Windows
Microsoft has blocked users from updating, demonstrating an intent to follow the smartphone model of updates, which is terrible news if you own an old computer
Last week it became apparent that Microsoft has blocked users from updating to the latest Windows creator update because their hardware was no longer supported. This will be unlikely to affect anybody with newer machines but it shows a concerning shift in the direction of Windows as a service. Instead of purchasing a new machine when the hardware begins to wear out users may be forced to purchase a new machine simply because Microsoft has decided their hardware is out of date.
Microsoft are once again trying to cram a computer into a smartphone’s box
If this sounds familiar it is because it is the model generally used by Android and iOS for smartphones. When a phone is considered to be too old, then support is gradually phased out, as with the Google Pixel. This model works for smartphones because most phones also have a life expectancy of around one and a half to two years; until the battery dies or the user accidentally destroys it. There is also a fairly large gap in capacity between each new generation of phone, so companies need to be able to create an operating system that is not hamstrung by three year old hardware.
Unfortunately for Microsoft a computer is not a smartphone. A fact that they found to their cost with the cross platform release of very unpopular Windows 8. Microsoft showed then that a one size fits all approach simply can’t compare with a system designed for a specific purpose. This phenomenon is certainly not unique to Microsoft and we are beginning to see similar trends in the gaming console industry. The fact that Microsoft has blocked users from updating to the latest version of Windows 10 demonstrates that they’ve not yet learned these lessons.
A computer lasts longer than a phone and most users don’t have the knowledge to upgrade hardware
Generally users plan to keep their laptop or stationary computer in use for a significantly longer period of time than their phones and they buy their hardware ready-made rather than building it themselves. As Microsoft has blocked users from updating to Windows Creator there is a risk that they will gradually phase out older hardware, forcing users to update before they are ready.
This could lead to a situation where users are forced to get rid of a perfectly functioning computer because Microsoft has decided that the hardware is no longer up to date. The hardware in question, Intel Clover Trail Atom Processors, is only around 3 to 4 years old. This isn’t cutting edge by any means but in terms of computer hardware it is hardly ancient. Microsoft’s decision means that users will face the stark decision between an out of date, buggy, insecure system or getting rid of a perfectly good computer that Microsoft has decided is no longer good enough.
Microsoft has agreed to continue security updates but users will miss out on new features
To be fair, Microsoft has agreed to continue the all important security updates until January 2023 which should give users some peace of mind. They also pointed out that support for these processors had been dropped because Intel themselves had dropped support for them, essentially tying Microsoft’s hands.
This will however provide little comfort for those users who will miss out on the latest update because Microsoft fears that it will cause a “potential performance impact” for the new update.
The real question is, who do you want to decide when your computer needs to be replaced? It seems that Microsoft want to be the one making that call.
Additionally, stand-alone groups will now have access to 32-person video chats.
One of the new features that WhatsApp is introducing is one that aims to group together related group chats. The Communities feature, which was introduced earlier this year by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, aims to let users consolidate group chats “under one umbrella with a structure that works for them.” For Facebook and Instagram, comparable technologies are under development.
In the upcoming months, communities will be accessible to all WhatsApp users. To discuss topics that are important to you, you can create smaller group chats inside a community and easily switch between them. WhatsApp will provide administrators with “strong new capabilities” to govern communities, including the capacity to select which groups to include and the option to broadcast announcements to all users.
WhatsApp suggests that communities may be created through local areas, workplaces, and parents with children attending the same school. To begin, select the Communities tab from the menu at the top of the Android app or the bottom of the iOS screen. You will have the option of building a community from scratch or expanding an existing one.
The Communities feature has some similarities to Facebook Groups (as well as Nextdoor and Discord), but it is protected by end-to-end encryption. Making group chats more like Facebook Groups, where false information has thrived in recent years, may have some drawbacks, even though Zuckerberg has been eying a community-driven model to lessen the reliance on feeds across Meta’s applications. Due to the platform’s focus on encryption, WhatsApp generally has fewer moderation capabilities, which may make it harder to keep a lid on fabrications.
In other places, WhatsApp is giving groups—including those that aren’t connected to a community—new functionality. Group polls are also being added, along with support for the 32-person encrypted video conversations that Meta has been beta-testing over the past few weeks. Furthermore, groups now support a maximum of 1,024 people.
Privacy is an ever-growing concern in the digital age, as many companies have been caught doing some very insidious things. While many have made an effort to try and restore everyone’s trust, they are still getting caught making some big mistakes and another such instance has come to light today.
Instagram recently awarded $6,000 to a security researcher after he discovered his photos and messages on the social media app’s servers that he deleted over a year ago. His content was supposed to have been removed after downloading a copy of his data from the photo-sharing app, though that didn’t end up happening due to what Instagram claims was a glitch.
Instagram said the following about the issue to TechCrunch:
“The researcher reported an issue where someone’s deleted Instagram images and messages would be included in a copy of their information if they used our Download Your Information tool on Instagram. We’ve fixed the issue and have seen no evidence of abuse. We thank the researcher for reporting this issue to us.”
This isn’t the first time that a user’s information remained on a company’s servers long after they were supposed to have been removed, and it definitely won’t be the last. This is yet another reminder that what you post online likely is still floating around somewhere even if you’ve deleted it, so be careful out there.
A new update for Windows 10 is in the works, and Insiders are able to download a preview build 19640 now. While it isn’t a massive update by any means, it does deliver a couple of notable generable improvements that will still be welcomed by Windows 10 users.
The following is a list of the general changes and improvements:
- Based on feedback, if your Downloads folder is synced to a cloud provider, we are disabling the option to have Storage Sense automatically clear out your Downloads folder on a cycle.
- We updated our login logic, so if your PC is set up so you need to type in your username when logging in, accidentally starting your username with a space will no longer result in an error.
Of course, seeing as this is a preview build, there are undoubtedly going to be some issues. The following is a list of the issues that are currently known, though it’s possible that there are even more:
- We’re looking into an issue where some devices booting from eMMC storage bugchecked when resuming from hibernate.
- We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
- We’re working on fixing an issue for a future Insider Preview build where in Settings > Privacy, the Documents and Downloads sections show a broken icon next to their page name (just a rectangle).
- We’re looking into reports that taskbar preview thumbnails aren’t rendering consistently (showing a blank area).
You can find all of the details via the official blog post. It remains to be seen when this update will release for all users, but we’ll keep you posted as more information becomes available.
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