This article from an iOS advertising platform company pretty much confirms that: http://insights.chitika.com/2012/ios-6-adoption-post-google-maps/

Basically, when google maps was released for iOS 6, their data shows that it had no immediate impact on iOS 6 adoption and continued to have no impact for 5 days afterwards. Once the iPhone 5 was released in China, then there was a nice little spike in iOS 6 usage.

Basically, if you look at it week-by-week, it could look like Google Maps caused a spike in iOS 6 adoption, but when you look at it day-by-day it tells a different story.

Okay... That still puts Windows 8 usage at less than half of what Windows 7 usage was at this same point in time (5% vs 2%).

Huh? Microsoft themselves has already admitted that Windows 8 sales are at nearly the EXACT same pace as Windows 7 sales.

Okay... How about actual web usage: http://www.zdnet.com/statcounter-windows-8-license-sales-not-yet-translating-into-usage-7000008148/

Even though Microsoft sold as many licenses of Windows 8 as they did of Windows 7, Windows 7 saw much higher actual usage after one month on the market compared to Windows 8 after one month on the market. Windows 7 made up 4.93% of internet users 1 month after launch compared to Windows 8's 1.31% 1 month after launch. That paints a pretty bleak picture of actual Windows 8 usage. Even Windows Vista managed to get nearly 2% of web browser share after the first month.

So lets assume that both statistics are correct. Microsoft sold 40 million licenses of Windows 8, the same as Windows 7 for the same time period AND Windows 8's web usage 1 month after launch is only 27% of Windows 7's web usage 1 month after launch. Let's add in a few more facts, like NewEgg saying that windows 8 sales are slow and that sales of Windows devices are down 21% from last year since the launch of Windows 8. Based on these facts, we can extrapolate a story.

The story I extrapolated is this: Microsoft sold 40 million licenses of Windows 8 in several ways: 1) end users taking advantage of the cheap $40 upgrade option that has never been offered before, 2) the volume license sales of Windows that are now Windows 8 licenses that are almost ALL being downgraded to Windows 7 because Microsoft no longer sells Windows 7 licenses, and 3) a whole TON of licenses to OEMs so they could get the initial supply of Windows 8 devices in to sales channels for launch.

So lets go over these sales paths:

1) The end user upgrades are legitimate sales of Windows 8. However, I would expect these numbers to be much higher than the initial Windows 7 upgrade sales simply because of the huge discount that didn't exist for the Windows 7 launch. The $40 upgrade price is either a 60% or 80% discount depending on whether you would buy the home or professional edition. I would expect to see a small rush of people buying to take advantage of the lower price...even over the normal PC enthusiast sales of people who must have the latest-and-greatest. The $40 upgrade option would also explain why direct to consumer upgrades of Windows 8 are selling at a faster pace than Windows 7 did. When you give a very hefty discount to pretty much everyone, people are going to jump on the deal.

2) volume license sales: Business need Windows licenses and you can only buy Windows 8 now. So even though the business is installing Windows 7 with those Windows 8 licenses, they are still being counted as a "Windows 8 sale". These are licenses Microsoft would've sold whether Windows 8 was released or not. Also, i'd be curious to know whether Microsoft is including any previous Windows 7 licenses with Software Assurance as a "Windows 8 sale" as well.

3) OEM sales: This is where I bet Microsoft sold the bulk of their Windows 8 licenses. OEMs had to buy their initial set of licenses to cover their initial stock of Windows 8 devices being shipped to sales channels. World wide PC sales for 2012 are expected to be around 350 million units...or about 30 million PCs per month. I would also expect the sales numbers to be more heavy during the back-to-school and holiday shopping periods, so weighted more towards the end of the year. So PC manufacturers probably planned on selling around 40 million PCs for the month. As an OEM, a month's worth of expected sales sounds like a good number to buy for my initial purchase of Windows 8 licenses and to push out in to sales channels.

So to me, it sounds like Microsoft is announcing they sold pretty much the exact number of Windows 8 licenses they would've sold anyway, whether or not one single person actually bought a PC/Device with Windows 8 on it or not. Combine that information with the fact that the RETAILERS are saying that PC sales are DOWN 20% this year compared to last year and it sounds like ACTUAL sales of Windows 8 licenses to end users is down.

Don't get me wrong, Windows 8 will still sell a few hundred million copies during it's lifetime. Microsoft sold over 100 million copies of Windows Vista in it's first year. This is simply because people NEED to buy PCs. But history has judged Windows Vista to be one of the bad versions that Microsoft has produced.

And finally, to put the "40 million licenses in the first month of sales" in to perspective: For Windows Vista, Microsoft announced that it had sold 20 million licenses of Vista in the first month's of sales which took place in Feb of 2007. Since 2007 had barely started, i'll look at 2006's PC sales figures: approx 239 million computers sold in 2006...which is approximately 20 million licenses per month, at the time. What this means is that, after accounting for the growth of the PC market, sales of Windows 8 is on the same sales pace as Windows Vista...and we all know how well Windows Vista turned out.

Also, considering that the PC market has grown from a little over 300 million PC sales in 2009 for Windows 7's release to 350 million in 2012, it means that Windows 8's sales are actually DOWN once you take in to account for the growth of the PC market. In order for Windows 8 to be on the same pace as Windows 7, it would've had to have sold almost 47 million licenses in the first month.

It matters if those licenses that Microsoft has sold to the OEMs in the first month haven't made it to the end users yet. If end users aren't buying computers with Windows 8 on them, then the pace of Windows 8 license sales will slow as OEMs aren't going to keep buying licenses at the same pace. The OEMs will still have enough licenses in their inventory of licenses to put on PCs as they are actually sold to end users.

You should try ninite pro. You can create a login script or a scheduled task in activate directory for all your machines that will wake up every day or two and run ninite pro. This will then check all of the following and make sure it's updated to the latest version...all in the background without any user interaction or admin rights required:

* All major 3rd party browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera)
* All major IM apps (Skype, Pidgin, AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, etc.)
* All major media apps (iTunes, VLC, Quicktime, Winamp, etc.)
* All major browser plugins (Flash, Java, Silverlight, etc.)
* PDF readers/creators (Adobe Reader, Cute PDF, OpenOffice, etc.)
* Major antimalware softwares (Microsoft Security Essentials, Avast, AVG, Spybot, etc.)
* A lot of 3rd party utility softwares (ImgBurn, TrueCrypt, Evernote, Google Earth, 7zip, WinRAR, FileZilla, Notepad++, Putty, etc.)

It wakes up, detects what is installed (whether ninite installed them in the first place or not), determines what softwares has updates, installs them, disables any crapware installs that might be included (browser toolbars, etc.), will prevent any automatically placed desktop shortcuts from being placed, and prevent all of those stupid "auto-update" apps that everything installs but needs admin rights to actually update.

It all runs in the background, no user interaction required, the user isn't even aware it happens. It creates a log file of all the updates. The Ninite software itself isn't actually installed on any of your workstations or servers...it's a simple exe file that can be dropped in to a shared network drive and it runs from there. It will also cache any downloads it must do so that other machines running ninite don't have to redownload an update that's already been downloaded saving bandwidth.

I basically created a scheduled task to run the ninte on all computers every 2 days using group policy and active directory. Did that about 5 months ago and it's been working flawlessly ever since.

Kind of. It's a one-time request per App you install. It's more like Facebook's system of a user authorizing a Facebook app to access their data. The first time an App requests a particular type of data, UI from facebook pops up and says "here is what the app is requesting, do you want to allow it?"

The way it works on iOS 6 is similar. The first time an App wants to access a protected type of data from the phone, UI from iOS pops up and asks if it's okay. It happens the first time and once you give permission you don't need to give it again. You can also revoke permission later from the device settings as well.

They are doing it in iOS 6, which hasn't been released yet. It is in Beta and should be released in the next couple of months.

They are starting to do this with iOS 6. I have they beta on my device and anytime an app wants access to your contacts, calendar information, reminders, and/or photos the OS asks the user if it's okay for the app to access such things.

That makes about as much sense as someone saying that they got to sit in a parked sports car that didn't have a steering wheel and they weren't allowed to turn on the stereo or push any buttons.... but since the car was parked on the road it's a "road test".

A cop stopping and frisking every person that they walk past as a "stop and frisk" is definitely very illegal and unconstitutional. It's not a matter of frisking some people and frisking everyone. They are not allowed to stop and frisk ANYONE without probable cause.

The reason it's different for driving is because you don't have a right to drive. You are licensed to drive, that license can be revoked, and one of the conditions of receiving that license is that you are required to stop for a police officer checking to see if you are still meeting the requirements of having your license...or are even properly licensed.

They still can not search your person or your property (vehicle) without probable cause. But they are allowed to stop you and ask you questions. They can also look at what's in plain site in your vehicle.

The basic rundown of a sobriety checkpoint is: Cars are stopped, the officer may or may not ask for your license, registration, and maybe proof of insurance. The officer may also may or may not also ask you some questions. The whole point is to check to see if you show signs of being intoxicated...Are you slurring your speech, can they smell alcohol on your breath or from the car, can they see any open containers in plain sight, etc. Once they see any of those signs of the driver being intoxicated, they have their probable cause and can then proceed to search you (breathalyzer, sobriety test, etc.) and your car.

They don't have to stop every car, but they aren't allowed to choose cars to stop based on profiles or demographics (race, gender, sports cars, etc.) They could choose to only stop every 4th car, as an example. They can also choose to stop cars outside of their current pattern if there is a reasonable suspicion to stop it... swerving, driver appears to be nodding off, sees what looks like an open container in the cup holder, etc.

The main difference is: As a person, you have a right against search and seizure without probable cause. As a driver, you are licensed, and they are allowed to stop anyone or everyone to check to make sure that they are properly licensed to drive and meeting all the requirements of maintaining said license.

Some of these requirements may be more strict in some states. Some states have given people more rights to privacy from police officers while they are driving.

Disclaimer: IANAL.

UPC barcodes don't work that way. UPC barcodes have two pieces of info encoded on to them as one 12 digit number: Manufacturer and Product. My understanding is a little rough, but the first digit of the code represents what type of code it is (coupon, product, etc...) The next 5 digits are a unique number assigned to each manufacturer, the next 5 is a unique number assigned by the manufacturer to that specific product, and the last digit is a basic checksum to detect errors in scanning or manual entry.

In order to generate a product description and price, the register has to look up the 12 digit number in the store's computer database and retrieve that information. None of that information is encoded in to the actual barcode itself.

probably what he did is find another lego product with a lower price and just put it's UPC code on the more expensive product.

Web page hits =/= bandwidth consumed. Surfing the web does consume bandwidth, but compared to other types of applications that can consume bandwidth, it's consumes a relatively small amount.

When compared to things like streaming radio, skype, netflix, video conferencing, etc, web surfing doesn't consume that much bandwidth.

It's entirely possible that android users typically tend to have high-usage of those high-bandwidth applications.

Also, here is an article that I found that also says that android users use more bandwidth: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2374032,00.asp It is 2 years old, so it may not be as relevant.

The article you linked to actually says the complete opposite. It says "Apple Inc., maker of the iPad, 40.5 million shipped worldwide, 62 percent share". That would mean that all other tablets shipped would fall in to the 48% share. Which would mean that the iPad out sold all other tablet devices combined.

This is NOT true in the consumer preview. You could disable Metro in the developer preview via a registry setting, but it is NOT possible to disable metro in the consumer preview via a registry setting. The only way to disable it in Consumer preview is with a 3rd party application hack.

hahaha. You're funny. You can't turn Metro off. You can sure switch to the desktop, but the instant you try to open a start menu (lower-left click or by pressing the windows key) you are taken right back in to Metro.