ASSASSIN CREED SYNDICATE : REVIEW

ASSASSIN CREED SYNDICATE 

More than anything, Assassin's Creed Syndicate feels like a long-needed course correction.

Last year's Assassin's Creed Unity was by most accounts the lowest point in the franchise thus far, at least as far as the main-line games are concerned. But that low point wasn't an anomaly; it was an inevitability on the downhill slope the series has been on since 2010's excellent Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

As the franchise has layered on new complexities and an increasingly baffling plot, it's failed to compensate in the other direction, to clean up issues that have been lingering as far back as the first game.

Syndicate finally changes that pattern. The open-world bloat that Assassin's Creed has been known for is trimmed considerably here, leading to a more streamlined experience. Meanwhile the core world design has improved as well, shifting away from the focus on realism in its virtual London and focusing instead on playability.ASSASSIN'S CREED SYNDICATE FEELS LIKE A LONG-NEEDED COURSE CORRECTION

Assassin's Creed Syndicate sees the history-jumping series moving to Industrial Revolution-era London. Twin assassins Jacob and Evie Frye have come to the city looking to interrupt the reign of Crawford Starrick, an evil Templar industrialist who gives out marching orders to the gangs running the city's streets.

As in previous Assassin's Creed games, there's a metafictional frame to this narrative: You take on the role of a character recruited by the Assassins of modern time to play through the memories of Jacob and Evie. But Syndicate strikes a perfect balance in making those segments add meaningful progress to the overarching plot of the series without overstaying their welcome — much needed for a story that's barely moved an inch since 2012's Assassin's Creed 3.



It's nice to see things happening again with that top layer of plot, but most of Syndicate's time is devoted to a chaotic caricature of 1860s London. Jacob and Evie gather a number of allies, both fictional (an awkward assassin named Henry Green) and historical (hilariously undercover police inspector Frederick Abberline, a ghost-obsessed Charles Dickens and more). The supporting cast is better than it's ever been, full of memorable characters and sharp, witty dialogue.

Part of the praise for the dialogue also goes to Evie and Jacob themselves. Jacob is the suave, sarcastic type whose arrogance causes him to fuck up a lot; Evie is a cooler head, whose collected approach allows her to keep a close eye on her primary goal while constantly cleaning up Jacob's messes. They play off of each other perfectly.

What about multiplayer and all that other junk?

For the first time in a main release in the series since 2010'sAssassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Syndicate features no multiplayer at all — neither the unique spin on competitive multiplayer nor the cooperative play that was added in Unity. While some might miss the company of other assassins, it seems clear that the game has benefited from a focus on developing and polishing the single-player experience.

In addition to a higher quality of design, Syndicate suffers much less from the bugs and glitches that plagued last year's Assassin's Creed. I ran into a couple of crashes and enemies spawning into weird places. In one case, I fell through the world. But there was nothing on the level of the nonstop problems that Unity had.

Also absent from Syndicate: the dozens of chests and bonus features that could only be unlocked via a second-screen app or joining the Assassin's Creed Initiates group. The game now features a single option in the menu to log in to a "Ubisoft Club" account and unlock a few extras, but it never pushes it on the player. And despite still having the ability to purchase in-game currency with real money, Syndicate never feels miserly. I finished the game with 80 percent completion in around 30 hours, and managed to hit max level, purchase all gang upgrades and do most of the crafting I wanted without ever even considering buying extra material with real money.

It's also notable that despite having an already announced paid downloadable add-on, Syndicate has plenty of meat on its bones. There's one particularly cool and lengthy segment I won't spoil that absolutely struck me as the kind of thing that Ubisoft would normally have tried to section out and sell as DLC. Hopefully this marks the beginning of a more outwardly consumer-friendly attitude for the series.

Syndicate also does a good job of letting you largely stick with whichever twin you prefer. In side missions, you can choose to play as Evie or Jacob, and aside from some very minor differences in the skills they unlock as they level up — Evie ends up just a little better at stealth, while Jacob has a tiny bit more survivability in fights — the two play nearly identically. Story missions force you into one role or another, but they're given about equal screen time, and the swapping made sense in the context of the twins' often opposing viewpoints on the correct path forward.

While discussing the story, I'd be remiss not to give special mention to antagonist Crawford Starrick, and Syndicate's general approach to villains. There are plenty of no-name assassination targets who get quietly taken out and forgotten over the course of Assassin's Creed Syndicate. But the game also spends a lot of time building up three or four of the main bad guys, especially Starrick, who perfectly embodies the Templars' superficial care for the greater good amid overtly homicidal actions.

Of course, Jacob and Evie have some homicidal tendencies of their own. As has become usual for Assassin's Creed, Syndicatetakes place in an open world where you take on specific missions, often choosing whether to approach using stealth or take a more action-oriented path.

While story missions are much longer and have much more unique objectives, the more generic and less exciting Assassin's Creed goals are relegated to side tasks that will free territory from Templar control. Assassin's Creed has featured territory control elements before, but they're handled particularly well in Syndicate. They're totally optional, and I found myself using them as a cooldown between more intense tasks.

The main assassination missions are where Syndicate really shines. They place you into larger-than-life settings — the Bank of England, the Tower of London, Lambeth Asylum, etc. — and provide you with a variety of potential ways to get close to and take out your target. If you want to run in and clumsily kill everyone in sight, Syndicate will allow it, in most cases. But you can play it more carefully, sneak around, find hidden entrances, knock out guards for disguises and more. There are also unique assassinations you can pull off in each of these main missions, if you're especially crafty.

My favorite unique assassination? When I pretended to be a corpse so that I could get wheeled in to kill an evil doctor giving a live medical lecture.

Both the story missions and the open-world activities work better than they otherwise would because of how smartly Syndicate's world is designed. With previous releases, it's often felt like the series prides itself on historical authenticity first and foremost, often to the detriment of the actual moveset and animations of the characters in the games. This came to a head inAssassin's Creed 3 and has persisted in every installment since, where the main characters constantly felt like they were tripping over things in the environment.Assassin's Creed Syndicate has cleaner streets and rooftops, more direct paths between areas, and a slightly simplified control layout that makes it easier to differentiate between when you're trying to move up a building or jump down to the street below.

Syndicate also benefits from the introduction of a fantastic new means of traversal: the grappling hook-esque rope launcher. The rope launcher works both vertically and horizontally, letting Jacob or Evie quickly scale to the top of a building or cross a wide street without touching the ground. While this clearly takes heavy inspiration from similar devices in other open-world games, it's a brilliant addition to the Assassin's Creed arsenal.


Despite all the upgrades and fixes in Assassin's Creed Syndicate, there are a few annoyances with the series' control scheme that haven't been ironed out yet. For example, the button mapped to interact with things in the environment is the same button that, when you hold down the left trigger, tells your assassin to free-run in a downward direction. I can't tell you how many times I tried to tap that button to open a chest and instead watched my chosen Frye hang precariously off a ledge or leap into a nearby body of water.

But unlike the last few Assassin's Creed games, these annoyances rarely if ever get in the way where it matters. I never found myself bumbling around the spaces in Syndicate — or, at least, when I did, I never felt like the game was at fault. Syndicate's environments maximize feeling like an unstoppable assassin and downplay the awkwardness that has consistently accompanied the franchise's complicated controls and animation.

WRAP UP:
SYNDICATE PUSHES BACK THE CRUFT THAT HAS COLLECTED AROUND ASSASSIN'S CREED FOR YEARS


That's really Assassin's Creed Syndicate's biggest triumph: It pushes back against the collected cruft of eight years of releases and spinoffs, an imposing accumulation of mechanics and lore and expectations. Syndicate doesn't get everything right. It doesn't solve all of the series' problems, and at this point, I'm not sure if any one game could. However, it's the first step in a uniformly positive direction that the franchise has taken in years.

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Assassin's Creed Unity review

Assassin's Creed Unity review

The Assassin's Creed franchise has remained a constant in the video gaming industry. A saga that spans time melding elements of action, weaving history on a rigid and compelling science fiction framework, charting the never-ending silent battle between the Assassins and the Knights Templar. Assassin's Creed Unity is an important move for Ubisoft. Marking the shift in not only graphics but marking new territory in gameplay and visuals. But is that enough to beat the vast open seas of Assassins Creed: Black Flag or the charm of Assassins Creed III? We find out in our review...

Story



Assassin's Creed Unity's story is as much a coming of age story as it is a sweeping romance set in a backdrop of Paris's slow descent into madness. Young Arno Dorian watched his father die and met the love of his life, Elise, on the same day. Adopted by Elise's family, Arno is a likeable, roguish stable boy who is on the path into the Brotherhood of Assassins courtesy the tides of love and revolution . All of this is perfectly voice-acted, even though many of the characters have sharp English accents.

Arno himself is very much like Ezio from Assassins Creed III and Edward from Assassins Creed IV. In fact, Arno's later introduction is very reminiscent of Ezio's as he's accused of stealing and is pursued by thugs.

There's nothing new about the tale of Assassins Creed Unity. Even as Arno makes his way up through the ranks of assassins, you feel you have read or heard this story many times over. Though the romance between Elise and Arno does have its sweeping highs, the story just tapers into background noise after a point. This is good in a way as Arno serves as a device to lead you into the bigger picture.

What the story does right is get you riled up, watching the overflowing opulence of the upper caste Parisians and the growing anger of the peasant class. All this leads up to the horrific guillotine executions that still resound throughout history. Ubisoft has rendered Paris in such amazing detail, you feel completely transported in time, right into the heart of the revolution.

Gameplay



At its core, Assassin's Creed Unity feels like every other Assassins Creed game out there, which is disappointing. That's not to say there are not a lot of new things, but a lot of them are focused more on making the game feel more realistic that updating the gameplay.

The Parkour, freerunning element has gotten the best and biggest update of the lot. Barring a few glitches, Arno just seems to flow over the environment as he vaults over edges, runs across rooftops and does slight wall runs to grab adjacent hand holds. It's just incredible. You can also freerun down with another button, allowing Arno to do a controlled descent. This more than makes up for a lot of the flaws of the game.

One annoying feature of most Assassin's Creed games was the stealth mechanics, where you could only crouch and hide in certain areas. Taking a page out of Watch Dogs and Splinter Cell, Assassin's Creed Unity now has a new cover system as well as the ability to crouch and walk anytime. However, the controls can get a bit sticky at times.

The combat system is changed a bit to include more of a fencing style; however, it's rickety at best. There were times we could not tell when we are supposed to parry and there were times where it feels like hits were just not connecting. Add to that glitches like enemies clipping into your character and you've got a mess.



There were times I parried, but the animation of the sword was pointing in the wrong direction, which is shameful because an Assassin's Creed clone Shadow of Mordor did combat so well; in the latter, you can feel the power of your character's sword-strokes as you can cut through swathes of enemies with precise control. At best Assassin's Creed Unity's combat feels clunky. We sincerely do hope Ubisoft will fix this in upcoming patches.

Assassin's Creed Unity does not break away from the usual bunch of mission types. You still follow targets, eavesdrop, chase and perform the occasional assassination, but now you get to solve murders too. With a game overhaul, it would have been nice of Ubisoft to mix things up a little more. However, to be fair the, game does give you a lot more freedom on how you can go about your mission. Earlier there were just external buildings you can traverse, but in Unity you can enter certain interiors through open windows.

Assassination is a lot better this time around as well, with you feeling a lot more like an assassin. You will actually need to case the scene, prepare you kill and see the multiple routes to go in, kill and get out in one piece, preferably with the head still attached to said piece. You can either sneak in unnoticed or create distractions or go in sword swinging, taking down guards and target alike.

One annoying factor is the crowds. Sure, it fills you with awe watching the angry mobs from a rooftop. However, on any mission, be it a chase or a sneak, there are milling crowds of people getting in your way. It just gets annoying watching bumbling peasants wearing ridiculous pink and white dress shirts get in your way as your target happily traipses around the crowds to get away from you.

Graphics



Assassin's Creed Unity is one of the best looking games out there to date. Every turn, every corner is so detailed that you have to blink twice and remind yourself that it's not real. The detail in the textures is staggering, stones on a building are varied in style and not just a repeated tile. The ground is mucky in places and dusty near market areas. The crowds look great, as the game distinguishes each member with an astonishing amount of details. Later in the game the crowds are just plain malevolent entities, walls of angry peasants.



All of the famous Paris architecture are rendered in exquisite detail. You can not only visit but also climb to the top of monuments like Notre Dame and Eiffel Tower. Everything just looks amazing. Picture perfect. Interiors of buildings are equally detailed, with gold trimmings along the walls, paintings on the ceilings and old French furniture in the room. Assasin's Creed Unity is just a feast for the eyes.

The animations are very realistic too, marked by Arno's fluid and real movements. Little details in the parkour animation add to the realism, for example, when running over rooftops, Arno seems to accelerate and decelerate on the slopes of the roof; when running he goes into a controlled slide before vaulting easily and hanging off the edge.

Everything about Assassin's Creed Unity will make your jaw drop. Everything. Though such beauty comes at a price. A steep one. Even at 900p on the PS4, the game's framerate drops regularly, especially in places where there's a lot of crowds. Managing so many animations is taxing on even next-gen consoles.

Unity has quite a lot of glitches. While we just experienced weird hair movements, odd character floats with a healthy serving of clipping and we fell under the map several times. However, there's the now-famous kissing glitch, where users took screenshots of a passionate kiss between Arno and Elise, except that Arno just had hair, eyeballs and teeth, nothing else.



The PC version undoubtedly looks the best, but to run it at 1080p with all effects on you will need a juggernaut of a card. At least a Nvidia Geforce GTX 680 and above, an i7 and above processor and a lot of RAM. Those who have beefy PCs will get the best of Assassin's Creed Unity.

Conclusion
Assassin's Creed Unity feels a lot more like a glorified tech demo than an actual full fledged game. A decent game that needs a lot of patching up from Ubisoft. That said, what it gets right turns out to be great. There's good Parkour and stealth with the revolution bursting through the seams. Of course, this is the best looking game out there and has raised the bar graphically extremely high for games.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Review

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Review

PROS
Depth-of-field effects
looks good in 4K resolution
Multiplayer mode is good
Smart grenades

CONS
Minimal multi-level gameplay
Drones could have been better
Our Verdict

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is at the pinnacle of its genre now. The production values are brilliant, the acting quite comparable to anything we’ve ever experienced before (in-game or otherwise) and whatever little is lacking is more than made up for by Kevin Spacey’s very presence. Now if only they’d managed to rope in Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, what a movie game this would have been! The exo-suits and a few new gadgets add a welcome amount of depth to the otherwise formulaic multiplayer experience and there’s a lot of fun to be had, if you’re willing. This is the best Call of Duty game since Modern Warfare and deserves a spot on every gamer’s bucketlist
Gadget Deals


It’s hard to describe the joy of playing a good Call of Duty game again. Ten years of bland, generic sequels have left us more than a little disheartened with the franchise. The games have been nothing more than gloomy click-fests that the die-hard fans among us try to get through in the hopes of catching a glimmer of that combination of spectacle, pacing and gameplay that made Modern Warfare (and United Offensive before it) such a great and memorable game.

So what’s different this time around? Well, for one thing, Kevin Spacey. Any semblance of a story, or lack thereof, is more than made up for by Spacey’s very presence and ruthless charm; it’s a major factor in bringing this game to life. You can’t help but see him on-screen and get drawn in by his persona. It doesn’t matter that he really doesn’t have a big role in the game (he is the villain, but he’s not even as memorable as 343 Guilty Spark) and that you rarely interact with him outside of cutscenes. The other thing that’s new is the exo-suit; it’s the first time, since Modern Warfare, that we’re actually introduced to something that has the potential to drastically affect the way we play and the best part is – it doesn’t suck



Spectacle

The true heart of a CoD game has always been spectacle, those moments that make your jaw drop and go, “That was awesome!” The franchise has, off-late, gone very over-the-top with that aspect and the recent glut of superhero blockbusters have spoilt us silly, but CoD still manages to illicit more than a few “oohs” and “aahs”. Never before have we actually been happy to say that a game is an interactive movie.

The game is simply gorgeous and, as befitting the oodles of graphical goodness, the system requirements are understandably high. We found our systems regularly running low on RAM (with 8GB onboard) and loading screens took up an inordinately long time on anything but the highest-end of systems (an Intel 3960x with HyperX beast RAM and a couple of SSDs).



For those who have such fancy systems, this is the game that makes that investment worth it. Of particular note are the extremely high-resolution textures that look fantastic on even 4K systems. The depth-of-field effects bring cut-scenes to life in a cinematic art-style that’s worthy of the best of cinematographers and are also exceptional.

If there’s anything we have against the cinematic cut-scenes, it’s that random quick-time-events just ruin them. Sections where you’re not shooting should just be played out by the game with you as a passenger, it would be more immersive and definitely less tedious.

Introducing: The Exo-Suit

The real star of the game is the Exo-suit (Exo from now on). CoD games have always been elaborate turkey shoots, good ones of course, and what the Exo does is give you the ability to perform trick shots. In single-player, the exo isn’t that much fun. It’s alright, fits in with the general theme, lets you hop around the map and over obstacles and lets you hover over gaps, etc., which is good, but you’re given all that power and are only allowed an atrophied brain and a claustrophobic sandbox to play in. As with any CoD game, creativity is severely punished and you’re only allowed to use your abilities when the game tells you that you can. Of course, you can double-jump up the occasional staircase or over the occasional wall, but that’s really as far as your Exo-abilities truly take you in single-player.



It’s very apparent from the mission design that the levels weren’t really designed with multi-level gameplay in mind, except as gimmicks. There are one or two missions where you really feel like you can put your Exo’s abilities to good use, but they’re so few that by that time, you don’t really care.

When it comes to multiplayer however, the Exos come to life. Instead of running and gunning, you can now run-and-gun-and-jump-and-boost-and-shield-and-cloak and do so much more and it’s all good fun. You get to choose the type of Exo you want, be it one designed for speed and extended sprinting or one designed to absorb damage for the slightly tankier among us. It’s easy to customise the suit and your build to suit your play style and quite frankly, you’d better. Higher-level players are quite hard to take down, not because they have better gear, which they do but because they’ve customised their suit to take advantage of their play style and they know how to use it.



Too SMART?

Advanced Warfare has done a really good job of showcasing, well, advanced warfare. You really feel like you’re in a battlefield of the future, what with the drones popping up all over the place, the “threat” grenades, your Exo, SMART grenades, wonky looking tanks and walkers and more. The problem here is that Sledgehammer games either went too far or didn’t go far enough.



Take the grenades for instance, they’ve always been something you hurl at an enemy and run. Now, you throw a grenade, watch it try to hover while it performs a maniacal dance and then direct it to an enemy. It looks cool, but it’s too cumbersome. The threat grenades (they highlight enemies through obstacles) and EMP grenades (for taking out Exos and drones and other electronic devices) are actually grenades that you hurl by first pressing “Q” and then cycling through grenade types by pressing “F”. It’s too complex and is definitely not something you want to do mid-battle. We rarely found ourselves switching grenades during the campaign, and they’re even less significant in multiplayer for this very reason. Speaking of which, multiplayer is bucket loads of fun. There are issues with matchmaking and pings can be bad, but we’ve rarely had this much fun in a CoD game.

Call of Duty: Drone Warfare

It has to be said, a more plausible argument for drone warfare couldn’t have been made better than in CoD. The drones are smart, as deadly as a pack of ravenous chiwavas and creatively implemented. The blowing up of the Golden Gate Bridge for example, was one of the finest examples of possible drone use that we’ve seen, it’s too bad that there aren’t enough of such moments. In fact, the one major argument against the drones is that they’re just not dangerous enough. They’re more like the aforementioned chiwavas which will, only if given enough time, eventually wear you down. It would have been so much cooler if you had drone swarms darkening the sky and unleashing a hail of bullets or clamping on to enemies (even you) and detonating or any of a myriad of such scenarios.



To be fair though, it’s testament to the game’s design that the drones seem as natural to the environment as a gun to a battlefield – they seem inevitable - See more at: http://www.digit.in/gaming/call-of-duty-advanced-warfare-review-24644.html#sthash.I9pQu12h.dpuf

NOKIA FIRST ANDROID TABLET

Nokia's first device that runs on Android

 

 

Nokia is back in the devices business just under seven months after selling its devices and services unit to Microsoft for $7.2 billion. Nokia is unveiling its N1 Android tablet today, days after revealing its plans to license its brand name and teasing a black box on Twitter. Just like Xiaomi’s attempts to emulate Apple’s iPad mini design, Nokia’s N1 has the same 7.9-inch screen size and even the same 2048 x 1536 resolution. Nokia has even opted for a single piece of anodized aluminum design. The resemblances don’t stop there, though.

Nokia’s N1 is almost identical to the rear of the iPad mini thanks to careful placement of the camera, buttons, and headphone jack. Even the bottom of the device has the same speaker grills and what looks like a Lightning port, but is actually one of the first implementations of the reversible type-C USB connector. The USB is actually where things start to get interesting. While the Nokia N1 looks like an iPad mini with Android, the company has actually gone a few steps further in improving Apple’s popular tablet. Nokia’s N1 display is fully-laminated, unlike the iPad mini 3, and the N1 is just 6.9mm thick and 318 grams in weight, both thinner and lighter than Apple’s offering. Nokia is particularly proud of design details like its camera placement matching the curvature of the camera lens and the tablet's corner.

The only things missing here to complete the iPad mini look are a home button, chamfered edges, and an Apple logo. There’s even "Natural Aluminum" and "Lava Grey" color schemes, and a cover that looks suspiciously similar to Apple’s Smart Case. Nokia's own N1 website also looks like it's straight from Apple.com. Other specifications include a 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. Nokia’s N1 also has an 8-megapixel camera at the rear, and a 5-megapixel version at the front. Nokia's Z Launcher and Android 5.0 power the N1

A stock version of Android 5.0 Lollipop is powering Nokia’s N1, and it’s part of the reason the tablet exists. Nokia is primarily creating this tablet to push its Android "Z Launcher." The idea behind Z Launcher, which is named after a gesture that lets you write out letters right on the screen, is to give you a list of apps and contacts that changes based on where you are and what you're doing. You can also scribble out a letter in the middle of your homescreen to search what's installed on your phone, or things on the internet through Google suggestions.

"We started looking around, we just didn’t find any good Android tablets out there," says Brook Eaton, director for Nokia’s Z Launcher. "We have such a beautiful, simple, and elegant Z Launcher. Why not build a device that is also built on the same principles as being super simple and easy to use and elegant?" That’s essentially what Nokia has done to showcase its app. While Z Launcher is available on Android phones, and launches in the Google Play Store today, the tablet version is exclusive to the Nokia N1.

Nokia is partnering with Foxconn to build the N1, licensing the industrial design, Nokia brand, and Z Launcher software to the device maker. That’s not a surprise move given the company’s clear intentions to enable third parties to build products with the Nokia brand, but it does mean Nokia doesn’t own all the manufacturing. The company is now planning to launch the Nokia N1 in China for $249 (before taxes) around the time of Chinese New Year (February 19th), and it will roll out to Russia and select European countries after the Chinese release. That's an impressive and aggressive price point against Apple's $399 for the latest iPad mini 3 or even the $299 price of the iPad mini 2. Nokia's pricing will be key to how well the device is received when it launches next year.








Hint: Use the 's' and 'd' keys to navigate

• Nokia N1

Nokia has opted for a fully-laminated 7.9-inch display.

• The back

The rear of the N1 is bare and basic, with the familiar Nokia branding on show.

• Color options

The two Nokia N1 color options, side-by-side.

• Design

Nokia's N1 camera and button placement looks rather familiar.

• Thinner than an iPad mini

At just 6.9mm in thickness, Nokia's N1 tablet is thinner than Apple's iPad mini 3.

• The innards

Inside the Nokia N1 there's a large 5300mAh battery.

• A new connector

A USB type-C connector can be found at the bottom of the Nokia N1.

• Nokia's N1 case

It might look like a Smart Case, but this isn't an iPad.

• Android-powered

Android 5.0 Lollipop and Nokia's Z Launcher power the Nokia N1 tablet.

• Reversible USB

Nokia's USB type-C connector.

New Windows 10 Technical Preview build

New Windows 10 Technical Preview build includes notifications, battery saver, data monitor : Available

Windows 10 Technical Preview is a work in progress, and Microsoft began sending Build 9860 to enthusiasts and developers on Tuesday. The new code’s estimated 7,000 changes include a much-anticipated notifications function, as part of a new Action Center.

Users who’ve already downloaded the Windows 10 Technical Preview may check for new preview builds as part of the “Update and Recovery” option. The download totals between 2GB and 2.74GB, depending on CPU architecture and language, Microsoft said.

After installing, your PC will reboot and begin the provisioning process again, asking you for your Microsoft account. In other words, don’t have anything stored on that PC or partition that you’re not prepared to lose.

“Sometimes they’ll be more frequent and sometimes there will be longer gaps, but they will always be chock full of changes and improvements, as well as some bugs and things that are not quite done,” Gabriel Aul, the engineering general manager for the Operating Systems Group at Microsoft, wrote of the new builds. “As we’ve said, we’re sharing stuff early and moving quickly to do so. In fact, the build that we’re rolling out today is something that we ourselves only got a little over a week ago!”

The new Action Center in Windows 10, with notiifications.

Of the 7,000 or so changes to the code between the older 9481 build and the new version, some of them are in response to suggestions made by users as part of the Windows Insider Program. 

The most important addition is notifications, which had been rumored to be an eventual part of Windows 10. In Windows 10, notifications will be part of the Action Center, Aul said, which will be accessible from an icon in the lower right corner of the taskbar, next to the date and time.

“You’ll see notifications from the system and apps—from new emails and invites to IMs, Facebook posts and more—all in one place, so you don’t miss a thing,” Aul wrote. Quick actions and a cleaner user interface will come later, he said.

After downloading the update, I—along with others online—also noticed two new additions have been ported over from Windows Phone: Battery Saver and Data Sense.

Battery Saver could be useful, although it's hard to say if it will duplicate the other power options available via the desktop Control Panel.

Of the two, Battery Saver seems far more useful, given that notebooks ship with a battery, but not a data connection—although that could be changing. Like Windows Phone, there are apparently provisions built in to prevent your tablet or notebook from syncing data in the background when the battery is low. Although there aren’t any additional settings to configure, it presumably dims the display and performs other power-saving functions.

DataSense does two things: displays your data consumption over Wi-Fi and cellular connections, and allows you to limit it as well. Right now, it’s most useful to determine how much data you’ve consumed.

DataSense is also bare bones, for now.

The new build also adds a command to move apps quickly from one monitor to another: Windows-Shift-[a cursor key], adding to the keyboard shortcuts already in place. Microsoft also added an animation to indicate when a user is switching virtual desktops.

If these aren’t the features you want to see added, vote! Over 250,000 pieces of feedback have been sent to Microsoft via the Windows Feedback tool, 25,381 community forum posts, and 641 suggestions in the Windows Suggestion Box, Aul said. The latter category is where users have been busy suggesting new features for Windows 10. 

Is a new preview build ready? Check and see.

Steps forward, and back

The new build also allows users to be even more adventurous.  A new option in the “Preview Builds” menu of the “Update and Recovery” tab allows users to select either a “slow” or “fast” circle—to receive code either slowly, after the community tests it, or almost immediately. Naturally, the “fast” circle will also put users on the fast track to additional bugs. The build that Microsoft deployed today was sent to its own internal “Canary” team about 1.5 weeks ago, Aul wrote.

That doesn’t mean the new build represents a total improvement. In some cases, the UI of the technical preview went “backward” temporarily while Microsoft focused on how things work, not how they look: Internet Explorer glyphs may look garbled, and items on the Start menu might disappear, for example. Some machines may not sleep properly, and Wi-Fi functionality also regressed. That’s to be expected with a new build, Aul said.

Still, adding notifications could mean that other rumored features are on their way, too.

Apple Event Roundup

Apple Event (Oct) Roundup

On Thursday, Apple held its second product release event in six weeks. The 90-minute event at Apple’s headquarters here was a sombre affair compared to the mega-launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple Watch and Apple Pay. This time the news was expected, however, Apple plenty of new hardware and software during the event.

The company added to its product line the two new iPads, a 27-inch iMac with eye-popping Retina display, and OS X Yosemite, Apple’s latest desktop operating system. The iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 and the devices will go on sale later next week in 29 countries (India is not on the list) while pre-orders open online today.

We are listing the important highlights of the event that will take considerably less time than it will take you to re-watch the event:

1. THE NEW IPAD AIR IS SKINNIER THAN EVER

Apple has relied on its time-tested strategy for updating a offering – make them thinner. The new device is only 6.1 mm thick, thinner than the new iPhones by almost 1mm. As expected, it is powered by the new Intel A8x Chip, a 2nd gen 64 bit architecture, which is 12 times faster than the current one. Apple claims that graphics performance of the new iPad Air 2 is 180 times faster, which gives console like gaming experience on the iPad Air 2. The tablets will feature a fingerprint scanner similar to the one found in the latest iPhones. The sensor enables people to use a fingerprint instead of a passcode to unlock the device, also can be used to make purchases using Apple Pay.

The new iPad Air 2 houses the 8MP iSight camera on the back with a f/2.4 aperture and supports HD video recording. Along with that, there is a front camera which features a new face time HD camera, burst selfie, slo-mo and more. The iPad Air 2 runs on the latest iOS 8.1 and features a LCD layer on the display and an anti reflective coating, reducing reflection by upto 56 per cent. The iPads are priced starting  $499 (16GB). The 64GB version is available for $599 and the 128GB for $699.

2. THERE ADDED A IPAD MINI TOO, WITH TOUCH ID

Apple confirmed the third generation iPad Mini featuring the new Touch ID fingerprint sensor during the event. iPad mini 3’s screen is at 7.9-inches with a 2048×1536 resolution at 326 pixels per inch (ppi). Apart from the Touch ID, it has the same Retina display with an aluminum coating at the back. It will be available in gold, gray and silver colour variants.

It features a 5 megapixel iSight camera and a FaceTime HD camera. The camera carries the iOS8 features such as time-lapse and panorama. This iPad features dual microphones, on the front and back. Instinctively, when you switch cameras from front to back (or vice versa), the microphones switch, too. The price starts at $399 (Rs. 24,574 approx.) for 16GB in Wi-Fi only, while the 128GB + LTE model will cost $729. Pre-orders start tomorrow and shipping starts by the end of next week.

3. APPLE PAY WILL GO LIVE ON MONDAY (ONLY IN THE USA)

Apple confirmed it will begin rolling out the service next week on 20th October i.e. on Monday. Apple’s payment system allows people to bump their phones to pay for items in the 220,000 stores that have NFC (near-field communication) readers, as well as pay for items in apps by using the fingerprint scanner on Apple’s newest mobile devices.

Once third-party apps also use the Touch ID features, you can use this feature on other apps as well. As far as Apple Pay is concerned, it will be available only in the US and essentially allow users to replace their credit card with their device to make actual payments.

4. NEW IMACS COME WITH THE ‘WORLD’S HIGHEST RESOLUTION DISPLAYS’

Along with Yosemite,  Apple is bringing out the updated version of iOS. They’ve spent time and effort taking in user feedback and have updated the problem-prone update.  iOS 8.1 brings the Camera Roll and iCloud Photo Library in beta, a feature that allows you to store all of your photos from all your devices in the cloud. The new iMac features a 27-inch display with 5210×2880 pixels resolution, which is 14.7 million pixels, which according to Apple, “is the world’s highest-resolution display”. Seven times more pixels than a Full HD TV, 67 per cent more pixels than 4k. The display is only 5mm thin at the edge.

The Oxide TF and a new low-power backlight helps it use 30% less energy despite the large display and heavy resolution. The base model runs on a 3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics card,  has 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB Fusion drive. The iMacs are priced starting $2499 (Rs. 1,53,913 approx).

5. DEVELOPERS CAN START WORKING ON APPLE WATCH APPS NEXT MONTH.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook remained vague about when the company’s smartwatch will go on sale, saying only that it will be early next year. But the company is releasing WatchKit, software that will let developers start working on apps for the devices.

6. YOSEMITE IS ALREADY AVAILABLE

Taking continuity to the next level. Apple definitely is the first company to benefit from this because of its enormous hardware ecosystem. OS X Yosemite is the upcoming eleventh major release of OS X, Apple Inc.’s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers and it will be available from today. It can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for Free.

Yosemite gives you mirrored access across all Apple platforms for instant access. For example, the iPad recognizes what you’ve been working on and prompts you about it. You can stop working on the Mac, pick up your iPad and start working on your project right way without a second of lag. There is no need for third party apps. There is no need to open a cloud app and download the file, it’s always there.

7. IOS 8.1 WILL ROLL OUT ON MONDAY

Along with Yosemite,  Apple is bring out the updated version of iOS. They’ve spent time and effort taking in user feedback and have updated the problem-prone update.  iOS 8.1 brings the Camera Roll and iCloud Photo Library in beta, a feature that allows you to store all of your photos from all your devices in the cloud.

8. APPLE SIM IS A NEW IPAD AIR 2 HIDDEN FEATURE

Perhaps the most interesting news about Apple’s new iPad Air 2 tablet is buried at the bottom of one of its marketing pages: It will come pre-installed with a new “Apple SIM” card instead of one from a specific mobile operator.

Apple explains, “The Apple SIM gives you the flexibility to choose from a variety of short-term plans from select carriers in the U.S. and UK right on your iPad. So whenever you need it, you can choose the plan that works best for you—with no long-term commitments. And when you travel, you may also be able to choose a data plan from a local carrier for the duration of your trip.” So far, Apple lists three of the top four US operators—AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile—as partners. In the UK, there’s EE, a joint venture between T-Mobile and Orange. Apple says participating carriers may change.