 With the arrival of the Magic Leap competition is heating up in the Mixed Reality arena, but Microsoft’s successor to the HoloLens appears to be slipping further and further into the distance. Petri.com reports that Microsoft was planning to show off the HoloLens 2 sometime this year, but due to development issues, they are now targeting late Q2 2019. Petri does not identify the cause of the delays, but we have earlier speculated that, like many of Microsoft’s other projects, the headset was waiting for Windows Core OS to become available. The report states that the HoloLens 2 will address much of the issues that held back HoloLens 1, including a larger field of view and longer battery life. We already know the next HoloLens will have an improved Holographic Processing Unit with more AI capabilities, and an improved Kinect-like depth camera. HoloLens 2 will reportedly be powered by the recently announced Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 processor, which has been designed with the express purpose of delivering a “high quality” VR and AR experience. With the Surface Phone, Surface Hub 2x and HoloLens 2 all apparently waiting for Windows Core OS, did Microsoft put too many eggs in one basket? There's more to read on OUR FORUM.  Microsoft at its October 2nd event announced the new Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 in black. The devices are now available for purchase in select markets starting today. Both the devices come with an 8th gen quad-core Intel processors to boost the performance of the devices. However, as was expected both the devices don’t come with the USB-C port. The Surface Pro 6 supports up to 13.5 hours of battery life and comes with an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Microsoft has priced the device at $899.00. If you are looking to buy the black variant then you would need to choose the model with 256 GB SSD and has been priced at $1,199. Microsoft has made minor changes to the keyboard and thermal system of the Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2. Microsoft is selling the Black version of the Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 along with the existing Platinum, Burgundy, and Cobalt Blue. The Surface Laptop 2 comes with the new Intel Core 8th Gen processors with i5 and i7. The devices are paired with Intel UHD Graphics 620 card. The Surface Laptop 2 comes in two variants of 8GB and 16GB of RAM and you can expand the storage up to 1TB. However the Surface Laptop 2 doesn’t come with the USB-C but Microsoft has left the connectivity options similar to the 1st generation which means that users will be getting one USB 3.0 port, a Mini DisplayPort and a Surface Connect Port. We have all the necessary links posted on OUR FORUM.  A malicious app called "Album by Google Photos" was found in the Microsoft Store today that pretends to be from Google. This app pretends to be part of Google Photos but is actually an ad clicker that repeatedly opens hidden advertisements in Windows 10. This free Album by Google Photos app claims to be created by Google LLC and has a description of "Finally, a photos app that's as smart as you.". You can see an image of its Microsoft Store page below. As this is an ad clicker, the reviews for the app are not very good. One review calls it a "Fake App" and another is titled "Fake, do not install". The Album by Google Photos app is a PWA app (progressive web app) that acts as a front end to Google Photos, but with a bundled ad clicker. While the app is running, this ad clicker will repeatedly connect to remote hosts and display advertisements in the background in order to generate revenue for the developers. The ad clicker component consists of three files located in the app's folder called Block Craft 3D.dll, Block Craft 3D.exe, and Block Craft 3D.xr. You can see these files in the image of the folder below. When a user starts the Album by Google Photos app they will be greeted by a screen asking them to log in to Google Photos. This is a legitimate login screen from Google and though I did not see any indications that your logins are being stolen, I would still not advise logging into Google Photos with this app. After the app reads the configuration file, it will connect to the various "AdBanner" URLs and display them in the background. You can see in the Fiddler traffic below the app connecting to each of the ad URLs. Navigate to OUR FORUM to learn more. |
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