Well, it looks like someone at Microsoft was working hard on Thanksgiving Day. Late on Turkey Day, Microsoft pushed out a firmware update that looks to have fixed the reduction in sound volume issues for the Surface 2 I mentioned in this post.
If you don’t have updates set to automatically install you can check for the update manually by going to PC Settings, then selecting Update and Recovery, Windows Update, Check Now. If you want to see if the update installed properly you can select View Your Update History, or go to Control Panel and select Hardware and Sound. Under Sound select Manage Audio Devices. Then choose Speakers, then Properties. Once you’re in the tab for NVIDIA Tegra Audio Properties, choose the Driver tab. You should see a driver date of 11/26/13 and the driver version as 9.17.13.2774.
I can report that sound volume has returned to normal on my Surface 2 after manually updating the drivers as described above. As to the other issues reported in the post I’m not sure if they have been rectified by this update or not.
Thanks to GBM reader, Ryan, who spotted the update and let us know in comments.
The Kindle Fire HD Black Friday 2013 deals are most plentiful, but there are options for the new Kindle Fire HDX, and one old Kindle Fire deal.
Amazon is already cutting 50% off Samsung HDTVs for Black Friday.
Save on iPhone and Android accessories at Amazon Black Friday sales.
Expect some MacBook Air and MacBook Pro Black Friday deals at Amazon.
Instead of relying on DVDs and just an updated controller, the company made the decision to ship every console with a completely overhauled Kinect sensor and set a baseline for what users expect from its future consoles. Yes, attempting to innovate while facing a competitor who’s perfectly content with not pushing the envelope and coming in at a lower price is bold.
Aspiring screenwriters probably already know of Final Draft. Many in show business consider it the industry standard in screen writing software. If you want to write for the stage there are templates for that as well. There is also a version for iOS called Final Draft Writer. These are expensive tools for professionals. Final Draft for the desktop runs $249. Final Draft Writer for iOS normally runs $49.99 Both Apps are well done and offer a wealth of tools for those toiling to create the entertainment titles we’ll see on the big screen or on the stage in the future.
Battery Life still is a worrisome area for some who use their smartphones constantly throughout the day. But the issue is nothing like it used to be. Most users can get through a day without having to recharge until they get home from work. We’re starting to see smartphones that push limits higher and Battery Life is one of those areas. I don’t think we’ll ever complain if it keeps improving. Most of the top-selling Tablets can last around the 10 hour range, which seems to be sufficient for many. Perhaps we can begin to dispense with the review tests that run endless video loops to test battery life. They were never realistic anyway. Besides testing battery life this way ignores one of the primary variables that will affect it, and that is the user.
Mobile devices have reached a point in 2013 that I think we can say that regarding speed and performance most users are satisfied using them for daily chores and daily play. Yes, we’ll continue to see bumps in processors and the addition of more cores. In 2014 we’ll probably see a follow-the-leader approach to Apple evolving its A7 chip into 64bit in what it calls a desktop class processor. But except for the geeks who want to squeeze every scrap of processing power out of a benchmark test, we’ve reached a very healthy place for most users.
Smartphones and Tablets are all about multi-touch. And being able to have screens perform smoothly and accurately the minute you touch them is not just key, but paramount. Any sense of lag and the device is toast. What I’ve seen in 2013 makes me believe that there isn’t much out there worth having that can’t pass The Pinky Out Test. That’s using your pinky to scroll up and down a screen while you’re eating greasy food for lunch.
We have reached a point where for some users the cameras on smartphones are more than sufficient. For those users who are moderately picky about their photos there are still distinctions to be made between makes, sensors, and pixel counts. My suspicion is that cameras and their capability will still be a discerning factor for a good portion of the market, but not as much as in the past. I suspect though that our discussion of mobile photography will change to talk about what happens after the shutter has snapped closed.
Mobile users are like little children. Once they learn to crawl, then walk, they want to run, then run faster, then do more things like climb and jump. With technologies that move us closer to using our smartphones as wallets and financial record keepers, advances in security and privacy are going to become key features in consumers’ minds, and not just a way to unlock the phone. For this kind of behavior to take off security and privacy will become an important issue to watch and become even more of a feature we hear about at keynotes. Kids may jump freely from place to place, but many consumers see mobile privacy and security as a leap of faith today.
Whether it be fitness and health accessories, keyboards for Tablets, portable speakers, cases, camera attachments, or what have you, we love to add to our mobile experience by accessorizing. The quantity and quality of available accessories will replace Apps as a topic of discussion going forward. Apple leads here at the moment with a very large accessory ecosystem, but there are plenty of accessories to be found for other makes. Microsoft seems content at the moment to make much of its own, especially with Tablets. But then the accessory market follows consumers.
