Newsletter Archives

• Choosing the right device

  Posted on December 2, 2024 at 02:42 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Are you being bombarded from every corner by Black Friday and end-of-year deals — toys to technology?

  Of course you are. It’s that time of year. Whether it’s actual tech toys, smart TVs, PCs, tablets, phones, home tech, or anything else with a chip in it, vendors want to entice you in any way they can.

  Will you succumb? Well, probably — at least a little bit. The more important question is, what should you actually be looking for?

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.49.0, 2024-12-02).

  nt question is, what should you actually be looking for?

  On Security Chromebook, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Surface, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Qualcomm Snapdragon, QuickBooks, Remote Desktop, Windows 365, Windows 365 Link

• Preparing for 24H2

  Posted on October 7, 2024 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Don’t roll out Windows 11 24H2 yet. Defer. Delay. Wait.

  Most importantly, I always say wait, even if it’s just about monthly patches. But this is about what even Microsoft says is a major release, a complete OS overwrite. That makes 24H2 even more dangerous. Let other, more venturesome, souls take the slings and arrows, and use the lessons learned.

  Those lessons may be coming fast. Within the AskWoody community, forum posts associated with last week’s MS-DEFCON 2 Alert demonstrated that some brave testers ran into problems. Other sources have reported glitches, including BSODs. I’m still collecting data and beginning my own testing.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.41.0, 2024-10-07).

  Patch Watch CUPS, CVE-2024-47076, CVE-2024-47175, CVE-2024-47176, CVE-2024-47177, iOS 18, Linux Printing, Microsoft Surface, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Port 631, Recall, Snapdragon X Elite, Windows 11 24H2, Windows Hello

• Intel’s troubles

  Posted on August 12, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.33 • 2024-08-12

  INTEL

  

  By Will Fastie

  In the nearly 50 years I’ve been following Intel, I’ve never seen the company in such disarray. Things are bad.

  On August 1, Intel released its financial results for its second fiscal quarter ending July 31. Although there was a tiny bright spot in its Client Computing Group (up 9% year over year), net revenue was down 1% and the company recorded a quarterly loss of USD $1.6 billion, nearly $3 billion lower year over year.

  Intel’s stock dropped by over 25% in the two following days. And that’s just one of Intel’s problems.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.33.0, 2024-08-12).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Intel AI, Apple, Core 13900K, Core 14900K, Intel, Intel News, Microsoft, Microsoft Surface, Newsletters, Qualcomm, Silicon, Surface

• Windows 11 Surfaces

  Posted on September 27, 2021 at 02:41 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  MICROSOFT NEWS

  

  By Will Fastie

  Microsoft’s September event showcased its updated Surface lineup and doubled down on the Duo 2.

  While Microsoft’s livestream presentation of September 2 was not tremendously exciting, it was a well-done description of the new Surface devices and was hosted by Panos Panay, in fine form.

  I won’t bore you with every detail, but here are some good sources of information.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.37.0 (2021-09-27).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft News, Surface AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft Surface, Surface, Surface Duo, Surface Laptop Studio, Surface Pro, Windows 11

• Microsoft to stop contributing to Surface RT, 2, Pro, Pro 2 forums next month

  Posted on June 9, 2018 at 13:47 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  A snarkier person than I would note that they never had much support anyway, but a blog post this morning makes it official:

  Please be advised that effective July 2018, the forum topics for products that reached end of support will no longer receive technical support from Microsoft agents. There will be no proactive reviews, monitoring, answering or answer marking of questions. The forums will still have Microsoft moderation to ensure participants can engage in a safe and positive environment. 

  Support for these products will be discontinued

  • Surface RT
  • Surface 2
  • Surface Pro
  • Surface Pro 2

  Microsoft Community participants are welcome and encouraged to continue to use the forum to ask questions and post answers with each other.

  Of course, we’ll continue to support Surface owners until the bits rot away. And, golly, we didn’t make billions of dollars from the Surface. (To be fair, neither did we take a $900 million dollar write-off.)

  (I still marvel at the phrase “Microsoft Agent.” Not an employee. Not a contractor. Not a volunteer. Not a bot. Could somebody tell me what an Agent is?)

  Funny how Microsoft posted this on a Saturday, eh?

  Other Microsoft Surface

• Wake on LAN support for Microsoft Surface

  Posted on February 1, 2017 at 11:12 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  A new news post from AskWoody MVP @digitalmediaphile .

  The discussion continues on the Ask Microsoft Surface questions here forum.

  Windows News Microsoft Surface, Wake on LAN

• Did a Swedish company just spill the Microsoft Surface beans?

  Posted on July 25, 2012 at 23:32 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  More tantalizing hints about Microsoft’s Surface tablets…

  At this moment, Swedish consumer electronics site Webhallen lists four Microsoft Surface machines: Windows RT 32 GB; Windows RT 64 GB; Windows 8 Pro 64 GB; and Windows 8 Pro 128 GB.

  Although it’s entirely possible the listings only exist as placeholders, as a publicity stunt, or to stir up controversy, I found a number of remarkable details.

  If you choose to believe the posted price, the picture’s not pretty. The Windows RT 32GB lists at Kr 6,990, which is about US $ 1,001. The 64GB version comes in at Kr 9,990, or about US $1,431. Compare to the new iPad 64GB, shown on the same site at Kr 5,889 or US $ 844. That makes the not-quite-comparable Surface for Windows RT machine 70 percent more expensive than the new iPad.

  The Surface for Windows 8 Pro 64GB lists at Kr 12,990 (US $1,861) and the 128GB runs Kr 14,990 (US $ 2,149).

  There’s more. The specs include a few details I haven’t seen before.

  Screen resolution for both of the Windows RT machines is listed as “HD” — precisely the same non-spec we’ve seen from Microsoft. But the screen resolution for the Windows 8 Pro machines appears as a respectable 1920 x 1080. Recall that the minimum screen resolution for full Metro support is 1366 x 768.

  The processors come as no surprise. The Windows RT machines are said to come with the Nvidia Tegra, and the Windows 8 Pro machines with an Intel i5. No additional information — that’s what we’ve known for months.

  All four machines are said to support 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, but there’s no mention of 3G/HSPA/WiMax/LTE. The other details — ports, card readers, video, battery, thickness and weight — all match previously published numbers (Windows RT, 1 x USB 2.0, SD, MicroHDMI, 31.5 Wh, 9.3 mm, 1.5 pounds; Windows 8 Pro, 1 x USB 3.0, SDXC, Mini DisplayPort, 42 Wh, 13.5 mm, 2.0 pounds).

  There’s no mention of integrated keyboards, or even optional keyboards.

  Last week, German language site NetzwerkTotal reported that the German Amazon site, Amazon.de, had posted ordering pages for five Microsoft Surface machines: the four outlined above, plus a Surface for Windows 8 Pro 32GB machine, which I’ve never seen mentioned anywhere. The Amazon.de pages didn’t have prices, don’t appear to have had many details, and they were pulled down in short order.

  The vanishing web pages are par for the course: We saw similar jumped guns for Windows 7, for example. What surprises me, though, is that these pages showed up on retail sites. At the Mysterious Monday Surface press conference a month ago, Steve Ballmer made it clear that the Microsoft Surface machines would only be available from Microsoft online, and from select Microsoft stores.

  Has something changed?

  UPDATE: Aw, this one was too fun to be true. Webhallen has just fessed up. “”Just to clarify, we have not recieved any pricing from Microsoft regarding MRSP or purchasing net cost, and any people who have booked the Surface at this high price will of course have their order adjusted before any product is shipped.”

  But that still leaves open the question about Amazon.de. Why does Amazon have a placeholder for the Surface tablets, when Microsoft has said it will only distribute them through their stores?

  Windows News Microsoft Surface