Microsoft issues massive updates for Surface Pro 4 and Surface Laptop

Owners of the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Laptop now have some updates available to improve stability, system reliability as well as resolve potential security issues. The security updates are targetting Intel's Spectre and Meltdown exploits.

“On July 25th we released updates for Surface Pro 4 and Surface Laptop running Windows 10 Fall Creators Update version 1709 or greater to Windows Update,” Microsoft’s Scott McArthur explains in separate posts for each to the Surface Blog for IT Pros.

The updates took around 20 minutes to install on both our Surface Laptop and Surface Pro 4, they also required a restart.

Source: Thurrott.com

Qualcomm will not supply chips for the 2018 iPhone

Review: Apple iPhone X

It isn’t a secret that Apple and Qualcomm are locked in a long-term legal dispute and now that seems to have affected who will be supplying the chips for this year’s iPhones. George Davis, Qualcomm’s financial chief, announced at an earnings call with industry analysts that, “We believe Apple intends to solely use our competitor’s modems rather than our modems in its next iPhone release.” But according to Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm’s head for its chip division, this doesn’t mean Qualcomm and Apple are done doing business together. Qualcomm believes it can still supply chips for Apple in the future.

Apple has been using both Intel and Qualcomm modems for different iPhone models over the years. And if Apple intends to use Intel this time around, expect the devices to have slower speeds. Different online testimonies have already said they’ve experienced stronger signal and LTE speeds on the iPhone models that use Qualcomm’s modems. A couple of days ago, Qualcomm and Ookla’s Speedtest.com released results showed that Qualcomm-powered Android devices were faster than Apple devices that used Intel’s modems (53 percent faster on T-Mobile and 40 percent faster on AT&T).

Source: GSMArena

‘Fallout 76’ will launch a closed beta test in October

Bethesda

Bethesda just posted on the Bethesda.net forum that its upcoming online role-playing game Fallout 76 will be holding its closed beta test this Octobers. Invites will be going out that month to select people who pre-ordered the game from a participating retailer. And the beta will start small and then grow over time as the game is set to launch on November 14^th. The beta will be available on the PC, Sony PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Xbox One. Those who pre-order will need to have a Bethesda.net account and will need to enter a redemption code found in their receipt or email confirmation to be eligible for an invite.

The game is still going through iterations, according to Bethesda. But the developer plans to share more information on the game during the Fallout 76 panel at QuakeCon, which is happening from August 9^th to 12^th at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.

Source: Variety

Captain America almost had a cameo in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’

Marvel

If one of the early drafts of Ant-Man and the Wasp was going to be followed, we would’ve seen the beloved Captain America show up in the movie. But as the film’s director Peyton Reed explained to RadioTimes.com, they wanted the movie to be a standalone film that’s “in its own world” and so cameos were foregone this time around.

Reed explained that in an earlier draft, Captain America would’ve shown up in a flashback scene that Luis (played by Michael Peña) narrates. He was supposed to recap the events of Captain America: Civil War. He said, “Early on, we had a version where we were going to do a quick version of the tarmac fight from Civil War, with some ridiculous thing where, you know, Captain America has Ant-Man as a baseball and throws him. Because the whole thing is Luis’ version of events, right? We came up with all these ridiculous visuals.” Now, we wish we could’ve seen that. Unfortunately, it wasn’t even shot so it’s not even going to be a bonus clip in the DVD.

Source: BGR