Gadgetory

last time we looked at how Microsoft went from distributing software on paper tape to becoming the dominant force in the consumer software industry up through their launch of Windows XP in 2001 Windows XP was incredibly successful in spite of Microsoft's introduction of the unpopular product activation feature designed to stop piracy it was installed on an estimated 85% of desktop computers at one point though another estimate put the proportion of illegitimate installations as 35% poor bill not that the European Union had much sympathy for Microsoft when it slaps the company with a half billion euro fine in 2004 citing abuse of its dominance with proprietary code Microsoft was also forced to ship Windows XP without media player for the European market sound familiar not to be deterred though by royally teasing off regulators on at least two continents by this point Microsoft pushed forward with new products like Zune and Windows Vista both of which flopped harder than the Star Wars Holiday Special zoom was a portable music player and by most accounts a really cool one too bad that by the time Zune was released in late 2006 iPod had already become synonymous with taking your music with you Windows Vista that same year was in a way the other side of the same coin in the sense that it was released with a lot of fanfare but was quickly penned by veteran tech reviewers and novice computer users alike although it looked modern with appealing features like the Aero theme and desktop widgets at launch it lacked driver support it was unstable it required more processing power than mere mortals could afford and it incorporated some extremely unpopular DRM technology's forcing Microsoft to offer Vista license owners the option to downgrade back to Windows XP oops the mid-2000s weren't a total disaster for Microsoft though the Xbox 360 released in late 2005 went on to become a true juggernaut in the world of console gaming with its comfortable intuitive controller that remains popular to this day a well implemented online experience through Xbox Live a large game library and solid performance at a lower cost than Sony's PlayStation 3 the Xbox 360 even outsold the ps3 despite Sony's greater experience in the console market later in 2009 Microsoft finally released a worthy successor to the then 8-year old Windows XP - simply named Windows 7 which retained the visual appeal of Windows Vista but featured vast improvements to performance and stability as well as modern features like better support for multi-core CPUs and the ability to snap windows to the sides of the screen in fact in spite of Microsoft's free upgrade offer to Windows 10 Windows 7 is still the most used version of Windows as of January 2017 but with smartphones especially the iPhone from rival Apple Computer exploding in popularity around this time Microsoft knew it couldn't focus primarily on the traditional PC space forever and rolled out Windows Phone 7 in 2010 with subsequent mobile versions of Windows in the following years unfortunately for Microsoft Windows Phone having been beaten to the punch by ios and android more or less went the same way as the Zune so app developers didn't bother supporting Windows Phone completing Microsoft's failure boogaloo more successful though not entirely without controversy was Windows 8 in 2012 which Microsoft designed to function on traditional desktops and laptops but also tablet PCs with an interface designed to be more modern and cool with terminology like live tiles unfortunately this concept did not translate well to the millions of people who still use mice and keyboards and Windows 8 struggled to gain popularity I mean you can't just take away the start button and expect everybody to be ok with that maybe that's why Windows 8.1 was a free upgrade Microsoft's Hardware designed for Windows they did a little better though and I'm not talking about the arm powered Surface RT that bond but about the full fat surface tablets which were also introduced in 2012 since they ran full versions of Windows versus the more limited mobile OS azan competing tablets like the iPad Microsoft started to gain traction in the mobile computing scene in spite of NFL announcers calling them iPads as they watched coaches drop plays on the sidelines it was also in 2012 that Microsoft started signing people up for Microsoft accounts enabling a single sign-in across devices as part of its push to get users into the Microsoft ecosystem that included services like office 365 its subscription-based verse of the beloved productivity suite onedrive cloud storage and Skype which it had purchased in 2011 indeed Microsoft made seamlessness between its own services a priority with the launch of the Windows Store alongside Windows 8 as well as with the Xbox one in 2013 which was hyped as a do-it-all living room box with enhanced connectivity with Windows rather than just another game console the concept was taken even further in 2015 with the new Windows 10 featuring tight integration with the Cortana voice assistant Microsoft's answer to Siri and compatibility with the universal Windows platform which allows certain to run on both desktop and mobile windows as well as the Xbox one and hololens a smart glasses product that Microsoft is currently trying to get off the ground of course with its fingers in so many different parts of the tech industry Microsoft is facing a lot more competition than it did 10 or 15 years ago but could this mean that they'll be more consistent about producing quality products in the future with their feet to the fire maybe so but Bing isn't the most compelling argument for that hypothesis tunnel Bayer VPN lets you tunnel through up to 20 different countries well one at a time allowing you to browse the internet and use online services as though you are doing it from a different country they've got easy-to-use apps for iOS and Rho I don't have an Android phone in my pocket okay well Android PC and Mac may also have a Chrome extension just choose a country in the app turn it on in boom your connection gets encrypted and you appear to the websites and services that you're using as though you are someone else from somewhere else it takes all the hassle out of it and you don't have to take my word for its ease of use you can try it for nothing go check it out at tunnel there calm down at the link in the video description and if you decide you like it you can save 10% on an unlimited data plan by going to tunnel bear comm slash Linus thanks for watching guys like just like leave a comment with suggestions check out our other channels and don't forget to subscribe