Microsoft is hard at work on the Creators Update, releasing yet another Windows Insider build this week, bundling some helpful new features together, and patching a host of new bugs. Build 16179 rolls out a new power management scheme aptly titled “Power Throttling,” among some smaller improvements throughout Windows.
What is Power Throttling? Well, it is a working title for a new framework Microsoft hopes will improve the battery life users get out of laptops and mobile devices running the Windows 10 Creators Update.
The power throttling framework automatically categorizes every app you are running and effectively squeezes the life out of non-essential background applications. Doing so limits the amount of CPU resources these apps can access and should improve your battery life.
According to Microsoft’s internal tests, power throttling can potentially reduce CPU power consumption by about 11 percent during strenuous use cases. It remains to be seen, though, whether or not everyday users will experience those kinds of gains on a regular basis — or if those numbers are just the best-case scenario from Microsoft’s internal tests.
Like most Insider builds, Build 16179 comes with a robust catalog of bugfixes, adjustments, and minor features. First among which is a new feature for virtual machine users, which Microsoft is calling Revert VM. Ultimately, it creates a checkpoint every time a virtual machine is started, allowing users to restore to the last boot to undo any mistakes.
Additionally, desktop icons will no longer wander around all on their own. Microsoft patched a bug which was causing some users’ desktop icons to move around unexpectedly when “Auto-arrange icons” was enabled. Microsoft also fixed a bug which was causing Hindi language users to experience crashes every time they attempted to launch Microsoft Edge.
As always, you can browse the full details of every new feature, tweak, and minor bugfix in Build 16179 on the Windows Insider blog.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.