The ever popular photo editing app Paint.net has finally made its way to the Microsoft Store for Windows 10. The app will sell for $8.99 but right now has a special launch price of $5.99 along with a free 30-day trial for first time users.
The updated version of Paint.net is build 4.0.18 for those keeping score at home and with it now in the Microsoft Store, you have automatic updating and overall stability improvements in Windows 10.
For the first time since 2015, I am writing a post here at ClintonFitch.com on a Windows PC. It is not that I necessarily planned to move away from my MacBook and MacOS, far from it actually. Nor does it mean that I’ve given up on Chrome OS. My trusty Acer Chromebook 14 is sitting next to me as I write. But the reality of my day-to-day job kept pushing me ever closer to this eventuality. We are a pure Microsoft shop so while I could somewhat get away with it on MacOS, it was becoming increasingly difficult to leverage Chrome OS.
Add to this my general unhappiness with MacOS Sierra. It was okay but it never really performed well on my 2016 MacBook Pro. I had stability issues with it (even after a complete wipe of the system) and, going back to my point about my day-to-day job, Office apps were never really all that great. Sure, Office 2016 is way, way better than 2011 for Mac but there was still a feature gap between it and the Windows version. This was especially true of Outlook.
So I made the jump. Having updated my wife’s Lenovo ThinkCentre to version 1703 several weeks ago and playing with it, I was impressed with how far Windows 10 had come along. It was smooth, it was stable and it was usable. My last experience with Windows was 8.1 and it was, in a word, disastrous. It was everything that you didn’t want in an OS. I assumed Windows 10 was more-or-less the same beast. I was wrong, oh so very wrong.
For those of you who have a Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, there is a new software update rolling out to you this morning. The 256.6MB update is mostly a maintenance release, fixing some items but also bringing support for HDR on Netflix.
Before you get all excited, no, this is not the Oreo update for the device. Samsung is expected at some point to release that update but this is not it.
The update is version T820XXU1AQ12/T820XAR1AQ12 for those keeping score at home.
Whether it was intentional or not, Google has all-but confirmed that Google Assistant will be coming to Chrome OS in the near future. In the latest update for Google Home for Android, the Chat with Google Assistant section of the app (in the Explore portion of the app) clearly indicates Chromebooks as an option for Assistant. You can see a screenshot of it after the break.
Seeing this is not entirely unexpected. Google has been rumored to be bringing their AI driving Assistant to Chrome OS and with the Pixel event later this week, where the Pixel Book is expected to be announced as a premium Chromebook offering. Other teardowns of Chrome OS and the Google Home app have also pointed to code that suggests Google Assistant is going to coming to Chrome OS. In other words, there is a 99% chance this is accurate.
Last week, I told you about the changes that are coming to Google Finance. The financial site is getting a makeover of sorts and part of that is the retirement of portfolio management. However, we could be getting a glimpse of how the new look is going to play out thanks to Google Search.
For a long time, you have been able to search for any stock within Google search and get pricing and other news related to that stock. Previously, that was one long page within search once you found the stock of interest. Quietly, over the weekend, it appears that Google changed this to be a tabular style look.
One of the more anticipated final phone releases of 2017 happens on October 16th. That is when we will see the Huawei Mate 10 and P11 be released. There are a lot of rumors floating about on both devices, especially the Mate 10, but it looks like two of these rumors are firming up.
First, Huawei is going to be putting a lot of emphasis on AI in their Android build for the Mate 10, EMUI 6, with a teaser video on Twitter suggesting that the phone will “see”, “think” and “learn” as it is used.
Delivering the ultimate experience, going beyond smart, using the transformative power of #AI. Welcome to intelligent. #HuaweiMate10 pic.twitter.com/u9yD1mhdYy
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) September 29, 2017
Huawei has been working on their AI for a while now and it is improving. In the Mate 10 however, it could be their biggest leap yet.
We know that the Huawei Mate 10 is coming in a few weeks but images of the Mate 10 Pro, the top end version of the phone, have been scarce. It seems that Evan Blass has the answer once again. He took to Twitter in the wee hours of Sunday to post images of the upcoming Pro version of the phone.
Huawei Mate 10 Pro pic.twitter.com/3RgjObXmw6
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) October 1, 2017
While the phone is being referred to as the Mate 10 Pro, that’s more or less a distinction from the expected Mate 10 Lite that is to also be announced later this month. Whether Huawei actually calls it the Pro is to be seen.
For the Android faithful who get frustrated by the use of older versions of the platform, take heart. The problem is also shared by Microsoft Windows.
StatCounter has released their monthly report on Windows version usage globally and while Windows 10 has made gains, it still trails the now 8 year old Windows 7. Windows 7 commanded 43.99% of all Windows-based internet traffic in September while Windows 10 jumped up to 39.3%. That is up from 37.87% in August 2017.