Web User - UK (2019-11-27)

What wethink of this fortnight’s top tech news stories and rumours,

and howtheyaffect you

Discusswebnewsatwww.facebook.com/webusermagazine 27 Nov-10Dec 2019^9

Needto Know

aimistohavefullfibre

coverageby2 03 0.The

Conservativeshavealready

pledged£5bninpublicfunds

tohelpspurafibrerolloutby

2025 .BTarguesthat

Labour’sgoalwillcostas

muchas£ 30 bn,andthat

thepartyhasunderestimated

thedifficultyofachieving

perfecthigh-speedcoverage

inruralareas.

Thenthere’sthefree

some warning from Micros oft

before th ey vanish forgood.

What dowethink?

Microsoft’s telemetrydata

lets it know in detail howwell

used such Windows 10 apps

and toolsreally are, butthat

doesn’ talwayspaintatrue

picture–someone mayonly

usethe Peopleapp nowand

then,but rely on it as their

main contacts-listbacku p,

Labour promisesfree broadband if elected

Microsoftkills offWindows 10 features

service. Thedetails of how

this would work isn’t clear,

butit’sworth noting that

plentyofBrits buy

broadbandaspartofaTV

and mobile package,and

that contractsint he UK are

alreadysomeoft he

cheapest in Euro pe.

What dowethink?

Regardless of whowinsthe

election,something needs

to be doneto push

Openreachinto

accelerating itsfull-fibre

rollout–and,one wayor

another,it’sgoingtocost

us.But it’s good news to

seebroadband backasa

majorpolicyfor the

politicalparties,getting

thenecessaryattention it

deserves.

forexample.Sowehope

Microsoft givesplentyof

warnin gbefore th etools

arepermanentlyremoved.

Butit’sunderstandab le

that Micros oftisn’t willing

to paydevelopersto keep

workingontools that

aren ’t well used.Itmakes

sensetof ocus effortson

morepopularfeaturesthat

provideabenefi ttoa

grea ternumberofu sers.

What happened?

TheLabourParty hitthe

headlineswith apledg eto

give everyhomeand

business in theUKfull-fibre

broadbandfor free if the

partywinsthe looming

general election.The plans

would seeBTpartially

national isedatacostof

£15to£20bn,with some of

thecosts fundedby atax

on technology companies.

Thereare twoaspects to

theplan: thefirst is to roll

outfullfibre to allpremises

in theUK, rather than the

slowerfibre-to-the-cabinet

that makesupmostofo ur

network; thesecond

involves national ising

Openreach, the

infrastructureand

networkingcompanythat

What happened?

Microsoft hasrevealed

detailsofahandful of

built-in toolsthatwill be

droppedfromfuture

versions of Windows 10.

Theseinclude thePeople

app, which pullstogether

contacts fr om phonelists,

Skypeand your email

accountintoasingle

location –althoughwhy

you’dneed someone’s

phonenumber to email

them hasnever been

particularly cl ear.

Otherfeaturesset to

disappearinclude Snipping

Tool,whichwas used to

capturescreenshotsand

hasbeen replaced by Snip

&Sketc h; Windows To Go,

which allowedEnterprise

userstobootfromaUSB

drive; and the3Dprinting

BT owns butwas forced to

separatefromin2017. Most

ISPs in thecountry actually

resell Openreach services,

though some –suchasVirgin

Media–have builttheir own

networks.BTwas previously

apublicly ownedcompany.

Howwillitaffectyou?

If Labourwinsamajority,and

manages to pull offthisplan

amid other distractions,the

appPrint 3D,whichhas been

replaced by 3D Builder.

Howwillitaffectyou?

Thesetools don’t yethave a

‘death date’, so don’tplanthe

funeral justyet.Instead,

they’r ethe latest to be added

to thedeprecatedfeatures

page (bit.ly/depr ecated489 ),

which signals that Microsoft

isn’tgoingtospend any

more time or money

developin gthem.Theycould

still be revived in thefuture,

as happened with thePaint

appafter an online backlash,

butthey’re morelikelyto

simply be removedvia an

upcomingupda te.That

meansanyone using these

toolsneedstof indsuitable

alternativ es before the

built-in versions disappear,

although thereshould be