Thurrott Daily: January 27

Good morning. I’m feeling a little riffy today.

1/27/2016 9:27:42 AM

“Vaio wants to be the premium Windows laptop maker”

Sure. And I’d like to be the pope.

“Windows Defender can now be trusted with the security of your PC?”

Put another way, Windows Defender can be trusted with the security of your PC.

“Why Linux is still better than Windows 10”

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“Microsoft Windows Phone chief Joe Belfiore tweets from an Apple iPhone”

Yep. Just like he said he would.

1/27/2016 8:58:21 AM

“Surfacing the Facts”

This one is heartbreaking to me. After spending months complaining, and complaining, and complaining about the rampant reliability problems with Surface Book and Surface Pro 4, hoping to berate Microsoft into actually doing something right for its customers (most recently in Welcome to Surfacegate) … I thought I had gotten through. And when I saw that the firm had posted an open letter to customers called “Surfacing the Facts,” I thought … finally.

Nope.

It’s about the NFL playoff game in which on-screen announcers repeatedly blamed a “Microsoft Surface tablet” for failing the New England Patriots over about 15 minutes of game time. Everyone already knew that Surface wasn’t at fault—I wrote about this in Microsoft Surface (Wrongly) Blamed for Failure During NFL Playoff Game on Monday, for example—but this issue was apparently big enough for Microsoft to address it publicly.

Just so you know what’s really important to Microsoft when it comes to Surface, I guess: Public misconceptions in a nationally televised event, not the actual reliability of its products and how it impacts real customers every single day.

And that, folks, is just sad. There is no other way to describe this.

Car holders for your Microsoft smart phone (or Zune!)

Colin P. tipped me off to an accessory that could be of interest to Microsoft fans:ProClip makes car phone holders for the Lumia 950, 950 XL, 640, 640 XL, and even various older Zune (!) players. Something to take a look at, anyway.

Here’s what Brave looks like

I signed up for Brave, the new secure web browser that is currently in early testing. And today I received access, albeit only on OS X for now.

Hooray, your Brave preview is here and ready for you to download! We’re giving you early access to a “developer build.” We appreciate your patience as we fix bugs and add features.

Here’s what it looks like. Not much. Yet. 🙂

And with a site loaded (and full-screen). Notice the ad.

“Microsoft’s News Pro app is an iOS competitor to Apple News and Flipboard”

No, it isn’t. Apple News is a competitor to Flipboard and MSN News, which debuted long ago. No one knows what the frick News Pro is.

“Apple Says Sales of iPhones Have Slowed”

Apple… says? Put another way, sales of iPhones have slowed. Actually, it’s worse. they’re flat.

“The $299 Chuwi Hi12 Windows 10 tablet packs serious hardware”

Assuming you believe that an Atom processor is “serious” hardware, I guess. (Hint: No.)

“Microsoft refunds dad over $8,000 for 17-year-old son’s Xbox binge”

Something tells me there are iPhone users out there with bigger bills.

“Odd Safari browser bug causing crashes, here’s a fix”

Use a real web browser?