Nokia Lumia Achieved Record Sales Last Quarter

Sales of Nokia Lumia smartphones have hit a record high as Nokia gears up to release another batch of Windows Phone 8 devices. It represents the fourth consecutive quarter in which Nokia Lumia sales have hit a new peak. 

According to the Wall Street Journal‘s sources, Nokia sold “at least eight million” Nokia Lumia phones between July and September. Obviously this doesn’t even approach Apple or Samsung figures, but for a Windows Phone platform that comes a distant third to iOS and Android in usage numbers it’s truly noteworthy.

It’s an improvement on the previous quarter’s record-smashing 7.4 million sales. It’s also a massive increase on the same quarter last year, during which Nokia sold only 2.9 million Lumia phones.

Nokia is expected to release as many as six new devices including the Lumia 2520, which will be the company’s first tablet, and Lumia 1520 at the Nokia World event. A Nokia smartwatch patent emerged just last week, but we don’t expect launch of this device from Nokia this time around as it may very well be in a prototype stage.

Not helping matters is the fact that Apple is expected to the launch its latest iPad on the same day, meaning that Nokia will have some seriously stiff competition as it vies for the world’s attention.

The event will also be the first big public appearance for Elop since the acquisition, which saw him emerge as a leading candidate to take over from current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer when he goes into retirement in 2014.

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Microsoft Releases Official Remote Desktop Apps For iOS and Android

Coinciding with the release of Windows 8.1, Microsoft has unveiled Remote Desktop apps for iOS and Android.

RDM has long been a way for users to remotely access Windows desktops, whether from another computer or a mobile device. While this is Microsoft’s first foray into official iOS and Android apps for the service, other solutions from large companies like Citrix and Splashtop have adequately filled the gap for years.

What Microsoft’s remote desktop version has going for it is its price — free — and its official support of Windows 8.1, which is rolling out now. The app also supports Network Layer Authentication (NLA) which, according to Microsoft, “completes user authentication before you establish a remote desktop connection and the logon screen appears. This is a more secure authentication method that can help protect the remote computer from malicious users and malicious software.”

The app is a bit rough around the edges, according to initial reviews, lacking pinch-to-zoom and multiple desktop size support. In other words, you’ll be doing a lot of scrolling if your computer’s native resolution is much higher than your phone’s or tablet’s. Of course, you’ll have to install the host software on that PC in the first place, so the solution isn’t quite plug-and-play.

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Microsoft Windows 8.1 Now Available Globally to Download

Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 update is now available to download, if you are already using Windows 8 you will see a notification in the Windows Store with a prompt to upgrade to the new operating system.

Microsoft has made a couple of changes in the new OS, including built-in Bing search, smart SkyDrive syncing, and visual changes to the Start Screen and application snapping. The company says that this update from Windows 8 to 8.1 will retain all desktop and Windows 8-style apps, including files and settings, personal files will be retained, but apps will need to be re installed.

However, the most liked change will be the return of the start button on the desktop. While the new button will take you back to the Start screen and not the much desired pop up layout. Windows 8.1 also includes a Boot to Desktop option, another highly demanded feature Microsoft left out of the initial release of Windows 8.

Microsoft has released some new apps in the updates for Windows 8.1 today, when you upgrade the OS you can expect to see some. Did you upgrade your device? if you did not get any options or not able to find a way to upgrade.

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Microsoft Pays Out First $100,000 Bounty For Finding Windows 8.1 Bug

Today, Microsoft announced one researcher, James Forshaw, has been awarded a whopping $100,000 for finding and reporting a new mitigation bypass exploit in Windows 8.1.

James Forshaw, who heads vulnerability research at London-based security consulting firm Context Information Security, won Microsoft’s first US$100,000 bounty for identifying a new “exploitation technique” in Windows, which will allow it to develop defenses against an entire class of attacks, the software maker said on Tuesday. 

Forshaw earned another US$9,400 for identifying security bugs in a preview release of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 11 browser, Katie Moussouris, senior security strategist with Microsoft Security Response Center, said in a blog. 

“Coincidentally, one of our brilliant engineers at Microsoft, Thomas Garnier, had also found a variant of this class of attack technique. Microsoft engineers like Thomas are constantly evaluating ways to improve security, but James’ submission was of such high quality and outlined some other variants such that we wanted to award him the full $100,000 bounty,” Microsoft explained.

Microsoft has now paid out over $128,000 in bug bounties. Six ”very smart people” received the prizes, said Moussouris.

Not all of them kept the cash. Ivan Fratric of the Google security team was awarded $1,100 for finding an Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) bug, but donated it to the Save the Children Fund. Fermin Serna, also from Google, gave $500 for finding a bug in the IE 11 Preview release to the Seattle Humane Society.

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Microsoft : Xbox One Kinect Won't Fetch Data For Advertisments

The development team at Microsoft says that it currently has no plans to use the motion tracking and identification powers of the Kinect sensor to power personalized advertising that intrudes on a user.

Albert Penello, one of leaders preparing the launch of the next-gen console, says that his team has more pressing concerns linked to the upcoming launch.

In a previous interview, Penello suggested that because the Xbox One’s Kinect can read facial expressions and determine levels of engagement, Microsoft could provide this data to advertisers.

“This is the point that seems to draw some controversy,” Penello said.

However, “nobody is working on that” kind of technology at the moment, Penello said. “We have a lot more interesting and pressing things to dedicate time towards. It was an interview done speculatively, and I’m not aware (emphasis original) of any active work in this space.”

If such an advertising initiative were to come to fruition, Penello said users can be sure that it would not happen without people having full control over it. “Period,” he said.

Penello proceeded to illustrate how Microsoft is protecting users’ privacy on Xbox One. “First, Kinect can recognize your face and log you in automatically. There could be some cool features we could enable if we stored that data in the cloud, like being able to be auto-recognized at a friend’s. I get asked for that feature a lot. But, for privacy reasons, your facial data doesn’t leave the console.

“Second: You’ll see us do some things around Skype that freezes the video when Skype is not in focus (meaning, it’s not the primary app). If you go back to the home screen, or launch another app, we actually stop the video stream. We do this so the user can’t even ACCIDENTALLY have the video stream going on in the background.

“I’ll say this – we take a lot of heat around stuff we’ve done and I can roll with it,” he concluded. “Some of it is deserved. But preventing Kinect from being used inappropriately is something the team takes very seriously. Hope that helps.”

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Skype Enables Chat Sync Across Devices

If you’ve been using Skype for awhile, you know that there are quite few changes that need to be made to the application before its on par feature-wise with a lot of the other messaging applications on the market such as WhatsApp and WeChat. Thankfully, it looks like some much needed changes will be coming in the future.

One particularly noteworthy feature specific to mobile users is the promise that chat synchronization across devices will be improved. This is something that anyone who used Skype on multiple devices will have noticed can be a problem. Send a large number of text based messages from the desktop version of Skype and when you launch Skype on another computer or a phone, you’ll currently find that there can be quite a delay as message history is downloaded. While no details are provided, Mark Gillet says:

“We are working to synchronize chat message status across all of your devices so you will know the current status of all of your chats on every device you use to interact with Skype. This capability will be rolling out across clients over the next few months”.

Skype is also in the process of moving from their original peer-to-peer (P2P) foundation powered by the desktops of yore to one that is cloud based. The benefit of the Skype Cloud is improved battery life for devices and better connections, at least according to the Skype team.

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Microsoft and HTC in Talks to Put Windows on Android Phones

After buying Nokia’s windows devices, the Lumia range and services business, it seems that Microsoft is now planning to grow the windows phone market.

As reported by Bloomberg, Microsoft is talking to HTC about adding its Windows operating system to HTC’s Android-based smartphones at little or no cost, people with knowledge of the matter said, evidence of the software maker’s struggle to gain ground in the mobile market.

The report also claims Microsoft operating systems chief Terry Myerson discussed lowering the license fee or dropping it entirely as an incentive. The sources is not clear on whether the devices might run both operating systems at once, or let users choose just one. Terry Myerson was planning to visit Asia this month and meet with senior executives at Taoyuan, Taiwan-based HTC to discuss his proposal, as per the source.

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