Free Windows 10 upgrade expiring
If you haven’t taken advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10, you’d better get down with it. Microsoft has been saying the deal will expire on the first anniversary of the release of the operating system, which is Friday.
People have been speculating all along that Microsoft would extend the offer. The company could pull a fast one in the waning days, but it has been saying all along it would not.
Although TechMan reported he had trouble with the upgrade, millions have successfully done it. Microsoft wanted a billion devices running Windows 10 by 2018, but has announced it wouldn’t hit that goal. It says there are 350 million Windows 10 users so far.
Windows 10 has gotten good reviews and most tech pundits (including TechMan) agree that it is an improvement in usability and security over Windows 7 and 8 (Microsoft skipped 9). Information about the upgrade is at microsoft.com/ support. If you decide after Friday that you want Windows 10, it will cost you $120.
So unless you have a specific reason not to upgrade, do it by Friday.
On Aug. 2, Microsoft will release a big, free Anniversary Upgrade for Windows 10 that includes many new features.
Smack my forehead with my palm. Sometimes TechMan is a technological idiot. For example, my iPhone was sending phone calls directly to voicemail and I didn’t know why. I was near the Apple store, so I stopped in to ask about it. I didn’t need a genius. One of the guys on the floor looked at my phone and told me that I had the “do not disturb” feature turned on, which will send all calls to voicemail. You turn that feature on and off by swiping up from the bottom to get the control center and pressing the button with a crescent moon. Or you do it by mistake. Duh. But in my defense, smartphones get more and more complicated as features are added and it’s hard to keep track.
About time. Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler on Friday sent a letter calling for major U.S. phone companies to make technology that blocks robocalls available to consumers at no charge.
The FCC chairman said in a blog post that he wants answers from the companies “within 30 days with their concrete, actionable solutions” to the problem of automated pre-recorded telephone calls often from telemarketers or scam artists, Reuters reported.
We need a wall and Canada should pay for it. U.S. Border Patrol officials say two Canadian teenagers were briefly apprehended after they accidentally crossed the U.S. border into Montana while playing the game Pokemon Go, according to the Associated Press, The agents released the children to their mother.
Money for churches renting steeples. Amazon has been awarded a patent for “docking stations” for its delivery drones that will be built on tall structures such as lampposts or churches. The stations would allow the unmanned machines to recharge and pick up packages, cnbc.com reports. Amazon is trying to get regulation passed that would allow it to deliver parcels by unmanned flying machines.