Thurrott Daily: January 3

Thurrott Daily: January 3
Halo statue, Microsoft campus (January 2015)

Good morning. Here are some other tidbits from around the web.

1/3/2016 9:38:57 AM

Windows 10 usage hits 164 million at end of 2015

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There’s going to be a lot of silliness around Windows 10 “sales,” “usage,” and “marketshare” numbers, and of course Microsoft will weigh in with its own number at CES this week. But Gregg Keizer’s math is correct, as is his source, and the usage number is the one I think is important.

After five months, Microsoft’s Windows 10 powers about 164 million PCs, data published Friday showed.

Windows 10 accounted for 10.9% of all Windows devices in December … Net Applications’ user share represented almost 164 million Windows 10 PCs worldwide, assuming a total of 1.5 billion Windows systems in use. Microsoft has frequently cited the latter figure when it has touted revenue opportunities for developers of Windows software.

Correct.

This may also be relevant, but I find these figures close enough for hand grenades:

Windows 10’s growth tempo has fallen behind that of Windows 7’s during its first five months after release, according to Net Applications. Windows 7 had accumulated a 11.2% share of all Windows PCs through its fifth full month, slightly more than Windows 10’s 10.9% in December.

“5 ways Ubuntu Linux is better than Microsoft Windows 10”

Which I will counter with the 1,000 ways in which Windows 10 is better than any version of Linux.

AT&T is doing away with the two-year smart phone contract

I’m very happy to see this happening, and while the U.S. may never catch up with the rest of the world when it comes to smart phone contracts, this is a positive step. From Engadget:

According to an internal document sent to employees … new and existing customers will only be able to get new phones by paying the full price upfront or in installments over time … The message? Payment plans like AT&T Next are the future.

Or as the internal document puts it:

Effective January 8, 2016, AT&T Next and no-commitment (full-price) will become the only smartphone purchase options available for new and existing consumer [customers].

“Bank of Iceland working on a Windows Phone app”

Windows phone is saved!

How to hide apps on iPhone

One of the many issues I have with Apple’s outdated “whack-a-mole” UI in iOS is that you cannot remove or even hide useless prebundled crapware apps like Compass, Tips, Stocks, Notes, Maps, Watch, and many others. But a video on YouTube shows that you can in fact hide these apps… at least until you reboot the phone.

Still totally worth it. As any iPhone user will tell you, everyone who uses this device keeps a special folder (called Junk or whatever) where they collect these useless apps and hide them away in the darkest corner of the furthest-away home screen. Maybe Apple will get around to actually fixing this. In 2017.

“In our opinion: Apple incorporated 39 years ago today”

No, that really did happen.

 

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