Gadgetory

thanks for watching tech quickie click the subscribe button and enable notifications with the bell icon so you won't miss any future videos by now you probably expect to be able to run software and services on lots of different platforms Facebook works on your smartphone and on your PC and you can watch netflix on your 4k TV your computer or your tablet but of course supporting all of these different devices means more work for software developers sometimes to the point where they won't even bother rewriting a program that you like for a different operating system or if they do it ends up being buggy and inferior as we discussed in our episode on Windows Phone excuse me I mean video game ports but fear not the ever merciful Microsoft has come to our rescue with its Universal Windows platform or UWP an API that sits between the operating system and the program to make it much easier for developers to code programs just once for a number of different devices even if they aren't using traditional x86 processors from Intel or AMD that is as long as those devices are running a Microsoft operating system so uwp will work on Windows 10 the Xbox one and hololens if that thing ever makes it to market so uwp achieves this by having a number of core api's that work behind the scenes to allow code to be understood and executed properly across these devices and it's also got some features that are more visible to you the consumer at home like an ability to scale visual elements properly depending on whether you're using an app on a large screen with a keyboard mouse or on a much smaller device with touch and if a developer wants to add additional features that are only available in a certain platform like touchscreen toggles or keyboard no support he or she can use adaptive code that will only run if the uwp app is running on that type of device or even restrict the app to one platform you see this actually with certain games that are only intended to run on Xbox for licensing reasons or apps that are locked to touchscreen devices because their UI design requires it but while Microsoft's rationale is that making you WP apps only available through the Windows Store allows them to screen them for improved user security this move has opened the program up to a number of criticisms one huge one is that this u WP + Windows Store system is a walled garden meaning that this platform that Microsoft is actively encouraging developers to code for originally could not be updated or even loaded outside of the Microsoft Store making it a fairly closed ecosystem this generated concern that Microsoft might be demanding too much control over what programs can and cannot be run on their devices and how they can be run and although standard versions of Windows 10 obviously allow you to run compatible programs from any source and Microsoft has updated windows to allow loading of you WP apps directly from publishers without going through the Windows Store Microsoft is still trying to find creative ways to encourage users to fulfill all of their software needs from the Windows Store as with the stripped down Windows 10 S which you can learn more about here and the more recent s mode for regular Windows that prevents outside executables from being installed in fact the CEO of Epic Games wasn't shy about sharing his disdain for uwp despite the fact that his studio produced Gears of War for a major uwp title speaking of gaming though although uwp does have the benefit of allowing you to play the same game on both PC and Xbox without needing to buy it twice in many cases enthusiasts have noticed that UWP has a tendency to lock down games in some ways preventing them from being modded working with multi-gpu setups or even simply not managing to play nicely with frame counting programs and these are just a you examples so combine all of this with the fact that UWP is strictly for Microsoft operating systems and won't improve the seamlessness of your experience if you don't use an Xbox or a Windows Phone it isn't too surprising that it hasn't thrilled either its users or developers ting is the mobile carrier that is focused on customer service and satisfaction first when you call ting you do not speak to a robot you get put through directly to a person and you don't pay extra for the privilege with ting you pay only for what you use and the average bill is just 23 bucks a month per device if you're stuck in a contract and switch to ting they'll cover 25% of your cancellation fee up to 75 bucks and they've got lower mobile data rates than ever it's now just $10 a gig beyond the second gig so head over to tech quickie ENCOM we're gonna have that link below and try out their savings calculator to see just how much you'd save with ting and when you sign up using our link you'll get 25 bucks in service credit or towards a new device so thanks for watching guys dislike like check out our their channels leave a comment with the video 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