 After being convicted of abusing their Android monopoly to bolster their search business, Google agreed to comply with the European Union’s requirement that they make changes in their business practices to restore competition to the market. While still appealing their conviction, they agreed in the EU to unbundle the Google Play Store and other service apps from the Chrome browser and Google Search app, and offer the first part for a license fee. This would allow other companies to create their own Android distribution without delivering handsets which were uncompetitive due to lacking access to the millions of apps in the Google Play Store. It seems, however, Google had no intention to actually comply with the spirit of the order, as they set the price of the Google Play Store and associated apps at an unreasonable $40, according to leaked documentation seen by The Verge. Android OEMs can reduce that price by adding back Google Search and the Chrome browser, meaning in effect Google is extorting companies to maintain the status quo. If they choose to take the Store only they also miss out on ongoing revenue share generated by Google Search on the handsets. While Google’s machinations would likely abide by the wording of the European Commission direction, it is unlikely that the EC will tolerate an arrangement which does not allow real competition to be restored. Microsoft has in the past learn to regret playing games with the EU, and I look forward to Google learning this lesson the hard way for themselves. In-depth reading can be found on OUR FORUM.  Earlier this year two major vulnerabilities were discovered which affected the core processes of the computer. Named as Spectre and Meltdown, these “speculative execution” vulnerabilities meant hackers could steal data by simply visiting a website. Though there were no known incidents of these vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild, the processor microcode patches could have up to a 30% impact on the performance of PCs that have been patched. Various tech companies have been working on mitigation for this, and in Microsoft’s latest move, they are working to implement Retpoline in the next major version of Windows 10, 19H1 due early next year. For the rest of us it means that Spectre will no longer make our processors feel 5-10 years older than they are, and in general cause Spectre mitigation to only have an impact of 1-2%, or as Mehmet Iyigun from the Windows Kernel team notes, bring it down to “noise level” for most use cases, which is certainly good news. Some are however complaining that Microsoft does not appear to be planning to backport the fix, meaning Windows 10 users will need to update to the latest version of the OS to get their performance back, which is somewhat controversial, especially for business users who prefer a well-tested and stable OS. For more turn your attention to OUR FORUM.  With the arrival of the Magic Leap competition is heating up in the Mixed Reality arena, but Microsoft’s successor to the HoloLens appears to be slipping further and further into the distance. Petri.com reports that Microsoft was planning to show off the HoloLens 2 sometime this year, but due to development issues, they are now targeting late Q2 2019. Petri does not identify the cause of the delays, but we have earlier speculated that, like many of Microsoft’s other projects, the headset was waiting for Windows Core OS to become available. The report states that the HoloLens 2 will address much of the issues that held back HoloLens 1, including a larger field of view and longer battery life. We already know the next HoloLens will have an improved Holographic Processing Unit with more AI capabilities, and an improved Kinect-like depth camera. HoloLens 2 will reportedly be powered by the recently announced Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 processor, which has been designed with the express purpose of delivering a “high quality” VR and AR experience. With the Surface Phone, Surface Hub 2x and HoloLens 2 all apparently waiting for Windows Core OS, did Microsoft put too many eggs in one basket? There's more to read on OUR FORUM. |
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