Tuesday
Wednesday
Microsoft Touching Up Windows 8 to Address Gripes
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft is retooling the latest version of its Windows operating system to address complaints and confusion that have been blamed for deepening a slump in personal computer sales.
The tune up announced Tuesday won't be released to consumers and businesses until later this year. The changes, part of a software package given the codename "Blue," are a tacit acknowledgment of the shortcomings in Windows 8, a radical overhaul of Microsoft Corp.'s ubiquitous operating system.
With the makeover it released last October, Microsoft hoped to play a more prominent role in the growing mobile device market while still maintaining its dominance in PCs. But Windows 8's design, which emphasizes interactive tiles and touch controls, seems to have befuddled as many people as it has impressed. One leading research firm, International Data Corp., says Windows 8 contributed to a 14 percent decline in worldwide PC sales during the first three months of the year — the biggest year-over-year drop ever.
Meanwhile, sales of smartphones and tablet computers are booming. The biggest beneficiaries have been Apple Inc., the maker of the iPhone and iPad, and Samsung Electronics Co., which sells the most devices running on Google Inc.'s Android software. Google is also benefiting from Android's popularity through increased traffic to its services, creating more opportunities for the company to display ads.
By contrast, leading PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc., which primarily sell Windows-powered machines, have been mired in a financial funk that has battered their stocks and raised questions about their futures.
Despite the troubling signs, Microsoft insists it's pleased with Windows 8's performance.
The company, which is based in Redmond, Wash., says more than 100 million Windows 8 licenses have been sold so far, up from about 60 million licenses in January. The licensing volume "is in the same general ballpark," as Microsoft's previous operating system — Windows 7 — at a similar juncture of its sales cycle, according to Tami Reller, who serves as the marketing and financial chief for Microsoft's Windows business.
In an interview, Reller said Microsoft still realized changes need to be made to make Windows 8 easier to navigate and capable of taking full advantage of technology improvements that have come out since October.
"Are there things that we can do to improve the experience? Absolutely," Reller said "There is a learning curve (to Windows 8) and we can work to address that."
For now, Microsoft isn't saying what kind of changes will be introduced with the release of Blue, which the company plans to anoint with a different name when the update is available. Microsoft also isn't saying whether it will charge existing owners of Windows 8 devices to get the fixes in Blue. The company plans to release Blue in time for the holiday season.
Reller said more details about Blue will be released before Microsoft holds a developers conference in San Francisco in late June. Some of Blue's features are expected to be previewed at that conference.
If Blue is meant to make people more comfortable, the changes may incorporate more of the elements from earlier versions of Windows.
A common complaint has centered on the lack of a "start" button in the Windows 8 menu.
Other critics have pined for an option that would allow the system to begin in a desktop mode suited for running applications designed for earlier versions of the operating system. Windows 8 currently starts off showing a mosaic of interactive tiles tailored for swiping through programs with a finger instead of using a computer mouse.
Blue also might make it easier to find a set of controls — known as "charms" in Windows 8's parlance — that currently must be pulled out from the right side of a display screen.
Besides responding to customer feedback, Blue also will improve Windows 8's ability to work on smaller tablets with 7- and 8-inch display screens, Reller said. She declined to say whether Microsoft intends to make smaller version of its own Surface tablets. In a conference call with analysts last month, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said the company was working with other manufacturers to make smaller tablets.
One thing that Blue won't fix: the relatively small selection of mobile applications tailored for Windows 8. Reller said the Windows 8 store now has more than 60,000 apps. By contrast, there are more than 800,000 apps available for Apple's mobile's devices and nearly that many for Android devices, too. In one of the most glaring omissions on Windows 8, Facebook Inc. still hasn't designed an app to make its online social network more accessible on that system. Facebook has about 750 million mobile users.
Microsoft's decision to tweak Windows 8 so soon after it went on sale may reinforce perceptions that the product is a flop.
Reller is trying to frame the changes as evidence that Microsoft is becoming more agile and nimble as it responds to a rapidly evolving technology market. Smartphones and tablet computers have been at the epicenter of the upheaval, diminishing the demand for PCs as more people and businesses opt for the convenience of increasingly powerful mobile devices.
The mobile computing movement is the main reason that Microsoft made the most dramatic redesign of its Windows operating system since 1995. Given how different that Windows 8 is from its predecessors, Reller said Microsoft always knew it might have to make some adjustments less than a year after the software came out.
"It had to be a very big change to take advantage of the mobile opportunity," she said.
Analysts say one reason Windows 8 got off to a slow start is because there weren't enough devices designed to take advantage of the system's touch-screen features. But that is about to change as HP, Dell and other PC makers prepare to roll out a wide variety of laptops and tablets with displays that respond to touch. More than 2,400 devices have now been certified to run on Windows 8, up from 2,000 in January, Reller said.
Most of the touch-screen laptops will sell at prices $50 to $250 below the first wave of comparable machines running on Windows 8, reductions that Microsoft hopes will prod more people to check out the system.
"As we look at Windows 8, it's important to remember a lot of its full potential won't be realized until there are more touch devices on the market," Reller said.
T-Mobile Sells 500K iPhone 5s in First Month
T-Mobile released its first quarterly numbers since adding the iPhone 5 to its portfolio and sales of the device are impressive. For the first quarter of 2013, T-Mobile said it sold 500,000 iPhone 5s to “new and existing customers,” quite a feat considering the U.S.’s fourth-largest carrier just rolled out the device to customers on April 12.
With all those new LTE-enabled iPhone 5s jumping onto T-Mobile’s network, the carrier reported it was still on track to have 200 million LTE POPs covered by the end of 2013.
Credit it to the iPhone’s attractive pricing, T-Mobile’s new “Simple Choice” plans or something else, but T-Mobile also managed to add a substantial amount of customers during the quarter. The carrier brought in 579,000 net customers during the first quarter, which it attributed to improving its postpaid net customer losses by 61 percent annually due to improved branded postpaid churn.
Not all the numbers were encouraging though as total revenues fell 7.1 percent annually. T-Mobile chalked this up partially to an uptick in branded postpaid customers who were adopting the company’s “Simple Choice” and value plans, which lead to a 9.9 percent annual decrease in service revenue. Customers moving to those plans also resulted in a 6.3 percent annual decrease in branded postpaid ARPU.
All things considered, T-Mobile CEO John Legere sounded upbeat.
“Things only get more exciting from here, having brought T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS together to create the wireless industry's value leader and premier challenger,” said Legere in a statement.
T-Mobile just finalized its merger with MetroPCS and the new combined company will now operate under the T-Mobile US, Inc. moniker.—and trade under TMUS.
T-Mobile US Inc.’s stock is up more than two percent as of 8:52 a.m. CT.
Monday
UPDATE
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Sunday
Win 8 Pro upgrade jumps from $40 to $200 come February 1
Existing Windows licensees have until January 31 to get Windows 8 Pro on the cheap. After that, the promo price vanishes and upgrade costs head upward.
When Microsoft announced last year a "limited time offer" for Windows 8 upgrade pricing, some thought -- or at least hoped -- the discounted price might be indefinite.
Microsoft officials announced on January 18 that this will not be the case.
After January 31, the $40 upgrade price will end. Starting February 1, the Windows 8 upgrade (from previous Windows home/consumer SKUs) will cost $120. The Windows 8 Pro upgrade will cost $200.
Currently, Microsoft is charging $40 for an upgrade license to Windows 8 Pro from Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.
Testers who've been working with Windows 8 preview builds also have been eligible for the $40 upgrade price. The Windows 8 preview builds (Developer Preview, Consumer Preview, and Release Preview) all expired earlier this week. After that time, users with those builds will notice that Windows 8 will restart every hour "until they've installed a released (RTM) version of Windows," a Microsoft representative confirmed earlier this week.
Here's information on what users upgrading from XP, Vista, and Windows 7 can expect to migrate (and not) when upgrading to Windows 8.
This story originally appeared on ZDNet under the headline "Microsoft's Windows 8 upgrade promotion really is ending on January 31."
Prepaid or postpaid?: The fight for your cell phone dollars (Smartphones Unlocked)
No-contract carriers can slice your smartphone bill over the course of two years. But you may still opt for a pricier contract instead.
By definition, the no-contract carrier model is designed to save you money over a two-year contract agreement, the latter of which reigns supreme here in the U.S.
The question is: How much do you really gain by going prepaid, and what do you lose from the subscriber experience? Without a doubt, no-contract carriers like MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, and Cricket Wireless can dramatically cut your monthly cell phone bill, but there are trade-offs.
I'm not going to dive into every carrier's pricing structure and phone offerings, so for the sake of comparison, I'm going to break down the cost of ownership over a two-year span for two carriers: Verizon, which has the most U.S. subscribers, and MetroPCS, the country's largest prepaid network.
Samsung's Galaxy S3 makes a good model device thanks to its ubiquity across seven carriers; the 16GB version has a $199.99 base price for most contract providers.
Now, that $200 charge isn't the phone's true cost; it's the price that Verizon and the rest subsidize so you pay less up-front than a MetroPCS customer, who will pay the full $500. The trade-off for a "cheaper" Verizon phone is committing to two years of data fees no matter what, and getting slapped with a multiple-hundred-dollar termination fee if you try to leave early.
In addition, Verizon and others add an activation fee for new lines of service. If you're a new cell phone customer, or switching from another carrier, chances are good that you'll be tacking a nominal fee onto the transaction, and that adds to the phone's overall cost.
Assuming you use Verizon's new pooled Share Everything data plan, you'll have to pay a monthly access fee for any device, on top of the monthly bundle for unlimited talk, text, and a portion of 4G LTE data. I chose 4GB of monthly data, but Verizon also offers plans for as low as 1GB per month to as high as 10GB per month.
Verizon charges $50 for unlimited talk, text, and Web, though you won't use much Web on a phone like the Gusto 2, and that saves Verizon money in the end. The $1,250 total for two years of ownership is pretty low.
(Credit: CNET)
| Verizon Wireless -- two-year contract | |
|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy S3 cost | $200 |
| Activation fee (one-time) | $35 |
| Monthly access rate | $40 |
| Monthly rate (4GB data) | $70 |
| Access fee, 24 months | $960 |
| Data fee, 24 months | $1,680 |
| Two-year total, excluding taxes | $2,915 |
| MetroPCS -- No contract carrier | |
|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy S3 cost | $500 |
| Activation fee | $0 |
| Monthly rate (Unlimited 4G LTE) | $55 |
| Data fee, 24 months | $1,320 |
| Two-year total, excluding taxes | $1,820 |
Assuming you use Verizon's new pooled Share Everything data plan, you'll have to pay a monthly access fee for any device, on top of the monthly bundle for unlimited talk, text, and a portion of 4G LTE data. I chose 4GB of monthly data, but Verizon also offers plans for as low as 1GB per month to as high as 10GB per month.
Over two years, you'll pay almost $3,000 for the Galaxy S3 on Verizon, assuming you're activating a new line of service.
With MetroPCS, however, you skip the activation fee, and the $55 unlimited monthly rate gets you all the LTE data you can eat, on top of limitless calls and texts. MetroPCS' LTE plans range from $40 to $70 per month, depending on add-on services. For instance, the $70 plan gets you on-demand video and unlimited Rhapsody Music.
A high-powered phone like the Galaxy S3 brings powerful software and hardware features to traditionally more humble networks.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
In this scenario, MetroPCS saves you $1,095 over the course of two years of ownership for that high-end Galaxy S3. The math gets a little trickier when you factor in lines of service for multiple family members. Verizon and AT&T have their pooled data plans, but MetroPCS does drop rate plans by $5 a plan when you have two-to-five lines of service under a single name. This is MetroPCS' small concession for families and groups.
How low can you go?
What happens if you're trying to get the least expensive phone you can, period? Once again, a prepaid carrier may offer you the cost advantage on the lower end of the scale, too.
What happens if you're trying to get the least expensive phone you can, period? Once again, a prepaid carrier may offer you the cost advantage on the lower end of the scale, too.
Although most known as a post-paid carrier, Verizon also has a prepaid branch that gives you unlimited talk, text, and Web. (Check and you'll find that each national carrier has some sort of prepaid option. In Verizon's case, there are two choices, since you can also buy phones at full retail cost and opt for a month-to-month contract.)
For the next scenario, I wanted to compare the most rock-bottom price you can get with Verizon and MetroPCS. Verizon's least expensive handset is the $50 Samsung Gusto 2 flip phone, which, though simple, has all the basics for making calls and texts.
Verizon Wireless -- Cheapest prepaid | |
|---|---|
| Samsung Gusto 2 | $50 |
| Monthly fee (talk, text, Web) | $50 |
| Data fee, 24 months | $1,200 |
| Two-year total, excluding taxes | $1,250 |
| MetroPCS -- No contract -- Cheapest | |
|---|---|
| Huawei Verge, Kyocera Presto | $50 |
| Monthly fee (talk, text, Web) | $40 |
| Data fee, 24 months | $960 |
| Two-year total, excluding taxes | $1,010 |
Verizon charges $50 for unlimited talk, text, and Web, though you won't use much Web on a phone like the Gusto 2, and that saves Verizon money in the end. The $1,250 total for two years of ownership is pretty low.
I likewise searched MetroPCS' Web site for its least expensive offering. At the time of writing, the Kyocera Presto and Huawei Verge each cost $50.
Yet its cheapest 3G rate squeaks in at $40 per month, just south of Verizon's offering. The difference between the two isn't very vast, but there's a lot you can do with the $240 you'll have left at the end of two years with MetroPCS.
A third option: MVNOs
Carriers with storefronts aren't the only options. You can also find great deals with MVNOs, Mobile Virtual Network Operators. MVNOs are services that resell other operators' spectrum, and prices go as low as $30 per month without a contract. TracFone is the largest, and owns StraightTalk, a Wal-Mart exclusive that resells AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
Carriers with storefronts aren't the only options. You can also find great deals with MVNOs, Mobile Virtual Network Operators. MVNOs are services that resell other operators' spectrum, and prices go as low as $30 per month without a contract. TracFone is the largest, and owns StraightTalk, a Wal-Mart exclusive that resells AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
(Credit: CNET)
Ting and Credo Mobile ride Sprint's network, as do Sprint's own prepaid Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile brands. PureTalk sells AT&T; Net 10 rides AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint; and Simple Mobile resells T-Mobile service.
Getting the phone you want
As with the handsets themselves, no carrier offers a one-size-fits-all solution. No-contract providers are simpler and less invasive: there's no service agreement and no credit check. You can often pay in cash at a retail store, so a credit card isn't required. Since there's no contract, there's also no fee for stopping service sporadically or switching providers any time you want.
As with the handsets themselves, no carrier offers a one-size-fits-all solution. No-contract providers are simpler and less invasive: there's no service agreement and no credit check. You can often pay in cash at a retail store, so a credit card isn't required. Since there's no contract, there's also no fee for stopping service sporadically or switching providers any time you want.
Selection is one big drawback; you can't always be as choosy about what you get. Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T's prepaid services are usually limited to flip phones and other simple devices. Quality midrange Android phones can easily cost $300 without a contract, but the features will often pale in comparison to the most coveted smartphones on the market.
The good news is that the more major prepaid carriers are snagging popular smartphones like the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3, but these will come at the full retail price, which is a larger sum up-front.
Cricket Wireless snagged the iPhone 5 just a week after the major carriers began selling Apple's flagship phone.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)
It's all about the network
When you're considering which carrier to pick, you should always think about the network speeds and services you can expect. MetroPCS, for instance, works best in urban centers, so if you travel a lot to the country, you may find your call quality and ability to stream data heavily compromised.
When you're considering which carrier to pick, you should always think about the network speeds and services you can expect. MetroPCS, for instance, works best in urban centers, so if you travel a lot to the country, you may find your call quality and ability to stream data heavily compromised.
Not every network is created equally, either. MetroPCS' 4G LTE data is downright slow compared with Verizon's top-notch LTE, but it's still speedier than another carrier's 3G network. Still, not everyone requires the absolute fastest downloads.
All the extras
Post-paid national carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon can also afford to offer you greater support when it comes to in-store attention and customer service, in addition to intangibles like a more alluring brand appeal.
Post-paid national carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon can also afford to offer you greater support when it comes to in-store attention and customer service, in addition to intangibles like a more alluring brand appeal.
Saturday
Friday
Friday Poll: Will you unlock your phone when it's illegal?
Friday Poll: Will you unlock your phone when it's illegal? | Crave - CNET:
It looks like today is the last day for smartphone-unlocking freedom in this country. A new federal mandate kicks in tomorrow saying that carrier-locked phones are not allowed to be unlocked without the carrier's permission.
The feds figure there are enough unlocked-phone purchasing options out there. If you want the sweet, sweet sugar of a fat carrier-sponsored discount, you'll be stuck with a locked phone. Unless you want to go outlaw.
I could see the United States descending into a new version of the Wild West. Roaming packs of smartphone-unlocking outlaws will defend their hideouts against raids from carriers with federal backing. They'll sport nicknames like "The Android Kid," "Samsung Calamity S3," and "Unlockin' Larry."
The new rules will impact people who buy new smartphones starting tomorrow. Legacy phones already purchased or acquired are exempt. Though carriers have never been thrilled about their customers unlocking phones, this change will actually give them some enforcement teeth when they sniff out illegal unlockings.
Maybe your unlocking days are over. The next time you need a new phone and you're eyeing those carrier discounts, what will you do? Vote in our poll and talk it up in the comments. And to be clear, CNET never recommends doing anything illegal.
It looks like today is the last day for smartphone-unlocking freedom in this country. A new federal mandate kicks in tomorrow saying that carrier-locked phones are not allowed to be unlocked without the carrier's permission.
The feds figure there are enough unlocked-phone purchasing options out there. If you want the sweet, sweet sugar of a fat carrier-sponsored discount, you'll be stuck with a locked phone. Unless you want to go outlaw.
I could see the United States descending into a new version of the Wild West. Roaming packs of smartphone-unlocking outlaws will defend their hideouts against raids from carriers with federal backing. They'll sport nicknames like "The Android Kid," "Samsung Calamity S3," and "Unlockin' Larry."
The new rules will impact people who buy new smartphones starting tomorrow. Legacy phones already purchased or acquired are exempt. Though carriers have never been thrilled about their customers unlocking phones, this change will actually give them some enforcement teeth when they sniff out illegal unlockings.
Maybe your unlocking days are over. The next time you need a new phone and you're eyeing those carrier discounts, what will you do? Vote in our poll and talk it up in the comments. And to be clear, CNET never recommends doing anything illegal.
The Android rumor roundup ...
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Nokia to launch flagship smartphone on Verizon this year -- report
Nokia's Lumia 900 users on AT&T will also be the first to get the Windows Phone 7.8 update, according to internal AT&T documents.
The Lumia 900 is getting Windows Phone 7.8 soon.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)
Nokia is readying a flagship smartphone for Verizon Wireless, a new report claims.
Verizon is planning to carry the Lumia handset later this year, The Verge is reporting today, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the company's plans. That device, codenamed Laser, will "be a variant" of Nokia's Lumia 920, but it's not clear what sort of features that handset will have.
According to The Verge, Nokia's device will be put on the same playing field as Verizon's other flagship devices, including the iPhone.
The addition of a flagship Nokia device on Verizon's network will complement the Lumia 822 currently running on the service. The Lumia 822 is free with a two-year contract.
In other Nokia news, the company's Lumia 900 will be getting an upgrade to Windows Phone 7.8 next week, according to a new report.
Windows Phone fan site WP Central yesterday reported that the operating system update will be coming to AT&T Lumia 900 owners on January 30. The blog is basing its claim on an internal AT&T e-mail it claims to have obtained detailing the update.
Windows Phone 7.8 was announced last year alongside Windows Phone 8. Products running Windows Phone 7, like the Lumia 900, were unable to be updated to Windows Phone 8, leaving Microsoft to build an upgrade for customers who would have been left out in the cold.
Windows Phone 7.8 includes a host of improvements, including a new Start screen, new theme colors, and an improved lock screen. The update will be made available free of charge to Lumia 900 owners.
CNET has contacted Nokia for comment on both reports. We will update this story when we have more information.
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