The Samsung Galaxy Fold has been on a bumpy road since being announced in February (literally, as it got recalled for durability issues) but it looks like the end is in sight, because a new rumored release date is just around the corner.
According to Korean site The Investor, which has published previous Galaxy Fold rumors before, the foldable phone will be available between September 18-20 in the US and Korea, with a global rollout to follow.
We’d previously heard rumors that the folding handset would be released in September, but this is the most precise date range we’ve had so far, and it’s likely that Samsung officials have a good idea of the release date.
Apple’s probably not too happy with the release date though, as that’s exactly when we were expecting to see the company unveil the new iPhone 11.
We normally see the newest iPhone generation launched at the beginning of September, but we’re expecting it to be a little bit later than previous years in 2019 thanks to consumer tech event IFA 2019 running until September 11, which will likely cause Apple to push back its launch event.
So which will consumers on the market pick, a brand new iPhone 11, or the intriguing Samsung Galaxy Fold? While iPhones are incredibly expensive, we’re still expecting the Galaxy Fold to double a standard iPhone’s price tag, so Apple will probably win this fight.
But as the device uses brand new tech, people with the money to splash may just do so on the Galaxy Fold (which is hopefully now durable enough to withstand it).
There are whispers on the grapevine that Google is thinking of switching its servers over from Intel to AMD, which would obviously be a huge win for the latter.
Before we get too carried away, though, bear firmly in mind that this is merely speculation from an analyst firm.
As Seeking Alpha highlighted, Lynx Equity Research is the company in question, with its analysts hearing ‘rumblings’ that Google is no longer happy with Intel’s server hardware.
Moreover, the analyst firm has floated the notion that its research into the supply chain indicates that AMD server boards are being made for Google, to back up the broad assertion.
If this prediction comes true, the gravity of this can’t be underestimated for AMD, given the sheer weight of number of servers that Google has (Google is obviously one of the biggest server heavyweights out there, probably vying for the top spot with Microsoft, although exact figures aren’t clear). Not to mention the general signal this will give off to the server buying world.
Remember that server CPUs are where the real money is to be made, not consumer chips (although in the latter, AMD is already squeezing out Intel by all accounts).
Epyc gains
AMD has made big strides with its ‘Rome’ second-gen Epyc server processors, which are set to be launched in August, with other analysts previously picking out these CPUs and the data center market as a particular strong point for AMD with its new 7nm products.
Epyc offers 64-cores and 128-threads per socket, not to mention that crucially, for the business market, AMD’s chips have been seen to have less security issues than Intel’s in recent times.
Of course, even if Google is switching across to AMD as suggested, that shift will happen slowly (likely very slowly) over time. And Intel will doubtless want to fight back, and fight back hard – it’s already rumored to be doing so in the consumer market with a purported 10-core Comet Lake CPU to take on AMD’s new Ryzen 9 3900X.
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Samsung is announcing its next tablet later today, and the company has also confirmed it will be introducing a new smartwatch next week.
August 5 is the big day for the next smartwatch from Samsung, and it’s expected to be called the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2. That device has been leaked consistently over the past few months.
Samsung will be sharing all of the details at 10AM ET (7AM PT, 3PM BST or midnight ACT on August 6 for those in Australia) come August 5, but it’s currently unclear if there will be a live event or if it will just announce the product on its website.
This news all comes from a 20 second teaser video on Samsung’s website that doesn’t outright confirm the Galaxy Watch Active 2’s name, but the brief glimpses make it look similar to the last-gen watch.
The video description reads, “Say hello to the new Galaxy Watch, your assistant to keep you fit and on top of your day.”
A lot of the design elements are expected to be similar between the original Galaxy Watch Active and this next-gen version, but new rumored features include an ECG monitor as well as a 4G variant.
If you’re waiting for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10, it’s still expected we’ll hear about that at Samsung’s Unpacked event on August 7.
The Document Foundation has released a major security update for free office software LibreOffice, which helps protect against macro viruses. If you’re running a version of LibreOffice older than 6.2.5, you should upgrade to the latest version now.
Macro viruses are commonly spread in office documents, and begin a series of actions when the document is opened. As The Register reports, unpatched versions of LibreOffice, three vulnerabilities meant is was possible for certain macros to run silently when you opened a document without giving you the opportunity to stop anything suspicious.
The vulnerabilities involved a feature called LibreLogo, which is designed for teaching programming. By typing commands using the simple Logo programming language, you can control a ‘turtle’ graphic and move it around the document. It’s a fun introduction to coding, but led to a chain of problems.
The first issue was that the Logo commands were converted to the Python language without proper safety checks to make sure nothing malicious got through. The second was that all of LibreOffice’s built-in macros were flagged as ‘fully trusted’ regardless of your chosen security settings – including LibreLogo, which is optional but installed by default). The third and final problem was that LibreLogo sent arbitrary Python code in the document to be interpreted – not just explicitly typed commands.
Keep your PC secure
Together, these three vulnerabilities meant that if you received a document containing malicious Python code, it would run automatically when you opened it without asking for confirmation.
Files carrying a macro virus are often sent as email attachments, so always be skeptical of any attachments you aren’t expecting, even if they look benign and are a file type you recognize.
LibreOffice should be set to check for updates automatically by default, but you can check your settings by clicking Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Online Update. Here, you can also select whether the software should check for updates daily, weekly, monthly, or whenever you’re connected to the internet.
When an update is available, an icon will appear in the menu bar. The update will begin downloading straight away if automatic updates are enabled; if not, you’ll need to click it to start the process.
Last week I received an email notice from Microsoft informing me that, as of January 14, 2020, they will no longer support Windows 7, which I still have on one of my desktop computers. Why? Because I have some legacy software that is incompatible with Windows 8 and 10: dBase III+, Paint Shop Pro 7, PageMaker, several graphics programs and plugins—one is the first version of Andromeda, which offers some amazing graphic effects—and a few other applications that were originally DOS-based.
We’re not alone
I know I’m not alone in clinging to an ancient software program that’s exactly what I need. Allen Bonde, VP and research director at Forrester, told me that, “Where SaaS (Software as a Service) applications don’t have a foothold, we often still see customers sticking with older tools because they see a risk in switching to a newer system, or there just isn’t a compelling alternative.” It’s not just random individuals, either, but entire companies: “There are pockets of this behavior in smaller firms,” Bonde noted, “but also in sectors such as healthcare and government, where we see less digitally mature companies.”
I asked dozens of friends and colleagues, posted inquiries on Twitter and Facebook, and queried several dozen previous clients and corporations that I’ve worked with in the past: Does anybody still use legacy software? Those who did were often embarrassed to admit it, but agreed to discuss it “off the record.”
If upgrading to Windows 10 suddenly deprived you of your legacy favorites, search online using a phrase such as, “is Windows 10 compatible with [name of your legacy program],” e.g., “Is Windows 10 compatible with dBase III+.” You’ll discover there are many sites that explain how to use your legacy software with the current versions of Windows.
Here are six programs I found that people just won’t quit.
Productivity suite: Office 2003
The biggest, most widely used legacy software still in circulation is Microsoft Office 2003. There are entire companies out there still using this version of Office. Why? Because this was the last .doc version that used the Classic menus as opposed to the Ribbon menus (.docx versions).
The Classic menus were a product of the CUA (Common User Access) Standards developed by IBM in 1987, which determined the user interface for all Windows, OS/2, MVS/ESA, VM/CMS, and OS/400 software applications. Equivalent commands such as File, Save, Exit, Print, Cut, Copy, Paste, Edit, View, Help, and hundreds more had to follow the same design for every program regardless of the genre.
JD Sartain / IDG Worldwide
Classic Microsoft menus Add-In programs
The CUA standards made it easier for users to learn new Windows and OS/2 programs because they all had similar menus, dialog boxes, keyboard shortcuts, and so forth. Thanks to this standard, for instance, the key combinations of Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V —Cut, Copy, Paste— were the same in Word, Excel, Photoshop, Corel Paint, Quicken, and hundreds of other programs.
And then Microsoft moved to the Ribbon menu. So many users hated it that multiple vendors have created “Classic Microsoft menus” add-in programs such as Add In Tools, UBit Menu, Office Classic Menu, and more. These add-in programs have their limitations as well, but many thousands of users (according to my sources) say they can live with the limitations as long as they have the classic menus.
“I use the mouse with my right hand and shortcut keys with my left hand without even thinking about it,” said a colleague from Salt Lake County. “I work twice as fast because I’m ambidextrous on the computer, not with anything else, just with the keyboard and mouse. I can’t do that with the Ribbon menus.”
Other users have made the same argument and swear they will never graduate to the Ribbon, at least, not as long as the add-in tools are available. The software vendors who make these add-in tools claim they’ll keep going strong.
Databases: dBase III+ and Lotus 1-2-3
In spite of the massive variety of databases on the market today, dBase III+ and Lotus 1-2-3 are still widely used by a lot of home users and small businesses. (Lotus 1-2-3 is, technically, a spreadsheet like Excel, but spreadsheets are technically, databases.)
The reasons provided by most of the individuals I asked are:
Familiarity with the software
Easier to configure and customize
Uses less system resources (memory, disk space, virtual, etc.) and therefore, processes faster
The macros and programming are modeled after the actual commands.
JD Sartain / IDG Worldwide
Lotus 1-2-3 & dBase III+ legacy software
For example, in Lotus, /FS is the command equivalent to File > Save, and the macro command for File > Save. You can easily write macros in Lotus if you know the menu commands, no programming experience needed—and all the menu commands are right there on the screen. Lotus also has a macro recorder, which placed the macro in an “out-of-the-way location” on the same spreadsheet to simplify editing.
Macros in Excel are not so easy. You can use the macro recorder for the basic stuff, but you must know Visual Basic to do anything complex or to even edit the macro. This is no problem for programmers, but everyday users just want the software to work without the hassle of learning a programming language.
Note: While researching information for this article, I recently learned that you can configure dBase III+ to work on the 32-bit versions of Windows 8 and 10 by making a few adjustments through the Control Panel and Command Prompt.
Graphics: Corel Draw! and PaintShop Pro
Corel Draw! and PaintShop Pro (formerly spelled Paint Shop Pro) are still active programs, of course, but some users hold onto their legacy programs to retain specific features and benefits.
Corel Draw!, for example, offers hundreds of fonts and thousands of clip art images in all of its versions. Many of the older ones are no longer available, however. Meanwhile, some of the older features have disappeared—or been replaced by similar features that don’t work quite as well.
PaintShop Pro has similar issues with the newer versions beyond 5 and 7. A big loss is the animation program, which seems to have disappeared completely from most of the newer versions. In versions 5 and 7, you could create an animation from a single image using a variety of animation effects. It was a simple program, but effective for some applications.
Facebook has announced a breakthrough in its plan to create a device that allows people to type just by thinking.
It has funded a study that developed machine-learning algorithms capable of turning brain activity into speech
It worked on epilepsy patients who had already had recording electrodes placed on their brains to asses the origins of their seizures, ahead of surgery.
Facebook hopes it will pave the way for a “fully non-invasive, wearable device” that can process 100 words per minute.
‘Muscle twitches’
University of California San Francisco scientists asked the patients to answer out loud a list of simple multiple-choice questions ordered randomly.
And the algorithms learned to identify:
the question they had been asked, 75% of the time
their chosen answer, 61% of the time
“Most previous approaches have focused on decoding speech alone,” Prof Eddie Chang said, “but here we show the value of decoding both sides of a conversation – both the questions someone hears and what they say in response.
“This reinforces our intuition that speech is not something that occurs in a vacuum and that any attempt to decode what patients with speech impairments are trying to say will be improved by taking into account the full context in which they are trying to communicate.
“Currently, patients with speech loss due to paralysis are limited to spelling words out very slowly using residual eye movements or muscle twitches to control a computer interface.
“But, in many cases, information needed to produce fluent speech is still there in their brains.
“We just need the technology to allow them to express it.”
‘Safe place’
Researcher David Moses said: “It’s important to keep in mind that we achieved this using a very limited vocabulary – but in future studies we hope to increase the flexibility as well as the accuracy of what we can translate from brain activity.”
“Ultimately, the researchers hope to reach a real-time decoding speed of 100 words per minute with a 1,000-word vocabulary and word error rate of less than 17%,” Facebook wrote on its blog.
“And by demonstrating a proof-of-concept using implanted electrodes as part of their effort to help patients with speech loss, we hope UCSF’s work will inform our development of the decoding algorithms and technical specifications needed for a fully non-invasive, wearable device.
“Rather than looking down at a phone screen or breaking out a laptop, we can maintain eye contact and retrieve useful information and context without ever missing a beat.”
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Neuralink company has applied to US regulators for permission to start testing its own brain-hacking device on humans.
Some in the field believe it is time to pause to consider the ethics of such research and the possibilities it opens for the future.
“To me, the brain is the one safe place for freedom of thought, of fantasies and for dissent,” neuro-ethicist Prof Nita Farahany told MIT Review.
JD Sartain / IDG Worldwide
JD Sartain / IDG Worldwide