BRUCEB NEWS
The Next Generation Of Virtual Reality
I’m writing this at a contemporary teak desk in front of floor to ceiling windows overlooking a lake surrounded by forested mountains. My laptop screen is displayed on a monitor a few feet away with a 60” screen, crisp and bright. The keyboard of the Macbook Air is...
Logging In To A PC With A Microsoft Account Is Overrated
With the collapse of the Microsoft consumer ecosystem, there are fewer reasons all the time to sign into Windows 10 with a personal Microsoft account. I'm finding I frequently...
Security Alert: Chrome Extensions And Notifications Are Being Used For Adware
Adware has started to turn up again, using Chrome extensions and notifications as a way to display annoying ads and muck up the time we spend on our computers and phones – as if...
The Samsung Ecosystem: When Technology Is Driven By Jealousy
Samsung is a global electronics company with hundreds of thousands of employees. It is the world's largest information technology company, consumer electronics maker and...
The Microsoft Ecosystem: Evolution And Extinction
Microsoft does not have an ecosystem for consumers or small businesses in 2018. There is very little synergy between Microsoft products and almost nothing locks us into Microsoft...
The Google Ecosystem: You Will Be Assimilated
Google is an advertising company. Its incentives are all tied to maximizing engagement with places where you will see ads served up by Google’s ad network. But that has more...
The Amazon Ecosystem: The Company That Wants To Sell Everything To Everyone
Amazon seeks to be the middleman in every financial transaction on the planet. Its incentives are all tied to making customers happy in every context where Amazon can take a...
The Apple Ecosystem: Life Behind The Greatest Wall
Apple is a company that sells premium smartphones with very high profit margins. Its incentives are all tied to profits from selling iPhones. The other products, the iPads and...
All Your Loyalties Are Belong To Us: How Technology Companies Lure Us Into Walled Gardens
Five giant technology companies have set up walled gardens full of shiny devices and enticing services. All of us live in their gardens. We’re not completely locked in. We move...
The Bad Guys Do Not Have A Video Of You Looking At Porn
The bad guys know where you live. The bad guys know your old passwords. But the bad guys do not have a video of you looking at porn. They’re lying to scare you. If you get an...
Decoding Russian Cyberattacks: The Difference Between Hacking And Meddling
There is a difference between Russian hacking, on the one hand; and Russian meddling in American society and interfering with our election, on the other hand. The terms are used...
“The Perfect Weapon” Is The Perfect Book For 2018
The Perfect Weapon by New York Times national security correspondent David Sanger, is the most important book you will read this year. Before I describe the book, let me start...
Listen To Your Computer: New Read Aloud Options In Outlook, Word
When you’ve finished talking to your computer, you can sit back and listen to it instead. Microsoft has improved the speech features in Word and Outlook for Office 365...
Talk To Your Computer: Speech Recognition In Windows 10 And Office
Microsoft has quietly improved the speech recognition features in Windows 10 and in the Office programs. They’re still not great but you might want to give them a try if you...
Microsoft Is Running FAST Searches In Outlook 2016
Microsoft has changed the way we search for mail in Outlook 2016. The changes are almost (but not quite) invisible, so the details are only important if you’re an Outlook power...
The Definitive Answer To Which Is Better: An Amazon Echo Or A Google Home
The definitive answer to which is better, Amazon Echo or Google Home? Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Forget about it. Just a stupid clickbait headline so this article goes...