Computing

Google Assistant is almost in every notable Google product, from the Google Home, Android phones, Android Wear smartwatches, and at least one Android TV. Well, almost. The one remaining holdout is, unsurprisingly, Chrome OS, Google's desktop-like platform. Worry not, Chrome OS fans, you too will soon get your well-deserved AI assistant. And, no, it won't be coming via a still in beta Google Play integration but a feature in its own right, displacing the less used and even unknown "OK Google" hotword.

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People love cheap, usable notebooks. Rewind a decade or so and 'netbooks' were just becoming a hot item. Things like the Sony Vaio P existed. Consumers gobbled them up, and though the market as a whole eventually moved on from the ultra-tiny laptop trend, the fact remains that a portable, inexpensive laptop is almost always a desirable option to have. Thus enters Lenovo's new budget-friendly 2-in-1 Miix 320 convertible laptop.

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The AI invasion isn’t coming. It’s already hear. Forget Skynet, we already have Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant, and, now, Bixby. But AI is found in more than those. It’s also present in Google Search, Office Lens, email, photos, and, soon, your head. No, we’re not talking about plugging your head to a computer, but something close. Microsoft researchers have just revealed how the next version of the HoloLens will include a custom-made, special-purpose chip whose processing power will be dedicated solely to, what else, AI.

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The Fall Creators Update for Windows 10 will be released in the coming weeks, and Microsoft promises it will include new features not only for creatives, but improvements to accessibility, security, and UI as well. Unfortunately, there are several existing features of the operating system that will be getting removed or deprecated with the update. Most of them are aging and no longer being developed, or they're being folded into other tools and applications.

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While the Raspberry Pi is undoubtedly the darling of makers and tinkerers, it has always been envisioned for use in education. But in order to keep the single board computer (SBC) affordable and accessible, the Raspberry Pi had to remain what it is today: a bare bones board that, by itself, isn’t exactly useful. You need at least an external display, keyboard, and mouse, not to mention a compatible OS installed on a memory card. This simplicity it both a boon and a bane, the latter because of the nearly infinite amount of choices users, particularly educators, have to make. Fortunately, there are those like pi-top that build greatness on top of greatness. We take its flagship product, the pi-top, to build ourselves a laptop powered by the Raspberry Pi, with a bent towards educating and empowering the next generation.

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If you were one of the early, and probably disappointed, adopters of the first breed of Windows 8.1 hybrids and convertibles, Microsoft has a good news, bad news thing for you. The good news is that your device is going to be supported for another six years. The bad news is that it only applies to security fixes. As far as “Windows as a Service” is concerned, last year’s Anniversary Update is the end of the line for these devices.

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Is the dream of the modular phone dead? Not if you ask Lenovo and Motorola, though their concept of a modular phone is not exactly what you might have in mind. Closer to that dream that went down with Google’s Project Ara is something that Facebook has in mind. Yes, Facebook has an idea for a modular phone. Or rather, it has patented what is technically a generic “modular electromechanical device” that, in at least one permutation, could also function as a phone.

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Microsoft's newest way of working with Windows - Windows 10 specifically - limits the hardware a person can use if they want updates. This might not seem crazy to the average PC user - it might even make a lot of sense in a very basic way. You want new software, you need new hardware, right? Not quite so fast there, buckaroo.

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Everyone’s doing AI these days, from Google to Apple, from smart speakers to smart cars. While different people and companies have different ideas about what artificial intelligence means in theory and in practice, almost all agree about using AI to build a better future. Lenovo, one of if not the leading PC makers in the world, is just as invested in this trend, or so it says. At its Tech World Innovation in Shanghai, it demonstrated just how serious it is with five AI powered products that you may or may not see in the near future.

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Just last month, Intel bid farewell to its ambitions to corner the still nascent Internet of Things (IoT) market. Now it seems that even wearables are a no go as well. Although Intel has yet to actually formally announce or even confirm that it has pt an end to both IoT and Wearable plans, the writing has been on the wall. Not only has Intel kept mum on wearables for quite some time now, an insider source says that Intel has already closed the group in charge of pushing its wearable technologies forward.

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Another “Android desktop” dream bites the dust and this time with some repercussions rippling throughout the Android community. Although far from being the only such venture, Jide and its Remix OS and devices have been the more stable and more promising one. And so it was somewhat shocking to suddenly hear Jide switching gears, focusing solely on the enterprise and leaving its consumer products to bite the dust. But while Remix OS will live on away from the public’s reach, the dream hasn’t exactly died and there are others poised to take its place.

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Some things are too good to be true or, at the very least, too good to last. Microsoft has committed to continually update Windows 10 and offer those updates for free as part of its “Windows as a Service” paradigm but everyone knows by now it’s a less than perfect strategy. Now reality is hitting some Windows PC owners even harder as they discover their 2 to 3 year old digital partners, many of them 2-in-1 tablets, locked out of the latest Windows 10 Creators Update. All because they have been deemed incompatible, despite having just received the Anniversary Update last year.

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