Microsoft changing Windows Phone WiFi behaviour in future update

Heard a lot of complaints on it's the WiFi function on Windows Phone.

That "problem" is when the phone goes to the Lock screen, WiFi automatically disconnects. Obviously Microsoft had good intentions in mind here with power-saving as the chief concern. But recently, evidence and personal anecdotes seem to betray the idea that turning off WiFi (when not in use) saves battery.

Luckily, Microsoft looks to finally be changing this behavior in a future update. Windows Phone Program Manager Joe Belfiore responded to a Tweet from Stephen Simpson about Data Sense (the forthcoming service that compresses data, records data usage) and there he noted that a fix is coming to alter how WiFi behaves:

Simpson: "I wish she would ask you why WiFi shuts off when you turn off the screen on every Windows Phone! Please fix this horrible bug!"

Belfiore: "Someone is gonna yell at me for saying this, but... fix is coming. :) Sshh. Just promise me a little patience though."

That's some pretty big news and we imagine this will rollout with whatever planned-package update Microsoft has in mind for Windows Phone 8. Seeing as that OS can receive over-the-air updates, presumably Microsoft could either push out just that update or a larger one, encompassing global bug fixes and new features. Of course Belfiore stresses "patience" meaning we should not expect this next week or even next month. There's also no word if this is coming to Windows Phone 7.x devices as well via the 7.8 update.

Great Windows 10 Features

A Start Menu

You Windows 7 users are already part of the future — you have a Start menu on your desktop and everything! Windows 8 and 8.1 users aren’t yet in luck. After saying they’d add a Start menu in Windows 8.1 Update 2, Microsoft backed off and Windows 8 users will never get an official start menu — not unless they upgrade to Windows 10.You don’t have to wait — install a third-party Start menu today and you’ll never have to see that full-screen interface. Stardock’s Start8 even provides a “Windows 8 style” Start menu that will let you see live tiles in a floating pop-up Start menu, just like the one on Windows 10.

“Universal Apps” in Desktop Windows

Metro apps, modern apps, immersive UI apps, Windows 8-style apps, Store apps, and now “universal apps” — whatever Microsoft is calling them this week, they’re inconvenient to use on desktop PCs. As Microsoft put it, there’s a “duality” of competing interfaces here. That will be fixed in Windows 10, where those apps can run in Windows on the desktop. But you can install ModernMix today and get those apps in floating windows on Windows 8.

Virtual Desktops

Virtual desktops have been a part of Linux and Mac desktops for many, many years. Now they’re officially coming to Windows. But you can already get virtual desktops today with one of many virtual desktop utilities.

Microsoft actually built in multiple desktop support into Windows, but there’s no interface around it. The Desktops 2.0 utility, offered by Microsoft themselves, allows you to use that virtual desktop support. Third-party applications like Dexpot also provide virtual desktops and work a little differently.

Task View (aka Exposé)
Exposé was a feature added to Mac OS X, and a similar feature showed up on Linux desktops thanks to Compiz. But Microsoft refused to copy Expose — until now, with Windows 10′s Task View — and instead added the clunky, slow Flip 3D feature to Windows Vista and 7. Microsoft finally came to their senses and just copied Exposé like they originally should have.

There are many applications that do this on Windows. We like Switcher 2.0 . It was designed for Windows Vista, it still works on Windows 7 and 8. It was created by Bao Nguyen, a Microsoft employee — although it was written as a hobby project in his spare time.
A Better Command Prompt

Want a better Command Prompt with Ctrl and Shift key shortcuts? You can get one on Windows 7 or 8 with a third-party Command Prompt replacement. These add features like Ctrl+V to paste, Shift to select text, and transparency to make your Command Prompt look better. They also add other powerful features Microsoft hasn’t added — for example, tabs that allow you to organize all your Command Prompt sessions into a single window.

A Voice Assistant and Notification Center

You can get a voice assistant and notification center today by installing Google Chrome. Open Chrome and click the microphone icon to perform a voice search. On Google.com, you’ll be able to enable the “Okay Google” voice hot word so you can talk to your PC — just click the microphone on Google.com in Chrome and click the “Enable Ok Google” button.

Chrome also offers a notification center with the kind of smart notifications Cortana will offer, thanks to Google Now. Access Google Now functionality by clicking the Chrome notification center that appears in your system tray. From what we’ve seen so far, the Windows 10 notification center will just be a pop-up that appears from the system tray, too.

First online murder may happen by end of year -experts warned

The world’s first ‘online murder’ via a hacked internet-connected device could happen by the end of this year, experts have warned.

The European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol has cautioned that governments are ill-prepared to combat the looming threat of “online murder” as cyber criminals exploit internet technology to target victims.

In an alarming assessment of the physical danger posed by online crime, Europol said it expected a rise in “injury and possible deaths” caused by computer attacks on critical safety equipment.

The Europol threat assessment published last week cited a report by US security firm IID which predicted that the first murder via ‘hacked internet-connected device’ would happen by the end of 2014, ‘The Independent’ reported.

The opportunities for tampering with devices come amid predictions that tens of billions of devices will be connected to the internet within the next couple of decades, according to experts.

The Europol report suggests crooks could also use the web to carry out new forms of extortion and blackmail, such as locking people out of their homes or cars before payment of a ransom.

“The IoE [Internet of Everything] represents a whole new attack vector that we believe criminals will already be looking for ways to exploit,” according to the Europol threat assessment.

“The IoE is inevitable. We must expect a rapidly growing number of devices to be rendered ‘smart’ and thence to become interconnected. Unfortunately, we feel that it is equally inevitable that many of these devices will leave vulnerabilities via which access to networks can be gained by criminals,” the report said.

“There’s already this huge quasi-underground market where you can buy and sell vulnerabilities that have been discovered,” said Rod Rasmussen, the president of IID.

Rasmussen said that while the first reported murder was yet to happen, “death by internet” was already a reality from online extortion and blackmail that has led to suicide.

He said if his firm’s prediction of an online murder did not come to pass in 2014, it would likely happen within the next few years.