For my trip to Northern California, I brought 2 laptops: my Apple MacBook Pro and and my Samsung laptop running Windows 10. Before I left Tucson, I could not get the Anniversary Update to install on my desktop or my Samsung laptop. But as I documented last week, once I got here, I was able to mysteriously install it on the laptop as well as its latest updates. Can’t wait to get back to Tucson to see if I can somehow get my PC to install it.
Anyway, I have had a chance to play with a few of the new features that came with the Anniversary Update and here are some of my observations:
First, the mail app. From what I read prior to installation, the new Windows 10 mail app is much better. And I can so testify that it is. In fact, on this laptop, it has become my default mail app. It is quite good. I was able to flawlessly add my 3 favorite e-mails, including my Apple e-mail. They all work just fine. I was also able to easily link all 3 addresses so that they show up in one inbox. It is definitely a plus.
Second, the Edge browser. It is improved and I was able to easily add most of my favorite extensions like LastPass and Adblock Plus. The browser is very fast and I can easily move from site to site. Some tech journalists do report that some sites are very, very slow in loading, but I have not played with Edge that much to verify their claims. I like using it, but some of my most used extensions are not available so will have to continue to use Firefox for most of my heavy duty work. PS, Edge has crashed on me a couple of times.
Third, the Calendar app. It works well enough and it easily connects to my Google Calendar and shows all my events, but there are so many better calendar apps out there that I will not be using it.
Fourth: The Photos app is OK. I don’t have any photos stored on this laptop, but it automatically went to my OneDrive files in the cloud to show me those photos. I can’t see myself using this app as I use my MAC for most of my photo work. But, it did a good job linking to my OneDrive photos. However, there are no photo tools yet available to do editing and improving. I think this app will probably get better in the future.
Cortana works well enough, about the same as Siri on my iPhone and iPad. But I have not given it many tough tests yet. It is supposed to be much much better in the Anniversary update, but I don’t see it. More testing is needed.
There are many more apps, most of which I will never use. But I am mostly impressed with what Microsoft is trying to do in Windows. So I hope they keep up the good work.
Time for me sign off and sit outside on the patio and enjoy this great weather here in the Bay Area. Quite a change from Tucson. I hope there are some articles below that will be of use to you. -JRC
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Best NFL 2016 fantasy football apps for iPhone: Draft, drop, and track your players like a pro!
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