Day: July 4, 2015

Geek Software of the Week: Bluestacks!

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BluestacksAs my earlier post described, this software allows you to run Android apps on your computer, whether PC (Windows) or Mac!

Bluestacks – Android on Your Computer!

“Gaming on mobile draining your battery? Play and message as long as you want while keeping your phone at 100%.
Save battery. Play on BlueStacks.

For the first time, you can play Castle Clash on a big screen and message on Whatsapp at the same time. You can also share files from your PC and Mac onto mobile, for example posting photos on Instagram from your computer.

Download apps onto to your computer with a single click. Bluestacks merges your Windows or OSX and Android experiences seemlessly. Applications and games can now live behind a single desktop icon.”

ARRRGH! The Gamemaster just let me know that Bluestacks is only free the first day, one day later, it pops up and says that you have to pay $2.00 per month, OR, download and install certain apps… oh well, so this week’s GSotW comes with a caveat!

Edge Will Not Support Silverlight

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The new browser called “Edge” in Windows 10 will be really stripped down, and that is a good thing!

Microsoft confirms its new Edge browser won’t support Silverlight

Windows Central – By: John Callaham – “Microsoft has already announced that its new Microsoft Edge web browser in Windows 10 will not be using many of the features that were a part of its old Internet Explorer browsers. That includes support for ActiveX-based plug-ins. Today, Microsoft confirmed that the ditching of ActiveX also means Edge won’t support the company’s own Silverlight web-based media player.

In a blog post. Microsoft said:

‘Support for ActiveX has been discontinued in Microsoft Edge, and that includes removing support for Silverlight. The reasons for this have been discussed in previous blogs and include the emergence of viable and secure media solutions based on HTML5 extensions. Microsoft continues to support Silverlight, and Silverlight out-of-browser apps can continue to use it. Silverlight will also continue to be supported in Internet Explorer 11, so sites continue to have Silverlight options in Windows 10. At the same time, we encourage companies that are using Silverlight for media to begin the transition to DASH/MSE/CENC/EME based designs and to follow a single, DRM-interoperable encoding work flow enabled by CENC. This represents the most broadly interoperable solution across browsers, platforms, content and devices going forward.’

Silverlight was first introduced in 2007 as an alternative Adobe’s Flash player for web-based media. It was most famously used by Netflix for its desktop streaming video service. The last major release was Silverlight 5 in 2011 and Microsoft has not indicated plans to release a major new version. Most sites have now abandoned Silverlight and Netflix is transitioning its web player to HTML5.”