Happy Halloween! This week's Ask Paul includes a follow-up from last time plus a ton of new questions. Microsoft Outlook follow-up In Ask Paul two weeks ago, I was asked whether Outlook 2016 or 2019 would ever behave like the Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 10 and "be able to do Toast notifications when…

It's the last day of August, so here's another lengthy round of Q & A to start off the weekend. Career alternatives? ggolcher asks: I know of your success with Thurrott.com (and the SuperSite before that), and your great career in tech journalism. Have you ever considered branching out into other areas? And furthermore, have…

Remember the gorgeous Cortana-powered thermostat? It's now available at the Microsoft Store.

These days, Microsoft is like the Oprah of intelligent edge. That is, virtually any device can be considered part of this nebulous non-platform. As in, "You're an intelligent edge! YOU'RE an intelligent edge. YOU'RE an intelligent edge too!!" Or whatever. I don't watch Oprah. Anyway, I've been trying to get excited about Microsoft's intelligent cloud, intelligent…

This week, we have a wide range of questions and a call-back to a 1970's Christmas present and life lesson. Surface refresh simont asks: Have you heard anything about a possible Surface Refresh (Dates, devices etc)? I have not, sorry. Given that this is almost certainly the most frequently asked question I receive these days,…

Happy Friday everyone. Many of this week's questions revolved around recent events with Windows 10 and Build, as you might expect. Continue with Windows Insider? johnlavey asks: Since Microsoft has hit the pause button and only a few improvements or features will become part of Windows 1809, does it make sense for me to continue…

So what did I think of Build 2018? It got off to a tough start, for sure. The high-mindedness of Satya Nadella's vision fell flat for many of the Build attendees I spoke with this week. It did so for me as well: While it's hard to argue against his pro-accessibility and pro-privacy stance, the…

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduced a useful new concept today to help us understand the shift to what I call ambient computing. "The world is a computer," he intoned during his Build 2018 vision keynote this morning in Seattle. The world is a computer. I like it. As I've discussed in the recent past, ambient…

On the eve of Google IO, and while Microsoft was talking up IoT at its own developer show, Google announced the release of Android Things 1.0.

Next week, I'll be meeting in Seattle with thousands of my closest friends at Build 2018. Here's what I expect Microsoft to discuss. And some things I'd love to see happen, too. Windows With the recent seismic changes to the Windows organization, Microsoft will surely try to settle raw nerves in the user and developer…

For the past few years, Google has been quietly working on a new operating system called Fuchsia which many believe could replace Android. Details remain thin, but the available information hints at some interesting possibilities. Like many of you, I've been curious about Fuchsia since the project silently showed up on Git in August 2016.…

This week's blockbuster Azure Sphere announcement represents an astonishing confluence of several big themes we've discussed here on Thurrott.com in recent weeks. This is a big story. And not just for the obvious reasons. And certainly not because of security. Because it was announced at the security-themed RSA Conference this week, Azure Sphere is being…

When Windows 10 first launched, I celebrated the return of PC-centric user experiences and the de-emphasis of the previous regime's "touch-first" nonsense. But Windows 10 also marked an escalation of Microsoft's desperate bid to find a new way to monetize the billions-strong Windows user base in an era when Windows license sales were collapsing. Windows…

Bear with me as I continue processing this past week's news and its ramifications for the future of Windows. Today, I'd like to stop worrying about what happened and think about what things might look like going forward. Microsoft will continue investing in Windows 10, of course. There is a sizable audience there, and it's…

Thanks, as always, to everyone who chimed in with some questions this week. Before diving in, a quick note. It is not surprising to me there were some questions about my recent post, Health Hacking: Diet and Nutrition. This is a big and controversial topic, I know. And I can tell you that I struggled…

I've closely followed the one-time key competitor to Windows for decades, and I've always owned at least one Mac. But many misunderstand my relationship with Apple's desktop platform. I'm not sure that even I understand it. But it goes something like this. Endlessly fascinating. Great hardware. Software with some big hits and some equally big…