Never 10 Prevents Windows 7, 8.1 PCs From Upgrading to Windows 10

Plenty of people, including us, like Windows 10. It's a substantial upgrade over Windows 8.1, giving users a plethora of improvements and features. We aren't, however, a big fan of how Microsoft is pushing this upgrade to some people. Ten months since Windows 10's release, users on Windows 7, and Windows 8.1 continue to report incidents about Microsoft forcefully downloading and upgrading their computer to Windows 10. You can stop the company from doing that with a new tool.
Well known software developer Steve Gibson has released a new tool called Never 10, which according to claims, allows a user to completely disable automatic updates. "The elegance of this "Never 10' utility is that it does not install ANY software of its own. It simply and quickly performs the required system editing for its user," says Gibson on his page about the new utility.
"Using this utility, inexperienced users will be able to easily use Never 10 themselves, while advanced users will likely appreciate that fact that no additional software is installed and will be able to refer friends and family, whom they support, to this easy-to-use utility," Gibson notes.
All a user is required to do is install this free application, and run it. This should come as a big relief to many Windows 7 users who're afraid that one day they will accidentally click on a prompt and Microsoft will upgrade their computer to Windows 10.
Microsoft has made Windows 10 available as a free update to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users - provided they have the genuine licensed copy. Last year, the company gave users with the ability to reserve their copy of Windows 10 when it becomes available on July 29. But later, the company also began downloading the Windows 10 installation files on different systems, and many users accidentally clicked on update prompts, ending up getting Windows 10 on their system.

The Internet corrupted Tay, Microsoft's AI chat bot, in less than 24 hours

Remember Tay, the chat bot with the personality of a 19-year-old American girl that Microsoft released just yesterday? The casual conversation bot was designed to get "smarter" over time and pick up on the personalities of the people it chats with via social media.
There's just one problem – Microsoft seemingly overlooked the fact that the Internet isn't always a nice and friendly place.
Less than 24 hours after going live, Microsoft's AI chat bot turned into a raging racist. Virtually any offending topic was fair game including Hitler, 9/11, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, African Americans, Mexicans and so on. Tay's Twitter account – with more than 55,000 followers – is still alive but Microsoft has deleted all but three of its tweets.
To be fair, it's not entirely Microsoft's fault as the AI learned the "bad behavior" from people on the Internet. Still, they probably should have seen this coming.
In a statement provided to USA Today, Microsoft said Tay is as much a social and cultural experiment as it is a technical one. Unfortunately, Microsoft continues, within the first 24 hours of coming online, they became aware of a coordinated effort by some users to abuse Tay's commenting skills to have it respond in inappropriate ways.
Microsoft has decommissioned the experiment, at least for now.
If nothing else, the experiment should demonstrate to parents why they shouldn't let kids online without proper supervision.

Microsoft launches Tay, an AI chat bot that mimics a 19-year-old American girl

Microsoft has unveiled a new artificial intelligence-powered chat bot called Tay. Developed by Microsoft's Technology and Research team with help from the Bing team, Tay isn't a virtual assistant like Siri or Facebook's M. Instead, it's a true chat bot in the sense that it's meant to engage and entertain people.
Surely Microsoft didn't build an AI bot just to entertain people, right? Of course not. Tay is an experiment to conduct research on conversational understanding. Artificial intelligence and machine learning have become incredibly skilled over the past several years but most platforms still struggle with things like language context and humor.

Like other AI systems, Tay – who has the personality of a 19-year-old American girl – gets smarter over time and picks up on your personality. She can tell jokes, play games with you, read your horoscope, comment on a photo and more. If you are a parent or grandparent that's not hip to the cool lingo today's teens use, maybe some time with Tay can help.
Microsoft says Tay was created by mining relevant public data and by using AI and editorial developed by a staff that included improvisational comedians (unfortunately, Microsoft didn't specify which comedians).
Do note that Tay will build a basic profile of its users that includes nickname, gender, favorite food, zip code and relationship status. Microsoft says the data and conversations you provide to Tay are anonymized and may be saved for up to a year to help improve the service.
Tay isn't a standalone app. Instead, it's being offered through some of the communication apps you may already be using. You can currently add Tay via Kik, GroupMe and Twitter. It also has its own Facebook account and is on Snapchat as "TayStories."

Microsoft finally begins Windows 10 Mobile roll-out

Microsoft has finally begun rolling out Windows 10 Mobile to older Windows Phones, months after the operating system first appeared on the company's flagship devices, the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL.
Windows 10 Mobile is being delivered to a collection of older devices via an over-the-air update. Users with an eligible handset running Windows Phone 8.1 can download the Windows 10 Upgrade Advisor app from the Windows Store, which will check if an update is available, before heading to the Phone Update section of the settings screen to initiate the download and installation process.
Despite Microsoft initially promising that all Windows Phone 8.1 devices would be upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile, only some are eligible to be updated today. The list of eligible handsets mostly includes recent Windows Phones, including the Lumia 1520, 930, 640, 730, 830, 540 and 430, while older devices like the Lumia x20 series (eg. the Lumia 920) aren't getting the update just yet.
Microsoft's reasoning to leaving out older handsets is as follows:

"As Windows 10 delivers significant new innovations, many older devices are not able to successfully upgrade without an impact on the customer experience. Our goal is to only offer the Windows 10 upgrade to devices that we are confident can continue to deliver a good customer experience."

At least Windows 10 Mobile is actually rolling out to some users now after a long wait, and those with newer Windows Phones will be able to enjoy the new features the operating system brings.

Microsoft kills off Skype for TVs because people prefer to use the app on mobile devices

 
When it was first introduced back in 2010, using video communications app Skype on a smart TV sounded like a good idea. The application was available to download on many sets, and even came preloaded on some televisions from certain manufacturers. But now, owner Microsoft has announced that it is dropping support for Skype TV software.
The Redmond company’s decision was discovered on a Skype support page by the BBC. It states that, starting in June 2016, the application will no longer be supported and will no longer receive updates. The document goes on to say that “TV manufacturers may remove the Skype for TV application from some or all of their models” after this date.
Microsoft says that the main reason behind the decision to end TV support is because the majority of those who use Skype now do so via a mobile device, even when they are in a room containing a Smart TV that has the app installed.

Over the years, users have changed the way they use Skype, with the majority accessing it from a mobile device – including when in the living room. We want to make sure we prioritize delivering the best possible experience to the platforms our users are asking for, which is why we’ve decided to focus our efforts in other areas while supporting key functionality on Skype for TV for as long as possible.

If you are a fan of the Skype TV app, you’ll still be able to use it after June 1 - even though it won’t be receiving any more updates. But it’s more than likely that the application will stop working completely on all smart televisions before the end of this year.