Month: July 2019

Google’s Pixel C, the last first-party Android tablet released all the way back in December of 2015, may have just stopped getting monthly security patches. There has been no official announcement, and device-specific delays have happened before, but the Pixel C wasn’t among those that received today’s July set of updates, and the precise timing is awfully suspicious.

Although Google does not list the Pixel C on its update schedule help page, the company does note when discussing Pixel phones that they “get security updates for at least 18 months from when the Google Store last sold the device.” Google’s Pixel C was last sold on the Play Store in December 2017, which is about 18 months ago.

Google hasn’t published a specific expiration date when it comes to the Pixel C’s software support lifetime, but the absence this month (which we honestly didn’t notice at first) is conspicuous given how well it fits into the expected timeline. The Nexus 5X and 6P only lasted a single month after their EOL dates passed.

We’ve reached out to Google for additional information or confirmation that the update period has explicitly ended, but none was forthcoming at the time of publication. If it is the end, 2015 to 2019 is a pretty good run for the much-forgotten Android tablet.

At least there’s always LineageOS — though you’re still just looking at Android 8.0 Oreo.

If you’ve been wondering what Microsoft’s next feature release of Windows 10—19H2—has in store, the answer is: not much.

Microsoft said Monday that the upcoming 19H2 release, due in September, will include “a scoped set of features for select performance improvements, enterprise features and quality enhancements.” The goal appears to be to enhance what’s already in Windows, with an eye toward enterprise and partner deployments, rather than add consumer-facing features.

As part of that schedule, Microsoft said that it will release new 19H2 builds as part of the Slow Ring, the counterpart to the “Fast Ring” of Windows 10 Insider releases. Each build will be deployed as a cumulative update—a patch, in other words, rather than an entirely new build. The first of these, Build 18362.1, was made available to users on Monday. “This update contains two behind-the-scenes changes designed for OEMs and does not contain anything visible to Insiders,” the company said.

Insiders aren’t even guaranteed to see the new changes. They’ll be deployed on a schedule, and some releases will have the features turned off and enabled later.

If you’re not a Windows Insider, and don’t want to be, nothing will change. Sometime in September, the 19H2 release will be pushed to consumers the same as it’s always been. This time around, however, consumers are less likely to see any significant changes to their Windows experience once it arrives.

What this means for consumers is if Microsoft continues on its path, there will still be two feature releases per year, around April and September. But only the April release will add new features, making the fall release a servicing release that will iron out bugs and upgrade features already in Windows. It appears that Microsoft is trying to ease the burden on PC makers and large enterprise customers, who must test and deploy the spring and fall feature updates.

If nothing else, it does add some order back to Microsoft’s release schedule. Microsoft has already begun shipping the first builds of the so-called 20H1 release, due around April 2020. Even those have been primarily improvements rather than new features. So far, the most important new feature of the 20H1 release is probably the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, with an actual Linux kernel inside.

You can expect it to inherit features from the S10 family.

The rumors were true — Samsung has announced that it’s holding its second Unpacked event of the year on August 7th at 4PM Eastern in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The company hasn’t said anything about what to expect, but the pen-centric teaser image (above) doesn’t leave much to the imagination. The Galaxy Note 10 will clearly be the star of the show, and it’s just a matter of pinning down the finer details.

This could be one of the biggest Galaxy Note introductions yet. Current rumors and leaks suggest the Note 10 will retain the harder-edged design of the Note line, but inherit Galaxy S10 features like a hole-punch camera (this time at the top center), in-screen fingerprint readers and, crucially a wider selection of models. There may be two Note variants this year, a 6.3-inch base Note 10 and a nearly 6.8-inch Note 10+ (the larger of which would offer a 5G variant). You could expect upgrades to the pen experience, the camera and likely other traits.

The Note 10 might be a step back for some, though. There are murmurs that none of the new models would include a headphone jack (making Samsung’s previous bragging a bit awkward), and that only the Note 10+ would have a microSD slot. If so, some of the features Samsung owners have taken for granted are about to go away — and there’s no guarantee that the Galaxy Buds or increased storage will satisfy some fans.