Weekend Recap: Windows 8.1 more secure than Mac OS X, Mobile World Congress, Lumia Denim, and much more

Another week for Microsoft is another exciting week for WinBeta. Take a look at this weekend recap, and be sure to checkout the full details by visiting the original articles and joining in on the community conversation.

Microsoft

For those interested in hearing more about what is happening inside Microsoft, the company’s chairman, John Thompson, shares his story about what it is like to live in the “fast lane”.

If you are looking for a job at Microsoft, the company is now looking for a Principal Software Engineer to work on HoloLens and help integrate it across other Windows platforms – this may be your chance to make a difference. 

If you enjoy museums, you might want to check out the upcoming U.S. Diplomacy Center. Microsoft has just announced that they will be supplying the foundation with $1 million that will be set forth to showcase the latest in technology – much of it from Microsoft themselves.

Microsoft is known for showing off what they believe the future will look like with their latest technology. In the latest video, recently released, you can take a look at what your next job and productivity may have in store for itself.

Continuing to lay off jobs, Microsoft has closed down one of Nokia’s former mobile production plants in China; as a result, over 9,000 jobs were cut.

Microsoft had also purchased Email Company, Acompli, back in December of 2014. Now, Microsoft has announced that they will be shutting down the Acompli app, and existing users must make their move to the newly designed Outlook.com application or another email service.

The Redmond-based company has confirmed this week they will indeed be live streaming their Mobile World Congress keynote from Barcelona. The company will be in attendance between March 2nd and March 5th.

Windows 8.1

This week, we learned that Apple’s Mac OS X and iOS operating systems have been rated as the most vulnerable to security intrusions. The least sensitive systems include Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows Vista (we are also surprised ). 

European-based manufacturer, KAZAM, has announced that they will be producing three Windows 8.1 tablets – the L10, L8, and L7. None of the tablets offer high-end specifications and are aimed at the lower end of the market. As you may have guessed, they come in at 10 inches, 8 inches, and 7 inches. All tablets will be powered by a quad-core Intel Bay Trail CPU and have 2 GB of RAM, except for the L7, which will have 1 GB of RAM. Pricing is not yet known.

Windows Phone

Microsoft’s Lumia 635 was rumored to come with 1 GB of memory, and the rumor was confirmed on Monday. The majority of entry-level devices only come with 512 MB of memory, but the Lumia 635 will be changing that statistic.

For Lumia 1020 owners who have been waiting to get on the Denim train in India, the update is finally available for download. You can grab the update from your phone’s settings menu.

Lumia 1020 owners shouldn’t be the only ones to get excited. T-Mobile will also be updating a number of their own phones include the 925, 820, and 920. The Lumia 1520 on AT&T will also be joining the club.

XOLO announces the Win Q1000 Windows Phone, which is an almost identical phone when compared with BLU’s Win HD. Both devices include a 5” 1280×720 display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor running at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage that’s expandable via MicroSD, an 8MP rear shooter paired with a 2MP front camera, dual-SIM support, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11n, and a 2200mAh battery

KAZAM, a European-based manufacturer, has announced the production of two upcoming Windows Phone devices – the Thunder 450 W and Thunder 450WL. The two phones will be quite similar with 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal storage, an 8MP rear camera, and 2200 mAh battery. The 450 W will feature the Snapdragon 200 CPU while the 450WL will feature the more powerful Snapdragon 410 CPU.

Windows Phone’s market share is growing – although not by much. As of 2015, we can view that in 2014, Windows Phone, as a platform, rose by 4% and shipped 34.9 million handsets around the globe.

If you are a Windows Phone user looking for a Smartwatch, there is always the Microsoft Band, otherwise you might want to stay tuned, as it appears Pebble is testing an application for the Windows Phone platform. More Smartwatch choices are always welcomed for Microsoft’s mobile platform.

Spotify users can also appreciate a big update to the platform, which allows listeners to rename playlists, delete radio stations, and scrobble to Last.fm. Spotify version 5.1 is now live for download.

Office 365/Outlook.com

Those of you using Exchange Online should take note that the emails you delete are now stored “forever” by default – keep an eye on what work emails you actually don’t want anyone else to see.

If you are a student or teacher, you may want to check in with your school for a free subscription to Office 365. Microsoft has expanded their eligibility program to schools around the globe.

If you have been using Outlook.com, we hope you won’t be missing Facebook and Google Chat, as Microsoft has decided to remove them from the website. Both Facebook and Google are changing their protocols, which Microsoft doesn’t intend to keep up with. Luckily, Skype will at least remain for users.

Xbox One

If you have been having trouble with your Xbox, you might already know about the excellent support the company provides on Twitter. However, you can now find that same good support on Reddit.com when the Xbox Support team begins to answer questions on ‘r/xboxone’.

While the Xbox One is playing second fiddle to the PlayStation 4 when it comes to sales, it also doesn’t look great in China; the Xbox One launched late in the country, and Microsoft had expected to hit 5 million units by now – as of late, they have only hit 100,000 – yikes!

Microsoft Band

Those of you enjoying Microsoft’s Band will be glad to hear about the latest significant update, which brings a bike title, guided workouts, a virtual keyboard, voice replies, and extended application integration. The update is currently available for download.

Bing

Those of you who clamored around your favorite television to watch the Oscars should be aware that Bing’s yearly Oscar predictions hit home quite well with an overall score of 20 correct predictions out of 24 total.

PC Hardware

Intel has announced that they will be processing 10nm processors in 2016, which will allow for smaller and faster computers in the near future. 7nm processors are planned for 2018.

After a terrible debacle for Lenovo PC hardware last week, the company is now promising to create cleaner PC images for consumers out of the box. We shall see if this is simply Lenovo’s Public Relations trying to appease customers or if they will make a change.

Gamers may not have to debate over nVidia and AMD any longer. The latest edition of DirectX is reportedly able to support both AMD and nVidia graphics cards in one machine. Connecting an AMD and nVidia graphics card – what has the world come to?

Intel will also be updating their naming conventions for CPUs, making it a bit easier to distinguish what is what. At the bottom end is the ATOM-x3, ATOM x-5, and ATOM-x7. At the top end it eh CORE i3, CORE i5, and CORE i7. Then squeezed somewhere in-between in the Intel CORE m.

Windows/ASP.NET Development

Fans of Visual Studio may be excited to learn that the 2015 CTP 6.0 software edition is now available for testing; Microsoft is hoping to collect as much feedback from developers as possible at this time.

Microsoft has also announced the latest edition of ASP.NET, version 5. It is the first release of ASP.NET to be able to run cross-platform across Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.

Developers, who love plugging into OneDrive, will be happy that a new API has been announced. Developers can now store and manage user data across various platforms including Windows, iOS, Android, and the web.

Developing via Windows App Studio has also gotten easier as new functionality has been gained. Facebook and YouTube integration is now more native within applications and developers can have more control over integrated Instagram and Twitter accounts.