Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 While todays Visual Studio Update contains a whole lot of productivity goodness for the Microsoft developer (see Somas blog post for more details ), Id like to call out three new capabilities available that improve the Windows app building experience: You can now use a Push Notification wizard to connect your Windows app (client or phone) to a .NET Azure Mobile Service. Sockets are now available for you to use in your Windows apps, adding another networking option for your WinRT-based apps DirectX graphical debugging tooling improvements help DX devs be more productive including some bug fixes and the addition of a command line tool in the DX remote MSI package to allow for capturing a graphics trace on a remote system without having to install the entire Windows SDK or Visual Studio. To get Update 3, head on over to the Visual Studio download page . Windows Phone 8.1 Update Today, we are also making Windows Phone 8.1 Update available to our developers, both via emulator packages and a physical phone update. Todays update continues the Windows Phone tradition of making phone updates available ahead of general consumer availability, and providing you with the opportunity to test your apps and games with the update before your customers start doing so. As shown off by JoeB last week, theres a ton of end-user goodness in the update (check out Joes Update 1 post for more info). However, youre a developer, and youre likely wondering whats in the update for you. Overall, the update contains no new developer APIs, but it does contain a number of OS improvements that are sure to improve the overall experience your customers will have with your app. Here are three Update 1 improvements that I believe are worth calling out: Consumer VPN support brings peace of mind to phone users wanting to access an apps backend services in a safe and secure manner. There are a number of Bluetooth connectivity improvements in the update, improving the BT integration with cars and headsets, and weve added a new Bluetooth Personal Area Network (PAN) profile. Also of note on the BT-front, the team has added some additional APIs for device manufacturers to make it easier to build companion apps for their devices and to enable notifications to be more easily pushed from the phone to a wearable device. On the user start screen, the Store app now sports a live tile to help developers get discovered and installed more often, and the new Live Folders capability should help make it easier for you to be found and launched. To grab the bits and start seeing how your app runs on the update: You can now download the Windows Phone 8.1 Update emulator package from the Windows Dev Center download page . To update your phone to the Windows Phone 8.1 Update, youll need to use the Windows Phone Preview for Developers program . Once your phone is opted in, you need to go into Settings | Phone update and check for an update; if youre not seeing the update, verify that the Preview for Developers app is installed and that the Enable Preview for Developers checkbox is selected.
For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2014/08/04/windows-platform-developer-august-updates/
While there will be risk, running an outdated version of IE is actually a safer bet than running a current edition that isn’t regularly patched. Over the last three months, Microsoft has shipped three large security updates — MS14-035 in June, MS14-037 in July and MS14-051 in August — that included 60, 25 and 26 individual patches, respectively. But while the latest version, IE11, contained 88 of the 111 vulnerabilities, or 79% of the total, older editions had far fewer bugs that needed to be quashed. The positively ancient IE7, which launched in 2006 before Windows Vista shipped, had just 31 of the 111 flaws, or 28% of the total. IE8, which last month was the most widely used version of Internet Explorer, contained 44 vulnerabilities, or 40% of the three-month tally. In fact, there’s a clear trend in the vulnerability counts: The newer the version of IE, the more bugs are patched. That difference in percentage of bugs patched declined on a relatively straight line from new to old, and held true to form whether the gap was two or more years between editions — as in the case of IE7 and IE8, or IE8 and IE9 — or just a year, as with IE9-IE10 and IE10-IE11. There are several likely reasons for the phenomenon, but the most plausible is that, because the older versions are, well, older — in the case of IE7 and IE8, much older, nearly eight years old and more than five years old, respectively — they have been scrutinized by both outside researchers and Microsoft for much longer. That longer length of examination and probing has resulted in more patches prior to the three-month stint Computerworld examined. Other explanations could include bug hunters’ penchant for digging into the newest software, not the oldest; and in the case of IE7 at least, a target so small as to be no longer worth the research time by criminals and white-hats alike. IE7’s user share, a rough measurement of the percentage of the world’s computer users running a specific browser, was just 0.6% in July, which translated into just 1% of those running one flavor or another of Internet Explorer. Of course, all it takes is one vulnerability to compromise a browser, or better put, perhaps no more than two or three, as modern browsers, including IE, rely on defensive, anti-malware technologies that force attackers to deploy multiple exploits of multiple bugs to worm their way onto a PC. A regularly-patched IE11, then, should be immune to all but the most serious attacks, dubbed “zero-days” because there is no patch when the exploit appears in the wild. In the meantime, IE8 after Jan. 12, 2016, will in theory be susceptible to attack because none of its bugs will be crushed. At that time, however, IE8 should be more secure than it is now. By looking at the difference in vulnerability rates, with an older version of IE having 12 to 14 percentage points fewer bugs to be patched, and extrapolating that to IE8, it should sport a bug rate of between 26% and 28% by January 2016, assuming Microsoft puts out a new version (IE12?) next spring when it launches “Threshold,” the code name for what most think will be called “Windows 9.” And IE8 will also probably be a less-prominent target in 17 months. Data from Web metrics company Net Applications — the basis of the user share cited for IE7 — is worthless in predicting IE8’s decline because, frankly, IE8’s user share has been growing over the last six months. But the impending end-of-support will almost certainly reverse that trend as some Windows 7 users decide to kick out the browser. How much is unclear, but a look at Windows XP’s decline over its last 17 months might be a clue: During that period, XP’s operating system user share dropped 13 percentage points, or 32% of its October 2012 figure. If IE8 fell by that same 32%, it would shed nearly 7 percentage points, ending with a user share of 14.7% of all browsers, or about 25% of all IE editions. 
Windows Phone sales have been consistently increasing year-over-year each quarter for the last year, but new figures show that growth has significantly stalled recently. IDC reports that Windows Phone sales dropped by 9.4 percent in Q2 2014 compared to the same period last year. Thats a big set back for Microsofts Windows Phone efforts, just months after the company acquired Nokias phone making business. Overall, it means Windows Phone accounts for just 2.5 percent marketshare in the recent quarter. Compare that to the nearly 85 percent for Android and nearly 12 percent for iOS, and it’s clear to see the challenge Microsoft faces. The decline in sales is hardly surprising given the small number of Windows Phone handset launches in 2014, and a lack of support from phone makers like HTC and Samsung. Microsoft revealed its Lumia sales stood at 5.8 million in the recent quarter (a 21 percent drop year-over-year), accounting for only two months due to the Nokia acquisition. Microsoft is betting on Windows Phone 8.1 to help convince phone makers to build smartphones running its software, and HTC appears to be back on board with a Windows version of its HTC One M8 handset expected next week. Any further growth for Windows Phone will come from low-cost handsets like the Lumia 630 and the recently announced Lumia 530 . Windows Phone growth is not going to be easy Microsoft is expected to unveil two new low- and mid-range handsets on September 4th: the Lumia 730 and Lumia 830 . These handsets could help regain Windows Phone growth alongside the Lumia 530 and 630, but there’s bigcompetition from Android now. Google is aiming squarely at the low-end with its new Android One initiative , an area where Microsoft has seen most of Windows Phone’s growth. Handsets like the Moto G and Moto E also provide solid alternatives to Windows Phone. Elsewhere, Android continues to grow with an increase in market share of 33.3 percent year-over-year thanks to 255 million shipments in the latest quarter. BlackBerry has been hit hardest, with a massive 78 percent drop in shipments year-over-year, from 6.7 million to just 1.5 million. Apples iPhone sales were up nearly 13 percent as the world patiently awaits the rumored iPhone 6 announcement. More from theverge.com: 
More Geek Microsoft By Lee Mathews Aug. 15, 2014 12:30 pm There was a time not too long ago when Internet Explorer was one of the most reviled pieces of software in all of Geekdom. Times have changed, though. IE has gotten a lot better in versions 9, 10, and 11 so much better that Microsoft is thinking about renaming Internet Explorer to make a clean break with the past. Some members of the Internet Explorer development team took to Reddit this week to do an AMA, and one of the more interesting threads was kicked off when user asianorange asked the team if theyd ever considered rebranding the browser and changing its name . Interestingly enough, the reply was affirmative. Internet Explorer 6 remains one of the toughest boss battles in the history of computing, and for years Microsoft appeared to have little interest in supporting modern web standards in IE. Sites that functioned beautifully in Firefox , Chrome , and even Opera rendered like a Picasso painting in IE. Thats all changed, of course. Internet Explorer 11 is fast, fluid, standards-compliant, and packed with awesome tools for Web developers. Microsoft is now fully committed to making sure that the Web just works everywhere. Theyve even given WebGL a boost recently by joining the OpenGL working group. According to the Softies, plenty of ideas get kicked around about how we can separate ourselves from negative perceptions that no longer reflect our product today. Thats been made abundantly clear over the past year or so with the improvements rolled out to Windows 8.1 users. They got the Start Button back, a boot-to-desktop option, and easy access to shutdown options all in response to the Windows 8 blowback. So whats the plan? Does Microsoft have a new name picked out already? Not exactly. Mentions of Windows Internet Ubber Browser 2014 SP1 Ex+ and Ultron definitely shouldnt be taken seriously, but dont be totally surprised if Microsoft does eventually decide that its time for a change and retires the Internet Explorer name. Tags: 
Sueblimely 