Welcome back to the Softonic minute for the 17 of August. This week we look at the company formally known as google, check in on Windows 10, ponder just how safe our security makes up, and enjoy ourselves with some games. Last week we had the shock announcement that the company we now know as Google was to become Alphabet. Not that Google was to cease to exist, instead Alphabet is to act as a parent company to internet giant – allowing it to focus on its core products, like the Google OS and Gmail – allowing other teams and products to act independently with drones, optic fiber, self-driving cars, science, genetics. Somewhat ironically, the first thing most startups do when beginning a new venture, Alphabet seems to have forgotten to do – and that is to Google their proposed name. It turns out Alphabet.com belongs to the car giant BMW – and they aren’t selling. In Windows 10 news last week, it seems Microsoft have already reached 50 million users with their new OS. The popularity of Windows 10 seem to have made them very productive too, as the company has already released a third update for the platform – just 3 days after the second. Details on what this fixes exactly are slim, but we do ponder why another update was necessary so quickly? Microsoft has also just launched a version of Windows 10 for Raspberry Pi 2, called Windows 10 IoT Core. The official website for this is already showing off some of what the OS can do, including powering a robotic opponent for a game of Airhocks. Check out the link in the descriptions to see more of the interesting projects being made possible through this system. Kaspersky also made headlines last week. Though the antivirus company has just released it 2016 update, but that has not been the focus of all the interest. Two former Kaspersky employees spoke with Reuters news agency, alleging that the Russian company believed that its competitors were copying their code rather than creating their own. To combat this and discredit its rivals, Kaspersky set about misleading VirusTotal in to believing benign PC files were dangerous, tricking their competitors’ virus checkers into deleting them. Kaspersky refutes these claims, and there is now an investigations underway. Finally, in lighter news let’s talk games! Fallout Shelter has come to Android after being out on iOS for 2 months, allowing more people to enjoy this addictive post-apocalyptic management game. If you would rather watch than play then Twitch has you covered, with Twitch plays Dark Souls. This is seeing people log video stream service to “play” the game – as writing inputs into the chat window effects the onscreen characters movement. But with a huge delay things are going comically badly as the unfortunate hero is failing time and again to make it past even the first enemy after 3 and a half days. The last Twitch plays I watched this much was Pokemon Red which took a little over 16 days to finish – it looks like Dark Souls I going to keep me busy much longer. See you next week with more news about technology week. See you!
