Tag: Microsoft

In a report from NSS Labs, the research company found that Microsoft Edge, the latest browser from the Redmond company, is more secure against phishing and malware than both Google Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox.  The set of reports, which can be downloaded here, tested three current versions of each browser over the months of September and October to get the results which will likely come as a surprise to some.  The versions tested for the reports were:

• Google Chrome 53.0.2785
• Mozilla Firefox 48.0.2
• Microsoft Edge 38.14393.0.0

The first report focused on phishing where Edge achieved a 91.4% over the course of 12 days of testing at the NSS Labs in Austin, Texas in recognizing phishing URLs presented to it.  Chrome was at 82.4% while Firefox came in at 81.4%.  This is an important consideration in choosing a browser given the social engineering nature of phishing attacks which can lead to compromised accounts for users.

The lock screen app, Next Lock Screen from Microsoft, has been updated today with several big improvements.  The biggest change in the new build, version 3.9 for those keeping score at home, has to do with improved notifications and weather on the lock screen of your Android phone.  In this new build, these two features have been significantly improved and are, well, reliable.  In the previous build the weather updates in particular were haphazard at best.  This new 3.9 build is much better at updating both notifications and weather updates in a timely fashion.

Microsoft has rolled out yet another update to their Android launcher, Arrow Launcher.  The update, version 2.4.0 for those keeping score at home, brings a handful of changes and improvements including a much improved search function.  Now within the launcher you can search not just the web but also apps and contacts on your phone.  This brings Arrow on par with other launchers that have similar functionality built into them.

This update also brings some needed performance improvements.  This has been an area that Microsoft has been working on the launcher for some time and every update it gets a little bit better.  This 2.4 update really made big strides.  Performance is noticeably faster, particularly when swiping from one page to another.  It also opens apps much faster than the previous build.

The Microsoft Garage team (think of it as a developer incubator) has released another new app that is designed to give you news and information based on your unique interests.  The new News Pro app leverages your social network interests to give you more personalized news and information based on your likes on those social networks.  You can sign in with LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook and the information provided to you will be based on your profile on that particular network.  It is a great concept and in playing with the app, it works pretty well.

Microsoft has announced that users of the new Outlook.com experience will soon have improved support for handling files from Google Drive and photos from Facebook.  The updates are going to be rolling out over the course of the next few weeks and it is a back end change so there is nothing you need to do.  Once you have the update, Google Drive files will be available to you from the Attach menu when creating an email.  Today when you want to do this you have to open a wholly separate tab.  That will no longer be the case and it will make attaching files out of Google Drive quicker and simpler.

Microsoft has published a report comparing their newly updated Microsoft Edge browser against the competition and the results indicate that it is far more battery friendly than other browsers out there.  The report is similar to one that the company ran in June and this new report is based on the updated version of Edge in what is commonly referred to as the Anniversary Update of Windows 10 (Build 1607 for those keeping score).  The results indicate that Edge has seen some dramatic improvements since the release of the update.

At the risk of giving away the ending, the results may look familiar! With the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft Edge is more efficient than ever, and still the best choice for extending your battery life on Windows 10 – up to 24%-43% more efficient than the competition for general purpose browsing, and lasting up to 23%-69% longer when streaming video.