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Monday, May 11, 2015

Is Windows 10 the 'last version' of Windows? It doesn't matter

Talk of Windows 10 being the "last version" of the Microsoft operating system has been circulating for a year. What does this really mean? The answer: Not much.

Windows 10 is due to start rolling out around the middle of the year.Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET

As Microsoft made clear last year by skipping Windows 9 when going from Windows 8 to Windows 10, Windows version numbers are an arbitrary thing.

That's why all this talk about Windows 10, the upcoming version of Microsoft's operating system, being the "last version of Windows" is a "nothing to see here" moment.

Many of us Microsoft watchers had been saying that Threshold (Windows 10) would be the last major version of Windows for months, if not a year. (Windows 10 is due to start rolling out around the middle of the year.) Microsoft Developer Evangelist Jerry Nixon said the same thing last week at Ignite in a session titled "Tiles, Notifications and Action Center."

Cue the headlines claiming that Microsoft has now officially declared Windows 10 the end of the Windows trail.

As those who've been paying attention know, Windows 10 technically isn't the last Windows release. It might or might not be the last Windows release granted a new version number. But that's basically a branding decision.

Microsoft will continue to update Windows 10 with regular security updates, fixes and new features. Those who sign up for Microsoft's free Windows upgrade deals -- via which consumers running Windows 7 and 8 will get a free upgrade to Windows 10 -- agree as part of that deal to get all the updates to Windows 10 that Microsoft delivers pushed to them automatically.

(For those wondering what the "for the lifetime of the device" support statement means, in terms of the free Windows 10 upgrade deal, I asked Microsoft again last week for comment on this and was told the company isn't yet ready to disclose those particulars. I'll keep asking.)

Those who don't want all the updates, and want the option to stagger their delivery, can opt to go theWindows Update for Business route. Those who choose this option will have the choice of getting security fixes only. Also, despite headlines from last week claiming Patch Tuesday is now dead, this is not the case.

"Windows Update for Business can take responsibility for the timely distribution of security updates for customers for free. Customers that choose to distribute updates themselves will continue to receive the updates on the 2nd Tuesday of the month," said a Microsoft spokesperson when asked for an official denial regarding bogus reports of Patch Tuesday's demise.

Microsoft officials can opt at any time to call a set of updates to Windows 10 a new version. There are already at least three "bigger" sets of updates (that I've heard about from my sources) on the Windows 10 release timeline: An update this fall (possibly October), an update next spring and another in the fall of 2016. (The latter two are part of a wave codenamed "Redstone.")

Microsoft is unlikely to label any of these things Windows 11 or 12 or even lucky 13 because the company is trying to get its customers to understand its "Windows as a Service" positioning -- which, as my Windows Weekly podcast co-host Paul Thurrott notes, has already been the way Windows has been updated/serviced for a while now.

Microsoft also wants to try to get more Windows users on a single release, as evidenced by its"Windows 10 on 1 billion devices by 2018" goal.

Bottom line: Nobody panic. Windows 10 isn't the end of the road. Patch Tuesday isn't dead. Internet Explorer 11 will still be available with the desktop SKUs of Windows 10 for backward-compatibility reasons. (SKU, officially "stock-keeping unit," means version.) The words and positioning may be different, but especially for business customers, the Windows song remains largely the same.

Google Play now lets you preregister for upcoming apps and games

Sign up to preregister for a hot new game or app that's coming soon, you'll be the first to know when you can download it.

Google Play now lets users preregister for apps.Screenshot by Sarah Mitroff/CNET

Can't wait for a hot new app to appear in Google Play? According to a post over at Android Police, the Android app store now lets you preregister for forthcoming games and apps so that you'll be notified on your Android phone or tablet the second they're available to download.

The first app to get this honor is Terminator Genisys: Revolution, a game with no set release date or price quite yet. However, the app's landing page has all the other details you'd expect, including a video, screenshots and a description. The preregistration feature let the game's developer, Glu Mobile, advertise that the game is coming soon, before it's actually ready to play.

The downside is that because there's no release date or price, you'll never now how long you'll be waiting for that title to arrive or what it will cost when it does. What's more, there's no mention of device compatibility, so you won't know if the app will run on your phone or tablet or if it's available in your country until it goes live. In the future, I hope that Google lets developers add those details.The upside of this is that developers will be able to assure customers that their Android apps are in the works. So often today a popular new app shows up in the Apple App Store, leaving Android fans wondering if and when they'll be able to get their hands on it. A prime example is Twitter's Periscope, which is currently iOS-only, with no word on when it will show up in Google Play. Letting people preregister for an app sends a clear message that they will, eventually, be able to download it for their devices.

How to restore a Galaxy Note 2 from rooted to factory settings

Had enough of customised Android? Or has your Note 2 been bricked while you've been tinkering with it? You've come to the right place.

So, you've been tinkering with our favourite custom ROMs for the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but oh no! Something's gone wrong and you've ended up with a bricked phablet? Or perhaps you've just had enough of customised Android and want to go back to the stock ROM the phone came with? Either way, you've come to the right place.

If the Note 2 is bricked, you may still be able to get it up and running again using this guide. As long as you can boot into download mode, there's hope.

As per usual though, it should go without saying that tinkering with your phone like this isn't something that Samsung or your mobile network will be terrible happy about. CNET accepts no responsibility for things going wrong (or any more wrong, if you're already bricked). Got it? Grand.

Right, ready? Let's get cracking...

1. Backup!

If your phone isn't bricked, this is simple enough: backup any texts, photos, notes and so on before you begin. There are various handy apps for this on Google Play, and photos can just be dragged and dropped on to your PC. Contacts, of course, are synced with your Google account anyway, so assuming you're logged in you don't need to worry about these.

If it is bricked and can't boot your phone, you'll just have to accept some losses are possible, but you can at least get anything off your SD card if you have a card reader, or another phone.

2. Find that ROM

First, you'll need to download the Note 2 stock ROM. This article assumes yours is a UK model, the GT-N7100. If your phone isn't bricked, you can double-check this by going into the settings of your phone, and scrolling down to 'About Device'. Tap into that and scroll to Model Number -- if it's GT-N7100, you're golden and we can carry on.

Here's the stock ROM for the GT-N7100 flavour of Note 2. It weighs in at a whopping 1GB in size, so you may be waiting a little while for it to download.

While it's doing that, don't just twiddle your thumbs: make sure you've downloaded the Odin tool, and have the Samsung USB drivers installed.

To be clear, you should have both of these already if you need to return to the stock ROM (otherwise it's a mystery how your phone was bricked by a custom one), but I thought it best to cover it anyway. Besides, you've got nothing better to do than get this recap if your download of the stock ROM is going anything like as slowly as mine.

3. Back to stock

Once everything is in place, unzip the stock ROM and make a note of where you put the file within. It tips the scales at 1.42GB unzipped, so it shouldn't be easy to miss.

Open up Odin, press PDA and select that 1.42GB file, named N7100XXALJ1_N7100OXXALJ1_N7100XXALIH_HOME.tar.md5, which you may want to make a note of as a beautiful name for a child, or pet. 'Auto Reboot' and 'F: Reset Time' should be ticked, but everything else should not be. It was like this by default for me.

Boot your Note 2 into download mode. You do this by holding down Power, Menu and Volume Down (not Volume Up -- that's a whole different kettle of fish). You'll see a warning about the dangers of custom ROMs, but you know about that already, right? Now press Volume Up to continue.

(Apologies for the shaky photo -- if you've done this yourself you might be able to relate to my quivering hands.) The image on the screen will turn to a green android with the caption, 'Downloading... Do not turn off target !!'. Connect your Note 2 to your computer with the USB cable. Odin will react to this -- the ID:COM box in the upper left of the screen will turn yellow, and you'll get a message saying 'Added!!' in the message box in the bottom left. You can now press Start, and let the ROM installation begin.

Once that's done -- it'll take a good few minutes, but there's a status bar to keep you company -- the phone will reboot itself, with the familiar Samsung boot screen. It'll probably take longer than you're used to, so be patient.

If after 10 minutes it still hasn't loaded, something's probably up. Reboot the phone into Recovery Mode by holding down Power, Menu and Volume Up (Up this time, not down) and scroll down to 'wipe data/factory reset', and select it. Reboot the phone and hopefully you should be good to go this time. (This did the trick for mine.)

4. Done!

Aaaaand we're back! There's the familiar sight of your Note 2 asking you to select a language. Now you'll just have to connect to your Wi-Fi and log back into Google and Samsung (if you want to), and then start the thankless task of getting your phone setup just how you like it all over again.

That's it -- you're done, back with a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 with the stock ROM as nature (or Samsung at least) intended. This means that if you want to customise it again, you'll need to go through the root procedure again. Here's a handy recap if you've forgotten how.

How to set up a smart garden for free

You can use the free Koubachi application to get all of the care advice and email reminders you need to keep your plants flourishing without paying a penny.

The price of connected plant sensors lessens the lure of the smart garden for many cost-conscious consumers. Yes, it would be cool if technology could give your plants a voice, make care recommendations, and send you reminders, but why would you want to pay $60 to $120 to monitor a houseplant that you only paid $10 for in the first place?

Fortunately, you can set up a smart gardening system, complete with reminders and recommendations, and it doesn't have to cost you a penny. Here's how you can use the Internet to help you care for your plants for free.

Get a free Koubachi account

A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed the Koubachi Wi-Fi Plant Sensor. The device worked well, if a bit slowly, but I still felt the high cost was hard to justify. One reason for this was the capability of the Koubachi app, which, with a little more setup on your part, can do just about everything the sensor could, without having to pay for the sensor. Thus, the Koubachi app is the key to free smart gardening, and I'll walk you through what that setup looks like.

You can download the Koubachi app for iOS or Android, you can also sign up on the website and access the same system from any Web-enabled device.

Identify your plant

Once you have the app up and running, you can use Koubachi's system to help you identify the plant or plants you'll be monitoring. If you know your plant, skip this step and search the database by name. If not, you'll have the easiest time with the beta version of Plant Finder on the iOS app. Plant Finder will guide you through the process with step by step questions and pictures, and you can skip any questions you don't know. For a novice, it's the easiest way to identify your plant out there.

Unfortunately, it's not yet available for the Web-based platform or Android. The Android app will limit you to browsing pictures and searching by name. On the website, you can narrow your choices by stem and leaf criteria.

Temperature, light, misting, and fertilizer

Next, you'll want to pull up the info Koubachi has on your specific plant. There, you'll find its preferences for sunlight and temperature in specific and understandable terms. Now you'll know if your plant likes direct sunlight, shade, or anything in between. The info will also list the ideal temperature ranges for your plant in both summer and winter. Follow these basics when deciding where to place your plant, and you're done with temperature and light.

Use your plant's info page to get sunlight and temperature recommendations.Screenshot by Andrew Gebhart/CNET

For upkeep with misting and fertilizer, Koubachi will give you scheduling recommendations right away, based on your specific plant. My giant yucca didn't require misting, but Koubachi instructed me to give my coffee plant a full misting every four days. Similarly, the system will tell you how often to fertilize and the type of fertilizer to use.

With or without the sensor, you'll get misting and fertilizer recommendations instantly.Screenshot by Andrew Gebhart/CNET

Customize reminders for these tasks, and you'll start receiving emails when your plants need something. Just make sure to tell the system when you've misted or fertilized so it can update the schedule for you and keep the reminders accurate.

Within a couple of minutes of downloading the app, you'll have light, temperature, misting and fertilizer covered.

Calibrate a watering schedule

Finally, you'll need to help Koubachi with the last and most important piece of day-to-day upkeep: watering. Koubachi needs to know how long it takes the soil around your plant to dry out after you've watered your plant. Once it does, it'll remember that time frame and send you reminders for this as well.

Koubachi calls this learning process "calibration," and it's as simple as the rest, but it does take a little more time. Start by fully watering your plant. If you don't know how to fully water your plant, Koubachi can give you more detailed instructions, but you'll have to manipulate the system a little to see these. When you first start calibrating, Koubachi simply tells you to water, no specifics provided. To get these details, tell the system the plant is dry. It'll be surprised this happened so quickly and ask if you're sure. Confirm, and it'll schedule your next watering, complete with the exact watering instructions for your plant.

Koubachi gives great watering instructions, but you might have to look for them.Screenshot by Andrew Gebhart/CNET

Now, restart the calibration. Getting these specifics is more of a pain than it should be, but if you need the help, it'll really only take an extra minute or two.

Once your plant is watered, you'll need to check the soil moisture regularly. For a sensitive plant, check daily. Most of the time, checking every other day will be fine. Don't worry -- Koubachi will send you reminders for the calibration process as well.

To check the moisture, take a pencil and insert it an inch into the soil. When you pull it out, dirt will stick to the pencil if it's still wet. Once its dry, the dirt will fall right off as you pull the pencil from the soil. Update Koubachi, and you'll have a set watering schedule. You can even adjust the schedule as necessary if you have an outdoor plant. Just tell Koubachi whenever you water or if it rains. It'll keep the same reminder interval and simply shift it accordingly.

Dirt will stick to your pencil if the soil is still moist.Colin West McDonald/CNET

Your pencil will look clean when the soil is dry.Colin West McDonald/CNET

If you like Koubachi's app and don't want to calibrate yourself, paying for $99 for the indoor sensor or $129 for the outdoor version can provide added convenience. Alternatively, the PlantLink from Oso Technologies costs $79 and can take care of the moisture part for you.

However, if you're willing to help Koubachi calibrate, you can setup connected plant care, get advice on temperature and light, and receive email reminders for misting, fertilizing, and watering, all for free.

How to take sharp smartphone photos

With a few simple tips, sharp photos from your smartphone are within easy reach.

Struggling to get your smartphone photos looking sharp?

Here are a few ways to ensure your mobile photography is crisp rather than mushy.

Many of these principles also apply to photos taken with conventional cameras, so don't feel left out if mobile photography isn't your thing.

Hold it steady

Motion blur can make photos look soft. The first step to ensure sharp photos is to have a stabilization system for the handset.

There are several tripods on the market designed specifically for smartphones. Otherwise, if they are too cumbersome for point-and-shoot moments, try using both hands to firmly grip the camera before taking the shot. Holding a deep breath before taking a photo can also reduce any shakiness.

Mini tripods designed for phones include the Joby GripTight.Lexy Savvides/CNET

Camera shake can also occur when you touch the screen to take a photo. To reduce the possibility of movement, use your phone's self-timer mode.

Some handsets also have physical buttons that can be used to take the photos rather than pressing an on-screen icon. Even headphones can be used to trigger the camera shutter without needing to touch the screen.

The next option is to use a handset that includes image stabilization. Some phones that include optical image stabilization include the Apple iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Nexus 6 and Lumia 930.

Otherwise, digital/electronic image stabilization is either available through the native camera app or third-party apps. OnAndroid handsets, look through the settings menu and see if there is an anti-shake option like on the Galaxy S5 (right).

For iOS, ProCamera has an anti-shake feature included, while Android users can try Camera FV-5.

Clean the lens

Have you cleaned your lens lately? It might need a bit of attention if your phone has come into contact with sticky fingers or rolled around in a pocket all day.

Smudges and residue left on the lens can act a bit like petroleum jelly: images look soft, smeary and out of focus. Bring back clarity by gently wiping the lens with a soft cloth. Ideally, use one that is designed for cleaning lenses or glasses.

Get the focus right

Sometimes a lack of sharpness comes down to the subject being out of focus. Most smartphones let you tap directly on the screen to choose where you want to set the point of focus, avoiding autofocus (AF) mishaps.

Using a feature called AF lock can also help keep focus exactly where you want it to be, even if you recompose the frame.

Press and hold on the screen to bring up AE/AF Lock on the iPhone.Screenshot by Lexy Savvides/CNET

On the iPhone, press and hold the focus square over the desired point. The square will flash, and an AE/AF lock option should appear at the base of the frame, showing that the exposure and focus have been locked. To change or remove the lock, just tap again on the screen.

Some Android devices will need a dedicated app to help lock focus. One such app is Camera FV-5 in either the lite or paid versions. Focus lock is called AF-L in this particular app.

Look for the light

Shooting in ample light will generally deliver better results than low light. Unlike their point-and-shoot companions, phone cameras have a fixed aperture lens. To alter the exposure, the phone has to adjust shutter speed and ISO rather than aperture.

With plenty of light to work with, getting a sharp shot is easy.Lexy Savvides/CNET

To get the correct exposure in lower light, the phone camera has to hold the shutter open for a longer period of time, thereby increasing the chance of blur, shake and noise.

Also, avoid using digital zoom where possible as this can make photos look very soft and mushy.

Sharpen with apps

Even with meticulous technique, some photos still need a little help. In this case, try editing photos using an app, or importing them into a program like Photoshop to get them up to scratch.

Many third-party apps such as Snapseed (free for iOS and Android) have an option to apply a sharpening effect to photos during processing. Make sure to inspect the image at full resolution periodically, as over-sharpening can look very obvious.

How to make your own custom bokeh

Learn how to turn out of focus areas in photos into fun custom shapes.

Bokeh is a word to describe the quality and appearance of the out of focus areas in a photograph.

In this tutorial I'll show you how to change the shape of the bokeh in your photographs by making a lens cap.

There are several custom bokeh options you can buy ready made, and there's even a Lensbaby kit. But where's the fun in buying when you can DIY?

What you need:

Digital SLR and lens (ideally with a wide maximum aperture such as f/1.8)
Black cardboard
X-acto or safety knife
Black duct tape

Step one: Cut a long strip of black cardboard that will fit around your lens. Tape it together to form a cylinder that sits snugly around the lens barrel.

Step two: Trace the outline of your lens on another piece of black cardboard. Draw a slightly larger circle (about 0.5-inch) around this.

Step three: In the centre of the smallest circle, draw a shape for your custom bokeh. It can be a heart, spiral, lightning bolt or whatever else you please.

Cut out this shape carefully using the blade. You can also use a shaped hole punch to get a cleaner look. Repeat steps two and three as many times as you like to create different shapes.

Step four: Cut around the larger circle to remove it from the surrounding cardboard. Then, cut in from the larger circle to the inner circle to create tabs.

Cut from the big circle into the smaller circle to create tabs.Lexy Savvides/CNET

Fold the tabs back. Use tape to gently fold and stick the tabs to the outside of the cylinder you made in step one. Make sure to use enough tape to prevent light leaks.

Step five: Once the cover is complete, all that's left to do is take some fun photographs! Find a situation where there are multiple light sources. Night cityscapes work well, otherwise you can grab some Christmas lights and photograph those.

This shot was taken with Christmas lights hanging in the background and a small light on the subject in the foreground in an otherwise dark room. Exposure: 1/50, f/1.8, ISO 800Lexy Savvides/CNET

In aperture priority mode or manual mode, open up your aperture to the maximum value your lens accommodates. This is a small f/ number. For example, a 50mm lens may have a maximum aperture of f/1.8 which you will want to use to let in the most light.

Set your focus on a foreground subject without the bokeh hood on the lens. Then, place the hood on the lens and adjust your exposure accordingly.

How to connect Automatic to the Nest thermostat

You can now connect your Automatic-equipped car to your home's Nest thermostat.

Last week as CES got under way, a slew of companies announced integration plans with Nest, the Google-owned company better known for its smart thermostat.

One of those companies is Automatic, the maker of a small adapter that scores your driving habits in an effort to help you save gas, and drive safer. Technically Automatic and Nest already played nicely with one another, but it required an additional service to do the legwork. By eliminating a middle man, the two devices can now talk directly to one another.

An example of the rule creation process on Automatic's website for Nest.Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

To connect the two devices, visit Automatic.com/Nest. Follow the prompts to sign in to both your Automatic and Nest accounts. Once the two accounts are connected, you'll need to enter your mobile number. Nest requires you to confirm via text when a rule attempts to change the status of your thermostat such as from Home to Away. This extra step is a bit puzzling, if not counterproductive, from an automation standpoint.

The example rules provided allow for you to set your thermostat to Home or Away depending on where your car is turned on or off. You can also choose to have Automatic provide an ETA of your arrival home to Nest, which in turn uses that information to cool or heat your house timed to your arrival. Additionally, you can create your own rules based on a specific location and time of day.