Microsoft Introducing New Surface Products

The Coronavirus caused lots of event cancellations, but it doesn’t mean companies stopped making new products. Now it is Microsoft turn to announce their new Surface series –

Surface Book 3

One of the most interesting products on the list. The Surface Laptop 3 will include the Gen-10 Intel processors.

The 13-inch model will have an i5 processors – start from $1600

The 15-inch model will have an i7 processors – start from $2300

The maximum RAM is 32GB and the maximum storage will be 2TB SSD.

Surface Go 2

Samsung and Apple are already considered big “players” in this niche. Microsoft got their answer – The Surface Go 2.

10.5 -inch screen with 1920×1280 resolution and 220ppi. There are different models –

Pentium Gold processor, 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage for $400

Gen-8 m3 processor, 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage for $629

The keyboard is sold separately for $99.

Surface Headphones 2

This new model support Bluetooth 5.0, 20-hours battery life and slight changes in the design.

These headphones will cost $250.

Surface Earbuds

We already know about these earbuds but today it is official! These headphones will cost $200 and will be available from May 12th.

Microsoft Releases 2 Free Python Courses

Microsoft just released 2 new courses for learning one of the most popular languages in the world – Python!

It is always good to learn new things, and now with the new situation we got into, the Coronavirus, we have more free time than usual and we need to take advantage of it.

Now Microsoft is here to help you take you skills to the new level and published 2 free courses – Python for beginners and Python for Data Science and Machine Learning.

It is important to say that these courses are not for complete beginners, and it requires a little knowledge in Python of Javascript.

The videos are about 15 minutes top, so you get little chunks of information each time.

So you can start with this course that was released about 8 months ago –

Click Here

This week Microsoft released another course with more advance tool in Pyhton –

Click Here

And for the most advanced course, Microsoft shows some Python tools for Data Science and Machine Learning –

Click Here

Intel Revealed New PC Processor

Intel announced its new gen PC processors and claims it’s the fastest gaming processor ever made. The i9 processor can reach a speed of 5.GHz!

The past few years were pretty hard to Intel – The CEO stepped down, their products had security issues, AMD developed high-quality products and other problems.

But Intel showed us why they have been the leading company in this field for many years and now they announced their 10 Gen desktop processors, and it seems promising.

At the front of its new cores – Series S, Intel developed the 10900K processor – i9 processor, 10 cores and 20 threads which can get to 5.Ghz. Intel claims this is the best gaming processor that has been ever made. These processors are based on the Skylake 14-nanameter architecture and the cost of the best processor is about $500.

Along-side the 10900K processor, Intel announced few other processors:

10700K – i7 with 8 cores and 16 thread with a speed of 5.1GHz – $374

10600K- i5 with 6 cores and 12 thread with a speed of 4.8GHz – $262

All processors has Turbo Boost 3.0 which brings up the speed of the PC as long as its temperature is less than 70 degrees.

Intel also developed new cores for customers who doesn’t need this kind of performances.

‘The Last Dance’ Episodes 3-4

This week we got another 2 episodes of the great documentary about one of the greatest NBA players of all time – Michael Jordan.

In those 2 episodes the main discussion was about Bulls’ power forward Dennis Rodman and Michael Jordan’s rival in the end of the 80’s – the Detroit Pistons.

To this day, Jordan still holds a grudge toward the Pistons – “I hated them. And that hate carries even to this day. They made it personal. They physically beat the s–t out of us.”

James Worthy, who played with Michael in North Carolina, said about this match-up – “I don’t know how he came out of it alive”.

The Pistons had the infamous Jordan Rule –

Another memory that brought up in these episodes was Jordan’s game winner against the Cleveland Cavaliers, which according to Michael, was the defining moment for the Bulls – They turned from losers to winners –

Bulls PF during the second 3-peat, Dennis Rodman, was under the spotlights this week. Rodman said –

“Nobody can say anything bad about me as a teammate,” Rodman said. “You’ve got the great Michael Jordan, the great Scottie Pippen, the great Phil Jackson … but they don’t really do what I do.”

And Rodman was right… He averaged 15.3 rebounds per game in his three seasons with the Bulls.

But it had a cost – Rodman sometime was hard to handle, and had some tough moments dealing with the pressure.

Phil Jackson did his best as a coach and gave Rodman some time off during to season in order to keep him in the right mindset – He let him go for 48 hours to Las Vegas.

Fortnite Will Be In Google Play

Epic Games, the company that developed Fortnite, decided to go against Google and publish the famous game outside of Google’s app store. Today, about a year and a half later, Google won the case.

After Fortnite broke into our life and had millions of users all over the globe, many thought that Epic Games will publish a version of the game to all Android users – a market with billion of potential users. But Epic Games tried to do things differently – instead of publishing the game on Google Play, the company tried to avoid paying Google fees and launched the game outside of the Google Play store. (Google takes about 30% of the apps fees)

On August 2018, Epic Games released an Android version, but in order to download in, users had to download it from the browser and allow app installation form outside sources – which exposed user’s devices to viruses and hacking attacks.

Epic Games hoped that Google will come with a special offer (lower fee), but Google didn’t. After 18 months of quite “war”, Epic uploaded the game to Google Play. Epic Games claims that Google’s acts put apps outside Google Play at a disadvantage. For example, Google Play Protect blocks all apps outside Google Play.

Google just avoided a big hit in their revenue. If Epic would have won the fight, many app developers would have “rebel” against Google Play and avoid paying 30% fee.

‘The Last Dance’

“The last dance” is a 10 episodes documentary revolving around one of the greatest sports teams of all time – The 90’s Chicago Bulls and their last championship run with arguably the best player of all time – Michael Jordan. Every week Netflix and ESPN will air 2 episodes.

The first two episodes brought up multiple interesting topics, one of the was the construction and the split up of this 97′-98′ Chicago Bulls by their general manager Jerry Krause. His famous quote – “Players and coaches don’t win championships, organizations do”, drew much attention Sunday night as it drew over 20 years ago.

Current NBA players reacted to it –

Another key aspect that was discussed on the first two episodes is Scottie Pippen’s relationship with the management and the fact that Scottie was under paid and under appreciated. At some point he also demanded a trade and said he will never play for the Bulls again.

Other NBA legends and players commented about this documentary –

Android 11 Will Have A Build-in Call Recording Feature

More and more signs shows that call recording will become a built in feature on Android phone.

If you look at call recording from a technological point of view, it is not something so complex, but due to some privacy issues, Google and Apple made it harder to have calls recorded on their systems. So these are some good news for all the Android users.

While for iPhone users it seems like an impossible mission, on Android it was also an issue. Since Android Pie 9 this became harder and harder. Today it requires 3rd party apps that uses different techniques like recording the speaker or performing root to the device. Because of that most recording has bad quality and other issues.

But it about to change… Probably…

On January, this feature was installed on Google’s Pixel and in the last few days it also arrived to the Android One devices – this is an operation system that gets frequent updates from Google and installed mostly on Nokia and Xiaomi devices. Nokia users in India reported on their ability to record calls directly from the phone without using any external app.

The good news comes from the company NLL, that is responsible for one of the most successful recording apps in the world. They announced –

“Here are our early findings about call recording feature on Android 11

  • Some features which are available in Developer previews might not make to the final version of Android. However, we are confident that call recording will be available in the final version of Android 11.
  • Call recording will only be possible with default dialer/phone app.
  • You will have to change your system default dialer/phone app with another one that supports call recording.
  • Apps that are solely designed to be call recordin apps will not work. Unfortunately ACR call recorder app will not work either.
  • Luckily were working on a dialer app since last year!

We have tested and are able to record both sides of conversation in stereo mode. Call recording works with Bluetooth headset, earphones and Wi-Fi calling!”

So apparently will just need to wait a bit to see how things develop.

New Info About The Next iPhones

Leaked information regarding the new series of iPhones indicated that we will have 4 different models for the iPhone 12. The other products like macbooks and smart speakers will get an upgrade as well.

According to the leaked information, the new iPhone will look like a smaller version of the new iPad and the iPhone 5, which came out about 8 years ago.

A report from Bloomberg indicated that Apple will launch 4 new iPhone models, 2 of them will be “low cost” models, a new Macbook pro and a new Apple TV streamer. All new iPhone will support 5G.

The next iPhone will have metal back, not only glass as we got used to, and the body will have straight edges, like the iPhone 5, but much more slim. It’s still unclear if all 4 models will get the new design.

2 iPhone models will be Pro versions with the camera set of the new iPhone which came out 2 weeks ago, and will include 3 cameras. The screen of the new Pro model will be about 6.5-inch.

And other than iPhones, Apple will announce a new version of
HomePod, which should be half the size and cheaper – Apple will be able to compete with Google and Amazon in that category.

Except the Macbook Air that already got its new design, all the other products will get new features from the Macbook pro to the iMac, Apple TV and even a low cost iPad.

These announcements should take place like every other event – in September. Its still unclear due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Apple pretty sure everything will go as planned.

It Just Looks So Good – Sony Revealed its new PS5 Controller

3 weeks after announcing and revealing the full specs of the PS5, Sony shares new information about the controllers!

Get use to it – no more DualShock, it’s now DualSense! Besides the new name PS5 owners will get a new design and some new features.

It seems like after 25 years of the same design for their controllers, Sony is ready to take the chance with a new design. The DualSense is design with some futuristic taste, colored with black and white and it’s unavoidable to think about the stormtroopers for Star Wars when you look at it. It has same buttons as we used to from the PS4, in the top part of the controller we will have the touch screen.

Sony is proud to improve the vibration of the controllers (haptic feedback), and according to them, it is so sensitive now that you will be able to feel the difference when riding in the mud or on a highway.

Another upgrade is for the R2 and L2 buttons, it will allow you to feel the power of the kick or shot.

Another change is the switch from the “share” button on the left side of the remote to a “create” button. Sony claims it will help gamers to create new content easily and share it with the world. Sony didn’t share more than that and we will have to stay patient.

If you are a multiplayer fan you would love to know the remote control has a set of microphones that will allow you to talk with your friends without headset.

The charging will be via Type C cable.

Now we need to wait for the actual look of the console…

Apple Joins The Fight

The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook revealed a face mask that Apple invented to help medical teams cope with the coronavirus. Apple is not the first high-tech company to join this fight.

Apple’s plan is to make millions of masks and send it to medical team all around the world. As we speak, Apple already sent about 20 million masks to the US authorities.

In a video that was posted on Twitter, Cook, Apple’s CEO, revealed that Apple used its suppliers and manufactures around the world to create protection gear which will get to different countries in need.

Moreover, Cook said that the companies employees such as designers, engineers and logistic staff members, all joined and contributed to this cause. According to Tim, the first shipment already arrived to Kaiser hospital in Santa Clara and received a positive feedback from the doctors.

The face masks have 2 parts – plastic cover and a flexible band that can be adjusted to the doctor’s head. Cook claims that due to its design, 100 masked can be packed in one box and the assemble of the masks is done by the medical staff in less than 2 minutes.

The CEO said Apple is using its manufacturing capabilities in the US and China to make about a million masks per week and transfers it to the US authorities for distribution. Apple hope to send masks outside the US as well. Cook asked everyone who watched to stay at home so we will be able to win this fight.