Exactly 25 years ago on Monday, Aug 25, Microsoft launched Windows 95. This was a pivotal time in computer history. At that time in the US, only about 20% of households had a computer and most of them were either techies or nerds. The World Wide Web was just starting to grow and the word processor and spreadsheet were also in their early days. Windows 95 changed the landscape from the earlier 16-bit technology to a 32-bit operating system and added a bunch of new features and extensions. It was the first time we saw the start button, long filenames, right-click context menus and the recycle bin along with Plug and Play technology. For those that had a drive, there was a CD for installing programmes and of course the FreeCell game, which I still play today. The marketing campaign, which featured The Rolling Stones, actually had people buying Windows 95 without even owning a computer.
There were problems of course. We started to call Plug and Play "Plug and Pray" as it didn't always work. The shift to 32-bits increased the likelihood that apps would crash. USB support didn't come until a year later. It took until the launch of Windows 98 before some of the issues were solved. However, even with all the problems, it was a step that triggered the subsequent rapid growth of computing, despite things in between like ME and BOB.
Sony has provided me with a valuable lesson on how to turn high-quality wireless headphones into average wired ones. You may remember me writing about my new Sony 1000MX2 headphones a couple of years ago. They worked well as the noise reduction was excellent and they paired easily with my Samsung S7 which was subsequently replaced by my new S10 5G phone. The battery life was good, typically lasting me a week of use. Fast forward to today and the unit now typically charges to 20%, which is too low to apply a firmware update and it has problems with the Bluetooth connection. I had a long and helpful email chain with Sony Support giving suggestions that I followed but in the end, it didn't help.
When it came to the point where they realised it needed some fixing, everything went quiet for a while until they offered me a retail trade-in with 20% off. Without power, there is no hands-free control, noise reduction or other benefits turning the unit into a simple wired headphone. Two years is just not good enough for normal use battery life on such a high-end unit. So instead of the latest 1000XM4 model, I have purchased the Bose equivalent, still less expensive after any 20% trade-in than the Sony option. My current recommendation is to do the same. I asked Sony for comment on the above and the person helping me said all they could do was try and escalate up the chain. If anything comes from this, I'll let you know.
So, what's up with Mozilla? The latest forced update on Android from 68 to version 79 was a failure from a user's perspective. As I write this, it trashed add-ons, tabs navigation, has no back button nor any way to opt-out and rollback. The Google Play store has it listed with a 1-star rating. It crashes often, including when trying to use the crashes link in the help pages. The good news is this is a fully rewritten release that uses the GeckoView engine. The bad news is that your add-ons will no longer work and it has a new user interface that has very few features so far. Also once installed, you cannot revert back to an earlier version. Sorry to say, but it's probably best to use Chrome for a few months until they get it all sorted out.
Just so Apple doesn't miss out this week. It has paid US$84 million (2.6 billion baht) in South Korea to settle an antitrust action. Basically, Apple was abusing its carriers. The payout is almost pocket change from the couches in Cupertino but it does provide a public statement that they were doing something wrong.
If you're short of disk space, the 18TB Seagate IronWolf Pro will be out in September. These are enterprise-level drives that list at around $800 but have some nice specs including a 300TB/year workload limit. Like anything else, if you wait a while they will come down in price.
Finally, for this week's amusing story, readers will remember that the UK has given Huawei seven years to get their kit out of the country. In the meantime, the company can still install required bits and pieces. One of those is a soon-to-be-installed base station powering a mast for a telephone tower less than 30m from an MI5 secret data centre. Now, this could all be quite innocent, or perhaps Huawei will use the opportunity to spy on MI5, or MI5 could use the opportunity to grab phone calls from the mast. At this point, no-one really knows.
James Hein is an IT professional of over 30 years' standing. You can contact him at jclhein@gmail.com.
