Microsoft selling a commercial version of its Surface Laptop with Windows 10 Pro

Microsoft first introduced its Surface Laptop in May 2017 sporting a new version of Windows 10 branded with an “S.” Both had students in mind, with the operating system locking app installs to products only served up in the Microsoft Store, and limitations to how end-users can change settings. But the Surface Laptop is more than just a tool for students, and the limitations of Windows 10 S are simply unacceptable in a corporate environment. That’s why Microsoft now offers the Commercial Surface Laptop with Windows 10 Pro. 

Comparing the two available Surface Laptops, the only differences reside in the memory amount, color, operating system options, and starting price. The commercial version doesn’t include a 4GB memory option, making its $1,099 starting price slightly higher than the mainstream $999 starting point. The commercial version also doesn’t provide the Graphite Gold color option, but it does offer Windows 10 Pro alongside Windows 10 S as a second OS choice for an additional $100.

Here are the Surface Laptop specifications in case you missed them: 

Operating system: 

Windows 10 S
Windows 10 Pro (commercial only) 

Screen size: 

13.5 inches with Touch 

Screen resolution: 

2256 x 1504 

Processor: 

Core i5-7200U
Core i7-7660U 

Graphics: 

Intel HD 620 (Core i5)
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 (Core i7) 

Memory: 

4GB (mainstream only)
8GB
16GB 

Storage (SSD): 

128GB
256GB
512GB
1TB 

Sound: 

2x Omnisonic speakers
Doly Audio Premium 

Camera: 

720p with facial recognition 

Connectivity: 

Wireless N
Bluetooth 4.0 LE 

Ports: 

1x USB-A 3.1 Gen1
1x Mini DisplayPort
1x Headphone jack
1x Surface Connect 

Battery: 

Up to 14.5 hours 

Dimensions: 

12.3 x 8.79 (D) x 0.57 (H) inches 

Weight (starting): 

2.76 pounds 

Colors: 

Platinum
Burgundy
Cobalt Blue
Graphite Gold (mainstream only) 

Starting price: 

$999 (mainstream)
$1,099 (commercial) 

Even if customers purchase the mainstream model, they can still grab Windows 10 Pro as a free upgrade from Windows 10 S until March 31, 2018. But the newer S-stamped operating system might be best for students or other individuals computing in a controlled environment. 

The platform’s “S” suffix could essentially mean “secure” or “streamlined,” as Microsoft fine-tuned the platform to squeeze every bit of high performance and battery juice out of the Surface Laptop, and other low-end solutions. The company also focused on security, hence the Microsoft Store app lockdown to prevent students from installing malicious software.  

“[Apps] are first verified for security, and then locally each run in a safe ‘container,’ ensuring consistent performance and security for the system,” the company says. “Windows 10 S customers will be protected from malware by default with Windows Defender and can use additional antivirus software available in the Windows Store if they choose.” 

But with Windows 10 Pro, you can install any app or desktop software you want. That means you can use your favorite non-Microsoft browser, antivirus software, and PC games distributed on Steam. But it’s not streamlined for low-end machines, and it packs enterprise-friendly features students can live without. According to Microsoft, once you upgrade to Windows 10 Pro from the slimmer “S” version, there’s no turning back. 

To configure the Surface Laptop with Windows 10 Pro installed right out of the box, order from Microsoft here. 

Editors’ Recommendations

• How to speed up Windows in a few easy steps
• Acer Chromebook 15 review
• Honor View 10 review
• 2018 Ford Expedition: Release dates, prices, specs, and features
• Battle of the 15-inch 2-in-1s: HP Spectre x360 vs. Microsoft Surface Book 2

How a blockchain-based digital photo notary is fighting fraud and fake news

When you listen to Jeff McGregor talk, he sounds like a skeptic: “You really just can’t trust anything you see on the internet these days,” he told Digital Trends. “But we do everything online, whether it’s meeting your future spouse or buying a home.”

He may be skeptical, but he is also hopeful. McGregor is the CEO of Truepic, an image authentication company that’s taking a high-tech approach to fighting fraud and fake news. He describes the service as a sort of digital notary for images. It automatically verifies a photo at the point of capture, proving its realness to anyone who views it, be that a claims adjuster, apartment hunter, or someone looking for a date.

Truepic is a digital notary for images that adds layers of verification for authenticity.

Truepic works through a mobile app — either the company’s own or within one of its client’s apps that incorporates the Truepic SDK — but the real magic happens in the cloud. As McGregor described it, Truepic is essentially running a server side software camera; the camera on your phone is just a “lens.” The server performs a wealth of data analysis on the images it receives, then encodes them to the blockchain to provide an extra layer of security against manipulation.

“From the time you press the shutter button, it’s roughly 12 seconds for [the picture] to land on our server, be stamped with server side metadata, complete various computer vision tests, and hash that data and send it to Bitcoin,” McGregor explained. “We are creating an immutable copy of that data that will forever stay true.”

When a user takes a picture, it is watermarked with the Truepic logo and given a unique serial number. Each image has a specific verification URL which can only be accessed with that unique number, giving the recipient a way to double check that it is authentic, and not just edited to look like a Truepic verified image.

The service uses much more than an image’s imbedded metadata to prove authenticity, pulling as much information as possible from a phone’s additional sensors. For example, it doesn’t just rely on GPS to determine location; instead, it uses surrounding Wi-Fi signals and even barometric pressure readings to confirm the GPS position. Truepic also time-stamps images on the server side, so even if someone has tampered with their phone’s clock, the image will show the true time it was taken.

Simply being able to trust that a photo was taken where someone says it was, can do a lot to combat image fraud. In online dating, for example, this can let you know that the person you’re talking to is actually in your city — and not trying to scam you from halfway around the world. A dating app can integrate Truepic’s SDK and require its members to take a selfie with it to prove their location. (To satisfy privacy concerns, Truepic lets users choose to just show their general area.) A positive side effect is that the time-stamped photo would also prevent people from posing as much younger versions of themselves — a less financially damaging, but perhaps equally annoying type of fraud.

Romance scams don’t yield the same total losses as other types of fraud, but they impact individuals more strongly, making it an important problem to solve. The FBI estimates the average damage is in the range of $10,000 per victim.

“What we saw early on were people taking photos of other photos.”

Verifiable date and location stamping may work to combat romance scams, but it can’t solve everything. Insurance fraud presents a tougher challenge. “What we saw early on were people taking photos of other photos,” McGregor said. A Google image search makes it pretty easy to find a photo of, say, a Honda Civic post fender bender, and simply snapping a pic of that photo with your phone is enough to create a “new” image with original metadata. Now you can send off your Inception photo to the insurance company and kick back while you wait for the check.

Well, maybe you could have done that — except that Truepic knows if you’re just taking a picture of another picture. While the company is tight-lipped about the specifics of its image recognition technology, McGregor offered a few details about what’s going on under the hood. “We’ve built a number of tests that allow us to understand if the image being captured is of a 2D surface or an actual 3D environment,” he said. “We are able to identify that with a high degree of accuracy.”

The FBI attests that combined insurance fraud (not counting health insurance) totals $40 billion per year. But being able to trust that an image is real isn’t just a way for insurance companies to save money by weeding out fraudulent claims — it can also speed up the review process, meaning legitimate claims get paid faster. Long term, premiums should go down, as well, so everyone wins — well, everyone except the fraudsters.

Empowering citizen journalists

Getting its SDK embedded into the apps of major insurance companies is clearly important to Truepic’s bottom line, but there’s a potentially even more critical mission beneath the service. Mounir Ibrahim, Truepic’s VP of strategic initiatives, joined the company after realizing the potential it had to empower citizen journalists, particularly people living in conflict zones.

Before Truepic, Ibrahim was previously with the U.S. Department of State, where he served as a diplomat to Syria. He spent a lot of time observing protests in the lead up to the civil war that broke out in 2011. “What I saw throughout my time as a U.S. diplomat, particularly the last couple of years, was a rise in images and videos of the most outrageous atrocities around the world,” he told Digital Trends. “Almost every citizen is becoming their own citizen journalist.”

However, the images would often do little to generate the support they deserved. “Other members of the United Nations Security Council would undermine these photos on the ground that their authenticity couldn’t be proved,” Ibrahim said. “It was a way to shrug off responsibility.”

Essentially, this is the opposite problem to what happens with photos used in fake news stories: Rather than someone believing a fake photo was real, people were choosing, in the absence of proof, to believe a real photo was fake. The cameraphone may have enabled citizen journalists, but it’s all for naught if their stories fall on deaf ears. Ibrahim believes Truepic can provide a solution to this, and the app is already in the hands of NGOs around the world, with a presence in some 100 countries.

One limitation here is that Truepic requires photos to be taken on a smartphone. For obvious reasons, it can’t be used to verify an image shot on another camera and merely transferred to the phone. This limits its usefulness to professional journalists working with higher end cameras, although they could still use Truepic to at least verify they were where they said they were.

That said, it is not outside the realm of possibility that Truepic could be expanded to support other cameras, such as DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, but this would require bespoke hardware. Photographers would need to connect a device to their cameras that would send unprocessed images straight from the camera to Truepic’s servers at the time of capture. Presumably, such a device would either need to securely integrate with a photographer’s smart phone, or have its own sensors, GPS, and Wi-Fi built-in.

Such a solution doesn’t exist yet, but Truepic is at least asking the question of how it can expand to support professional photographers. “The roadmap goes in two directions,” McGregor said. “Across different industries, and across different sensors we can integrate with.”

For now, Truepic is providing a glimpse at a more trustworthy future for the internet, one in which we can all be less skeptical about the images we come across.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Facebook may ask you to prove you’re not a bot with a selfie
• DJI Mavic Air hands-on review
• Survey says more brands are looking for diverse images with non-pro models
• KodakOne uses a blockchain and web crawlers to spot stolen images
• Hasselblad’s H6D-400c MS camera costs $48K and captures 400MP photos

LG’s mobile division reports big losses in fourth quarter

Korean electronics giant LG released its 2017 financial results. Boasting big gains in its consumer appliance and home electronics division, the company experienced its highest annual sales in history. While overall numbers were good, the company’s mobile division continues to hemorrhage money.

LG  Mobile Communications Company posted $10.52 billion in sales in 2017. With the exception of Q1, the company experienced losses every quarter, nearing $641 million for the year.

As for overall sales, LG sold 13.9 million units in 2017. That’s about a 1 percent drop in overall sales from 2016. In its presentation to investors, LG attributes the slight drop in sales to fierce competition from Chinese manufacturers in emerging markets. While the company does not directly, sales for Chinese manufacturers Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo eclipse that of LG by a significant margin.

As for the fourth quarter,  LG’s mobile division posted $2.77 billion in in sales. Losses for the quarter came in at $192 million. The division saw a 9 percent bump in sales for the quarter that can be attributed to release of the LG V30 and Pixel 2XL.

While the quarterly earnings sound bleak, it’s a significant improvement over the previous quarter where the mobile division lost over $331 million. Year-over-year, losses were reduced by more than 40 percent for the division.

LG has several explanations for its losses in 2017. Rival manufacturers from emerging markets such as China are putting up stiff competition for LG. The price of goods and components also cut into the company’s bottom line.

In addition to competition and volatile prices for components, there’s another interesting factor that contributed to overall losses. LG appears to lose money marketing its flagship devices. In its quarterly earnings presentation, LG identified marketing costs for the V30 as adversely affecting overall profitability.

LG intends to reduce its losses in 2018 by limiting the number of new devices it releases in 2018. LG Electronics vice chairman Cho Sung-jin recently stated the company planned to “retain existing models longer by unveiling more variant models of the G series or V series.”

The strategy may be bad news for customers waiting for the LG G7. While many people expect the phone to be announced in February at Mobile World Congress, it looks like it may be on hold for now. During a press conference at CES, Cho told the audience “We will unveil new smartphones when it is needed. But we will not launch it just because other rivals do.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• Eastman Kodak cuts 425 jobs, says licensing of hardware played a role
• Apple has the world’s two top-selling phones, but how well is iPhone 8 selling?
• Switch it up — Nintendo reportedly set to produce 30 million consoles in 2018
• PlayStation 4 continues its console dominance with 70 million units sold
• Apple vs. Qualcomm: Everything you need to know

Google Play had 145% more app installs than Apple App Store in Q4 2017

More than 19 billion new apps were installed from Google Play in Q4 2017.

Apps are an essential component of any smartphone, and while this is an area that iOS was previously king of, that’s definitely no longer the case. The Google Play Store has grown and matured a lot over the past couple years, and Q4 of 2017 was its best quarter yet.

According to App Annie, the Play Store saw 19 billion new app downloads (not including updates or re-installs) during last year’s final quarter. Compared to the Apple App Store, that’s a lead of 145%. The App Store still saw more dollars spent at $11.5 billion (two times more than the Play Store), but those 19 billion installs officially make Q4 2017 Google’s best quarter to date.

Emerging markets played a big role in this number, with countries like Brazil, India, and Indonesia allowing the Play Store to see a year-over-year growth of 10% for these areas. To help put things into perspective, Google Play downloads in India alone were more than app downloads in the U.S. across Google Play and the App Store combined.

The most popular apps on Google Play during Q4 of 2017 include those in the Finance, Games, and Personalization categories, and as we continue throughout Q1 2018, App Annie predicts that Finance-related apps will continue to see strong performance.

If you helped contribute to Google Play’s last quarter, what apps did you download?

Google introduces new controls for muting and blocking online ads

Moss now available for pre-order on Amazon for $29

Just one more month of waiting.

The PlayStation VR is one of Sony’s better gaming peripherals in years, and a big reason for this is the strong developer support around the platform. Moss is one of the most-anticipated PSVR games that I’ve been waiting to get my hands on for months, and now you can finally pre-order it from Amazon.

Amazon is offering a digital download code for Moss, and after placing your order, Amazon will send you a code to redeem Moss on the PlayStation Store as soon as it’s released (sometime in February). The game costs just $29.99, and based on the gameplay and trailers we’ve seen so far, that sounds like a steal to me.

Moss is being developed by Polyarc, and it’s a single-player action-adventure puzzle game in which you join Quill – a young (and adorable mouse) – on a journey filled with ruthless enemies, challenging puzzles, and more. Also, as someone that studied ASL in college, the fact that Quill can communicate to you in sign language is one of the coolest things in gaming that I’ve seen in years.

If you’re like me and plan on pre-ordering Moss ASAP, click/tap the button below.

See at Amazon

Amazon Fire TV gets Single Sign-On for all your TV Everywhere apps

Single Sign-On is available for all existing Fire TV sticks, boxes, and televisions.

The lack of a legitimate YouTube app aside, Amazon’s Fire TV is a solid smart television platform and absolutely worth a look if you’re heavily invested in the Amazon and Alexa ecosystem. TV Everywhere apps have been available on the Fire TV for some time, but now they’re getting even better with support for Single Sign-On.

For those that aren’t familiar, Single Sign-On allows you to enter your cable/satellite TV account login information once to have access to all of your TV Everywhere apps – such as A&E, History Channel, Food Network, etc.

This is something that Apple launched in late 2016, and it’s interesting to see Amazon beat Roku to the punch in being the next smart TV platform to offer this.

Single Sign-On works for all existing Fire TV devices (including boxes/dongles and television sets), and there are currently 19 TV Everywhere apps that already support this (with two more on the way). DirecTV, Dish Network, Verizon FIOS, Sling TV, Spectrum, and many other TV providers support Single Sign-On, but luck would have it that Comcast has yet to jump on this bandwagon for whatever ungodly reason.

I’ve personally never had a chance to use a gadget with Single Sign-On, but only having to enter my account information once as opposed to ten times or more certainly sounds like a nice prospect.

Amazon Fire TV

• What’s new on Amazon Prime Video
• Read our full review!
• Get the latest news
• Join the discussion

Buy at Amazon

Rootless Pixel Launcher 3.0 is basically the Pixel 2 launcher on steroids

On top of the Pixel interface, there’s icon pack support, a notification drawer shortcut, and a lot more.

Ask any Pixel owner why they like their phone so much, and chances are the first thing they’ll talk about is the software experience. The Pixel Launcher is one of my favorite software additions on the Pixel 2, and while there’s already a way to download that to a non-Pixel phone, developer Amir Zaidi might have something even better with their recently released Rootless Pixel Launcher 3.0.

As you might be able to guess by the name, Rootless Pixel Launcher lets you download and get the Pixel Launcher experience without having to root your phone. In other words, you can swipe up to access your app drawer, the Google Search widget is at the bottom of your home screen, the At a Glance widget will showcase the weather and upcoming calendar appointments, and there’s a fully-functional Google Feed on the left-side of your setup (for better or worse).

Just in case that’s not enough, Zaidi’s also included a ton of extra features that you won’t find on the official Pixel Launcher. I won’t run through every single thing, but some of the highlights include support for icon packs, a gesture for swiping down on any part of the home screen to see your notification drawer, and adjustments based on how high or low your device’s DPI is.

You can download Rootless Pixel Launcher 3.0 on any Android device running Lollipop or later, but because of the way the app was made, it won’t work on a Pixel phone unless you’re willing to mess with a Magisk Module.

You can now download the Google Pixel 2 launcher on any phone

DNC hires former Yahoo security chief in wake of 2016 hacks

The Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) new chief security officer position has been filled, Wired reports. Bob Lord, who was previously Yahoo’s chief information security officer prior to its acquisition by Verizon, will take over the position and will be working with both the national offices as well as smaller state offices. “I’ll be working to protect my new colleagues at the DNC from the attackers who would prefer to keep us distracted from our mission of getting Democrats across the nation elected,” Lord said in a statement. “And my job doesn’t stop at the front door of the building — my team and I will work with state parties to update their information security strategies and deployments to change the economics for the attackers.”

Very honored to be able to work with @raffi, @TomPerez, and the rest of the amazing team at the @DNC! https://t.co/mG60iYio4t

— Bob Lord ¬_¬ (@boblord) January 25, 2018

Lord has plenty of experience when it comes to dealing with major hacks. After taking his position at Yahoo, he discovered two massive data breaches that affected billions of Yahoo users. One person involved with the 2014 breach pleaded guilty in November to nine charges related to the hack. “There are very few people in the world who actually found foreign actors in their system and did something about it,” DNC Chief Technology Officer Raffi Krikorian told Wired. And that experience is what made Lord such an appealing candidate for chief security officer.

Following the 2016 hack that led to the public release of thousands of internal emails, the DNC has been trying to strengthen its security practices and prevent future breaches. It hired Krikorian last June and adopted encrypted messaging last year. In a statement to Wired, DNC Chair Tom Perez said, “When I took this job, I made it crystal clear that our organization’s cybersecurity required immediate attention and resources. I’m confident Bob’s skills and hard work will help protect us against the sort of cyberattacks and intrusions that are unfortunately all too common in today’s age.”

Source: Wired

Teenage Engineering adds vocal and sampler options to pocket synth line

We’ve been massive fans of Teenage Engineering’s affordable pocket-sized synthesizers since their debut. The company has added new, more capable models over the last couple of years, too, adding more sounds to individual units and import/export capabilities. They’ve always come in at an impulse-friendly $60, though, until now. The new additions to the metal series — the PO-33 K.O! sampler and the PO-35 vocal sampler — not only comes in silver and copper, but they now cost a less-budget conscious $90.

The two new metal synths complement the existing gold-colored PO-32 drum machine for a trio of synthy goodness. The PO-35 speak voice synth and sequencer has a microphone for sampling anything you like, 120 seconds of memory for those samples, eight voice characters and the same number of effects, will let you transpose and change the scale of your sequences and includes replaceable drum sounds that you can buy separately. The PO-33 K.O! micro sampler has 40 seconds of memory, a built-in mic, eight slots for melodic samples and eight drum slots. It includes 16 effects.

All three Pocket Operator units have a microphone, sequencer, parameter locks, a built-in speaker and 3.5mm audio jack, jam sync to connect and use multiple devices, an animated LCD screen, a folding stand, a breakaway lock tab, and a clock and alarm. They’re all powered by two AAA batteries that should last you a month with a two-year standby time. The new $90 units are available for order now, with a shipping date of February 7th. You can also pick up all three in a bundle with cases and mini cables for $319.

Source: Teenage Engineering

Michael Kors offers Android Wear smartwatches in more colors

Fossil introduced a plethora of smartwatches across its brands last year, including quite a few options under the Michael Kors Access line. Now, MK is giving you even more choices by releasing new Sofie and Grayson Android Wear 2.0 watch colors as part of its Spring 2018 collection. The MK Access smartwatches both have access to Google Assistant, have customizable faces and can track activity. Both devices will get My Social, the microapp that connects the smartwatch to your Instagram or Facebook account, so you can use photos there as watchfaces. MK will also roll out a new microapp called My Next in January, which you can use to start a countdown on the device to an important event like birthdays or anniversaries.

The Sofie smartwatch designed for women is now available in new rose-gold and two-tone versions different from the original ones that launched last year. It’ll also have a gold version that’s partly wrapped in white silicone, as well as a brilliant sky blue variant. The new options for Grayson are less exciting, but you might prefer them if you’re looking for watches in dark green or in two-tone silver and black. You’ll be able to buy these colors very soon: they’re scheduled hit stores and go up for sale online sometime today.