Thursday
Nov122015

New Xbox One experience update powered by Windows 10 available now

 

I woke up this morning to find that an entirely new user interface for my Xbox One downloaded and installed overnight. Still groggy from my Fallout 4 and Rise of the Tomb Raider marathon the night before, it took me a while to reorient myself to the new experience. 

Aside from rearranging the look and feel of the Xbox One interface, Microsoft says the re-imagined Xbox One experience is faster and more social and now powered by Windows 10.  An added bonus, all Xbox One owners can play select Xbox 360 games on Xbox One at no additional cost with Xbox One Backward Compatibility (provided you already own the games to begin with, ok). If you have auto updates enabled in your Xbox One, the update should already be installed or coming later today. It's magical. More information can be found here.

Source: Microsoft

Thursday
Nov122015

Microsoft announces first major update to Windows 10

Microsoft's executive vice president of the Windows and Devices Group, Terry Myserson revealed today via a blog post that the latest update to Windows 10 is available to tablets and PCs today. Considered by many to be the Service Pack that fixes a lot of bugs as well as adds the functionality that has been under testing, the  November update also brings enhancements to the consumer experience with Cortana, Microsoft Edge, Xbox and more. There’s never been a better time for enterprise and consumer customers to upgrade to Windows 10. Please visit this Windows Blog post to learn more about the November update or hit jump to see some of the updates you can enjoy as part of the package.

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Thursday
Nov122015

Cortana personal assistant now available to Canadian Windows 10 users

Cortana is Microsoft's intelligent personal assistant which was originally exclusive to US users and now she's out of Beta in Canada. This means Windows 10 users can enable Cortana and use their devices' microphones to run searches, open apps or control various aspects of their experience. The first voice assistant to transcend mobile to an OS-level integration, Microsoft has made Cortana part of Office 365 as well as their new Edge browser.

Cortana is available across Windows 10 devices, from desktop and tablet to mobile. Cortana utilizes the power of the internet to continuously improve, while learning your likes and routine to provide useful, and relevant, information. She can help schedule reminders based off locations, contacts and your schedule. For more information on Cortana, click here.

Thursday
Nov122015

Review: Apple watchOS 2

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

It has been a little bit over a year since we first saw Apple Watch and the wearable, which has reportedly sold over 7 million units, has been available in the market since April. Apple Watch is a unique product category for Apple, it doesn’t seem to follow the same yearly upgrade cycle as iPhones or Macs.

watchOS is the operating system that runs Apple Watch. The first version was quite basic, it served to synch the Watch with iPhones and mostly serve as a satellite device to the iPhone. Apps that supported watch OS could be accessed and controlled from the Apple Watch although it often seemed faster and more straightforward to just use the iPhone instead.

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