Now that <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2889261/fcc-approves-net-neutrality-rules-reclassifies-broadband-as-utility.html">net neutrality is the law of the land</a>, you may feel inclined to pat yourself on the back for a job well done. After all, a big reason the FCC backed net neutrality was the outpouring of support for it.
The first glance at the future of Office for Windows is here, in the form of the <a href="http://blogs.office.com/2015/03/16/announcing-the-office-2016-it-pro-and-developer-preview/">Office 2016 IT Pro and Developer Preview</a>. It's the initial public iteration of the suite that will be released sometime in the second half of 2015, so at this point it's very much a work in progress.
Do you have a favorite Android app that you wish you could run on your Windows tablet or laptop? Well, now you can. A new program called <a href="http://www.amiduos.com/">DuOS-M</a> runs full-blown Android as its own Windows application, so that you run almost any Android app on a Windows 7/8/8.1 system.
Until recently, if you wanted to unlock your phone in order to switch carriers, there was a good chance that you'd have to do it without the cooperation of the carrier you were with. You could search online for the codes that might unlock your device -- or try to hack it in other ways. But what you usually couldn't do was call your carrier and ask how to do it.
The second preview release of <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2874955/microsoft-releases-big-update-to-windows-10-preview.html">Windows 10</a> begins to flesh out Microsoft's vision of an operating system that bridges the gap between traditional PCs and touch-based tablets -- something it failed at dismally in Windows 8. More than that, the new release reveals a single operating system that shape-shifts according to the device it's running on, be that a PC, a tablet or a phone.
Poor, slow-footed old Microsoft. It just can't adapt to changing times or keep up with more innovative, agile and forward-looking companies like Apple and Google. That's been the way many of us have thought of Microsoft for a long time. But it may be our thinking that's old and outdated.
What do you use a smartphone for most? For its data, of course. So we set out for the second year in a row to find out which mobile service provider gives you the most comprehensive and reliable data network coverage, the fastest upload and download speeds, and overall, the most bang for the buck.
Microsoft's wide-ranging announcements about Windows 10 covered things as mundane as new customisations for the Windows 10 Start screen and as mind-blowing as a new computing holographic platform.
This year we are finally going to get an answer to one of the big questions in the technology world. For years, people have been debating whether Microsoft will retain its position as one of the world's dominant tech companies or steadily become less relevant.
For the last two months the video-game industry has been embroiled in an ugly outbreak of name-calling and worse. This dustup, called <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2840556/the-charge-of-the-troll-brigade-what-to-know-about-gamergate.html">Gamergate</a>, was named after a hashtag on Twitter, where much of the nasty fight has taken place. It's a battle in which women have been threatened with violence and even death by hardcore gamers. The women's crime, in their eyes: They criticized what they see as the anti-woman, anti-gay, racist nature of games and many people in the industry.
Europe has declared war on U.S. tech companies, but despite this all-out assault, Europeans themselves still love American tech.
Everyone, from Amazon to Google to Martha Stewart, has been lauding the benefits we'll all reap by the use of drones, and there's a gold rush on to cash in on the technology. But beware: The trend has all the hallmarks of a bubble-in-the-making, the contemporary equivalent of that symbol of the excess of the millennial tech bubble, the now-defunct Pets.com.
Microsoft is swamping the airwaves with a new ad showing how its Windows Phone personal assistant Cortana is superior to the iPhone's Siri. Is Microsoft on target or making false claims?
Microsoft has finally begun cleaning out the Windows Store <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/article/2599416/microsoft-windows/microsoft-should-ante-up-to-users-for-scammed-windows-store-apps.html">by killing 1,500 scams and copycat apps</a>. But by turning the other way when bad apps were uploaded, and maybe even paying for them, Microsoft was part of the problem.
It's been nearly four years since Microsoft first released Windows Phone, and what it has gotten after many millions of dollars in development and marketing costs, plus its $US7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia, is this: a worldwide smartphone market share of less than 3 per cent. And that number has been going down, not up.