Azure, Office 365 drive Microsoft revenues, while mobile lags

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Microsoft had a lot to brag about when it announced its first-quarter 2015 financials yesterday. The company boasted of higher gross margins and revenue, big gains in hardware and cloud sales, and — most important — a success story in its ongoing reinvention as a cloud services outfit, in both its business and consumer operations.

Even the fall in profits incurred by restructuring expenses and the acquisition of Nokia didn’t sink the boat. But it showed that Microsoft’s struggle to come up with compelling mobile products for consumers and business may not be as easy as giving everyone Windows everywhere.

As far as the cloud goes, Microsoft showed its businesses are solid and growing even more so. Microsoft reported a 128 percent year-over-year growth for Azure and its other commercial cloud services, including Office 365 for business. Home users of Office 365 (now numbering 7 million, Microsoft says) also edged up 25 percent over the last quarter.

In some ways the Office 365 figures are more significant than the Azure numbers, since they hint that one of Microsoft’s most intractable customer groups — users of the desktop, on-premises Office suite — can be transformed incrementally into cloud users, and from “transactional purchasing to annuity” (read subscription) customers. Microsoft has made wise moves in that area, such as offer more granular Office 365 subscription deals for small businesses. The basic Business SKU, which includes the full Office desktop apps, is now $8.25 per user per month for up to five devices per user.

Microsoft claimed Azure is allowing the company to “[grow] revenue from existing on-prem customers who have adopted Azure services,” and to enable those customers to create new kinds of business. In discussions with the press during the earnings call, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella noted that Azure’s growth has been driven in big part by such hybrid use, as well as by the new business models Azure has enabled. He also cited the Internet of things as a growth driver, with Azure as a supporting back end for machine learning and analytics services.

For Windows, the coming holiday season and months thereafter are pivotal. For the first time Microsoft is rolling out full-blown Windows devices available in mobile form factors for high double- and low triple-digit prices, thanks in part to no-cost licensing for smaller Windows devices. Microsoft is hoping to regain some of what it has lost in PC market by turning tablets into replacements for some PC sales. Microsoft hopes people will see its new Windows offerings less as “companion devices” and more as low-cost, basic-use Windows systems. But with tablet sales flattening out, that could be a tough order to fill. (Another downside — which Microsoft noted in its earnings call — was lower IP licensing revenue.)

Even as mobile remains Microsoft’s Achilles’ heel, Nadella and company remain optimistic that the Nokia acquisition, plus the next generation of Windows, will be a solid base on which to build a mobile empire. So far, it’s been all groundwork and drudgery: “The focus of the quarter [for mobile] was on positioning the business for the future,” said Nadella in the call, “and we remain committed to reaching breakeven in fiscal ’16.”

The first test for Microsoft’s mobile strategy will depend on how Windows 10 premieres across all devices. Clues of how the OS will incarnate on phones have surfaced, such as Microsoft’s device-branding strategy — it’s “Windows,” not “Windows Phone,” which hints at greater continuity between all versions of Windows, and mobile as a form factor rather than a feature set.

The good news: If Microsoft can get its mobile game in motion, it will be able to tie that back into its cloud business, which is already primed and waiting for people to build appealing products on top of and in front of it. It would be one of the industry’s grandest ironies if Microsoft itself is unable to capitalize on its cloud success with mobile.

 

 

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The iPhone 6 Caused an Explosion in a Man’s Pants

 

A little more than a week ago the iPhone 6 caused an explosion in an Arizona man’s pants. No, he wasn’t excited about his new device. The iPhone literally caught on fire in his pocket, burning through his jeans and underwear and leaving him with second-degree burns.

Phillip Lechter was riding in a rickshaw at the Oct. 11 University of Arizona football game when a bump made his leg smack into the side of the rickshaw. The iPhone hit a bar, and moments later Lechter could feel a burning sensation in his pants. “The flames were coming out of the pocket the smoke was coming out of here,” he said. “It did burn me as I pulled it out.”

Lechter’s local Apple store replaced his iPhone and promised someone from corporate would reach out to him. So far that hasn’t happened, though. Lechter says he isn’t looking to sue, but he thinks Apple should cover his medical expenses.

He has a point. But maybe Lecther owes Apple some money, too. Usually you have to pay for that much action in your pants.

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The Little-Known Tip That Can Save Your Dying iPhone 6 Battery

 

Many Apple fans consider the iPhone to be the Mary Poppins of the mobile sector, practically perfect in every way. However, iPhones do have one persistent issue; they suffer in terms of battery life. This is largely due to slowly developing battery technology coupled with Apple’s insistence on keeping its smartphones thin.

However, there is a feature on the iPhone that helps the device maintain its battery life, and its good name. A simple flip of a switch in settings can save an iPhone on a waning battery from certain death. Users can now activate grayscale mode on their iPhone by accessing in the devices’ Settings, General > Accessibility > Grayscale. Users should be able to activate grayscale mode on most iPhone models.

Though the grayscale feature is actually an accessibility feature intended for colorblind users, its alternate function is quite useful in a pinch. Activating grayscale mode helps to conserve battery life because color displays steal away battery life faster than black-and-white screens. Decreasing the display brightness on the iPhone 6 in addition to activating grayscale mode can also help save power on a dying battery.

Grayscale features can be found on many newer phones like the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One (M8). These devices include an Ultra Power-Saving mode, which turns the display grayscale along with other battery-conserving functions. Activating this mode can conserve a battery at 10 percent for up to 24 hours. Though the iPhone 6 does not have a similar power-saving mode, the option to set its screen to grayscale is the next best thing. Users can access a grayscale settings shortcut by triple-tapping the home button on an iPhone.

 

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Cheap and good: Best smartphones on a budget

 

Here in the mobile industry, we tend to put a lot of emphasis on the higher end of the spectrum more than anything. Given that the flagships represent all that is great and new with the industry, sometimes it’s hard not to place our focus there. At the same time, for a lot of people the flagship end of the smartphone spectrum couldn’t be farther from what they’re looking for; after all, not a lot of people have $600-$800 to drop on the latest and greatest at a moment’s notice. Even when you throw in subsidized devices into the mix, not everybody is available for the upgrade when they might need it most. Or perhaps some people just want to be able to find a decent phone at a decent price.

 

Who can blame them?

 

I’ve been in kind of a smartphone rut myself these past few months. After I stopped using the Moto X (carrier change) I went back to the Apple iPhone 4S as I wanted to see what autumn would bring us. When the iPhone 6 didn’t tickle my fancy like I had hoped, and other flagships just became too big for me to realistically consider, I decided to take this time to explore some of the less popular options in the market. Currently I’m carrying a BlackBerry Q10, and I also have a Nokia Lumia 1020 off to the side that’s ready to go at a moment’s notice as well. Still, that doesn’t stop me from looking at other potential offerings in the market that aren’t necessarily on the cutting edge of things – but you’d be surprised at what smartphone shopping on a budget can get you these days.

 

If you find yourself looking for a decent smartphone on a limited budget, here’s a comprehensive list of some of the best smartphones (in my opinion) currently on the market right now.

First and foremost, I have to say that the Moto G is probably the best bang for your buck Android phone right now. Unlocked and without contract, the 2nd Generation Moto G will run you at a mere $179. What does this get you? A 5-inch 720p HD display running on a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor. The rear-facing camera has been upgraded from last year’s 5-megapixel sensor to an 8-megapixel one, and the front-facing camera upgraded from a 1.3-megapixel sensor to a 2-megapixel one. The phone has 1GB of RAM and comes with either 8 or 16GB of internal memory, and has an expandable memory card slot for up to 32GB of storage. The phone doesn’t feature 4G LTE, but it does offer 4G HSPA+ data speeds, which is still something.

 

All in all, it’s still a pretty freakin’ sweet deal for a mere $179.

Windows Phone may not be the most popular mobile operating system right now, but you still have to give credit where its due: Windows Phone does a pretty good job at running efficiently and smoothly on less-than-impressive specs. What you would normally turn your nose straight up at on an Android phone isn’t the same for the same specs on a Windows Phone device. This significantly helps Windows Phone succeed so well in the budget end of the spectrum.

 

The Lumia 520 was a phone that was released last year, but you can still pick one up for about $50. No, there are no zeroes missing there; it really is just $50 without a contract. You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Okay, so what’s the catch here?” Here they are: 512MB of RAM (which Windows Phone utilizes very well), no front-facing camera, and probably most notably is Windows Phone’s application store compared to the vast amounts of apps available on either Android or iOS. Still, if you can look past that and realize that you’re still getting a pretty good deal for just $50 (for example, 8GB of internal storage with support for up to 64GB of external storage as well), not to mention Nokia’s decent selection of apps (most notably, their maps) the Lumia 520 (521 for AT&T users) is practically a steal.

 

The Lumia 530 is the upgraded version of last year’s device, which is said to be available on T-Mobile starting on October 15th for another incredibly low price. Is it worth the upgrade? That’s up to you. The 530 offers a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, the same 512GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage (but can hold up to 128GB of storage), and that’s about all that changes. Whether the faster processor and extra storage space is of importance to you is up to you, but either option is still a killer of a deal when it comes to budget smartphones.

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What Do Laptops, iPhones, Tablets, and Computers Have in Common?

 

What these devices have in common is their collective ability to define the digital age. In R.F. Georgy’s, Notes from the Cave, the information age comes under attack in a monologue that brutally dissects the modern world in such a way as to force us to reconsider all our preconceived notions about science, technology, information, and the very idea of progress. In Georgy’s colorful language, “we live in an age where experts and specialists have become the prophets of our time, actors and sports players are mythological heroes, and mediocrity is a virtue.”

Notes from the Cafe is a novella patterned after Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground, where Georgy revives the Underground Man in the form of the Cafe Dweller in order to offer us a chilling commentary on the twenty-first century.

Georgy’s work is a powerful polemic against the very idea of progress. The cost of the digital age is the death of God, wisdom, and reflection. “God was killed off simply because there was no way to linguistically accommodate him. Don’t you see, gentlemen? Don’t you understand? Religion is based on the language of contemplation and reflection. The information age simply could not find a way to reconcile the simplicity of a metaphor with the endless stream of data that epitomized the twenty-first century.” Analysis replaced reflection, science replaced God, and the internet replaced wisdom. Georgy does not hold back in his attempt to reduce the digital age to irrelevant distraction.

One of the most powerful passages in the book is when Georgy takes on agnosticism. “The agnostic will demand proof before he submits to the divine order of things. What’s wrong with that, you say? I will tell you what is wrong with it. How the hell do you know what the proof should look like in order to acknowledge it as the proof you require?” Reading the above quote forced me to stop in my tracks and consider its meaning. We have always accepted the notion that extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof. The burden of proof has always been placed on those who make such extraordinary claims. What Georgy has done is to invert this assumption by arguing there is a greater burden placed on the agnostic who passively waits for the proof. According to Georgy, the person demanding proof must tells us the framework of proof that is acceptable. If the framework is science, then the agnostic has to explain to us why is science the only form of acceptable proof. The agnostic must prove to us the science is the only knowledge domain capable of dealing with God’s possible proof.