Paul Thurrott

Because in Paris *personne ne peut vous entendre crier*, this edition of Short Takes focuses on some important questions about Microsoft’s earnings and lack of transparency, the relative success of Surface Hub, Intel vs. Qualcomm, Eric Snowden’s new product offering, and more.

France’s CNIL, which is tasked with protecting personal data and preserving individual liberties, this week accused Microsoft of violating the French Data Protection Act by using Windows 10 to “collect excessive user data without their consent.” Quelle horreur!

Spurred in part by a British pound that has plummeted in value since that country’s “Brexit” vote, Japan’s SoftBank announced this morning that it will purchase UK-based mobile chip designer ARM Holdings for $32 billion in cash.

Because I’m traveling so much I don’t even know where I am anymore, this edition of Short Takes focuses on businesses saving money with Windows 10, Microsoft’s legal victory, Raspberry Pi’s cry for help, a potential UK ban on encryption, and so much more.

The European Commission this morning announced a third set of antitrust charges against Google, formally accusing the search giant with abusing its advertising and shopping services.

Last month, Microsoft quietly unveiled a Surface Membership plan that allows small businesses to buy the firm’s devices on a monthly payment plan. Today, at its Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft offered a similar plan to its partners, allowing them to sell Surface as a service.

Analysts from both Gartner and IDC reported this week that the PC market declined once again in the second quarter of 2016, by 4.8 percent, with PC makers shipping just over 63 million units.

Because I still kind of miss Steve Ballmer, this edition of Short Takes focuses on the mysteries around Kevin Turner’s exit, Microsoft’s cringe-worthy invite to Bay Area hipsters, AV market consolidation, Android malware, and more.

Kevin Turner’s 11-year run as Chief Operating Officer at Microsoft has come to a close: Citadel Securities announced this morning that Mr. Turner will become its CEO after a brief transition period.

A new version of the Skype for Business for Mac Preview is now available, adding new contacts and presence, IM, peer-to-peer calling, group video calling, and conversation history capabilities.

Microsoft announced this week that it will take the long-awaited step of moving two key client virtualization solutions—App-V and UE-V—from its Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) suite of utilities and bundle them for free with Windows 10 Enterprise and Education.

Blackberry has transitioned its devices, in turn, to touch-based Blackberry 10 and Android systems, but it has thus far always kept at least one classic smart phone in the market. But that’s finally changing this week: Blackberry has announced that it will no longer make the BlackBerry Classic.