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“You can’t get away from Windows.”
Welcome to episode 90 of Yet Another Tech Show with the tech evangelist Mat Lee, Larry Press, Mike Rothman and myself Ant Pruitt. Thanks for coming out and taking a listen to our show. As you click that download button above, follow along with the show notes below as I attempt to paint a picture to go with the audio. Your comments and feedback is always welcomed. So now, go ahead and click play and let’s get into episode 90 of YATS.
What a week for Microsoft. This week was the annual Build developer conference held in San Francisco. We take a look at the efforts and offerings from Microsoft as they look to bring more life to the mobile marketplace. Mr. Rothman was able to attend the event live.
Image Credit: Ant Pruitt
Expect some changes and enhancements with Windows Phone 8.1 as well as Windows 8.1 PC operating system. Mike first discussed the new Cortana feature from Microsoft. It’s a new voice command/search option for Windows phone. Cortana is interesting as a personal assistant similar to that of Apple’s Siri or Google’s Voice Search with GoogleNow.
Uniform apps is another feature from a developer’s standpoint that Microsoft wanted to focus on. Microsoft calls them universal apps meaning you get the same build quality and performance regardless of the Windows device. Microsoft wants consumers to have the same experience on a Windows desktop PC as they would on a Windows Phone as it comes to app use.
Image Credit: Ant Pruitt
With the new chief in place for Microsoft, what else can we expect from the company. Nadala has been pegged as a really sharp person and his vision for the company remains to be seen.
In the “playing catch up” category, Yahoo is now going to encrypt the paths between its data centers. We discuss Google making this same move last year. Don’t worry, you as a reader won’t see much of a difference in performance.
Facebook grabbed its shares of stock and checkbook to pick up Oculus and it’s developer team. The discussion on this ranges from why would Facebook do this, to should Oculus sell out, to kickstarter pledgers need to stop whining. What are your thoughts on this acquisition? Where would Oculus be without Facebook? Probably in trouble as it would need funds for hardware. Who knows? Good luck to them.
Image Credit: Ant Pruitt
Remember the write up I did regarding the Typo Keyboard? Ok, I remember laughing to myself as I spoke to the booth rep about the product at CES 2014. Why? Because the product was insanely close to the product BlackBerry has in place. It was really nice. I mean, too nice! There was no way BlackBerry was going to stand for that. Can someone say lawsuit? Well Typo lost its legal battle with BlackBerry regarding the sale of the Typo Keyboard. Also known as an injunction.
Audiophiles have stepped up for a new high fidelity mp3 player. The Pono Music player has gotten a ton of money for its kickstarter. We discuss briefly if most so-called audiophiles can tell a difference.
Lastly, we discuss the Amazon Fire TV launch. The $99 price is interesting, but why would others jump on board if you already have a set top box such as Apple TV, Roku or Google TV? Sure it has higher hardware specs, but does it fit all of your cord cutting needs? It’s up for debate.
That’s it for this week’s show. We thank all of you for your continued support of #YATS. Be sure to check out our Google+ Community and discuss your tech-related stories of interest with us. Follow us via our social connections by checking out our crew page. Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button, comment and SHARE with others. Thanks!
Check out the hangout video below. If you want to watch us live, check out YATS tv Wednesday nights.
