Gee, talk about a bombastic start to a new year. The comparative lull before and during Christmas was just a prelude to what came in the days that followed. Everything from FTC settlements, hardware, apps and sales numbers and stats were all here, but sadly exploits and flaws were in the news too.
Here are the most smashing stories of the week:
Number of the Week
The Windows Phone Store has slowly but surely been pumping out apps all through the year. In fact, Microsoft was in joyous mood when it announced that the mobile app store totaled 75,000 new apps for the year 2012. That’s averaging 6,250 apps a month, 208 apps a day, 8 apps an — oh, you get the idea. Still a long way to go to match Google Play and Apple’s App Store, but the journey continues.
Agreement of the Week
There is always something special about agreements, and if one of the parties is the US Department of Defense, it is something extraordinary. Microsoft landed a big three-year contract worth a nifty $617 million, where by the Redmond company will be providing the newest versions of its products including Microsoft Office 2013 and Windows 8.
Launch of the Week
Steven Sinofsky finally put the finishing touches and launched his new personal blog, creatively titled “Learning by Shipping”. Apparently most are expecting him to share juicy details of his time as a lead in Microsoft, but the man squashed those expectations something fierce when he announced in his first post that this will not be the case. Bummer, much?
Exploit of the Week
Hackers. Destroyers of peace. Scourges of the technology world. These black hatters have exploited a critical flaw in Internet Explorer 8 (and older versions) allowing them the ability to remotely install malicious code on user computers. Several infections have already been reported, and while Microsoft has released a fix, no news yet on when this will be patched in an update.
Cry of the Week
Microsoft and Google are fast friends — or not. The sour relationship between both companies got even tarter when the Redmond giant decried Google’s selective treatment against Microsoft. The search engine company has restricted and if is not offering full access to the YouTube API to Microsoft. Ouch! Never a good sight when big companies behave this way.
