PCWorld October 2016

Tech and trends that will affect you today and beyond. APPLE’S ANNUAL iPHONE event was jam-packed with information, but between the lingering look at the new jet black finish and all the business about AirPods, you may have missed some important details about the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. But we’ve got you covered. Here’s everything you may have missed during Apple marketing VP Phil Schiller’s presentation, plus some facts he didn’t mention, in case you’re thinking of upgrading to a 7 but can’t quite decide. For more information, take a look at our iPhone 7 hands-on (go.pcworld.com/ip7ho). The basics When can I get the new iPhones? The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus went on sale Friday, Sept. 16 in more than 25 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong…

TALK OF A Microsoft Surface all-in-one has…resurfaced, with claims the device, code-named “Cardinal,” could launch at the end of October. ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reported that October 26 might be the date Microsoft has scheduled for a fall refresh of some of its more popular devices, including newer, faster processors. That suggests Microsoft may upgrade a device like the Surface Pro 4 with a Kaby Lake chip, though Foley also reports that a more formal launch of a Surface Book 2 and possibly a Surface Pro 5 will wait until next spring. In the meantime, Microsoft still appears to be preparing to launch a possible trio of stand-alone PCs—possibly from 21 inches to 27 inches, according to a Windows Central report. Though Microsoft has already entered the PC category with the Surface…

THE RASPBERRY PI Foundation is celebrating a milestone. The organization recently announced it has sold ten million Raspberry Pi devices since the first versions debuted in 2012. “Thanks to you, we’ve beaten our wildest dreams by three orders of magnitude,” Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton said in a blog post. To commemorate the milestone, Upton announced the very first official Raspberry Pi Starter Kit. Why this matters: With its original mini-computers, the Raspberry Pi Foundation kicked off a revolution in low-priced computing for students and enthusiasts. Hobbyists have used the Raspberry Pi (go.pcworld.com/coolraspberrypi) for everything from autonomous drones to smart mirrors to high-altitude balloons—not to mention its popularity as an everyday HTPC or the power behind a retro-gaming setup. The Raspberry Pi hobbyist trend is so popular it even prompted Microsoft to…

GOOGLE IS DEVELOPING a new operating system named Fuchsia, and the early source code is already public. Google itself and Fuchsia’s developers haven’t explained what the OS is for—but we can dig into the source code to learn more. Pink + Purple == Fuchsia Fuchsia is a new, open-source operating system being worked on by Google employees. “Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System),” reads the cryptic description on the project’s GitHub page (github.com/fuchsia-mirror). The source code is also available on GitHub, as well as on Google Source (fuchsia.googlesource.com). That’s it, though. While the project’s source code is available and we can see who specifically is working on it, there’s been no official announcement from Google or explanation from the individual developers as to Fuchsia’s purpose. If no one’s ready to comment…

THE SUN HAS finally set on Sunrise, Microsoft’s popular calendar app. Microsoft recently discontinued the service after bringing many of its features to its iOS and Android apps, both of which have been updated. The Sunrise team wrote in a farewell post that your Sunrise calendar will stop updating. The day after the announcement, Sunrise users were logged out of their accounts. However, all of the information is still available on the original platform—iOS, Android, Outlook—that Sunrise ran on top of. “This is definitely the end of an era,” the Sunrise team wrote. “But more importantly, it’s the beginning of a new one. We’re excited by what’s ahead and we’d love for you to come and join us in our latest adventure.” That next adventure is Outlook, Microsoft’s own email app. Microsoft had…

NVIDIA’S PAYING THE price for the GeForce GTX 970’s memory controversy—literally. The GTX 970 refund website (gtx970settlement.com) is now live after Nvidia agreed to pay GTX 970 owners $30 each (go.pcworld.com/gtx970settlement) to settle a class action lawsuit. The false advertising lawsuit stemmed from a pair of hardware inconsistencies that prompted a not-quite-apology (go.pcworld.com/gtx970flaw) from Nvidia’s CEO. The most obvious is the GeForce GTX 970’s notorious 4GB RAM allotment, which Nvidia split into a full-speed 3.5GB segment as well as a drastically slower 512MB segment without telling customers. The company also erroneously claimed the card had 64 render output units while in reality it had just 56. Both of those could affect performance—though the GTX 970 was still a kick-ass graphics card with an incredibly compelling price tag. That combo led to the…