Kiran Upadhyay

On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission issued an “Enforcement Advisory” stating that blocking W-Fi in hotels is unequivocally “prohibited." "Persons or businesses causing intentional interference to Wi-Fi hotspots are subject to enforcement action,” the FCC bluntly stated, referencing a dispute between Marriott and its customers who said the hotel chain had blocked their personal hotspots to force them to pay for Marriott’s Wi-Fi services. "The Enforcement Bureau has seen a disturbing trend in which hotels and other commercial establishments block wireless consumers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hot spots on the commercial establishment’s premises,” the FCC wrote. "As a result, the Bureau is protecting consumers by aggressively investigating and acting against such unlawful intentional interference.” The statement is a definitive one. The FCC fined Marriott $600,000 in October for blocking customers’ personal Wi-Fi hotspots at a Nashville, Ten

Microsoft has just announced the first pricing information for Windows 10 at its preview event today. The biggest news is that the new OS will be completely free for current Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 users for its first year of availability—after that time period has expired, OS upgrades will presumably need to be paid for as they are currently (though Microsoft was less than clear on this point, it made no mention of a paid, Office 365-style subscription for Windows upgrades). The Windows 10 upgrade for Windows Phone 8.1 users will also be free. "Once a device is upgraded to Windows 10, we'll be keeping it current for the supported lifetime of the device," said Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Operating Systems Group. "With Windows 10, we think of Windows as a service... The question 'what version are you running' will cease to make sense." Windows 7 and Windows 8.x collectively run on well over half of the world's Windows PCs,

For the second time in as many months, I feel like I've taken a step into the world of science fiction—and for the second time in as many months, it's Microsoft who put me there. After locking away all my recording instruments and switching to the almost prehistoric pen and paper, I had a tantalizingly brief experience of Microsoft's HoloLens system, a headset that creates a fusion of virtual images and the real world. While production HoloLens systems will be self-contained and cord-free, the developer units we used had a large compute unit worn on a neck strap and an umbilical cord for power. Production hardware will automatically measure the interpupillary distance and calibrate itself accordingly; the dev kits need this to be measured manually and punched in. The dev kits were also heavy, unwieldy, fragile, and didn't really fit on or around my glasses, making them uncomfortable to boot. But even with this clumsy hardware, the experience was nothing short of

In a few decades, when we look back at the history of Uber, 2014 will be remembered as the year in which it established itself as a global force to be reckoned with. So it’s probably no surprise that the company has won this year’s Crunchie for Best Overall Startup. Over the past four years, Uber has quickly expanded to make affordable, reliable transportation available in more than 250 cities worldwide. But 2014 was the year it truly transformed itself from scrappy upstart to a massive machine for moving people around. Competition was fierce in the Best Overall Startup category for 2014. Uber went up against GoPro, which launched a series of new products and went public in 2014. Stripe joined the unicorn club early in 2014 and doubled its valuation by year-end as it made payments sexy again. Tinder faced a sexual harassment suit and lost its CEO but continues to show monumental growth. Meanwhile, runner-up Snapchat continued to raise new funding and justify its massive $10 bi

The Apple Watch will start shipping in April to consumers, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, who revealed that month as the expected target launch date for the company on Apple’s Q1 2015 earnings call. The timeframe for launch was described as “early 2015″ when the Apple Watch was originally announced in September of last year. The Apple Watch release date has been the subject of much speculation since its announcement, with recent reports pegging March as the month of its arrival. Cook’s decision to add some clarity to its actual release timeline is uncharacteristic for Apple, which normally doesn’t put a firm launch date on unreleased products, but pre-announcing the hardware months in advance was already a departure from standard practice. Setting a more definite timeline for the Apple Watch does set expectations, however, ensuring that no one will be surprised when the wearable doesn’t appear in March as rumored. It also helps developers time their software releases correctly

Only 18% of computer science majors are women. To help fix this “funnel problem” and balance the genders in tech, Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In project is starting a “CS&E Chapter”. Potential and current women in computer science and engineering can join the chapter to connect with each other for advising and support. Facebook COO Sandberg writes “We believe that we can all come together to support women in these fields — we can change the numbers, change the stereotypes, and change the world.” Lean In’s CS&E Chapter is a partnership with Facebook, Linkedin, and the Anita Borg Institute that will apply the momentum of Sandberg’s book to turn female empowerment discussions into action. University Of Tennessee Lean In Circle leader Denise Gosnell tells me “I’m glad to see the discussion has now moved towards ‘how do we develop effective strategies to see more women in computer science?'” There’s plenty of “awareness” of the problem at this point. A year of sexism inciden

TechCrunch went hands-on with Windows 10 to show you the best of the latest build of Microsoft’s new operating system. To make it extra pure, we put Windows 10 through its paces on a Surface Pro 3 Windows 10 is Microsoft’s effort to build an operating system that can run on any screen size and accept various modes of input depending on where it is deployed. In the video, keep an eye out for the section discussing how the operating system flips between tablet mode and keyboard mode as an example of that work. Cortana, the company’s digital assistant tool, made a noisy entrance into the world of Windows, along with a new Xbox application that caters to the gamer set. If Windows 10 fails to attract developer interest, Microsoft may not be able to make a successful pitch to the current and coming generations of developers. And if it loses their attention, the company’s platform products will slowly deflate. The platform wars are existential after all.