Why don’t phone makers use last year’s high-end chips in budget phones?

There’s more to making a phone than Megahertz.

Everybody loves budget-friendly phones that are still pretty high-end devices. Motorola, ZTE, and other companies have delivered some great products at great prices, and for many, it’s crazy to spend almost $1,000 to buy the best from Google or Samsung. These “budget” phones can do everything they want them to do at considerable savings. But there’s one question a lot of folks have about the parts that make these phones go: why use “lesser” chipsets instead of just using last generation’s flagship chips?

We’ll take the Moto X4 and use it as an example here. It ships with a $399 price and a Snapdragon 630. Both of those are definitely on the budget side of the line. So why didn’t Moto keep the price, but use a Snapdragon 820 or 821 instead of the brand-new Snapdragon 630?

Because the Snapdragon 630 is better than the Snapdragon 821 in several key areas, and they are pretty important ones.

No, we’re not talking about performance in the way you might be thinking. The Snapdragon 821 with its Kryo cores and Adreno 530 GPU will run rings around the 630’s Cortex-A53 cores and Adreno 508 GPU when doing intensive things like gaming or VR. But there’s more to making a great chip for a great phone. A lot more.

Getting connected in 2017

This is the most important reason why a company like Motorola/Lenovo doesn’t want to use a Snapdragon chip designed in 2015 inside a phone sold at the end of 2017.

These are phones. Getting connected and staying connected is kind of important.

The Snapdragon 630 has Qualcomm’s X12 Modem, which is the same LTE package that was in the high-end 821. That means LTE speeds up to 600 Mbps, LTE Cat 12 (downlink)/13 (uplink), 3 x 20 MHz carrier aggregation and 256 QAM. This all translates into real-world LTE speeds in the 200-250 Mbps right now, and those will climb as carrier infrastructure is updated further. That’s a good thing.

Also new to the 600 platform is 2×2 MU-MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi. That means things like solid-concrete walls or copper plumbing pipes won’t interfere with your Wi-Fi signal as much and you’ll have a faster connection even further away. This means more than double the data throughput from the previous 600 series chipsets.

New chips can get new tech that didn’t exist last year.

In addition, the Snapdragon 630 supports wireless tech the Snapdragon 821 doesn’t. Things like Bluetooth 5 which means better support for the next-gen IoT (internet of things) as well as advances in current products. Or advanced RF front-end support through Qualcomm’s TruSignal adaptive antenna that now works with carrier aggregation, which translates into a better signal further from the cell tower.

There’s even a new location engine that supports the newest constellations (think satellite clusters) like QZSS and SBAS which will not only make finding your location faster and more accurate but also provide satellite-based augmentation that factors in things like clock drift and microwave signal ionospheric delay. Science!

The Snapdragon 630 makes for a better portable handheld wireless device than the Snapdragon 821 does.

But wait, there’s more!

The Snapdragon 630 is also a modern chipset when it comes to input and output. There is full support for Quick Charge 4.0, USB Type-C and USB 3.1. Faster data connection and the now-universal socket are awesome, and so is support for all of the latest fast-charging methods. Qualcomm’s All-Ways Aware sensor hub package means you’ll use a lot less power when getting data from things like the gyroscope because it can run independently from the main CPU cores. And hardware-based security for things like biometrics means your data will be more secure and its data-entry (the act of scanning your finger or face or iris) is faster and more accurate.

Last but not least are the camera capabilities. A good camera has become one of the most important features for many consumers, and the Snapdragon 630 offers support for the second-generation Spectra ISP (image signal processor) system. This supports the fancy computational photography we saw with the Google Pixel in 2016 as well as instant focus and zero shutter lag from the internal hardware.

Support is important, too. We depend on the company who made our phone for support, and it depends on the company who made the components.

The 630 also includes some of the standard performance-enhancing things we usually think of like a faster clock rate in the CPU cores and better 3D rendering from a new GPU when compared to the previous 600 series chipsets. The Snapdragon 630 is not only a better chip than last years 625 was, but it’s also a better chip than last year’s Snapdragon 821 was.

Remember, we just used the Moto X4 and its Snapdragon 630 as an example. These same types of upgrades are also present on all new chips compared to older models. Along with things like better battery life and longer OEM support, this is why companies making our phones use the latest and greatest even in their inexpensive models. And we should be glad that they do!

What about updates?

That’s another win in favor of the Snapdragon 630: Qualcomm supports its chips for a finite amount of time, which means that a budget chip from 2017 is likely to be updated for much longer than a more powerful chip from 2016.

Of course, it’s up to the phone manufacturer to actually follow through with those updates, but Qualcomm and other chip vendors like Broadcom are integral to this process, as they facilitate driver upgrades and other important improvements to prepare phones for a new Android platform update. It’s improving this cooperation that Google had in mind when it announced and implemented Project Treble alongside Android O earlier this year.

It’s the price, stupid!

Of course, there’s another factor that keeps budget phones with “budget” chips instead of last year’s flagships: price. Qualcomm licenses a bunch of technology to companies with its Snapdragon processors, and the 800-series is chock-full of features, sensors and optimizations. The cheaper chips in the Snapdragon 600- and 400-series don’t always share those same top-shelf features, so phone companies are more likely to choose them over last year’s flagship chips, which still likely carry a higher price tag.

Your thoughts

What do you think about all of this? Are you more inclined to buy a Galaxy S7 over a Moto X4? Let us know in the comments!

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

• Pixel 2 FAQ: Everything you need to know!
• Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL hands-on preview
• Google Pixel 2 specs
• Google Pixel 2 vs. Pixel 2 XL: What’s the difference?
• Join our Pixel 2 forums

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Best Microsoft apps for Android

Microsoft apps have come a long way on Android.

Microsoft essentially shunned Android and iOS for several years, but with Satya Nadella taking the helm in 2014 and adopting a mobile-first stance, the company has turned its attention to bringing its apps and services to rival platforms. From heavy-hitters like Office to side projects developed by employees in their free time under the Microsoft Garage label, Microsoft has a lot to offer on Android.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft made the Android and iOS versions of Office free in 2014, opening up the floodgates for its adoption on these platforms.

Standalone apps for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint debuted in 2015, allowing users to quickly edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations on the go. Basic editing functionality is available for all users, but if you want advanced features — inserting section breaks, viewing file history, customizing headers and footers in Word — you’re going to have to subscribe to Office 365. If you’re just looking to create, edit, or save documents, then the free option should be more than adequate.

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint sync over OneDrive, allowing you to quickly view files stored on the cloud. The apps work even if you don’t have the cloud storage service set up, but you’ll be limited to working with files locally stored on your device. If you’re not a OneDrive user, you can also sync your files through Dropbox or Box.

• Download Word from the Play Store
• Download Excel from the Play Store
• Download PowerPoint from the Play Store

OneNote

OneNote has picked up several new features lately, turning it into one of the best note-taking apps currently available. One of the biggest additions in recent times is cross-platform availability, making it a viable contender to the likes of Evernote, even more so now that the latter service has gravitated to a paid structure.

By contrast, OneNote is completely free, and lets you easily type, draw, or hand-draw notes. The service lets you scan handwritten notes, and has a powerful search feature that lets you find what you’re looking for. You can organize your notes with labels, save web clippings, take voice notes, add photos and videos, and so much more.

OneNote also offers the ability to password protect your notes, version history for your files, Android Wear support, and a widget that lets you quickly jot down a note. The best feature is that you can access your notes even when you’re offline, which isn’t possible unless you’re on a paid plan on Evernote.

Download OneNote from the Play Store

OneDrive

OneDrive is a feature-rich cloud storage service that rivals Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, and others. OneDrive integrates with OneNote and Office apps to provide a seamless experience on Android. The app has automatic photo and video backup, and you can link it to your camera roll to automatically sync photos to your OneDrive account.

OneDrive lets you download files for offline use, share photo albums and collaborate on documents, and receive updates when someone makes changes to shared documents. The free tier comes with 5GB of storage, but if you’re subscribed to Office 365, you’ll get 1TB of cloud storage. If you’re not on Office 365, you can buy 100GB of storage for $1.99 a month or 200GB for $3.99.

Download OneDrive from the Play Store

Skype

Skype revamped its UI in 2015, offering a cleaner layout that gives you easy access to calls, chats, and contacts. Calls between Skype users are free, and the service also offers group video calls for up to 25 people. Skype retooled chats by rolling out emoticons and Mojis, which are essentially short clips from popular movies and TV shows. You’ll also be able to send photos, videos, and share your location from the IM interface.

Skype also offers the ability to call international numbers and landlines, with the service boasting some of the most affordable rates in this space. To incentivize adoption in emerging markets, Skype is letting customers from India call mobile numbers in the U.S. and Canada for absolutely free.

Download Skype on the Play Store

Outlook

The Outlook app is one of the best email clients available on Android. Microsoft paid over $200 million for Acompli, a mobile email service with built-in calendar and file sharing, back in 2014, and has rebranded the service to Outlook. Since then, it has added several features, including the core functionality of Sunrise Calendar, another of Microsoft’s acquisitions.

Outlook lets you manage email from Gmail, Outlook.com, Microsoft Exchange, Yahoo, and others, providing a unified mailbox. You can archive or delete mails with a swipe left gesture, or peruse your mails at a later time using the schedule function.

The app hooks into the built-in calendar to add details from your emails automatically, and it offers a Focused Inbox that lets you prioritize important emails. You can also attach files easily from OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive. As with all Microsoft services on Android, Outlook is free. If you’re in need of a better email client, then you should definitely give Outlook a try.

Download Outlook from the Play Store

Microsoft Authenticator

If you regularly sign into a Microsoft account, the company’s own two-factor authenticator comes in handy. Instead of the usual six-digit code to log you in, Microsoft Authenticator lets you authorize the sign in attempt with a simple tap, making the process much more convenient.

In addition to adding your Microsoft account, you can also add details for other services that are secured by two-factor authentication, including Google and Facebook. Haven’t secured your accounts yet? Here’s why you should set up two-factor authentication right away.

Download Microsoft Authenticator from the Play Store

Office Lens

Office Lens is essentially a portable scanner that lets you easily scan whiteboards, documents, and receipts. I used Scanbot for several years, but Office Lens’ integration with Office apps gives it a distinct advnatage over other utilities in this space.

You can scan and upload your documents to OneNote, Word, or OneDrive, and Office Lens offers the ability to convert your images to Word documents, PDFs, and even PowerPoint files. The app uses optical character recognition to convert images into text, making them searchable.

Download Office Lens from the Play Store

Microsoft Launcher

Microsoft Launcher offers an interesting take on an Android launcher. It emerged from the previous Arrow Launcher but was reborn for the better. As well as regular launcher features, like adding apps to home screens and customizing your wallpaper and widgets, Microsoft Launcher has some neat tricks others do not have.

You can create your own personalized feed of things, such as news, calendar appointments, office documents, and contacts, while also having the ability to set the feed as your default home screen. Glanceable information is something Microsoft has done for years in Windows on phones.

One of the most interesting features is integration with “Continue on PC.” When linked to your Microsoft account, you can perform certain actions on your PC that you started on your phone. And that’s beyond nifty. Currently, it’s only in preview, but you can gain early access by joining the preview group through the Play Store.

Download Microsoft Launcher from the Play Store

Xbox

If you have an Xbox One, the Xbox app offers a ton of utility. The app acts as a virtual controller for the Xbox One, allowing you to control your console with your phone. You can also scroll through your activity feed, view achievements, messages, buy games from the store, and much more.

Download Xbox app from the Play Store

Your turn

What Microsoft apps do you use on your Android phone or tablet? Let us know in the comments below.

Updated October 10, 2017: We removed Groove Music (sad face) and added the new and improved Microsoft Launcher.

This 20000mAh power bank can charge four things at once and is only $32

With six different ports, there’s a whole lot of versatility here!

Is this deal for me?

Portable power banks are extremely popular these days, and there are so many different options available. From tiny pocket-sized ones to large ones that can recharge your phone like 10 times, they all offer something a little different to make them stand out.

This 20000mAh option from Aukey may be one of the most versatile ones that we’ve seen so far, and right now you can pick one up for $31.99 at Amazon when you use the coupon code AUKEYPY4.

The power bank has 3 USB-A ports, one Micro-USB, one USB-C, and one Lightning port. You can recharge the battery using the USB-C, Lightning or Micro-USB input, and charge your phone, tablet, and other gadgets using the USB-C and USB-A ports.

• 20000mAh Energy Beast- Power your iPhone 7 6.8 times, 9.7-inches iPad Pro 1.8 times, Samsung Galaxy Note8 4 times, Samsung Galaxy S8+ 3.8 times and More
• Universal Charging – Recharge your power bank via USB-C / Lightning / Micro-USB. Reversible USB-C port and 3 USB output ports charge your devices simultaneously with up to 3A shared output
• Stylish Design – Ultra slimline & refined craftsmanship with a matte fingerprint-free surface. Minimalist LED indicator shows the remaining battery at a glance
• AiPower Technology – Tuned to provide the safest maximum recharge rate for all your USB-powered devices

The power bank has a 2-year warranty from Aukey, and the package also includes a USB-A to USB-C cable.

TL;DR

• What makes this deal worth considering? – Not only is this battery pack massive in capacity at 20000mAh, but it also has four outputs for keeping your devices charged and it is super thin. You can charge the pack itself in three different ways, making it extremely versatile.
• Things to know before you buy! – None of the ports on this charger are Quick Charge compatible. If that is super important to you, we’d suggest this RavPower option with a few fewer ports for $40.

See at Amazon

Amazon says a patch for WPA2 exploit KRACK is in the works

Amazon is evaluating their products to determine how to go forward and patch KRACK.

Phones and computers aren’t the only devices affected by the KRACK WPA2 exploit. In a connected world, everything from your toothbrush to your doorbell to your stereo uses Wi-Fi, and every one of them also needs a patch. Good luck with that.

One manufacturer with untold millions of things in homes around the world is Amazon, and we hit them up for any news on what they’re doing about KRACK.

An Amazon spokesperson tells us “We are in the process of reviewing which of our devices may contain this vulnerability and will be issuing patches where needed.”

The language here is important. Every device that uses WPA2 for Wi-Fi encryption is vulnerable. All of them. And they all should be patched. But some devices need to be patched first, because of what they are able to do and what an attacker would be able to do with them.

Everything needs to be updated but some things need to be updated right away.

At the “extreme” end of the scale is Android. Devices running versions 6.0 and higher need to be patched ASAP because a preexisting security feature was attacked and the result is an encryption token that’s useless because it’s all zeros. An attacker can then decrypt every packet over the network as well as forge packets to inject nasty stuff.

At the other end is something like a smart sprinkler head. It’s out in your garden waiting to get a signal to cycle its power. That’s all it can do: turn on and off. It needs to be patched, but the controller that can do so much more is a higher priority.

Amazon has several devices using Android 6.0 or higher as the base for FireOS. Those devices need prompt attention. The Echo family is also a priority. Dash buttons, apps for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows may all need to be updated because they initiate a connection, and they also fit somewhere on the priority slider. Amazon’s generic answer is the right answer.

We’ll let you know more as soon as we know more!

Amazon Echo

• Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
• All about Alexa Skills
• Amazon Echo review
• Echo Dot review
• Top Echo Tips & Tricks
• Amazon Echo vs. Google Home
• Get the latest Alexa news

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#MeToo becomes a rallying cry for survivors of sexual assault

Yesterday, a campaign geared towards demonstrating just how common sexual assault and harassment are began to spread on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Alongside the hashtag #MeToo, women began posting their own stories of harassment in response to a prompt by Alyssa Milano.

If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet. pic.twitter.com/k2oeCiUf9n

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 15, 2017

The tweet has generated thousands of retweets and likes as well as over 40,000 responses. Among some of the celebrities that have joined the campaign are Lady Gaga, Debra Messing, Anna Paquin and Evan Rachel Wood.

Because I was shamed and considered a “party girl” I felt I deserved it. I shouldnt have been there, I shouldn’t have been “bad” #metoo

— #EvanRachelWould (@evanrachelwood) October 16, 2017

The move comes after a New York Times report about Harvey Weinstein and the now many, many accusations of sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and rape that surround him. The #MeToo campaign was generated in order to show just how prevalent sexual assault is, the risks posed to women in any workplace including Hollywood and how easy it is for someone like Weinstein to get away with what he did.

Following the recent reports, Rose McGowan began discussing her experiences with sexual assault in Hollywood on Twitter and the platform temporarily limited her account. It has since been reinstated, but the move from Twitter, which has come under a lot of criticism for how it handles harassment, spurred the #WomenBoycottTwitter protest last week. The company has since said that new rules for the platform are on the way.

Via: New York Times

Microsoft already has a fix for that severe WiFi security exploit

The “Krack Attack” WiFi encryption security flaw is more than a little frightening, but you should already be relatively safe if you’re using a recent Windows PC. Microsoft has released a patch that fixes the vulnerability on all supported versions of Windows (effectively, 8 or later). Windows isn’t as susceptible to the flaw as Linux-based platforms like Android, which don’t demand a unique encryption key, but this fix may have a significant impact simply through the sheer ubiquity of Windows in the computing world.

To recap: the exploit revolves around cloning a WPA2-encrypted WiFi network, impersonating its MAC address and changing the WiFi channel. Intruders can force your device to connect to this bogus network instead of the legitimate one, making it easier for them to snoop on your data traffic or perpetrate attacks that require a local network. Would-be hackers have to get within physical distance of a target network for this to succeed, but that’s potentially a huge problem for public networks.

As for other platforms? Apple hasn’t detailed a fix yet, but Google is promising that Android phones with a November 6th security update will be protected against Krack Attack. The Wi-Fi Alliance is also requiring that all of its partners (including Apple and others) check for the exploit and patch if necessary. The issue is already in hand, then. The main concern is whether or not updates arrive in a timely manner — not every Android vendor delivers security updates in a timely fashion, so you may end up waiting past November 6th to lock down your device.

Source: The Verge, Rachid Finge (Twitter), Wi-Fi Alliance

Can an iPad Pro replace your PC?

In 2016, Apple believed its professional-grade tablet, the iPad Pro, was ready for the big time. Phil Schiller even described the machine as “the ultimate PC replacement” when describing the product onstage. The company’s own advertisements claimed that the device could do everything a desktop or laptop could do. But that wasn’t really true until the launch of iOS 11, when the company really let the iPad off the leash.

One of the headline features is that iOS 11 enabled truer multitasking than was available before. In fact, most of the commentary about the new operating system is about features, like the dock, that are at the heart of macOS. When a tablet gets the famous Mac dock, you know it’s time to consider it as a genuine PC replacement. Which is why I’ve spent a couple of days working (almost) exclusively from one in order to see if I’d be tempted to switch.

I’m a particularly good candidate for the experiment, since I’m such a slavish desktop aficionado that I even resent using a laptop. Unless it’s got dual displays, keyboard and mouse, not to mention the ability to run 10 programs at a time, I’m not happy.

In the service of the experiment, I borrowed the latest 10.5-inch iPad Pro from Apple, complete with a Smart Keyboard and Pencil. I also begged a friend to let me play with his 12.9-inch iPad Pro, similarly with a Smart Keyboard, to compare and contrast. My challenge was to try and do my job at Engadget using just the smaller iPad to write, edit and upload images.

The first thing you notice about working from an iPad is just how much more productive it makes you, because the iPad is the enemy of distraction. On my desktop, I normally work with two Chrome windows, iTunes and a couple of Pages documents on my primary display. The second monitor is dedicated to Slack, ensuring that I’m always on hand to respond to messages.

On the iPad, it’s far harder to succumb to the ravages of multiple-window syndrome. In fact, for all of Apple’s trumpeting about the iPad’s improved multitasking, the device is built to do one thing at a time. Part of it is a result of the limitations of the iPad itself: with only 10.5 or 12.9 inches of real estate to play with, you always need to be conscious about how much screen you’re using.

I spent most of my working days with Pages occupying about five-fifths of the display, with either a web browser or Slack on the right. Not that I really needed to, because iOS also has enabled fast switching, either by control-tabbing around your open apps or with the dock. The dock, obviously, was cribbed from macOS, and it’s one of the best tweaks available here.

When I work from a touchscreen Windows laptop, I’m always leery about not having a mouse alongside, because there’s that disconnect when you need to go from keyboard to display. Not only is it a real break with what you’re doing, but there’s the fact that your screen can get pretty greasy, pretty quickly.

Apple has, thankfully, solved the first half of that equation, because iOS’ gestures are more natural and intuitive. Pull your fingers in to close an app, swipe left or right to switch apps, tap the screen to highlight something. It makes a lot more sense, so you experience less of that break in your mind between using a keyboard and touching a screen. You still need a cloth at hand, unfortunately. When I went back to using a desktop, I found that I missed that sense of connection with the display that allowed me to quickly brush my finger against the screen to move the cursor.

Then there’s the iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard, which filled me with dread when I thought I had to deal with it for a week-plus. It does, after all, look like the sort of rubber, industrial keyboard I thought I left behind when I stopped working in factories. At first blush, it looks stiff, uncomfortable, with little to no travel — a retrograde step toward the days of the ZX Spectrum.

I needed not have worried, since the Smart Keyboard has plenty of travel and is almost as comfortable as a laptop keyboard. Sure, it’s never going to match up to the sort of professional-grade mechanical keyboards I use on the desktop, or even the Apple-bundled chiclet keyboard. But it’s comfortable enough to use for long periods, and I’d happily use it as my primary input mechanism. Although I’d prefer the 12.9-inch version to its smaller sibling, because I’m a big guy with very big hands.

Oh, one thing: The angle of the iPad on its stand and my very large fingers mean that it’s far too easy to unintentionally brush the screen. It’s not a big issue, and I was able to learn to avoid it over time, but having keyboard controls at the bottom of the screen can sometimes be problematic.

I also want to talk about the Pencil, which I didn’t have much cause to use, since I’m not a very talented illustrator. However, I found out that, on top of being used for artistic purposes, the (don’t call it a) stylus pulls double duty as a mouse pointer.

For me — and I’d assume a large proportion of the people who work at Engadget — replacing our computers with iPads would be out of the question. Our CMS, the platform on which this site hangs, was designed more than a decade ago to work with keyboards and mice. Using it on phones and tablets, with their finger- and gesture-based interaction metaphors, is possible, but hellish. Not to mention that plenty of the apps that we need to work aren’t really designed to be used on tablets.

And yet, once I’d settled into a groove, I found it reasonably easy to do the bulk of my work on the iPad without interruption. The Apple Pencil is smart enough to let me use it in place of my finger in our CMS, and you can even shoot and edit photos on the device. Using Lightroom, it’s possible to shoot RAW images from the iPad’s 12-megapixel camera. I was able to produce some excellent imagery that, unless you’re looking hard, you’d assume came from a dedicated camera.

Thankfully, iOS 11’s Files app also means that I can actually just push the edited files into Google Drive and back again without any fuss.

Daniel Cooper

There are some issues that are specific to me, like the fact that I can’t yet find a batch resizing and watermarking app that suits our system. That’s not an issue that’s going to affect the majority of folks who will use the device. The muscle memory for pretty much everything else still works, and, after a few days, I didn’t even notice that I wasn’t using a desktop — except for the fact that you need to pull into Control Center to change music tracks, which is a total productivity killer.

One big trade-off between a personal computer and the iPad Pro is that the latter can’t really be the center of your digital universe. An iPad can’t host the sum of your iTunes media library, and you can’t sync devices with it. If you’re a fully paid-up member of the iCloud ecosystem, then that’s less of an issue. But if you’re still attached to physical media, you’re not going to be able to make that split so easily.

Another criticism, and one that’s often lobbed toward Apple, is that the iPhone and iPad are “closed” devices, hampering you from doing some of the things you would do on a desktop. Now, some of those things may not be on the right side of legality, but it may be something that you do anyway. Let’s imagine, for instance, that you enjoy watching controversial condiment-based cartoon Rick and Morty.

Here in the UK, Rick and Morty is available to view on Netflix seven days after its initial US broadcast. That’s easy to circumvent, however, since YouTube (and every other video hosting site on the internet) has streams of it available minutes after it airs. Now, on a desktop or laptop, you could simply visit one of the thousands of illegal streams on YouTube or elsewhere, save it to your hard drive and watch it at your leisure later. Or perhaps save it to a USB stick and then transfer it to a media player downstairs for family viewing.

You’ll get no prizes for guessing that such a job is difficult and very fiddly to implement on an iPad without plenty of help. Because you can’t simply save the file that’s being played in Safari, you need to use some creative workarounds. A service such as KeepVid, for instance, will paste the purloined files to your Dropbox account, from which you can then move them on. For all of Apple’s claims that iOS 11 will free your iPad from the tyranny of sandboxing, there’s still plenty of incentive for you to keep to your lane.

iPads, for all of their compactness, aren’t always the ideal machine for road warriors. On field trips, I use my MacBook Air’s two USB ports to charge all of my digital devices, from my iPhone and headphones to my Kindle. That way, all I need to do is carry the charging cables, rather than the wall plugs, and I can charge up to three devices at a time.

An iPad, on the other hand, can share its battery only with the Pencil, and so is useless for power sharing. Whatever bag weight you’ve saved by not toting around a hefty laptop and its power adapter, you’ll make back by bringing USB plugs for all of your various devices.

On the upside, the iPad Pro occupies a lot less horizontal space than a laptop, making it better-suited for working on a train or airplane. You’ll never entirely eliminate the stresses of crunching elbows with your neighbor when typing, but it does help to mitigate the problem. And there are plenty of scenarios when the iPad’s speed enables you to get short bursts of work done much faster.

I often think that iOS will always be relatively hampered because macOS exists. The former is a sleek, stripped-down race car designed for speed and getting people to their destination in record time. The latter, however, is a pickup truck, useful and slow and versatile in all the ways its sibling is not.

It’s with that in mind that you should approach the notion of whether you could live your life with the iPad Pro as your primary — nay, only — machine. For the electronic minimalist in us all, the device can do plenty of the usual things you’d use a desktop for. But you’ll always find that you can very easily butt up against the limits of what the iPad, and iOS 11, can do.

On the plus side, I love how focused the iPad Pro made me, and how comfortable the keyboard is to use. The screen, packing 120Hz ProMotion and True Tone display technology, is beautiful, and I actually really enjoyed spending time with it to work and read. Not to mention that, because it’s so fast, light and portable, it’s far easier to work with in places other than your office. You can prop it up beside you at breakfast or on the couch late at night, and it’s much easier to use where space is at a premium than a laptop.

What you’re giving up, however, is that sense of control and the ability to do what you want to do, how you want to do it. Because Apple has a very ingrained sense of how computing is done, and its devices are built to enforce that sense at all times. If you feel that you can cope with the rigidity, then you will probably have no qualms about making the switch.

It’s weird, because on one hand, I feel like I could do 90 percent of my job with an iPad Pro and eliminate so much stuff from my office overnight. But that in doing so, I’d have to always have a laptop on standby for when I needed to do things that Apple doesn’t want you to do. The biggest drawback to recommending one, right now, is that the iPad Pro is this useful only because of its Smart Keyboard, and the price for the two together is $968 for the base model 12.9-incher. This is an awful lot of money to spend on a very beautiful device that can’t save a video straight from Safari or efficiently batch-resize camera images suitable for publishing.

Can an iPad Pro replace a personal computer? No, and it’s likely that it won’t be able to for some time. But do you really need a personal computer for the majority of the things you do each day?

What is Intel Coffee Lake?

Intel’s 8th-generation “Coffee Lake” CPUs are now on the market. These chips come with a modest bump in CPU frequency, but the big news is that Intel is finally adding 6-core processors to its mainstream i7 and i5 lines. More cores means these chips will perform better at tasks that benefit from multithreading, such as content creation and data processing, and the increase in frequency and cores will give a boost to gaming frame rates.

Intel used to release chips on a “tick-tock” cycle that saw every release alternate either a new design, or a new manufacturing process – called a “node.” A new process node, like moving from 45nm to 22nm, means smaller transistors and a faster or more power-efficient chip. But manufacturing challenges made tick-tock falter a few years ago, and now new releases are much harder to predict. “Coffee Lake” is the fourth chip Intel has released at 14nm, and the third based on the “Skylake” design from 2015. New designs and nodes are coming, but we’ll probably have to wait until they arrive in 2018 to see a big jump in performance.

Supreme Court will hear challenge to Microsoft’s data privacy case

Microsoft may have won its fight to protect overseas data from American search warrants, but it can’t rest easy. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the Department of Justice’s petition to review the case, virtually guaranteeing that the case will set the basis for how US law enforcement can access data abroad. We don’t have a court date as of this writing, but the arguments on both sides are already well-established.

A New York district court and the DOJ contend that companies, not users, own data stored abroad — in this case, email held in an Irish data center. As such, any warrant targeting an American company would be considered a domestic request and wouldn’t have to face extra scrutiny.

Both Microsoft and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (which ruled in favor of Microsoft last year) see it very differently. They don’t believe that laws like the Electronic Communications Privacy Act were intended to reach beyond American borders, and that this creates conflicts with privacy laws in Europe and other corners of the world. Microsoft also sees this as a Pandora’s box. If you don’t own your data, then that theoretically means you lose your right to privacy the moment you step online. And if the US can use a warrant to take any data so long as it’s held by an American company, doesn’t that invite foreign governments to do the same thing?

Whether that’s a valid concern or irrational fear, Microsoft is upbeat about the Supreme Court challenge. Even if it loses, it knows that there are bills in progress (such as the Senate’s International Communications Privacy Act) that could restrict access to overseas data. The DOJ may get what it wants and still have to limit the scope of law enforcement’s data collection.

Source: Microsoft, SCOTUSblog

Telegram fined after refusing to provide user data to Russia

Back in June, we reported on the struggles that messaging app Telegram was having with the Russian government. Russia asked Telegram to hand over confidential user data because it claimed terrorists have been using the service to plan attacks. Now, the latest update in their saga is here. The Meshchansky Court of Moscow fined Telegram 800,000 rubles (the equivalent of about $14,000) for failure to provide the Russian government with decryption keys to user messages.

It’s not an outright ban, which is what Russia threatened Telegram with, and the size of the fine implies that Russia’s doing this for show. Telegram founder Pavel Durov posted about the decision on the social networking site VK (which he also founded). He claims that the demands of the FSB, Russia’s state security organization, are unconstitutional. What’s more, they are not feasible from a technological standpoint. After all, providing backdoor access to an app isn’t exactly a simple endeavor.

Durov is currently working on appealing the decision. His VK post asks any lawyers interested in this case to contact him; they will choose from the candidates in the next few days. It’s not a large fine, to be sure, so Telegram could just pay it, but it’s clear that Durov wants to take a stand on the issue of user privacy.

Via: Phys.org

Source: VK