maethorechannen

Am I the only one getting a little bit tired of the word Go frequently being used in tech products? Surface Go. Pokemon Let's Go (not to be confused with Pokemon Go). Both Android Go and Google Go (which should not be confused with Google's Go language). "Previously used product name Go" is becomming a trend.

It's like "The Girl with the blankety blank" thing the book industry had a few years back.

I came accross this article -Smartphone users "go gray" to curb addiction which states

One such trick is "going gray," or switching the screen to grayscale, a.k.a. black and white. This is a growing trend, according to Nellie Bowles in the New York Times. The whole idea is to make the screen far less attractive and appealing, thereby reducing the amount of time one is inclined to spend on it.

and I thought of how black and white the Windows Phone UI was. The live tiles had some colour, but thee rest of the UI was rarely anything other than black and white (mostly black). I can''t help but wonder now if that made it less attractive and appealing.

I have a couple of bold predicitions Microsoft's Future Decoded event here in London at the end of the month ("for entertainment purposes only, viewer discrection is advised").

1 - Microsoft will jointly announce with Wileyfox that they will be doing a Microsoftised Android Phone, and Microsoft will be bringing it to Microsoft Stores in the US. A Windows 10 Mobile version will be available to corporates on special order.

2 - There will be some financial entanglement between Microsoft and Canonical. Ranging from an Ubuntu based joint venture to an outright take-over.

3 - There will be a working Quantum Computer on display.

I would love to hear other people's bold predictions. The more "not very likely but not technically impossible" the better.

No matter how dismal things are in consumer side of Microsoftland at the moment, it's nothing compared to what the Apple fanbase went through 20 years ago. This 21 year old episode of the Computer Chronicles from the 1996 Boston Macworld really does show how bad things can get.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTd6dDw6P_Q

As an added bonus of sorts, you'll also hear echos of what some people are saying about Apple today (though these days they earn in a couple of days all they had in the bank in 1996).

TVPlayer launches on the XBox -

http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2017/04/07/tvplayer-launches-on-xbox/#more-144800

Sony's announcement last month that it's dropping support for PS Now on anything that isn't a PS4 or PC is starting to make sense.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2017/03/13/playstation-now-stream-ps4-games-in-2017/

In order to answer my own question I raised in the article on "Store Only" mode, I set up a Fast Ring build up in a Hyper V VM and gave running portable apps a shot, The TL;DR version is the results were mixed, but I was able to run Firefox even though I was in Store Only mode.

First up - the "Portable Apps Platform" installer, which installs a tool on a usb stick to help manage portable apps wouldn't install (Windows recognised it as an installer and blocked it). So I had to run that on non store only mode machine (in this case, the PC the VM was running on top of). While still on the host, I used the tool to install Chrome on to the usb key.

Switching over to the VM and sharing the USB key with the VM, I opened up the "Start" app on the USB key, which ran the Portable Apps "Start Menu" - which did show that non store apps will run, just not install.

I couldn't get Chrome to work - it started but no pages would load. I have feeling it has more to do with either the VM and/or the build than it does with Store Only mode.

I returned to the host machine, installed Portable Firefox to the drive and then returned to the VM. Firefox ran. Not very well (it would often stop responding) but pages would eventually load.

I then tried installing a Portable App while on the VM (the Portable App "Start Menu" includes an app gallery). Surprisingly, I was able to get the Portable version of VLC to install and run from the USB key. I'm guessing whatever code is running to check that an install is happening can't tell that's what happening when the Portable Apps tool is installing to the USB key.

Does anyone know of a good way to export photos out of Flickr (and ideally into OneDrive and/or Google) using either Windows, Linux or the Web? So far my searches have returned results that are somewhat long in the tooth and mostly related to exporting into Flickr.

Since the most recent update, My XBox One has become unusable (I think the XBox people are too busy with the preview programme to notice the cruddy build they released to everyone who isn't in the preview programme). It has gotten to the point where I'm pretty much ready to give up on the thing.

As I'm really enjoying Forza Horizon 3 and looking forward to Gears of War 4, I'm thinking about buying (I have no interest in building) one of those console style PCs (like the Alienware Alpha Console that Curry's in the UK have on sale for 550 quid). I basically want something that will run the next few years worth of new games at least as well as an XBox One would, but I have no idea what I should be looking for. Any recommendations, either for which device to get or at least processor/graphics card combinations?

Or would I be better off buying a gaming "server" and streaming to a PC stick connected to the TV (or as it's an AndroidTV tv, to an app running on the TV)?I'm just wondering if electronics that have been designed to fit in a little box under the TV cost noticibly more than electronics that are expecting things like airflow.

Why is there a tab for non-premium comments on a premium only page?