Google Tasks now organizes your lists into tabs

Google Tasks has technically been around for many years as part of Gmail, but it only became a distinct service in 2018, when the mobile app was released. Google has continued to bring new features to Tasks since then, most recently with its Google Calendar integration. A new update is rolling out for the mobile apps, which re-organizes your task lists for easier access.

Google Tasks supports multiple task lists, which is helpful for organization, but the mobile app currently requires at least two taps to switch between them. Thankfully, that’s finally changing, as Google is adding a tab bar for easy list switching. You’ll be able to tap on the tab you want, or swipe left and right between them.

The new Tasks UI (Credit: Google)

The new Tasks update started rolling out on August 9th, and it should reach everyone within the next 13 days. Google hasn’t said if Tasks in the Gmail web app will receive a similar update. It would also be great for Tasks to get its own dedicated desktop application, like most of its competitors.

Google Tasks (Free, Google Play) →

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Catch some ghosts in Luigi’s Mansion 3, now on sale for $39

Nintendo released Luigi’s Mansion 3 for the Nintendo Switch back in 2019, and it ended up being even more well-received by fans and critics than the original installment on the GameCube. Like most Nintendo-published games, it doesn’t go on sale often, but right now it’s available for $39.25. That’s a decent savings from the usual price of $50.

Similar to the previous Luigi’s Mansion games, your goal is to capture ghosts and solve puzzles as Luigi, while wielding the Ghostbusters-like Poltergust G-00 vacuum. Mario and friends are trapped in the Last Resort hotel, where each floor has its own theme and boss fight. There’s even 2-player co-op, and a special online mode with up to 8 players.

Luigi's Mansion 3

This might be one of the best Nintendo-published games for the Nintendo Switch. It was released in 2019 for $60, but more recently has gone for $48-50, and now it's on sale for $39.25.

Buy at Amazon

In case you haven’t played any of the previous series entries (personally, I still need to get around to finishing Dark Moon on the 3DS), don’t worry, you’re not losing out on any important plot. You’re Luigi, you have a vacuum that sucks up ghosts, what else do you need to know?

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GPD is working on an Android-powered modular handheld, the GPD-XP

GPD is a relatively well-known company when it comes to making portable gaming devices. Most of the company’s recent outings have been based on Windows and Intel processors, but the company’s next device will apparently buck that trend. Recently, the GPD-XP – an Android-based gaming handheld console – showed up on the company’s Discord channel.

Like most Android devices, the GPD-XP is powered by an ARM processor, which is rumored to be the MediaTek Helio G95. The GPD-XP is also said to feature 6GB of RAM, 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage (plus microSD card support), and 4G support, but only for internet access. Calls and SMS features will apparently be disabled. Plus, there’s no built-in microphone.

Being an Android handheld console, the true standout feature of the GPD-XP is the console-style controls. On the left, you get an analog stick and D-Pad, along with physical buttons for home, task manager, and back. On the right side, however, the controls are customizable and modular using a magnetic attachment system. You can attach a second analog stick with the classic ABXY buttons you’d find on a console, or use an alternate design featuring just four face buttons, tailored for MOBA games. This genre of game is especially popular on mobile, so it makes a ton of sense to have this option. The physical buttons on the controllers can be assigned to areas on the screen, for games designed completely around touch. You can also just not attach any controller on the right.

The device also comes equipped with a 6.81-inch display which comes in a very wide aspect ratio. It’s very apparent that GPD is sourcing smartphone displays for this device, and that’s even clearer considering it has a hole-punch camera. The camera is placed in the bottom left corner, so it shouldn’t cause much of an interruption while gaming, but it’s still interesting to see. The GPD-XP also comes with a 7000mAh battery, which is fairly large for what’s essentially an Android phone. GPD is touting 12-hour battery life with this unit.

The images shared so far come from China, and so the device is running a very custom build of Android. The international release will reportedly be running Android 11 and come with Google services. Switching to Android may seem like an odd choice for some gamers, but mobile games are extremely popular. Plus, there are quite a few console emulators on Android, too, if you’re willing to dive into that side of things.

There’s no indication yet of what the price will be for the GPD-XP, but it’s yet another contender in the portable gaming space. Nintendo is still seeing great success with its Switch and planning a refresh with the Switch OLED. Valve recently announced the Steam Deck, and it looks like GPD wants to keep having a presence in the market. At the end of the day, these devices target somewhat different crowds, but that also means you get to choose what suits you better.

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Microsoft rolls out new Snipping Tool and app updates for Windows 11

Today, Microsoft is rolling out a new build of Windows 11 to Insiders in the Dev and Beta channels, but that’s not all that’s new. To go along with the new build, Microsoft is also releasing a set of new app updates. These updates bring the design of the apps closer to that of Windows 11, making use of more rounded corners.

The first of these apps is the Snipping Tool. Microsoft actually teased the new Snipping Tool app a few days ago, and it’s essentially a rebranded Snip & Sketch app. This new app includes some elements from the classic Snipping Tool, though. You can now choose a delay for taking a snip, and choose the snip mode before starting.

Otherwise, the features are similar to Snip & Sketch. You can quickly launch the app with the Windows key + Shift + S, and annotate your screenshots just like in the Snip & Sketch app. The app also has an improved dark mode, plus a new settings page.

Another app getting updated is the Calculator. The changes here are much more subtle, though. The app now uses rounded corners for its buttons, but otherwise it looks almost identical to the Windows 10 version. Another change is that you can now set the theme for the app separately from your system-wide theme.

A similar update is headed to the Mail and Calendar apps on Windows 11, which are part of the same package. The apps also now use rounded corners for many of their UI elements, and there are “other adjustments” to the design, including some tweaked icons.

Microsoft says it’s planning more updates to the existing apps in Windows, which makes sense. Eventually, all these apps should feel more at home on Windows 11 and offer a cohesive experience. The company has also teased a brand-new feature, Focus Sessions, which hasn’t rolled out yet.

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Windows 11 Update Tracker: Download and Install the latest Windows 11 update

The wait is finally over — Windows 11 is here as Microsoft has officially kicked off the Insider Preview program for the next generation of Windows. The company is also rolling out several updates on top of the base Windows 11 build in preparation for an eventual rollout via the stable channel. This article will serve as the central repository of knowledge base (KB) articles and download links for all updates related to Windows 11, including both the Insider Preview and the stable builds.

Table of Contents:

• Glossary
• Windows 11 Build Index
• How to install
• Verification

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Glossary

Windows updates are compressed in a special archive file format called Microsoft Cabinet (CAB) that supports embedded digital certificates used for maintaining archive integrity. When published via Microsoft Update Catalog, Microsoft often wraps them into the MSU (Microsoft Update) format.

The internal structure of a MSU package

The primary focus of this index is centered around the Cumulative Updates (also known as Monthly Rollups), which include both security and reliability updates that are packaged together. Since they are cumulative in nature, the latest rollup package has the ability to update the target Windows version to the most recent build, regardless of what the previous build number was.

In some cases, one may need to apply a Servicing Stack Update (SSU) before installing the newest Cumulative Update (CU). The servicing stack is the code that installs other operating system updates, hence Microsoft usually bundles them with CUs before publishing a standalone MSU package. Power users or system admins may still prefer to deal with the CAB variant for ease of deployment. In that case, always install/integrate the SSU before engaging with the CU.

Microsoft also provides CUs for the .NET Framework portion of the Windows OS. Unlike the SSU, they are distributed separately from the regular CUs.

Windows Feature Experience Pack is yet another type of update that delivers new feature improvements to customers outside of major Windows feature updates.

Then comes the Dynamic Updates (DU) that are meant for the Windows setup engine. They are being automatically downloaded and applied on the fly in order to fix the Windows recovery environment (WinRE), setup binaries, or any files that the Windows setup uses for feature updates. However, we decided not to include them in this index for the sake of avoiding clutters.

To have a clear idea about Windows update terminology, see the article about the types of Windows updates. Keep in mind that an inter-OS (e.g. from Windows 10 to Windows 11) or an inter-build (e.g. from Windows 10 November 2019 Update/Build 18363 to May 2020 Update/Build 19041) update is a way more complex scenario. Microsoft handles such upgrade paths using the Unified Update Platform (UUP), the details of which can be found in this tutorial.

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Windows 11 Build Index

Build Number 22000

Build	Changelog and known issues	Download
22000.132 [Integrated with Insider Preview 6]	KB5005190	x86-64 ARM64
22000.120 [Integrated with Insider Preview 5]	KB5005188	x86-64 ARM64
22000.100 [Integrated with Insider Preview 4]	KB5004300	x86-64 ARM64
22000.71 [Integrated with Insider Preview 3]	KB5004252	x86-64 ARM64
22000.65 [Integrated with Insider Preview 2]	KB5004745	x86-64 ARM64
22000.51 [Integrated with Insider Preview 1]	KB5004564	x86-64 ARM64

Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8

Build	Changelog and known issues	Download
10.0.4400.3 [Available since Insider Preview 4]	KB5004342	x86-64 ARM64
10.0.4395.3 [Available since Insider Preview 1]	KB5004034	x86-64 ARM64

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How to Install these Windows 11 builds

CAB packages

To install a CAB update package, you need to use a built-in system utility called Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM). The command-line syntax should be as follows:

dism /online /add-package /packagepath:<path_to_cabfile>

CAB and PSF packages

Since Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21382, Microsoft has made a significant change in the Latest Cumulative Update (LCU) format. As a result, the end user can’t use the CAB file directly. To perform the installation using the built-in update module, the corresponding Patch Storage Files (PSF) package must be present. This is the exact reason one can find PSF files corresponding to each LCU in the Windows 11 UUP Dump. In case of an online installation, Windows Update only downloads and generates missing PSFX (PSF Express) payloads, while the CAB package only contain the manifests.

However, DISM alone can’t handle the PSF packages, which means we need to somehow combine the PSF and CAB files manually before trying to install them offline. Fortunately, there exists an open source tool named PSFX v2 Repack for this job.

• Extract the archive of the PSFX v2 Repack tool to a folder with a short path (like “D:\PSFX_Repack_2\”).
• Download both CAB and PSF files corresponding to the LCU and move them to the aforementioned folder.
• Run repack_psfx.cmd to generate the combined CAB file.
  
• Use DISM to install the latest SSU CAB first, then the resultant LCU CAB file.
  

MSU packages

The MSU variant, on the other hand, is somewhat standalone in nature due to the fact that one can simply double-click on it to install the package. Note that DISM can also install MSU files.

After the installation finishes, you will be prompted to restart the PC for the changes to take effect.

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Verification

The Settings app in Windows 11 has an option to view the list of updates installed on your PC. Here’s how to access it.

• Open Settings and click Windows Update.
• Click/tap on “Update history”.

The good old “Programs and Features” applet in the classic Control Panel can also show you the list of installed updates.

• Right-click Start, click Run.
• Type appwiz.cpl and click OK. This opens the Programs and Features in the classic Control Panel.
• Click View installed updates link on the left side. This shows you the list of updates along with the installation date column.

If command-line is your thing, then you can opt for DISM or Windows Management Instrumentation (WMIC) as well. You need to execute the command from an elevated instance of Windows Terminal.

• Using DISM:

  dism /online /get-packages /format:table | findstr "Package_for"

  

• Using WMIC:

  wmic qfe

  

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We hope this article not only serves as a common update index for Windows 11 but also provides general installation instructions that can be useful for other Windows builds as well. We’ll be updating this guide with links to newer Windows builds, so check back again in the future!

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A new Windows 11 preview is out, but there’s still no Android app support

Like clockwork, it’s Thursday and there’s a new Windows 11 Insider Preview build rolling out to the Dev and Beta channels of the Windows Insider Program. There are only two things listed under changes and improvements in the blog post. The first is that Microsoft Teams Chat is now rolling out to Insiders on the Beta channel. Dev users have had it for a little while now.

The other thing is a bit more significant. There are all-new inbox apps, including a new Snipping Tool, Calculator, and Mail and Calendar. These are specific to the Dev channel. For something like Snipping Tool, it represents Microsoft reversing course on its Snip & Sketch project, which at one point, was going to replace the Snipping Tool app. It’s similar to OneNote, where at one point, the UWP app was going to replace the Win32 app, and now it’s the other way around.

For something like Mail and Calendar, these new apps should hopefully breathe new life to apps that feel like they’ve been left behind.

One thing notably missing still is support for Android apps. This is one of the key features that were announced for Windows 11, but when previews started rolling out, Microsoft said it would arrive in the coming months. But with Windows 11 just a couple of months away from being launched, one has to start asking if the Redmond firm is still planning to offer the feature to non-Insiders this year, like it said it would.

Android app support is going to get support from the Amazon Appstore, which will be integrated into the Microsoft Store. It’s possible that the delay could be on Amazon’s end, since Microsoft has been testing the Windows Subsystem for Android internally for quite a while now.

Of course, there are a whole bunch of fixes, improvements, and known issues in Windows 11 build 22000.132. Here’s what got fixed:

Windows 11 build 22000.132 Fixes

• Search:
  • Did some work to address a scenario where the recent searches list displayed when hovering over the Search icon in the Taskbar was unexpectedly blank.
• Widgets:
  • We fixed the issue where launching links from the widgets board wasn’t always invoking apps to the foreground.
  • Clicking the widgets icon in the Taskbar should open it on the correct monitor now.
• Windows Sandbox:
  • The Taskbar (Explorer.exe) should no longer repeatedly crash inside of Windows Sandbox.
• Other:
  • Addressed an issue leading to some Insiders experiencing a bug check when attempting to roll back in the previous flight.
  • Mitigated an issue that was making certain games go unresponsive after pressing the Enter key.
  • Fixed an issue where the “location in use” indicator icon wasn’t showing up in the Taskbar when it should have been.

Here’s what’s still broken. The list is much longer.

Windows 11 build 22000.132 Known Issues

• [REMINDER] When upgrading to Windows 11 from Windows 10 or when installing an update to Windows 11, some features may be deprecated or removed. See details here.
• We’re investigating an issue where on some devices, when going to Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program, only the “Stop getting preview builds” option is visible. This prevents Insiders from selecting a channel. We have posted a workaround on Answers.
• [BETA CHANNEL] We’re investigating reports from Insiders in the Beta Channel where after upgrading to Windows 11, they are not seeing the new Taskbar and the Start menu doesn’t work. To workaround this if you are impacted, please try going to Windows Update > Update history, uninstalling the latest cumulative update for Windows, and the reinstall it by checking for updates.
• Start:
  • In some cases, you might be unable to enter text when using Search from Start or the Taskbar. If you experience the issue, press WIN + R on the keyboard to launch the Run dialog box, then close it.
  • System and Windows Terminal is missing when right-clicking on the Start button (WIN + X).
• Taskbar:
  • The Taskbar will sometimes flicker when switching input methods.
• Search:
  • After clicking the Search icon on the Taskbar, the Search panel may not open. If this occurs, restart the “Windows Explorer” process, and open the search panel again.
  • Search panel might appear as black and not display any content below the search box.
  • On pen enabled devices, apps may not launch from the Search panel. If you experience this issue, please log out and back in to resolve the issue.
• Settings:
  • Certain searches using the search box in Settings may crash Settings.
• Widgets:
  • The Widgets board may appear empty. To work around the issue, you can sign out and then sign back in again.
  • Widgets may be displayed in the wrong size on external monitors. If you encounter this, you can launch the widgets via touch or WIN + W shortcut on your actual PC display first and then launch on your secondary monitors.
  • [Family widget] Some users may see a ‘connect a device to see screen time activity’ message even with screen time settings enable.
  • [Family widget] Location information may not be available for some users on iOS.
• Store:
  • We are working to improve search relevance in the Store including resolving an issue where in some cases the ordering of search results is inaccurate.
  • The install button might not be functional yet in some limited scenarios.
  • Rating and reviews are not available for some apps.
• Windows Sandbox
  • Within Windows Sandbox, the language input switcher does not launch after clicking the switcher icon on the Taskbar. As a workaround, users can switch their input language via any of the following hardware keyboard shortcuts: Alt + Shift, Ctrl + Shift, or Win + Space (the third option is available only if Sandbox is full-screened).
  • Within Windows Sandbox, the IME context menu does not launch after clicking the IME icon in the Taskbar. As workarounds, users can access the functionalities of the IME context menu with either of following methods:
    • Accessing the IME settings via Settings > Time & language >  Language & region > <each IME language> (e.g. Japanese) three dots > Language options > <each IME> (e.g. Microsoft IME) three dots > Keyboard options.
      • Optionally, you may also enable the IME toolbar, an alternative UI to quickly invoke specific IME functions. Continuing from above, navigate to Keyboard options > Appearance > Use IME toolbar.
    • Using the unique set of hardware keyboard shortcuts associated with each IME-supported language. (See: Japanese IME Shortcuts, Traditional Chinese IME Shortcuts).
• Localization
  • There is an issue where some Insiders may be some missing translations from their user experience for a small subset of languages running the latest Insider Preview builds. To confirm if you have been impacted, please visit this Answers forum post and follow the steps for remediation.
• Chat from Microsoft Teams
  • Experience is localized for English (US) only. Additional languages and locales forthcoming.
  • When you make an outgoing call, while you do not hear a ring tone, the user interface shows that the call is getting connected.
  • In a video call, sometimes people videos freeze or display a black image. There is a workaround to this issue, which is to pin the video that freezes and unpin it to fix the problem.
  • When switching between calls, the previous call is not automatically put on hold, so audio and video streams continue on both calls. Be sure to complete a call before taking another.

To get Windows 11 Insider Preview build 22000.132, you’ll need to be on the Dev or Beta channel. If you are, you’ll get the update through Windows Update. If you’re not, you can sign up through the Windows Insider Program tab in Settings. Note that while the Dev and Beta channels are aligned for Windows 11 previews right now, they won’t be for long. The Dev channel will eventually move toward features for the next feature release of Windows 11.

Of course, one of those features might end up being Android apps. Microsoft isn’t talking though, so there’s no communication on the subject, as usual.

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JetBrains launches Kotlin Basics, a free starter course on Kotlin

Back in 2019, JetBrains launched its Academy program. Academy lets anyone who wants to learn a language do so through guided lessons and projects, with integrations in JetBrains’ IDEs. For instance, JetBrains advertises lessons in over 400 topics related to Java programming. In general, full JetBrains Academy courses cost money, while courses in beta are free. Today, however, JetBrains is launching Kotlin Basics.

Kotlin Basics

Kotlin Basics is a fully free JetBrains Academy course. As the name might imply, this course is all about getting people started in Kotlin. But this isn’t just a couple lessons on how to print text and take input. Instead, JetBrains says it will have over 90 topics, 10 projects, and over 300 challenges.

Seeing as the full Java course has over 400 topics and the Kotlin Developer course has 187 topics, 90 is quite a few. JetBrains says that the entire Kotlin Basics course will take about 10 weeks, with five hours spent on it each week.

Again, Kotlin Basics is completely free. If you’re someone who’s just starting out in Kotlin (or programming in general), this is the course for you. If you’ve already got the basics down, you can also try out the paid Kotlin Developer course.

JetBrains Academy

In case Java and Kotlin aren’t your thing, JetBrains also offers courses in Python and JavaScript. The JavaScript one is also currently in beta, which means it’s free to use.

Otherwise, if you’re interested in the paid courses, Academy costs $49.90/month or $249.00/year. If you’re a student at an eligible school, you can get JetBrains Academy for 50% off.

Conclusion

Kotlin Basics is a pretty exciting addition to JetBrains Academy. This is obviously a completely personal opinion, but I think Kotlin is a great language, and it’s nice to see an easy opportunity to learn it, straight from JetBrains.

If you’re interested in trying Kotlin Basics or any of the other Academy courses, check out the JetBrains Academy website. You’ll find more details on what’s available and how everything works, along with how you can sign up.

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