(252) 565-1235

Carolina IT Group

Call Us (252) 565-1235 Request Support Contact Us

Microsoft Surpasses Google In Latest Valuation

by

Microsoft’s stock price is surging, putting the company’s total valuation at $753 billion. This makes it the third most valuable company on the planet, behind Amazon (782 billion), Apple ($923 billion) and leaving Google in fourth place, valued at $739 billion.

Google first overtook Microsoft in 2012, and since that time, the two companies have traded places repeatedly. So Microsoft’s current 3rd place position is expected to be relatively short-lived.

It’s worth noting, however, that since Satya Nadella took over for Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s stock price has more than doubled, the company has moved decisively into some new areas, and has been dramatically refocused.

Some of those changes include:

A big emphasis on cloud-based technologies

A heavy emphasis on artificial intelligence

Big investments in quantum computing

Equally large investments in mixed-reality headsets

An emphasis on cross-platform technologies

Even more significantly, the company has veered away from two areas that had long been Microsoft staples.  The company has abandoned efforts to develop a Windows-based smartphone, and has moved away from the strategy of putting Windows at the center of everything Microsoft.

Although Google is likely to regain its #3 market cap position in the near future, Microsoft has some important strategic advantages over both Google and Apple that will serve it well in the long run.  The most significant of these is the fact that it has a much more diverse revenue stream.

Google gets some 90 percent of its income from advertising, and Apple gets some 60 percentof its income from the venerable iPhone. Microsoft, based on the most recent quarterly report, is generating 35 percent of its income from the Surface and its gaming division, another 30 percent from its cloud-based services, and a similar percentage from Office and the company’s various productivity tools.

Fitbit and Google Partnership May Raise Privacy Concerns

by

Depending on which side of the privacy debate you’re on, you’re either going to love or hate this announcement:

“Fitbit intends to use Google’s new Cloud Healthcare API to help the company integrate further into the healthcare system, such as by connecting user data with electronic medical records.”

Rarely has a single sentence been so fraught with risk, while simultaneously promising such great opportunity.

On the plus side, the potential for innovation is virtually unlimited, and this new partnership will no doubt be a boon for the still-struggling wearables market. There are also potential increases in health care delivery efficiency, but the privacy concerns surrounding the issue are very real.

One has to only think back to the recent Allscripts fiasco, in which some 1,500 healthcare providers found themselves impacted by a nasty ransomware attack.

Google already collects copious amounts of data on its users, and with Fitbit angling to tap into healthcare records, the amount of private and personally identifiable information collected on users is bound to grow exponentially.

In addition to that, depending on exactly what data Fitbit attempts to link, it could very well make them a “business associate” from a HIPAA perspective. This can expose one or both companies to increased liabilities and vastly stricter standards on how the data can be used, and the steps that must be taken to safeguard it.

Right now, those details are very much in the air, and the issue could go either way. But there are some legal experts who believe that Google and Fitbit will be able to skirt the issue sufficiently so that they will not gain the “business associate” classification.

For Fitbit’s part, the company had this to say: “We have a longstanding commitment to privacy and data, and our data practices will continue to be governed by the Fitbit Privacy Policy.  We are not sharing our user data with Google, we are partnering with Google to host Fitbit user data, similar to other cloud/hosting service providers.  We take our obligation to safeguard users’ personal information very seriously and are committed to protecting the privacy and security of our users, while being transparent about our data practices.”

Comforting words, but they have done little to allay the concerns of privacy advocates, who see any number of negative outcomes associated with the new partnership.  This is a debate that will no doubt be continuing for quite some time to come.

Firefox To Start Showing Ads On Tab Page

by

Before Google released its Chrome browser, Firefox felt pretty good about their arrangement.  They got a handsome reward in exchange for making Google.com their default search engine.  It was a win-win.

These days though, Firefox’s position is a bit more precious.  The Google deal is still the main source of the company’s income, but they’re also in direct competition with Chrome.  If Google one day decides to pull the plug on the deal, the company could find itself in dire straits indeed.

That’s why they’ve been casting about for some means of expanding and diversifying their revenue, and the strategy they’ve hit on is advertising.

Don’t worry, you’re not about to be buried under a mountain of annoying ads, but with the release of Firefox 60, any time you open a new tab, you’ll see a listing of recommended links based on your browsing history.

Anytime the conversation turns to “recommended links” it naturally brings privacy concerns to the fore.  After all, the only way Firefox can make sensible recommendations you’re likely to be interested in is to track your browsing habits.

Here though, the company has an innovative approach, because all the tracking happens on the client side, so Firefox doesn’t actually store anything. Although they will track how many of the “recommended links” you visit, so they can cull the list and remove any of the ones you don’t bother with, so they don’t keep reappearing.

On balance, it’s a good, even-handed approach that should solve the company’s revenue problems, while treading lightly on the good graces of their user base.

Like it or not, ads are an unavoidable consequence of the internet as it exists today.  At the very least though, Firefox deserves credit for not making excessive use of them, and for respecting the privacy of its users by coming up with a non-intrusive method of deciding what links to display

Having Chrome Issues Since The Latest Windows 10 Update?

by

Microsoft has been having some “issues” of late.  It’s April Windows 10 rollout had to be delayed on account of some mysterious BSOD (“Blue Screen of Death”) issues. This month’s rollout is plagued by similar problems, trading the BSOD issues for problems with both “Hey Cortana” and Google’s Chrome browser.

The problem is that when you try to navigate the web using Chrome with the latest Windows 10 update, the entire system will inexplicably hang.  The company is hoping to have a fix ready for release in time for the next “Patch Tuesday” on May 8, but in the meantime, offered the following suggestions to users who are impacted by this issue:

If you’re on a laptop, sometimes (but not always) opening and closing the lid will revive the system.

Failing that, or if you’re not on a laptop, try using the keyboard combination: Win + Ctrl + Shift + B. This activates the “wake screen” sequence.

If you’re on a tablet, press the volume up and volume down buttons at the same time, three times within two seconds. If you hear a short beep, then you know Windows is responsive, and it will attempt to refresh the screen.

If none of the above works for you, then your only other option is to simply reboot the system, which is beyond annoying.  Fortunately, however, it’s only temporary. The company is currently working on a fix (although whether it’s ready by Patch Tuesday remains to be seen).

While this is by no means the kiss of death, it is troubling that the last two updates have had major issues.  Unless the issue is identified and remedied, the company could be facing larger and more pervasive problems in the months ahead.

Apple Will Officially No Longer Sell Routers

by

After more than two decades in the business, Apple is officially going to stop selling routers.  The writing has been on the wall for a while now, since the company’s “AirPort” family of products hasn’t received a significant update in more than five years.

When Apple first introduced its AirPort product line, wireless computing was still something of a rarity, and Apple’s offerings were ahead of their time.  In the years between then and now though, the market has changed significantly.  Unfortunately, Apple’s product line never really changed with it.

These days the competition is fierce with industry giants like Google and Linksys both offering great options for power users. With the rise of mesh networks, the AirPort product line has fallen increasingly behind the times.

The company announced that it would sell its existing AirPort product inventory and support its current user base for the time being, but after that, it would quietly fade away.  The company has simply moved on and has redirected its efforts toward other initiatives.

In looking at the broader market, it’s not a huge blow. Of course, if you own and use an AirPort product, now is the time to begin casting about for alternatives.  The clock is ticking, and once Apple sheds its existing inventory, we can expect to get an end of support date from them. This will leave any AirPort products still in operation at that point increasingly vulnerable to a variety of hacks.

Even so, given how ubiquitous wireless networking is these days, and how many powerful options are out there, finding a replacement for your AirPort product shouldn’t present too much of a challenge.  Just make sure your IT staff knows that the end is nigh, so they can get a replacement in place before the clock runs out.

Another Google Service Is Going Away

by

If you are a fan of, and regularly use Goo.gl (the URL shortener service), brace for impact.  The company has announced that as of March 30, 2019, the service will be shut down for good.  Long before then, beginning April 18th of this year, only existing users will be able to shorten links via goo.gl.  No new signups will be allowed.

The company had this to say about the recent announcement:

“The URL Shortener has been a great tool that we’ve been proud to have built.  As we look towards the future, we’re excited about the possibilities of Firebase Dynamic Links, particularly when it comes to dynamic platform detection and links that survive the app installation process….FDLs are smart URLs that allow you to send existing and potential users to any location within an iOS, Android or web app.”

Fortunately, we’re not actually losing a service as much as we’re seeing one swapped out for something better and arguably next generation.  It is worth mentioning that Google does not have any plans to auto-migrate goo.gl links to Firebase Dynamic Links.  If you opt to use the new system, you’ll have to export your short links and then import them manually into Firebase.

Given this, it’s expected that at least some percentage of goo.gl users will simply opt to shift to other URL shortening services such as Bit.ly or Ow.ly.

Although Google is not ending support for the service to make life more difficult for hackers and spammers, that’s one of the unintended consequences of the move. Both spammers and malware authors regularly make use of goo.gl.  Sadly, legions of Marketing departments and other legitimate users do too, and many aren’t thrilled that although Google is offering an ostensibly better and more robust alternative, they’re not offering any means of auto-migration to the new platform.

Google Changing Name Of Android Wear Without Updates

by

Wearable computing devices from smart watches to glasses are struggling to find an audience, and Google’s Android Wear operating system hasn’t gotten much love in recent years.  It has weakened as major players in the tech space have struggled to find a market for these products. On the face of it, these products would seem to be wildly popular, but still haven’t quite captured the imaginations of a critical mass of the consuming public.

Google’s recent announcement that it was rebranding Android Wear to “Wear OS,” is the most significant move we’ve seen in over a year. However, without significant updates, simply changing the name isn’t going to improve the OS’s visibility or viability.

The name change was driven by the fact that when the OS was first released, it appeared only on smart watches, but the company later added iPhone compatibility, which made the name less than perfectly applicable.  In a blog post related to the rebranding effort, Google referred to Wear OS as “a wearables operating system for everyone.”

It’s hard to make a convincing argument that Google is all that interested in wearables.  One needs only to compare the company’s handling of Wear OS with the way Apple handles wearable products and OS’s.

We had to wait two and a half years between the version 1.0 and version 2.0 of Wear OS.  Android Wear was released more than 13 years ago, and since its release, the company hasn’t made any updates or announcements except for the recent blog post announcing its rebranding.

There are some signs that Google has long term plans for the floundering operating system, though.  The company has been recruiting high-profile brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Hugo Boss, Guess, Gc, Fossil and others to make and sell Android watches.  It will be interesting to see what the company does in coming months.

You Can Now Search Google From iMessage With App Download

by

There’s a fun, new update for Apple’s iMessage app that will probably make lots of power users happy.  As long as you also have Google’s iOS app installed, you’ll be able to perform Google searches from within iMessage itself.

In order to make it work, you’ll have to go into the app drawer (App Store icon) and enable the iMessage extension.  Once enabled, all you have to do to use Google search is to tap on the Google shortcut icon to get the search box.  Even better, the update includes shortcuts for watching trending YouTube videos, scoping out nearby restaurants, checking out local weather conditions, and even a handy GIF search.  There’s also a quick news search option.

If you search for restaurant recommendations, the new app makes the results easy to share in the conversation you’re having. Although curiously, this feature doesn’t carry over to YouTube videos or news.  Even so, it can be situationally useful.

In a similar vein, Google’s keyboard app, “GBoard” also now has search built into it.  In fact, you don’t even have to have GBoard installed.   As long as you’ve got the core Google App, the search extension will appear in iMessage’s app drawer.

These are small changes, but if you spend a lot of time texting, you’ll find them invaluable.  Think back to prior text conversations you’ve had.  There have probably been a number of occasions when you found yourself wishing you could do a quick search on whatever topic you were talking about.

It’s great to see these kinds of changes as the cellphone market continues to grow.  When the iPhone first burst onto the scene, apps were few and far between.  Now, not only are there untold thousands of apps on the market, but they are becoming increasingly integrated.  That’s very good to see.

Contact Info

740 Greenville Blvd. SE., Ste. 400-374
Greenville, NC 27858

Phone: (252) 565-1235