Technology

1. Drops
2. Garns
3. Upchucks
4. Fuges

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The ThinkPad line is full of workhorses, and Lenovo’s most adamant customers like it that way. But even a workhorse can wear some fancy tack. Such is the case with the latest high-end ThinkPads, the newest updates to the X1 Carbon flagship and X1 Yoga convertible unveiled at CES.

The 7th-gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s new aesthetic touches mean it finally looks the part: the cover, usually a soft-touch plastic or similar finish, now shows off the carbon fiber weave of the ultralight frame beneath. It’s subtle—almost too subtle to see in the photo below. But Lenovo’s representatives say it’s so that the “Carbon” branding aligns more visibly with what customers expect, from similar applications in sports cars and high-end bicycles.

The carbon fiber allows it to be astonishingly light for a 14-inch machine at under 2.5 pounds. Even so, Lenovo managed to include options for fingerprint authentication, CAT-16 LTE wireless, and a battery quoted for 15 hours of normal use. (As always, take that estimate with a grain of salt.) The screen, often a low point of the ThinkPad line, looks brilliant: the one we tried had a 4K panel with 500 nits of brightness. Users who don’t need that sharpness can opt for a 1080p screen with a new power-efficient 400-nit mode.

Lenovo is particularly proud of the new speakers integrated into the keyboard deck, certified for Dolby Atmos and packing tweeters and woofers. While they aren’t booming by any means, they’re a notable improvement in clarity and range over last year’s version. The PrivacyGuard feature detects prying eyes with the webcam, alerting the user to people who might be peeking at their TPS reports. If you’re worried about remote spying, a hardware shutter cover carries over from the older design. And of course, it comes with the latest 8th-gen Core processors from Intel.

The new ThinkPad X1 Carbon will be available starting in June, with a base price of $1709.

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga, now in its fourth revision, is much more substantially updated: it uses a full aluminum alloy body. This allows Lenovo to shave all of its dimensions and combined with the ultra-thin bezels, it’s now among the smallest 14-inch laptops around. It’s odd to see the normally utilitarian brand wrapped up in something so, well, trendy, but the simple body looks good with the classic keyboard and design elements.

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Ultrawide monitors are all the rage, and now even bigger versions (Megawide? Magnawide?) are becoming surprisingly common. Lenovo is unveiling two 43.4-inch wide monitors here at CES, one in the business class ThinkPad lineup and one in the LEGION gaming sub-brand.

The monitors are designed with the intention of replacing a dual-screen setup, and with a resolution of 3840×1200, they’re the equivalent of dual 24-inch monitors side by side. Naturally, they’re curved with a 1800R factor to make all that screen real estate easier on the eyes. HDR and 450-nit peak brightness, a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz, and 4-millisecond response time are spec headlines, but there are some excellent extras outside of the main panel.

The inputs are varied, including double HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB Type-C with 90 watts of power output to charge your laptop. The displays come with an integrated USB hub, too, with two ports and a headphone jack that are right beneath the center of the bottom bezel. Not using them? They fold up into the body when not needed—a very classy touch. An optional Harman Kardon speaker bar integrates into the sturdy central column of the stand.

Lenovo’s software allows for easy picture-in-picture, plus virtual monitor spaces to more effectively manage windows on the wide space—a branded version of a DisplayFusion trick. Both panels will support AMD’s FreeSync 2 for smoother gameplay, though the exclusion of NVIDIA’s G-Sync on such expensive monitors is a bit of a let-down. Speaking of which: the ThinkVision P44w, with pre-configured color certification and a three-year warranty, will be available in April for $1300. The LEGION Y44w, sans certification and with a 1-year warranty, will go for $1200 at the same time.

For those who want a tighter package and demand NVIDIA G-Sync, Lenovo is also offering the LEGION Y27gq. It’s smaller at 27 inches, with the popular QHD (2560×1440) resolution for a good balance between framerates and sharpness. The panel is rated for 240Hz of refresh, four times the typical 60fps target for most games, with a response time at half a millisecond. (Yes, .5ms.) You’ll need an absolute unit of a gaming PC to take advantage of it.

That makes the price a little more understandable: at $1000, it’s among the most expensive 27-inch gaming monitors on the market. Lenovo is hoping some neat extras, like a subtle and stable stand, ultra-thin bezels, and a fold-out hook for hanging your gaming headset, will make up the difference. While this model dispenses with USB-C connection—not a popular one for gamers, anyway—it can use the same detachable speaker bar as the larger monitors. It will hit the market in April.

Following in the footsteps of other big security camera brands, Netgear-owned Arlo Technologies has unveiled an all-new security system complete with a hub, siren and multi-sensors.

The brains of the system is the Arlo SmartHub, which can also connect to Arlo’s latest Ultra security camera (as pictured below), as well as older Arlo Pro cameras. You’ll also get multi-sensors, which can be used as door/window sensors, motion sensors, water leak sensors, or a sound sensor that listens for your smoke alarm and will alert you when it goes off.

The system also includes a siren with red LED strobes. So whenever the system detects a break in, it will sound the siren and flash red, as well as let you know there has been a break in and allow you to contact the local authorities. You can also use the siren to emit specific sounds, like a TV or a dog barking.

You’ll also receive a remote to arm and disarm the system, and as previously mentioned, the hub works with Arlo Ultra and Pro cameras as well. So you’ll be able to have all your Arlo products working together in sync.

No specific price was given, but availability is set for the second half of 2019, with support for Z-Wave and ZigBee devices arriving at some point as well—for direct support of third party accessories like Philips smart lights and Yale locks.

At CES 2019, Belkin unveiled a new WeMo Light Switch that not only brings it up to date from the previous generation, but it also brings native HomeKit support without the need for the WeMo Bridge hub.

The new light switch isn’t a dimmer (there’s already a WeMo Dimmer available that also has HomeKit support built in), but rather a simple on/off switch. It will come in either a single-pole version for $40 (which means that there’s only one switch controlling a light fixture), or you can get it in a three-way version for $50 (which is meant for setups where more than one light switch controls a light).

The new WeMo Light Switch will be available to purchase at some point over the summer.

Originally known for its video doorbell, Ring has expanded its lineup quite a bit over the years, and it’s doing it again this year with a new Door View Cam and some outdoor smart lighting.

The Door View Cam is literally like a digital peephole for your front door, as it’s meant to replace your existing peephole. It’s completely wireless and battery powered, and it will alert you every time it detects motion happening at your front door, as well as let you do two-way talk. This is a really great product for those who aren’t able to replace their existing doorbell with a video doorbell (like for renters), although the Ring Doorbell can also be battery powered and simply mounted on an exterior wall, we can understand if landlords aren’t too excited about that prospect.

The Ring Door View Cam will be available later this year for $199.

Ring also announced a significant line of outdoor smart lighting, which is also completely wireless and battery powered. Plus, when one light detects motion and turns on, it will also alert all of your other Ring smart lights to turn on as well. Furthermore, if you have Ring Protect Plus, you can have the lights automatically alert your various Ring cameras and they can start recording video.

There are several different versions of the smart lighting that Ring announced, including a floodlight for $70 (a battery-powered version for $50), a spotlight for $40, a pathlight for $30 (meant to be combined with several to light up a pathway), and a steplight for $18.

These lights are available for pre-order right now and will begin shipping to customers starting on March 6.

Otherwise, Ring unveiled some new sensors for its Alarm system, including a smoke and CO “listener,” which listens to your existing smoke alarms and alerts your Ring Alarm system whenever they go off. There’s also a new water sensor, siren, and a First Alert smoke alarm that’s designed to connect directly to your Ring Alarm system. These products are available right now on Ring’s website.

Microsoft announced a change in GitHub pricing today, and it’s great for anyone learning to code. In the past, GitHub charged $7 a month for a private repository. But now those are free if you have three collaborators or fewer.

GitHub has always had a free tier, but in the past, that free tier was limited to public repositories. If you were an aspiring coder who wanted to delve into source control, the best affordable option was to make your code public. That’s not always appealing, especially in the early stages of learning when your code might be something of which you are less than proud. Even after landing your first developer job, when it comes time to move on or work on a side project, you might not want to have your work out in the open for your current employer to see.

For an employed developer, this wasn’t a difficult problem. GitHub charged $7 a month for private repositories. While that cost does add up over the year, it isn’t too challenging to put together $7 a month if you have a job. For students, who might not have the time or capability to work while learning, that fee can be harder to put together. The cost might have prevented students from using a resource that could not only give them more experience with source control but also give them a valuable place to store their work for future job prospects.

Today’s announcement is a win for those students. Private repositories are free so long as the repository has three collaborators or fewer. This is a reasonable compromise that ensures Microsoft can see profit from GitHub for commercial projects while extending a great benefit to those who could use the help the most. Anyone who does need more than three collaborators can continue to pay $7 a month for GitHub Pro.

Microsoft is simplifying GitHub’s business options as well. Instead of offering GitHub Enterprise Cloud and GitHub Enterprise Service as separate services, Microsoft is rolling them into one:  GitHub Enterprise. Businesses can now access both for one per-seat price.

Overall these changes should help GitHub continue to develop a healthy ecosystem of users. The new free tier for private repositories will be a boon to students and small developers alike.

You might not know it, but there’s a chance your iPhone or iPad might have one or more old configuration profiles installed, and that could be a security risk. But don’t worry, we’re going to tell you how to clean them out.

Experiments have shown in the past that a well-placed profile can potentially give wrongdoers access to your iPhone or iPad. For that reason, it’s always a good idea to be aware of the profiles you have installed, and why. A configuration profile allows someone to override your iPhone or iPad settings, and they can be useful when used correctly. Some VPN providers use profiles to configure devices so they can stay safe online. Apple uses the same system to enroll devices into its beta programs. There are plenty of legitimate reasons for these profiles, but that doesn’t mean they need to stay there forever.

It’s good practice to periodically clear our any configuration profiles you have installed and who knows, you might just come across one that you don’t recognize in the process.

To get started, fire up the Settings app and then tap “General.”

Scroll to the very bottom of the long list of options and tap “Profiles & Device Management.” You’ll also see the number of profiles you have installed here.

This screen shows you every configuration profile you have installed, as well as other profiles that might allow the installation of beta software. Tap the profile to see more information about it and if required, remove it.

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You don’t need to have a gym membership to get in shape. Pushups are a great way to work your upper body and core, and if you’ve got additional tools, your workouts may produce more intense results.

Whether you’re new to working out or you’re more than experienced, these tools will help you get the most range in your pushups, even adding extra difficulty when you need it. Make sure to check out this list if you want to get the most out of your pushups because we’ve picked all sorts of tools that not only target specific muscles but also muscles that normal pushups don’t reach. Plus, we’ve kept safety in mind by only selecting tools that encourage good exercise posture and protect your wrists.

There are different positions to do pushups in, but what do they all mean? If you want to have the perfect push up in any position, as well as instructions for total-body strength and conditioning, then the Maximum Fitness Gear Power Press Push Up may be the training system for you.

Use the color-coded board to target your chest (blue), shoulders (red), back (yellow), and triceps (green). With 14 positions, this trainer will promote proper form to not only prevent injury but to help you get the most out of your workout so you can maximize your upper body definition and strength. The hand grips that you place on the board are designed to stay in place during your pushups, but can easily be removed so you can switch positions. Plus, they’re oversized so that your wrists are protected from pressure (putting less pressure on your wrists than a normal floor push up).

Lastly, this training system comes with a 10-week workout calendar with three phases: startup, rev up, and explosion, all of which combine core, cardio, and plyometric exercises. There are even QR codes on the board so you can see how each position properly.

While he the Maximum Fitness Gear above is great for helping you with positioning, you may be looking for more intensity with your fitness pursuit. If this is the case (or even if you’re new and want more of a challenge), then check out the Perfect Fitness Pushup Elite Handles.

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There are a ton of great mesh Wi-Fi systems on the market, but many of them offer only the basic of features, The new Linksys MR8300 mesh Wi-Fi router combines that simplicity with a more traditional router experience.

I’m a huge fan of Eero, which make its own mesh Wi-Fi system that’s really easy to set up and use. The big problem, however, is that it’s severely dumbed down, and most of the advanced features you’d find on many routers aren’t there. Obviously, you could still use an existing router and have Eero in bridge mode, but then you just have two interfaces to deal with and you lose the simplicity of the Eero experience (which is the fundamental selling point).

Of course, a basic interface really isn’t a problem for most every day, novice users, but there are still plenty of people out there who would love an easy-to-use product, but still want access to more advanced features if need be, as well as a network that can handle anything you throw at it.

Enter the Linksys MR8300 mesh Wi-Fi router. It comes with 802.11ac tri-band Wi-Fi radios (one 2.4GHz and two 5GHz), MU-MIMO support, and a blazing-fast 716MHz quad-core processor—not really something you’d find in just any mesh Wi-Fi router.

Setting up the router works very similarly to how you would normally set up any other mesh Wi-Fi system. There’s an accompanying app that you download to your phone and use that to configure the router.

The app makes the process really easy from start to finish, including providing steps on how to plug the router in and connect all the various cables. It’s likely you already know how to do all this (especially if you purchased this kind of product), but nonetheless, it’s definitely helpful for those who might need a bit more assistance.

Once the router itself is set up, you can then use the app to set up any Linksys Velop units, which is what gives the MR8300 its mesh Wi-Fi powers. More on this later.

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Apple made a splash last year when it announced that its newest Watch would record an electrocardiogram (ECG), on top of a normal pulse. Withings, makers of analog smartwatches, is now following suit—for a fraction of the price.

Announced at CES 2019, the Move ECG expands on Withings’ hybrid watch design, with a conventional analog watch face covering a Bluetooth-connected activity tracker and remote notification gadget. The new design adds triple electrodes, one hidden beneath the watch’s body and two integrated into the side. When the user pinches the designated spots on the bezel, they can activate an ECG scan, which takes about thirty seconds. The results are synced to the Withings app on iOS or Android, giving a much deeper and more complete look at cardiovascular health than a simple pulse reading.

The Move ECG can do all of the other activity tracker stuff, too: step and sleep tracking, exercise detection, estimated calories burned, and discrete notifications, plus elevation and 50-meter water resistance. The new device will launch in the second quarter of 2019 for $130.

If you don’t need the ECG feature, the “Regular” Withings Move will cost just $70, with a wider selection of colors at launch in February, and a customization tool available online later this year. The online tool will even allow you to upload your own photos to use for the watch’s face. For those who like their customization a little more low-key, standard 18mm watch bands will work with both Move models.

Withings is also announcing its first connected “cardiovascular monitor”—a fancy blood pressure cuff. The BPM Core can record blood pressure and heart rate, and it has the same ECG monitor as the new watch, all automatically syncing data via Bluetooth. From the Withings app on Android or iOS, the data can be shared easily with any doctor. Withings says the cuff is just as precise as the cuffs you’ll find in a hospital and is currently going through the certification process at the FDA and CE (European Union). It’s landing in the second quarter for $250.

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At CES 2019 Acer took the wraps off a new Chromebook, and it’s one of the first to use an AMD processor. Like so many of the company’s other Chromebooks, it’s an entry-level model.

At first blush, there isn’t really anything remarkable about the Chromebook 315, but a quick peek under the hood reveals its AMD A-Series processor. While that chip on its own is nothing to write home about, its inclusion in a Chromebook is, since most Chromebooks use either Intel or ARM-based silicon.

Acer makes the second company to announce an AMD-powered Chromebook at CES (HP also announced one), proving that AMD is looking to start edging its way into the Chromebook market. While both of the current AMD ‘books are very much entry-level machines, more options are never going to be a bad thing.

As for the rest of the hardware under the Chromebook 315’s hood, the standard Chromebook innards are along for the ride here: 4GB or 8GB of RAM, 32GB or 64GB of storage, as well as the standard 802.11a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.2 wireless connections. The 315 does have a rather large 15.6-inch display, however, which is nice for anyone who would prefer a comparatively behemoth display for a Chromebook. It appears that the 315 is positioned to replace the existing 15.6-inch model in Acer’s Chromebook line.

The 15.6-inch panel will come with three different configuration options: a non-touch 1366×768 panel that can only be described as awful on a screen of this size, along with a pair of much more reasonable 1902×1080 FHD option—one with touch and one without (it’s worth noting that this isn’t a convertible Chromebook). Past that, all versions of the 315 pack a couple of USB-C ports for data and charging (one on each side), a full-size keyboard, and a pair of upward-firing speakers flanking said keyboard.

The Chromebook 315 will start at a lowball $280 price for the 1366×768 version, but pricing details for the FHD versions of the machine aren’t yet available.

If you find yourself in a situation where you need some extra light, the flash on your iPhone’s camera works great as a flashlight. There are more features to this than you might expect, so here’s how to use it.

If you need to access the flashlight in a pinch, you can do it right from the lock screen on iPhone X models. In the lower left corner, there’s a small icon that, unsurprisingly, looks like a flashlight.

Just tapping the icon won’t do anything—you need to hard-press it on the X/XS/XS Max or press it for about half a second on the XR (it turns on when you let go). This keeps the flashlight from accidentally turning on in your pocket or if you accidentally hit the icon while trying to do something else.

Left: Off; Right; On

Just repeat the same action to turn it off.

If you want more granular control of the flashlight, you’ll want to fire it up from the Control Center. The process is the same regardless of whether you’re using an iPhone X model or an older handset with a home button.

First, bring up the Control Center—swipe up from the bottom of the screen on iPhones with a home button or down from the clock on X models.

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TP-Link has made a huge splash with its Kasa smarthome devices over the last couple of years, but the lineup has been fairly limited until now. The company has announced a handful of new things, including a video doorbell.

The Kasa Smart Video Doorbell, as it’s called, can record video in 2K HDR and has night vision capabilities. It also comes with hardware-supported face detection, which allows the camera to differentiate between people and other objects, as well as recognize who exactly is at the door, whether it’s the mailman, your neighbor, or just a stranger. This will be available at some point during the first half of 2019. Pricing info isn’t yet known.

TP-Link also announced the Kasa Smart Wire-Free Outdoor Security Camera System, which comes with a fully wireless camera powered by a battery and connects to an included hub. The camera can record full 1080p HD video and has night vision capabilities along with two-way audio communication. The system will come in either one, two, or three-camera packages. No price is determined yet but it will be available within the first half of 2019.

On top of the Wire-Free Outdoor Camera System, TP-Link also unveiled the Kasa Smart Spot Indoor Security Camera, which will be available alongside the current regular Kasa Cam as a budget option. The Spot records in 1080p and can do night vision and two-way audio. You’ll also be able to stream the video feed to Alexa and Google Assistant displays, like the Echo Show and Google Home Hub. This will be available in the spring for $50.

Aside from new camera devices, there’s also a new Smart Wi-Fi Light Switch with Voice Assistant. It combines what you currently enjoy with Kasa’s smart light switch, but comes with a built-in smart speaker complete with a microphone and a speaker. So you can use it as a full-on smart speaker and stream music from it, or use it as an intercom with your Kasa video doorbell. It’s compatible with either Alexa, Google Assistant, or Cortana. The switch will arrive in the first half of this year, though no price information is available yet.

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An outlier is a value that is significantly higher or lower than most of the values in your data. When using Excel to analyze data, outliers can skew the results. For example, the mean average of a data set might truly reflect your values. Excel provides a few useful functions to help manage your outliers, so let’s take a look.

In the image below, the outliers are reasonably easy to spot—the value of two assigned to Eric and the value of 173 assigned to Ryan. In a data set like this, it’s easy enough to spot and deal with those outliers manually.

In a larger set of data, that will not be the case. Being able to identify the outliers and remove them from statistical calculations is important—and that’s what we’ll be looking at how to do in this article.

To find the outliers in a data set, we use the following steps:

1. Calculate the 1st and 3rd quartiles (we’ll be talking about what those are in just a bit).
2. Evaluate the interquartile range (we’ll also be explaining these a bit further down).
3. Return the upper and lower bounds of our data range.
4. Use these bounds to identify the outlying data points.

The cell range on the right of the data set seen in the image below will be used to store these values.

Let’s get started.

If you divide your data into quarters, each of those sets is called a quartile. The lowest 25% of numbers in the range make up the 1st quartile, the next 25% the 2nd quartile, and so on. We take this step first because the most widely-used definition of an outlier is a data point that is more than 1.5 interquartile ranges (IQRs) below the 1st quartile, and 1.5 interquartile ranges above the 3rd quartile. To determine those values, we first have to figure out what the quartiles are.

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Battery packs are great for keeping your phone charged on the go, but what do you do when your battery pack runs out of juice? Well, if it was solar powered, then you could just set it in the sun.

Solar battery packs are relatively cheap, and they can keep your phone charged when you’re away from an outlet. They’re great for camping trips, hikes, canoeing, or power-related emergencies. You could even leave one in the back seat of your car, in case you find yourself in the middle of nowhere with an empty tank and a dead cellphone. You can also use them to charge laptops, GoPros, pico projectors, smart watches, and any other device that you’re trying to bring outside.

These power packs can charge your phone between 4 and 8 times when they’re at a full charge. Just keep in mind that most solar battery packs need about a week in the sun to gain a full charge (you can plug them into an outlet if you need to charge them more quickly). But you could realistically use of these to power your phone forever, so long as you don’t spend your entire camping trip draining your phone’s battery on Facetime.

If you’re looking for a durable, large capacity solar battery pack for intense outdoor activities, then you should take a look at the Kiizon power pack. Unlike most battery packs, the Kiizon is waterproof, so you don’t have to worry about leaving it in the rain or taking it on a boat. And since it has a capacity of 25,000mAh, you should be able to fully charge your phone more than 7 times with it, especially if you’re conservative.

The Kiizon has two USB-A outputs and one Micro USB input, so you can use it to charge two devices at a time. Since it’s Quick Charge compatible, you don’t have to spend your whole hiking trip waiting for your phones or cameras to charge. The Kiizon also has a set of LED pilot lights, and it comes with a carabiner, so it can be your little waterproof companion all day and night.

The Ayyie is a super affordable solar battery pack that’s designed for camping, hiking, and other outdoor activities. It has a built-in compass and a set of LED pilot lights, so you can find your way around in the deep dark wilderness. This power pack also comes with a carabiner, so you can safely charge it while hiking or biking. Sadly, this power pack isn’t water-proof, but you have to cut your losses for a battery that’s this cheap. Besides, you could always stick it in a Zip-Lock bag or something.

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To take good portraits, you need to use the right camera settings. Let’s have a look at what combination of lens, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO give you the awesome portrait look with a sharp, in-focus subject and a creamy, blurry background like the photo below.

While you can take portraits with any lens, to get the classic portrait, you need a lens with a wide aperture. Something with a maximum aperture between f/1.8 and f/2.8 is perfect although f/5.6 can work, especially with longer lenses.

Ideally, you’ll also use a normal lens or short telephoto, in other words, a lens with a focal length of between 50mm and 90mm on a full frame camera or about 35mm to 60mm on a crop sensor camera.

The good news is that there are great, cheap 50mm f/1.8 lenses available for pretty much every major camera brand. They’re one of the lenses we recommend you buy first for your camera (check out our guides for Canon and Nikon).

Aperture is the key to the portrait look. A wide aperture creates a shallow depth of field that keeps your subject in sharp focus while blurring the background, so it isn’t a distraction. What apertures create this effect depends somewhat on the focal length of your lens. In general, if you’re not using an extremely long telephoto, you need to use an aperture of f/5.6 or narrower. In reality, you’ll probably want to use f/2.8 or f/1.8 to maximize the amount of background blur.

The photo below was shot at f/5.6 using a 50mm lens on a crop sensor body. While the background is starting to blur, it’s not quite indistinct.

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With Windows 10, Microsoft wanted to get every Windows user on the same platform. Now, the opposite is happening. Just 6.6% of Windows 10 PCs have the October 2018 Update over three months after its release.

These numbers come courtesy of AdDuplex, which tracks Windows update market share, as spotted by Bleeping Computer. In December 2018:

• 6.6% of Windows 10 PCs were running the October 2018 Update
• 83.6% were running the April 2018 Update
• 5.7% were running the Fall Creators Update
• 1.8% were running the Creators Update
• 1.4% were running the Anniversary Update
• 0.5% were running the November Update
• 0.3% were running the original Windows 10

In theory, the October 2018 Update is “widely available.” In practice, Microsoft isn’t confident enough to roll it out to the vast majority of Windows 10 PCs. There are still several “upgrade blocks” in place for various issues, including problems with specific Intel display drivers and older AMD Radeon GPUs.

Aside from the slow upgrade to the October 2018 Update, a whopping 9.7% of Windows 10 users are still using older versions than the April 2018 Update. At least this isn’t as bad as Android’s fragmentation problem.

Windows 10 is on a six-month release cycle. That means the next release, codenamed 19H1, is happening in about three months. But Microsoft has only upgraded a small percentage of PCs to the current software.

So what will happen? Is Microsoft going to quickly rush out this update to more PCs over the next few months? Will Microsoft skip the October 2018 Update and upgrade everyone straight to 19H1? If so, how do we know people won’t encounter the same problems?

Perhaps Microsoft should admit the Windows development process isn’t working and rushing out a big update every six months is a bad idea. No one else does that—not Google with Android and not Apple with iOS or macOS, all of which receive one major update per year.

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Following NVIDIA’s announcement of RTX-powered laptops at CES, Acer showed off its first design, and it’s a doozie: the Predator Triton 900 features a 17-inch 4K touchscreen that folds down on a boom hinge, technically making it a massive “convertible.”

This no-holds-barred gaming laptop comes with the top-of-the-line RTX 2080 GPU, paired with Intel’s latest Core i7 8th-gen processor, up to 32GB of RAM, a pair of solid-state drives in RAID 0 configuration, and a built-in Xbox wireless controller module. The enormous body is nearly an inch thick, with a backlit keyboard on the very front of the bottom half (the better to show off the display) and trackpad to the right for more ergonomic use in gaming if you have no mouse handy.

A touch in the corner of the touchpad activates a 10-key mode, for those who prefer their keyboards full-sized. The onboard speakers are supplied by Waves Audio, and a clear window above the keyboard lets the user peek at the integrated liquid cooling system.

But the star of the show is the screen. In addition to its 4K resolution it’s rated for NVIDIA’s G-SYNC smoothing technology, it can fold back on itself. So if you have the room, you can connect a full keyboard and mouse directly in front of the laptop. It’s not the traditional “convertible” form factor, but it covers the same laptop-tablet-presentation viewing options. Neat.

The Predator Triton 900 will go on sale in the US, Europe, and China starting in March. It won’t come cheap: the MSRP starts at $4000 USD for the base configuration. Expect that price to climb even higher quickly if you want the most powerful components.

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NVIDIA made a splash as the first major press conference of CES 2019. In addition to a new and mercifully cheap addition to its top-of-the-line RTX graphics card family, the company announced RTX-series chips for gaming laptops. Both will be here before the end of the month.

The RTX 2060 card is based on the same Turing GPU as the RTX 2070 and 2080 cards that debuted last year, but with a much more attainable price. At $350 for NVIDIA’s self-branded card (a bit higher or lower for tweaked designs from partner manufacturers like Gigabyte and EVGA), it’s less than half the price of the most expensive option, and this model will be making its way to the interior of many a gamer’s desktop PC. It should also be a popular option for pre-built models. Even more frugal cards, undoubtedly including 2050 and 2050ti variants, should come later this year.

NVIDIA says the RTX 2060 is more powerful than the GTX 1070ti (first released in November 2017) for most modern games. It comes with 6GB of GDDR6 RAM and can handle five gigarays of computation per second. It will be available starting on January 15th.

In addition to the desktop side, NVIDIA also pulled the wraps off of the first laptops to feature RTX-branded chips. Laptops from major manufacturers with RTX 2060, 2070, and 2080 GPUs will begin hitting the market on January 29th. These include both standard models and those with NVIDIA’s Max-Q technology, allowing for thinner and more power-efficient designs with some extra special sauce in the thermal management. 40 RTX-packing laptops are in the works, among them 18 Max-Q laptops, including an update to the popular MSI G65 Stealth Thin, which Review Geek recommended highly. Expect RTX cards to be limited to the most expensive laptops, at least for the first few months.

The biggest draw for the RTX line of desktop and mobile cards is ray tracing capability, an option for super-realistic lighting and reflections. Early RTX buyers were discouraged at the performance hit in brand new games when RTX lighting was enabled, often driving games down below the magical 60 frames-per-second mark even on massive powerhouse desktops. NVIDIA’s been working on the problem and says that improved drivers featuring DLSS (Deep Learning Super-Sampling) on more compatible games will boost that performance.

According to the presentation, DLSS should close the performance gap to within one or two frames per second of the game running with RTX disabled. DLSS combines upscaled sampling with NVIDIA’s proprietary AI technology to smooth out the rough patches of the GPU-intensive ray tracing process. We should see more games support it at launch as RTX ray tracing becomes standard on new high-end PC games.