ICYMI: October 17, 2015

News
By Seth Brodeur
last updated

A lot can happen in a week. Seven days might not seem like much, but it can be an eternity in the tech news cycle.

Between Windows news, hardware and software developments and Microsoft's fast-paced movements throughout the technology landscape, it's never easy to keep your hand on the pulse of technology. Not to mention everything that's going on right here at Windows Central!

Every week we're going to compile the biggest stories into one post, so you never fall behind – In Case You Missed It (ICYMI).

Windows

Windows

As we have seen in past weeks, Windows 10 has been enjoying early success and quick adoption by millions of people. It now accounts for over half of all Windows Store app downloads, which is pretty incredible.

Early this week, Windows 10 PC preview build 10565 rolled out to Fast Ring Windows Insiders, and then reached the Slow Ring shortly after.

Some of the highlights include new Skype apps, as well as tab previews in Microsoft Edge. Perhaps the most innovative new feature is "nested virtualization", which essentially allows users to run a virtual Windows 10 machine within another one.

Take a video tour of the new build to see what else is new.

We've also compiled a list of what's fixed and what's still broken in Windows 10 PC Insider preview build 10565 and everything else you need to know

Word has it that Microsoft has started working on "Redstone", the next major update for Windows 10.

Redstone is not expected to roll out until next year. So in the meantime, they pushed out the "October update", which is largely "improvements to enhance the functionality of Windows 10."

Other notable items:

Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft's new Surface Book has become a hit before it's even been released. Pre-orders of the laptop already sold out at the Microsoft Store. Microsoft quickly made more available, but with long shipment dates.

With worldwide PC sales down nearly eleven percent in Q3 of this year, Redmond has teamed up Intel, Lenovo, Dell, and HP for a massive ad campaign to get people excited about PCs in time for the holidays. The "PC Does What?!'" campaign kicks off October 19 and will span TV, print, and the internet.

Gamers in enrolled in the New Xbox One Experience got an update that will allow them to remap the buttons on their Xbox One controllers.

And in a recent interview, Xbox head Phil Spencer said he wants to see Xbox 360 games running on PC. With backwards compatibility being added to Xbox One, it doesn't sound too far-fetched.

Other notable items:

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

Dell rocked the technology world when it announced that it will acquire the EMC Corporation in a 67-billion dollar deal. The deal will create one of the largest one-stop shops for enterprise computing:

"The transaction combines two of the world's greatest technology franchises with leadership positions in servers, storage, virtualization and PCs and it brings together strong capabilities in the fastest growing areas of the industry, including digital transformation, software-defined data center, hybrid cloud, converged infrastructure, mobile and security."

Dropbox and Adobe have teamed up, allowing Windows and Mac users to open, edit, save and share PDF files stored in DropBox directly from Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader. Though this is just the first phase of the partnership, no other features have been announced yet.

And just over a week after naming co-founder Jack Dorsey as its new CEO, Twitter revealed its plan to lay off up to 336 team members, or about 8 percent of its workforce, as part of a company restructure.

Other notable items:

Share your thoughts on this past week of news! And we'll be back again next week to do it all over again.

Seth Brodeur
Seth Brodeur