Windows 8.1 Update 1 which Microsoft also has referred to internally as Windows 8.1 Spring Update and Windows 8.1 Update is designed to make Windows 8.1 more palatable and familiar to users who prefer to use mice as much, if not more, than touch. Word of Windows 8.1 Update 1 existence and feature set began leaking months ago. Pre RTM builds of the update have been leaking for weeks. The RTM build has not yet leaked to the Web as of March 4. During Mobile World Congress, Microsoft execs...

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Microsoftfinalized its upcoming Windows 8.1 Update recently, but the company appears to be sharing it a little early today. While the software maker is expected to release the update officially in April, Microsoft has only detailed a few of the features in the update and has not yet provided an official release date. Links to download a final version of the Windows 8.1 Update, thanks to Microsoft’s Windows Update service, have been discovered. A series of patches are required to obtain the...

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Central to Microsoft’s vision for Cortana is a Notebook feature that will allow Windows Phone users to control exactly what information is shared with the digital assistant.Notebook will allow the Cortana digital assistant to access information such as location data, behaviors, personal information, reminders, and contact information. We’re told it’s designed as a privacy feature to ensure Cortana doesn’t freely access information without a level of user control.While...

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Microsoft is preparing to release its very ownSiri alternative in Windows Phone 8.1. Whiledetails and screenshots have provided some of the features of Cortana, the name for Microsoft digital personal assistant, a video has emerged today that shows the voice activated assistant in action. Unleash The Phones has published a two minute that demonstrates the setup process for Cortana. It appears that Cortana will require a Microsoft Account to function, and is activated after a set of questions....

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If you are willing to make a few tweaks to your registry, you can get Windows 8.1 update 1 right now. By adding a value to your registry, this will give you access to download and will get you the bits right now, without accessing any third party. Several users have reported that the method is working and have successfully downloaded the update. The current thought is that by tweaking the registry, it mimics your machine to be that of a user who is dogfooding the update and then sends the bits...

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One of the main new features of Windows Phone 8.1 the personal digital assistant codenamed Cortana has made a brief, unofficial video debut. The UnleashThePhones.com site posted a 2 plus minute video clip to YouTube showing what seems to be Cortana in action. Though the speaking voice of Cortana isnt revealed, a few new tidbits are. Cortana will be an opt in, not required, feature of Windows Phone 8.1. According to the new video, Cortana, unsurprisingly, will require users to sign in with a...

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Bloomberg BusinessWeek has published a fascinating story on the backroom politics around former CEO Steve Ballmer retirement as CEO. The part of the piece entitled Microsofts Nadella Manages Legacy of Ballmer Board Split that I found most interesting is the drama around the decision to buy Nokia handset business. According to reporter Dina Bass and colleagues, the Microsoft board initially was divided over the wisdom of the move, with Ballmer in favor and founder Bill Gates and unnamed other...

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Nadella first day as CEO is today, February 4. Current CEO Steve Ballmer is out, effective immediately. Nadella believed to have been, all along, one of a small handful of alleged internal candidates for the Microsoft CEO job has been at the company for 22 years. As of 2011, he ran Microsoft lucrative server and tools businesses. His official title, as of the July 2013 One Microsoft reorg, became Executive Vice President of Cloud and Enterprise. Given Microsoft is remaking itself as a devices...

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