Windows

EC DREAM has a Celeron N3350 powered compute stick which is available at US$100 for the next five days. While not as powerful as 2016's Core M powered Intel Compute Stick, it comes in at a significantly cheaper price point and could act as a basic media center PC.

Microsoft has now released the Microsoft Modern Keyboard with Fingerprint ID in the regional Microsoft stores for the US, Canada, and China. The retail price is US$130, and compared to the Microsoft Surface Keyboard it also features a fingerprint sensor and optional wired operation.

The well-known version 1703 that delivered Paint 3D and many other new features arrived back in April, and now the Redmond giant encourages commercial organizations "to begin broadly deploying" this update.

A progressive series of 'leaks' over the last few days have given us an idea of what to expect from the Coffee Lake i7-8700K. It will be a 6-core CPU operating on the same LGA 1151 socket as Skylake and Kaby Lake, have 12MB of cache, and a potential turbo clock up to 4.7 GHz.

Although it was rumored that Windows 10 users would no longer have access to the good old Paint app, since a whole new, 3D version, was introduced by the Creators Update, Microsoft has just confirmed that MS Paint will be available in the Windows Store.

The latest firmware update for the Surface Pro 4 has enabled the Power-Mode slider, which was previously only available on the new Surface Pro 2017 and the Surface Book. The slider provides users with a quick and effortless way to adjust power settings on the fly.

Specifications have leaked for three upcoming Coffee Lake desktop chips, which operate at 95-watt TDPs for the overclockable CPUs and 65 watts for the non-overclockable.

A Mozilla developer has tested multiple versions of the browser and found that the current beta version improves startup times by over 90% and reduces memory usage by 75% when compared to the latest stable version. While these results are specific to the extreme test profile and operating system used, they show that we can expect a positive performance improvement from the next release of Firefox.

The upcoming feature update to Windows 10, the Fall Creators Update, will see many legacy features in Windows getting removed or deprecated: the most noticeable among them being the classic Paint program, System Image Backup and screensaver functionality, amongst others.

This Slack bot gives users the ability to silently interact with Alexa using the same commands they would speak out loud. It allows users to communicate when the room is noisy, or when voice communication isn't appropriate. Not all commands are available, but it is a neat alternative to using the smartphone app.

Microsoft has officially ended availability of Windows 10 feature updates post the Anniversary Update for tablets and laptop hybrids featuring Intel's 'Clover Trail' Atom chips owing to end of interactive support for these processors from Intel.

Weak numbers from both Asus and the desktop sector drag down an otherwise healthy PC market.

Many are eagerly awaiting Asus's new ZenBook Pro UX550 as a powerful but portable multimedia workhorse, but initial reports suggest the same kind of issues that have caused users to look to the UX550 may cause them to again have to look elsewhere for their dream machine.

Microsoft uses their line of Surface devices to help set an example for OEMs; however, their quality control appears to have slipped a bit as over 200 users have claimed on the Microsoft forums that their devices are showing excessive backlight bleed.

A Microsoft exec has clarified that Windows 10 on ARM will not be coming to any existing Windows phones, as the OS is designed for a "desktop experience" rather than a phone one.

There's no stopping the Android juggernaut as the latest IDC numbers for Q1 2017 put it in a comfortable lead of 85% while the lack of new hardware or developer support has pushed Windows Phone into virtual extinction.

The first laptop to use Intel's upcoming Coffee Lake platform has appeared on a French e-commerce site. The Acer Swift 3 appears to use a 15W i5-8250U CPU billed as "Quad-Core". If the i7's will be hyper-threaded as Intel's HQ-series are, this will be a major step forward for ultraportable computing power.

The app rolls out already and should reach all markets by the end of the month. It provides a fully integrated LinkedIn experience, with real-time notifications, trending industry news, and more.

Global shipments of desktop and notebook PCs have shrunk from 62.607 million units in Q2 2016 to 60.543 million as of Q2 2017.

Last year's Alcatel Idol 4S is being launched in Europe under a new name, the Idol 4 Pro. The devices are identical in specs and features, but the new European device does not come with a VR headset.

The successor of the Surface Pro 4 is now facing a new bug, this time involving random entries in hibernation mode. Fortunately, it seems that Microsoft has already identified the issue and a fix should arrive soon.

Since the Eve V is a crowdfunded project, it is not surprising to see it facing multiple delays. However, this time the manufacturer allows its backers to choose an improved display without paying anything extra.

The Core i3-7007U, the i3-7110U, the i5-7210U, and the i7-7510U have a low TDP of 15W and only include 2 cores and 4 threads.

The decryption key for the Petya ransomware seems to be ineffective for use in systems infected by NotPetya, leaving those infected by the nefarious program still in the lurch.

The "world's thinnest and lightest Windows-based 2-in-1" will have optional WiTricity wireless charging mat and detachable keyboard accessories.

Microsoft is testing a new feature in the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update that enables users to directly recover their Microsoft Account from the login screen itself, thereby saving the hassle of hunting for another device for account recovery.

Insiders running the latest Windows Insider Preview builds can now get a taste of a native Ubuntu experience directly from the Windows Store and play around with popular Linux developer tools without the hassle of managing multi-boot setups.

Although the initial launch period announced by Google has passed, it looks like the Allo app for the desktop environment is still in the cards and should arrive in just a "few more weeks," reveals Google's Amit Fulay.

More than three years since its arrival, Windows Phone 8.1 no longer receives mainstream support, so Microsoft can no longer promise any security updates or patches for it starting today.