Thurrott Daily: June 8

Tech tidbits from around the web.

6/8/2016 5:33:54 PM

Microsoft to hold a WWDC after-party

And the most interesting thing, really, is the reaction they’re getting.

For example, some idiot at The Verge (no link, sorry) says that Microsoft is “trolling” Apple.

Microsoft has an ingenious plan to get the attention of everyone attending Apple’s big developer event on Monday: offer them free food and drinks … This will probably not be the hippest party in San Francisco, but who can turn down the chance to see “the Test Cloud Wall in action and indulge in the Xamarin Playground” — er, what?

Seriously. Sigh.

Meanwhile, Neowin—no surprise—takes a more measured approachin its coverage.

Microsoft will hold an afterparty for the WWDC attendees which will be held at Twitter Headquarters, behind the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.

Aside from free food and drinks, a discussion about “the future of apps” will be held, featuring iOS developers from Microsoft. The talk will cover Microsoft’s venture into creating iOS apps like Outlook, Office, Skype, Minecraft, and Cortana, among many others. According to the company, Microsoft apps on iOS are setting the “gold standard” when it comes to quality of apps for the platform.

More info here.

Google improves Project Fi with U.S. Cellular support

As a big fan of Google’s Project Fi, this is quite interesting to me: U.S. Cellular is now part of Project Fi.

Today, we’re excited to introduce U.S. Cellular as our newest partner network.

U.S. Cellular, one of the top mobile networks in the U.S., offers service in 23 states with 4G LTE coverage for more than 99% of their subscribers, both urban and rural. With the addition of a third network, Project Fi now gives you more coverage and speed, helping you stay connected wherever you are.

By analyzing speeds from each network, Project Fi is able to predict the fastest network at your location — down to the city block — and automatically connect you. We’re constantly adapting to consider how factors like new cell towers and newly-available radio frequencies are impacting real-world speeds … By accessing multiple cellular networks, Fi users have a connection nearly 99% of the time, and spend about 95% of cellular time on LTE — which will improve even further with the addition of U.S. Cellular.

U.S. Cellular coverage will be automatically rolling out to all users over the coming weeks, Google says.

Android Marshmallow finally hits 10 percent adoption – but still dwarfed by four-year-old Jelly Bean

ZDNet reports that the latest Android version, Marshmallow, has just crossed the double-digit usage milestone.

Google’s newest mobile OS, Android 6.0 Marshmallow, is now running on more than 10 percent of Android devices.

The milestone comes eight months after Google released Marshmallow, with growth in recent months spurred by most new devices shipping with the version of Android.

Marshmallow was the fastest-growing version of Android in terms of adoption, increasing 2.6 percentage points since May, while most other versions were flat or declined by less than one percent. Marshmallow’s share has more than doubled since April when it was on just 4.6 percent of devices.

This information comes directly from Google, by the way.

NFL’s Twitter account is hacked

As a New England Patriots fan, I think Roger Goodell is a freaking moron. But … I don’t wish him to be dead. And I certainly don’t think it’s funny that someone hacked into the NFL Twitter account and announced that. Well. Mostly I don’t. The New York Times reports:

The N.F.L. became the latest victim in a string of recent high-profile Twitter hoaxes and hackings after its verified account sent a series of tweets saying that Roger Goodell, the league’s commissioner, had died.

“We regret to inform our fans that our commissioner, Roger Goodell, has passed away. He was 57. #RIP,” the hoax tweet read.

“The N.F.L. Twitter account was hacked,” Brian McCarthy, the league’s vice president of communications, said in an email. He added, “We have engaged law enforcement to look into the matter. We are reviewing and strengthening our cybersecurity measures.”

Idiots.