[Update: Now Down] Apple acquires Dark Sky and will shut down the weather app for Android and Wear OS

Update 1 (08/02/2020 @ 01:55 PM ET): As of yesterday, the Dark Sky app is no longer working. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on March 31, 2020, is preserved below.

Apple has always been about improving its own ecosystem and growing and improving its “walled garden,” but one app from this ecosystem that has not seen a major overhaul in quite some time is its own Weather app. It has not received one since iOS 7 was first released, in fact — and that was 7 years ago, in 2013. There were some alternatives, however, and one of them included Dark Sky, an alternative weather app for iOS, Android, and Wear OS. Now, the app has been purchased by Apple, as they’ve shared in a blog post.

One of the very first immediate effects of this is that the app will no longer be available for any non-Apple devices. The app will soon be removed from Google Play, so it can’t be downloaded for Android phones or Wear OS devices. For existing Android users, though, the app will continue to work through July 1st, at which point the app will be completely discontinued and existing customers will receive a refund. iOS users, though, are still able to purchase the app through the App Store and will continue to be able to use it. The app has also been rebranded as “Dark Sky by Apple”.

Despite how invested Apple is with their ecosystem of apps, they don’t normally do this. Shazam, for example, was acquired by Apple in 2018, yet they still keep an Android version of the app active. One of the possible following steps for Apple, then, is that they might roll it into iOS natively at some point, merging it with the existing Weather app. Web services are also being gutted together with the Android app.

As for their API, it will also be phased out, albeit much later on: it will continue to work through 2021 and will be killed off come 2022. Dark Sky serves as a weather provider for apps and services like Carrot Weather, DuckDuckGo, Microsoft, Yelp, and more, and this will affect these apps, so it needs to be a more gradual phase-out.

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Update 1: Shut Down

Dark Sky was originally scheduled to be shut down on July 1st, but that was delayed until August 1st. As of yesterday, however, the app is no longer working on Android. RIP.

The post [Update: Now Down] Apple acquires Dark Sky and will shut down the weather app for Android and Wear OS appeared first on xda-developers.

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Microsoft Surface Book 3 15-inch Review: The Best Laptop Form Factor!

The Microsoft Surface Book 3 is Microsoft’s most powerful laptop. It’s also Microsoft’s most interesting laptop. See, the Surface Book series isn’t like the Surface Pro or Surface Laptop series. The Surface Pro is a Windows tablet with an attachable keyboard and a trackpad. The Surface Laptop is just a Microsoft-made laptop. The Surface Book takes the best of both worlds—a laptop with a removable screen that turns into a tablet.

Microsoft Surface Book 3 Specifications

Tech Specs	Surface Book 3 13″	Surface Book 3 15″
Display	Screen: 13.5” PixelSense Display Resolution: 3000 x 2000 (267 PPI) Aspect ratio: 3:2 Contrast ratio: 1600:1 10 point multi-touch G5	Screen: 15” PixelSense Display Resolution: 3240 x 2160, (260 PPI) Aspect ratio: 3:2 Contrast ratio: 1600:1 10 point multi-touch G5
Available Models	Quad-core 10th gen Intel® Core i5-1035G7 processor Or Quad-core 10th Gen Intel® Core i7-1065G7 Processor	Quad-core 10th Gen Intel® Core i7-1065G7
Graphics	Intel® i5-1035G7 models: Intel® Iris Plus Graphics Or Intel® i7-1065G7 models: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 with Max-Q Design with 4GB GDDR5 graphics memory	Intel® i7-1065G7 models NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti with Max-Q Design with 6GB GDDR6 graphics memory
Windows OS	Ships with 64-bit Windows 10 Pro and Home	Ships with 64-bit Windows 10 Pro and Home
Dimensions	Intel Core i5: 12.3” x 9.14” x 0.51”-0.90” (312 mm x 232 mm x 13 mm-23 mm) Intel Core i7: 12.3” x 9.14” x 0.59”-0.90” (312 mm x 232 mm x 15 mm-23 mm)	Intel Core i7: 13.5” x 9.87” x 0.568-0.90” (343 mm x 251 mm x 15 mm-23 mm)
Weight	Intel Core i5 Total – 1534 g (3.38 lbs) Tablet – 719 g (1.59 lbs) Intel Core i7 Total – 1642 g (3.62 lbs) Tablet – 719 g (1.59 lbs)	Intel Core i7 Total – 1905 g (4.20 lbs) Tablet – 817 g (1.80 lbs)
Battery	Connected to keyboard base: Up to 15.5 hours of typical device usage	Connected to keyboard base: Up to 17.5 hours of typical device usage
Wireless	Wi-Fi 6: 802.11ax compatible Bluetooth Wireless 5.0 technology	Wi-Fi 6: 802.11ax compatible Bluetooth Wireless 5.0 technology Xbox Wireless built-in
Ports	2 x USB-A (version 3.1 Gen 2) 1 x USB-C (version 3.1 Gen 2 with USB Power Delivery revision 3.0) 3.5mm headphone jack 2 x Surface Connect ports (one on keyboard base, one on tablet) Full-size SDXC card reader Compatible with Surface Dial on- and off-screen interaction	2 x USB-A (version 3.1 Gen 2) 1 x USB-C (version 3.1 Gen 2 with USB Power Delivery revision 3.0) 3.5mm headphone jack 2 x Surface Connect ports (one on keyboard base, one on tablet) Full-size SDXC card reader Compatible with Surface Dial on- and off-screen interaction
Security	HW TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in	HW TPM 2.0 chip for enterprise security Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in
Sensors	Ambient light sensor Proximity sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer	Ambient light sensor Proximity sensor Accelerometer Gyroscope Magnetometer
Cameras	Windows Hello face authentication camera (front-facing) 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p HD video 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p HD video	Windows Hello face authentication camera (front-facing) 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p HD video 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p HD video
Audio	Dual far-field Studio Mics Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos®	Dual far-field Studio Mics Front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos®
Keyboard and Trackpad	Full-size, backlit keyboard with 1.55mm of full key travel Glass trackpad with anti-fingerprint coating and improved multi-finger gestures	Full-size, backlit keyboard with 1.55mm of full key travel Glass trackpad with anti-fingerprint coating and improved multi-finger gestures
Modes	Laptop Mode, Tablet Mode, View Mode or Studio Mode	Laptop Mode, Tablet Mode, View Mode or Studio Mode
In the Box	Intel Core i5 65W Surface Power Supply w/USB-A (5W) charging port Intel Core i7 102W Surface Power Supply w/USB-A (7W) charging port Quick Start Guide Safety and warranty documents	127W Surface Power Supply w/USB-A (7W) charging port Quick Start Guide

About this review: I received the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Book 3 from Microsoft on May 12th, 2020. I later purchased the Surface Book 3 13.5-inch at retail price for personal and school use.

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Microsoft Surface Book 3: Design

When shopping for laptops, you’ll find that most laptops have the same basic design. There’s a display, a hinge that can bend, and a body with a keyboard. You open up the lid and there’s a keyboard with a screen there. If I asked anyone to describe a laptop, this would be the most basic description you would get. In the most basic sense, the Microsoft Surface Book 3 15-inch matches this description. When you use it normally, it is a laptop. It has the hinge, the screen, and the keyboard. By all measures, it is a laptop.

The difference comes with the overall form factor. See, the Microsoft Surface Book 3 has two parts to it. You have the display and the keyboard. The display is a little more than just a display, though: It’s a fully functioning tablet. All the internals from the CPU to RAM to SSD to battery are stored behind the display. That means when you push the release button on the keyboard, the display pops off and you have a fully functional Windows tablet.

The keyboard is what makes this a Surface Book instead of a Surface Pro. The keyboard provides a full-sized typing experience along with a dedicated GPU and extra battery. That means when the screen is docked to the keyboard, you get longer battery life and some extra graphics horsepower for gaming or CUDA-accelerated tasks.

Something that gives me some nice throwbacks to the old Lenovo laptops is the rotating screen. When you detach the display, you can flip it around and actually fold it down. You can use this in what is commonly referred to as “tent mode” and what I like to call “thick tablet mode.” Thick tablet mode is basically just going to get you extra battery life while using your Surface Book flat on a table. It’s great for taking notes or drawing, but since the device needs to be flat, it does limit what you can do. Tent mode is absolutely fantastic for gaming with an Xbox controller or watching movies. You don’t have to worry about the keyboard being in the way, it’s just a full-screen experience. The Microsoft Surface Book 3 has front-facing speakers, so the audio is directed right at you which makes for a fantastic media consumption experience since the display is high resolution.

When I was using the laptop, I found that I was using it mostly in the laptop-style. I’m thankful that I have the option to switch to tablet or tent mode, though. A lot of my friends have bought a tablet but then later regretted not getting a laptop, or they bought a laptop and regretted not getting a tablet. With the Microsoft Surface Book 3, you get both form factors.

It’s refreshing to be able to look at something on your laptop and just press a button to take the display off the keyboard and continue what you were doing. Instead of being stuck at a desk or awkwardly holding the laptop, you have a full-powered Windows tablet whenever you want it. Few other devices can offer this same experience with the same level of polish as the Microsoft Surface Book 3.

Microsoft Surface Book 3: Hardware

Before I get into the hardware part of this review, I want to be clear: the Microsoft Surface Book 3 is not an affordable computer. If you are going to be using this computer as a normal laptop for basic web browsing, document editing, schoolwork, etc., there are a lot of laptops out there that offer greater value. This is a device meant for people that want both a laptop and a tablet without having to carry around multiple devices.

The 15-inch Surface Book 3 that Microsoft sent me came with a 512GB NVMe SSD and 32GB of LPDDR4x RAM. There are a few different options for SSD and RAM capacities ranging from 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM to 2TB of storage and 32GB of RAM. Neither the RAM nor the SSD are user-replaceable and are soldered to the motherboard.

Across all 15-inch models, you will find the 10th generation Intel Core i7-1065G7. For consumers, all 15-inch models will come with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti with 6GB of GDDR6 graphics memory. The enterprise-grade 15-inch Microsoft Surface Book 3 has an option for an NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 GPU with 6GB of GDDR6 graphics memory. The GPUs are only available while docked in the keyboard because they’re actually part of the keyboard half and are not placed behind the display like most other parts.

The display on the Microsoft Surface Book 3 is a 15-inch PixelSense display with a resolution of 3240 x 2160 with a 260 ppi. It has an aspect ratio of 3:2 and a contrast ratio of 1600:1. It supports 10 point multi-touch. The Surface Book 3 has a fantastic display, but it doesn’t get too bright while using it outside. There’s nothing jaw-dropping about it either, I would have loved to have seen an OLED display or high refresh rate, but the display is good anyway and I can’t complain too much. It also supports Active Pen, so you can use any active pen stylus on the computer. Both the left and right side of the display have magnets to hold a Surface Pen if you choose to get one.

The number of ports on computers has become less and less in recent years, but luckily Microsoft decided to provide a good amount of them on the Surface Book 3. On the left side of the keyboard, there are two full-sized USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports and a full-sized SD Card slot. On the right side of the keyboard, there is a Surface Connect port and a single USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port. On the top left of the tablet/body, there is a headphone jack. There is also a Surface Connect port at the bottom of the tablet, but this is mainly used for connecting the tablet to the keyboard to become the laptop.

The keyboard itself is a full-sized keyboard without the number pad. It uses membrane switches, which is expected for most laptops. All around, I find it to be an absolutely fantastic keyboard. This is one of my favorite keyboards to type on, outside of my usual mechanical keyboard. The trackpad is right below the keyboard and there’s nothing too special about it. It’s a Microsoft trackpad, though, which means it feels very good to use. I do wish it was a little larger, though. Apple made the right move increasing the size on the Macbooks.

For battery life, Microsoft doesn’t provide battery capacity numbers but they do claim about 17.5 hours of battery life on the Surface Book 3 while it’s connected to the keyboard. Of course, not everyone is going to get the same battery life. I was able to get around 10 hours of constant usage out of the device. My usage ranged from playing a little No Man’s Sky to watching videos on YouTube and editing documents in Microsoft Word. In tablet mode, I noticed battery life to be around two hours. This device is obviously laptop-first but there is still the added flexibility of using it as a tablet even if it doesn’t last as long. The computer has a 127W charger in the box and charges over the Surface Connect port.

Microsoft includes two front-facing speakers inside the front bezel of the display. They are good but not fantastic. They do support Dolby Atmos, which is a plus if you’re into their tuning. In that front bezel, we also have the 2 dual far-field studio mics. In between those microphones is a 5MP 1080p HD front-facing camera and a Windows Hello IR camera for secure facial recognition. On the back, we have an 8MP 1080p HD camera with autofocus.

Windows Hello is by far one of the best features that should be available across all Windows computers. As soon as you open the screen, the computer scans your face and unlocks it. It can’t easily be tricked by a picture and just feels very seamless. It’s by far one of the best additions to the Microsoft Surface Book 3 that makes it a great computer.

As for connectivity, the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Book 3 supports Wi-Fi 6, or 802.11ax. It is using an Intel wireless card which is soldered to the motherboard. The laptop supports Bluetooth 5.0 but not the slightly newer Bluetooth 5.1 or 5.2 standards. Included in only the 15-inch model is an Xbox Wireless adapter built-in. This means you won’t need to connect an Xbox controller to your 15-inch Surface Book 3 using Bluetooth, like on most other machines, as the device supports the same connection used by the Xbox itself. It’s very nice to have this included and is great for people who have the Xbox One but not the Xbox One S. The Xbox One S controller came with Bluetooth as standard while the Xbox One controller did not.

Microsoft made the Surface Book 3 in just one color, Platinum. It’s a muted gray that I think looks pretty good. I did end up applying a skin on my Surface Book 3, though. The body of the computer is made of magnesium so it’s fairly light but durable. I only say “fairly” light because it does come in at 4.20lbs, or 1,905g, including the keyboard. This isn’t really heavy for a laptop like this, but at the same time, it isn’t really light. Most of the weight does come from the keyboard with its extra battery and GPU, so when you undock the tablet, it feels much lighter.

Something I also wanted to talk about before getting into the performance is thermal/heat management. When doing most normal tasks, I really never had any complaints about the computer overheating. The PC really never throttled and the fans barely kicked in. One great advantage of having the CPU and most internals behind the display is that when you use the laptop on your lap, you won’t feel any heat. The laptop isn’t going to burn your legs like a lot of other high-performance laptops might.

Performance

The performance on a laptop can be covered through a few different lenses. We can talk about video editing performance, gaming performance, compiling performance, synthetic benchmark performance, and more. For this review, I’m going to focus on video editing, gaming, and development.

I tested the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Book 3 against a few different computers to get a comparison between the machines. The other PCs I used for comparison are the Huawei MateBook X Pro i7 2018 with the Intel i7-8550U and NVIDIA GTX MX150 GPU with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD; the Surface Laptop 3 with the Intel i7-1065G7 CPU with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD; and my gaming desktop with an Intel i7-9700K and NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti along with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD. Obviously, these machines are not meant to match a gaming desktop, but I still wanted to throw it in to see how well the Surface Book 3 fares.

Specs	Surface Book 3 15-inch	Surface Laptop 3 i7	Huawei MateBook X Pro i7 (2018)	Custom Desktop
CPU	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz Base speed: 1.50 GHz Cores: 4 Logical processors: 8	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz Base speed: 1.50 GHz Cores: 4 Logical processors: 8	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz Base speed: 1.99 GHz Cores: 4 Logical processors: 8	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700K CPU @ 3.60GHz Base speed: 3.60 GHz Cores: 8 Logical processors: 8
Dedicated GPU	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti	N/A	NVIDIA GeForce GTX M150	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
RAM	32GB LPDDR4x @ 3773 MHz	16GB LPDDR4x @ 3773 MHz	16GB LPDDR3 @ 2133 MHz	32GB DDR5 @ 3200 MHz
SSD	512GB PCIe NVMe SSD	512GB SSD	512GB SSD	1TB NVMe SSD

I know this comparison between three laptops might not be fair, but Microsoft did tell me this was supposed to be as powerful as a desktop. At the same time, it is a laptop-tablet convertible, so comparing against a true modern laptop and a 2-year-old flagship laptop gives a good comparison between current-gen and previous-gen devices.

For the testing environment, I tested each computer in the same situation across all benchmarks. All the computers were plugged in and set to the maximum performance power mode. I closed all background apps besides Google Chrome, Telegram, Discord, and any needed benchmarking tools. This is to give a real-life usage situation. Not everyone is going to want to close every app running on the machine while using it.

For the video editing test, I took a 5 minute 4K 60fps recording from my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, opened it in Davinci Resolve, made a few edits, and rendered the resulting video at 4K 60fps. To make sure the file was the same, I copied the same project to each computer.

Laptops Tested	Huawei MateBook X Pro i7 2018	Surface Laptop 3 i7	Surface Book 3 15-inch	Custom Desktop
Time (m:s)	26:42	24:21	15:01	3:22

As you would expect, my desktop PC performed the best.  Surprisingly, the Surface Laptop 3 outperformed the Huawei MateBook X Pro. Resolve does seem to be more CPU than GPU intensive, which could make sense. The Microsoft Surface Book 3 obviously outdid both laptops by a good 10-minute margin.

For the gaming test, I took three different games and ran them on each computer using Fraps to record the minimum FPS, maximum FPS, and average FPS. I tested each PC in Overwatch and Hyper Scape. Each game was set to the same settings across machines. These aren’t the most graphics-intensive games but they are games I could see being popular on laptops. I did also run a few games like No Man’s Sky, Sea of Thieves, Destiny 2, and My Friend Pedro, and all of them were able to run at a stable 60fps at 1080p.

Overwatch

Laptops Tested	Huawei MateBook X Pro i7 2018	Surface Laptop 3 i7	Surface Book 3 15-inch	Custom Desktop
Min. FPS	12	1	45	49
Max. FPS	50	62	73	223
Average FPS	41.532	34.567	64.573	167.165

Overwatch FPS Test

Hyper Scape

Laptops Tested	Huawei MateBook X Pro i7 2018	Surface Laptop 3 i7	Surface Book 3 15-inch	Custom Desktop
Min. FPS	20	N/A	57	198
Max. FPS	55	N/A	63	300
Average FPS	42.086	N/A	59.933	238.573

Hyper Scape

As you would expect, my desktop performed the best with the Microsoft Surface Book 3 coming in second. Right behind that was the MateBook X Pro and in a not-at-all shocking last place was the Surface Laptop 3. The margin between the Surface Laptop 3 and MateBook X Pro was smaller than expected seeing as the MateBook X Pro has a dedicated GPU while the Surface Laptop 3 has Intel Iris Plus integrated graphics.

Unfortunately, I was not able to test the Surface Laptop 3 in Hyper Scape. Hyper Scape has a minimum graphics driver level required to play, and unfortunately, Microsoft had not pushed that driver yet. Microsoft doesn’t allow the newest drivers for included parts, but instead tests and approves their own with each update. This is for stability purposes and is generally appreciated though it causes issues in cases like this.

In the development test, I originally wanted to see how much time it would take for each machine to compile a full LineageOS ROM using WSL2, AKA Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, for one of my phones. Unfortunately, this was unrealistic to run on each device due to the storage size requirement and the amount of time it would take to run on each device. So instead, I just built Lineage OS 17.1 for the OnePlus 7 Pro on just the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Book 3. In total, it took 5 hours and 8 minutes to compile the ROM using WSL2 (Ubuntu). This is by no means fast but about expected for the specs of the computer. This machine would thus be a great companion for those who have a build server or a more powerful PC at home to build the ROMs.

3 hours and 31 minutes into building Lineage OS for the OnePlus 7 Pro on the Surface Book 3. pic.twitter.com/px5hnVghcK

— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) July 30, 2020

As a more generic CPU and compute benchmark, I also ran Geekbench on all four devices. The scores are pretty in line with the expected values of the CPUs and GPUs on each laptop.

Laptops Tested	MateBook X Pro i7 2018	Surface Laptop 3 i7	Surface Book 3 15-inch	Custom Desktop
Single Core	928	800	758	1213
Multi Core	2720	2673	3169	6536
Compute (Vulkan)	8854	6236	41514	74931
Compute (CUDA)	8512	N/A	59462	50536
Compute (OpenCL)	8737	5725	53574	53156

The performance of the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Book 3 is all around great. While it is not as fast as my desktop, obviously, it is plenty fast. It’s within spitting distance of the other comparison laptops in terms of computing performance and can easily run most games you throw at it, as long as you don’t push the settings too hard. It can definitely render and edit videos but it won’t be as good as a powerful desktop, once again.

Overall, I have no complaints about the performance, and while the 45W TDP CPU would have been nice, the 25W chip is more than powerful enough and doesn’t have any of the throttling issues the 45W would have had.

Software

The Surface Book 3 is, of course, a Microsoft product. That means it runs Windows 10. The unit Microsoft sent me came preloaded with Windows 10 Pro 1903 which was then updated to Windows 10 Pro 1909. That doesn’t really matter, though as Windows on this device is the same Windows that you can expect on other Windows devices. So instead of reviewing Windows 10 as a whole, I’m just going to go over a couple of things that I really like about Windows on the Surface Book 3.

Before we get into that, though, there is one thing that you get on the Surface that you won’t get with other brands—stable updates. With Windows, generally, each company supports each part separately. That means if you have a laptop from Dell with an NVIDIA GPU, Intel CPU, and Broadcom wireless card, each of those companies would push their own driver updates for the respective parts. The same goes for Microsoft—except Microsoft tests each driver update and are the ones who push only stable and tested drivers to the computers. This means you won’t have to worry about an NVIDIA driver update killing performance or an Intel wireless driver update making connectivity worse. Microsoft also exercises control over the rollout, so if a bug does sneak past, the update is paused before it reaches a wider audience.

The first thing I want to mention, as XDA is all about Android phones, is the Your Phone app. This is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s ecosystem as a whole. Your Phone lets you access most parts of your Android phone from your Windows 10 machine. On any Windows 10 machine with any Android phone, you can access your messages, phone calls, pictures, music controls, and notifications. To connect Your Phone to your phone, you just need to use the Your Phone Companion app from the Google Play Store.

If you’re using a Samsung phone, the Your Phone suite gets even better. Samsung and Microsoft partnered for better connectivity between the phone and the computer. The Link to Windows service, also known as Your Phone Companion, is built into the phone. This allows for clipboard syncing between the phone and computer. It also allows for remote connectivity of the phone screen. You’re able to mirror your phone to your computer and control it remotely. Both of these features are in addition to the aforementioned suite of phone controls. It’s all-around great and I really like it!

Another great feature is on the gaming side. Microsoft has greatly improved the Xbox Game Bar from its earlier version. Microsoft added new widgets to the screen where you can have easy access to certain information or controls. For example, the Spotify widget lets you control music or switch playlists. It even integrates with Spotify Connect, so you can control music playing on your phone from the Xbox Game Bar.

The widgets aren’t the only thing that makes the Xbox Game Bar great. There are three specific Capture settings that let you take screen recordings, screenshots, or, if enabled, save a 15-second to 10-minute background recording. A built-in high-quality screen recorder is absolutely fantastic and one of my favorite things about Xbox Game Bar.

There are a lot more features in Windows besides this that are useful for this laptop and tablet form factor. As a student, the one I think is the best is Microsoft Whiteboard. It’s a full-fledged whiteboard but you’re able to change the background to lined paper or graphing paper. You can change the color or type of marker on the board. You can even share a link to it and have friends or teammates write on the same virtual whiteboard as you at the same time!

One new feature on the developer side is Windows Terminal. It’s just like the old command prompt or PowerShell terminal, except its command prompt, PowerShell, and Linux subsystem in one. You have full access to all command lines in one application. It makes life really easy and it’s been my go-to for tinkering since I installed it.

There are a lot of small things throughout Windows 10 that make it an all-around great computing experience. These same experiences are what makes the Microsoft Surface Book 3 a great computer.

Should you buy the Microsoft Surface Book 3?

Unfortunately, this laptop is by no means a great value PC. It has a less powerful CPU and GPU with less storage than the competition for the same price. For the $2,799 that this laptop costs for the 512GB storage and 32GB RAM spec Microsoft sent me, you could get a significantly much more powerful computer. You could get something with the new Ryzen 4000 series CPU or a 45W i9 CPU from Intel. You could get a Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition with a 300Hz FHD display, RTX 2070 GPU, with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for $200 less. That laptop is by far a better value product, and even that isn’t the best value compared to other laptops. And we aren’t even considering building your own desktops in that budget!

The Microsoft Surface Book 3, and the Surface lineup in general, aren’t about offering the best possible specs for the price. It’s about the experience you get while using the laptop. Microsoft is always conservative with specs while charging a high price, but with those specs and prices, you are getting an experience no other company offers. I have yet to find another device that feels as good to use as the Microsoft Surface Book 3 15”, or even the Surface series in general.

The experience and form factor of Microsoft’s Surface Book 3 is so good that I even went and purchased one for myself. I ended up going for the 13.5” model because the 15” is just a little too big for me. I’m starting college in a few months and I needed a laptop. I thought the ability to turn it into a tablet with the push of a button would be absolutely fantastic for classes. That, along with the full-sized keyboard and great design, was hard to pass up. I could take notes on it like a notepad, then dock it and write an essay, and then do an APK teardown. No need to have an iPad for writing notes and a laptop for writing essays and more powerful work. The Surface Book 3 just checks every box for me and even lets me cut down on devices!

Buy the Microsoft Surface Book 3: Microsoft USA ||| Microsoft UK ||| Microsoft AU

Amazon USA (Affiliate Link) || Best Buy USA

I really love the Surface Book 3 and if you’re interested in getting one, there are a few different options. Microsoft sells it directly starting at $1,599 for the 13.5-inch and $2,299 for the 15-inch model. At the time of writing this review, the Surface Book 3 is on sale for $200 off across the board. If you are a student or teacher, you can sign up for the education discount to get an extra 10% off the laptop.

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AUKEY Omnia 65W Charger Review – For all your Type-C charging needs

Since COVID-19 took over our lives, many of us have become more reliant than ever on PCs and smartphones to stay connected. When you’re at home, there isn’t much of a need to run to a charger, but I’m sure some of you have a lot of devices to charge. Every device usually comes with its own charger, some of which are large bricks that take up way too much space. I personally have a lot of these to deal with, so I jumped at the chance to review the AUKEY Omnia Mix and AUKEY Omnia Duo, a pair of small and lightweight 65W Type-C chargers. I’ve been using these two chargers to power my smartphones, laptops, and other devices for the last few months, so here’s my brief review.

AUKEY Omnia Mix Specifications	AUKEY Omnia Duo Specifications
Model: PA-B3 Dimensions: 52 x 52 x 30mm Weight: 109g Input: AC 100-240V 50/60Hz USB-C Out: (Max 65W) 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 12V/3A, 15V/3A, 20V/3.25A USB-A Out: 5V/2.4A Total Out: 65W IC: AUKEY OmniaChip Features: AUKEY Dynamic Detect MSRP: $49.99 Current price on Amazon: $37.99	Model: PA-B4 Dimensions: 52 x 52 x 30mm Weight: 111g Input: AC 100-240V 50/60Hz USB-C Out 1: (Max 65W) 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 12V/3A, 15V/3A, 20V/3.25A USB-C Out 2: (Max 18W) 5V/2.4A, 9V/2A, 12V/1.5A Total Out: 65W IC: AUKEY OmniaChip Features: AUKEY Dynamic Detect MSRP: $59.99 Current price on Amazon: $45.99

Disclaimer: AUKEY provided me the Omnia Mix and Omnia Duo chargers for review. However, the company did not have any input regarding the content of this review.

When the Omnia chargers were first unveiled at CES, AUKEY claimed they were the “world’s smallest PD [Power Delivery] chargers ever.” The chargers feature AUKEY’s OmniaChip, a gallium nitride-powered IC developed in collaboration with Navitas, a maker of GaN-based ICs. GaN can sustain higher voltages than silicon, allowing for currents to run through the device faster. Because of this, electronics using GaN are more power-efficient and can thus be made much smaller.

The Omnia Mix and Omnia Duo are both very compact, as expected. They’re identical in size and almost identical in weight. The main difference between the two is in port choice: The Omnia Duo has 2 USB Type-C ports while the Omnia Mix has 1 USB Type-C port and 1 USB Type-A port. The Duo’s top Type-C port supports up to 65W (20V/3.25A) Power Delivery fast charging while the bottom Type-C port supports up to 18W Power Delivery. The Mix’s top Type-C port also supports up to 65W Power Delivery while its bottom Type-A port supports 12W standard charging. If you’re using both ports to charge devices, then whatever is connected to the top Type-C port will top out at 45W (15V/3A) Power Delivery. AUKEY calls this feature Dynamic Detect, and it applies to both the Omnia Mix and Omnia Duo.

Left: AUKEY Omnia Duo (PA-B4). Right: AUKEY Omnia Mix (PA-B3).

Thanks to the compactness of these chargers, I’ve had no issues carrying them around in my bag or slotting them into an already crowded multiplug. I may not be traveling as much these days thanks to COVID-19, but I appreciate that these chargers have made it so easy for me to find a charging spot anywhere at home.

To get a sense of just how compact these two chargers are, here are a few photos showing the Omnia Duo side-by-side with OPPO’s 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 charger, OnePlus’ 30W Warp Charge 30T charger, and RAVPower’s 61W PD 3.0 Wall Charger. The OPPO and OnePlus chargers make use of proprietary charging tech from both companies, while the RAVPower is the company’s previous-generation Type-C charger made with silicon instead of GaN. That should give you a good idea of the improvements in size from using GaN.

Left: AUKEY Omnia Duo (PA-B4). Right: OPPO 65W SuperVOOC 2.0, OnePlus 30W Warp Charge 30T, and RAVPower 61W PD 3.0 wall chargers.

Since my most used devices all have Type-C ports, I’ve been able to swap my stock chargers in favor of the AUKEY Omnia Duo and Mix. That’s saved me a bit of room at the plug, and I’ve only had to sacrifice on charging speed for my smartphones. It takes about 2 hours and 40 minutes to fully charge the Nintendo Switch, 1 hour and 20 minutes to charge the Microsoft Surface Pro X, and 2 hours and 30 minutes to charge the OnePlus 7 Pro. For reference, Nintendo says it takes approximately 3 hours to fully charge the Nintendo Switch with the included charger, while the OnePlus 7 Pro fully charges in about 65-70 minutes with the Warp Charge 30T charger (based on our own testing.) The OnePlus 7 Pro supports 15W USB Type-C Power Delivery, which explains the extended charging time with the Omnia Mix/Duo. The Surface Pro X’s stock charger, however, delivers 65W of power, meaning the Omnia Mix/Duo serve as perfect replacements. In fact, I’ve stopped using Microsoft’s stock charger because of how much bulkier it is in comparison:

Top: HP Chromebook X2 charger. Bottom: Microsoft Surface Pro X charger.

…I’ve also stopped using my HP Chromebook X2’s stock charger for the same reason.

When GaN chargers first hit the market, they were a bit pricy. Fortunately, you can grab GaN chargers like the AUKEY Omnia series for much cheaper these days, and the price of GaN chargers will keep going down as manufacturing processes improve. Both chargers currently cost about $12-14 less than their MSRP, and I’ve seen deals that bring these prices down even further. I’m not going to recommend that you store away all your existing chargers and go buy these chargers immediately, but if you’re in the market for a new charger, then I can definitely recommend the AUKEY Omnia Duo and AUKEY Omnia Mix. They’re both very lightweight, compact, and offer very fast-charging for your Type-C devices.

Pros	Cons
Very small and lightweight Perfect replacement for a clunky laptop charger (provided your laptop supports USB-C charging) Can fast charge any USB-PD smartphone or tablet at up to 18W (Omnia Duo) Can charge a laptop at 45W and a smartphone at 18W simultaneously	Does not come with a cable Does not support USB-PD with PPS to fast charge the latest Samsung Galaxy phones

Shop AUKEY Omnia Mix (PA-B3) on Amazon ||| Shop AUKEY Omnia Duo (PA-B4) on Amazon

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The post AUKEY Omnia 65W Charger Review – For all your Type-C charging needs appeared first on xda-developers.

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AMX XP60 PD Charger Review – The only charging brick you need in your bag

By now, most of us have accumulated a fair few gadgets and accessories that need charging at least once every few days. If you share a living space with other people, then you have also likely run into the same problems that I have—there just aren’t enough charging sockets at home for everyone. What follows is either a carefully orchestrated charging plan for your many devices or an investment into a few multi-pin plugs and adapters. A more compact solution is a multi-port charging brick, and the AMX XP60 PD charger did just the trick, well enough for me to write a review on it.

About this review: AMX sent me the XP60 PD charger back in March 2020 for a quick review on my personal Twitter. I separately purchased their USB-C to USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 cable for personal use. This review is after more than four months of regular use of the charger and cable. AMX did not have any inputs on this review.

Back in March 2020 when I spotted AMX’s XP60 PD charger, I realized that it would solve some of my charging woes. My computer desk has very limited space and access to only a single charging socket in the vicinity. So I was usually juggling between chargers and cables in an attempt to keep multiple smartphones, accessories, and my laptop (Dell XPS 13 2in1 2019 – 7390) charged through the days and weeks. The situation was further complicated when you take into account the fact that my primary smartphone at the time, the OnePlus 7 Pro, worked best with a proprietary charger, while other smartphones would work better with other chargers. Some accessories, like my Logitech MX Master 2S, require a micro USB cable, while others like the Amazfit GTR 47mm smartwatch and the Mi Band 4 require their own proprietary cables. At any point in time, I need to charge my laptop, my smartphone(s), my earbuds (either the Sony WF-1000XM3 or the Galaxy Buds+), and possibly a smartwatch (though these last longer and hence are charged infrequently). I was also on the lookout for a solution that I could carry around in my bag and thus cut down on the need to carry multiple charging bricks for my phone and laptop. Airports and coffee shops aren’t very generous with charging sockets (though by fate, neither are frequented by me anymore), so a multi-pin charging brick was what I really needed to sort out this mess.

The AMX XP60 PD perfectly delivered on my needs, at least from a functional perspective.

AMX XP60 PD: Design

The design on the charging brick could use improvement—the charging brick is best described as “chunky”, but that is to be expected at least where the ports are placed. The charger comes with one USB Type-C port and three USB Type-A ports, so you have a fair bit of versatility on what devices you can charge simultaneously.

The charger does not come with any included cable, so you can either use any of your existing cables or purchase them separately. There is an LED present above the USB Type-C port, and it glows blue when the charger is receiving current.

The Xiaomi Mi 18W Fast Charging Adapter (affiliate link) is dwarfed in comparison, while the chunky OnePlus Warp Charge 30 charger comes close in bulkiness.

The real flaw in the design is near the charging pin. Because of its long blocky design, the charger ends up blocking nearby buttons, especially if you use a 3-pin (type-D) charging socket that is widely used in India. AMX perhaps recognized this design flaw later, so their packaging included an extension pin that alleviates some of this obstruction. But in the same breath, it also causes the charger to droop down because of its 150g weight. The charging pin itself isn’t too robust, either. Hopefully, the charger design can be improved for future products.

If you have a 2-pin charging socket placed vertically, then you should be able to use the charger without needing an extension pin, unless you have any other blocking elements nearby.

AMX XP60 PD: Charging

Where the AMX XP60 PD excels at is charging a lot of things at once. The lone USB-C port is capable of 45W output (5V/3A; 9V/3A; 12V/3A; 15V/3A; 20V/2.25A) and is USB Power Delivery PPS 3.0 compatible. Because of this, it supports 45W Super Fast Charging on the latest Samsung Galaxy flagships. This is also perfect for charging my laptop through the USB-C port and the output specifications on the charger match the stock AC Adapter that came with my laptop. I’ve since relegated the stock adapter back to the box and only used the AMX XP60 PD as it leaves me room to charge other devices as well.

There are three USB Type-A ports, capable of a maximum of 12W (5V/2.4A) output on each port. Sadly, these aren’t Qualcomm Quick Charge certified. The charger also has a maximum output cap of 62W (contrary to the number in the marketing name), so you cannot exceed this ceiling on this product. So if you have all the ports occupied on the charger, the maximum theoretical power you can draw out is 45W from the USB-C port and 17W combined from the three USB-A ports. At first sight, this may feel inadequate, and it will be if you need to fast charge all your devices all the time. But if you have slower charging accessories around, this should not be as much of an issue. For my smartphone, I alternate between using USB PD through the Type-C port when I need a quick boost or let it charge slower over a few hours.

Thermal performance on the charger has been satisfactory too. The charger gets warm to the touch when you max it out for an hour or so, but it does not get unreasonably hot, remaining well within acceptable levels of performance. The charger also claims to be BIS certified.

Pricing and Availability

The AMX XP60 PD charger was available in India for ₹1,599 (~$22) back in March 2020 on the AMX website, but currently, the product is out of stock. The website mentions that the charger will be back in stock in mid-August, though the listed price is ₹1,699 (~$23), likely to account for recent currency fluctuations and tax changes.

The AMX XP60 PD charger in my usage thus has the AMX USB-C to USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 cable on the first port, usually connected to my laptop and sometimes to my new smartphone, the OnePlus 8 Pro. Two of the three USB-A ports are connected with USB-C cables for slowly charging my primary smartphone and audio accessories. The last port usually is free most of the time, but I have the flexibility to connect a micro USB cable for charging my mouse or the proprietary cable for my watches. When regular traveling does resume, this will be the only charging brick I will take along in my bag.

Overall, I’m happy with this charger, while still recognizing that it isn’t perfect. Unlike other parts of the world, finding a safe, high-output, multi-port charger with USB PD in India is a bit of a challenge by itself, and so there aren’t as many solutions available in this space. I would recommend this for people who want multi-port chargers with USB PD in India. As long as you know what to expect out of the charger, you should be happy with the price. If you are looking for something more compact and portable, or something even more powerful, you should keep your eye out on GaN chargers (though they will take some more time to arrive in India and are expected to be more expensive initially).

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