Another week draws to a close, and it can be said with reasonably assurance that this was a week of release dates. Microsoft officially confirmed release dates for a number of its upcoming products, the prime among them being the highly anticipated Windows 8.1.
Here is a selection of the most important stories of the past week:
News of the Week
No bigger news than the official confirmation from Microsoft that it will be launching Windows 8.1 on October 18 this year. The first ever refresh of the Windows 8 platform is part of Redmond’s strategy to provide yearly updates to its flagship OS, and is currently racing towards the RTM status.
Oops of the Week
Microsoft has had a few shocks and shudders in delivering botched and faulty fixes in its Patch Tuesday update cycle. But the month of August has been brought with it some absolute tremors. A handful of fixes that Redmond delivered are causing various problems across the technology world.
Blocking of the Week
Google seems to be playing one of its little games again. While the search engine giant has already made it clear that it has little interest in developing official apps for Microsoft’s platforms (Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8) it recently decided to block the YouTube app that Redmond had developed. Again!
Roll Out of the Week
When you have a lion’s share of a particular market, and you also back it up with exclusive services, the anticipation levels usually tear through the ceiling. The case of Nokia regarding the GDR2 update is no different. And the Finnish telecom giant has just now begun to roll out the much awaited Amber update.
Birthday of the Week
Pretty much all attention right now is focused on the upcoming IE 11 that is set to debut with Windows 8.1. But today actually marks the day when the first version of Microsoft’s flagship browser saw daylight all the way back in 1995. Happy 18th birthday, Internet Explorer!
