Category: Article

Snapdragon 850 is Qualcomm’s first chip explicitly for PC form factors.
Samsung today announced the Galaxy Book2 (sic; the company has not put a space between the word and the number), a 2-in-1 tablet running Windows 10, powered by a Snapdragon 850 processor.
The first generation of Windows 10-on-ARM machines were roundly criticized for the performance of their Snapdragon 835 processors. The second generation of machines, however, uses the Snapdragon 850, a variant of the Snapdragon 845 that’s designed for the bigger batteries and higher power dissipation of laptops and tablets. This is widely hoped and expected to bring performance up to respectable levels.
This new tablet follows Microsoft’s Surface Pro design: a tablet with a kickstand, a detachable keyboard, and a pen. Similarity extends to the screen, too: the 12-inch AMOLED display uses the same 3:2 aspect ratio as Microsoft does, with a resolution of 2160×1440. The internals are the real point of this machine, though. There’s a Snapdragon 850 (quad 2.96GHz cores plus quad 1.7GHz cores) with 4GB RAM, a Snapdragon X20 LTE modem supporting up to 1.2 Gbit/s download and 150 Mbit/s upload, 802.11ac, and 128GB storage. There’s an 8MP rear camera, a 5MP front-facing camera, a microSD slot, and two USB Type-C slots. Biometric authentication is supported with a fingerprint reader.
The big point of interest for these ARM machines is that they’re intended to offer smartphone-like battery life and connectivity. Even when idle or in standby, they can be online enough to retrieve emails, instant messages, and similar materials, they have long battery life (20 hours according to Samsung), and they transparently switch between Wi-Fi when available and LTE when necessary to ensure that they’re always online.
The new Galaxy Book2 system ships with the pen and keyboard as standard and will cost $1000 from AT&T, Microsoft, and Samsung on November 2. Later in November, it will also ship from Verizon and Sprint.

The latest round of fixes comes on week after the monthly Patch Tuesday updates.
Microsoft today pushed out another set of cumulative updates, bringing a large number of fixes to a trio of currently support Windows 10 releases. While there are no new updates for either the October 2018 or April 2018 updates, the three preceding versions are in line for today’s fixes (via Neowin).
Here’s a look at all of what’s new for each version.

Fall Creators Update (build 16299.755)

• Addresses the redenomination of local currency that the Central Bank of Venezuela implemented to enter the Bolivar Soberano into circulation.
• Addresses an issue in which searching using Microsoft Outlook’s Social Connector returns nothing, which causes the People’s pane results to always be empty.
• Addresses additional issues with updated time zone information.
• Addresses an issue that prevents the clock and date flyout from appearing when the region format is Spanish (Spain) and the sorting method is Traditional.
• Addresses an issue with navigation from the Decade view in the Japanese calendar. When the user tries to go from the Current era to the next era, navigation does not work properly.
• Addresses an issue to support Microsoft Office events in the “Limit Enhanced” Group Policy setting list.
• Addresses an issue in which applications on systems with more than 4 GB of memory receive Access Denied error code “0x5” when calling CreateProcessWithLogonW().
• Addresses an issue that makes it impossible to disable TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 when the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) mode is enabled.
• Addresses an issue in which the AccountName in the Event Log entry for the Microsoft-Windows-Kerberos-Key-Distribution-Center source and Event ID 7 sometimes appears corrupted.
• Addresses an issue in which applications have handle leaks when using client authentication certificates with the TLS protocol. This issue occurs when the FreeCredentialsHandle call occurs before the DeleteSecurityContext call in application code.
• Addresses an issue that might cause TCP connections opened for an application running on Windows Container to fail sporadically. This occurs when the container runs on a Network Address Translation (NAT) Network provided by Windows Network Address Translation (WinNAT). A SYN timeout occurs after reaching the maximum SYN Retransmit count.
• Addresses an issue that prevents the deletion of Immediate Tasks when their deletion timer occurs, such as when you configure Group Policy preferences for Immediate Task actions.
• Addresses an issue that can cause App-V packages to fail because of a missing file or DLL error.
• Addresses an issue that may cause certain applications to stop responding after installation.
• Addresses an issue that fails to mount a volume when running Mount-SRDestination to bring a destination volume online as part of the Test Failover feature.
• Addresses an issue in which the System.Security.Cryptography.Algorithms reference was not correctly loaded on .NET Framework 4.7.1 after the July 10, 2018 and August 14, 2018 patches.
• Addresses an issue that may cause the system to stop working during the shutdown of some Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) apps because of TaskCanceledException. Apps that are vulnerable to this issue perform work involving weak events or data binding after the Application.Run() function returns values.
• Addresses a race condition in temporary files and some antivirus scanners that causes .NET Framework applications to stop working. The error message is, “The process cannot access the file “.
• Updates the .NET Framework’s support for the formatting of Japanese dates for the first year in the eras. When the format pattern is “y年”, the year format will use the symbol 元 and not use year number 1. Additionally, the .NET Framework will support dates that include 元.
• Updates Venezuela currency information. This will affect the culture of “es-VE” as follows:
  • The currency symbol is “Bs.S”.
  • The English currency name is “Bolívar Soberano”.
  • The local currency name is “bolívar soberano”.
  • The International Currency Code is “VES”.
• Addresses an issue with a dialog box that may appear with a non-applicable message beginning with the words, “Hosted by…” when first starting Microsoft Edge. The dialog box only appears if you have turned on “Block only third-party cookies” in Microsoft Edge and applied certain language packs after installing the October 9, 2018 update.

• Addresses an issue that may cause an application that has a child window to stop processing mouse inputs. This issue occurs when a precision touchpad triggers a WM_MOUSEWHEEL event.

 

Creators Update (build 15063.1418)

• Addresses the redenomination of local currency that the Central Bank of Venezuela implemented to enter the Bolivar Soberano into circulation.
• Addresses additional issues with updated time zone information.
• Addresses an issue that may cause the operating system to stop responding when transitioning from Sleep to Hibernation.
• Addresses an issue with navigation from the Decade view in the Japanese calendar. When the user tries to go from the Current era to the next era, navigation does not work properly.
• Addresses an issue with cloud authentication performance for accounts that create logon sessions very quickly.
• Addresses an issue that makes it impossible to disable TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 when the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) mode is enabled.
• Addresses an issue in which applications on systems with more than 4 GB of memory receive Access Denied error code “0x5” when calling CreateProcessWithLogonW().
• Addresses an issue in which applications have handle leaks when using client authentication certificates with the TLS protocol. This issue occurs when the FreeCredentialsHandle call occurs before the DeleteSecurityContext call in application code.
• Addresses an issue that can cause App-V packages to fail because of a missing file or DLL error.
• Addresses an issue in which the System.Security.Cryptography.Algorithms reference was not correctly loaded on .NET Framework 4.7.1 after the July 10, 2018 and August 14, 2018 patches.
• Addresses an issue that may cause the system to stop working during the shutdown of some Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) apps because of TaskCanceledException. Apps that are vulnerable to this issue perform work involving weak events or data binding after the Application.Run() function returns values.
• Addresses a race condition in temporary files and some antivirus scanners that causes .NET Framework applications to stop working. The error message is, “The process cannot access the file “.
• Updates the .NET Framework’s support for the formatting of Japanese dates for the first year in the eras. When the format pattern is “y年”, the year format will use the symbol 元 and not use year number 1. Additionally, the .NET Framework will support dates that include 元.
• Updates Venezuela currency information. This will affect the culture of “es-VE” as follows:
  • The currency symbol is “Bs.S”.
  • The English currency name is “Bolívar Soberano”.
  • The local currency name is “bolívar soberano”.
  • The International Currency Code is “VES”.
• Addresses an issue with a dialog box that may appear with a non-applicable message beginning with the words, “Hosted by…” when first starting Microsoft Edge. The dialog box only appears if you have turned on “Block only third-party cookies” in Microsoft Edge and applied certain language packs after installing the October 9, 2018 update.

Anniversary Update (build 14393.2580)

• Addresses the redenomination of local currency that the Central Bank of Venezuela implemented to enter the Bolivar Soberano into circulation.
• Addresses additional issues with updated time zone information.
• Addresses an issue in which no error message appears when a blocked app is invoked from the Start menu.
• Addresses an issue in which the AccountName in the Event Log entry for the Microsoft-Windows-Kerberos-Key-Distribution-Center source and Event ID 7 sometimes appears corrupted.
• Addresses an issue with cloud authentication performance for accounts that create logon sessions very quickly.
• Addresses an issue that makes it impossible to disable TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 when the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) mode is enabled.
• Addresses an issue that maps two or more certificates for authentication to the same user. The user receives the message, “Duplicates found” and receives the error, “STATUS_CERTIFICATE_MAPPING_NOT_UNIQUE”.
• Addresses an issue in which applications have handle leaks when using client authentication certificates with the TLS protocol. This issue occurs when the FreeCredentialsHandle call occurs before the DeleteSecurityContext call in application code.
• Addresses memory leak issues on svchost.exe (netsvcs and IP Helper Service).
• Addresses an issue that depletes the storage space on a cluster-shared volume (CSV) because of a Hyper-V virtual hard disk (VHDX) expansion. As a result, a Virtual Machine (VM) might continue writing data to its disk until it becomes corrupted or stops working. The VM might also restart and then resume writing data until a corruption occurs.
• Addresses an issue that causes the promotion of a read-only domain controller (RODC) to fail. This might occur if application partitions are defined, but the DNS name resolution failed with the “Name error”. The errors are “While promoting Read-only Domain Controller, the expected state objects could not be found” and “More data is available” (error code 234).
• Addresses interoperation issues between Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) Extranet Smart Lockout (ESL) and Alternate Login ID. When Alternate Login ID is enabled, calls to AD FS Powershell cmdlets, Get-AdfsAccountActivity and Reset-AdfsAccountLockout, return “Account not found” errors. When Set-AdfsAccountActivity is called, a new entry is added instead of editing an existing one.
• Addresses an issue with navigation from the Decade view in the Japanese calendar. When the user tries to go from the Current era to the next era, navigation does not work properly.
• Addresses an issue that causes the Remote Desktop Services Gateway to stop working effectively in a load balanced scenario after 12 to 24 hours of uptime.
• Addresses an issue that occurs when using multiple Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V clusters. The following event appears in the log:
  • “Cluster Shared Volume ‘CSVName’ (‘CSVName’) has entered a paused state because of ‘STATUS_USER_SESSION_DELETED(c0000203)’. All I/O will temporarily be queued until a path to the volume is reestablished.”
• Addresses an issue that may cause the creation of a single node cluster or the addition of more nodes to a cluster to fail intermittently.

• Addresses an issue that occurs when restarting a node after draining the node. Event ID 5120 appears in the log with a “STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT c00000b5” message. This may slow or stop input and output (I/O) to the VMs, and sometimes the nodes may drop out of cluster membership.
• Addresses an issue in which the System.Security.Cryptography.Algorithms reference was not correctly loaded on .NET Framework 4.7.1 after the July 10, 2018 and August 14, 2018 patches.
• Addresses an issue that may cause the system to stop working during the shutdown of some Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) apps because of TaskCanceledException. Apps that are vulnerable to this issue perform work involving weak events or data binding after the Application.Run() function returns values.
• Addresses a race condition in temporary files and some antivirus scanners that causes .NET Framework applications to stop working. The error message is, “The process cannot access the file “.
• Updates the .NET Framework’s support for the formatting of Japanese dates for the first year in the eras. When the format pattern is “y年”, the year format will use the symbol 元 and not use year number 1. Additionally, the .NET Framework will support dates that include 元.
• Updates Venezuela currency information. This will affect the culture of “es-VE” as follows:
  • The currency symbol is “Bs.S”.
  • The English currency name is “Bolívar Soberano”.
  • The local currency name is “bolívar soberano”.
  • The International Currency Code is “VES”.
• Addresses an issue that may cause the addition of nodes to fail intermittently after creating a single node in a Windows Server 2016 Cluster. The error code is, “0x0000001e”.
• Addresses an issue that may cause an application that has a child window to stop processing mouse inputs. This issue occurs when a precision touchpad triggers a WM_MOUSEWHEEL event.

It’s worth noting that the Creators Update and Anniversary Update are no longer supported for most consumers. Only Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education Editions running those updates will receive today’s cumulative releases.

Chrome OS has been shaping up to be the all-in-one system, combining the best of Google’s ecosystem, including Android apps, with the power of Linux apps. The latter is still in beta phase with improvements and new features in every update. Today we take a look at some of the features coming soon to Chrome OS Linux apps.
Chrome OS first gained its Linux app support, also known as Crostini, with version 69. While it’s certainly not flawless, the support has been groundbreaking, enabling everything from full photo editors to Android Studio on Chrome OS. With upcoming versions of Chrome OS, Google is working to smoothen the rough edges of Crostini to make it easier to use.
Chrome OS 71 will introduce a variety of these changes, as noted by About Chromebooks. The first is a subtle one, but helpful for debugging. The Linux virtual machine your apps run in will be visible in Chrome OS’s Task Manager. This currently doesn’t break things down by app, nor does it show the RAM usage. All the same, this is still useful for figuring out why your Chromebook may be running slowly.
Speaking of, the update will also include the ability to easily shut down the Linux virtual machine. With a simple right-click of the Terminal app’s launcher icon, a new “Shut Down Linux (Beta)” option appears. Previously, the best way to shut down Linux was to restart your Chromebook, which is certainly a chore by comparison with a two-click procedure.
Chrome OS 71 also introduces an extremely useful feature in the form of folder sharing. This will allow Linux apps access to read and write files in designated Chrome OS folders, instead of only its own separated “Linux files.” The folders shared this way can be managed in the Linux Apps section of Chrome OS Settings.
We’ve discovered that this folder sharing feature is getting a further boost in Chrome OS 72 with Google Drive support. Just like Chrome OS folders, you’ll soon be able to right-click folders in Google Drive and choose to share them with your Linux apps. This will be handy for keeping your work projects synced to and from the cloud.

9to5Google’s Take

I’m very excited for the Google Drive support, so that I can finally keep my folder full of GIMP projects synced between all of my computers.

Pre-orders for the iPhone XR will kick off on Friday, October 19 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time, allowing customers to purchase the third flagship iPhone in the 2018 iPhone lineup.
Apple is planning to make the new devices available in multiple countries around the world simultaneously, so we’ve created a list of when pre-orders will kick off all around the world.
We haven’t listed every time zone for every country, such as in Canada, Russia, and the United States, nor have we listed every available pre-order country, so make sure to double check your specific time zone so you’re certain you know the exact time that pre-orders will kick off. A time zone converting website is a useful tool for confirming accurate pre-order times.
It’s not yet clear if supplies of the iPhone XR will be constrained, but there have been rumors of production issues that led to a launch delay, so it’s best to pre-order the iPhone XR as soon as possible if you’re aiming to get a new device on release day.
iPhone XR pre-orders will be available on October 19 in Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guernsey, Herzegovina, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the UAE, UK, US, and US Virgin Islands.
The first iPhone XR pre-orders will arrive to customers on Friday, October 26, the XR’s official launch date.

It’s also introducing the Z Club subscription service for creatives.
It wasn’t that long ago when HP launched the ZBook x360, but it’s already giving the convertible and the other devices in the lineup a hardware refresh. The Studio x360, along with its non-bendy siblings, the ZBook Studio, ZBook 15 and ZBook 17, will now come with eight-gen six-core Intel i9 processors and mirrored SSD storage. HP says the new chip will make the laptops more suited for heavy workloads, such as video editing and 3D rendering.
HP has also given the Studio’s and the Studio x360’s graphics performance a boost by replacing their old graphics cards with the NVIDIA Quadro P2000. The bendable x360 will have an optional anti-glare touchscreen, as well, which HP says is “20 percent brighter than the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch Retina display and 50 percent brighter than the Dell XPS UltraSharp 4K display.” Meanwhile, the ZBook 15 and 17 will be available in configurations with up to 128GB of RAM starting in December. Xavier Garcia, VP and general manager of Z by HP, said they listened to the needs of creative pros who need to “increase their productivity and create whenever and wherever inspiration strikes.”
HP has also announced Z Club, a subscription-based hardware and services bundle aimed at creatives looking to upgrade their setup. The tech giant will choose 100 creative professionals to receive custom-made bundles, including not just PCs, but also displays, printers, accessories and applications, for its pilot. Z Club subscribers can enjoy their bundles for three months free of charge, after which they can choose to send it back or pay a monthly subscription fee.
Those who’d like to try the Z Club subscription service can apply to become one of the 100 through HP’s website. But those who’d rather buy the individual ZBooks can check HP’s website and retailers: all four variants are now available. The Studio x360 has a starting price of $1,499, while prices for the ZBook Studio, ZBook 15 and ZBook 17 start at $1,349.

One of today’s announcements threw up an interesting footnote worthy of further investigation. With its latest products, HP announced that their mainstream desktop platforms would be shipped with up to 32GB of memory, which was further expandable up to 128GB. Intel has confirmed to us, based on new memory entering the market, that there will be an adjustment to the memory support of the latest processors.

State of Play

Normally mainstream processors only support 64GB, by virtue of two memory channels, two DIMMs per memory channel (2DPC), and the maximum size of a standard consumer UDIMM being 16GB of DDR4, meaning 4x16GB = 64GB. However the launch of two different technologies, both double height double capacity 32GB DDR4 modules from Zadak and G.Skill, as well as new 16Gb DDR4 chips coming from Samsung, means that technically in a consumer system with four memory slots, up to 128GB might be possible.
With AMD, the company has previously stated that its memory controller can support future memory that comes to market (with qualification), however Intel has been steadfast in limiting its memory support on its chips specifically within the specification. HP is now pre-empting the change it its latest launch with the following footnote:
This has forced Intel into a statement, which reads as the following:

The new 9th Gen Intel Core processors memory controller is capable of supporting DDR4 16Gb die density DIMMs which will allow the processors to support a total system memory capacity of up to 128GB when populating both motherboard memory channels with 2 DIMMs per Channel (2DPC) using these DIMMs.  As DDR4 16Gb die density DIMMs have only recently become available, we are now validating them, targeting an update in a few months’ time.

At present Intel is only talking about the new Core 9th Gen processors that are set to hit the market on October 19th, which are the Core i9-9900K, the Core i7-9700K, and the Core i5-9600K. There has been no statement on previous generations of processors that support DDR4, or if there is any change on the high-end desktop platform for 256GB support.
Pricing for the newest 32GB memory modules is not expected to be cheap. A current 4x16GB kit comes in at around $550 for DDR4-2666, which is a ‘maximum supported’ memory kit, so a 4x32GB kit could easily run double plus a bit extra, perhaps in the $1200-$1600 range. That would put a single memory module at $300-$400, essentially costing more than most DDR4-capable processors.
Pricing aside, the main reason for the memory modules is likely not for changing peak memory capacity, but for enabling 2x32GB configurations, for prosumers that need 64GB in a small volume system. This is perhaps why Samsung’s first DDR4 32GB modules were SO-DIMM modules, to enable mobile workstations.
We will be monitoring the situation if more processors will be supporting these modules. G.Skill is sending us a sample and Zadak has stated we should be on the list, as ASUS ROG will be the first motherboard vendor to support both. Once we get a motherboard in to test we will see how well they perform.

It’ll be available in Word and OneNote in the near future.
Microsoft has made voice dictation available for desktop Office users for months. Now, though, it’s making the feature available to web users in the name of aiding those with dyslexia. The browser versions of both Word and OneNote will enable dictation sometime in the “coming weeks” so that dyslexic students can write more effectively than they would by typing. This should also help for dysgraphia (a condition that makes it difficult to write coherently) and people with mobility issues, Microsoft added.
Dictation should spread to Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint sometime in 2019.
More accessibility improvements are coming in the near future. Microsoft is bringing Immersive Reader to its Flipgrid social education communities, and upgrading the tool with both real-time translation as well as support for reading math problems. The feature is now available in Office Lens on Android, too. You’ll have to wait until later in the fall to use the translation features, but the other additions are rolling out this week.

Subscription-based applications have become incredibly popular on iOS over recent years, and TechCrunch is out today with a look at how “sneaking subscriptions” are plaguing some App Store offerings. The report explores the various tactics employed by some developers to seemingly trick users into agreeing to App Store subscription pricing.
In its research, TechCrunch found that the most-often offending applications are certain utilities, which offer functionality that can generally be found for free, yet rank as some of the top-grossing apps on the App Store.
One such app is simply called “Scanner App,” which SensorTower data suggests earns some $14.3 million per year from App Store subscription revenue:

Tap around in the app and you’ll be constantly prompted to subscribe to a subscription ranging from $3.99 a week to $4.99 per month, or start a free trial. But the subscription following the free trial kicks in after only 3 days — something that’s detailed in the fine print, but often missed. Consumers clearly don’t understand what they’re agreeing to, based on their complaints. And many of the negative reviews indicate customers feel they got duped into paying.

Perhaps the most egregious offender was Weather Alarms, an app that was removed from the App Store this weekend by Apple, after TechCrunch tipped the company off on its practices. The app utilized what is known as a “dark pattern” to trick users into agreeing to a free trial, which then converts to a subscription of up to $20 per month.
Here it is in action:
As TechCrunch notes, many of these issues stem from consumers not reading the fine print, but many legitimate developers say these type of tactics are degrading the quality of the App Store as a whole.
David Barnard, developer of Weather Atlas and Launch Center Pro, for instance, says it’s “incredibly frustrating” to see Apple doing so little to prevent these scams:
“It’s incredibly frustrating how little has been done to thwart these scams,” he told TechCrunch. “It erodes trust in the App Store, which ultimately hurts Apple and conscientious developers who use subscriptions.”
Readdle VP Denys Zhadanov echoed those comments, saying, “I firmly believe this is not the future we should be aspiring for in terms of user experience.”
What do you think of these sort of App Store subscription tactics? Let us know down in the comments.

In an interesting turn of events, the iPhone XS Max battery life has bested the Samsung Note 9 and Google Pixel 3 XL in a new test. This comes after the Note 9 crushed the XS Max in a battery lifeshowdown last week. So what gives? Here’s the variable that changed…
YouTuber PhoneBuff shared his first ever battery life test that uses a robotic setup to keep everything as even between the compared phones as possible. He kept all settings the same, except for one difference. Many readers mentioned that the Note 9 had an unfair advantage with its default screen resolution being at 1920 x 1080, with the XS Max coming in at 2688 x 1242. Although the flip side of that is that many users may stick with the default 1080 setting of the Note 9. In any case, last week’s test saw the Galaxy Note 9 with 37% battery life remaining when the XS Max died.
Today, we’re getting a look at another test that sees the iPhone XS Max beat out the Note 9, Google Pixel 3 XL, and Sony Xperia XZ3. Notably, the XS Max has the smallest battery capacity of all four phones and was still able to come out on top.
YouTuber Mrwhosetheboss ran the smartphones through many of the same tests that PhoneBuff used like social media, video content, gaming and more. But this time around, he set the Note 9’s display to the full 2960 x 1440 resolution. The Pixel 3 XL natively runs at the same resolution, with the Xperia using a 2880 x 1400 panel.
The XS max lasted just over six hours during the intense testing, with the Note 9 shutting down just about 12 minutes before that. The Pixel 3 XL came in third as it powered down after about five hours of testing.
No matter how they continue to stack up in comparison tests, iPhone XS, XS Max and Android flagships likely provide most users with at least full day battery life for most use cases. However, it is impressive that with a smaller battery capacity the XS Max was able to perform so well with the largest display of the bunch, even if it has a bit lower resolution.