Apple MacBook vs. Dell XPS 13

Sometimes, you don’t want to carry a lot of laptop around with you. Maybe you’re highly mobile and rarely work in the same place for long. Or maybe you tend to work in cramped environments. Whatever the case, if you want a laptop that won’t take up a lot of space in your backpack or on you’re working surface, you have quite a few options.
We’ve taken a look at a couple of modern options, Apple’s diminutive MacBook with its 12-inch display and tiny chassis, and Dell’s XPS 13 that packs a 13.3-inch screen into a similar size. Which of them provides the smallest laptop with the fewest compromises?
DESIGN
Aesthetically, you can’t go wrong with either laptop. The MacBook conforms to Apple’s conservative yet elegant design in three color options, Gold, Space Gray, and Silver. Dell’s XPS 13 is also relatively conservatively designed, offering three of colors as well including a the business-like black and silver, Rose Gold, and a “Frost” that’s a lighter tone of silver than usual. That’s new for 2019. Thanks to a new webcam on the XPS 13 that’s now above the display and hence avoids uncomfortable up-the-nose angles, Dell can now boast some of the slimmest bezels around without making excuses. The MacBook’s wider bezels look downright old-school in comparison.
Both laptops also boast robust build quality, with the MacBook living up to the usual Apple standards thanks to a unibody aluminum chassis that feels like a solid chunk of metal. The XPS 13 has nothing to be ashamed of either, utilizing a range of materials including aluminum and carbon fiber to provide for a confidence-boosting build.
Although the XPS 13 is a bit thinner than the MacBook, it nevertheless boasts a keyboard with significantly more travel than the MacBook’s second-generation butterfly keyboard that’s incredibly shallow. Dell carried over its magnetic levitation technology from its XPS 15 2-in-1, and that means it’s just as snappy as the MacBook’s keyboard without feeling like you’re typing on a block of wood. The MacBook, on the other hand, benefits from the large Force Touch touchpad that’s one of our favorites, while the XPS 13’s Microsoft Precision touchpad is considerably smaller.
Finally, connectivity is similarly limited and focused on the future. Both laptops are limited to USB-C (including Thunderbolt 3 support), although the MacBook only has one port that’s also used to charge the laptop. If you want to connect a peripheral while charging, you’ll need an adapter. That’s really inconvenient sometimes. The XPS 13 has three USB-C ports, two with Thunderbolt 3, and so it’s far more adaptable. Photographers will love the addition of the microSD card slot as well.
The XPS 13 might be just slightly more substantial, but you get a bigger display, a better keyboard, and better connectivity. It wins this round.
PERFORMANCE
The XPS 13 uses 8th-generation Whiskey Lake quad-core CPUs, up to the Core i7-8565U, that provides a great balance of performance and efficiency. It’s fast enough for demanding productivity tasks, and it’s also efficient. The MacBook, on the other hand, uses 7th-generation Intel Y-series CPUs, meaning it’s more focused on being very quiet thanks to a fanless design and squeezing out as much battery life as possible. It was skipped for an update in 2018, meaning it’s a bit behind. Both use fast PCIe solid-state drives (SSDs) and so can access and save data quickly, but the XPS 13 is simply a much faster laptop.
Both laptops feature outstanding displays. The XPS 13 offers a variety of panels, including Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) displays with and without touch and a touch-enabled 4K UHD (3,920 x 1,080) screen. We tested the 4K display, and it’s bright with a wide color gamut, accurate colors, and high contrast. The MacBook’s 12-inch display sports Retina sharpness at 2,304 x 1,440 resolution, and it enjoys an even wider color gamut with high accuracy to go with similar brightness and contrast. Apple is good about making sure higher resolutions come standard, while you’ll have to pay quite a bit to jump up to the XPS 13’s 4K model.
PORTABILITY
Neither of these laptops will weigh you down or take up too much room in your backpack. Pick either, and you’ll enjoy awesome portability. The MacBook, though, is the smaller laptop thanks to its smaller display. However, it’s closer than you might imagine. It’s 11.04 inches by 7.74 inches by 0.52 inches at its thickest point, compared to the XPS 13 at 11.9 inches by 7.8 inches by 0.46 inches — impressive given the Dell’s larger display. The MacBook is considerably lighter, though, at 2.03 pounds compared to the XPS 13’s 2.7-pound starting weight.
Battery life also matters, though, and they’re roughly equal when comparing the XPS 13 with its high-end 4K display. That is, both laptops are going to struggle to last a full working day. If you step down to the Full HD option on the XPS 13, though, the dynamic likely changes with the Dell being a much longer-lasting option.
With equal displays, portability is roughly the same. But Dell gives you the option of a much longer-lasting laptop in the 1080p model.
THE XPS 13 IS A FASTER AND LONGER-LASTING LAPTOP
The MacBook starts at $1,300 for a Core m3 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD, and tops out at $1,600 for a Core i5, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. That’s very expensive for the specs.
The Dell XPS 13 is a much more economical option, starting at $900 with a Core i5, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD, and then pricing goes up from there. It’s $2,010, for example, with a much more powerful configuration of a Core i7, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 4K display.
You can spend more on the XPS 13, but you’re getting far more power, and you can also save some money and enjoy a longer-lasting laptop. Either choice appeals more to us than the MacBook’s relative compromises in battery life and performance.

OnePlus 7 won’t bring you wireless charging

The upcoming OnePlus 7 will likely rock the latest processor and upgraded cameras. One thing it won’t have, though, is wireless charging.
OnePlus phones are known for packing many of the latest features found in premium smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S10 — and at a much lower price. But one feature that continues to elude OnePlus is the ability for users to place a phone down on a wireless charging pad for a quick boost. CEO Pete Lau still doesn’t think it’s worth adding to his products.
“OnePlus charging is one of the best,” Lau said through an interpreter in an interview on Monday at MWC 2019. “Wireless charging is far inferior.”
Even so, wireless charging has grown in popularity ever since Apple introduced it in the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in 2017. Samsung stepped it up by adding the ability to wirelessly charge its Galaxy Buds with its Galaxy S10.
OnePlus is at MWC to show off a prototype of its 5G smartphone, which will come to two carriers in Europe in the second quarter. Lau declined to comment on the OnePlus 7, as well as the rumors that it may shed the notch and add a pop-out camera. He was carrying a prototype of the phone with him, but declined to show it to us.
His comments on wireless charging indicate that one of the key features still on consumer wish lists for an ideal OnePlus phone remains missing.
Lau expressed his skepticism about wireless charging as a consumer benefit, noting that it takes a long time to charge a device with a wireless pad. With the physical quick charge plug, OnePlus says, you can get your battery 50 percent charged in 20 minutes and fully charged in less than an hour.
OnePlus is working on accelerating the delivery of wireless power, but still hasn’t figured out how to do it without too much heat. Lau said he doesn’t have a date for when that may show up in his company’s devices.
Qualcomm said it’s bringing its quick-charge technology to wireless charging,which may improve the experience. Lau declined to comment about using it.

String of ions may out-compute best quantum computers

Usually, I reflexively delete press releases. This one was no different, but as the message vanished, the subject line registered—“IonQ… quantum computing.” It took a second, but I realized that the name might mean something I had never expected: a commercial, ion-based, quantum computer. A quick visit to the trash confirmed my suspicion.
After some negotiation, I was in receipt of a super-secret paper demonstrating the capabilities of IonQ’s new computer.
Engineering ions is not simple
Making an ion-based quantum computer seems like a bad idea. Think about the engineering required to commercialize the computer. You need to have qubits (quantum bits) that are interconnected so that they can perform logic operations, and those qubits need to preserve their quantum-ness.
Pretty much all commercial quantum computing efforts focus on using superconducting rings of current as the qubit. These circuits can take advantage of all the engineering tools available for printed circuit board technology. The control circuits and readouts are all electronic—they send in and receive microwave signals via lines on a printed circuit board. The qubits are interconnected by lines that couple them together. In other words, the engineering is comparatively easy.
In research labs all around the world, however, there are small-scale quantum computers based on strings of ions (an ion is an atom with an electron removed). The ions float in a near-perfect vacuum, trapped by electric fields. Each ion needs to be addressed by two laser beams. The interconnection between qubits occurs via the natural motion of the qubits: they all vibrate together.
Ion qubits and their logic operations outperform their superconducting brethren by a huge margin. But engineering this type of computer at a commercial scale has been an entirely new challenge.
There’s water in your computer
A paper released by researchers uses the IonQ computer to calculate the ground state energy of a water molecule. The calculation itself is something almost any modern computer can do. What makes the calculation stand out is the number of operations required to complete the operation. In choosing water, the researchers have shown ion-based quantum computing at its best.
Let’s put this in perspective. To model a water molecule, the researchers use a standard approach, where it’s assumed that the electrons in a water molecule take on a bit of the character of electrons that are in oxygen and a bit of the character of electrons that are in hydrogen. The trick to the calculation is to determine the balance of the admixtures and their energies.
The calculation that does this is a repeated approximation, where additional correction terms make the result (hopefully) more accurate as the calculation proceeds. This allows you to, in a sense, choose your accuracy based on when you stop doing math. As you might expect, each correction term requires more computational resources—for a quantum computer with only a few qubits, that’s a challenge.
But if you have nice, stable, long-lived qubits that all talk to each other with a high degree of reliability, then you have a bit of wiggle room. That’s one of the key points of this paper: the ion computer allows you to play some clever tricks that reduce the total number of qubits needed in exchange for increasing the number of operations required. That only works if you have time to perform all the operations, and time is something that quantum systems don’t always provide in abundance.
Zooming in
According to the press release, IonQ’s computer has either 160 or 79 qubits (depending on whether the computer is storing or operating on quantum information). Looking at the circuit diagram (the program, essentially), I estimate that the calculation required some 30 qubits. That in itself is quite a jump from the typical ion quantum computer, which has about ten ions.
That, however, is the least of it. The calculation requires many sequential gate operations, and unlike digital logic operations, quantum logic operations are not exact. The error in each operation accumulates over many operations, which will leave a calculation in tatters. Ion computers, however, have very high precision in their operations. The researchers reported that they were able to perform 50 consecutive operations while still retaining the qubit in the correct state about three quarters of the time.
The interconnectedness of the ion computer also played an important role in the calculation. The researchers were able to directly entangle arbitrary pairs of qubits during the calculation. In other quantum computers, geometry does not allow all the qubits to be interconnected. As a result, any computation requires information to be swapped back and forth between qubits. Since the information fades away after a certain number of operations, each additional step to move information around reduces the amount of useful computation that can be done.
The end result is an answer that is very close to the results obtained from standard calculations performed on classical computers. And it’s surely not the end. Hopefully, IonQ release more details about the computer soon—you can be sure we’ll cover it when they do. Even in the absence of more technical details, I’m pretty sure we will see a steady stream of results from users.

Windows 10: New study shows Home edition users are baffled by updates

How annoying are Windows 10’s automatic updates? In a new study, a group of UK researchers report that users of Home edition experience unexpected restarts and inconsistent installation times, caused by inappropriate defaults and inadequate notice of pending updates.
The single biggest complaint about Windows 10 is its approach to security and feature updates. Monthly cumulative updates and twice-yearly feature updates are downloaded and installed automatically, which can result in unexpected reboots that disrupt productivity and risk the loss of unsaved work. That pain point is particularly acute for anyone running Windows 10 Home edition, which lacks any controls for delaying and deferring those updates.
Since the initial release of Windows 10 nearly four years ago, Microsoft has been tweaking its approach to automatic updates, adding Active Hours settings to ensure that mandatory restarts are less likely to be intrusive. Recent feature updates have also made notifications of pending updates more obvious.
Are those changes enough to ease the pain? A new study from a group of UK-based researchers suggests Microsoft has more work to do.
The study, titled “In Control with No Control: Perceptions and Reality of Windows 10 Home Edition Update Features,” was presented this week at the Workshop on Usable Security (USEC) 2019 in San Diego, California. Researchers Jason Morris, Ingolf Becker, and Simon Parkin of University College London, built a detailed model of Microsoft’s update process as of Windows 10 version 1803 and then surveyed a group of 93 Windows 10 Home users.
The overall conclusions were a mixed bag. In general, the survey respondents think that the Windows 10 update approach is an improvement over that found in previous Windows versions. Among participants who had experience with earlier Windows versions 53 percent reported they felt updating Windows 10 is easier, versus only 8 percent who found the process more difficult.
Similarly, a majority of respondents agreed that the Windows 10 update process causes fewer interruptions than in previous versions (43 percent agreed, 21 percent disagreed).
Where Microsoft has fallen down, the researchers argue, is in building an update system that is “dependent on a complex range of user and system properties.” That system, illustrated by the flowchart shown here, is simply too complicated for the average home user to understand.
The Active Hours feature draws the most criticism in this respect, with the authors arguing that its default settings are inappropriate for 97 percent of their test subjects.
To minimize disruption, they note, “users need to understand the ‘active hours’ concept and … the configuration of active hours should ideally align with their usage patterns.”
Neither of those conditions are true, they found. First, only 28 percent of respondents were even aware of the Active Hours feature. Second, the default window of 8AM to 5PM might be appropriate for businesses, but it’s wildly out of sync for home users, based on the self-reported behavior of this group. Of the 93 survey participants, only three reported hours of use within those limits, with the overwhelming majority typically using their PC on weekday evenings.
And even among the 26 participants who were aware of the feature, 10 had not changed it from the default settings even though it clashed with their daily schedule.
Not surprisingly, that resulted in about half of the survey respondents reporting that they had experienced unexpected restarts.
The other noteworthy finding from the research is that users don’t understand how often updates are delivered, nor do they appreciate the difference between monthly quality updates and semi-annual feature updates. That can lead to anxiety when an unexpected feature update takes well over an hour compared to the 12 minutes or less that a monthly cumulative update takes.
The survey respondents, who were generally well educated and experienced PC users, reported by an overwhelming 95 percent margin that they trust Microsoft as much as or more than other software makers at the task of delivering updates.
The researchers offered a few recommendations based on their findings.
The most important is that Windows “obtain explicit permission for restarts consistently.” They note that doing so might require adjustments in the Active Hours default settings for Windows 10 Home as well as better progress displays.
Second, they criticized Windows 10 for offering insufficient notice of restarts. Unlike, say, a Chromebook, Windows 10 Home Edition does not provide a persistent warning that the system has a restart pending.
That’s especially a problem when the user chooses the option to restart at a specific time. In that configuration the system shows a warning and then restarts within a few minutes. “If a user is absorbed by other tasks,” the researchers argue, “the computer could, in the mind of the user, appear to restart unexpectedly despite them having been responsible for the chosen time. We think that one’s computer should not reboot while in active use.”
Finally, they suggest that Microsoft do a better job of warning about the significantly longer times required for feature updates. “[W]e think a notification that describes an update as one ‘that could take a little longer than other updates’ is failing to set accurate expectations to support users in planning around the availability impact of these updates.”
That latter recommendation skips right past the real question, of course: Why is it necessary to deliver feature updates twice a year? Given that these updates are time-consuming to install and offer significant potential for disruption, why not offer Home edition users at least some control over when updates are installed.

Lenovo introduces the ThinkVision M14—a 14-inch, portable, USB-C monitor

Mobile World Congress is mostly about phones and other mobile tech, but Lenovo also used the show to introduce a handful of new products outside that narrow-but-vast category. The most interesting of them is a portable monitor that lets you bring the dual-monitor user experience with you and your laptop when you travel.
Labeled the ThinkVision M14, it’s a 14-inch monitor with an IPS panel. The resolution is 1920×1080 pixels, which is plenty for 14 inches. It’s built with modern laptop trends in mind, so it connects to your computer with USB-C. In fact, it has two USB-C ports, and both can be used for passthrough, provided you connect the monitor to an AC adapter. You can power the monitor from your laptop, but that doesn’t seem like enough for passthrough, and Lenovo hasn’t specified just how much power it needs from said laptop.
The ThinkVision M14 weighs 1.3 pounds and is 4.6mm thick. The only adjustment available is in the foot, which you can see in action in one of the render images above. The monitor will be available starting in May of this year for $249.
We’re always happy to see options like this. Creatives (like video editors in particular) will appreciate the additional screen even when they’re on the go. That said, Lenovo hasn’t said anything about colorspaces and the like, so tread carefully if those are important to you—at least until more information is available.
Lenovo laptops
Lenovo also used MWC to announce updates to its ThinkPad laptop line with several new models—the T490s, T490, T590, X390, and X390 Yoga—and its mid-range IdeaPad line with the new C340, S340 and S540 models. It also introduced the 14w and 14e laptops for firstline workers in the enterprise; the former of those two runs Windows 10 Pro, the latter is a Chromebook. Most of the models introduced are just spec bumps over last year.
The ThinkPads offer Dolby Vision HDR, low-power display options, and faster, Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, along with eighth-generation Intel Core CPUs and an overhauled BIOS experience. The IdeaPads are pretty standard mid-range laptops with a range of configuration options. You can read more about the myriad laptop launches on Lenovo’s website.

Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630 Review: Chrome OS gets a proper workhorse

Chromebooks used to be the laptops that cost a dime a dozen, but in 2019 you can get premium Chrome OS devices that pack the specs and designs that are capable of getting real work done. For the past couple of months, I’ve been using the Lenovo Yoga Chromebook, and for getting things done, it’s one of the best options currently available.
The Lenovo Yoga Chromebook, the C630, represents a couple of firsts in the Chrome OS world. For one, it’s the first option ever to offer up a 4K display. On top of that, it’s also the largest “high-end” Chromebook ever with a whopping 15.6-inch display. To me, though, the most important first it represents is being the first proper workhorse machine on Google’s platform.
HARDWARE |
For a premium Chromebook, the Lenovo’s Yoga Chromebook C630 doesn’t disappoint. Crafted from aluminum in a gorgeous “Midnight Blue” color variant, it’d be hard to disappoint. Aside from the color, though, Lenovo doesn’t disappoint when it comes to the hardware. This machine feels very durable and in the several weeks I spent testing it, it didn’t get a scratch either. Notably, though, it does pick up fingerprints quickly and easily, and they’re not easy to get off.
The one sore point of the hardware, though, is the weight. There’s never any getting around a 15.6-inch machine being heavy, and the Yoga certainly is. This machine is by no means light which means, most likely, it’s not a laptop you’ll be taking around town or on a trip. It certainly won’t be good for a flight.
DISPLAY |
What makes up for that weight is the size. The Lenovo Yoga Chromebook has a 15.6-inch display, a rarity in the Chrome OS world. We’ve seen it on a couple of fairly low-cost machines, but this is the first premium machine with the feature. There’s a 4K variant that we’ll have further coverage on soon, but my review unit was a 1080p model and, honestly, I can say it’s one of my favorite Chrome OS experiences to date.
Having the truly massive canvas to work on combined with the 1080p resolution means you’re getting a machine that can truly do it all, at least given Chrome OS’ restrictions. On an average workday, I can have Slack, Spotify, and Chrome windows all open at once without losing sight of anything. I can’t say that about any other Chromebook right now, even the Pixelbook.
That screen is also touch capable. Personally, though, I never once took advantage of that feature. Using a device this large as a tablet is, frankly, a ridiculous idea in every conceivable way. The only time I did use the 360-degree hinge was to clean off the screen.
As a final note, brightness on the 1080p model is also pretty solid. It’s best used indoors, though. Outside it struggles to be seen on a bright day, but it does manage to get dim enough to be usable at night in a dark room.
PERFORMANCE |
Enhancing the canvas are the specs under the hood. My unit included an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD for storage. Even with over a dozen tabs open and some Linux applicationsopen too, this machine simply doesn’t skip a beat. I honestly don’t hesitate to say that, right now, this isthe fastest Chromebook on the market.
This is largely thanks to the fact that Lenovo opted to use full-fledged Intel chipsets rather than the Y-series chips we see in other Chromebooks, even at this price point. My unit specifically offered up a Core i5-8250U. For that reason, it’s safe to say that if you want to get work done on your Chromebook and not get bogged down anywhere, the Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630 is without a doubt the way to go.
We’ll have more to say about how this machine performs under load soon. Our own Kyle Bradshaw is currently testing out the 4K model and will be following up with a review on how that model handles the needs of a developer who uses Chrome OS.
BATTERY LIFE |
As with any big Chromebook, battery life on the Lenovo Yoga Chromebook is a highlight. That is, at least on the 1080p model I’ve been using. Typically, I can easily get through a full workday, roughly 6-8 hours of active use, on a single charge and leave about 30-40% remaining by the end of the day. With light usage and lots of standby, it’s easy to pull a full week out of this machine.
When it does come time to recharge, I really appreciate that the Lenovo Yoga Chromebook uses USB-C. There’s a port on either side of the machine for convenient charging. What I don’t like, however, is that the charging cable has a brick in the center. It’s 2019, we should be far beyond that.
As a side note, the 4K model simply won’t have the same results. From what I’ve been told by those using that model, battery life takes a serious hit, so you’ll have to decide if that extra resolution is worth the extra time you’ll spend charging.
KEYBOARD & TRACKPAD |
This might be my favorite bit about the Yoga C630 Chromebook. The keyboard and trackpad on this machine are both delightful to use. The Pixelbook might be the only keyboard I like the feeling of more, but the keys Lenovo uses here are top-notch.
Typing takes just minutes to adjust to this size, and the large surface area of the machine means there are no sacrifices made with the spacing or layout. It’s a natural and excellent experience. I can easily type on this machine for hours at a time without feeling fatigued, and the key travel gives a satisfying click each time.
In my opinion, there’s just nothing to complain about with this keyboard. Well, except for the fact that some models don’t have a backlit keyboard. My unit did not, but models bought directly from Lenovo do.
As for the trackpad, it’s as solid as Chrome OS gets. I still prefer the Pixelbook just a bit, but Lenovo’s option is solid. Touch response is quick and accurate, and the trackpad responds well to taps and presses. The spring mechanism still means you won’t be able to click down on the top of the trackpad, but that’s something I’m willing to overlook.
FINAL THOUGHTS |
From the moment I opened up the Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630 until the day I wrote this review, the constant thought in my head about this machine has been “this is a Chromebook I can actually get work done on.” It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to say that, as I’ve found myself gravitating more and more to Windows machines. If you’ve been looking for a Chrome OS workhorse that can keep up with everything you need to do, the Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630 is it.
You can buy it now directly from Lenovo or from Best Buy. Pricing starts at $599, but at the time of writing the base i3 model is actually just $499.

Whitestone Dome claims to be the only screen protector compatible w/ Galaxy S10’s ultrasonic fingerprint sensor

One of the biggest changes Samsung is bringing to its upcoming Galaxy S10 comes in the form of the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor that resides beneath the glass. However, that sensor might cause some issues with screen protectors designed for the Galaxy S10 and S10+. Apparently, though, Whitestone Dome Glass screen protectors still work, and they might be the only option.
If you’ll recall this past week, a hands-on video leak revealed a screen protector on the Galaxy S10+ that housed a cut-out for the fingerprint sensor. For obvious reasons, that’s something most users simply aren’t going to want. However, Whitestone Dome claims that its screen protectors do work with the technology, and that they are the only option that will be available, at least at launch.
Covered on the company’s homepage right now, it’s made clear that Whitestone Dome Glass does indeed work with the Galaxy S10 and S10+. The company explains that traditional screen protectors don’t work with the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy S10 due to the air gap that’s typical with that sort of installation. Because Dome Glass uses a liquid adhesive for installation, this apparently isn’t an issue. That tech is patented and not in use elsewhere, so for the time being it seems this is the onlyfull-coverage option for Galaxy S10 owners.
These screen protectors will be available from the day the Galaxy S10 is announced, February 20th, and they’re also already up for pre-order on Whitestone’s site. Pricing is a hefty $60, but you’ll get two Dome Glass protectors for that and all the needed installation tools. Considering other models cost $50 or so for just a single screen protector, $60 doesn’t seem so bad. Of course, buyers will still have to deal with the lengthy installation process. Our Whitestone review for Pixel 3 offers a look at that.
Hands-on: Whitestone Dome Glass for Pixel 3 XL is an expensive but perfect screen protector
As a side note, this basically confirms that the Galaxy S10 will have an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, as if all the previous leaks didn’t give that away already.

Microsoft’s new Remote Desktop Preview app leaks

Microsoft is working on a new Remote Desktop Client that is optimised for their Windows Virtual Desktop push, which would see companies run their productivity software primarily in Microsoft’s Azure cloud.
The client app has been leaked by WalkingCat, with download links available in his tweet below:
The client features:
Provides a remote desktop experience and remote applications on any device. Combine Microsoft 365 and Azure to give users the unique multi-session Windows 10 experience with outstanding scalability and low IT costs.
The main features are as follows:
Provide users with the unique multi-session experience of Windows 10 – Provide your users with the only complete Windows 10 enterprise multi-user environment virtualized in the cloud, always up to date and available on every device. Leverage the cost-effectiveness of shared computing resources previously available only with server-based virtualization.
Optimize for Office 365 ProPlus – Run a full Windows 10 desktop optimized for Office 365 ProPlus, providing your users with the most productive virtualized environment.
Deploy and Scale in Minutes – Virtualize and deploy modern and legacy desktop apps with unified management, without having to host, install, configure, and manage components such as diagnostics, network, connection broker, and gateway.
Microsoft is hoping that companies will use the service to run their legacy Windows 7 environment safely in the cloud while they slowly transition their workforce to Windows 10. The service lets companies use their existing software licenses for their virtual software and comes with free extended support for Windows 7, which is ending January 14, 2020.

Kuo: 2019 iPhones Can Wirelessly Charge Other Devices, Feature Frosted Glass and Larger Batteries, and More

In a thorough research note outlining Apple’s plans for 2019, analyst Ming-Chi Kuodescribes his outlook for the next iPhone lineup. According to Kuo, the 2019 iPhone lineup will mirror that of the current lineup, including 6.5-inch and 5.8-inch OLED models as well as a 6.1-inch LCD model.
As for changes to expect in 2019, Kuo says the iPhone XR successor may be upgraded to 4GB of RAM, while all models will include frosted glass casing, larger batteries, the ability to wirelessly charge other devices, and new technology for indoor positioning and navigation.
The new 5.8″ OLED may support DSDS, and the new 6.1″ LCD may be upgraded to 4GB. All of part of the new models’ main upgrades include Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) for indoor positioning and navigation, frosted glass casing, bilateral wireless charging for charging other devices, upgraded Face ID (with a higher power flood illumination), larger batteries, and triple camera feature (wide, telephoto, and ultra-wide lens).
Kuo also says all three models will include Lightning connectors rather than USB-C and have the same notch area as current models, contradicting other rumors of smaller notches.

Galaxy S10 Leak Exposes Samsung’s Serious Problem

We know almost everything about Samsung’s 10th anniversary Galaxy S10 with Samsung itself happy to leak the full range. But what Samsung would prefer you don’t know is the range’s biggest upgrade comes with a significant problem…
A new video leaked by MobileFun highlights the issue: Samsung’s world-first Ultrasonic in-display fingerprint reader does not work with screen protectors. Moreover, the only successful workarounds look either ugly or expensive.
MobileFun’s video demonstrates the former. The popular accessory retailer shows that the only solution for standard screen protectors is to cut a hole in them around the new sensor. This looks terrible and is also self-defeating because it exposes a significant (and crucial) part of the display to damage.
As for the expensive option, this comes via premium screen protector manufacturer Whitestone who told 9to5Google it will have the only protector which is compatible with the Galaxy S10’s Ultrasonic reader at launch. It will cost an eye-watering $60.
Why is the workaround so expensive? Because it requires a very different (and more awkward) method of fitting a protector to the display.
Whitestone explains that the problem is no trace of air is allowed between a screen protector and the Galaxy S10’s Ultrasonic sensor – something that is impossible to achieve with any standard protector’s simple peel-on application. Instead, Whitestone uses a liquid adhesive which 9to5Google has tested and found to be a “lengthy installation process”.
The good news is the results are impressive if you get the installation right but at $60 for a two pack (single packs are not available), it is also not something you don’t want to mess up more than once.
Currently, it is unknown whether Whitestone’s method can be reproduced more cheaply and the precision liquid install process is likely to put off some buyers anyway.
All of which creates a bigger problem because the Galaxy S10 is going to be the most expensive Galaxy S model ever and with its Ultrasonic reader baked into the display, these are screens you do not want to crack.
As such, the biggest weakness of Samsung’s new entry-level Galaxy S10emay now become its greatest strength…