Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death Now Shows a QR Code

Microsoft for the first time since Windows 8 has updated its Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) interface that shows up when the operating system crashes due to a critical error. The updated screen now shows QR codes to help technicians identify error codes in the blue screens.

It is worth mentioning that until now, the Windows 'stop code' stayed visible only for a few seconds during a Blue Screen, making it difficult to note, research, and fix the specific. However, now that's not the case. Now users can scan the QR code from their handsets to find an encoded URL with specific troubleshooting information for the problem and related support articles. Nonetheless, the sad ASCII smiley that was introduced with Windows 8 will still be there on the blue screen. Prior to Windows 8, Microsoft used to display more detailed information about the crash.

These QR codes were found by testers in the latest preview version of Windows 10, so it is yet to reach all the users. The QR codes in the Blue Screen of Death will be debuting this summer as a part of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.

Microsoft last week released a preview of Windows 10, build 14316, for Insiders on Fast Ring, with a range of features including cross-device Cortana, and a new Universal Skype app. Some of the features in Windows 10 build 14316 include low battery notifications, and cross-device Cortana sync. With the new update, Cortana will be able to work across different platforms in a much more efficient way.

The build also brings with it Skype Universal Windows Platform Preview app. The Skype UWP Preview app comes with several of Skype's basic functionalities. Along with it, Microsoft is also bringing some improvements to Action Center, allowing users to manage the notification settings for individual apps.

Flexible Camera Developed That Can Be Wrapped Around Objects

A team led by an Indian-origin professor at Columbia University has created a novel sheet camera that can be wrapped around everyday objects to capture images that cannot be taken with one or more conventional cameras. "Cameras today capture the world from essentially a single point in space. While the camera industry has made remarkable progress in shrinking the camera to a tiny device with ever increasing imaging quality, we are exploring a radically different approach to imaging," said Shree K Nayar, computer science professor at Columbia University. "We believe there are numerous applications for cameras that are large in format but very thin and highly flexible," added Nayar who graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, in 1984. Nayar's team designed and fabricated a flexible lens array that adapts its optical properties when the sheet camera is bent. This optical adaptation enables the device to produce high quality images over a wide ...

Explained: Camera Improvements in the New HTC 10

With the HTC 10, the Taiwanese company is promising to undo the past wrongs in the cameras of its previous flagship phones. The camera has long a weak point in HTC devices. At first, HTC sacrificed image resolution in the M8 and made the size of individual pixels larger to capture more light (what HTC called Ultrapixel). But the resulting 4 megapixel images were often fuzzy, especially when cropped or enlarged. To fix the issue, in its next flagship - the M9 - HTC went with smaller individual pixels in a 20-megapixel camera last year, but it still underperformed in extreme situations, such as indoors and close-ups. In the HTC 10, the company attempts to strike a balance with larger individual pixels (1.55µm), but not as large as before and a 12 megapixel sensor in its camera coupled with a ƒ/1.8 lens. HTC accepts that in the imaging performance in the M9 was not up to the kind of spec of what they really like to see in a flagship. HTC is giving a slight boost to the selfi...

Samsung Galaxy J1 (2016) Leaked in Press Images

The anticipated successor to the popular Samsung Galaxy J1, tipped to be called the Galaxy J1 (2016), has once again been leaked in images on the Web. While in the previous leaks we have seen the unannounced smartphone in its Black colour variant, the new leaked image shows the handset in two additional colour variants. The image tweeted by @evleaks on Monday shows the Samsung Galaxy J1 (2016) smartphone in Gold and White colour variants. The design of the handset also fall in line with the models leaked in images previously. It is worth mentioning that the screen bezel seen in the image stay black in all the three colour variants. The smartphone is seen featuring a physical home button, along with a multi-window, and a back capacitive button on either side. At the back, the smartphone sports a camera at the centre with a LED flash and a speaker on either sides. Samsung is yet to announce the smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy J1 (2016)leaked in images last month as well...

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