Acting in support of the open source community (and themselves) the Chinese government has begun raiding MS China offices searching for items related to certain current Chinese anti-trust suits.

One of the things found and released publicly was the full listing of MS's top secret anti-android patent "big club" materials (information kept top secret by MS as they threatened various companies and extorted money from them without ever saying what for).

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/chinese-govt-reveals-microsofts-se...

http://windowsitpro.com/industry/china-further-bullies-microsoft

It is becoming clear that China is getting tired of MS's bullshite and is taking police/military/governmental action directly against certain Chinese based MS behaviors.

By this, MS has been put on notice by the Chinese government to cease spying in all forms through their operating system hooks, back doors etc. etc.

Windows 8 is no longer tolerated in China on any governmental machine.  MS will be held liable for all costs incurred in removing their "illegal" software.

http://rolandh31.wordpress.com/tag/bingbooks/

http://strawn-04.blogspot.com/2014/03/why-will-fail.html





A new term has entered the computing lexicon -- Bingbook

A Bingbook is a totally locked down low end computing device powered by the free Microsoft BingOS.

Beware the Bingbook .....  unless you are a die hard MS fan you may be disappointed down the road when you attempt to upgrade your BingOS operating system and find that you cannot.

Or Microsoft dumps support for it when Win 9 comes out,  leaving you with no "free" upgrade rights and no anti-virus update/protection .....  yep, ChromeOS doesn't get viruses but BingOS will have the entire nasty world full of Windows viruses to deal with right from the get go.  

And a Google Chromebook is backed up performance-wise by massive Google Server Power, so the light hardware flies through any task.  MS BingOS, not so much unless you buy a lot of memory and a lot of processor when you buy the machine.




Dude, you're getting a bing ....  

Aw man, I did't know she had a case of the bing when I picked her up, can't I go get 'er a shot or sumpthin' fer it?

Rumor is, MS might allow XP/7 users to upgrade to 9 for free...

...

http://liliputing.com/2014/08/microsoft-surface-pro-3-launches-25-countries-m...

   
The blue keyboard is "extra cost" optional above the $799 price tag

Some 2014 financial figures have become available for Microsoft's Surface Division (Microsoft's tablet business).   These figures were rolled up by Computer World since MS refuses to release any data that reflects badly on them (which means you'd be stupid to invest in MS since they either lie or simply won't tell you squat).

"Microsoft hasn’t released detailed financial figures for its Surface tablets. But Computer World looked at available data and estimates that the Surface division might have lost as much as $363 million in the last quarter and $1.7 billion since the first Surface tablets launched in 2012.

Part of that loss is due to a write-off for unsold inventory of the Surface Mini tablet which Microsoft decided to scrap before launch this summer."


Also, to bring lasting joy to all the laptop makers, MS has decided to go into open competition directly against them in the same market slots ......  by this I mean Bingbooks on the low end and Surface 3 on the middle and the top end.

Of course MS will say they are competing against Google & Apple in those slots, but it is their loyal laptop makers who will feel the financial hit in the next quarters since they are the ones selling the existing Windows based units that will be replaced by any MS direct sold units.

"The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is a 12 inch Windows tablet with a digital pen, an optional keyboard, and a starting price of $799. While that makes the tablet expensive when compared with Android or iOS devices, Microsoft is positioning the Surface Pro 3 as a complete laptop replacement."

So, MS is trying to say their Surface 3 is better than an Apple iOS laptop -- this means they are once again actively deluded in their hardware efforts.  

Thinking folks will pay more for a Surface 3 and then pay yet even more to get the keyboard is just plain delusional / silly.


  .... whack them in the nuts again, China -- they still ain't listening.

So, Intel thinks they really own the Chromebook space (or else they are just acting like it, trying to bluff everybody just like they normally do).

Here, Intel, good 'ol Acer is calling your bluff.

http://liliputing.com/2014/08/acer-cb5-chromebook-tegra-k1-promises-13-hours-...





"Acer’s expected to launch a new Chrome OS laptop with a 13 inch display and an NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor soon. Wondering why you’d want a Chromebook with an ARM-based chip when there are plenty of cheap Intel-powered Chrome laptops which offer 8 hours of battery life?

Because the Acer CB5 Chromebook will get up to 13 hours of run time."

Don't act all gut punched, gasping in pain just yet, Intel.   Yes, it is a hard blow, coming from the #1 most powerful best speed ranked mobile chipset with it still doing double your real world, no bullshite 6 hours of real video streaming battery life.  

Don't look to the left from where Acer just gut punched you, look to the right instead  ....     Samsung is coming to see you on the right hand side with the #2 ranked mobile chipset -- their brand new Exynos 5433 OctaCore Chromebook jest 'a hooking it on in -- aimed right at the tip of your jaw.

But the real pain is going to be coming from the RK3288 punches and the Mediatek punches (3 good solid blows from Mediatek) being swung up at your personals from the low end of things --- them sub $180 Chromebooks are coming real soon to finish up your Christmas TKO with multiple uppercuts to your cost exposed danglies.

Some of it will be from your good buddy, Rockchip's various people, using the Chrome cert you actually paid for .....   ain't that nice of them?

And because you jest had to have Rockchip to go do it, Allwinner and all the rest seem inclined to go do it too, with them nice new extra powerful octa-core 64 bit chipsets they just designed and built.

    All them Chinese and South Koreans are jest 'a lining up to take turns using your danglie sack as a speed bag, yes they are ----


Bam, bamma, bamma, bamma, Bam --- BAM !!!


   ouch !!!




Yup, Intel "owns" them Chromebooks alright -- and all of the agonizing pain therein as well.  

PS   China just gave MS a good switching for screwing around with them -- so what are you going to get when they get around to dealing with you, Intel?  

Jest think of all them hardware based backdoors & hooky equipped chipsets you done been sending over there .....

Are new machines that expensive?

Speaking of that lowly 14% MS market share (still declining) Chromebooks and Chromeboxes can now run an ever increasing number of Android apps in their own separate windows (multiple windows work now too).  

ChromeOS plus Android does comprise a very complete general operating system that does run on all your devices, btw.

Android L when it comes out in October will have all their specs directly supporting this interchange, in essence saying a developer only needs to make one (1) Android L app and it can instantly run on all current released modern phones, tablets and ChromePCs from that point forward.

This is how Google plans to make the "next general open source operating system" operate.   Chrome only apps will fade over time, Android L apps will take over.



Good news is that only ONE (1) app needs to be written and kept current.

If you want a MODERN good desktop experience, you'd get a good keyboard good screen Chromebook or Chromebox with some extra memory and a very good FAST graphics engine and you can then run all of Android and all of Chrome and all of Open Source Ubuntu stuff, flipping between them with a combo keystroke (or else running at the same time inside different windows that you leave open all the time).

Tegra K1 and Exynos 5433 and the Intel Haswell's are currently the preferred Chromebook/box super chips.   They all have enough guts to do this trick right now.

The next generation of 64 bit chips will all have enough guts to do it from the get go.

This is the doom that MS and Intel see coming, and this is why they will currently pay for over half your next Windows machine if you will just please go buy it now ..... and stay totally locked in to Wintel.



Here is what is end of world fatal to 'ol MS -- eventually Win 9 apps such as Office must eventually be able to run inside the Android world spec-wise.  

If it won't run inside a Chromebook/box window like an Android app, then it has excluded itself from the majority of markets and the 86% majority of the new machines.

MS is beginning to understand that as 14% (and less) market share holder, they must conform to the general market specs and quit trying to go their own way all the time.    

Their bread and butter Office apps must be available to the widest possible set of people because that is where MS's money will come from in the future.





Microsoft, however, is still stuck right now with three (3) non-cooperative operating systems.   Windows Phone, Windows RT and Windows 8.1.

Whups, should that count actually now be four (4) MS OS's since BingOS exists and it is intentionally non-compatible with anything else?

Microsoft Office menu system still won't run on 8" tablets worth a poot and Microsoft has scrapped 20,000 Microsoft Mini tablets (and their big gala introduction) rather than put them out on the market to get yet another MS black eye.

Google is very slowly making one big universal OS out of Chrome and Android, being careful not to upset their ecosystem or business partners by carefully controlling the pace of going from two to one combined OS.  

And they are doing it smart, BTW, leaving Android LEAN & optimized for battery operated phones and tablets while putting the PC interface mojo (the extra weight) into ChromeOS.

MS is slowly losing mobile business partners here in the USA but is picking up LOTS of brand new oriental tablet partners who will remain only as long as 1) the bribes hold up and 2) someone is dumb enough to buy the resulting small devices that can't run MS Office worth a poot.

Look to see a world full of discounted small Windows tablets hit the Ebay shelves after Christmas as the cherry-picking American reseller guys learn what Acer, Asus and Lenovo learned last Christmas.  

People may buy some of them small Windows tablets from Wally or Best Buy based upon the slick advertising on the box,  but they can take them back just as quick when they realize what they really got for real functionality.

Microsoft and Intel are currently bathing in red ink just to have a presence this Christmas.   Both are net negative in mobile at this time, and this will only get worse going into next year.

But remember, the Windows OS's are very fragmented still and Win8.1 is still very internally inconsistent with Office on any <10" small screen device.  

Yep, MS Office, the main reason to have MS in the first place.