Selasa, 09 April 2019

Microsoft Finally Admit You Don't Really Need To 'Safely Remove' USB Flash Drives Anymore - UNILAD

For anyone who grew up in the late nineties/early noughties, you’ll no doubt remember the whole ‘safely remove your USB’ saga.

Throughout school, you couldn’t even turn on a computer without your teacher or resident IT expert telling you how vital it was to eject a flash drive before removing it.

And don’t even get me started on the panic that ensued if you ever accidentally removed the USB or shut your computer down without ejecting it first; although that was unlikely to ever happen because you’d had the fear of God put in you beforehand.

Those days are now officially over though, as Microsoft themselves have confirmed you really don’t need to safely remove your hardware anymore. Hallelujah!

Admittedly, most of us probably stopped doing it as soon as we left school because we didn’t have anyone constantly reminding us, but hey ho.

The technology giant have confirmed once and for all it’s no longer a thing we need to worry about, introducing a new feature in Windows 10 called ‘quick removal’ that allows you to remove a USB at any time.

As long as you’re not actively writing files to it, the drive can be quickly and effectively pulled out of your computer without having to worry about losing important files.

As per Microsoft’s own support guidance, this new ‘quick removal’ policy has replaced their previous default setting, ‘better performance,’ in which you had to safely remove the hardware to prevent you from losing any data.

Their guidance states:

Quick removal. This policy manages storage operations in a manner that keeps the device ready to remove at any time. You can remove the device without using the Safely Remove Hardware process. However, to do this, Windows cannot cache disk write operations. This may degrade system performance.

According to The Verge, this came into effect in October when version 1809 of Windows 10 first began rolling out. So some of you may already know this.

If you didn’t though, then let me bless your Tuesday with the knowledge that never again do you have to be haunted by the ‘safely eject’ icon again. Because I’m sure that’s all you’ve been thinking about for the past 10 years…

So, there you have it. The days of descending into a major panic after accidentally yanking your USB out of the computer are officially over.

Happy days.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to [email protected]

Lucy Connolly

Lucy Connolly

A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).

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https://www.unilad.co.uk/technology/microsoft-finally-admit-you-dont-really-need-to-safely-remove-usb-flash-drives-anymore/

2019-04-09 06:45:08Z
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Digital music may not have saved the environment after all - Engadget

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Logic would suggest that music downloads and streaming are good for the environment. You're not buying physical copies, right? Not so fast -- there's a chance things could be worse. Researchers have published a study suggesting that greenhouse gas emissions are higher now than they were when physical media was all the rage. While going digital has reduced the amount of plastic, the combination of extra power demands and the sheer popularity of music (you can listen to virtually anything for $10 per month, after all) may have offset other gains. Where vinyl produced 346 million pounds of greenhouse gasses at its height in 1977, downloads and streaming are estimated to pump out 441 million to 772 million pounds.

The publicly available data leaves some questions. It's not clear that the findings account for savings from reduced transportation costs, packaging and other savings that come when the music doesn't have to physically travel somewhere. This also doesn't account for multitasking. If you're listening to music while you're already at your computer, for instance, you're not really using significantly more power than you would otherwise.

As it stands, the researchers aren't calling for people to go back to spinning records. Rather, they want you to think about your power use and choose services that minimize their effect on the planet. They also hope this could foster alternatives that are more sustainable without sacrificing the convenience you expect from on-demand tunes.

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https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/08/study-on-digital-music-and-greenhouse-gases/

2019-04-09 04:37:50Z
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Senin, 08 April 2019

How is Microsoft's Chromium-based Edge really different from Chrome? - ZDNet

edgeservicesturnedoff.jpg
Credit: Microsoft (via @h0x0d)

When Microsoft announced late last year it was reworking its Edge browser to be based on Chromium, many wondered how different the new Edge would be from Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers. Microsoft execs said they'd be adding some value-add in areas like smooth scrolling and accessibility, but didn't get too detailed beyond that. But there are a number of ways the new Edge will differ from Chrome, especially under the covers, as a Microsoft presentation slated for BlinkOn this week will detail.

Today, Microsoft released its first preview builds of the new Chromium-based Edge. I've seen some Edge users lamenting that these previews look more like Chrome than the current non-Chromium-based Edge. (To be fair, Microsoft officials have said the UI fit and finish work has yet to come with the new Chromium.) Still, is the new Edge really going to be just Chrome in Edge clothing?

Seemingly, the answer is no. Thanks to @h0x0d (The WalkingCat on Twitter), a slide deck that Microsoft plans to present at BlinkOn on April 9 has gone public. During the event, Christian Fortini, a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft who works on Edge will be presenting a talk entitled "Microsoft Edge: Adopting and contributing to Chromium."

Microsoft is replacing or turning off more than 50 Chromium services with Edge. (The list of services being replaced or shut off is listed in the slide embedded in this post above.) Some of these are no-brainers, such as Google-specific services like Google Now, Google Pay, Google Cloud Messaging, Chrome OS device management and Chrome Cleanup. Others are a bit more surprising/interesting, such as ad blocking, Spellcheck, Speech input; Android app password sync.

"Our users expect Edge to be only communicating with Microsoft services," Fortini says in his notes. As part of this, Microsoft is making sure the new Edge supports MSA (Microsoft Accounts) and Azure Active Directory identities for authentication/single sign-in. 

There are a number of other services of its own Microsoft is integrating into Chromium-based Edge, as detailed in this April 8 article by the Edge team. Among them: Bing Search, which is what is turned on by default for the built-in search and address bar; Windows Defender SmartScreen for phishing and malware protection; Microsoft Activity Feed Service for synchronizing data across Edge prview builds and across Edge on iOS and Android; and Microsoft News.

At BlinkOn, Fortini will reiterate that Microsoft has a handful of areas of focus with Chromium-based Edge, including accessibility, ARM64 support and more. He also plans to mention that Microsoft has contributed more than 300 commits in Chromium so far and is merging about 450 changes from upstream Chromium daily in building the new Edge. Microsoft has built a new Edge reporting service on top of the Chromium reporting service that will send telemetry data through 1DS (1 Data Strategy) to Microsoft.

Microsoft has identified a number of "other areas we would like to help with" in the Chromium space and is actively working on PDF enhancements, battery life improvements, smooth scrolling, editing, layout, dev tools and web authentication, according to his slides.

"PDF is an area where existing Edge received some praise for its accessibility, smooth scrolling and some of its features," Fortini says in his slide notes. "Though we have made a decision to build our PDF support on Chromium and PDFium moving forward, we would like to get back to parity with previous versions of Edge on these things."

On the list of Edge features on the roadmap, Fortini lists PlayReady DRM support; services integration and single sign-on. Edge supports both PlayReady and Widewine -- the only Chromium-based browser to do so, he says. PlayReady is there for 4K streaming of DRM-protected content like Netflix; hardware decryption/decoding and software decryption in protected process, his slides note. 

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https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-is-microsofts-chromium-based-edge-really-different-from-chrome/

2019-04-08 19:26:00Z
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Samsung might offer Galaxy Note 10 in two different screen sizes - The Verge

After the launch of four separate Galaxy S10 phones with different sized screens, maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Samsung is considering more than one display size for the upcoming Galaxy Note 10. ETNews reports that the Note 10 will be offered at two different sizes — both with LTE — and that there will also be a version with 5G.

According to the report, the Note 10 will come in 6.28-inch and 6.75-inch sizes. That might not sound like a huge difference, but it suggests that Samsung is trying to go about as big as it can without making a straight-up tablet phone.

The smaller device’s 6.28-inch display would put it between the 6.1-inch Galaxy S10 and 6.4-inch Galaxy S10 Plus; the larger 6.75-inch variant would be closer in line with the Galaxy S10 5G — rumored to be going up for preorders very soon — and its monstrous 6.7-inch screen.

ETNews says that Samsung might offer both of these sizes with standard LTE and 5G, meaning there could be four total versions of the Note 10 — and that’s before you even get to different storage options. The report claims the 5G model might have four rear cameras. If so, it’s very likely the fourth one will be the same time-of-flight sensor that’s on the S10 5G.

It seems unlike Samsung to shake up the Note in this way and put out two different display choices. But if you’ve been clamoring for even more screen real estate than what the Note 9 can offer, maybe a 6.75-inch Note 10 can up your productivity game even more. If history is any indication, Samsung will announce the Galaxy Note 10 sometime this August.

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https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/8/18300566/samsung-note-10-rumor-two-screen-sizes-5g

2019-04-08 16:55:17Z
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Hands-on: First public previews of Chromium-based Edge are now out - Ars Technica

There's really no difference between how the Ars front page looks in Edge and Chrome.
Enlarge / There's really no difference between how the Ars front page looks in Edge and Chrome.

Microsoft's switch to using the Chromium engine to power its Edge browser was announced in December last year, and the first public preview build is out now. Canary builds, updated daily, and Dev builds, updated weekly, are available for Windows 10. Versions for other operating systems and a beta that's updated every six weeks are promised to be coming soon.

Chromium is the open source browser project run by Google. It includes the Blink rendering engine (Google's fork of Apple's WebKit), V8 JavaScript engine, Google's software-based sandboxing, and the browser user interface. Google builds on Chromium for its Chrome browser, and a number of third-party browsers, including Opera, Vivaldi, and Brave, also use Chromium.

As a result, every Chromium browser offers more or less the same performance and Web compatibility. Indeed, this is a big part of why Microsoft made the switch: the company had grown tired of updating its own EdgeHTML engine to ensure it behaved identically to Chrome and is now offering Chrome-equivalent behavior in the most direct way possible. I've been using a version 74 build (which is a little out of date at this point) for the last week, and I have yet to see any difference between Edge and Chromium Dev when it comes to displaying Web pages. In principle, a page could treat Edge differently (it reports its identity as a rather ugly "Edg/74.1.96.14"; I'm presuming the misspelling is an attempt to ensure it isn't identified as a variation of the current Edge browser), but in general there's little reason to do so.

  • One small difference is the initial setup experience, where Edge asks you to choose how you want to lay out your homepage. You can have a graphic-rich Bing-like layout.
  • Or a news-rich Edge-like layout.
  • Or a spartan Chrome-like layout.

Microsoft has been working on the open source Chromium project to improve areas that are important to the company: ARM64 compatibility, integration with Windows' accessibility features to improve support for screen readers and other assistive technology, and touch and scroll performance. So far, there's little to actually see from this work. The differences we do see are in various user interface elements and in some of the service plumbing.

Edge's tabs are a little squarer than Chrome's, for example, though they're still not the square tabs used in the traditional Edge browser, and they're currently lacking Fluent features such as translucency, mouse hover effects, and thumbnail previews. Edge's icons are also a little finer. The settings pages in particular have been reorganized to give them a feel that's closer to Windows 10 than it is to Google. The Extensions page has been similarly redesigned, with Microsoft offering both its own extension store and supporting the use of the Chrome extension store.

Top: Chrome's tabs and toolbar. Bottom: Edge's tabs and toolbar. Slightly squarer, slightly finer lines used for icons, and slightly larger type. But much more similar than they are different.
Enlarge / Top: Chrome's tabs and toolbar. Bottom: Edge's tabs and toolbar. Slightly squarer, slightly finer lines used for icons, and slightly larger type. But much more similar than they are different.

The service integration remains very much a work in progress. With old Edge, Microsoft had just started to build rich syncing between devices to ensure that your browser history, saved usernames and passwords, extensions, and so on, roamed between devices and machines. The weakness in this area was arguably one of the browser's biggest shortcomings relative to Chrome or Firefox. For now, this remains the case in new Edge. Microsoft has plans to offer account integration and rich syncing comparable to that of Chrome, but it's not done yet, so all we have now is some basic history sharing. Other integration work is more complete: Edge uses Microsoft's SmartScreen service to block sites known to distribute malware, for example, and searching is handled by Bing rather than Chrome.

  • Perhaps the biggest area of difference currently is the Settings page.
  • The build I've been using is version 74, one behind the current Chromium dev branch.
  • Generally the settings have a much more Windows-like look and feel, which I prefer.
  • The full trio of previews will be available at some later date.

This includes integration with Microsoft's PlayReady DRM system, in addition to the WideVine DRM supported by Chrome. Currently, Edge is the only browser permitted to stream 4K video from Netflix, and it's possible that this limitation will remain true even once stable builds of new Edge are available. If so, this would be one of the very few areas of functional difference between Edge and Chromium.

These changes aside, it's really striking just how much of Chromium Microsoft is depending on. This extends to the development process; the Canary/Dev/Beta channels are lifted wholesale from Google's process, and even the compiler isn't Microsoft's own. While Chrome on Windows was originally compiled using Microsoft's own C++ compiler, Google switched to the Clang/LLVM toolchain last year to simplify development—it meant the company had to support only one set of compiler bugs and foibles rather than two—and dropped support for Microsoft's compiler. That remains the case today, and accordingly, while virtually everything else Microsoft develops is built using Microsoft's own developer tools, Edge is now compiled with Clang.

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https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/hands-on-first-public-previews-of-chromium-based-edge-are-now-out/

2019-04-08 16:25:00Z
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Apple releasing second iOS 12.3, watchOS 5.2.1 and tvOS 12.3 betas today [U] - 9to5Mac

It’s been almost two weeks since Apple started a new beta cycle with the release of iOS 12.3 beta 1. The update brought with it the initial code-level support for some of the features announced during the “It’s show time” event, including assets for the Apple Card, which we revealed would be paired in a similar way to AirPods.

Update: the second developer betas are now available for iOS 12.3, watchOS 5.2.1, tvOS 12.3, and macOS 10.14.5.

Apple is also releasing watchOS 5.2.1 beta 2 today, the updates should become available over-the-air at the top of the hour. There is also a public beta for iOS 12.3, which should also get an update soon after this second beta is released for developers.

The release notes for iOS 12.3 developer beta 2 only mention bug fixes and improvements, we’ll update this post once the beta goes out with more information.

One of the big features in this new beta is a major redesign of Apple’s TV app. As announced during the March event, the all-new Apple TV app brings together the different ways to discover and watch shows, movies, sports, news and more in one app across iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, smart TVs and streaming devices.

iOS 12.3 beta 1 changes and features

  • New TV app icon on Home screen and Settings
  • Sports and Store tabs have been removed
  • New Movies, TV Shows, Sports, and Kids buttons at the top of Watch Now page
  • Purchase directly within the app using ‘How to Watch’
  • New account button in upper right-hand corner
  • New ‘For You’ section on Watch Now page
  • New ‘New and Noteworthy’ section on Watch Now page
  • ‘Trending’ section now combines movies and TV shows
  • New ‘Featured on’ services
  • Apple TV Channels subscriptions w/trials
  • New tiles for movies and TV shows
  • Slightly redesigned search page
  • New movie pages with prominent artwork
  • Share and Up Next buttons now in upper right-hand corner
  • New Apple TV Remote app
  • More transactions in Apple Wallet

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

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https://9to5mac.com/2019/04/08/apple-releasing-second-ios-12-3-and-tvos-12-3-betas-today/

2019-04-08 16:07:00Z
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Microsoft makes Edge Chromium Insider preview available for download, get Dev or Canary channel builds now! - OnMSFT

It’s here! Or rather, they’re here. Thanks to a tweet from WalkingCat, we can tell you that the much anticipated official release of Chromium Edge is now upon us:

Microsoft is making Edge Insider available in three channels: Beta, which is not yet available but will be updated every 6 weeks, Dev, updated weekly, and Canary, a nightly build channel. Emails have gone out to those of us who signed up for information on the new Edge, leading to this page: https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/?form=MD18G6&OCID=MD18G6 – we’re sure we’ll have lots more info soon, but for now get to downloading!

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https://www.onmsft.com/news/microsoft-makes-edge-chromium-insider-preview-available-for-download-get-dev-or-canary-channel-builds-now

2019-04-08 15:51:25Z
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