Cortanageddon – Windows Weekly 684

Leo, Mary Jo, and Paul discuss Microsoft’s terrible plan to buy TikTok, Cortana getting dropped from everything but Halo, an Xbox newsapalooza, and much more.

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Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Reduce your sync/storage requirements with OneDrive

You too can live the thin client dream, at least for storage

App pick of the week: Flutter 1.20

Flutter has emerged as one of the best ways to make cross-platform apps. And it works even better with Visual Studio Code now.

Also: Stardock Curtains is now on Steam

Enterprise pick of the week: “It Wasn’t Me”

A new feature called Azure AD My Sign-Ins is generally available as of this week. This lets enterprise users review their sign in history to check for any unusual activity. The My Sign-Ins page lets users see if anyone is trying to guess their password; if anyone signed in to their account from a strange location; what apps the attacker accessed.

Codename pick of the week: Turbine

Our friend Tero Alhonen has been all over tracking new Windows SKUs via the Windows SDKs. He found a reference to a Turbine Server a while ago. Today, the name changed to the much less fun “Windows Datacenter Server Azure Edition.”  Could this be the “new” OS inside Azure Stack HCI 2.0? Maaaaybe?

Beer pick of the week: Evil Twin’s New York: We’ve Done the Impossible

It’s been too long since we had a crazily named Evil Twin beer pick. In honor of how we’ve turned things around re: COVID-19 in NYC, here’s their New York: We’ve Done the Impossible pale ale. Cashmere and Citra hops, 5.5%, lemon/lime/melon. A good summer beer for all of your socially distant drinking needs.

 

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Conversation 5 comments

  • blue77star

    06 August, 2020 - 11:35 am

    <p>Microsoft is buying Tik Tok so they can destroy it and save lives of 1000's of young girls from doing stupid things there hoping they start doing something productive?</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      06 August, 2020 - 12:16 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#559346">In reply to blue77star:</a></em></blockquote><p>I wish. :)</p>

  • Daekar

    06 August, 2020 - 2:22 pm

    <p>The concerns I have seen about TikTok from sources that know their behinds from a golf club divot are not focused on user data and where it's stored, but on who controls the algorithm. Given that there are already known examples of censorship of the CCP's least-favorite topics on TikTok, it is reasonable to expect that there are others we aren't aware of. The concern is that we do not want the CCP shaping the free expression outside of China, something they have already tried to do even on Twitter despite the fact that it's banned in China, along with many other US services.</p><p><br></p><p>Everyone should really get a subscription to Stratechery, Ben provides an excellent accompaniment (and sometimes counterpoint) to the views expressed on the various TWiT shows.</p><p><br></p><p>From a personal perspective, I feel exactly as Paul does – regardless of the politics, this acquisition makes no sense to me and I can't see the business case for it. I still don't really understand the LinkedIn purchase either, and I say that as someone who is on LinkedIn for professional reasons. Mary Jo is going to have to explain it to me as things unfold if they go ahead with it.</p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      06 August, 2020 - 6:26 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#559417">In reply to Daekar:</a></em></blockquote><p>Diversity is just not for races and genders of people.</p>

  • scovious

    06 August, 2020 - 2:43 pm

    <p>I don't see the app as transient. Tik Tok started in 2014, one year after Vine and Telegram. It has nearly a billion users, and most of them would be sad if it got shut down. The downside of buying this would be specific to the Chinese government, which shouldn't be the concern of any American. The value of Tik Tok is the same as Youtube, or Twitch, or Instagram, as with the baggage. Fortunately for the world, policing the internet is as pointless as complaining about it; the world will keep spinning and people will keep posting dumb videos online.</p>

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