New Surface Leak Reveals Powerful Predictive Feature

Following a successful launch of its new Windows 10 Surface hardware for this holiday season, and a promising announcement of the dual screened Surface Neo and Surface Duo, Microsoft is looking at a busy year of testing, developing, and debugging on the Neo and Duo ahead of next year’s launch.

Being smaller mobile devices designed for an all-day experience, battery life is going to be a critical part of that feedback process. And recently published details suggest that Microsoft is working on a system to provide more information to users and the OS to help reduce worries about battery life and endurance.

The details come courtesy of a patent, titled “Power Management Of A Mobile Communications Device” looks at a more accurate way to measure the demand that will be placed on a battery by an app or feature, measuring the power left in the cell, and feeding data back to the user to help them make more informed decisions about their battery. Mayank Parmar reports:

Microsoft surprised everyone by announcing that it’s returning to the smartphone market with Surface Duo. Microsoft has prototyped a dual-screened Android device, which is a bold move that could shake up the smartphone industry.

A patent suggests that Microsoft’s Surface Duo, which is a pocket-sized foldable device that is based on Android, might come with an accurate battery life meter.

Of course mobile devices also covers the vast majority of Microsoft’s Windows 10 powered Surface devices, all of which are looking to maximise battery life, but a look through the images and descriptions in the patent show a focus on smaller devices.

The obvious inference is that Microsoft’s Surface Duo is going to be one of the chief beneficiaries of this technology. Android-powered devices, from tiny smartphones to huge tablets, work hard to keep power consumption low and to keep the user in control through ‘low power modes’ and feeding back information on what applications are using up the most power.

The proposed system here increases the potential for feedback, with the code able to predict the impact on battery life (and therefore device endurance) of individual apps and hardware features if they were to be used.

Perfecting this system, with lots of feedback from devices ‘in the wild’ (perhaps through units supplied to developers and partners for testing) could well be another reason why the Surface Duo was announced a year before it goes on sale in late 2020.

Nokia 6.2 goes up for pre-order in the US with reasonable price and respectable specs

According to Nokia’s official US website, there are no less than 13 smartphones from the early 2017-revived brand available stateside at very reasonable prices ranging from $40 to $450. But you can actually add one more name to that already extensive list, as the Nokia 6.2 seems to have discreetly gone up for pre-order on Amazon at some point this week.

Formally unveiled at the IFA trade show in Berlin last month, the 6.3-inch mid-ranger was expected to cost as little as 200 bucks when it eventually came to the US. Ultimately, exclusive global brand licensee HMD Global appears to have settled on a slightly higher $249 price point, with black and “Ice Blue” hues currently available ahead of an October 28 release with 64 gigs of storage space on deck.

As the name suggests, this comes with a number of downgrades over the specifications of the $350 Nokia 7.2, including a humbler Snapdragon 636 processor (compared to the 660 silicon powering the costlier handset), a modest-sounding 8MP selfie shooter (versus a 20MP camera on the front of the 7.2), and a triple rear-facing lens system consisting of 16, 8, and 5MP imaging sensors (compared to a 48 + 8 + 5MP setup).

Then again, the Nokia 6.2 and 7.2 also have quite a lot in common, starting with the same exact IPS LCD panel sporting a resolution of 2280 x 1080 pixels, as well as a sleek notch and relatively small chin, and including a 3,500mAh battery, 4GB RAM count, and of course, a clean Android One software experience too with an Android 10 update right around the corner.

If you’re not necessarily a hardcore Nokia fan, we should probably point out the 6.2 is entering a price bracket mainly dominated by the likes of the Moto G7 and G7 Power. 

HMD’s newest mid-range soldier packs a slightly faster chipset than its key rivals, as well as a larger battery than the “regular” G7 variant and more memory than the $250 G7 Power. The Nokia 6.2 also has a more complex camera system, at least on paper. Before pulling the trigger, you might want to keep in mind the GSM unlocked phone is exclusively compatible with carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile, lacking support for Sprint and Verizon.

HUAWEI NOVA 5T LAUNCHED IN FRANCE: IT’S THE SAME HONOR 20

Today, Android Authority reported that Huawei launched the Nova 5T in Paris, France. Particularly, this new model is aimed at the European market. So we should expect it to appear in other markets as well. But this is not anything new. The Huawei Nova 5T is an overseas (renamed) version of the Honor 20.

So we can even don’t take a look at the key features of the Nova 5T because we know them from the Honor 20. Say, in terms of configuration, the phone uses a 6.26-inch screen with a punch-hole design. The screen ratio is 91.67% and the resolution is 2340×1080. In terms of hardware, it adopts the Kirin 980 processor, 6GB memory, and 128GB storage space. The battery has a 3750mAh capacity, and it supports a 22.5W fast charge. Interestingly, there is no 3.5mm headphone jack. The phone dimensions are 154.25 x 73.97 x 7.87mm and the weight is 174g. In fact, regardless of its big size, this phone is lightweight.

One of the biggest highlights of the Huawei Nova 5T is the rear quad-camera. It consists of a 48MP main lens (Sony IMX586 sensor), a 16MP super-wide-angle lens (117 degrees), a 2MP depth of field lens, and a 2MP macro lens. On the opposite side, we can find a 32MP selfie shooter.

Moreover, the Nova 5T runs on the EMUI9 based on Android 9. Huawei officially said that the machine can support the complete GMS service.

In terms of color options, the Huawei Nova 5T has three variants of blue, purple, and black. And the European price is 399 pounds. It will go on sale in November.

Canon is Working on a 5D Mark V, May Arrive at the End of 2020: Report

If you’re worried that the launch of the EOS R and the creation of the RF mount meant Canon is giving up on its DSLRs entirely, we have some good news for you: it seems Canon is still planning to keep updating its DLSR lineup… for now.

A source who is familiar with the latest internal Canon camera roadmap tells Canon Rumors that there is in fact a Canon 5D Mark V in the works, in addition to the expected EOS R Mark II.

The source didn’t reveal any timing or other details, but it’s likely these cameras will share a sensor and many of the same specs. Early adopters of Canon’s full-frame mirrorless RF mount will be able to step up to the EOS R Mark II, while full-frame DSLR users who don’t want to give up their OVF or use an adapter with their EF-mount glass will get at least one more 5D upgrade.

Don’t get excited just yet though: CR doesn’t expect either camera to be officially announced until Q4 of 2020.

The Mi Surface is Xiaomi’s new 34-inch gaming-grade monitor

Xiaomi has teased its new monitor, known as the Mi Surface, on its official Weibo account. With its AMD FreeSync support, it seems distinctly directed at the gaming market. Besides this, it also has a 1500R curvature for immersive screen use. 

The Mi Surface is 34 inches in diagonal length, and has a cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio. Xiaomi claims that it covers 121% of the sRGB color gamut. Its refresh rate is 144 hertz (Hz), which may be a little underwhelming in 2019. This monitor has a resolution of 3440×1440.

It will go up for its first round of pre-orders on October 21, 2019 in China. It may be a competitive new entrant in its market on this date, as it will be priced at 1999 yuan (~US$282). Xiaomi may hope it will give buyers in that price range an edge in their first-person shooting titles.

Forget Apple’s iPhone 11, This Is The Smartphone To Buy

Apple deserves a lot of credit because its impressive core upgrades to the iPhone 11 (guide), iPhone 11 Pro (guide) and iPhone 11 Pro Max (guide) make them much better smartphones than their ageing designs suggest. But now we know Apple has something much more exciting lined up. 

Last month, a major Bloomberg exclusive revealed Apple is bringing Touch ID back with the 2020 iPhone. Now Patently Apple has discovered how Apple plans to make this work, and it blows away anything we have seen before. 

Breaking it down in new patents, Apple explains that its next-gen Touch ID sensor will sit under the display. But the big news is – unlike similar systems from rivals – the sensor area will fill a large section of the display (making it easy to hit) and read gestures. The latter part is fascinating because Face ID already requires a confirmatory swipe, so Apple could build dual biometric authentication into the new iPhone without users requiring another step. The result would be by far the most secure smartphone ever made. 

Moreover, Apple hasn’t been subtle about its intentions. Before today, the company had already filed five in-display Touch ID patents since December (1,2,3,4,5) and this is the sixth. At this point, it’s an open secret. 

Apple has also given away why it would require such game-changing security after it filed patents showing how iPhones could replace your passport. The integration of dual biometrics would enable the company to pull this off. After all, Samsung’s embarrassing Galaxy S10 fingerprint reader debacle this week would never have happened were there a second confirmatory biometric system. 

And this is just the start. Acclaimed Apple-insider Ming Chi-Kuo has confirmed Apple will bring an “all-new form factor design” to the iPhone in 2020 as well as 5G for every model. Also making the cut are long-range 3D cameras, new screen sizes, 120Hz ProMotion displays and the long-awaited switch to USB-C. 

So yes, Apple kept the iPhone ticking along in 2019. But in 2020 we’re set for a game-changer. 

XIAOMI MI MIX 4: A NEW REAL IMAGE RAISES EXPECTATIONS EVEN FURTHER

The launch of Xiaomi Mi Mix 4 has been a big wish of all fans of the brand. It is believed that this phone will be revealed soon and now a real image emerges that makes the expectation around it increase.

The quality of the revealed image is definitely not the best, but you can understand the main features of the equipment. We see a device with a curved side screen and narrow margins. This is a similar image to another that emerged last week, depicting a mysterious smartphone from the company.

The Mi Mix line is a family of smartphones that excels in its design with very narrow bezels around the display. The smartphone we see in this image fits this philosophy, so it is plausible that this is actually the Xiaomi Mi Mix 4.

WHERE IS THE FRONT CAMERA?

This is a reasonable question we may have after looking at this photograph. The front camera of the device does not appear anywhere, which shows that Xiaomi hid it somewhere.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 has come with a front camera with a slider mechanism. But some sources believe that this will not be the solution adopted on the Mi Mix 4. This gives rise to the possibility of it being pop-up. The Chinese tech already does it in the Mi 9T and we don’t see why it couldn’t do it with this phone.

Another possibility is its incorporation in the screen, but that seems to be a remote hypothesis. These sensors are not yet consumer-ready. And we had no indication that Xiaomi could be developing such a camera in the near future.

Rumors hold that the Xiaomi Mi Mix 4 could be unveiled on October 24. In the company of the Mi Note 10. In the case of the latter. This is the rebirth of a line that hasn’t seen any new models since 2017.

As for the Mix 4 specifications, this is expected to be a real high end. In fact, the Snapdragon 855+ processor, 8GB RAM and triple camera are strong possibilities.

Windows 10 20H1’s Latest Build Introduces Improved Swift Pair Experience for Everyone

Microsoft is releasing a new build of Windows 10 to Insiders in the Fast Ring. The update isn’t a massive one, but it includes one substantial change. The latest build, 19002, brings a new Swift Pair experience for all Insiders.

Microsoft first introduced the improved Swift Pair experience with Windows 10 build 18985, but it was only available to 50% of Insiders. With today’s build, the feature is available to everyone.

So what exactly is this new Swift Pair experience? Windows 10 now lets you pair with a Bluetooth device right from the notifications without needing to even open up the Settings app. The new Swift Pair experience offers a faster pairing time and an improved interface that shows more details about the device that you are trying to connect to.

There is obviously a limitation: Swift Pair only supports certain devices, and that includes the Microsoft Bluetooth Keyboard, Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse, Surface Ergonomic Keyboard, Surface Precision Mouse, Microsoft Modern Mobile Mouse, Surface Mobile Mouse, Microsoft Arc Mouse, Surface Arc Mouse, and Surface Headphones. So if you have any other device, this new Swift Pair experience won’t be available for you at all when trying to pair over Bluetooth.

Microsoft’s also fixed a really annoying bug in recent versions of Windows 10 with the latest build where the acrylic/blur effect in the Action Center didn’t appear until after the Action Center opening animation had finished.

Samsung’s Radical New Galaxy Smartphone Revealed

Samsung has had a bad week. First more major Galaxy S11 details leaked, then the Galaxy S10 and Note 10 were caught up in an embarrassing security debacle. And now there’s another reason to skip Samsung’s 2019 smartphones altogether.

In separate reports, acclaimed Korean site The Elec and popular Samsung insider Ice Universe have revealed Samsung will release a smartphone next year with the camera built under the display. Furthermore, it won’t launch in the models you expect. 

“Samsung will launch an under display camera phone next year! Not S11, not Fold 2,” said Ice Universe in a cryptic tweet. 

Adding flesh to these bones, The Elec explained that Samsung calls the technology ‘UDC’ (literally, Under Display Camera) internally and it works by integrating a transparent display over the punch hole. The result is no notch, no punch hole and no need for a pop-up camera. Manufacturing will begin this month with the company “planning to bring in mass production facilities early next year.”

Samsung has also been quite open about its plans in this area. Back in November 2018, Samsung product marketing director Hassan Anjum announced the ‘New Infinity’ display UDC panel and claimed they “are just around the corner, and I can’t wait to tell you more about them.”

Since then, Samsung has been silent but with rival Oppo revealing its plans for similar tech back in June and a recent telling patent from Samsung surfacing earlier this week, plans are clearly afoot. And if it won’t make the Galaxy S11 or the Galaxy Fold 2 (previous generations were announced in February) then it may well debut in the Galaxy Note 11. 

Interestingly, UDC technology would also allow Samsung to get back into facial recognition because the sensors can also be hidden under the display. With pressure here hotting up from Google’s Pixel 4 and Apple’s dual biometric iPhone plans, the New Infinity Display can’t come soon enough. 

All of which makes 2020 a massive year for Samsung. After all, the heavily leaked Galaxy S11 is expected to deliver a groundbreaking camera, upgraded design, major performance increases, next-gen memory, a supersized fingerprint sensor and AI-focused image processing. And that is before the Fold 2, some potentially revolutionary new battery tech and the New Infinity phones. 

Why is Samsung going so far? BecauseApple’s next iPhones will be radically reinvented as well. So 2020 looks like a year where we all win. 

Windows 10X: Everything we know so far

Windows 10X is launching next year on a new wave of foldable PCs. Here’s what we know so far.

On October 2, Microsoft announced Windows 10X alongside the Surface Neo at a hardware event in New York City. Not much was shared around the OS itself, outside of a planned release window of “Holiday 2020” alongside the Surface Neo and a brief demo of the new user experience you can expect to see when it starts shipping. But just what is Windows 10X and what does it mean to you? Here’s everything we know.

Windows 10X is a new version of Windows 10 that Microsoft says has been built from the ground up for foldable PC experiences in both dual-screen and single-screen configurations. It’s built on top of a new modern version of Windows 10 that guts legacy components and features in favor of contemporary user experiences and enhanced security. This means everything from the Windows Shell to the underlying OS has been re-done with modern technologies, while still maintaining legacy app support for those who need it.

Legacy and modern app support

Win32 programs, which Microsoft considers to be a legacy app platform, now run in a containerized mode on Windows 10X. This means the components required to run Win32 apps are only active when the user is actively running a Win32 program. This reduces system load when not running a Win32 application, which improves battery life and system performance overall. Containerizing the Win32 layer also makes the OS much more secure, as Win32 programs are now sandboxed and can’t negatively affect system files.

Unlike the containerized Win32 programs, UWP and web apps run “natively” on Windows 10X. Users shouldn’t notice a difference in performance between UWP and Win32 programs, even though the Win32 programs are being containerized on top of the OS. It’s great to see that Microsoft is supporting legacy apps on Windows 10X, as many Windows apps today are still Win32.

Microsoft is hoping developers start to update their apps to support the new dual-screen and foldable screen designs that they expect to start shipping at the end of next year. A new feature called “spanning” is being introduced as an API that lets developers take advantage of the extended display capabilities from using a foldable PC. Microsoft will begin talking more about the developer story in the coming weeks.

A new user experience

Regarding the design, Windows 10X features a new shell — the user interface — built with modern technologies, that’s adaptive and can change on the fly depending on the “posture” your device is being used in. For example, with a foldable PC, the user might want to use it in several different ways; as a laptop, or tablet, or in tent mode for movies. Because of this, the software must be flexible and adapt on the fly to provide the best user experience no matter what posture you’re using.

The shell has been designed from the ground up with Microsoft’s Fluent Design System in mind, meaning it’s much cleaner and more consistent than the experience found on Windows 10 today. It has a new adaptive taskbar that minimizes when using touch, which can be swiped up to access pinned and running programs. There’s also a new Control Center that also houses system notifications, similar to an Android smartphone.

Pinned and running apps on the taskbar are now centered instead of positioned off to the left. Apps run in full-screen, as most foldable PCs will be used as tablets first and foremost. However, there will also be a mode that allows apps to run in a more traditional windowed environment, which will be handy when using a foldable PC as a laptop.

The Start menu itself has been redesigned with productivity in mind. It features a system-wide search bar along the top, with a grid of apps below that in place of live tiles. It also has a “recommended” area that suggests things the user might want to jump straight into, such as recent Office documents and websites.

Microsoft also improved Windows Update in a way that makes it much faster with Windows 10X. Feature updates will not take as long to install as they do on Windows 10, because those feature updates are now installed in the background without requiring a reboot until the update is done. So, just like Android and Chrome OS, when the update is ready to restart your PC, it’ll just restart like normal, and won’t take 15 minutes to finish installing the update before you’re back up and running.

Exclusive to foldables at launch

Windows 10X will only be available on devices that ship with it, and those devices will begin shipping in the second half of 2020. This means if you want to use Windows 10X, you will have to buy a new PC that comes with Windows 10X preinstalled. The OS will not be made available to purchase or download to install on existing hardware, and won’t be pushed as an update for Windows 10 users either.

In the future, we anticipate Microsoft will make Windows 10X available for more than just foldable PCs. While the OS will launch exclusivesly for foldables at the end of 2020, in the months after OEMs will be able to ship Windows 10X on traditional form factors such as laptops and 2-in-1’s, as the OS is capable of running on those form factors as well.