Microsoft reports FY15 Q2 results, generated $26.5 billion in revenue

Microsoft has reported its earnings for its second fiscal quarter of 2015 ending on December 31. Overall, the company brought in a total of $26.5 billion in revenue. That's compared to $24.5 billion in revenue from the same period a year ago.

Windows Phone rev is down but Lumia sales top 10 million for the holiday

Microsoft's FY2015 numbers for Q2 are just going up, and the numbers for Windows Phones are a bit complicated.

Revenue itself for Windows Phone is down a massive 61% from the last quarter. However, before we declare everything a failure for Microsoft, they explain away that number from the loss of $650 million from Nokia. The agreement had Nokia paying Microsoft per quarter, but that venture has since terminated. In other words, since Microsoft took over the Nokia mobile division, it can no longer collect that lump sum of money since they are now their own customer.

Interestingly, Lumia phone sales are up, both for year-over-year and sequentially from last quarter.

Microsoft sold 10.5 million Lumias driven "primarily by sales of affordable smartphones". By comparison, Microsoft sold 9.3 million Lumias last quarter, gaining 1.2 million more in sales over the holiday season.

Microsoft's numbers are not impressive when compared to Google or Apple. However considering the gap between Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, and the lack of a new flagship Lumia this holiday these numbers suggest that Windows Phone is not yet entirely dead. Indeed, Q2 FY 2015 could be understood as one of the worst case scenarios for Microsoft and yet they managed to forge ahead.

Assuming Microsoft can hold onto to these numbers until the release of Windows 10 and new flagship hardware, Windows Phone is still in the race.

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8-inch and larger Windows 10 tablets only will have the desktop [updated]

Update: Belfiore took to Twitter once again to clarify that existing 7-inch devices will still be able to keep the desktop and take advantage of Continuum (thanks to everyone who tipped us on this).

Even after the recent Windows 10 event and the quantity of new information we received, there are still questions to be asked. Microsoft's Joe Belfiore has clarified in a Twitter conversation which devices will see the desktop with Windows 10.

"@marypcbuk @jackschofield @ExNokian @sbisson @dinabass 8" & up = "desktop" w/ win32 apps. < 8" = phones, phablets, sm tablets. No dsktp."

A little clarity, certainly. So it looks like there will be plenty of tablets able to act as a mini-desktop machine. While we weren't exactly expecting phones to have it, it clears up this particular question concerning the 7-inch tablet form factor.

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Here's how to enable the Spartan Edge rendering engine for IE11 in Windows 10

When it comes to web browsers, Windows 10 gets a little complicated. Internet Explorer 11 is the default browser for now, but later Spartan takes over as it has the new Edge rendering engine (but it can fall back to IE11 for legacy sites).

The Preview 9926 build has Internet Explorer 11 for the browser, however it does have some bits of the new Spartan one coming later this year. Specifically, you can enable the new rendering engine in 

IE11, the same one that is found in Spartan.

Enable Experimental Web Platform Features

1. Open IE11
2. Type about:flags in the address bar
3. Set 'Experimental Web Platform Features' to enabled
4. Restart browser

According to AnandTech, who outlined how to enable this feature, a small number of testers already have this enabled by default. For the rest of you, you can force it to work all the time. However, keep in mind this is literally why it says experimental. As such, you are getting the new rendering engine (that can be fast) but you may also experience some other performance issues.

If you want to live on the edge, try enabling this feature to see the performance difference. Worse comes to worse you can set it back to Automatic or even Disabled, in which case you just use the old IE11 rendering engine.

Additionally, you can also enable the 'Set Custom User-Agent String' function, which may also help circumvent old IE-only content.

Image & News Courtesy Windows Central

Spartan browser looks to crush old Internet Explorer 11 in benchmarks

Windows 10 is shaping up to be a big OS shift for many reasons, including the addition of a new web browser codenamed Spartan. Spartan is still very experimental and as such, it is not included in the current Preview for Windows 10. However, bits of the rendering engine can be engaged in the older Internet Explorer 11.

AnandTech forced the new Edge document mode in IE11 through a simple trick using about:flags. They then compared the new rendering engine to legacy IE11, Chrome 40, and Firefox 35. The results are very impressive so far, demonstrating that even in these early stages, what powers Spartan could be quite powerful.

AnandTech says the following about the changes so far:

"The performance increase of the new Javascript engine is massive, and brings Internet Explorer basically up to par with Google Chome for Javascript performance… IE was well optimized for Sunspider already, so there is not much of a change there. Google Octane 2.0 however has always been terrible in IE, and now it comes in roughly the same as Chrome, for a massive 81.8% increase over the old rendering engine. Kraken continues this with a 45% jump in performance. It is a big change, and a welcome one too."

There are still many months before we see Spartan under ideal conditions and a more finalized form, but so far, Microsoft appears to be nailing a lot of the performance issues. Even better, since Spartan is a Universal app, it gets updates through the Store instead of OS refreshes. This change means Microsoft can dynamically update and tweak the browser at a much faster clip than in the past.

Head to AnandTech to read the full write-up including more technical details about Spartan!

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Internet Explorer Edge? Possible names for Spartan browser reportedly being considered

The Spartan browser, or more accurately understood as 'Project Spartan' is a next-generation web browser for Windows 10. Its main features include being a Store app for dynamic updates, using the older IE11 rendering engine for legacy websites, Cortana integration, and the ability to annotate right on the web page for document sharing.

However, Spartan is not the final name, just the internal codename that Microsoft is currently using for the project. The question is, what will Microsoft call the browser upon its final release? A new report suggests a few names are being kicked around and we have the list.

The information comes from a person who participated in an online survey from a company acting on behalf of Microsoft. Although 'Spartan' was not named specifically, it was referred to in the description including "Writing on webpages", "A built-in digital assistant" and the fact that it is a browser from Microsoft launching later this year. No doubt that the survey is referring to Project Spartan.

Potential names for Spartan browser being surveyed

• Entourage
• Elixa
• Evo
• Evex
• Endeavor
• Edge

Some of the names surveyed all have a common feature as they begin with the letter 'e'.

Edge makes sense since it is the name of the new rendering engine found in Spartan. Even more interestingly, Microsoft is considering pairing each of the suggested names with:

• Microsoft
• IE
• Internet Explorer

This list would create possible combinations such as 'IE Evex' or 'Microsoft Elixa' or 'Internet Explorer Edge'. Those possible combinations are interesting because, if accurate, it demonstrates that Microsoft is considering dropping IE or Internet Explorer from the new name. That is something that has been brought up before due the heavy baggage associated with the browser.

Of course, we do not know if these are the only names that Microsoft is considering, but it is worth pondering.

From the above selection, does any combination jump out as a suitable name for Spartan?

News & Image Courtesy Windows Central

Microsoft included many user-requested changes and features in new Windows 10 preview

The new 9926 build of the Windows 10 Technical Preview includes many changes and additions that were requested by users of earlier builds. Those suggestions were collected and evaluated by Microsoft as part of its Windows Insider Program.

Microsoft's Windows team member Gabriel Aul posted a list of just some of those user-suggested changes that made it into the current build:

• You've asked us to support more languages so we're bringing you more languages: Japanese, Russian, German, French, French (Canada), Korean, Italian, Spanish, Spanish (Latin America), Traditional Chinese, Swedish, Finnish, Turkish, Arabic, Dutch, Czech, Polish, Thai, Vietnamese (Language Interface Pack), Catalan (Language Interface Pack), and Hindi (Language Interface Pack).
• The new Windows Update UX in the Settings app provides a progress bar for preview build downloads which was a top request for Insiders. When you navigate away after starting the download/install, it will know that the download and install is still in progress when you return (instead of looking like a blank slate. And progress is now determinate, instead of just a spinning circle.
• We received feedback that ALT+TAB was too jarring (everything on screen changed) and that some people found it confusingly similar to Task View. Some people wondered why Virtual Desktops were not accessible from ALT+TAB. So, we merged the previous ALT+TAB design with the Task View to produce an approach that retained the large thumbnails that people like, but with an overlay that is familiar. Now, it feels far less jarring and while it looks like it belongs to the family of Task View and Snap Assist, it retains its unique strength of being a great keyboard switcher. Finally, this change makes the work we've done with precision touchpads feel better too. Now when you quickly three finger swipe left/right, ALT+TAB feels lighter-weight.
• We also heard that folks wanted Persian calendars support and you'll find that in this build. The Persian calendar format will appear on your Lock screen, your taskbar clock, and on time stamps on files in File Explorer.
• Another top request from you was to have the option to pick the default folder when opening File Explorer, and the team responded and added this feature.
• We saw feedback from Insiders that it was hard to find how to make apps full-screen in the "hamburger-style" menu seen in previous builds so we've added a full-screen button in the title bar. We've also made the title bars for both desktop and modern apps title bars feel more harmonious.
• Finally, I know that a TON of Insiders were unhappy about the bug where keyboard lights weren't working when Caps lock/Num lock/Scroll lock is toggled. I'm super happy to report that we've fixed that issue in this build. Thank you for being patient with us on that one.

Of course, Microsoft is still taking feedback from Windows Insiders for the current build of Windows 10 and will continue to do so in the weeks and months before the OS is officially launched.

Source: Microsoft

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