Thursday - February 6th, 2025
I started this week on the Microsoft Campus at the annual MVP Summit and at the same time it was a busy week of build releases for Windows Insiders as Microsoft gets even closer to the general availability of the seventh overall feature update for Windows 10. That update is expected in April and is codenamed 19H1. We wrap up the week worth of builds and what we should expect in the coming weeks.
Read MoreWe are still wiping the sleep out of our eyes after we lost an hour overnight thanks to Daylight Savings Time here across much of the United States. Among the news this week we learned that Windows 10 officially crossed the 800 million device threshold, we had another week full of Windows Insider builds for both Fast and Skip Ahead Rings, plus we saw some leaks around Microsoft Edge on Chromium. Of course, the show is littered with headlines around app updates, services, security, social media, Xbox, gaming and a promise for a new privacy focus from Facebook. I catch you up on my latest space news and talk about a scary podcast extortion scam that is happening to some podcasters.
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Welcome to episode 257 of Observed Tech. After a 24 hour delay due to an SSL certificate that had not been updated here we are with this show where we talk about the countdown to the release of the fifth feature update for Windows 10, currently know by its development code name of Redstone 4, and what the schedule might look like for its upcoming release. I also cover the latest Windows Insider builds and how Microsoft has once again started to push Skip Ahead builds in preparation for Redstone 5 development that is starting for the next feature update expected later this year. I then jump in and talk about the reports of various apps with the term Windows in their title being asked to make a change to stay in the Microsoft Store and the crazy pace of commercial upgrades from Windows 7 to Windows 10 since the beginning of this year. There have been several new items for developers including a new SDK, Visual Studio Preview release, and another Windows Developer Community Standup later this week. Then I talk about a new experimental program that ties certain groups of Insiders into Cohorts to test key areas of Windows 10 and the list of limitations for Windows 10 on ARM that may have been inadvertently released this past week. Of course, there are other news headlines throughout the show including an easy way to track Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster out there in space so be sure to listen all the way until the end and not miss anything. As always enjoy the show and thanks again for listening!
Read MoreWelcome to Episode 210 of Observed.Tech! After a month of a couple of travel and catching up cycles I am finally back behind the microphone in my own recording studio and it felt great to get cranked back up again. However, that did not mean I was not doing any podcasting over the last four weeks – it just meant I was a guest on other shows like the New Zealand Tech Podcast with Paul Spain, the MS Power User Podcast with Vernon Smith, and The Surface Smiths Podcast with Colin and David Smith (no relation by the way). It was great to meet those folks and sit down with them in person to talk tech. The crazy travel schedule doesn’t end though as I talk about heading to NYC next week for Microsoft’s Windows 10 event and what might come of that. Plus the Office event that is now scheduled for the following week, also in NYC, and of course my annual trek out to Redmond and the Microsoft Campus for the MVP Summit at the beginning of November. After catching everyone up with my schedule madness I dove into the headlines of the last week or so including an update on the progress of Windows 10 Redstone 2 development builds and the steady pace of build releases each week. These latest builds have added quite a few new features and have me itching to install them on the Surface Book but I am resisting that urge for now. Of course, I also spend some time talking about apps coming and going from the Windows 10 platform and other companies like Amazon expanding their Prime subscription offerings to make their annual $99 fee even more of a bargain. As always, you can expect plenty of other tidbits throughout the episode including Xbox now being the best selling console in the US for three months in a row, the awesome and beautiful Forza Horizon 3, Outlook.com Premium Preview availability, Windows Hello peripherals, and a US Navy ship I would go back on active duty to serve on just to call the commanding officer “Captain Kirk”. Enjoy the show and thanks for listening!
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