Paul: Huetro, so I'm a big Phillips Hue bulbs person. The smart
bulbs for you house and unfortunately like most Windows phone things, we don't have an official app from Phillips so it's
up to the third-parties. And Phillips is a pretty good company with opening up
their API's to third-party developers. They're not crazy about it so this developer
here has made this app that is completely free and it does everything. You can
set your schemes, you can control individual lights, it has geo fencing so it
knows when you come home and leave. It's really good, so if you were thinking
about getting into Phillips Hue or you already have it, you can use this app to
control everything. And of course with Windows phone, you can pin individual
scenes to your start screens for quick access so I can just tap a tile and it
will automatically launch that scene so I don't have to go into the app and do
all of that. So really great work by a single developer and
it goes to show the power that people can do on these devices.
Leo: This is another
reason why I find frustration with Windows phone is Hue, Sonos,
all the things I control with all of my other phones, I don't have apps for. Now, the third party apps and this one looks pretty good.
Daniel: And two things in
there, there's a good app called Phonos which Sonos actually endorses and it's like the alternative. The
other thing on there is there is a Sonos app actually
being worked on right now so it's in development. It's probably in the later
stages so it should be out soon.
Leo: It's funny, it's
the little things like that- Same reason I can't just use a Chromebook. There's
no- I can't control my Hue lights and my Sonos- Those
little things may be little but they can make a difference in what I want to
use. Finally since Mary Jo is not here and Paul is shrinking, let me get a beer
pick from Daniel Rubino.
Daniel: Yeah, I'm not
nearly as wordly as Mary Jo when it comes to beers
however, I do occasionally indulge in the libations and a Blithering Idiot is
one I had recently that I really enjoy. It's made by Weyerbacher Brewing Company it's an English Barley one and Paul and I have discussed this
before how we both hate hops and this is a very anti-hop beer and it's a very
strong beer with 11% alcohol. And I tend to drink the beers that are all 10% or
higher alcohol. So I'm a really big fan of Barley Wines and the Quads so if you
don't like hops or you like something that is very malty this is a very good
choice I think. Matter of fact I might go buy one for tonight because why not?
Leo: Paul recommended a
Barley Wine last night.
Paul: I did, yeah.
Leo: Paul I hope you
feel better and I hope you have a good time in Ft. Collins, is there snow on
the ground.
Paul: No not really.
Little patches here and there.
Leo: So you came there
for the spring weather.
Paul: Yeah, it's 70
degrees.
Leo: 70 in Ft. Collins,
what?
Paul: Yeah.
Leo: Nice. Jealous now,
have a great time and I hope you feel better soon. We'll be back to our regular
time next week, 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern time, 1800 UTC on Wednesdays that's
Windows Weekly twit.tv/ww for episodes more
information or show notes. But if you want you can also subscribe wherever it
is you get your podcasts and there's a really nice TWiT app on Windows phone. So thank you, third-party developers for making it
possible. Paul feel better, Daniel it's great to have you. Daniel is at windowscentral.com
Paul is at thurrott.com.
Paul: Yeah Daniel thanks
for joining this week.
Daniel: Always a pleasure
guys.
Leo: And I should
mention that Windows Central is a part of the mobile nations group. So we love
Rene Ritchie, Serenity Caldwell, all of the mobile nations folks. And the Android folks, what is it again?
Daniel: Android Central.
Leo: But you're not in
Canada?
Daniel: No I'm in Boston.
Leo: Thank you all for
watching, we'll see you next time on Windows Weekly!