Google has completed work on Chrome 74, but the Windows version of the browser does not include a Dark mode as expected.
Update: Google says that it will enable Dark mode in Chrome 74 on Windows over time and that only a “small number” of users have access to this feature now. You can learn how to force enable it here. –Paul
“The Chrome team is delighted to announce the promotion of Chrome 74 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux,” a Google announcement notes. “This will roll out over the coming days/weeks.”
As you may recall, Dark mode arrived for Mac in Chrome 73, and Google had planned to ship support for this feature for Windows 10 in Chrome 74. But it’s unclear why the feature was pulled, presumably for Chrome 75.
Also coming soon is—surprise—a new Reading mode feature, something I never expected from Google. But it’s clear now that the Reading mode functionality in the Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge, now in preview, is based on this feature.
As for Chrome 74, there’s not much to say about the desktop version of the browser, which is used by over one billion people. But Chrome 74 for mobile is shipping with an improved data saver feature called Lite mode that reduces data usage by up to 60 percent.
“Lite mode will continue to reduce data use by using Google servers to compress the pages you visit before downloading them,” Google explains. Pages will now load faster, in some cases considerably faster, and use less memory.”
While it's not officially out yet, the Windows 10 May 2019 update is available to Windows Insiders on the Release Preview distribution channel (and also to MSDN subscribers). So anyone who wants to get a head start on the next major iteration of Windows 10 can do so right now—unless they have USB storage connected to their PC.
Because of an issue that's frankly remarkable, Microsoft is blocking the update for anyone using USB storage or SD storage. That is to say: if you have a USB hard disk or thumb drive, or an SD card in an SD card reader, the update won't install. Perhaps more strangely, this is only the case if you're currently running version 1803 or 1809; upgrading from 1709 or 1703 (both of which are still supported, at least for Enterprise and Education users) means everything is, apparently, fine.
The reason for blocking the update is that it appears to be prone to shuffling the drive letters assigned to USB and SD storage devices. In other words, while your USB drive might show up as "D:" now, it could end up getting renamed to "E:" after upgrading to 1903. Fortunately, there is a straightforward workaround: unplug the drives and remove the memory card, and the installation will proceed normally. You can then plug them back in after it's finished.
This isn't the first Windows feature update to do peculiar things with drive letter assignment; Windows 1803 would, at least for some people, assign drive letters to the small recovery partitions that the operating system creates. Since the recovery partition is very full, users afflicted with this issue would then be bombarded with warnings to complain that a drive is very low on disk space. This bug was reported during the development of 1803, but apparently not fixed for that release.
As with so many Windows 10 bugs, the real question here is how on Earth this was only detected at this late stage in development. USB storage is not esoteric or unusual, and a problem like this is going to affect a large proportion of Windows 10 users. One can hazard a guess—most of the beta testers upgraded incrementally as each new build was published, and hence for whatever reason never hit the issue; it's only once Microsoft hits Release Preview and people make the big leap from 1803 or 1809 to 1903 without all the intervening builds that the problem shows up. Nonetheless, this is surely something that Microsoft should have tested in house, especially since, as above, 1803 also had issues with drive letter assignments. Microsoft should know that this is a problem area that needs to be checked before shipping a build.
The world is watching Samsung's every move, taking notes and assuredly devising their own plans to either to cut and run if buyers grow cold, or to extend their own brand as a "true" foldable success by avoiding the Galaxy Fold's pitfalls.
Samsung, Huawei and Motorola declined to comment, but Samsung said in a statement on Monday, "We value the trust our customers place in us and they are always our top priority ... We want to thank them for their patience and understanding."
Samsung's decision to push back the Fold after moving so quickly to be the first to sell a high-profile foldable phone is already making an enormous impact on the brand's reputation, overshadowing the Fold's other achievements on unaffected devices. CNET's Galaxy Fold review unit has a small screen dent, but no major problems.
Although the blowback could have been far worse for Samsung -- the Folds with broken screens aren't dangerous, unlike 2016's overheating Galaxy Note 7 -- the early issues are calling into question Samsung's ability to innovate.
For example, the Galaxy S10 phones have been hailed by reviewers like me (I especially like the S10 Plus and value S10E), but it's Huawei's P30 Pro and P30 that are grabbing headlines for their fantastic low-light photography and zoom performance. Despite serious political road blocks, Huawei's determination to overtake Samsung as the world's largest phone-maker by 2020 has real energy behind it.
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Similarly, Huawei's foldable Mate X is in hot pursuit of the Fold, promising 5G speeds and a dramatically different design that puts the foldable screen on the outside of the device rather than the inside, as it is with the Fold. And Motorola is rumored to launch a foldable re-envisioning of its Razr flip phone that has a vertical bend. Both could gain from Samsung's setbacks with pointed messaging to reinforce the sturdiness of their designs.
Samsung has promised to reinforce the screen make its messaging to buyers clearer. Samsung said in a statement on Monday:
"We will take measures to strengthen the display protection. We will also enhance the guidance on care and use of the display including the protective layer so that our customers get the most out of their Galaxy Fold."
If these assurances aren't enough, it's quite possible that observers will sour on the Fold in particular and on foldable phones in general. Even then, rivals have an opportunity to change people's minds.
The Fold is an incredibly expensive device with a particular design and feature set. Positioned as a luxury electronic, it isn't meant to be a mass-market sensation. At best, early adopters and developers will buy it as a status symbol, or to test apps. For many, the Fold is a proof of concept design that could either get them to consider the possibility of one day using a foldable phone of their own, or to confirm what they've known all along -- that "nobody" needs a foldable handset.
But if Huawei, with its $2,600 Mate X, or Motorola, with its rumored $1,500 back-to-the-future flip phone, were to enter the market late in the day, with perfectly working screens and well-considered designs, they could conceivably swoop in and claim the glory by establishing how a "good" problem-free foldable phone could work.
Is it even possible for a foldable phone to be problem-free? From what I've seen after a week with the Galaxy Fold, and after a few minutes with the Mate X and with TCL's foldable concept mock-ups, no. At this early stage, it's about seeing what sticks.
The best thing for all of us to remember is that foldable phones are a brand-new thing, and that mistakes are bound to be made as we collectively figure out what works and what doesn't. This reality doesn't excuse the Fold's early issues any more than it exonerates Huawei's inevitable wobbles when it releases the Mate X this summer.
Perhaps Samsung's biggest gift of all to Huawei and Motorola (maybe) and every other brand from LG to Apple is in putting itself before consumers first, while competitors jot down notes.
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Three screen problems to fix, not one
Remember that there are three main screen problems that affected a handful of Fold reviewers.
Samsung's failure to clearly communicate that reviewers shouldn't pull off the protective layer on the Fold's plastic screen led to instant failure of the display.
Debris that got caught underneath the screen created a bulge and distortion.
The left half of the Fold's screen on one review unit flickered for no apparent reason.
The Galaxy Fold wants to be a multitasking machine.
Sarah Tew/CNET
What Samsung can do to help itself
The Fold's delay means a few different things for Samsung, as spectators wonder if the tech giant overlooked important quality control in its rush to be first to foldable.
But here's another way to consider the postponement: Samsung is taking the screen issues seriously. Backpedaling buys it time to fix mistakes and apologize to customers in a meaningful way.
During this pause, Samsung is working on new packaging that makes it obvious which plastic films you should and shouldn't remove. The company is also certainly engineering new ways to reinforce the screen. These things take time, and Samsung has only one chance to get a do-over right as a matter of damage control.
An email Samsung sent on Monday to me and other people who preordered the Galaxy Fold.
Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET
Samsung might also be training support staff on new procedures for what to do if customers call in to complain of screen issues. I'll speculate that Samsung is creating a concierge track for Fold buyers that will get them in touch with help faster. After all, a $2,000 investment is, in the phone world, on par with airline status or elite car ownership, stations that come with customer service perks.
In this foldable phone race, winning might not mean crossing the finish line ahead of everyone else. Victory might go instead to the last brand standing.
Originally posted April 23 at 4 a.m. PT. Updates, 8 a.m. PT: Reflects that Samsung declined to comment for this story; 8:49 a.m. PT: Reflects that Huawei declined to comment. Update at 4 p.m. PT. Update April 24 at 8:25 a.n. PT.
There's been another teardown of the Galaxy Fold, and this one might help explain why Samsung decided to delay the phone's launch. iFixit has conducted a part-by-part dissection that suggests the design is "alarmingly fragile," particularly around the hinge. While the actual folding mechanism appears sturdy (if possibly vulnerable to wearing down in the long run), there's no ingress protection -- dirt can easily slip inside, potentially getting stuck between the hinge and the plastic OLED screen.
The findings might help explain at least one of the review unit failures. The Verge's Dieter Bohn noted that his Galaxy Fold developed a bulge that ultimately broke a conspicuous number of pixels. If debris was at fault, that wouldn't bode well for everyday users whose phones might break relatively easily. This also isn't including the inherent fragility of a plastic display, which is more prone to nicks and scratches than glass.
It's not completely surprising that the Fold would be vulnerable when it's not rated for dust or water resistance. Still, this latest teardown isn't confidence-inspiring. If iFixit is on the mark, Samsung may need to make significant design changes for the device to stand up to real-world use.
Google has completed work on Chrome 74, but the Windows version of the browser does not include a Dark mode as expected.
“The Chrome team is delighted to announce the promotion of Chrome 74 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux,” a Google announcement notes. “This will roll out over the coming days/weeks.”
As you may recall, Dark mode arrived for Mac in Chrome 73, and Google had planned to ship support for this feature for Windows 10 in Chrome 74. But it’s unclear why the feature was pulled, presumably for Chrome 75.
Also coming soon is—surprise—a new Reading mode feature, something I never expected from Google. But it’s clear now that the Reading mode functionality in the Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge, now in preview, is based on this feature.
As for Chrome 74, there’s not much to say about the desktop version of the browser, which is used by over one billion people. But Chrome 74 for mobile is shipping with an improved data saver feature called Lite mode that reduces data usage by up to 60 percent.
“Lite mode will continue to reduce data use by using Google servers to compress the pages you visit before downloading them,” Google explains. Pages will now load faster, in some cases considerably faster, and use less memory.”
The screen on the CNET review unit of the Galaxy Fold hasn't malfunctioned. But that doesn't mean there aren't problems.
Angela Lang/CNET
Samsung should be taking a victory lap right now for its innovative Galaxy Fold. Reviewers should be singing the praises of the first major foldable smartphone, which was supposed to launch Friday. The only controversy should be whether that $1,980 is really worth it.
But we don't live in that reality. Instead, all we can talk about is its potential to fall aprt. Samsung on Monday delayed the launch of the Fold following reports that some of the small number of devices seeded to reviewers began to malfunction or break. The CNET review unit, handled by editor Jessica Dolcourt, hasn't suffered the same issues.
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The delay is not just a black eye for Samsung, but for consumer confidence in foldable phones in general. These flexible and bendable devices are supposed to represent a revolution for smartphones, but they can hardly take off if people are worried about their durability. And given the high prices for these devices (just look at the $2,600 Huawei Mate X), you have a right to expect that this phone, well, actually works.
But here's the thing: This whole mishap could have been so much worse.
Samsung should be thanking every reviewer who played with an early unit of the Fold. Just imagine if units got out to the wider public. The outcry would be far greater, as would the criticism that Samsung rushed out a half-baked product just to be "first."
The knee-jerk reaction would be to compare this incident to the Galaxy Note 7 debacle, where Samsung slowly responded to the initial reports of the devices catching fire, only to have it blow up, quite literally, in its face. But that's an instance where consumers already got their hands on the phone. That Samsung is taking the high-profile, if embarrassing step of delaying the launch shows it's learned its lesson.
"Samsung delaying the Galaxy Fold shows maturity," Avi Greengart, an analyst at Techsponential, said in a tweet.
Samsung, which has built over 4 billion phones since 1988, was caught by surprise by the Note 7 problems. Like most companies in the mobile industry, Samsung had counted on its battery suppliers to conduct safety tests before putting the batteries in devices. As it turned out, those suppliers didn't catch the errors that caused the Note 7 to overheat.
The Note 7 debacle caused Samsung to be a bit more cautious with its subsequent devices. It packed a smaller battery into 2017's Galaxy S8 and instituted a more rigorous battery testing process. But its new procedures, largely designed to detect battery problems, didn't uncover the issues experienced by the Galaxy Fold's display.
The inward fold of the Galaxy Fold adds strain to the device.
Angela Lang/CNET
The screen failures would've been amplified had they reached consumers and not just early reviewers. The foldable phone market is on wobbly, hype-filled legs, and the first impressions so far have been mixed. The Royole Flexpai was an interesting, but buggy product. The Mate X impressed people at MWC 2019, but it wasn't widely available to test. Now, there's this controversy. A few bad products could blow this trend before it has a chance to become a thing.
Ahead of the launch, other industry players noted that the inward fold of the Samsung device adds strain on the display, which is why Huawei and Royole opted to do displays that folded out. Samsung reduced some of the tension on the fold by including the large Surface Book-like gap in between the two folded sides, as well as added that screen protector that we only now know is something you absolutely need to keep on the phone.
Samsung says it's identified a possible early cause. The company said the initial findings from its investigation found potential damage from the impact of the exposed areas of the hinge at the top and bottom of the phone. It also said substances found inside the device might be affecting the display performance.
"We will take measures to strengthen the display protection," Samsung said in a statement. "We will also enhance the guidance on care and use of the display including the protective layer so that our customers get the most out of their Galaxy Fold."
While there aren't any victory laps in Samsung's near future, the company has the opportunity to fix its issues with the Fold early and preserve the prospects for the broader foldable smartphone market -- assuming it's nothing catastrophic that requires a full redesign.
It only took a handful of defective review units. That's a small price to pay.
Shara Tibken contributed to this story.
The story originally ran on April 22 at 11:28 a.m. PT. Updated on April 23 and 24: With additional background.
