Windows 10 For PC May Be Launched in July

More work is expected even before Microsoft can think of launching a consumer-ready version of Windows 10 before the summer winds down.

The software giant has already announced that the next generation of its operating system will roll out sometime this summer - in other words, by mid-September - but no specific date or month has been revealed. In April, Lisa Su, the CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, accidentally spilled the beans when she said that Windows 10 would debut in late July. The assumption was that she was referring to the final consumer version.

In a tweet last 27 May 2015, known Russian leaker Wzor said that the release of Windows 10 RTM has been confirmed for July 2015. RTM, or release to manufacturing, is the version of operating system software sent to PC makers and other manufacturers to test and install on their devices before it officially rolls out. The final consumer release typically doesn't appear until months later, after manufacturers have had time to put the RTM version through its paces, scouring for last-minute bugs.

Here's the challenge. Assuming Wzor is right - and though he didn't cite any sources for his comment, he does have a good track record - Microsoft won't have much time between Windows 10 RTM and the final version to make any necessary changes. In 2012, Microsoft's RTM of Windows 8 arrived in August, with the final version then following in October. In 2009, Windows 7 RTM popped up in July, and the consumer version came in October. So if Microsoft plans to stick to its plans for a summer release of Windows 10, it may have only a few weeks at most between RTM and the final version.

Microsoft is counting on Windows 10 to erase the bad karma of Windows 8, which turned off many PC users with its touch-screen and tablet-focused environment, among other factors. Toward that end, the company has been asking people to test the Windows 10 Technical Preview and offer comments and suggestions. Based on some of the feedback, Microsoft has been tweaking and enhancing Windows 10 for the past several months with the aim of getting it just right. But could the company end up rushing Windows 10 out the door just to meet the summer deadline?

The Windows 10 Technical Preview has been out since last September. During that time, users who've signed up for the Windows Insider Program have already been giving the operating system a good workout. As a result, Microsoft has released new builds of Windows 10 at least once a month. And each new build has shown off not just new features but improvements and refinements from the previous one. Still, there is more work to be done.

Released a few days ago, the latest build, numbered 10122, shows a Windows 10 with a sleek interface, enhancements to the Start menu/Start screen and tweaks to the new Microsoft Edge browser. But there's still a certain roughness to the overall OS with certain features not yet working as expected. So Microsoft will certainly continue to create and issue more builds until the OS is as rock solid as possible.

Here's a good question: Why doesn't Microsoft just wait until October to release Windows 10, as it has with prior versions of Windows? The company is likely eager to move people away from Windows 8 as soon as possible. Windows 10 is also Microsoft's attempt to offer a more unified experience among desktop and mobile devices, the goal being to attract more consumers to Windows PCs, tablets and phones.

Microsoft must believe that with further refinements, Windows 10 will be ready quickly. It had better be. The company can't afford another misstep in the wake of Windows 8.

Responding to a request for comment, a Microsoft spokesperson sent CNET the following statement: "Microsoft has said Windows 10 will launch this summer. We have nothing additional to share."

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Google Shuts Down Map Editor

Starting on 26 May, Google is suspending its public Map Maker tool - preventing its community of users from independently adding landmarks and helpful tips to Google Maps.

The reason? There are too many pranksters out there.

Until recently, a loyal community amateur cartographers routinely edited Google Maps with little oversight. But after someone created a fake park in Pakistan - in the shape of an Android robot peeing on an Apple logo - Google imposed a strict review process.

The company started to manually review every submission. But Google now says it can't handle the deluge of work coming in. Pavithra Kanakarajan, a member of the company's Google Maps team, explained the situation in a blog post Friday.

"Every edit you make is essentially going to a backlog that is growing very fast," she said. "It is not fair to any of our users to let them continue to spend time editing."

Kanakarajan said "the most recent incident" - likely the peeing Android robot - came from "a strong user in our community." That explains why no one noticed the image sooner.

In the old system, Google mappers edited fellow mappers. Prolific contributors gained enough trust that their submissions were no longer subject to public review before going live.

And these map edits were most likely in rural areas. After all, Google created Map Maker in 2011 to improve the accuracy of its popular tool. Locals know if a highway is a one-way road, or if there's a small lake. That's especially true in rural regions that don't get analyzed often by satellites in space.

That peeing Android robot was created as a fake park in the outskirts of Rawalpindi, a Pakistani city less than 10 miles southwest of Islamabad.

And it looks like this wasn't the only incident. In her note, Kanakarajan said "we have been experiencing escalated attacks to spam Google Maps over the past few months."

A Google spokesperson said some users have been creating "all kinds of map pranks," such as fake highway exits.

But Google isn't saying who this mysterious map editor was -- or when the map editing tool might come back.

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Lawyer Offered Cows for Pres. Obama's Daughter

Felix Kiprono is a lawyer from Kenya who is infatuated with Malia Obama, and wants to marry her, so he's decided to ask U.S. President Barrack Obama for her hand in marriage.

However, he's not going empty handed to the leader of the free world, rather he's throwing a sweet dowry into the mix, by offering the American President 50 cows, 70 sheep and 30 goats for the chance to get married to Malia.

He plans to try and meet Obama during his visit to Kenya in July of this year, and according to AfricanSpotlight.com, he's hoping he can convince Barack to bring Malia on the trip with him.

"People might say I am after the family's money, which is not the case. My love is real. I am currently drafting a letter to Obama asking him to please have Malia accompany him for this trip. I hope the embassy will pass the letter to him. I will hand it over to the US," Kiprono said.

A confident young man, Felix already has the proposal planned should he get the green light, saying "I will not resort to the cliché of popping champagne. Instead, I will surprise her with mursik, the traditional Kalenjin sour milk. As an indication that she is my queen, I will tie sinendet, which is a sacred plant, around her head". Confirming that the money is not his issue and that he really is in love with Malia, he added that "ours will be a simple life. I will teach Malia how to milk a cow, cook ugali and prepare mursik like any other Kalenjin woman".

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The Rude Way Jordan Answered His FF4 Critics

Michael B. Jordan is trying to fend against criticism about his “Fantastic Four” casting and he is really way off the target.

"You’re not supposed to go on the Internet when you’re cast as a superhero," the 28-year-old actor wrote in an op-ed for Entertainment Weekly about his casting as Johnny Storm/Human Torch in the summer reboot. "But after taking on Johnny Storm—a character originally written with blond hair and blue eyes—I wanted to check the pulse out there. I didn’t want to be ignorant about what people were saying."

Jordan says he wasn’t surprised to find comic fans decrying the casting choice, saying everything from "They must be doing it because Obama’s president" to "They’ve destroyed it!"

What Jordan need to understand is that when you base a movie off of a published piece of literature (a comic, in this case), fans expect that the production be relatively similar to the original work.

Marvel Comics is well known for reinventing its superheroes with various reboots. For example, the multiple versions of Nick Fury is one. Has there been a similar treatment of Johnny Storm?

It is disingenuous to apply a blanket label of 'racism' to complaints regarding the developers not adhering to cannon. It is cheap, it is distracting, and in an overwhelming majority of cases, it is simply a lie perpetrated because film producers are too cowardly to simply admit that they take some great liberties with their creative interpretations of film adaptations.

"It used to bother me, but it doesn’t anymore," the actor explains. "I can see everybody’s perspective, and I know I can’t ask the audience to forget 50 years of comic books. But the world is a little more diverse in 2015 than when the Fantastic Four comic first came out in 1961."

Wow, so everyone should embrace diversity just because Jordan thought that the world is more diverse today. And people who can’t accept diversity are those that are also not fond of a black Human Torch? This is a very slippery slope and irrational argument from Jordan. Comical as well considering that it came from an actor who got the part allegedly because he is a close friend of the director.

"To the trolls on the Internet, I want to say: Get your head out of the computer," the actor concludes. "Go outside and walk around. Look at the people walking next to you. Look at your friends' friends and who they’re interacting with. And just understand this is the world we live in. It’s okay to like it."

Well, there goes all the good public relations that they were trying to build. With the way this young man answer his critics and call comic fans trolls, it won’t be a surprise to see this movie go down the drain.

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It Pays To Be An Attractive Server

A paper revealed that the handsomest and prettiest waiters in restaurants tend to get the biggest tips. And who are the biggest tippers: women diners who "reward" the most beautiful females waiting on them.

"Attractive servers earn approximately $1,261 (£810) more per year in tips than unattractive servers," economist Matt Parrett writes in the Journal of Economic Psychology in his paper "Beauty and the Feast." "The primary driver is female customers tipping attractive females more than unattractive females." At least, that's how it is in Virginia.

Parrett, an economist with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and aides surveyed 501 diners at Virginia restaurants, asking them about their food, the bill, quality of service, and gender and effectiveness of their server.

They discovered that attractive servers earned approximately 1.26 percentage points more on tips than unattractive servers." That figure went up slightly, to 1.37 percentage points, after taking into account "server productivity and other factors that might affect tips."

Parrett found no significant difference in the amount male customers tipped attractive or unattractive waitresses. But "female customers tip attractive female servers approximately 3.01 percentage points more on a percentage tip basis," according to the research.

Evolutionary sexual competition would suggest that attractive women would receive bigger tips from men trying to impress or date them, and smaller ones from women in competition with them for male attention.

Parrett believes that beautiful people are often stereotyped as more capable. But that only goes so far, he cautions. The beauty advantage can easily be wiped out by atrocious service.

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PayPal Faces $25 M Fine

Users who have used PayPal to buy something are probably going out of their way to avoid hitting the "Bill Me Later" option, a credit service that fronts the money and has users pay it back at a later date. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (or CFPB), that was the least malicious thing about the program over the past few years.

In a complaint filed recently, the organization says PayPal signed people up to the service without their permission, deceptively advertised its benefits (which never materialized in some cases), forced users to use PayPal Credit instead of other payment methods, and "mishandled" billing in a way that raked up late fees and extra interest charges. All in all, very bad things for people trying to spend money on the internet.

"Many of these consumers learned of their PayPal Credit accounts for the first time when they received billing statements with accrued late fees and interest charges, or when they received debt-collection calls," the complaint says.

As a result, the CFPB is requiring PayPal to pay out US$ 15 million in reimbursements to consumers that mistakenly enrolled in the program or made purchases through it, as well as others who garnered fees from questionable customer service. That goes with a US$ 10 million fine to the CFPB's Civil Penalty Fund, which pays out victims in instances where companies can't.

The CFPB is also requiring PayPal to do a better job at disclosing when people are actually enrolling in the credit program, or being charged fees and interest. PayPal agreed to these measures, but did not admit to any wrongdoings, Bloomberg reports.

In a statement, a PayPal spokesperson said "we continually improve our products and enhance our communications to ensure a superior customer experience," adding that "our focus is on ease of use, clarity and providing high-quality products that are useful to consumers and are in compliance with applicable laws."

The fines levied on PayPal are relatively small compared to some other CFPB actions. Last April, the group asked Bank of America to pay US$ 727 million to consumers who were signed up to credit protection services. The year before, it went after Chase for US$ 309 million for fees it said the company was charging people for services they did not end up receiving.

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"Legends of Tomorrow" Coming to TV Soon

First there was "Arrow." This followed by "The Flash." Now DC Comics is planning to take over the television screen with another superhero series, "Legends of Tomorrow."

As Rip Hunter in "Legends of Tomorrow," Arthur Darvill has a big task ahead - recruiting heroes and villains to save the world.

Last 17 May, the actor said in a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) chat (to promote his new film, "Captcha") that he is already working hard to get ready for his new role.

"i'm still preparing - i'm doing some gym time and learning to FIGHT. so WATCH OUT," he wrote on Reddit, referencing Rip Hunter's martial arts abilities.

Arthur's character, Rip, is a member of the Time Masters, and the promo trailer showed him working to bring together a team that will fight to save the world from Vandal Savage and his army.

The series, whose cast includes Brandon Routh (The Atom), Caity Lotz (White Canary), Victor Garber (Professor Stein/Firestorm), Wentworth Miller (Captain Cold), Dominic Purcell (Heatwave) and Ciara Renee (Hawkgirl), is expected to air mid-season on The CW.

Filming on the show has so far been limited to just the trailer that debuted in early May during The CW's upfront presentation.

"I really have only filmed the teaser trailer - in the middle of the night - extremely jet lagged so i haven't had much experience with them yet - everyone seems quite good at martial arts - i'm gonna need to get me some lessons," Arthur wrote of his experiences on the show so far.

Arthur said he's "very excited" to be a part of the project from the DC and CW family (whose shows already include "Arrow" and "The Flash").

"I'm very excited to be entering that world! I think the shows they've got already are really good and the scale of this one is gonna be huge," he wrote. "I'm not really allowed to talk very much about it but... the little details I do know are really exciting and its definitely a new challenge and a new type of character for me to explore."

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YouTube Can Show Anti-Muslim Film

YouTube should not have been forced to take down an anti-Muslim film that sparked violence in the Middle East and death threats to actors, a federal appeals court ruled last 18 May in a victory for free speech advocates.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal sided with Google, which owns YouTube, after free speech advocates urged the court to overturn a 2-1 decision by three of its judges. The three judges had ordered YouTube to take down the video

Actress Cindy Lee Garcia wanted "Innocence of Muslims" removed from the site after receiving death threats. Her lawyer argued she had a copyright claim to the low-budget film because she believed she was acting in a different production.

Google argued Garcia had no claim to the film because the filmmaker wrote the dialogue, managed the production and dubbed over her lines.

It wasn't immediately clear if or when the video would be reposted on YouTube. A Google spokesman did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The film inspired rioting by those who considered it blasphemous to the Prophet Muhammad and President Barack Obama and other world leaders asked Google to take it down.

Google, which said those requests amounted to censorship, was joined by an unusual alliance of filmmakers, other Internet companies and prominent news media organizations that didn't want the court to alter copyright law or infringe on First Amendment rights.

YouTube and other Internet companies were concerned they could be besieged with takedown notices, though it could be hard to contain the film that is still found online.

A lawyer for Google argued in December that if a bit player in a movie has copyright privileges, it could extend to minor characters in blockbusters, shatter copyright law and ultimately restrict free speech because anyone unhappy with their performance could have it removed from the Internet.

"The ultimate effect is to harm the marketplace of speech," attorney Neal Katyal told the court during a hearing in Pasadena.

Cris Armenta, a lawyer for Garcia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. But Armenta previously said the extraordinary circumstances justified the extreme action of a court injunction against YouTube.

"She is under threat of death if she is not successful in removing it," Armenta argued.

Garcia was paid US$ 500 for a movie called "Desert Warrior" she believed had nothing to do with religion. But ended up in a five-second scene in which her voice was dubbed over and her character asked if Muhammad was a child molester.

The film drew the attention of federal prosecutors, who discovered that filmmaker Mark Basseley Youssef used several false names in violation of probation from a 2010 check fraud case. He was sent back to prison in 2012 and was released on probation in September 2013.

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The Many Colors of Windows 10

Microsoft has just announced that Windows 10 will come in six core editions and arrive this summer.

In announcing the new editions, the software giant reiterated last 13 May that the full versions of Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro will be free for “qualifying” Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 devices that upgrade in the first year after launch.

Windows 10 for the PC is the follow-on to the widely-unloved Windows 8.1, which introduced a hybrid operating system model, running a “modern” touch interface side by side with a more traditional mouse-and-keyboard desktop.

Windows 10 Mobile, for smartphone and tablets, will also be offered as a free upgrade for Windows Phone 8.1, Microsoft said.

Window 10 editions include:

1. Windows 10 Home: This is the desktop edition for consumers. It will include the new Edge browser, a so-called “Continuum” tablet-mode for touch devices, and Windows Hello biometric authentication, which uses your face, iris, or fingerprint to unlock devices. It will also bring the Cortana virtual assistant, similar to Apple’s Siri, to the Windows desktop. Cortana is already available on Windows Phone. Universal Windows apps like Photos, Maps, Mail, Calendar, Music and Video will also be included.
   
   Microsoft will also bring Xbox gaming to Windows 10, which will give gamers access to the Xbox Live gaming community.
2. Windows 10 Pro: This is similar to Windows 10 Home but adds features for small businesses. These features include the new Windows Update for Business, which Microsoft says can rein in management costs, provides controls over update deployment, and offers faster access to security updates.
3. Windows 10 Mobile: This is designed for smaller, mobile, touch-centric devices like smartphones and small tablets. Windows 10 Mobile will allow some new devices to take advantage of Continuum for phones “so people can use their phone like a PC when connected to a larger screen,” Microsoft said. This also includes universal Windows apps.
   
   Other editions are Windows 10 Enterprise for medium and large sized businesses, Windows 10 Education for school staff, administrators, teachers and students, and Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise for business customers on smartphones and small tablets.
   
   There will also be versions of Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise for industry devices like ATMs, retail point of sale, handheld terminals, and industrial robotics, Microsoft said. There is also a Windows 10 IoT (“Internet of Things”) Core for small footprint, low cost devices like gateways.

Other changes coming to Windows 10 to keep in mind:

1. Windows 10 will unify Windows across all Windows devices including PCs, phones, Xbox One, and the new HoloLens smart glasses.
2. New Desktop: Microsoft is designing Windows 10 so there is a less jarring transition (if the user so chooses) between the traditional desktop and the touch-friendly (referred to sometimes as the “Modern” interface). This includes changes to the Start menu and changes to allow Modern apps to run within Windows on the desktop.
3. Touch-friendly Universal Office apps will be coming to Windows, too. Early this year, Microsoft announced the upcoming availability of Universal Office apps for Windows 10, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote that can be installed on PCs, tablets and phones.

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"Supergirl" Could Be A Rom-Com Series

Who is normal? Nobody can claim that they are normal, especially somebody who came from another planet who can do a lot of things many people can’t.

"I'm not normal!" Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, quips. "I can lift a bus. I can fly. At least, I think I can."

Spoiler alert ahead. What's funny is that the first-look video of the new "Supergirl" airing on CBS this fall starts out with the kind of "home planet in peril so I must escape to Earth to survive" intro you'd expect. Later it starts to feel more like exactly the kind of "20-something gal just trying to make it at a fashion mag and find love in the big city" rom-com trailer that was recently spoofed on SNL with Black Widow from "The Avengers."

In the first-look video, while saving her sister from a near plane wreck, Kara, played by Melissa Benoist of "Glee," is still trying to hone her superhero skills. She hasn't had much practice flying. But she'll be getting plenty of practice juggling normal life with being an alien-born caped crusader who's suddenly in the spotlight complete with her own hashtag #Supergirl.

Now that she's found her calling as a superhero, her day job working for her hard-to-please boss, played by Calista Flockhart, may have to take a back seat. After all, she didn't travel 2,000 light years just to be an assistant. She has to figure out a tasteful costume that's aerodynamic, bulletproof and has the red S, not for super but referring to the coat of arms of her family, the House of El.

Another big change DC Comics fans might notice is that The Daily Planet's famous photographer Jimmy Olsen is now an African-American man who prefers to be called James Olsen. This is another attempt at blackwashing important characters of comic books by the uninformed, but rich producers.

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Can Google's 'Project Fi' Fly?

Project Fi is considered as Google’s new wireless service. It offers U.S. subscribers an alternative to the traditional carriers. Project Fi has a number of exclusive perks, including a more straightforward billing policy and a cloud-based telephone number.

However, Project Fi also has its limitations, including, most notably, its dependence on Google's own phone, the Nexus 6.

Currently, the Nexus 6 is the only smartphone that works with Project Fi. Owners of Apple's iPhone, and other Android handsets, cannot use it. As an exclusive perk, Project Fi could entice some smartphone buyers to choose a Nexus 6 over other phones, including Apple's iPhone. But most probably they won't.

The Nexus 6, although fairly positively reviewed, is certainly not for everyone. With its 6-inch display, it truly pushes the boundaries between smartphone and tablet. It's quite a bit bigger than both Apple's competing iPhone 6 Plus and Samsung's Galaxy Note 4, and most will likely find it unwieldy.

The popularity of phablets is certainly increasing, but they remain in the overwhelming minority (they represented 21 percent of U.S. smartphone sales in the first quarter, according to recent data from Kantar Worldpanel).

If Google opened its service up to more Android phones, or at least a phone more likely to see mainstream adoption (like Samsung's Galaxy S6), then it could have an effect. Project Fi isn't for everyone – there are no family plans, for example, or unlimited data – but a select group of smartphone buyers may find its base rate data billing and combined network service extremely attractive. Will Google do it?

The search giant’s management has been fairly upfront in terms of its plans. In March, Google's Sundar Pichai said the company has no plans to become a wireless provider "at scale." A few million subscribers may be possible, but tens of millions is unlikely. Sticking to a niche phone like the Nexus 6 would fit with Google's relatively modest ambitions.

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Digital Lifestyle in the PHL

According to the Asia Digital Marketing Association (ADMA) and the Internet World statistics, there are over a billion Internet users in the AsiaPacific region, which amounts to over 46 percent of the total Internet users in the world.

The Philippines, specifically has over 44.2 million users, the second highest ranking in Southeast Asia and the 6th in the whole of Asia. The population is forecasted to double by 2016, according to Julian Persaud, former Google Managing Director in Southeast Asia.

The January 2015 "Digital In the Philippines" snapshot of We Are Social counts that among the total Philippine population of 100.8 million (with urbanization at 49 percent), there are 44.2 million active Internet users. Of these 44.2 million Internet users, 90 percent have active social media accounts.

In the last four years, Internet access in the Philippines has grown by 500%, the fastest rate in Southeast Asia, but as mentioned in previously, real growth is yet to come but it's coming by fast.

Leading in numbers
While we're yet to see the majority of the Philippine population online, enough data supports how addicted the Philippines is to the digital life. According to We Are Social's Digital Report as of January 2015, the Philippines leads in average "Time Spent on the Internet" through laptop and desktop, and one of the highest via mobile worldwide.

From a global average of 4.4 hours/day, the Filipino spends an average of 6.3 hours/day online via laptop and 3.3 hours/day via mobile.

Over 40 percent of Filipinos own an active social media account, according to the same study. This is larger than that of most technologically advanced countries like South Korea and Japan, whose social media penetration amounts to 30 percent and 19 percent respectively.

Capturing social media and smartphone penetration The Philippines was once called the "Selfie Capital of the World" as analyzed by TIME through geographic coordinates with 258 selfie-takers per 100,000 people on Instagram.

Apart from the photo app, the country also leads in social media penetration particularly on Facebook with over 94 percent of its Internet users using the popular social network, 40 percent more than users the United States. The Philippines also records the highest figure of total screen time spent in social networking with an astounding 42 percent.

In a survey conducted by On Device Research mid June 2014, smartphone penetration in the Philippines is growing faster than Indonesia and Vietnam combined. What drives the growth of smartphone penetration is the influx of low priced local smartphone brands such as the Android powered Cherry Mobile, Starmobile, and myPhone, all priced in the US$ 50 - US$250 range.

Similarly, Asian phone brands Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi have also landed in the Philippines in an aggressive effort to earn double digit market share by the end of the year.

Correlation to the thriving economy and the young population
The strong digital lifestyle of the Filipinos is testament also to the equally strong economy of the country. Despite suffering the worst natural disasters ever recorded, GDP growth rates continue to be in its favor. As the country is cited as "Southeast Asia's Strong Man" and with a 33% annual growth in number of active mobile social accounts, it is good to see whether the Philippines is fit to for the title "Digital Lifestyle Capital of the World".

In a report done in 2014 by Tigercub Digital titled "The Perfect Digital Storm: Philippines", the boost in digital today owes much of its intensity to the "perfect digital storm of increased digital engagement, strong economic growth, and favorable (young and dynamic) demographics".

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Windows 10 Versions Arriving at Different Times

Everyone is aware that Windows 10 may be one operating system for all, but they are disappointed that many different versions aren't going to arrive all at the same time.

Microsoft has said the PC compatible version of the OS will be ready first, and it'll launch before Windows 10 Mobile, the version for smartphones. According to Microsoft VP Joe Belfiore, the mobile edition isn't at the same development stage as the desktop and tablet version, hence the staggered release.

Speaking at an event held during the Microsoft Build conference, Belfiore explained the reason why mobile is lagging behind, saying, "We're adapting the phone experiences later than we're adding the PC experiences." The news gets worse, because he indicated the networks will have a hand in when Windows 10 is eventually released, and we know from experience they rarely move swiftly when it comes to updates.

This will also, presumably, affect Microsoft's plans to release a new flagship Windows smartphone. It has steadily sent low and mid-range devices out into the world since taking over Nokia's mobile division, but has so far ignored the more expensive hardware. If the plan was to launch a new flagship phone with Windows 10, we could be looking at much later in the year before one arrives.

Belfiore didn't provide even an approximate launch date for Windows 10 Mobile, saying only that the PC edition -- which is also suitable for large tablets -- will come during the summer. Potentially, we may be looking at a post-September announcement for Windows 10 on smartphones, perhaps coinciding in part with the IFA tech show in Berlin, which takes place between September 4 and September 9.

Windows 10 for phones isn't the only version of Microsoft's one operating system that will get its own release date. Versions built for smart devices associated with the Internet of Things, the Xbox One games console, and the HoloLens device won't be here during the summer either.

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IDC: PHL is 3rd Largest Smartphone Market

According to IDC’s Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, a total of 26.8 million mobile phones were shipped to the Philippines in 2014. The share of smartphones increased to 47 percent in 2014, up from 24 percent in 2013.

Smartphone shipments to the Philippines registered a healthy 76 percent growth year-over-year (YoY), with the surge being fuelled by budget offerings from local vendors. While feature phones still made up majority of the mobile phone market in 2014, the past months saw both local and international vendors increasingly shifting their focus toward smartphones. Prices of smartphones continue to drop as component prices drop and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are able to produce cheaper smartphones.

"The narrowing price gap between smartphones and feature phones made smartphones more palatable to budget-conscious Filipino consumers, leading to the faster adoption of smartphones in 2014 compared to previous years," says Jerome Dominguez, Market Analyst at IDC Philippines.

Sub-PhP 4,000 (US$ 90) smartphone models accounted for more than 58 percent of smartphone shipments to the country last year.

"Catching up on the smartphone craze, the Philippines is now the third largest market for smartphones in Southeast Asia, coming after Indonesia and Thailand," adds Dominguez.

The Philippines is also the fourth country in Southeast Asia to ship more smartphones than feature phones, after Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. The 3rd quarter of 2014 was the first time in the Philippine market where smartphone shipments surpassed those of feature phones, marking the onset of a new era.

Although most smartphone vendors grew in volume terms in 2014, the local vendors are the ones that managed to gain market shares year-over-year. Local vendors grew from 49 percent in 2013 to 57 percent in 2014. Chinese vendors, on the other hand, dropped slightly from 16 percent to 15 percent in 2014. Due to stronger competition from local and Chinese vendors last year, the share of global vendors also dropped from 35 percent to 28 percent.

Three local smartphone vendors made it to the top 5 smartphone vendors in the Philippines (in unit shipment terms) in 2014. Cherry Mobile was the top smartphone vendor last year, while MyPhone and Torque ranked 3rd and 5th, respectively.

Daniel Pang, Senior Research Manager of the Client Devices group at IDC Asia/Pacific comments, “The success of local smartphone players is an offshoot of heavy marketing, celebrity endorsements, and price-competitive offerings. Branding is critical in the Philippines., The thriving local vendors are those that not only offer budget-friendly smartphones, but also produce strong ATL campaigns and are endorsed by popular celebrities."

Among the Chinese vendors, Lenovo has the biggest share in the Philippines, snagging the 4th spot in the top 5. Although gaining traction in other regions, Chinese vendors that just recently branched out of China have yet to gain ground in the country given limited brand awareness. This may change this year as these new entrants ramp up their marketing efforts.

Samsung still leads the pack of global vendors, followed by LG Electronics. As a newcomer to the smartphone market, ASUS also gained considerable share last year. The decline of Sony and Blackberry contributed to the drop in the overall share of global vendors in the Philippine smartphone market.

IDC remains bullish about the Philippine smartphone market in 2015. Smartphone shipment is expected to grow 20% year-over-year. Feature phone shipments, on the other hand, are expected to decelerate by 20% this year as more vendors shift their focus to making smartphones. IDC also expects smartphone prices to continue to go down as vendors further push the price limits for smartphones to the sub-PHP2,000 (US$50) price level.

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The Last Version of Windows?

"Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10." That was the message from Microsoft employee Jerry Nixon, a developer evangelist speaking at the company's Ignite conference a few days ago.

Nixon was explaining how Microsoft was launching Windows 8.1 last year, but in the background it was developing Windows 10. Now, Microsoft employees can talk freely about future updates to Windows 10 because there's no secret update in the works coming next. It's all just Windows 10. While it immediately sounds like Microsoft is killing off Windows and not doing future versions, the reality is a little more complex. The future is "Windows as a service."

Microsoft has been discussing the idea of Windows as a service, but the company hasn't really explained exactly how that will play out with future versions of Windows. That might be because there won't really be any future major versions of Windows in the foreseeable future. Microsoft has altered the way it engineers and delivers Windows, and the initial result is Windows 10.

Instead of big releases, there will be regular improvements and updates. Part of this is achieved by splitting up operating system components like the Start Menu and built-in apps to be separate parts that can be updated independently to the entire Windows core operating system. It's a big undertaking, but it's something Microsoft has been actively working on for Windows 10 to ensure it spans across multiple device types.

While we'll witness the results in the coming months, Microsoft is already in launch mode for a number of its apps and services that power Windows 10. The software company is testing preview builds of Window 10 with willing participants, and apps like Xbox and Mail have been engineered for regularly monthly updates. Even Office for Windows 10 will also get regular updates, much like a mobile version, instead of the big bang release every few years.

"Recent comments at Ignite about Windows 10 are reflective of the way Windows will be delivered as a service bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner, with continuous value for our consumer and business customers," says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. "We aren’t speaking to future branding at this time, but customers can be confident Windows 10 will remain up-to-date and power a variety of devices from PCs to phones to Surface Hub to HoloLens and Xbox. We look forward to a long future of Windows innovations."

With Windows 10, it's time to start thinking of Windows as something that won't see a big launch or major upgrade every few years anymore. Much like how Google's Chrome browser gets updated regularly with version numbers nobody really pays attention to, Microsoft's approach will likely result in a similar outcome. This is really the idea of Windows as a service, and the notion that Windows 10 could be the last major version of Windows. Microsoft could opt for Windows 11 or Windows 12 in future, but if people upgrade to Windows 10 and the regular updates do the trick then everyone will just settle for just "Windows" without even worrying about the version number.

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Hot Maria Ozawa Was in Manila

Don't look now, but if you happen to be an avid fan of porn, then you should be aware that Maria Ozawa was in Manila.

The 29-year-old adult video star was one of the guests of Magic 89.9's "Boys Night Out," co-hosted by DJs Tony, Slick Rick and Sam YG. The episode aired last 27 April marked the ninth anniversary of the program's segment, "#ManyakMonday."

Instagram (IG) posts from the show’s hosts confirm her presence at the studio. The DJs took took turns posting photos on their respective IG accounts, both announcing and teasing fans that the popular adult film star is in town all through Monday.

Ozawa became acquainted with adult videos (AV) by watching sex tapes she borrowed from a friend's brother. Unlike most AV actresses, Ozawa was not scouted. Instead, she was introduced to the AV industry through a friend appearing in AVs.

She began by modeling as Miyabi for the pornographic site Shirouto-Teien.com in June 2005, which resulted in several sets of photographs and a short hardcore gonzo video released in CD-R and DVD-R formats.

Ozawa did her first "interracial sex" scenes in "Multiple Black Rape", which was released by DAS in May 2008.

In June 2008, Ozawa changed studios once again, signing with a small studio, Ran-maru which released her first video with them on July 2008. Ran-maru, along with Ozawa's previous studios, S1, DAS and Attackers, are all part of Japan's largest group of AV companies, the Hokuto Corporation.

In August 2008, Ozawa acted in her first mainstream movie, "Invitation Only", billed as "Taiwan's First-Ever Slasher Horror". The film was produced by Three Dots Entertainment in Taiwan and co-stars Julianne Chu.

Ozawa followed up on her Shinjuku experience by starring in a cabaret show, "Tokyo Nights" at the Grand Lisboa Hotel in Macau(2008) which also featured several other Japanese performers. "Tokyo Nights" received mixed reviews.

Ozawa began to be cast in a variety of videos from different producers, including her first exclusively lesbian film for LADYxLADY, a division of the Japanese porn conglomerate Soft On Demand (SOD).

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Suicide Squad's Group Photo

Everyone is talking about the record-breaking numbers of "Avengers 2: Age of Ultron" and the upcoming "Captain America 3: Civil War" and not much anything else when superhero movie is the topic. However, what could be a dark horse in terms of movie earnings is the soon-to-be released "Suicide Squad's Task Force X".

The Squad (modern version created by John Ostrander in Legends #3) is an antihero team of incarcerated supervillains who act as deniable assets for the United States government, undertaking high-risk black ops missions in exchange for commuted prison sentences.

The group operates out of Belle Reve Penitentiary, under the directorship of Dr. Amanda Waller. The Suicide Squad's existence helps to explain why many convicted villains in the DC Universe roam free without having heroes tracking them down—until they inevitably attempt or commit another crime.

In July 2014, David Ramsey, who portrays Diggle on Arrow, indicated that the producers were looking into spinning off the Suicide Squad into their own TV series.

"They're talking about spinning Suicide Squad off. I don't know if they're going to really do it, but they've been talking about it," due to the positive fan reception. Ramsey also said a spin-off could potentially occur during Arrow‍ '​s mid-season hiatus, or during a two to three episode period during the third season of Arrow, as a "kind of connecting the tissue of the last season [two] to the beginning of the [third] season," Diggle revealed.

However, it seems the big screen will have the first crack on it. The highly anticipated movie version stars Jared Leto, Will Smith,Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, Cara Delevingne, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jay Hernandez, Adam Beach and Karen Fukuhara.

After teasing us with the first photo of Leto as an insanely scary Joker, director David Ayer has now shared a group shot (above), minus Leto.

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Waging War Against 'Revenge Porn'

According to the CNN report of Erica Fink and Laurie Segall, there is an on-going war right now being fought in the web. It's a war being wage by women against 'revenge porn'.

Revenge porn is sexually explicit media material that is publicly shared online without the consent of the subject individual. It may be uploaded by ex-partners with an intention to shame or embarrass the pictured individual, or by hackers.

Many of the images are photos taken by the victims themselves, or selfies, with women as the primary target. The uploaded images are often accompanied by personal information, including the pictured individual's full name, links to social media profiles or addresses. Unfortunately, prosecuting such crime is not as easy at it would seem.

Take the case of Nikki Rettelle whose nude photos dot the Internet and still popping up years after an ex-boyfriend posted them.

Rettelle, 34, says her naked pictures have been on hundreds of websites. It started with a man she sarcastically calls "Mr. Wonderful." The two dated briefly until Rettelle noticed an LED light beaming from a pen-holder in his room.

"Something compelled me to unscrew it, and as soon as it opened up ... my world started spinning," she recalls. Inside she found a memory card filled with countless images of herself -- ranging from her watching TV to changing her clothes.

It turned out the pen-holder was one of many cameras that had been collecting her private moments. Mr. Wonderful had also planted cameras at her home.

"It didn't dawn on me that people did that," Rettelle said.

Those images ended up on sites devoted to revenge porn. In Retelle's case, "Mr. Wonderful" paired her naked images with her full name and birthday along with phone numbers and addresses he believed were hers.

Situations like this happen more than you'd think.

In Chicago, a woman who asked to be called "Jane" recounts her nightmare. Pictures and videos taken on her honeymoon were posted online by her ex-husband. She says one video has been viewed over a million times.

"I describe it [as] similar to maybe the feeling of getting raped - you feel like you're that exposed," she said. "You feel like a million people are watching ... the most intimate moment of your life."

Both women say law enforcement was initially unhelpful.

"They basically told me that there was nothing I could do. They said, 'Next time don't be identifiable if you choose to do something like this,'" Jane said.

For victims, raising awareness is part of the path back to empowerment.

Rettelle says she's speaking out now to regain the control she lost. She has a message for Mr. Wonderful.

"I would tell him thank you," she says. "I love me for the first time in my entire existence and it's because of the character building I was forced to do because of this."

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Baron Zemo Will Be In "Civil War"

Movies based on popular comic books will always be the subject of leaks, rumors and endless speculation. Marvel’s upcoming ”Captain America: Civil War” is no exception.

As the actors prepare for production to begin (Chris Evans publicly lamented shaving off his winter beard to get ready to reprise his role as Cap), there was one report that will likely be true and it’s about one of the villains in the film.

Previous information revealed that that Daniel Bruhl has been cast, but it was only recently that reports confirmed that he’ll play the villainous Baron Zemo. While this has been widely accepted as truth, Bruhl himself recently confirmed this suspicion, months after being cast.

Talking to The Independent, the 36-year-old Spanish-German actor admitted that will play Zemo, adding:

”I think I can tell you that without being thrown into Marvel prison ... “

The purple-masked Baron Zemo is one of Captain America’s most prominent enemies, and over the years there have actually be two incarnations to contend with.

The first Baron was Heinrich Zemo, a Nazi scientist Cap fights during World War 2, and who ultimately perishes in combat. In Civil War, Bruhl will play the second version of the antagonist, Helmut Zemo, who is the son of the original, and who follows in his father’s footsteps looking for a spot of revenge.

Helmut Zemo is an interesting case because he’s an ambiguous villain, one who can pass as a good guy when he needs to wants to, or at least when it suits him. It’s looking more and more likely that he’ll embrace some of this uncertainty in Civil War.

In the arc in the comics, he essentially plays both sides, recruiting villains for the pro-registration side of the superhero conflict, at the request of Tony Stark and Iron Man, while he also helps Cap escape from custody. It remains to see how the Marvel Cinematic Universe makes use of Baron Zemo—they’ve never been opposed to tweaking stories to fit their needs—but given his role in the source material, he is certainly going to be an interesting character to keep an eye on.

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