Battery for PC Blog

If you’ve been wondering what Microsoft’s next feature release of Windows 10—19H2—has in store, the answer is: not much.

Microsoft said Monday that the upcoming 19H2 release, due in September, will include “a scoped set of features for select performance improvements, enterprise features and quality enhancements.” The goal appears to be to enhance what’s already in Windows, with an eye toward enterprise and partner deployments, rather than add consumer-facing features.

As part of that schedule, Microsoft said that it will release new 19H2 builds as part of the Slow Ring, the counterpart to the “Fast Ring” of Windows 10 Insider releases. Each build will be deployed as a cumulative update—a patch, in other words, rather than an entirely new build. The first of these, Build 18362.1, was made available to users on Monday. “This update contains two behind-the-scenes changes designed for OEMs and does not contain anything visible to Insiders,” the company said.

Insiders aren’t even guaranteed to see the new changes. They’ll be deployed on a schedule, and some releases will have the features turned off and enabled later.

If you’re not a Windows Insider, and don’t want to be, nothing will change. Sometime in September, the 19H2 release will be pushed to consumers the same as it’s always been. This time around, however, consumers are less likely to see any significant changes to their Windows experience once it arrives.

What this means for consumers is if Microsoft continues on its path, there will still be two feature releases per year, around April and September. But only the April release will add new features, making the fall release a servicing release that will iron out bugs and upgrade features already in Windows. It appears that Microsoft is trying to ease the burden on PC makers and large enterprise customers, who must test and deploy the spring and fall feature updates.

If nothing else, it does add some order back to Microsoft’s release schedule. Microsoft has already begun shipping the first builds of the so-called 20H1 release, due around April 2020. Even those have been primarily improvements rather than new features. So far, the most important new feature of the 20H1 release is probably the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, with an actual Linux kernel inside.

You can expect it to inherit features from the S10 family.

The rumors were true — Samsung has announced that it’s holding its second Unpacked event of the year on August 7th at 4PM Eastern in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The company hasn’t said anything about what to expect, but the pen-centric teaser image (above) doesn’t leave much to the imagination. The Galaxy Note 10 will clearly be the star of the show, and it’s just a matter of pinning down the finer details.

This could be one of the biggest Galaxy Note introductions yet. Current rumors and leaks suggest the Note 10 will retain the harder-edged design of the Note line, but inherit Galaxy S10 features like a hole-punch camera (this time at the top center), in-screen fingerprint readers and, crucially a wider selection of models. There may be two Note variants this year, a 6.3-inch base Note 10 and a nearly 6.8-inch Note 10+ (the larger of which would offer a 5G variant). You could expect upgrades to the pen experience, the camera and likely other traits.

The Note 10 might be a step back for some, though. There are murmurs that none of the new models would include a headphone jack (making Samsung’s previous bragging a bit awkward), and that only the Note 10+ would have a microSD slot. If so, some of the features Samsung owners have taken for granted are about to go away — and there’s no guarantee that the Galaxy Buds or increased storage will satisfy some fans.

The final versions of Apple’s iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 software for your iPhones ($1,000 at Amazon) and iPads ($249 at Walmart) are coming your way this fall, but you can get a jump start now on everything the OSes offer. The public beta is open to anyone who wants to help test early builds of the operating system that will run on iPhones ($1,000 at Amazon) and iPads ($249 at Walmart) later this year. That’s right, this year we have two different versions of iOS. One, iOS 13, is for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the other, iPadOS 13, is dedicated to the iPad and brings with it new multitasking features and a desktop-class version of Safari.

Both software updates include a long list of new features, such as an official systemwide dark mode, new privacy features and improved Apple Maps. Apple also announced WatchOS 6, MacOS 10.15 Catalina, and TVOS 13 during its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote.

While the public betas are, as we said, open to anyone who wants to give them a spin, there are some things to be aware of.

Remember, it’s beta

Over the years, the beta program for an upcoming iOS release has gotten more stable. However, it’s called a beta version for a reason — it’s not finished. Apps are going to break, battery life is going to be horrible and frequent random restarts aren’t unheard of.

If you want to test iOS 13, go into it knowing that you’re testing beta software and do yourself — and Apple — a favor by providing feedback through the Feedback app.

You can’t (easily) go back

In addition to a willingness to deal with bugs and random issues, you need to know that you can go back to the current official version of iOS, but you can’t restore from a backup made with your device on iOS 13.

So, with that in mind, it’s a good idea to create a backup of your device as it is right before switching to the beta. The best way to do that is to use iTunes (RIP) and create an encrypted backup.

Ready? Here’s how to install iOS 13

Visit Apple’s Beta Software Program on your computer. You’ll need to sign in using your Apple ID, then pick iOS or iPadOS. The program will walk you through creating a back up of your iPhone or iPad — don’t just glance over this and move on, create a backup right now — and then you’ll need to download and install the beta profile. You can visit this link on your iPhone or iPad to download the profile.

After the profile is downloaded open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. The profile will show up, just below your name. Tap the profile, then approve the installation. Your device will reboot after the profile is added, after which you can go to Settings > General > Software Update to download and install iOS 13.

Of course, if you have a paid developer account you can still find the appropriate installation profiles on the developer site.

Apple’s rough month continues. In June hackers blew the security off 1.4BN iPhones and iPads, Apple was fined due to missed iPhone estimatesand the company’s stunning 2020 iPhone gave users doubts about upgrading to the ugly 2019 model. And now those fears have been realised.

In a new exclusive, hugely popular YouTuber Filip Koroy (aka EverythingApplePro) has managed to attain retail iPhone 11 cases and they serve only to confirm users’ worst fears about the shock departure of Apple’s head designer Jonathan Ive.

Attained via a Chinese supply chain source, Koroy admits “I had to buy about 100” to get access to them. But what the cases reveal are the cases fit perfectly inside molds from leaked schematics. So yes, the leaks were right, Apple is indeed going to give the iPhone 11 its most controversial redesignin a decade. That means the large notch stays in a notch-less, bezel-less eraand the phones will still have the largest camera bulge in iPhone history – despite losing their cutting edge tech at the last minute.

In addition to this, the retrograde mute switch redesign is happening and the new iPhones are going to be thicker (and presumably) heavier despite the 208 g (7.34 oz) iPhone XS Max already being the heaviest flagship smartphone in the world. In fact, the only positive is the cases don’t close the door completely on Apple’s seemingly accidental iOS 13 leak showing a move to USB-C.

Predictably, the response to these changes has not been positive. In fact, the top rated comment on Koroy’s video is “Maybe Johnny Ive left because of the iPhone 11 camera design.” (source).

And there’s actually some truth to this. Bloomberg claims Ive has not been heavily involved in Apple product design since the Apple Watch launched in 2015. The fact Ive is leaving ahead of the iPhone 11 launch also says a lot about his involvement in the project.

The flip side to all of this, however, is Apple looks set to come out all guns blazing in 2020 thanks to the leak of its stunning next iPhone flagship, which will also be the company’s first 5G iPhone.

As such, the message remains clear: if you can even hold your phone together with tape, do so. 2019 is not the year to upgrade your iPhone.