Following the news sure can be a hassle can't it? There's a lot we don't cover during the week, mostly because they are smaller stories that may not justify a full-length article. But if you're a fan of all things small, then we've got plenty of size-related topics to discuss in this week's WPD Bits.
Microsoft is planning a surprisingly big number for its Surface launch later this year, the Surface Cake has the size to match those ambitions, SkyDrive covers up the naughty bits, and IE is going dark soon. For the full skinny, keep on reading past the break!
Analyst: Microsoft to produce 3 million Surface tablets in 2012
An IDC analyst has told CNET that Microsoft plans to produce 3 million units of its Surface tablets this year. While that may not sound like too much, keep in mind a few things:
- Besides the Xbox, this could be the most hardware Microsoft produces this year.
- It's 3 million units in the last two months of the year, which means Microsoft could be expecting to sell quite a few in the U.S. this holiday.
- The Surface is just two models compared to the several Windows 8 and RT devices coming out this holiday.
It's gonna be a big launch! [ Source: CNET ]
The Surface Cake rises at Microsoft's Windows 8 party
Speaking of the Surface, here's a to-scale cake of the new tablets. Yes, the table is a part of the cake too. Looks like the Microsoft campus gets fed pretty well when they finish work on a major operating system. [ Via: The Verge / Source: SkyDrive ]
SkyDrive's terms prohibit nude content from being in your private storage
As SkyDrive gains more and more users with Microsoft's many improvements, some of its policies have come under more scrutiny. In particular the cloud service's terms over what it deems as 'pornographic' content, which is subject to removal from your storage -- even if the file is set to private. VentureBeat got in touch with a Microsoft rep who said that the company simply follows its own "Code of Conduct", and whatever content falls outside of that isn't in the best interests of its users. Big Brother, much? [ Source: VentureBeat ]
'Go Dark for IE' campaign pushes the internet to dump those old browsers
On October 26th, 2012, you could see this message pop up on top of your favorite website. What does it mean? It's time to dump that old browser! An online campaign has aims to raise public awareness of outdated versions of Internet Explorer and their negative effects on the internet. Site administrators can insert a simple line of code on October 26th, and for the whole day users running anything older than IE 9 will see the above image and a link to upgrade to a modern browser (which offers IE 9 as well as Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc.).
We're not sure it's smart for administrators to "go dark" over something a user may not have control over (i.e. if they can't afford Vista or Win 7, how will they upgrade to IE 9?), but we have to admit it's a pain in the behind to code for older versions of IE. [ Via: Neowin / Source: Go Dark for IE ]
