How Full Windows 10 running on ARM CPU will affect computing future

Posted on December 16, 2016February 9, 2017 by Eric Tay

So it finally happened! I have been predicting x86 emulation on ARM CPU ever since Intel stopped product development for Atom for mobile SoC.

@WinHEC 2016, Microsoft showed Windows 10 running on ARM

A few major things happened over the year to make this happen.

Windows 10 Mobile Continuum
Intel ending development of Atom SoC
Qualcomm adding virtualisation support for SnapDragon SoC
Various bridges for developers to easily port their apps to Windows 10
Windows 10 Common Core (or why there’s no 64bit mobile Windows 10)
Some special sauce from the brains @Xamarin
Microsoft letting go of the last vestiges of Nokia

Let’s look at this point by point.

First point. Windows 10 Mobile Continuum feature has always been this dream of making your smartphone act more like a PC when connected to a large display + keyboard/mouse. However, people quickly notice far too many icons don’t work because the developer hasn’t written their app in Universal Windows Platform (UWP) format or their mobile app isn’t optimised for a larger display yet.

Rather than waiting for mobile developers to get around to adding UWP support, why not ask PC developers to scale their apps down? And at the same time, support legacy Windows program through the Desktop to UWP bridge so it’s possible for Windows 10 to run these UWP on ARM64 SoC.

Second point. (This is my speculation.) Intel has made a terrible mistake in ending Atom SoC development. They pushed Microsoft to seek an alternate SoC and they are the probably the reason Qualcomm added virtualisation support. I don’t remember Google/Android asking for x86 capability.

Third Point. Despite how fast Snapdragon (SD) SoCs are, the Atom X7 can keep up with it easily & in fact outperform it, albeit using slightly more power. The reason is every core of Atom can process SIMD (DSP) SSE instructions which gives it an advantage in terms of mathematical calculations. The letdown of Atom is in the GPU. Unlike Qualcomm, Intel obviously doesn’t want to put a flagship class GPU to compete with their Core CPU.

Recently, Qualcomm announced DSP & Virtualisation support for their next-gen SD835 SoC with an even faster GPU. This allows Microsoft to enable many of the desktop class features that required DSP to accelerate their functions. Many of Windows 10 Mobile functions like its User Shell & Cellular functions will be integrated into full Desktop Windows 10 as shown in the video. Finally, full Windows 10 can compete with IOS & Android for Tablets.

Fourth point. Microsoft is a software company at its core. Their oldest and strongest products are their OS and Visual Studio development environment. It comes as no surprise they can create conversion tools to directly take other platform codes and make it work on theirs. It’s also no surprise when you consider the fact that Windows NT (which Windows 10 is based on) was created to run on multiple CPU architectures.

Fifth point. For the longest time, Windows Phone fans had been wondering why Microsoft refused to create a 64-bit version of Windows 10 Mobile. I have always argued that mobile platforms don’t need 64-bit at all because no single mobile app will ever use 4GB of memory. Now we know the reason is because Microsoft has been concentrating in making full Windows 10 even more mobile.

We already know that Windows 10 shares the same kernel & some of the hardware stacks between PC, Xbox, Mobile, Hololens and IoT. However, what most people don’t realise is Microsoft has been breaking their Service Stacks into smaller and smaller pieces with every new revision of Windows 10.

Just look at your Services manager in Computer Management, there’re more and more Services running in the background. However, RAM usage hardly increase. The reason is to allow more services to be compartmentalised so Microsoft developers can pick the services relevant to that particular platform and reuse as much code as possible. This isn’t possible if the services are large and monolithic in nature.

My prediction is, instead of emulation, Windows 10 will run natively in ARM64 mode. Not surprising since Surface RT IS running an ARM version of Windows 8. This means all (desktop) Windows 10 services AND first-party apps will run at full speed since they’re compiled for ARM64.

All UWP apps can run in either native ARM or virtualised x86 mode depending on the developer. Also not surprising because when you run a 32-bit program in 64-bit Windows, Windows will launch the program in Windows on Windows 64-bit mode (WoW64). So now, instead of apps running in an x64 sandbox, it’s a Windows app running in an ARM64 sandbox.

Sixth point. I bet the brilliant minds at Xamarin had been cross-pollinating with the minds at Visual Studio to create the most powerful x86/x64/ARM cross-compiling toolkit possible! I’m guessing these are the people convincing Qualcomm to add virtualisation support for the latest SD. The power of software!!!

Seventh point. I’m guessing former Microsoft staff of formerly Nokia mobile division still have a static mindset about the future of mobile and smartphones. It’s probably good they’re let go to work on other worthwhile projects like the new Nokia-branded smartphones ODM by the China firm that bought over from Microsoft, or SailFish for the Russian bloc.

However, we also know that certain key ex-Nokian went to work at Microsoft Research. I wouldn’t be surprised if these are expert in camera and cellular tech.

The future. This part is my speculation about Microsoft’s strategy moving forward.

If Intel had continue to invest in Atom SoC, we’ll probably have the mythical “Surface Phone” by now that can run UWP & Legacy programs through Continuum.

Qualcomm seem to have fill that gap but I’m still skeptical over the emulation performance. However, if the Adobe Photoshop presented by Terry Myerson in the video is running in emulation mode and the video wasn’t edited, then I’m cautiously optimistic. The “Surface Phone” can now get back on track but don’t expect it to ship until end of 2017.

This is also the first time desktop Windows 10 gain cellular radio stack and mobile-context specific features related to voice calls and sms. The Skype Preview app is already hinting at the direction Windows 10 is taking so it’s more proof of mobile features added to Windows 10, rather than more desktop features added to Windows 10 mobile. Microsoft is moving in the opposite direction as IOS & Android.

With a Cellular stack built into Windows 10, Windows will finally become a full fledge mobile OS. With ARM’s more simple RISC architecture, power management should be easier to manage and Windows 10 should have much better standby time. Intel Atom (Enhanced SpeedStep) has great running time but the standby time still lacks far behind Qualcomm’s Snapdragon high/low-power cores. It’ll be interesting to note how Windows 10 handles the ‘big.LITTLE’ Kryo 28x Cores.

Windows 10 Continuum will also have a combined dual-shell or a morphable shell (called CShell) that switches interface depending on the screen (not device) context. Maybe now we’ll finally have a Landscape mobile Start Screen, and of course, multi-screen is naturally supported. It better support dock-able Windows for larger 5-7″ screens too!

Ultimately, the “Surface Mobile” can be your only computing devices. So what kind of a device is this Surface Mobile? Well I think it’ll be running a SD835 clocked at 1.9Ghz on battery, and 2.45Ghz when plugged into the Microsoft Display Dock. It should have 4GB of RAM and has a 5.5″ – 6″ display to allow adequate space for heat spreading. A 1440P display is good enough, a 4K display will be a waste of battery and GPU cycles. Now, Windows 10 requires a lot of space, so 64GB of eMMC 5.1 Storage is required.

Where does that leave Intel or even AMD? Well, Intel has abandoned Atom because they have probably figured out how to make a Core series based SoC hit the 2W TDP but their 10nm fab is having yield issues, which is why CannonLake is postponed. AMD has also announced new APU that can step through the clock at 25Mhz increments thus providing more aggressive power management but being fab on a 28nm process, I reckon power consumption will be higher than KabyLake.

What this means is, Intel is trying to make their Core m CPU fit into a mobile environment so the CPU wouldn’t fry your smartphone. And AMD new Ryzen CPU isn’t ready for mobile.

Qualcomm just released information on their latest Snapdragon 835 SoC.

Based on the information released, SD835 supports new 3D audio processing and enhanced camera image processor. It looks like a future Microsoft Hololens 2 could be powered by the SD835! The Surface 4 could also be based on a SD835!

In the meantime, you can check up my past predictions which has come true below.

How Windows Phone 8 & Windows 8 can share software

OEMs can’t do it, so Microsoft DID IT!

Samsung losing patent case is Good for consumers!

Update 03 Feb 2017: Updated with the product codenames for future Windows features I have corrected predicted, like CSHELL and clearer explanation of CPU terminology.

Opinions, Reviews, Solutions

Why updating to Windows 10 is a Great idea!

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Eric Tay

* Time for Businesses to migrate to Windows 10 before Microsoft starts charging *

The Best Windows yet

Most IT savvy people I know have already upgraded their personal PC(s) from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 and I haven’t heard anyone complain or ask me any questions regarding normal day-to-day operation. Their Desktop programs just work. Most old devices worked fine, even without installing new drivers. New apps and Live Tiles allow ex-Windows 7 users to experience some of the mobile actions on Smartphones.

This is because Windows 10 is familiar to users of both Windows 7 and 8 since it is the best mesh-up of Windows 7 & 8 in the best possible way, thanks to the millions of Windows Insiders who provided feedback & telemetry data to Microsoft before Windows 10 is launched.

The only complain about Windows 10 was from a user who was used to using Control-U-U to shutdown Windows 8. This keyboard shortcut was removed in Windows 10.

Granted, during the first 3 months, there were some stability issues and some new hardware like Surface Pro 3 back then had Sleep & WiFi connection problems. However, after 4-5 cumulative updates within 3 months and the release of version 1511 (Build 10586.x), most of the stability issues have been ironed out. Not to mention, device makers who tweaked their drivers to work better with Windows 10 improving overall stability so much so that stability is on par with Windows 7 now. But, not quite Windows 7 SP1. Resuming from sleep still has some issues and is not as fast as Windows 8.1.

This seem to be caused by Microsoft moving more services to User-mode to emphasize on security by isolating Services from the kernel and IO Stack. This is crucial as a big chunk of Windows 10 installations are on mobile devices including Windows 10 mobile Smartphones.

Regardless, Windows 10 is now installed in more than 270 million devices and a new update called the “Anniversary Update” is due in Q3 2016. The link above details some of the really fantastic and useful features coming to Windows 10 which enhances the Ink (stylus) & Speech input experience. The Speech input is going to be powered by a Microsoft AI affectionately called “Cortana,” and includes many of the abilities of a personal assistant to manage your schedule and perform certain real-world tasks like book a restaurant or hotel. Cortana can even help clean up your hard disk. This update is only for FREE for Windows 10 devices.

If you’re still using Windows 7 or 8, you are not eligible. In fact, after 28 July 2015, upgrading an old Windows 7/8 PC to Windows 10 will no longer be free! So do it real soon!

Enhancements everywhere

Putting aside the obvious return of the familiar Windows 7 Desktop & Start Button, Windows 10 improves on key areas like memory usage, network speed, CPU load, disk usage and overall security of the system.

In terms of junk building up and slowing things down, most of the maintenance tasks like backup (1 time setup of File History), disk cleanup, defrag and Windows Updates are all automatic. You just need to leave the PC on overnight once a week.

Windows 10 also includes a decent Anti-malware, Anti-virus system and a powerful Firewall built-in, which are all turned on by default and automatically updated & configured. If your PC supports Secure-Boot, it’s almost impossible to hack into the hard disk to change data or for rootkits to infect the Boot Sectors of the hard disk.

In most eMMC & SSD equipped laptops and tablets, encryption is switched on by default with no penalty on disk performance, thus ensuring sensitive data is protected in the event of theft.

If you use a Microsoft Account instead of a Local Account, you add an additional layer of security + a ton of convenience features to Windows 10! Most of the pins, passwords & other authentication data in Windows 10 are automatically synced to OneDrive, including your Desktop, Files and customisation.

This ensures that there’s always a way for you to recover lost passwords due to all the encryption happening in your PC. With the Microsoft Account, it’s possible to Single-sign-on many apps and services offered by Microsoft and partners without having to re-key in all the passwords.

This also means that if you have multiple PCs/Xbox/Smartphones/Hololens, most of the settings (including files) are sync across devices! If your laptop breaks, you can set up a new laptop in a fraction of the time it used to take you to set up a Windows 7 machine back to a functioning state.

Many of the apps that you use on your Smartphones can also automatically sync to OneDrive so data appear in your PC without you having to do anything. In fact, with the “Anniversary Update,” a Windows 10 mobile device and Android phone can even sync notifications and app actions. An SMS message may arrive on your phone, but the notification is shown on your PC and other devices. You can choose to reply on your PC and Windows 10 will command your phone to send your message, and then cancel the notifications on all your connected devices! How cool is that? 😀

One of my wife’s favourite feature of Windows 10 is actually a feature of the new Edge browser. That’s right! Microsoft released a new super-fast and relatively lightweight browser called ‘Edge’.

Edge complements Internet Explorer 11, which is still in the system, by providing a browser optimised for HTML5, JavaScript and other Web 3.0 technology championed by Google Chrome & Firefox.

Edge’s default page is a personalised snapshot of the (pages of) Interest that Cortana has learned from your browsing habits. If you’re impatient like me, you can also specifically asked Cortana to actively look for your topic of interest. I specifically told Cortana to search for and highlight news related to Malaysian Airlines MH370 on my Windows Phone 8, and Cortana has been showing MH370 news on my devices news feeds for the past year.

Edge is also highly integrated with Cortana and also Microsoft Bing to provide quick answers like currency exchange rates, language translation, unit conversions, etc., without having to open any apps! This feature is standard for all Windows 10 devices including mobile, Hololens and soon to Xbox One.

Business proposition

So far, I’ve only touched on the user experience of Windows 10. How about the benefits to businesses?

First, software compatibility is 100% (to Windows 7) as far as I can tell.
(Some games broke due to the complete removal of Games for Windows & SecureROM DRM, but I see many official & unofficial patches which can fix these problems. Anyway, this shouldn’t matter to businesses.)

Second, driver compatibility is above 90% now because where possible, Windows 10 will install Class drivers instead of vendor drivers. Most printers should work fine unless they’re older Multi-Function machines which include Automatic Document Scanning and you’ve only installed the obsolete Twain drivers. If you’ve also install WIA drivers, all you need to do is to switch scanner driver and it should work. I have an old Brother MFC-3360C that Brother stopped supporting since 2011 but it’s 100% working in Windows 8 & now 10.

Third, Windows 10 is even more manageable than older Windows and is much more secure. It means the chance of a virus attack is lower and every file that’s download or copied from USB/Network or received from email is automatically scanned. You can also lock down many of Windows 10 features if they are against company policies. Security measures can also be remotely implemented like wiping an SSD on a stolen tablet.

Even if a virus does get in, it’s likely the damage is easier to detect & contain compared to Windows XP. OS and Data Recovery features are built into Windows 10 itself to ensure the PC suffers the minimum possible downtime.

Four, Microsoft is allowing anyone upgrade their Windows 7 or 8 devices to Windows 10 for free until the end of July 2016. If you want to prolong the Microsoft supported lifespan of the OS and enjoy all the new and free features being introduces every half-yearly to your PC, upgrade now to Windows 10 or miss out completely.

Five, Microsoft has built-in even more Troubleshooter to identify and solve common issues related to Windows updates, hardware drivers, network & browser issues, amongst others. The performance monitoring tools in Windows 10 are even more comprehensive than Windows 8.1! This makes troubleshooting even easier for tech support.

Six, Windows 10 uses even fewer resources than Windows 7 so most users will see a boost in performance after upgrade, although battery life on laptops may not increase much, if at all.

Seven, Windows 10 is now offered as a Service. As long as your PC is working, even if you upgrade some components, it’ll forever receive new updates and features, maximising the investment on PC hardware. My 8-year-old Fujitsu T4215 TabletPC is still working and now running Windows 10 1511!

Eight, Windows 10 has fantastic support for multiple monitors and virtual-desktops allowing multi-taskers to be even more productive. Continuum allow hybrid laptops to switch their Windows 10 interface between Desktop mode and Tablet mode dynamically so staff can alternate between taking notes & doing presentation or using the keyboard to type a report.

Nine, you can clone your laptop old hard disk to SSD and then upgrade to Windows 10 to see an insane improvement in boot-up speed, program opening and browser speed. All without buying a brand new laptop. This is especially obvious if your old laptop has a Core i5 or i7 CPU.

Ten, Windows 10 just look so much nicer than Windows 7 that your PC will feel like a fresh machine.

What’s the catch?

One word. Privacy, or the lost of. (To an extend.)

In order to offer the huge improvement in usability over Windows 7 & 8, a lot of intelligence is built into Windows 10 and Bing (Microsoft’s Search & AI Engine).

Much of the processing of Cortana happens in the cloud. The fantastic WordFlow keyboard used in Windows 10 Mobile smartphones basically requires an active connection to predict your swipe and next word.

OneDrive, which provides the backbone for the Microsoft Account syncing requires you to be online and data is always being exchanged between your PC and the cloud.

Just like IOS or Android which send tons of data to Apple & Google respectively when you use your Smartphone, it’s impossible for Microsoft NOT to send data to their servers.

The main difference however, is what happens to your telemetry data after they leave your device.

Apple & Google derives most of their income from App & Ad revenues, meaning they inherently wants to harvest non-anonymous data to target you even more precisely to drive your buying behaviour. Microsoft derive their income from their Windows licenses, Cloud services and Office 365. They basically say they will try their best to scrub your identity from your telemetry data and these data are used to better their products and services.

The Insider program and the Feedback hub in Windows 10 are excellent results of Microsoft’s new way of doing business by partnership and listening+responding to feedback.

While this is great for businesses by maintaining some privacy and confidentiality, it’s not so great for app developers who relies on Ad revenue to survive.

Using apps from IOS, it’s pretty obvious why app developers like to target IOS first. The Ad support in the platform is super robust. Any consumer can choose to forgo their privacy and battery life in exchange for better features in IOS apps & games. And since there’re only a limited iteration of iPhones & iPads compared to hundreds of Android devices, small innovative developers will surely target IOS first.

Fortunately, Microsoft is listening to developers as well and will open up the Windows 10 platform by supporting Facebook Ad soon. Their recent acquisition of Xamarin is also received well by developers and seem to be driving richer apps to Windows 10.

I’m looking forward to the “Anniversary update”!

All comments and questions are welcome. Be sure to like this article if it’s useful and share it with your friends and family, or colleagues who can benefit from it! Buttons are all over my website just waiting for you to click them!

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Solutions

Solving Contact/Calendar sync issue in Windows 10 Mobile

Posted on April 1, 2016April 2, 2016 by Eric Tay

If you’ve recently upgraded your Windows Phone 8.x to Windows 10 Mobile, you may encounter some lag in synching your contact and calendar with your Outlook or Outlook.com. The lag may be a few hours to never. I’ve even read the Microsoft Support forums of people hard resetting the phone to solve this problem.

This problem seems to be especially pervasive if you’re like me and your primary Microsoft Account is NOT a Microsoft domain like Hotmail.com, MSN.com or Outlook.com.

In Windows 8.x, all we needed to do was to go to Settings -> EMail account and long-tap to Sync the account manually. However, in Windows 10 Mobile, this is not possible anymore.

I’ve just discovered the reason and the solution. It’s actually very simple, but it may cost some battery life in the short-term.

As you can see from the screen caps, my primary Microsoft Account has an alias to a now defunct domain. This means that I don’t receive ANY email to this email account anymore.

By default, your email accounts (& by extension, Microsoft Account), is set based on your usage as shown in the 3rd screen cap.

If you regularly send and receive email, Windows 10 Mobile will internally set your Sync frequency to “as item arrive”, so whenever you receive an email, it is automatically pushed to your phone or tablet immediately.

However, if you don’t receive ANY email and only occasionally change items in your Contact or Calendar, Windows 10 Mobile will try to save battery by toggling the Sync frequency to “daily” or less.

All you need to do is to go to Settings -> Accounts -> Your email and accounts -> Tap <your primary Microsoft Account> or any other accounts where you’ve chosen to sync Contacts and/or Calendar -> Manage -> Change mailbox sync settings -> Download new content -> change to “as item arrive” -> Done -> Save.

Windows 10 Mobile will immediately sync your Contacts & Calendars, and will continue to do so immediately when you make any changes in Outlook or Outlook.com.

Note that your battery life may suffer a little so if you have less active accounts, you should set those to “based on my usage”.

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Solutions

Malware XcodeGhost Infects 39 iOS Apps, Including WeChat, Affecting Hundreds of Millions of Users

Posted on September 20, 2015October 6, 2015 by Eric Tay

Unit 42 finds that malware XcodeGhost infects 39 iOS apps, including WeChat, affecting hundreds of millions of users.

Update your software now as many of the affected developers have updated their official Apple Xcode IDE, which is NOT affected, and republished their apps. If you can’t update the app, it’s better to temporarily uninstall it.

Also make sure to change your app passwords and AppleID password as it’s likely being phished by hackers.

Here’s the list discovered by Palo Alto & FOX-IT.

网易云音乐 2.8.3
微信 6.2.5
讯飞输入法 5.1.1463
滴滴出行 4.0.0.6-4.0.0.0
滴滴打车 3.9.7.1 – 3.9.7
铁路12306 4.5
下厨房 4.3.2
51卡保险箱 5.0.1
中信银行动卡空间 3.3.12
中国联通手机营业厅 3.2
高德地图 7.3.8
简书 2.9.1
开眼 1.8.0
Lifesmart 1.0.44
网易公开课 4.2.8
马拉马拉 1.1.0
药给力 1.12.1
喜马拉雅 4.3.8
口袋记账 1.6.0
同花顺 9.60.01
快速问医生 7.73
懒人周末
微博相机
豆瓣阅读
CamScanner
CamCard
SegmentFault 2.8
股公开课
股市热点
新三板
滴滴司机
OPlayer 2.1.05
电话归属地助手 3.6.5
愤怒的小鸟2 2.1.1
夫妻床头话 1.2
穷游 6.6.6
我叫MT 5.0.1
我叫MT 2 1.10.5
自由之战 1.1.0
Mercury
WinZip
Musical.ly
PDFReader
guaji_gangtai en
Perfect365
网易云音乐
PDFReader Free
WhiteTile
IHexin
WinZip Standard
MoreLikers2
CamScanner Lite
MobileTicket
iVMS-4500
OPlayer Lite
QYER
golfsense
同花顺
ting
installer
下厨房
golfsensehd
Wallpapers10000
CSMBP-AppStore
礼包助手
MSL108
ChinaUnicom3.x
TinyDeal.com
snapgrab copy
iOBD2
PocketScanner
CuteCUT
AmHexinForPad
SuperJewelsQuest2
air2
InstaFollower
CamScanner Pro
baba
WeLoop
DataMonitor
爱推
MSL070
nice dev
immtdchs
OPlayer
FlappyCircle
高德地图
BiaoQingBao
SaveSnap
WeChat
Guitar Master
jin
WinZip Sector
Quick Save

Source: Malware XcodeGhost Infects 39 iOS Apps, Including WeChat, Affecting Hundreds of Millions of Users

Reviews, Solutions

Best Replacement for Weave News Reader

Posted on March 12, 2015March 16, 2015 by Eric Tay

Update: 16/3/2015 – Corrections & additions to WP8 Nextgen Reader & Magnify, Weave Server deactivated
Update: 15/3/2015 – More in-depth review of NextGen Reader for Windows 8 & WP8
Update: 12/3/2015 – additional info for NextGen Reader for WP8

Weave is no more!

Weave News Reader was one of the first and one of the best news reader for the Windows Phone platform. I started using it when it was Windows Phone News. It is a Windows Phone exclusive app from Windows Phone 7 till now but like we Chinese say, “There’s no celebration/banquet that lasts forever.” Weave stopped working on 16 March 2015, with @Selesgames pulling the plug on the Weave server. This also means that Weave for Windows 8.x has stopped working as well.

@Selesgames has posted on Windows Central regarding the abrupt decision and while I’m sad that Arash Emami, the sole proprietor of @Selegames, is discontinuing Weave, I’m happy that he’s joining LinkedIn. Hopefully he can do something about the LinkedIn app in Windows 8 / WP8 & Windows 10.

I exclusively use Weave (Windows 8/WP8) for news on Windows, Windows Phone, Technology in general, Science & Astronomy, World News and Self-help. In fact, based on Battery sense, Weave is usually the single biggest usage of Battery!

Above half shows Weave for Windows 8.x, below is Weave for WP8.

So what’s next for users like me? Well I think it’s time to do a comparative review of some of the best news reader for the Windows/Windows Phone platform.

The contenders

There are many great news aggregator in the Windows Store but I have chosen these few to compare against Weave. The areas that I’ll compare include ease of initial & subsequent setup of accounts & feeds, ease of synchronization between devices including Windows & Phones, speed of app in pulling feeds online & offline, speed in displaying news aggregate and individual articles, UX and customisations.

Converge 4.3.1 – Converge is a popular app with a 4.5 star rating. It focuses on Tech news only which makes it less useful for me but it has a very nice UI & includes a Video Hub that display all videos embedded in all the downloaded articles.

The Popular page is the Home page and you can switch between Tile mode shown below as the 2nd screen or Slideshow mode (find this in Settings) which changes to a magazine mode shown below as the 3rd screen.

It doesn’t sync to other devices and also doesn’t have a Windows 8 app, which is a waste, as the potential for this app to be popular as a Universal app on Windows 8 & 10 is definitely great.

The UI & UX of Converge is very attractive & smooth. It's also distinctively Modern. — The UI & UX of Converge is very attractive & smooth. It’s also distinctively Modern.

Flipboard 2.6 – Flipboard is a social-media driven news aggregator app that’s ported from IOS. The main draw of Flipboard for IOS users was it simulates the page curling and flipping when you switch between articles, akin to flipping the page of a magazine. Alas, this flipping transition was not ported in WP8 thus reducing the “magic.”

The lineage of the app is very Apple-esque. The Windows version is very versatile but UI takes some getting used to. Things like Following which Feed or which Category was scattered all over the Modern app. I have not tried Flipboard on my iPad so I can’t tell if it works the same way there but I felt it could have been better organized. Flipping the page and other navigation is through keyboard left and right cursor keys or the Scroll on your mouse. BUT, there was NO indication on the screen on how that’ll work if you’re not using a touchscreen! Unlike other Modern apps like Microsoft News which has pop-up left/right edge cues, Flipboard for Windows doesn’t have those!

After you spend a few hours sieving through all the hundreds of feeds/website/categories/whatever and Follow the correct Feeds, you’d be very happy as it syncs back to your Flipboard account and that will propagate to all your devices. Unfortunately, there seems to be some issues with my Flipboard for Windows. After I’ve followed some feeds, it doesn’t sync back to my Flipboard account. It will always revert to the default Flipboard feeds & categories.

FlipBoard for WP8 works much better as it syncs perfectly with my Flipboard account and with other devices. However, it overwrites all the categories I’ve selected in FlipBoard for Windows. Now sieving through so many feeds isn’t productive on a small screen so it’s a real bummer that FlipBoard for Windows wasn’t synching properly.

A lot of potential here but it takes too much time to get to the news I want.

FlipBoard for Windows is fully functional, powerful & a bit messy. FlipBoard for WP8 is Beautiful, easy to navigate but lacks the ability to easily customize feeds. — FlipBoard for Windows (Above) is fully functional, powerful & a bit messy. FlipBoard for WP8 (Below) is Beautiful, easy to navigate but lacks the ability to easily customize feeds.

Fuse 2.4.0.2 – Fuse is created by legendary Windows Phone developer Rudy Huyn. It is a very functional software with an interesting Film reel layout. Setting up is quite easy but still requires you to sieve through a huge list categories of RSS feeds. After which you can categories it according to your preference.

It is the least polished of the apps in this round-up and lacks important features like sync to cloud and a Universal app for Windows 8/10. The film reel news feed, while functional, is very distracting with huge website name and the perforated separator for time making this part of the UI rather clunky and un-modern.

There’re some nice touches and animations here and there like all of Rudy’s other apps but this app definitely could use more development.

Fuse from Rudy Huyn is great for getting to the news and categorizing them according to your preference.

Microsoft News 3.1.4.381 – Microsoft 1st party News app is a showcase of how a Modern app should be like and they have more or less succeeded in that mission. BUT, it’s also the least customizable of all the apps in this comparison. There’re also some nagging bugs like the Featured News showing SUPER OLD NEWS. See the picture below!

The pre-installed list of news sites are very few and doesn’t cover the full spectrum of interests and categories. You could make it show news from all your favourite websites but you’d have to manually key in the address and configure the RSS, which is why I only use MS News to follow Singapore & World news.

For some reasons, MS removed a great feature which allows you to add your own “Topic of interest.” This is moved to Cortana so I suppose MS means for us to use Cortana as our News source?

MS News app is fully modern and a joy to use. Navigation on all devices is fantastic and intuitive. News for Windows (Above) has a tendency to show old news. News app for WP8 (Below) is great though with Auto-sync.

Nextgen Reader 6.3.0.5 – Nextgen Reader is another 4+ star app that has won the praise of many user and reviewers. It is highly functional and the Windows UI is modeled after Outlook Express. It’s also a Universal app which automatically syncs your account between devices.

However, its Achilles’ Heels is the configuration has to happen at the Feedly website. As a client only, it is not possible to configure from the Windows app. Fortunately, the Feedly website is easy to navigate with interest & categories clearly sorted and searchable. Even though the list isn’t pre-selected or curated, it was very easy for me to add the individual websites into the category as major topics of interest are #hashtagged in search. Unlike Flipboard or Fuse, getting organized was super easy & quick, and I don’t feel overwhelmed with the sheer number of websites.

After I’ve added some of the websites that was curated from Weave, I selected a few more which were not in Weave’s list. After that, clicking Sync in the Windows 8 Nextgen Reader immediately displays all my selection from the website. It was super easy!

Opening the app in WP8 was the same, the list and news feeds were all sync and ready to read. I just have to change the view to “Headline with Large Image” and it works almost the same as Weave!

You can add & delete Feeds from within the WP8 app which makes it a bit weird that the Windows app can’t. Did I miss something? WP8 Nextgen Reader has an awesome built-in Twitter sharing engine but if you prefer another app, you can always disable to share via WP8 Shares, or you could have BOTH! This multiplicity of functions is what I’ve come to expect from Desktop software. To see it in mobile apps without clunking up the whole UI is why I love WP8 platform and why I’m growing to like Nextgen Reader more everyday.

I subscribe to a large number of Feeds from multiple sources and it can go into the hundreds within a few hours. I don’t read every article, so I scroll through the list and tap only those I’m interested in. A very useful feature for both Windows & WP8 is the ability to, “Mark above as Read.” This allows me to go through a huge list of articles and simply mark ‘read’ the posts that I’ve scrolled past so I don’t have to go through them again later.

Nextgen Reader is not the prettiest of the bunch but so far, it’s the closest competitor to Weave. After using it for a couple of days I find that there were some areas that can be improved. In the WP8 app, currently in List view, ‘Read’ articles are denoted by a greyed Headline, it would be much clearer if the preview image was greyed as well. And when I go into an article, I have to tap “get full article”, why not set this as the default behavior? This is true for both Windows & WP8.

NextGen Reader for Windows (Above) was shockingly empty when I just opened it! After following the instructions to add feeds from the website, both Windows 8 & WP8 app (Below) filled up with glorious news!

Magnify News Reader 3.1.7 – Magnify (Beta) is a beautiful app with so much bells and whistles, they had to create a video tutorial that runs the first time you open the app. It is also a Feedly client like NextGen Reader and thus, all my feeds are downloaded and sync to the app immediately after I sign in. If you haven’t create feeds in Feedly website, the app will appear empty and that’s why I scratched my head the first time I installed it months ago. The UI & UX is vastly different from NextGen Reader and users who like 3D animations are in for a treat.

All the transitions have 3D animations, from Home Page to individual section, there’s that flying pages animation. In the Preview page, scrolling up & down also scrolls up and down the Preview images. Once inside the article, a 3D cube effect changes the page instead of a standard scroll.

The app is also packed with tons of features that I use regularly in Weave so this is definitely a strong contender, although I must say that after reading a few articles, I got a headache from all the animations. Fortunately, there’s an ‘Article view’ which switches off the 3D cube effect and just scroll as per normal.

A very important feature that sets it apart from Nextgen Reader is the included Curated lists when you tap the “+” hub. It is a full featured Feed management system which gives users the ability to manage their Feeds completely within the app or use the pre-selected ones in each category or interest. It’s also more powerful than Weave and almost as easy to use as the Feedly website, which is an impressive feat given the limited screen size. Also, when I tap to view an article, Magnify shows the preview while downloading the full (mobilised) article automatically in the background. Kudos to the developers!

Its biggest annoyance is perhaps the lack of the “Mark above as Read” which is so useful in Nextgen Reader. Since the Feeds are not paginated, I have to tap on individual Feeds group if I think I cannot finish all the posts at one go. Within the Article list, you can only Mark all ‘Read’ or ‘Unread’. This can definitely be improved. Personally, the app is a bit too colourful for my liking but if you like your Groups to be colour-coded and fully customizable, you’d love Magnify!

Magnify is another Feedly client, like NextGen Reader so whatever I added in Feedly was automatically added to Magnify after I installed the app and sign in.

Weave News Reader 8.7.0.2 – Weave News Reader. Much has been written about it. It’s a fantastic news reader for the busy person. It looks fantastic when it first came out. While the look is a bit dated now with Flipboard & Magnify looking awesome, Weave still gets the job done pretty well.

One of its best feature, the Weave (mobiliser) server that Weave News Reader sync to is no longer unique and in fact, can be unstable at times. Certain website also doesn’t get mobilised, including some of my favourite websites, causing Weave to switch to the much slower Web View. Beside mobilising the webpage, the Weave Server also prepares the page for Text-to-Speech, which is a great feature not available in most other apps.

Unfortunately, Weave News Reader has its fair share of bugs like the synchronization of Read/Unread posts can become out-of-sync between devices. When the Weave server was unstable, Weave News Reader would crash or its Live Tile can go haywire. Another very common complain was a stuck Live Tile but that’s less common after WP8.1.

Having said that, Weave still has the best curated list of websites sorted into interest & categories to get newbies up and running quickly. After that, you can opt to sync to your Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter or Google Account. This allows your selected feeds to sync between devices, including read/unread posts so you can continue reading on the go or at home/office.

You can easily customize your preferred website or add more if you so desire although IIRC Feedly isn’t supported. Articles can be easily shared to multiple destinations without any fuss and you can favourite any posts so it stays in your synchronized feed forever, or until Weave server goes dark on 14th March.

Weave has tons and tons of features but somehow doesn’t feel cluttered and is one of the best example of a modern app there is!

Which app is the winner?

Well, after this review, I still prefer Weave but since I have to choose an alternative, my recommendation goes to NextGen Reader. It has the best balance between UX, UI, features & customisations. I’d continue to play with the other apps and update this article with my thoughts as I go along.

To help readers make up their own mind, here’s a table.

Comments are welcome and if you want me to review another app on either Windows or WP8, I’d be happy to do so when I have the time. Remember to like my post & subscribe!

Solutions

Solving Windows 8.1 Upgrade Error 0xC1900101 – 0x20017

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Eric Tay

Unsolved mystery of Windows 8.1 upgrade

As readers on my website knows, I’ve been using Windows 8.0 since the Developer Preview beta program on my Fujitsu T4210 TabletPC and I bought the license on Day one for my TabletPC.

I also bought 2 additional licenses for my desktop PC & for my wife’s laptop but I didn’t install Windows 8.0 on my desktop for quite a few months because Windows 8.0 was less keyboard/mouse friendly than Windows 7.

I did do a multi-boot for my wife so she can try Windows 8.0 if she wanted on her Fujitsu S6310 laptop or she can continue to use Windows 7 if she didn’t like Windows 8.0. Turns out she didn’t like Windows 8.0 because her laptop doesn’t have a touchscreen, which makes Windows 8.0 harder to grasp and use than it needed to be.

Before Windows 8.1 was launched, I installed Windows 8.0 on my desktop in anticipation of the much better keyboard/mouse environment in Windows 8.1.

My Fujitsu TabletPC and DIY desktop upgraded without any issues but my wife’s laptop couldn’t be upgraded. Whatever I tried, I ended up with the error 0xC1900101 – 0x20017 which indicated some kind of driver issue or hardware problem.

The symptom is always the same. It’ll install everything but during the final phase of booting up to Desktop, it’ll crash and refuse to boot, thus triggering a roll-back to Windows 8.0.

No Solutions in sight

You can find MANY threads at Microsoft forums of people who have this exact problem or something similar but few people manages to solve it.

This issue dragged on for months and months with Microsoft promising to solve it once and all in a major patch for Windows 8.0. Unfortunately, while it solved the problem for many people who has driver issues, it didn’t help my wife’s laptop.

I’ve tried different versions of drivers, including NOT installing drivers for unknown devices. I’ve tried upgrading Windows 7 using a Windows 8.1 Boot disc, which had the same issue, rendering the Windows 7 partition corrupt. I even tried to rename the Windows 7 partition as “System Reserved” because I read Windows 8 requires a separate recovery partition. Nothing worked. So my wife was stuck with 2 Windows 8.0 installation at the Boot screen but only one works.

Suffice to say my wife wasn’t too happy with the situation but since she only uses the laptop to watch TV dramas, I wasn’t in any danger of having to sleep on the sofa.

Solution came after solving an unrelated problem

Well if you read my previous post about installing Windows 8.1 without DVD or Product Key, you’d know that Microsoft recently updated their Windows 8.1 installation to handle more hardware, especially the new Ultrabooks which doesn’t have any DVD drives and all the recovery information are stored on the harddisk. So if said harddisk were to crash, like the one in the article, you must download a program from Microsoft which creates a bootable recovery disk on a USB thumbdrive or DVD disc.

After I recovered that laptop, I noticed that the Recovery disk has created 2 additional hidden “System Reserved” partitions at the front & back of the SSD besides the main System partition. Now in my wife’s laptop case, I only have the one at the back of the harddisk.

During the installation of Windows 8.0, the installer created 1 additional System Reserved folder which exceeded the maximum number of 4 allowable for a Basic Disk. In order to have more than 4 partitions, I needed to convert to a Dynamic Disk but that will create a lot of compatibility issues with harddisk and data recovery software that I have. So I opted to stick to a Basic disk and of course, Windows 8.0 couldn’t boot to continue the installation.

So I booted up to Windows 7 and ran Eason Partition Manager 8 to delete the extra partition and shifted some other partitions around. Windows 8.0 booted up fine and finished the installation after that but as a consequence, the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) now has missing and non-continuous partition numbering. I had to edit Windows 7 BCD so it can dual-boot with Windows 8.0. It was messy.

This turned out to be the actual problem with our Windows 8.1 upgrade!

The Solution

Since I still have the USB thumbdrive for Windows 8.1 installation, I tried to upgrade my wife’s laptop and of course, the same error code cropped up. Then, I remember about the partitioning issues a few years back & realized that I could just edit the BCD! But I thought, now I have an extra partition, it’ll be cleaner to just backup her data and just delete off all the partitions and start over.

So I did just that and it was the exact same procedure as my previous article except before installing, you have to delete off ALL the partitions on the harddisk/SSD. My wife’s laptop was based on the old IBM-PC BIOS so I had to key in her Windows 8.0 Product Key. And YES, even though the Recovery Media program is meant to install Windows 8.1, it happily accepted the Windows 8.0 Product Key!

After that, it was smooth sailing all the way! 🙂

Her laptop is working better than ever!

I hope this helps some of you. Like the article and subscribe. If you have any questions, feel free to comment!

Solutions

More Fantastic ways to add Text Effects in MS Office 2013

Posted on February 18, 2014February 18, 2014 by Eric Tay

A few months ago I wrote about adding Rainbow Text to your Word 2013 document and a reader shared with me this really cool eBook on how to really use the Standard Text Effects in Word 2013. Check it out!

Remember Text Effects is a standard Office 2013 feature so this is doable in PowerPoint & other Office software as well!

Man Matter, Reviews, Solutions

Solving Denon AVR-3808 DLNA repeating problem

Posted on November 11, 2013September 4, 2014 by Eric Tay

Update 04 September 2014: New solution! Click here to skip to the solution!

Audiophile delight

Denon AVR-3808CI — That’s a mighty fine AVR with some seriously sweet sound!

Anyone who’s using a Denon Audio Video Receiver (AVR) can tell you how good it is.

Beside above average sound quality & a superior video upscaler, the last few generations of their AVR are also Cloud connected for firmware upgrades & streaming radio station management, amongst other benefits.

Their Audessey automatic EQ & room acoustic adjuster makes it SO easy to tune & optimize a room’s audio characteristics to get the best sound possible. And its menus are accessible via webpage, Onscreen, On-remote & even in WP/iOS/Android Apps.

Generally the higher the series, the better the fidelity in audio output + the more options you have in surround.

Anyway, I think you get the idea that Denon AVR are geared towards Audiophiles as well as catering for the movie buffs who only need the amp to pump out enough power so explosions & metal clashes can vibrate the sofa.

(OK, movie buffs also need low channel crosstalk to ensure good channel separation but with today’s digital technology, that shouldn’t be an issue for all Hi-Fi equipment.)

One of the most useful feature of an AVR is the support for DLNA.

What is DLNA?

Back Panel of the Denon AVR-3808CI — Yup! I need ALL that connectivity!

Seriously if you’re reading this & you have no idea what DLNA is, you’re REALLY underutilizing your Denon AVR!

I bought a decent AVR-3808CI in 2008 as it had enough inputs for all my AV sources & a single HDMI output since I only have a Samsung LED TV as my monitor. I also own quite a few audiophile HDCDs but times have changed & it’s becoming a bit of a hassle to insert a CD into my player.

Ever since I got the 3808, I’ve ripped all my CDs into WMA-lossless (so they can play in Windows Media Player) and use DLNA to push CD quality (but not HDCD quality) music from my PC or NAS to the AVR. It was (almost) audiophile heaven.

* if anyone knows how to rip HDCD & play it back on the 3808, please leave a comment!

After using it for a year or so, the DLNA function broke. I believe it was after a firmware upgrade. When playing music, the 3808 will keep playing the same song over and over and over again. It was damn irritating & frustrating because nothing I did helped.

I tried to switch off Repeat & Random on the 3808, tested different versions of Windows Media Player on different OS like Windows 7, 7 SP1, 8, 8.1, and all with 32bit & 64bit. I even tried using it on my Windows Phone & only my HTC Trophy 7 played through the playlist.

When I upgraded to the Lumia 800 or 920 or 1020, it’ll also get stuck playing the same song over in a loop.

Searching the web, I discovered that there were MANY people who had the same issue & most of them have given up. I tried emailing Denon & got no respond. I tried many forums over the years and no one could answer me until yesterday.

The SOLUTION!!!

Updated & easier solution!

Unfortunately I can’t remember which forum I saw this. I’d update the article when I find out & give proper credit.

Just enable "Allow Remote Control of my Player". That's it! — Just enable “Allow Remote Control of my Player”. That’s it!

For those of us using WMP to stream DLNA, just enable “Allow remote control of my Player…” It’s THAT simple!

If you’re using another device or software, you can still use the original method below.

I can’t thank “Alki” enough! His/her 4 posts to the AVS forum about 1/2 year ago solved my 3 year old problem!!! Here’s the link. I’d give credit where it’s due. 😉

“Alki” was using an AVR-4308 and I have confirmation from Microsoft support forum that this works for the Denon AVR-5308CI as well. It seems like many of the AVR-xx08 in 2007-2008 have this problem.

The solution is while the song is playing, change the “Repeat” (to ALL) and “Random” (to ALL or ON).

By the end of the song, the next song should play. Yay!!!

Depending on which model you’re using, you may have to manually set both the Repeat & Random settings to “NO”.

It is that simple & no one had stumbled on the solution for 3 years. Worse, Denon hasn’t given any support or updated the firmware in the past 3 years as well! I wish these makers will support their products longer like how Microsoft support their OS for 10 years! Yes, I know it’s wishful thinking…

Right-click on an Album or a Song & choose Play To to activate DLNA

Anyway, there you have it! I can now wirelessly stream my music from my smartphone anywhere in the house, or use the AVR to stream music from my PC or NAS like it was supposed to.

I’m in musical bliss again! 😀

Photography, Solutions

How to take great photos on the Lumia 1020

Posted on October 20, 2013October 28, 2013 by Eric Tay

So you have just purchased the best camera phone of 2013 & you’re excited to get started taking incredible photos like those seen in reviews.

In bright daylight, all the photos turn out great but when the lights dim, your photos aren’t turning out so great. What’s up? Lumia 1020 is supposed to be the champion in low-light photography. Is your Lumia 1020 faulty?

Likelihood it’s performing fine. It’s just not what you’re expecting in the picture.

This article aims to help you overcome inherent problems in digital photography. It’s broken down into sub-sections, each corresponding to an individual manual setting in the Nokia Camera app, the default camera app on all Lumia 1020. This article also applies if you’ve install Nokia Camera on other Lumia WP8 models although instead of the Xenon Flash, you’d only have the LED light.

Click here to start the tutorial!

Solutions

Still getting poor battery life from your Windows Phone 8.0?

Posted on October 15, 2013September 10, 2014 by Eric Tay

Update 10 Sep 2014: This article is only applicable for WP8.0. WP8.1 removed this setting!

While reading an IOS7 review, I come across a power-saving tip, which I didn’t thought of as a power-saving tip at first.

We have the same setting in Windows Phone. If you go to WiFi settings -> Advanced, you have “Notify me when new networks are found.” By default, it’s ON.

This feature was available since WP7 but it never crossed my mind that it actually controls the WiFi Roaming Aggressiveness of WP OS. I just found it annoying so I have switched it OFF immediately after getting a new WP phone. So I never had a chance to see the effects when it was on.

According to the IOS7 review, switching this off saves power!

For me, my WiFi is always ON, “Keep WiFi on when screen times out” is ON & “Notify me when new networks are found” is always OFF. And because of this, my Windows Phones’ battery life have always been good! I couldn’t understand why there’re still reports of poor battery life even after switching to 3G on their 4G phones + switching off all Background Agents.

Then I remembered last year I posted a comment on whether switching ON the WiFi ALL the time is a good idea or not & I concluded that as long as the WiFi radio is not roaming & it can enter low-power state when associated with a wireless access point, it CAN save power. However, unlike in Windows where you can select WiFi Roaming Aggressiveness, you can’t do so in WP7/8. Or so I thought until the IOS7 article.

I connected the dots & BAM! This Notify setting is the Roaming aggressiveness setting!

Switch it OFF guys & gals!

Sound off in the comments below on how your battery life is affected.

My Thinking Out Loud!

My Thinking Out Loud!

Insurance, Technology, Fatherhood & other interesting bits

Tag: software

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Why updating to Windows 10 is a Great idea!

Solving Contact/Calendar sync issue in Windows 10 Mobile

Malware XcodeGhost Infects 39 iOS Apps, Including WeChat, Affecting Hundreds of Millions of Users

Best Replacement for Weave News Reader

Solving Windows 8.1 Upgrade Error 0xC1900101 – 0x20017

More Fantastic ways to add Text Effects in MS Office 2013

Solving Denon AVR-3808 DLNA repeating problem

How to take great photos on the Lumia 1020

Still getting poor battery life from your Windows Phone 8.0?

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