Since its launch on Steam Early Access in March, PlayerUnknown’s Battleground quickly became one of the hottest games of 2017. The game has just dropped its preview tag on Steam with the launch of PUBG version 1.0, an important milestone which follows the release of the game (in preview) on the Xbox One last week.

If you’re playing PUBG on PC, the version 1.0 of the game brings a new map called Miramar, new weapons and vehicles as well as many gameplay improvements. The full changelog for the update can be found on this page. To celebrate the 1.0 release, everyone who plays the game in the next few release will also get a free limited edition “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” t-shirt.

Chang Han Kim, CEO of PUBG Corp. also said in a press release that 2017 has been a “phenomenal year” for the battle royale game, which recently hit 30 million players across Windows and Xbox One (via Wccftech.) “We’ll continue to fine tune the Battle Royale experience and will introduce additional in-game content, including new crates, to become available in early 2018,” he explained.

Microsoft today released an update for Office Insiders on Windows Desktop. The version 1801, build 8911.2016 update isn’t a massive release, but it does bring a preview of the previously announced new AI-powered Excel Insights feature. With Excel Insights, users can identify trends, outliers, and other useful visualizations from inputted data. To use the feature, a user can click a cell in a data range, and then click Insert > Insights.

Microsoft notes that the Excel Insights feature will be rolling out gradually to Office 365 subscribers enrolled on the Insider Program. This mean’s that there’s no need to panic if you don’t see it right away. Also, keep in mind that the feature is powered by machine learning, so it will give better analysis as more people use it.

There are no new features for Word 2016 or PowerPoint 2016 in today’s update, but Outlook does pick up improvements for groups. Users should see that conversations will now load faster and can be double-clicked to open the latest messages in its own window. Office Insiders can get this update now by heading to File, Clicking on Account, then Update, and then Update now.

Dell has announced the launch of a family of new Inspiron ultra-slim notebooks in India. The three devices – Inspiron 13 7000 2 in 1 (7373), Inspiron 15 7000 (7570), and Inspiron 13 5000 (5370) – sport a thinner and lighter build, and aim to offer high performance and high quality of entertainment to users.

Dell has been responding to consumer interests on sleek and slicker designs and here we are with our latest Inspiron family! We’ve brought in durability and long-lasting strength in encased anodized aluminum body. The new Inspiron family is every bit striking and versatile, all clubbed into a luxurious lightweight design. We are very excited about making these new machines available in India, and look forward to the interest they will attract from a range of users.”

– Alen Joe Jose, Product Marketing Director, Consumer & Small Business, Dell India

The Inspiron 15 7000 (7570) is a 15-inch with thin bezel display encased in brushed aluminum with Full HD IPS display. Powered by the latest Intel 8th Generation Quad-Core Intel CPUs, the devices support up to 32GB DDR4 RAM with discrete graphics option of up to 4GB. The laptop comes with dual drive options with up to 256 GB SSD and up to 1TB HDD and offers up to 9 hours of battery life. Priced at INR 77,190 for Core i5 and INR 88,690 for Core i7 variant, the Dell Inspiron 7000 (7570) is available in pink champagne and platinum silver colors.

The Inspiron 13 7000 (7373) is a 2-in-1 notebook that is made for portability with a thin design and small footprint. It features a Full HD IPS touch display and is powered by the latest 8th Generation Intel processors with standard SSDs. Available in era grey color, the Dell Inspiron 13 7000 (7373) is priced at INR 76,290 for Core i5 and INR 96,190 for the Core i7 edition.

The Inspiron 13 5000 (5370) sports a 13-inch Full HD IPS display and comes with the latest Intel 8th Gen Core i processors, up to 32GB of DDR4 memory, and up to 4GB of GDDR5 discrete graphics options. Available in platinum silver and pink champagne color variants, the Dell Inspiron 13 5370 is priced at INR 60,690 for Core i5 and INR 75,790 for Core i7 edition.

All three notebooks are available for purchase on www.dell.co.in and in select Dell exclusive, Croma, and Reliance Digital outlets. The Dell Inspiron 13 5000 (5370) will be available for purchase in end January 2018, while the other two are available right away.

It’s been a great year to be a Windows Insider, especially with the recent launch of build 17063 and both Sets and Windows Timeline. That said, if you have something to say about the Windows Insider Program, Microsoft would love to know, so feel free to take the final Windows Insider survey for this year.

Calling ALL #WindowsInsiders! Tell us how we're doing! Weekly Insider Pulse #13 https://t.co/NTEinkSicc (Last survey of the year!) pic.twitter.com/rKBYgQCVSU

— Windows Insider (@windowsinsider) December 20, 2017

As usual, this survey is about how you feel about the Windows Insider Program and flights this week, and Microsoft says they use the feedback to “represent Windows Insider sentiment in Flight Ops the following week.” It’s very basic, asking about the satisfaction with the program, how active you are as a Windows Insider and if you installed/are satisfied with the latest build. The survey should not take longer than 5 minutes, and you have the option of letting Microsoft contact you for feedback.

With 2017 closing out, we’re hoping that 2018 will make for more exciting Windows Insider moments. Do you have a favorite moment this year from the Windows Insider Program? Feel free to sound off in the comments below.

The Witcher 3, winner of many GOTY awards back in 2015 is now enhanced for the Xbox One X. As we saw with several Xbox One X enhanced games over the past few weeks, the patch will add two new graphical modes to the RPG game: a 4K mode which is locked at 30 FPS and a Performance mode that provides 60FPS with dynamic resolution scaling.

The patch 1.60 also brings higher resolution textures, enhanced shadows, ambient occlusion and texture filtering on the Xbox One X, as well as HDR support on both the Xbox One X and the Xbox One S. VG Tech published the following video comparing the performance of the game running on Xbox One X (in both 4K and Performance modes) and Playstation 4 Pro yesterday:

While the open-world game looks really great in 4K, Performance mode may ultimately provide a better gaming experience. Do you care more about 4K graphics or smoother framerates when playing Xbox One X enhanced games, and would you like more developers to provide different graphical modes to gamers? Let us know below.

Windows Hello, like many other facial authentication technologies in the market today isn’t 100% secure, ZDNet reported yesterday (via The Verge). Indeed, researchers from German company SYSS have managed to spoof the system with a modified IR headshot, though the attempt to unlock a Windows 10 PC didn’t succeed with all versions of the OS.

The researchers tried to bypass Windows Hello facial authentication on two PCs running different versions of Windows 10: a Dell Latitude with a LilBit USB camera (a Windows Hello compatible webcam that doesn’t support the “enhanced anti-spoofing” feature of Windows 10) and a Surface Pro 4 with enhanced anti-spoofing enabled.

As it turned out, the spoofing attack was successful with all versions of Windows 10 on the Dell Latitude PC. On the Surface Pro 4, The default Windows Hello configuration could successfully be bypassed on the Windows 10 versions 1607 (Anniversary Update), 1703 (Creators Update) and 1709 (Fall Creators Update), but the spoofing attack also worked on Windows 10 version 1607 with enhanced anti-spoofing enabled. You can see a proof-of-concept video below:

It’s worth repeating that it’s apparently not possible to bypass Windows Hello Face authentication by using a non-modified picture taken by a near-infrared camera. “Depending on the targeted Windows 10 version and the target device hardware configuration, slightly different modifications of the spoofing attack had to be used, for example photos with higher resolution (480×480 pixels instead of 340×340 pixels) or specially colored images,” explained the researchers.

While this spoofing may not be easy to reproduce by attackers, the security company is urging users of the Windows 10 Anniversary to update to the latest version of the OS, enable the “enhanced anti-spoofing” feature (if available) and reconfigure Windows Hello Face Authentication from scratch after proceeding. “If only the Windows 10 operating system is updated from a vulnerable version like 1607 to the latest revision of 1709 without newly setting up Windows Hello Face Authentication, the simple spoofing attack still works,” explained the researchers.

The security company first reported the vulnerability to Microsoft back in October, and it plans to publish further test results in Spring 2018. We’ve reached out to Microsoft for comment and we’ll update this post if we hear anything back.

Earlier in 2017, Microsoft shut down Photosynth. Now, it looks like Microsoft Photosynth is being reincarnated as a new feature in Microsoft Pix. Many of Photosynth’s features are already available in the new Microsoft iOS-only app. Here’s a video showing how Microsoft Pix can help iPhone users take better pictures.

Today, Microsoft Pix got an update adding two new app features. First, there is Photosynth, which allows you take in more perspective of the scene you are. Here’s a photo comparison of how Microsoft Pix can make iPhone panoramas even better.

Photosynth was a popular Windows Phone app launched in 2008 that was able to capture pictures and turn them into 3D panoramas. Photosynth in Microsoft Pix is similar to the original Microsoft app, but also offers faster photo capture and more refined picture clarity.

The second new feature, Pix Comix, was created at Microsoft’s OneWeek hackathon and allows you to turn any iPhone picture into your own personal comic strip. Pix Comix creates these scenes using AI processing to culminate the best scenes to tell your comic story.

Download Microsoft Pix on iOS to try out the new features.

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‎Microsoft Pix

Developer:
Microsoft Corporation

Price:
Free

Windows 10 build 17063 introduces a lot of new features, but as usual, it also comes with some bugs. Thanks to a tip from one of our readers, Robert, we have learned that this latest Windows Insider build apparently has a bug that breaks audio in Firefox.

According to Robert, all audio in Firefox stopped working after installing the new build. The volume mixer can be opened while the sound is playing, but it shows no audio playing at all. A refresh of the browser and checking on Firefox or plugins to see if it was muted also did not fix the problem.

The issue is unique to Firefox amongst browsers, and audio in all other browsers work just fine. There is a thread in the Feedback Hub for this issue. Other Firefox users on Reddit also report the same problem, and some are reporting problems with other programs like OBS and Audacity. There is a dedicated thread on the Mozilla forums as well.

This is definitely an annoying bug, but if you so happen to be experiencing it, the best thing is to upvote the thread on the Feedback Hub in order to bring it to Microsoft’s attention. We hope Microsoft will work on a fix for the next upcoming build.

Thanks, Robert for the tip!

After a brief break, Microsoft’s Xbox Live Sessions is back. Modern Family’s Nolan Gould is set to play Fortnite Battle Royale on the next Xbox Live Sessions on Thursday, December 21 at 7 p.m. PT on Mixer.

For those unfamiliar, Nolan Gould is most famous for his role as Luke Dunphy on “Modern Family.” He will be playing the free 100-player PvP mode of Fortnite during the Xbox Live Session hosted by Microsoft Studios Community Manager, Rukari Austin.

As usual, you can tune in to the live stream on Mixer and submit questions to Nolan, and have the chance to win special prizes. The last Xbox Live Sessions was about a month ago, featuring Star Wars’ John Boyega.

Previous celebrity guests include Megan Fox, Ronda Rousey, Chandler Riggs, James Corden, and DJ Khaled. You can catch up on our coverage by checking here. Also feel free to check out Fortnite Battle Royale via the link below. As a reminder, this game is Xbox One X Enhanced.

Download
QR-Code

Fortnite

Developer:
Epic Games Inc.

Price:
Free

Yesterday, Microsoft released a doozy of a Windows 10 Insider build for PCs on the Fast Ring, build 17063. Included in the build are our first look at Timeline, improvements to Edge that includes Web Media Extensions installed by default, more Fluent Design flowing throughout the OS, and updates to My People, Settings, and input improvements. For a quick look at what’s new, check out Cody’s video on Timeline and all the rest of the improvements in 17063.

With build 17063 also comes a new and somewhat controversial way for Microsoft to test out new features, with what’s commonly known as A/B testing. Microsoft took the unusual step of announcing the change in an email to Insiders from Windows President Terry Myerson, and needless to say there was some backlash as many Insiders have come to the program to be among the first to try out new stuff. Our poll at the time revealed that some 55% of you joined the Insider program to “gain early access to builds and features,” something that’s no longer possible, not for all new features, anyway..

Microsoft is implementing this A/B testing with a new features currently named “Sets,” which allows Windows 10 users to gather their workflow into, well, Sets, and be able to get back to them later. To tell if you have Sets, the easiest way probably is to open up the Store app and look for an additional + sign in the titlebar.

So, are you one of the lucky ones? Unfortunately here, neither PC running build 17063 is showing up with Sets, but did you get lucky? Take our poll and let us know below:

If you are in, we’d love to hear your first impressions of Sets. Sound off in the comments below.

Microsoft has just opened up nominations for the second annual Windows Developer Awards. Lasting until March 8th, this is the perfect chance for you to get a Windows developer recognized for their outstanding work and achievements (via Neowin.)

You can currently vote and nominate right now on Microsoft’s Windows Dev Center website, and it is expected for award recipients to receive their accolades on stage at Microsoft’s Build 2018 conference. There are a total of six categories for nominations, and you can learn more by checking below.

• Application Creator of the Year: Leveraging the latest Windows 10 capabilities: Exploring the latest Windows 10 features and capabilities, the winner of this award pushes the envelope and sets a new bar for what is possible for developing on the Windows 10 platform.
• Game Creator of the Year: Outstanding Game contribution to the Microsoft Store: The recipient of this award has created a game for which the technical achievements are as compelling as the game mechanics. This award recognizes a Windows developer who publishes an innovative, engaging, and immersive game to the Microsoft Store.
• Reality Mixer of the Year: Creator demonstrating a unique mixed reality experience: This award celebrates those who choose to mix their own view of the world, blending digital and real-world content in creative ways and demonstrating the potential of the platform.
• Design Innovator of the Year: Beautiful look and feel:   This award recognizes excellence in design in a published application, or game, that applies Fluent Design System principles to create outstanding interactive aesthetics.
• Commercial Innovator of the Year: Focused on an enterprise audience:   This award recognizes a development talent focused on creating amazing commercial applications.
• Ninja Cat of the Year: This award honors a developer that demonstrates leadership as a standout Windows developer and makes significant contributions in the community.

Those voting and nominating should keep in mind that there are certain requirements which must be met for each of these categories. If you’re looking for inspiration, a list of last year’s winners can be found here.

Windows Server Insiders can now download a new Technical Preview of Project Honolulu, Microsoft’s new browser-based tool for server administration. Project Honolulu Technical Preview 1712 Build 05002 brings some performance improvements, a new tree control in the Files and Registry tools and new features for managing Virtual Machines. You can read more details about what’s new below:

Virtual Machines

Based on high customer request, we now support viewing and changing VM settings while a VM is running, similar to how you can in Hyper-V Manager. On Generation 2 VMs, you can change general settings, memory setting, checkpoint setting and add disks and network adapters.
You can also enable nested virtualization when creating a VM, or from the processor settings of an existing (stopped) VM. This is functionality that was previously only accessible from the command line.

Events

Administrative events are now displayed.

Performance improvements

The new data grid control has been added to all tools except the HCI solution and Storage Replica.
We have started rolling out a new tree control with the same scale and performance improvements as the new data grid. The new tree control is implemented in the Files and Registry tools.

This new Technical Preview of Project Honolulu is available to download from the Windows Server Insider Preview download page. Microsoft says that there are no new known issues in this build, but you’re invited to share your feedback on the Project Honolulu space on the Windows Server Tech Community if you encounter any issues.

The first downloadable content (DLC) level pack for LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 is now available to download for Xbox One owners. Called, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 Movie Level Pack, this DLC adds a new playable level based on the storyline in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel and also unlocks several new playable characters based such as Ego and movie versions of the main hero team.

A separate character pack also launched today called the Out of Time Character Pack. This DLC doesn’t add any new levels but does add seven new niche characters from Marvel Comics lore. Of particular note are Daredevil Noir who looks closer to his Netflix counterpart (but with missing sleaves) and Hulk 2099 from the fan-favorite Marvel 2099 comic books.

The Classic Guardians of the Galaxy and Agents of Atlas character packs are also downloadable now for regular users after being made available to gamers who pre-ordered this main game before its launch. All LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 DLC is available to purchase individually or as part of the Season Pass.

Have you been playing LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 on your Xbox One? Let us know if you like the DLC in the comments below.

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Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 Movie Level Pack

Developer:
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Price:
$2.99

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Out of Time Character Pack

Developer:
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Price:
$1.99

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LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes 2 Season Pass

Developer:
Warner Bros. Games

Price:
$14.99

If you play video games, it’s pretty likely that you’ve heard of PUBG. The game has absolutely exploded, and managed to stay relevant for the months that it’s been out. The battle royale hit has recently launched on Xbox One, and Microsoft is hosting a giveaway to celebrate the launch. The grand prize? An all-inclusive trip to Hawaii.

Here’s the full list of prizes:

• (1) Grand Prize: A four-night all-inclusive trip for two to Honolulu, Hawaii. Includes round-trip airfare, accommodation, meals, and more.
• (3) First Place prizes: Samsung QLED 4K TV, Xbox One X, 12-Month Xbox Live Gold subscription, and a physical PUBG Loot Crate including a digital copy of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – Game Preview Edition, and special surprises
• (5) Second Place prizes: Physical PUBG Loot Crate including a digital copy of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – Game Preview Edition, and special surprises

RT for a chance to win a round-trip to Honolulu, Hawaii. NoPurchNec. Ends 1/7/18. #PUBGsweepstakes rules: https://t.co/kQyslH2RKm #PUBG [T] pic.twitter.com/y4YjoF1GAZ

— Xbox (@Xbox) December 18, 2017

Entering is simple. Just retweet the post from Xbox’s Twitter account above, and/or enter through your Xbox dashboard. If you win, Microsoft will presumably contact you and give you your goodies. If you end up entering, we wish you the best of luck in getting whatever prize you’re eyeing!

The freshly-released Windows 10 Insider build 17063 introduced many cool features for consumers today. Microsoft also brought some goodies for developers and IT Pros such as the Windows Command line Toolchain now including command line tools bsdtar and curl. Moreover, after listening to feedback from IT Pros, Microsoft is introducing new features in Delivery Optimization to reduce the bandwidth consumption on enterprise networks. You can read all the details from the blog post below:

New tools available to developers on Windows

Windows Command line Toolchain includes bsdtar (tar) and curl.

bsdtar and curl two popular command line tools from the Unix shell, are now available in Windows and Windows Server.  bsdtar provides handy extraction/creation of compressed files and curl offers data transfer capabilities so you can download files from a remote location.  Read this blog to learn more about the addition of these two new tools and see how they’re shaping the developer experience on Windows.

Unix style sockets (AF_UNIX) are available on Windows

AF_UNIX is an address family which has enabled inter-process communication on Unix for countless years. The windows equivalent is named pipes, which offers similar facilities. Based on user feedback, we heard that you’d like an easier path when porting tools relying on AF_UNIX to Windows. As a result, two Win32 processes can now use the AF_UNIX address family over Winsock API to communicate with each other.  Read this blog for more details.

New features for IT Pros in Delivery Optimization

We’ve added multiple policies in this release (both Group Policies and MDM Policies) that provide Admins with means to throttle bandwidth at certain times of day (for both foreground and background traffic), restrict peer selection to the same subnet, automatically join devices into peer groups by using a DHCP server’s User option or the connection’s DNS suffix as well as the ability to increase the usage of peers by delaying the use of the HTTP source.

To view the list of new configs, open the GP Editor and checkout the new policies under Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Delivery Optimization:

These features were added based on feedback from IT Pros who rely on Delivery Optimization to reduce the bandwidth consumption on their network. The throttling policies can be useful to you if you are looking to throttle Internet bandwidth during critical business hours while allowing update traffic to flow faster at other times. The new peer selection policies address feedback we’ve received from customers who are using AAD and Modern Management (Intune, WUfB) and needed more options to automatically group peers in each site they manage.

In other developer-related news, Microsoft has also released today the Windows 10 SDK Preview build 17061, which developers can now use in conjunction with the Windows 10 Insider build 17063. That’s a lot of Insider news to digest today, but it’s been nearly a month since we last saw a new Insider build. Microsoft certainly took its time to deliver but it didn’t disappoint with a massive list of changes.

Today’s Windows Insider build included a lot of new features, but Windows Defender and Subsystem for Linux also see some improvements. Here is what you need to know on these two fronts.

Windows Defender:

• Microsoft is bringing Windows Defender Application Guard to Windows 10 Professional in the next feature update of Windows 10. Now, like Windows 10 Enterprise users, Windows 10 Pro Users can navigate the Internet in Application Guard knowing their systems are protected from even the most sophisticated browser attacks. Windows Defender Application Guard provides unprecedented protection against targeted threats using Microsoft’s industry leading Hyper-V virtualization technology.
• Quick access from the context menu: You can now right-click on the Windows Defender icon in the notification area and get an updated context menu that lets you quickly do a quick scan, update your Defender definitions, change the notifications and open Windows Defender Security Center.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

• WSL can run background tasks: Processes that set themselves up to run in the background such as sshd, tmux/screen, etc. will now continue running after the last console window has been closed. Read this blog for more information and a demo.
• Elevated and non-elevated WSL instances can run simultaneously: Previously WSL instances all had to all run as elevated or all unelevated. Now you can run some elevated and some non-elevated instances. You can also use Scheduled Tasks to run WSL.
• WSL runs in remote connections: WSL is now supported when connected via OpenSSH, VPN, Enter-PSSession, and/or other similar Windows remoting tools.
• Tool to convert Linux paths to Windows-friendly paths: Wslpath is a tool that allows you to convert Linux paths to their Windows equivalent.

Developers and the technical type will definitely appreciate these features. Let us know if you think Microsoft can further improve in these areas by dropping us a comment below.

Now that Timeline is a useable feature in Windows 10 Insider Preview build 17063, Microsoft has detailed instructions for developers on providing Windows Timeline in their own apps. On the Windows Blog, “Application Engagement in Windows Timeline with User Activities,” provides intricate instructions for developers to integrate Windows Timeline into their apps.

Starting with Windows Insider Preview build 17056 and higher, developers can use User Activities to appear their apps in Timeline. If developers write User Activities into the Microsoft Graph, specific content within their apps can trigger a destination that is in Windows 10, and can be accessed using an Android or iOS device.

As noted by Microsoft, each User Activity that is implemented with an app can trigger a separate “Activity Session.”

“Each User Activity represents a single destination within your app: such as a TV show, document or your current campaign in a game. When you engage with that activity (by creating an Activity Session), the system creates a history record indicating the start and end time for that activity. As you re-engage with that User Activity over time, multiple History Records will be recorded for a single User Activity.”

In order to get started, developers will need to install the Windows SDK for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update or the latest Windows Insider Preview SDK. You will need Visual Studio 2017 in order to use the Windows Insider Preview SDK. If developers are interested in trying out Timeline, they will need to install the latest Windows Insider Preview. Here’s a look at how developers can engage customers using Microsoft Graph, Adaptive Cards, and Windows Timeline.

Once the latest Windows Insider Preview build is installed, developers can get started on adding UserActivities to their app. UserActivities are the unit of user engagement in Windows 10 and they consist of three important parts, an activation deep-link, visuals, and content metadata. Microsoft provides a comprehensive explanation of these parts here:

• Activation Deep-Link is a URI that can be passed back to an application or experience in order to resume the application with specific context. Typically, these links take the form of protocol handler for a scheme (e.g. “my-app://page2?action=edit”) or an AppUriHandlers (e.g. https://constoso.com/page2?action=edit).
• Visuals are a set of properties that allow users to visually identify an activity, for example: title, description, or Adaptive Card elements.
• Content Metadata is metadata for the content of the of activity that can be used to group and retrieve activities under a specific context. Often, this takes the form of https://schema.org data.

Microsoft further details other UserActivities capabilities that you can add to your app to work with Timeline and Cortana. Microsoft provides more capabilities with further reading and more advanced required code.

At the end of today’s blog post for Windows 10 build 17063, Microsoft made note of a new process labeled “Registry.” which may be seen in the Task Manager in the past couple Windows Insider builds. This process may be concerning for some Windows 10 users, but there’s no need to worry. Microsoft is providing the following explanation for the purposes of the Registry process.

• In recent Insider Preview builds, you may have noticed a new process labelled “Registry” in Task Manager. The purpose of this process is similar to that of the memory compression store process in that it is a minimal process whose address space is used to hold data on behalf of the kernel. However, while the memory compression process is used to hold compressed pages, the registry process is used to hold registry hive data (e.g. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE, HKEY_CURRENT_USER).
• Storing registry hive data in the registry process gives the registry access to more powerful memory management capabilities which will allow us to reduce the registry’s memory usage in the future.
• Today’s Insider Preview build is the first to store hive data in the registry process and this is visible in Task Manager as increased memory usage by that process. Since this data was previously in kernel paged pool there is also a corresponding decrease in paged pool usage so overall there is no net change in hive data memory usage.

Did you find this registry process bothersome after you’ve installed this build? Let us know your thoughts below.

Perhaps, the most interesting part of being in the Insider program is being part of a crowd that gets to test early or experimental features. With the release of today’s latest Windows 10 Insider build, testers get to get their hands on probably one of the most anticipated features coming to Windows in a long time, Sets.

Unfortunately, access to the new Sets feature isn’t as cut and dry as it used to be for all Insiders. The Windows engineering team has seen fit to implement a new A/B testing mechanism that is now limiting who gets access to what new and experimental features, which now adds a layer of complication when Insiders speak amongst themselves to confirm the presence of new items.

Sets promise to evolve the average workflow by incorporating a newly tabbed menu paradigm for users, the only problem is, when not everyone is getting access to it, it becomes a little harder to recognize when it is and isn’t there.

Fortunately, Windows senior program manager Brandon LeBlanc chimed in to offer users a tell-tale sign that their update is the one touting the new Sets feature.

You will see it when you open the Store or Mail apps where there is an additional + sign in the titlebar.

— Brandon LeBlanc (@brandonleblanc) December 19, 2017

Other indicators include visiting the settings menu, as explained by another Windows Insider engineer, Jason Howard.

Most obvious way I have found is in the photo. Open settings and see if you can add new tabs. It'll look like adding a tab in Edge.

— Jason Howard (@NorthFaceHiker) December 19, 2017

Lastly, Insiders can refer to the Windows Blog for a more detailed markup of how to look for the new Sets feature as well as a detailed explanation on why they may or may not be seeing it after installing this build. I would love to brag about being one of the cool kids who got the Sets feature early, but sadly, I’m stuck waiting to test it out with the rest of you. Let us know in the comments if you have access to Sets and how you are using it.

After almost a month without seeing a new Redstone 4 build, Microsoft has finally delivered today with the Windows 10 Insider build 17063. In addition to the much-anticipated Timeline and Sets features, this latest build brings a long list of novelties including some welcome input improvements.

You’ll find in this build a new split layout for the touch keyboard, as well as the ability to change the font of the handwriting experience. More importantly, the Emoji Panel is finally available in 190 languages. You can read the full list of changes below:

Personalize the handwriting panel: In this release you can now change the font that your handwriting converts to in the handwriting panel! Go to Settings > Devices > Pen & Windows Ink > “Change the font of the handwriting experience”, select your preferred font from the dropdown, then write in the handwriting panel to see your chosen font.

You can now use the Emoji Panel in more languages! Based on your feedback, we’ve been working diligently on more added support for more languages and as of today’s build you can now use the emoji over 190 locals – 152 of which have tooltip support when you hover over each emoji. This includes English (Great Britain), French (France), German (Germany), Spanish (Spain), and more! You can open the Emoji Panel by pressing Windows logo key + period(.). Currently you can only browse and use mouse/touch/keyboard to pick an emoji in these languages, however we’re working on adding search. Stay tuned!

Single or multiple emoji at a time – you choose: With the previous flight we added support for inputting multiple emoji at a time. Today we’re adding a setting so that you can decide which behavior is best for you. Simply check or uncheck the new “Don’t close panel automatically after an emoji has been entered” setting under Settings > Time & Language > Keyboard > Advanced Keyboard Settings.

Emoji data update: Last flight we shared our initial emoji data update across multiple languages for this release – as promised with today’s flight we have the second bulk of the payload. We’ve added a number of additional words you can use to find the emoji you’re looking for in your language – use the touch keyboard and search for things like hedgehog, vampire, and pretzel.

Hardware keyboard suggestions update: Since our first flight with this new feature, we have two updates to share with you:

• Firstly: We now support dark theme! Use Color Settings to switch between light and dark and see how your text suggestions will now follow suit.
• Secondly: We’ve moved the settings for how to enable this feature, you can now find it under Keyboard Settings > English (United States) > Options > Hardware keyboard > “Show text suggestions as I type”

Split layout comes to the touch keyboard: As many of you know we redesigned the touch keyboard to be XAML-based for the Fall Creators Update. We’ve been hard at work addressing your feedback, and are happy to announce that with this build the touch keyboard now supports the split layout – an ergonomic layout designed to be used with both hands, one on each side of your tablet. Note: Korean, Japanese and Simplified Chinese languages aren’t yet supported for this layout, but we’re working on it.

The standard touch keyboard layout for Japanese, Korean, Quick and ChangJie for Traditional Chinese: Now the standard keyboard layout for East Asian languages are available except Simplified Chinese and Bopomofo for Traditional Chinese (which we’re still working on). Japanese Kana layout is also supported. If you want to switch between wide, one-handed, and the standard touch keyboard layouts, just tap the button in the top left of the keyboard.

These are all much-appreciated changes, especially the new split layout for the touch keyboard and the broader availability of the Emoji Panel. Let us know in the comments what are your favourite new features in the list.

The settings page is one of the major hubs of Windows 10, allowing users to control core areas of the OS. Though it has always been well organized, Microsoft has listened to the needs of Windows 10 users and now added major tweaks to the settings page in build 17063. Here’s what you need to know, directly from today’s blog post.

• Settings gets a new look: You’ve already seen we say “bring on the Fluent!” in other areas of Shell, and Settings is no different. With today’s build you’ll find not only have we refreshed the Settings UI leveraging Fluent Design principles, but we’ve also taken a look at the Settings homepage and redesigned it with an eye for visual acuity.
• Control Windows legacy apps access to your camera: Camera privacy settings under Settings > Privacy > Camera give you fine control over the apps that have access to your camera. With this update, we are changing the toggle’s behavior to include all legacy apps. Note that each legacy app will not appear individually in the list today like Store apps do, but they will respect the toggle.
• Security questions for local accounts: With the Fall Creators Update, we started working on self help solutions for password recovery from the Lock screen. Today, we’re adding this functionality to local accounts as well, through the newly available use of security questions for local accounts. If you already have a local account, you can add security questions by going to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options > “Update your security questions.”
• You can now view detailed information about your display by visiting the new “Advanced display settings” page linked at the bottom of Settings > System > Display.

• In this flight we’ve made it easier for you to fix apps that become blurry if you dock/undock, RDP, or change display settings. Some desktop apps can become blurry in these scenarios. When this happens, you have to log out and back in to Windows to have these apps render properly. In this flight, you can turn on a feature that will enable these apps to be fixed simply by re-launching them.
• We’re introducing a new Keyboard Settings experience on PC! Now found under the Time & Language Settings, you’ll be able to easily add new keyboard layouts, switch between Japanese 106/109 and English 101/102 keyboard layouts, turn on and off settings like key sounds and autocorrect, and other advanced keyboard-related settings. Additionally you can now change the default keyboard independently of the display language.
• We have reimagined the Region & Language Settings. We’ve added icons to each language entry to indicate when language support is installed for display language, text-to-speech, speech recognition, and/or handwriting.
• You can now configure data limits and/or place background data restrictions to Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections, in addition to cellular connections, in the Data usage page. The updated settings page aims to support a diverse set of devices and users
• Under Settings > Gaming > Game Mode there is a new option called ”Reset Game Mode Settings” that allows you to restore Game Mode settings for their PC back to the default values for the feature.
• In today’s build you’ll notice that we now bubble up any permissions the app has asked for, along with an easy option for you to toggle them. We’ve also added links to check background usage, lock screen notifications, and defaults, and options to terminate and/or uninstall the app.

There you have it, folks, plenty of new settings to check out in this new build. Are you liking the level of control Microsoft has added to this new build? Be sure to check out all the new settings, and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The Windows 10 Insider build 17063 is now available to download for Fast Ring Insiders, and the new bits bring some nice improvements to the My People experience. As you may know, My People lets you pin your contacts to your Windows 10 task bar, making it easier to communicate and share content with your closed ones.

If you thought that My People is still a bit rough around the edges in the Fall Creators Update, Microsoft has been listening to user feedback to take the feature to the next level. Starting with the Windows 10 Insider build 17063, it’s finally possible to drag and drop your contacts in your taskbar and rearrange them in the order how you prefer. Moreover, it’s now possible to show up to 10 contacts in your taskbar (up from three) if you want to.

Microsoft has also improved animations for people in overflow: now you’ll see emotive notifications above your taskbar for all contacts that have been pinned within the People flyout. You can see how it works in the GIF below.

The Insider build 17063 also brings two other changes for MyPeople: the People flyout has updated with Fluent Design, and you should now see acrylic, reveal, and light effects. Last but not least, MyPeople will now suggest you social apps that you may be interested in. This change has been made to improve app discoverability, but you can turn it off in the People settings if you don’t like it.

These are all welcome changes, but My People will really become useful when more developers (especially Facebook) start to support it. Let us know in the comments if these latest changes are likely to make you use My People more in the near future.

With the arrival of Windows Insider Preview build 17063, Microsoft has released a bunch of new features for Windows Insiders to use. However, Microsoft has also decided to phase out some old features too. Windows HomeGroup is one such feature that is unavailable in Windows Insider Preview build 17063.

Microsoft notes that Windows HomeGroup was a great feature in the “pre-cloud and pre-mobile era,” but there are plenty of alternative sharing options that Windows 10 can provide, instead of the now defunct Windows HomeGroup:

• File Storage: OneDrive is a cloud-first, cross-device storage and collaboration platform for all of the pieces of data that matter most in your life – like your files, your photos, your videos, and more. OneDrive Files On-Demand takes cloud file storage a step further, allowing you to access all your files in the cloud without having to download them and use storage space on your device.
• Share Functionality: For those who prefer not to use the Cloud to connect their devices, the Share functionality for folders and printers allows you to see the available devices and connect them to and from other PCs on your home network.
• Easier Connection:No more remembering cryptic HomeGroup passwords in order to connect to another PC. You can now simply connect through your Microsoft Account email address across devices.

There are plenty of other new improvements and features available. Take a look at the list of what’s new in WIndows Insider Preview build 17063.

Fluent Design is the next big thing for Microsoft in Windows 10, and today’s Windows Insider build includes A LOT of it. Windows Shell, Start menu, Action Center, and other core areas of the Windows 10 OS received special treatment in build 17063, and here is what you need to know about it.

• Today, Start and Action Center support acrylic to align with Fluent design principles. And now we’re bringing the next wave of Shell UI to the party by applying acrylic to the taskbar, Share UI, Clock & Calendar flyout, Network flyout, Volume flyout, and Input flyout. Try it out and let us know what you think!
• Notifications are inherently transient – one thing we’ve heard from you is how it can be frustrating to have started writing a response into a notification (such as one from Skype), only to have the response disappear if you didn’t submit it before the notification went away. Well, no more! If a toast gets dismissed with unsubmitted text, we will now save the draft; open the action center and your text will now be saved with the notification.
• We’re happy to announce that with this build we’ve simplified the grouping of apps in the all apps list for Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, and Korean. This change is most noticeable for Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese, where we’ve reduced the number of groups by 29 and 36, respectively. If you use Windows in these languages, please take a moment to check it out once you get the build and let us know how it feels.

• Cloud states for the Navigation Pane: In an effort to further keep you informed about the state of your OneDrive files and folders on demand, we’re looking at adding a state icon to use in File Explorer’s Navigation Pane. If you’d like to turn this off, there’s an option in the File Explorer ribbon View tab – click the Options button, then in the dialog that appears go to the Navigation Pane section of the View tab and uncheck “Always show availability status”.
• A consistent Network flyout on the login screen: Continuing our work to modernize all the elements of Windows 10, we’ve now updated the network flyout on the login screen to use the same familiar network flyout you’ve grown to love in the taskbar.
• Improving your update experience: In an effort to keep you informed about the state of your PC, if Windows Update Settings shows a warning or alert, we will now echo that via a new Windows Update system tray icon. If you right click the icon, you will see options relevant to the current state, such as restart, schedule the restart, or go to Windows Update settings. If visible, this icon can be turned off from within Taskbar Settings.

Lots of changes to examine! We wish you well in your downloading, and remind you to let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

It’s time to get to downloading the latest Windows 10 Insider build, this one clocking in at 17063. The next build after 17046, which somewhat surprisingly was released the day before the big US Thanksgiving holiday (almost a month ago!), has seen a couple of delays.

This new build continues adding features to what’s known as RS4, or Redstone 4, the code name for the latest round of updates that will eventually become the Spring 2018 Update to Windows 10. This is the first build to include an early look at Timeline, the feature Microsoft announced at Build that introduces a “visual timeline” integrated into Task View, allowing you to easily move back to reopen files, apps, and sites as though you had never left.

The Windows Insider team gave us a quick look at Timeline in the latest Windows Insider Podcast, and we shed a bit more light on what we know so far, but this new build will be the first chance for Windows Insiders to try out all the latest from Windows 10.

We’ll have all the details up for you in just a few minutes, but for now get to downloading!

As many stories in the news and the #MeToo movement have shown, sexual harassment in the workplace is a problem in American society with newfound attention. This is why Microsoft today announced they have become the first Fortune 100 company to endorse a bipartisan Senate bill addressing sexual harassment.

In a post penned by Microsoft President Brad Smith, the Redmond giant writes about the hope of endorsement ensuring “that people’s concerns about sexual harassment can always be heard.” Introduced by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Lindsey Graham, Microsoft is also saying the bill “ensure that every person facing sexual harassment in the workplace can make their case in a public court, rather than solely behind closed doors in private arbitration.”

After thinking about this legislation, Microsoft also reflected on their own practices, and if they could be changed. The company found that a small segment of their employees have contractual clauses requiring pre-dispute arbitration for harassment claims. As a result, Microsoft will be waiving the contractual requirement for arbitration of sexual harassment claims in their own arbitration agreements for employees who have the requirement.

It’s great to see Microsoft stepping up, supporting this Senate bill, and taking action to address their practices internally. Being the leader they are, this means other tech giants might as well likely follow in their footsteps. Definitely one step forward in addressing a large problem that is plaguing our society.

Microsoft’s upcoming Sea of Thieves video game is about to get its own comic book series by Titan Comics.

The Sea of Thieves comic book series is due for release on March 14th 2018 and will be written by Jeremy Whitley with art by Rhoald Marcellius. The first issue is already available for digital pre-order on Comixology and has been given a 17+ age rating which suggests that it could be more violent than its cartoony style artwork looks. There’s also a very brief description for the first issue.

A gripping, uproarious and treacherous pirate adventure! Two crews sail the sea of thieves in a race to track down ancient treasure. Along the way they’ll deal with undead hordes, devious traps and their own bitter rivalries, but who will ultimately claim the legendary loot? Based on the shared-world adventure multiplayer game from Rare, due for release early 2018 on Xbox One and Windows 10.

Sea of Thieves will launch on Xbox One and Windows 10 on March 20th and pre-orders are already open. The game will be an online multiplayer experience and it’s unclear how much story content will be present. Because of this, exploring the game’s world via a comic book series could provide some substantial on the game that may be missing in the title itself.

Will you pick up the Sea of Thieves comic book? Let us know in the comments below.

We may be sounding like a broken record at this point, but Windows Insiders won’t have a new build to play with today (Monday 12/18.) This is according to Brandon LeBlanc, who provided Insiders with a status update, saying the team is working hard to get a new build out “soon.”

Just an FYI for #WindowsInsiders – no new build today. We're working hard to get one out soon though!

— Brandon LeBlanc (@brandonleblanc) December 18, 2017

LeBlanc is not giving any promises, but he did say in a subsequent tweet that the Insider team is trying and “soon” could mean “this week.” This build is also set to include Windows Timeline and Sets, two hotly anticipated Windows 10 features. As you may recall, Dona Sarkar previously revealed the upcoming build is very important for this reason, and Microsoft wants to ensure the best possible experience for everyone.

Anyway, it’s best to let the Insider Team do their work, as the last thing we would want to see is a build that breaks the PCs of those opting to install it. Patience is a virtue, and it all will pay off when you can dive right into Windows Timeline and enjoy all of its features without bugs or issues.

After completing the transition from a peer-to-peer infrastructure to a cloud-based one, 2017 has been another year of profound changes for Skype. The team has been working hard to modernize the ubiquitous messaging and VOIP app, and some of the changes have certainly been difficult to accept for power users.

Still, as Microsoft is getting ready to introduce more changes and new features in 2018, the Skype team took the time to look back at this year’s highlights and milestones today. Obviously, the main news this year was the release of the new Skype experience, which came first on mobile platforms before rolling out to Windows, macOS and Linux.

The new Skype app lets you choose your theme and accent color, react to messages using emoticons, send money via Paypal and more. “All of these updates were inspired by a simple goal: to make Skype the center of your important conversations with your personal networks and, hopefully, empower you to turn your everyday conversations into experiences,” the team explained in the blog post.

On mobile, you can also use Skype add-ins to share Gifs, create polls, find local restaurants and more. Let’s not forget about Skype Highlight’s, Microsoft’s take on Snapchat Stories (now with Snapchat-like photo effects as well) which shows the company’s ambition to turn Skype into a lightweight social network.

There is still no complete feature parity between all Skype apps today: Highlights and Skype add-ons are still mobile-only, and the Skype for Windows 10 app still has a different feature set and design compared to the new Win32 app. Additionally, the new Skype experience has yet to be released on iPads and Android tablets.

Moreover, Skype has launched a new Skype Lite app for Indian users, which is optimized for 2G networks and locations with poor connectivity. This version also has exclusive features such as SMS Insights, which aggregates the relevant information from your text messages and automatically sort them in smart categories such as Shopping, Travel and more.

Since the new Skype experience has been created from the ground up, the team also had to temporarily discontinue the Skype apps for Android Wear and the Apple Watch. “We’re working hard to make support for wearables, and other platforms available,” Microsoft explains in a support page. In the meantime, Skype became available on the Harman Kardon Invoke speaker this year, which is the first time we see Skype being expanded to ambient devices.

It’s also worth noting that the Skype didn’t abandon professionals and power users this year. On Windows and macOS, it’s still possible to download “classic Skype” if you miss the ability to open multiple chat Windows, get notifications when your contacts go online and more. For professionals, Microsoft added a code editor to the Skype web app for coding interviews. The Skype Professional account, a new desktop client with special features for remote service providers is also available in preview in the US.

It’s been quite some time since Microsoft announced that Skype had crossed 300 million monthly active users. We doubt that Skype can ever catch up to Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, which both have 1 billion monthly active users, but the Skype Android did pass 1 billion downloads on the Google Play Store two months ago. Skype is the first Microsoft Android app to reach this milestone, so this is definitely a big deal for Microsoft’s mobile strategy.

“We look forward to continuing to expand the ways Skype can make your life easier, more productive, and fun in 2018,” the Skype explained today. “We are committed to always continuing to innovate, listening to customer feedback, and pushing the boundaries of technology.” What features would you like added to Skype in 2018? Sound off in the comments below.

Beta testers of the Microsoft Launcher Android app can download a new update with several new features today. The version 4.4 of the launcher lets you hide the dock from your home screen, select multiple items at the same time to move them anywhere you want, create new folders in app drawer and more.

MS Launcher lands with new goodies with 4.4 update.

Loads of awesomeness. #Android #Microsoft. BIG THANKS @ezp4rking @ShilpaRan @VishnuNath @lcascio @JenMsft pic.twitter.com/OPORnDYAI2

— Shafat (@awesomestriker) December 18, 2017

Here is the full changelog that the team posted on the dedicated Google+ community today:

What’s new for Microsoft Launcher 4.4:

• Enable creating folders in app drawer – this is a long ask from users and now your wait worth it!
• Batch mode of apps on home screen and app drawer – you can now select multiple items at the same time, across different page, move, remove, drag&drop or even creating new folders in home screen or app drawer though long press menu;
• Enable/disable dock – now you can design you home screen without dock, with more imagination and flexibility!
• Open app animation;
• Pill count improvements on Line, BBM, Instagram, Yammer, Textra, WhatsApp and more – this is one of the highest bug reporting in our weekly user feedback report, so we spend a whole release to make it better, it’s still not perfect so please keep the feedback coming in around this.
• Weather / Time widget refinement to mitigate weather refresh issue – we also receive quite some bug reporting around weather not refresh and cannot manually update, etc. we did several improvement on this, explore them on the widget and let us know how it works.
• Bug fixing and perf tuning;

You can get the version 4.4 of the Microsoft Launcher right now from the Google Play Beta Store, but it should roll out to all users in the coming weeks. The developers have made a lot of progress on the app since its launch a few weeks ago, and we’re looking forward to see what’s in the pipeline for the next update. In the meantime, feel free to share your feedback on the new features in the Google+ community.

When you’re fresh out of college and just completed a master’s program, the possibilities of employment are almost endless. As noted on Financial Times, Cornell Jonhson Graduate School student Safiya Miller found this out for herself when she recently completed her Masters in Business Administration and landed a job at Microsoft.

Miller landed a job as an account executive in Microsoft’s Bay Area offices, finding Microsoft’s legacy as the foremost reasons for seeking employment at the Redmond giant. In fact, Financial Times reports that Microsoft is still the top-five tech hirers of MBA students from leading business schools, even with the recent layoffs around the company. It’s mainly the fact that Microsoft knows how to “reinvent itself” that makes the company so appealing, according to Safiya Miller:

“If I was going to move all the way out west, I wanted a team where I could learn and grow… I wanted to learn next to [people] who have not only been in the industry for years but were also experiencing this refresh, rebirth of the company.”

According to stats from the original report, Microsoft hired 30% more MBA graduates this year than last year. Chuck Edward, Microsoft’s head of global talent acquisition, explained in the report that demand for candidates with MBAs has “gone up significantly in the past two or three years,” with hires from “nearly 150 different schools in 40 countries.”

After going through a round of interviews lasting three or so weeks, these MBA graduates earn $160,000 as a median starting salary at Microsoft once fully employed. They also need to go through MACH, the Microsoft Academy of College Hires, a program which places them with mentors and through training events.

Perhaps it is mere coincidence that as Microsoft began throttling its Windows 10 Mobile development the air and enthusiasm around the company’s digital assistant seemed to dissipate. I hope not to come off hyperbolic because I’m not pointing to the reduction in press coverage but rather the strikingly correlated feel that limiting Microsoft’s Cortana native presence to just the desktop seems to have stunted its potential growth, developer creativity, and customer mindshare.

Conversely, Amazon’s pivot away from its arguably disastrous smartphone tryst has all but embolden the company to push forward with its digital assistant Alexa and comparatively speaking, Amazon is lapping Microsoft’s efforts almost 100 fold.

According to a report from Mary Jo Foley and our own anecdotal investigating, Cortana has approximately 230 skills (add-on functionality) that vary from asking it details about upcoming trips to ordering Pizza from Domino’s. While the list might seem impressive to Microsoft fans, it unquestionably pales in comparison to the Amazon Alexa list of 25,000 skills that fill niche request such as playing Jeopardy or receiving random quotes from Wikipedia.

The canyon between Alexa and Cortana development similarly reflects the divide between Chrome and Edge in the browser space. Perhaps, Microsoft is attempting to take the same focused and cautionary approach to Cortana development as it is doing with Edge, but when it comes to consumers, sometimes the fastest moving product gains all the attention leaving little room for perceived “me-too” solutions.

Despite the outward appearance, Microsoft isn’t sitting on its hands with Cortana, (perhaps merely pausing to tie its uneven shoelaces), the company has released several development tools and kits to spark interest in its digital assistant. Recently, items such Azure’s Bot service was made generally available to developers to help tie in messaging services such as Skype and Facebook Messenger. Microsoft also revealed that it’s working on Cortana Skill Chaining, which is probably a call back to the company announcing advances in its AI development and botlets.

While Cortana development seems to be stuck in the proverbial molasses right now, it would appear that Microsoft engineers are at least looking to keep pace with providing the toolsets necessary to make a great Cortana experience in the future.

Interestingly enough, the symphony of doom calls that erupted shortly after Microsoft seemingly lost interest in mobile (I being one of the chorus) never made their way to Amazon who also fantastically failed in smartphones. Furthermore, Amazon’s mindshare in the digital assistance space also stands as proof that not everything has to stem from or be done on a smartphone.