Micro_Mart_-_January_7_2016_

40 IssueIssue 13951395

July

J

uly was a big monthfor everyonein the UK as freephone

0800 and 0808numberssensiblybecamefree on mobilesas

well as landlines.The changehas beena long time coming.

Microsoftfounditselfa new Groovein July with the

rebrandingof XboxMusicas GrooveMusic.Why?It said,“Groove

describeswhatpeoplefeel and do with music.”We wrote that it

soundeddreadfulbackthen.Our opinionhasn’t changed.

Towards the end of July, Amazonlaunchedits PrimeMusicservice

for UK users,whichwas a tastyadditionfor anyonealreadysigned

up to Prime.July was also a monthfor one of the biggerhacking

storiesof the year (of whichthere were plenty)as Fiat Chrysler

recalledmore than1.4 millionJeep,Dodgeand Chryslermodels

becauseof a flaw in the entertainmentsystemthat meantthe cars

couldbe controlledby hackers.

And finally...a very clevermanput a versionofHalf-Lifeonto

an Android LG G Watch. Crazydays.Is that a more impressive

achievementthanMicrosoftlaunchingWindows10 globallyon

29thJuly?Erm,possibly, althoughwith14 millionPCs upgrading

on day one of the launch,Microsoftwouldhavebeenmightily

pleasedwiththat.

C

ameramakerCanondid a bit

of showingoff in September

with the announcementthat it

has developeda 250-megapixel

camerasensor, whichis quitea lot bigger

thananythinghousedon your mobile.

Whatevermobilethat is, it’s unlikely

to be one of Amazon’s Fire phones,

whichAmazonbinnedfollowingrelatively

poorsales.Poorsalesare not generally

somethingyou associatewithApple,

though,whichannouncedthe iPad Pro to

kick off the autumnseason.This tablethas

sincegoneon to garner somefantastic

praiseand reviewsand is perhapsa genuine

alternativeto a desktopsystem.

At the otherend of the cost spectrum,

Amazonwentstraightfor the budget

marketwith its £49 Fire tablet.Again,with

goodreviews,behindit it’s hard not to see

bothAmazonand Applehavingdoneokay

this Christmas.

Forgetall this, though.The mostimportant

newsof the month– and quitepossiblythe

year – was the newsthat the worldrecord

score forDonkeyKongwas beatenat the

DonkeyKongOnlineOpenevent.That score

now reads 1,172,100.Beat that.

T

he gamingcommunitycame

togetherin Augustto see

whethera crowd-playattempt

to havea wholeload of people

playDarkSoulsvia Twitch couldreally work.

Aftera few earlyteethingproblems,the

experimentdid work...kind of.

Augustwas also the monthin whichone

of the year’s biggerhackstook the headlines,

as CarphoneWarehouseannouncedthe

leak of the personaldetailsof 2.4 million

customers.Amongthosewere thousandsof

encryptedcredit card details,and this was

all ratherworryingand embarrassingfor the

company. Not as embarrassing,perhaps,

as the chapwho was arrestedfor shooting

a drone that flew over his garden, quoted

in the press as saying“I havea rightas an

Americancitizento defendmy property.”

Spotify’s DanielEk had to apologise

whenusersaired angerover the company’s

updatedprivacypolicy, statingthat the

firm wouldhaveaccessto data on users’

smartphoneswhensigningup. Ek explained

that any data wouldcertainlynot be used

in any way withouta user’s permission.

Caughtin an entirely different type of storm

was one of Google’s datacentres in Europe,

whichlost data permanentlyas a result of a

lightningstrike.Howmuch?0.000001%.

September

August

QUICKBITS...Personaldronesin the US must now be registered, accordingto a new rulingput in