Microsoft rebrands Windows 10 S as S mode

Microsft has changed its approach to Windows 10 S. When the OS first launched, it was meant to be a separate version of Windows 10 that offered a secure, lightweight experience to users at the expense of not being as flexible as a traditional Windows OS. Thurrott is reporting that Microsoft is rebranding the feature as Windows 10 S mode, which will be available on all versions of Windows.

Home and Education versions of Windows 10 S will allow users to freely upgrade to the standard versions of Windows 10. Users of the Pro version of Windows 10 S will have to pay $50 to upgrade to the standard version of Windows 10 Pro.

Microsoft also revealed some data regarding the popularity of Windows 10 S. On third-party devices, Microsoft reports that 60 percent of users chose to remain on Windows 10 S rather than upgrading to the standard version of Windows. The company also reported that those customers who do upgrade tend to so quickly. Sixty percent of users who do upgrade do so within the first 24 hours of owning their computer. If they haven’t made the change within a week’s time, Microsoft says that 83 percent of users never upgrade.

One important thing to remember is that these stats only take third-party devices into account. Many of the devices which ship with Windows 10 S pre-installed are low-end devices meant to compete with Chromebooks. The only high-end device that ships with Windows 10 S is the Surface Laptop, which was not included in Microsoft’s report.

In addition to the rebranding, Microsoft is making one interesting change to S mode. The company has announced that S mode will feature support for AV/Security applications. It is unclear if this means that AV will be creating a specific application for Windows 10 S mode or if Microsoft is allowing traditional AV applications to run in S mode. If it is the latter, then that would appear to signal a major change in how S operates, given that it originally only allowed apps from the Windows Store.

As of the time of this writing, AV software is not available in the Windows Store so hopefully, Microsoft will provide some clarification soon.

For more information on the Surface Book, check out our review.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Is Google’s Pixelbook a worthy competitor to the Surface Pro?
• The Pixelbook nearly doubles Samsung’s Chromebook Pro in price. Is it justified?
• Microsoft’s Android apps offer the best Windows mobile experience
• Lenovo’s fingerprint scanner software is broken, update it today
• Xbox One vs. Xbox One S: Is a midtier upgrade worth your money?

How to cancel your Amazon Prime subscription

Amazon Prime is a great deal. For either $13 monthly or $99 a year the retailer’s paid subscription service offers a number of perks above and beyond the free two-day shipping (and even same-day service where available). There’s access to Amazon Music, Amazon Instant Video, and the Kindle Library, and of course Prime Day in July.

But you might find the price unjustified, especially if you aren’t using Amazon that much, or maybe you’re visiting us after getting your fill of Prime Day deals. Either way Amazon has made it super easy to cancel, and even may provide you with a partial or full refund depending how much you used your Prime membership.

Find the correct page

First, log into the Amazon Prime account you wish to cancel. Next, hover over the button in the upper-right corner displaying your name and select Your Prime Membership from the drop-down menu.

This takes you to your Prime membership account page, with information on the benefits included. On the left-hand side you’ll see your membership information and when Prime is set to renew. Look below that and you’ll see an option for End your Prime Membership. Click this, and it takes you to a page that starts the cancellation process.

Cutting the ties

The next screen gives you several options to consider. You can choose to automatically end your Prime membership at the start of the current billing period. If you want that, click the button beside that option (which also lists the date your prime benefits will end).

Want to get it over with, and grab a refund if you are eligible? Click the second button that says End Now. If you look beside that button, Amazon will tell you how much of your Prime membership fee you’re eligible for a refund for. From what we understand, the amount refunded is based on your use and time left. So if you barely used Prime, you will see a bigger refund, while an account close to renewal will see less back.

Of course, Amazon isn’t just going to let you go that easy. A third option at the bottom gives you your last chance to keep the benefits of Prime, just in case you have second thoughts. Clicking Keep Current Plan will return you to the Prime membership account page.

Some things to consider

Remember that when you cancel, you’re still considered a customer. Thus, your Amazon account is still active. This means if you sign up for Prime again, you will have to pay the $99 right away — the Prime free trial for new is only for first-time subscribers.

Another option for those of us that seem to go through spurts when it comes to Amazon shopping is Prime’s monthly option. For $13 per month you get all of the benefits of the service, without a year’s commitment. Just remember to cancel when you don’t need it. Otherwise, you’ll end up spending $40 more a year than had you subscribed for the entire year.

Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial

Editors’ Recommendations

• Amazon expands delivery options across U.S. for last-minute holiday shoppers
• Your monthly Amazon Prime service is going to cost you more than before
• Amazon shuts down Anime Strike channel, rolls it over into Prime Video
• Battle of the streaming giants: Netflix vs. Hulu vs. Amazon Prime Instant Video
• Amazon speeds up delivery of its ‘Handmade’ goods for Christmas shoppers

Tesla and Australia will turn 50,000 homes into a virtual solar power plant

The state of South Australia has announced that it will create a network of thousands of solar-powered homes, using Tesla solar panels and Powerwall batteries, Reuters reports. Initial phases of the plan are already underway and will eventually expand to as many as 50,000 homes, creating the “world’s largest virtual power plant,” according to premier Jay Weatherill.

“Our energy plan means that we are leading the world in renewable energy and now we are making it easier for more homes to become self-sufficient,” Weatherill said. “We will use people’s homes as a way to generate energy for the South Australian grid, with participating households benefiting with significant savings in their energy bills.”

BREAKING: My Government has already delivered the world’s biggest battery. Now, we’re delivering the world’s largest Virtual Power Plant. #renewables #energy #solar #storage #future pic.twitter.com/0JPAMogPOV

— Jay Weatherill (@JayWeatherill) February 4, 2018

Installation of the 5kW solar panels and Tesla batteries has already begun on 1,100 public housing properties, with 24,000 more to follow. After that, the program will be opened up to as many as 50,000 South Australian homes over the next four years.

The panels and batteries are being supplied at no cost to homeowners, backed by a multi-million-dollar grant and a loan from a taxpayer renewable energy fund. The program will be financed through the sale of excess energy generated by the solar power grid.

South Australia is already the home of the world’s largest battery, the result of a challenge from Elon Musk and Tesla. After a state-wide blackout in 2016, South Africa has been looking to renewables as a way to address their persistent energy shortages.

Although Australia is a world leader in coal and gas production, deteriorating coal-fired plants have been closing, and factors such as an offshore drilling ban have raised questions about future energy security.

“At key moments, the virtual power plant could provide as much capacity as a large gas turbine or coal power plant,” Tesla said in a statement. The company added that the virtual power plant would produce 250 megawatts of solar energy and have 650 megawatt hours of battery capacity.

The government has already set up a registration site for Australians who want to be part of the program. “Virtual power plants allow families to take control of their power bills, while providing greater security for the energy network,” said John Grimes of the Smart Energy Council.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Elon Musk’s massive Australian battery just chalked up another record
• Thanks to renewable energy, German factories got paid to use power last weekend
• Tesla will showcase its solar tech with expansion into Home Depot stores
• Vine creator says he’s working on a follow-up to the original video looper
• Tesla switches on the world’s biggest battery in Australia

Drone catchers and face-detecting planes will guard the Olympics

South Korean authorities are adopting some pretty high-tech security measures for the upcoming Winter Olympics, including the deployment of drone-catching-drones and a tactical plane with facial recognition. The drones they’re using to patrol the event won’t chase away rogue drones that get too close to the venues: they’ll cast nets to catch any UAV that shows up on the the security team’s radar.

More than being worried about photographers taking unauthorized photos of the games, the Pyeongchang Olympics anti-Terrorism and Safety team are apparently concerned about the possibility of terrorists using drones to drop or plant bombs. In fact, team members have also been training to shoot drones out of the sky, in case their own drones aren’t enough. North Korea’s participation in the games make it less likely for the country to attack, but it’s clear that authorities want to be prepared — after all, terrorists typically attack huge crowds.

While the team’s UAVs are scanning the skies, their tactical plane will focus on what’s happening down below. The plane is equipped with high-resolution CCTVs with facial recognition, giving it the ability to keep a close eye on what’s happening on the ground from an altitude of around 150 to 200 meters. If it picks up a threat, security personnel will be deployed to the area to handle the incident. Since facial recognition is far from perfect, though, one has to wonder what measures authorities will take to ensure no innocent person gets hurt.

In addition to the drone-catching-drone and the military plane, the Olympics venues will be protected by multiple motion-tracking CCTVs, as well. Pyeongchang’s anti-terrorism team will also deploy three X-ray search vehicles, which will be able to see any hidden person or weapons inside vehicles driving into the venues.

Source: Defense One, Hankyoreh

iPhone X owners report trouble answering phone calls

The iPhone X’s early teething troubles have largely gone away, but there’s a lingering problem for some owners… and it’s a fairly serious one. Users have reported that the iPhone X’s touchscreen won’t turn on for several seconds when there’s an incoming call, preventing them from answering or seeing who’s on the other line. Complaints started surfacing in December, but the issue has persisted until now.

The cause isn’t clear, although reboots and other typical troubleshooting steps don’t appear to address it. There’s also no indication of the scale of the problem, although it doesn’t appear to be common.

Apple told Engadget that it’s “looking into these reports.”

The call flaw probably won’t put much of a dent in iPhone X sales. It’s not what you want to see in a premium smartphone, however. It also suggests that Apple’s rumored emphasis on stability in iOS 12 would be coming at a good time. While this isn’t necessarily a software problem, there has been a growing push for Apple to work on reliability after months of glitches.

Via: Financial Times

Source: Apple Communities

‘Westworld’ season two trailer shows us what comes next, and when

While Netflix dropped a day-and-date trailer for its Cloverfield flick, HBO has a more traditional reveal for season two of Westworld. Its Super Bowl spot (the first one HBO has ever aired for a specific series) showed off the network’s “most-watched freshman series ever” with some new scenes that were interesting without revealing too much about where the show will go.

Source: HBO (YouTube), HBO (Medium)

Not available for comment [#acpodcast]

Daniel Bader, Andrew Martonik, Russell Holly, and Jerry Hildenbrand discuss trust issues with OnePlus when it comes to privacy and security, and why it isn’t necessary to place limits on voice activated services like Google Assistant and Alexa.

Despite some recent claims to the contrary, Andrew explains why 64GB of internal storage is sufficient for most users in 2018. The crew also talks about Google’s efforts to clean house in the Play Store, timeframes for the release of Android P, and slow updates to Oreo for Shield TV and Essential Phone. Join us!

Show Notes and Links:

• We need restrictions on government surveillance, not limits on Google Assistant or Alexa

• I can’t buy a phone from OnePlus until it cares about privacy and security

• Let’s be honest, 64GB of internal storage is plenty in 2018

• Google removed over 700,000 malicious apps from the Play Store in 2017

• When is Google going to release Android P?

• What if Android P is designed for Chromebooks?

• The Shield TV hasn’t gotten Oreo yet because no one cares about Android TV

• Essential Phone won’t get public 8.0 Oreo update due to ‘stability issues’

• The unbearable slowness of Samsung’s updates

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Podcast MP3 URL: http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/androidcentral370.mp3

LiDAR reveals Mayan mega city hidden in Guatemalan jungle

A vast Mayan megalopolis apparently lies hidden underneath all the trees, creepers and centuries of growth and soil in the Guatemalan forest — and we might never have found it if not for the wonders of laser technology. The PACUNAM Foundation, which champions the use of scientific research to preserve cultural heritage, has scanned the jungles in the country using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology and found an interconnected network of ancient cities. They discovered 60,000 previously unknown structures without having to cut down a single plant, and that discovery changes many things we thought we knew about the ancient civilization.

The sheer size of the megalopolis suggests that Mayan populations were bigger than we thought. Previous estimates put the Mayan people’s population at around 5 million, but now it’s possible that there were 10 to 15 million of them. The fact that the team discovered houses, pyramids, palaces and elevated highways even though Mayans didn’t use wheels or relied on beasts on burden indicates that they had an organized workforce.

Since the cities in the hidden megalopolis were connected by wide causeways, the Mayans likely interacted regularly and might’ve had established trade routes. Further, all the ramparts and fortresses found in the ruins show that “warfare,” as team member and archaeologist Thomas Garrison explained, “wasn’t only happening toward the end of the civilization.”

While we mostly talk about LiDAR as a system that helps self-driving cars and robots “see” their environments, scientists have also been using it to survey the environment without disturbing it. That’s why it’s the perfect tool for PACUNAM’s scientists — aside from the fact that physically looking for the ruins would’ve taken forever, Guatemala is already losing 10 percent of its forests every year to agriculture and human settlement. In fact, we’ll probably hear more discoveries in the future, since this is only the initiative’s first phase: the organization plans to use LiDAR to map over 5,000 square miles of Guatemala’s lowlands in the future.

Via: The Guardian

Source: National Geographic

Netflix’s ‘Cloverfield’ sequel starts streaming tonight

Last year Netflix’s Super Bowl ad focused on a season of Stranger Things we still had months to wait for, but this year things are different. The streaming company dropped a surprise 30-second teaser for The Cloverfield Paradox, a sequel to the 2008 monster movie that will be available for viewing worldwide tonight, after the game. As Deadline notes, the Paramount/J.J. Abrams flick had been planned for a theatrical release this weekend, but reports that this agreement with Netflix made the $45 million movie “immediately profitable.”

Also, on Twitter Netflix revealed a promotional deal that will send snacks directly to viewers in New York, San Francisco, LA and Chicago, in time for the movie’s debut after the game.

Netflix:

In the near future, a group of international astronauts on a space station are working to solve a massive energy crisis on Earth. The experimental technology aboard the station has an unexpected result, leaving the team isolated and fighting for their survival.

Developing…

NY, SF, LA, Chicago: since we’re doing surprises tonight, tweet back with #CloverfieldParadox 🌎 for some last-minute snack delivery. Rules: https://t.co/OU1y8Gb2h3

— Netflix US (@netflix) February 5, 2018

Some thing happened. You’ll know why after the game. #CloverfieldParadox pic.twitter.com/HGqIC1AqB7

— The Cloverfield Paradox (@CloverfieldPRDX) February 5, 2018

IT’S FUCKING DROPPING TONIGHT GET READY MY RESPECTED AND BELOVED FRIEND

— Netflix US (@netflix) February 5, 2018

Source: Netflix (YouTube), Netflix (US)

Chinese man pleads guilty to selling counterfeit Apple gear in US

Fake Apple devices have been making the rounds for years, but it’s rare that they have much sway in the US — although it looks like one team of bootleggers had a surprising amount of success. Jianhua Li, a Chinese man living in the US on a student visa, has pleaded guilty to charges he trafficked in more than 40,000 counterfeit electronic devices from China between 2009 and 2014, including iPads and iPhones. All told, he received a whopping $1.1 million in payments — no mean feat for several years of contraband. He wasn’t alone in the plot, either, and the scheme was relatively elaborate.

Three others (Andreina Becerra, Rosario LaMarca and Roberto Volpe) working with Li have already pleaded guilty. The group tried hard to disguise their activities, according to the Justice Department — they shipped the counterfeit labels separate from the devices to avoid border control, and used carefully crafted money deposits and transfers to hide the source of the ill-gotten revenue.

Li faces sentencing on May 30th.

These sorts of operations are common worldwide, but it’s not often that relatively large counterfeiters are caught in the US. Not that this is likely to be last, either. Counterfeit electronics often cost so much less than the real deal (particularly with newer Apple gadgets) that they may seem like a bargain even at a steep markup. In short, they’re tempting options for anyone hoping to make a quick buck in counterfeits with little effort.

Via: 9to5Mac

Source: Department of Justice