Month: August 2020

On August 17th, Brydge will begin selling a new lineup of Surface accessories that have the “Designed for Surface” badge, meaning that they were made in collaboration with Microsoft. The lineup includes keyboards for the Surface Pro and Surface Go, but the most intriguing product in the group is the $99.99 W-Touch standalone trackpad. It’s apparently the first standalone wireless trackpad made for Windows 10.

The W-Touch is like a Magic Trackpad 2 that’s built for Windows 10 instead, coated in a striking black with an aluminum build. It has Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity and it supports Precision drivers and multitouch gestures, like pinch to zoom, and multifinger swipes to switch desktops. This trackpad has a large glass surface to comfortably move around in, measuring at 5.5 inches across and 3.3 inches deep, so a little smaller than Apple’s version but still spacious.

The W-Touch is said to delivery one-month battery life, and it recharges via USB-C. One hundred dollars isn’t cheap for a trackpad, but as the only standalone, wireless option made in partnership with Microsoft, Brydge gets to set the price. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but it could be a great accessory to have around if a mouse doesn’t jive with your workflow.

Brydge is also releasing the W-Type to complement the W-Touch. It’s a full-size wireless keyboard with aluminum detailing and a complete row of function keys. Right out of the gate, it seems like an excellent value at $59.99. The overall design, and even the printing on the keys, makes it look like an accessory that Microsoft might make — and perhaps severely overcharge for. The keys use a scissor mechanism and each has 2mm travel, which Brydge claims is the “perfect” amount of key travel. If it’s anything like what the Surface Laptop 3 has built in, there’s plenty of reason to get excited.

This model has Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity with support for up to four devices, so you can easily switch the computer to which it’s connected. Brydge claims it can last up to a month on a charge. When it zaps out, you can charge it via USB-C.

Rounding out the lineup are the new Brydge 12.3 Pro Plus and 10.5 Go Plus keyboards. The $149.99 Pro Plus model works with the Surface Pro 4, 5, 6, and 7, while the $129.99 Go Plus works with the Surface Go and Go 2. Both feature Bluetooth 5.0, backlit keys, Windows Precision trackpads with full multitouch gesture support, USB-C ports for charging, and an antimicrobial coating on the deck. Brydge has had a keyboard for the Surface Pro for some time now — this new model has a redesigned hinge, 70 percent larger trackpad, native multi-touch control in Windows, updated Bluetooth connectivity, and a plastic deck as opposed to aluminum. (The bottom of the keyboard is still metal.) It also weighs 70 grams less.

Like the Brydge Pro Plus keyboard for the iPad Pro, these turn your Surface into a more traditional clamshell laptop that can be easily balanced on your lap or closed up and thrown in a bag. When you want to use the Surface as a tablet, you can just pop it out of the Brydge’s hinge and go.

Compared to Microsoft’s Surface keyboards, the Brydge provides a more stable typing experience and longer travel on the keys. But it does require charging roughly every three months and Bluetooth isn’t as reliable of a connection as the pogo pins the Surface keyboards use. It also makes the Surface noticeably thicker and heavier, but it’s still a quite portable package.

All of these products will go on sale starting August 17th, and aside from the 10.5 Go Plus that ships the week of September 7th, the others will ship the week of August 31st.

We’ve spent a lot of time over the past week exploring what is possible on Chrome OS. Thanks to some updates to the Linux container, we’ve installed Windows 10 and a variety of Linux flavors. I love tinkering with Chrome OS to see how far I can push the maturing ecosystem but today, we’re going to focus on what the Linux container is currently designed to do. That, of course, it to run the Debian framework and allow users to install compatible Linux applications on Chrome OS. Doing so doesn’t require you to be a Linux guru and thank goodness for that. I’m still learning as I go but mastering the Chrome OS Linux terminal doesn’t have to be a terrifying or even daunting.

That said, we’re going to look at five terminal commands every Chromebook user should know if you plan on getting the most out of the Linux container. There are more commands than we could ever cover here and I will follow up frequently with more tutorials on basic and complex commands over the coming weeks. These five, I’ve found, are five that I use very frequently. Some perform simply tasks while others wield much power. I’ll lay them out, in no specific order, and give you a quick example of how to use them.

Sudo

The sudo command originally meant “superuser do” because it ran commands as the root super user without any privilege restrictions. More recent iterations allow users to run commands not only as the unrestricted root user but other, restricted users as well. In a full-blown Linux desktop environment, the sudo command isn’t needed as frequently as it is when you’re living life inside the terminal. For Chrome OS, using sudo more the rule than the exception. Many of the commands we use inside the Chromebook Linux terminal will require root access. Therefore, sudo is appended to the front of whatever command it is you are executing.

For example, when we are checking the Debian repository for package updates, we use the command apt-get update. Many Linux distros do this action via whatever software center they use and the priveliges needed are already in place. Like other operating systems, you will see an update notification and simply click to update. Since the default user in the Chrome OS Linux terminal isn’t technically the super user, you have to run the update command with sudo at the beginning like so:

sudo apt-get update

If you attempt to run a command in the terminal and you receive a message that says “are you root?,” then adding sudo will normally complete the execution. To switch to the root user in the terminal and negate the need for sudo, you can simply run the command sudo su and you will now be using the super user account.

cd

The cd command stands for “change directory” and it does exactly what you would think. In Chrome OS, the default directory for the command line is the Linux folder that’s in your Files App. Sometimes, you will need to access files that are not in the same tree as the Linux folder. Example: You need to add a third-party repository to your sources.list file so that you can download a package not available from Debian Stretch. The cd command is how you point the terminal toward the folder you are wanting to work with at that moment. In the example above, you would enter cd /etc/apt in the terminal. From there, you would be able to open the sources.list file with a text editor. If you are working a number of nested “folder,” you can move up one directory by typing cd .. and hitting enter.

top

Task managers are very handy little creatures and practically every operating system has its own iteration. Outside of the desktop environment, the top command is the quickest way to see what resources are being used by which packages. This command will give you a snapshot of cpu and memory usage along with other useful bits of information such as task ownership, shared memory and more. This is a quick, easy way to identify what packages may be draining your precious system resources.

Legend:

PID: Shows task’s unique process id.

PR: Stands for priority of the task.

SHR: Represents the amount of shared memory used by a task.

VIRT: Total virtual memory used by the task.

USER: User name of owner of task.

%CPU: Represents the CPU usage.

TIME+: CPU Time, the same as ‘TIME’, but reflecting more granularity through hundredths of a second.

SHR: Represents the Shared Memory size (kb) used by a task.

NI: Represents a Nice Value of task. A Negative nice value implies higher priority, and positive Nice value means lower priority.

%MEM: Shows the Memory usage of task.

ls

If you just want to see what files are inside a given directory, look no further than the ls command. Typing this command in the terminal will show you every file and directory inside the current directory. This makes it a lot easier to cd into another folder when you have a large number of files and you aren’t sure which one you need to open. The color of the text output will vary depending on what type of items are in the given folder. In my terminal, Folders/directories are blue and files are white or teal depending on their file type. If you’re trying to run a command and you get a “not found” error, ls is a quick way to see if the file exists in the active directory.

uname

To find out basic system information, the uname command is what you need. If you type uname in the terminal and hit enter, the output should be “Linux” as that’s what’s running in the container. For a bit more detail, you can type uname -a and you will see the OS, Linux kernel version, release date and the native architecture of your container. This information is especially useful if you are running into issues with a program and are seeking help from other users. Kernel information and system architecture play a bit part in package compatibility and it’s good to have it on hand at a moment’s notice.

Bonus command!

With the 4th installment of the Matrix in the works, wouldn’t it be fun to turn your terminal into a Matrix screensaver? You can do just that by installing cmatrix. Just install it with the command sudo apt install cmatrix and then type cmatrix in the terminal and hit enter. Pretty cool, huh? To exit the Matrix, just hit Ctrl+C and you’ll return to the command line prompt. That’s all for today. See you later this week as we dig a little deeper into the Linux terminal for Chrome OS.

Chinese manufacturing giant, Huawei, has a lot of issues on its hands right now. However, this is not stopping the company from developing and releasing new products. Earlier, there were reports that Huawei Display is coming soon. According to reports, this display will include low-end, mid-end, and high-end models. In addition, a recent Weibo report claims that one of the three displays that Huawei will release is for gaming. Furthermore, this gaming display will support a refresh rate of 240Hz, and mini LED partition backlight. There is currently a surge in the request for gaming since the advent of the coronavirus. Thus, the Huawei gaming display is coming just right on time. 

Prior to this, Huawei and Honor smart display already have the Chinese 3C certification. According to the certification, Huawei ad Honor smart displays will use the same certification. The only difference between these devices will be the logo. The certification information shows that Chinese company, BOE, will supply the display. 

HUAWEI GAMING DISPLAY TO USE A BOE SCREEN

Looking at Huawei’s recent situation, BOE’s display is the best choice. Besides, the quality of BOE panels today can fully meet any demand from high-end to low-end. As of now, there is no information on the specification of this device. Nevertheless, there are rumors that Huawei and Honor will call this product “Smart Display”. We do not know if this device will be the same as the previous “Smart Screen” which Huawei/Honor already released.

According to previous reports, Huawei monitors have high-end, mid-range, and low-end displays. They have full coverage at one time and have been tested for more than a year. One of them is 32 inches and uses 512 or 1024 partitions similar to miniLED backlights. The first batch of Huawei products will be compatible with mobile phones in a special mode. It will be similar to the hammer TNT, or Realtek’s C-mount magic split-screen. These devices support the interactive operation of mobile phones and displays.

As of now, we can only imagine what the Huawei gaming display will offer. Apart from the 3C certification which confirms the BOE display, we have nothing else. The recent report is only a speculation and we can not confirm the authenticity of this report. For now, we will have to keep our fingers crossed and wait for what the device will offer.

iPhone 12 surprises keep coming (both good news, bad news and unexpected twists), but now we know perhaps the biggest problem with Apple’s new iPhones. 

Mysterious industry insider ‘Mr White’ has continued his impressive track record leaking Apple hardware, by revealing the chassis for the coming iPhone 12. While this confirms the range’s move to a more angular new design, he also confirms Face ID will be the same size and, as a consequence, the large notch introduced with the iPhone X in 2017 will not be getting any smaller in 2020. 

08/08 Update: a further image of an iPhone 12 Pro screen panel prototype has now leaked and, unfortunately, it also looks like Apple is sticking with the larger notch on its Pro models as well. The chassis again confirms the angular design Apple will introduce for the range, which takes influence from both the iPhone 4 and the current iPad Pro line-up. That said, with Apple also now all but certain to ditch fast refresh rates on all iPhone 12 models, the iPhone 12 Pro editions, in particular, are losing their shine. Especially considering their significantly higher asking prices. Given this new leaked image is a prototype, there may be some hope that Apple has made a late, more ambitious, change for the final iPhone 12 designs but the signs are not looking good.

08/09 Update: further iPhone 12 components are now leaking as the models enter mass production. Consequently, Apple reseller JinStore has now attained images of Apple’s A14 chipset, which is tipped to deliver a multi-generational leap in performance. The A14 will also be Apple’s first 5nm chip, which will bring greater power efficiency (needed with those smaller batteries), particularly when multitasking. With other iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro features falling by the wayside as we approach release, a lot of weight is going to be placed on the A14 to dazzle and it looks set to do just that. The A14 isn’t the kind of eye-catching feature Apple usually likes to sell its iPhones on, especially with the A13 in the iPhone 11 range and iPhone SE already far ahead of the competition, but expect the company to break with tradition in 2020.

Apple had been widely expected to shrink the notch for the iPhone 12 line-up and almost every render showed this would result in a significantly better design. Moreover, with recent leaks also revealing Apple will increase prices while also shrinking battery capacities, the company’s decision to stick with the same notch for the fourth successive generation may be a deal breaker for some potential upgraders. 

That said, for notch haters, there is still some cause for optimism. While Mr White did not reveal which iPhone 12 model the chassis is from, it appears to be the new 5.4-inch entry level phone. So it is possible Apple does have plans to introduce a smaller notch with the more expensive iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. 

Beyond this, however, there remain compelling reasons to upgrade. Most notably, all iPhone 12 models will come with 5G (albeit different versions), a multi-generational performance leap, a wider range of screen sizes and faster (potentially magnetic) charging. Pro models will also add some radical new camera tech. 

All of which leaves users at a crossroads. At least with Apple officially delaying the iPhone 12 release and the possibility of a split launch increasing, you will have longer to make your mind up.