Today, I’m excited to share some big news with you—Fedora Workstation will be available on Lenovo ThinkPad laptops! Yes, I know,  many of us already run a Fedora operating system on a Lenovo system, but this is different. You’ll soon be able to get Fedora pre-installed by selecting it as you customize your purchase. This is a pilot of Lenovo’s Linux Community Series – Fedora Edition, beginning with ThinkPad P1 Gen2, ThinkPad P53, and ThinkPad X1 Gen8 laptops, possibly expanding to other models in the future.

The Lenovo team has been working with folks at Red Hat who work on Fedora desktop technologies to make sure that the upcoming Fedora 32 Workstation is ready to go on their laptops. The best part about this is that we’re not bending our rules for them. Lenovo is following our existing trademark guidelines and respects our open source principles. That’s right—these laptops ship with software exclusively from the official Fedora repos! When they ship, you’ll see Fedora 32 Workstation. (Models which can benefit from the NVIDIA binary driver can install it in the normal way after the fact, by opting in to proprietary software sources.)

Obviously, this is huge for us. Our installer aims to make the complicated process of installing Fedora to replace another operating system as easy as possible, but it’s still a barrier even for tech-literate people. A major-brand laptop with Fedora pre-installed will help bring Fedora to a wider audience. That and Lenovo’s commitment to fixing issues as part of the community means that everyone benefits from their Linux engineering work in the true spirit of open source collaboration.

As Mark Pearson, Sr. Linux Developer, from Lenovo said, “Lenovo is excited to become a part of the  Fedora community. We want to ensure an optimal Linux experience on our products. We are committed to working with and learning from the open source community.” Mark Pearson will be the featured guest in May’s Fedora Council Video Meeting – get your questions ready.

I’ll have more details about this project as we get closer to the launch. In the meantime, I invite you to come to our Open Neighborhood virtual booth at Red Hat Summit on April 28-29. The entire event is free and open to all.

Nexon’s upcoming multiplayer kart racer, KartRider Rush+, has hit three million pre-registrations in a single week, which is quite astounding really. The pre-registration period began on April 16, and on April 23, Nexon reported that over three million hungry mobile gamers had hit that pre-registration button already. It seems that Mario Kart Tour has some stiff competition on its hands.

You may recognise the name. That’s because KartRider is a fairly long-running series, with the first entry launching on PC back in 2004. This isn’t even the first time the series has made it to mobile, as another entry, KartRider Rush, launched on the App Store back in 2011. This is basically a bigger and better version of that.

It features a story mode, which introduces you to the various game modes. You can think of it as kind of a lengthy, and more entertaining, tutorial. In terms of modes, there’s Speed, which challenges you to go fast across a series of winding tracks, Arcade, which features sub-modes Item Race, Infini-Boost, and Lucci Runner. Rounding out the modes is Time Trial, which pits you against the clock, and Ranked, which challenges you to race through the ranks and show off your skills.

When not racing you can customise your racer with a wide variety of outfits, accessories, and karts. There’s a ton of cosmetic options, including decals and pets. You can also form a club with other players and participate in quests together, customise your own home, and participate in minigames.

KartRider Rush+ is expected to land on May 31 so there’s still time to pre-register for it if you’re interested. You’ll earn the following rewards at launch just for doing so:

• Skelemech kart
• Sluggar Dao character
• 5,000 turbo crystals
• Angel wing headgear
• Star driftmoji
• 1,000 Lucci coins
• 3,000 k-coins
• 500 Lucci

You’ll also earn bonus rewards for pre-registering via Google Play or the App Store, including:

• Prism plate
• Prism helmet
• CA goggles
• CA plate

If you’re interested, you can pre-register right now on the official site, or via Google Play or the App Store. We’ll see you at the starting line on May 31.

Daniel

A new preview update of Blazor WebAssembly is now available! Here’s what’s new in this release:

• Read configuration during startup
• Configure HTTP fetch request options
• Honor existing web.config when publishing
• Attach tokens to outgoing requests
• Support for time zones

Get started

To get started with Blazor WebAssembly 3.2.0 Preview 5 install the latest .NET Core 3.1 SDK.

NOTE: Version 3.1.201 or later of the .NET Core SDK is required to use this Blazor WebAssembly release! Make sure you have the correct .NET Core SDK version by running dotnet --version from a command prompt.

Once you have the appropriate .NET Core SDK installed, run the following command to install the updated Blazor WebAssembly template:

dotnet new -i Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebAssembly.Templates::3.2.0-preview5.20216.8

If you’re on Windows using Visual Studio, we recommend installing the latest preview of Visual Studio 2019 16.6. For this preview, you should still install the template from the command-line as described above to ensure that the Blazor WebAssembly template shows up correctly in Visual Studio and on the command-line.

That’s it! You can find additional docs and samples on https://blazor.net.

Upgrade an existing project

To upgrade an existing Blazor WebAssembly app from 3.2.0 Preview 4 to 3.2.0 Preview 5:

• Update all Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebAssembly.* package references to version 3.2.0-preview5.20216.8.
• Update any Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebAssembly.Runtime package references to version 3.2.0-preview5.20216.1.
• Remove any calls to set WebAssemblyHttpMessageHandlerOptions.DefaultCredentials and instead call SetBrowserRequestCredentials on individual requests (see “Configure HTTP fetch request options” section below).
• Remove the redirect parameter from calls to TryGetToken on AccessTokenResult.

You’re all set!

Read configuration during startup

Configuration data is now available during app startup in Program.Main using the Configuration property on WebAssemblyHostBuilder. This property can now be used both to add configuration sources and to access the current configuration data.

You can see this feature in action in the project templates when you enable authentication with Azure AD, Azure AD B2C, or an OpenID Connect provider of your choice. The authentication settings are stored in appsettings.json and then read from configuration when the app starts up:

Program.cs

public class Program

{ public static async Task Main(string[] args) { var builder = WebAssemblyHostBuilder.CreateDefault(args); builder.RootComponents.Add<App>("app"); builder.Services.AddTransient(sp => new HttpClient { BaseAddress = new Uri(builder.HostEnvironment.BaseAddress) }); builder.Services.AddOidcAuthentication(options => { // Configure your authentication provider options here. // For more information, see https://aka.ms/blazor-standalone-auth builder.Configuration.Bind("Local", options.ProviderOptions); }); await builder.Build().RunAsync(); }

}

appsettings.json

{ "Local": { "Authority": "https:login.microsoftonline.com/", "ClientId": "33333333-3333-3333-33333333333333333" }

}

Configure HTTP fetch request options

HTTP requests issued from a Blazor WebAssembly app using HttpClient are handled using the browser fetch API. In this release, we’ve added a set of extension methods for HttpRequestMessage that configure various fetch related options. These extension methods live in the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.WebAssembly.Http namespace:

You can set additional options using the more generic SetBrowserRequestOption extension method.

The HTTP response is typically buffered in a Blazor WebAssembly app to enable support for sync reads on the response content. To enable support for response streaming, use the SetBrowserResponseStreamingEnabled extension method on the request.

Honor existing web.config when publishing

When publishing a standalone Blazor WebAssembly app, a web.config is automatically generated for the app that handles configuring IIS appropriately. You can now specify your own web.config in the project, which will get used instead of the generated one.

Attach tokens to outgoing requests

Configuring authentication now adds an AuthorizationMessageHandler as a service that can be used with HttpClient to attach access tokens to outgoing requests. Tokens are acquired using the existing IAccessTokenProvider service. If a token cannot be acquired, an AccessTokenNotAvailableException is thrown. This exception has a Redirect method that can be used to navigate the user to the identity provider to acquire a new token. The AuthorizationMessageHandler can be configured with the authorized URLs, scopes, and return URL using the ConfigureHandler method.

For example, you can configure an HttpClient to use the AuthorizationMessageHandler like this:

builder.Services.AddSingleton(sp =>

{ return new HttpClient(sp.GetRequiredService<AuthorizationMessageHandler>() .ConfigureHandler( new [] { "https://www.example.com/base" }, scopes: new[] {"example.read", "example.write"})) { BaseAddress = new Uri("https://www.example.com/base") };

});

For convenience, a BaseAddressAuthorizationMessageHandler is also included that is preconfigured with the app base address as an authorized URL. The authentication enabled Blazor WebAssembly templates now use IHttpClientFactory to set up an HttpClient with the BaseAddressAuthorizationMessageHandler:

builder.Services.AddHttpClient("BlazorWithIdentityApp1.ServerAPI", client => client.BaseAddress = new Uri(builder.HostEnvironment.BaseAddress)) .AddHttpMessageHandler<BaseAddressAuthorizationMessageHandler>(); // Supply HttpClient instances that include access tokens when making requests to the server project

builder.Services.AddTransient(sp => sp.GetRequiredService<IHttpClientFactory>().CreateClient("BlazorWithIdentityApp1.ServerAPI"));

You can use the configured HttpClient to make authorized requests using a simple try-catch pattern. For example, here’s the updated code in the FetchData component for requesting the weather forecast data:

protected override async Task OnInitializedAsync()

{ try { forecasts = await Http.GetFromJsonAsync<WeatherForecast[]>("WeatherForecast"); } catch (AccessTokenNotAvailableException exception) { exception.Redirect(); }

}

Alternatively, you can simplify things even further by defining a strongly-typed client that handles all of the HTTP and token acquisition concerns within a single class:

WeatherClient.cs

public class WeatherClient

{ private readonly HttpClient httpClient; public WeatherClient(HttpClient httpClient) { this.httpClient = httpClient; } public async Task<IEnumerable<WeatherForecast>> GetWeatherForeacasts() { IEnumerable<WeatherForecast> forecasts = new WeatherForecast[0]; try { forecasts = await httpClient.GetFromJsonAsync<WeatherForecast[]>("WeatherForecast"); } catch (AccessTokenNotAvailableException exception) { exception.Redirect(); } return forecasts; }

}

Program.cs

builder.Services.AddHttpClient<WeatherClient>(client => client.BaseAddress = new Uri(builder.HostEnvironment.BaseAddress)) .AddHttpMessageHandler<BaseAddressAuthorizationMessageHandler>();

FetchData.razor

protected override async Task OnInitializedAsync()

{ forecasts = await WeatherClient.GetWeatherForeacasts();

}

Support for time zones

Blazor now infers the user’s time zone and uses it in date and time calculations. In addition, APIs on System.TimeZoneInfo that previously returned incomplete results now report correct results.

Help improve the Blazor docs!

Thank you everyone who has taken the time to give feedback on how we can best improve the Blazor docs!

If you haven’t already, please join in with helping us improve the docs by doing the following:

• As you read the Blazor docs, let us know where we should focus our efforts by telling us if you find a topic helpful or not using the helpfulness widget at the top of each doc page:

  

• Use the Feedback section at the bottom of each doc page to let us know when a particular topic is unclear, inaccurate, or incomplete.

  

• Comment on our Improve the Blazor docs GitHub issue with your suggestions for new content and ways to improve the existing content.

Feedback

We hope you enjoy the new features in this preview release of Blazor WebAssembly! Please let us know what you think by filing issues on GitHub.

Thanks for trying out Blazor!

With a new iPhone SE occupying Apple’s entry-level price tier, the question of which budget-friendly iPhone to buy has gotten a bit harder. We’re here to help.

Apple’s trio of cheaper iPhones all have differences and similarities that may sway your decision.

The second-generation iPhone SE packs a lot of device into a $399 price tag, but it’s still missing some of the key flagship features users have come to expect from modern Apple handsets.

Though it still retains some years-old design elements, like a Home button and significant bezels, the new iPhone SE offers some extremely competitive specifications for the price, especially when compared to the other cheaper device in Apple’s lineup.

Let’s take a closer look at how the iPhone SE, iPhone XR and iPhone 11 stack up.

Basic overview of the iPhone SE, iPhone XR and iPhone 11

Apple’s new iPhone SE (let), iPhone XR (center), and iPhone 11 (right)

The iPhone SE may seem like the biggest outlier here, but it has similarities to both the iPhone XR and the iPhone SE, depending on the exact specification.

For example, the overall footprint of the iPhone XR and the iPhone 11 are very similar, with virtually no differences in dimensions or weight. The iPhone SE has a vastly different form factor than current iPhones, with a 4.7-inch display, relatively large bezels and a Home button.

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Both the iPhone SE and the iPhone 11 pack an A13 Bionic chipset, meaning that their performance is going to outpace the older and slower A12 Bionic in the iPhone XR. It’s a similar story for connectivity, with the iPhone SE and iPhone 11 featuring support for Wi-Fi 6. The trio do feature the same Bluetooth specification and 4G LTE support, however.

When it comes to cameras, the iPhone SE and iPhone XR are fairly evenly stacked, with a similar single-lens rear camera. The iPhone 11 has the best camera setup with a dual-lens system that includes an ultra-wide-angle lens and next-generation Smart HDR.

The TrueDepth Camera in the edge-to-edge iPhones offers some competitive advantages and access to features like Face ID.

None of the displays here are OLED-based. While the two edge-to-edge displays use Apple’s Liquid Retina LCD technology, they all have the same pixel density. The only difference is the iPhone SE’s resolution, which is lower due mainly to its smaller screen.

The biometrics are different, of course, with the new iPhone SE retaining a Home button and Touch ID. All three devices sport dual-SIM capabilities thanks to Apple’s embedded eSIM, as well as support for Qi wireless charging.

Which of the trio you should buy

The 2020 iPhone SE mixes in features from both the iPhone XR and iPhone 11, all at a more affordable price.

As mentioned earlier, the iPhone SE has quite a few flagship-like features hidden underneath its older iPhone form factor. It’s going to be an extremely attractive choice for the price, compared to both mid-range iPhones as well as Android devices.

It could also act as a good stepping stone to a modern iPhone for users who have held onto their old devices for some time. It’s a familiar form factor, despite having some of the latest updates inside of it. Fans of the 4.7-inch, or those avoiding the newer designs, may want to give it a hard look.

The iPhone XR occupies a slot somewhere in the middle, though it actually has the slowest processor and several other features that lag about a year behind its 2020 stablemates.

While it’s going to offer a similar experience to the iPhone 11, its hardware and internals are slightly older. It’s probably best for users who want the cheapest way to get Face ID and an edge-to-edge display.

Apple’s iPhone 11 is representative of the company’s current flagship. It’s essentially the whole package, with the best cameras, and is the best phone out of the bunch —but at a cost premium.

Even though it’s missing a few features compared to the iPhone 11 Pro models. It is, of course, the most expensive. And a $700 price isn’t exactly friendly to every budget.

Demonstrating tremendous diversity in thought, our six Imagine Cup World Finalist teams offer innovation for social good in many different areas. For example, one team created a robot that can help Kenyan farmers weed their large-scale farms, eliminating the need for environmentally destructive herbicides. Another is building a tool that will make it easier for Parkinson’s patients to have a doctor’s visit, saving them time and money. These are just a few ideas from the six teams that were chosen as finalists, creating tools that change the way we see and solve problems in our world.

For the 18^th annual Imagine Cup, thousands of student teams from around the world submitted impactful tech innovations. The teams were challenged to bring life to an idea that tackles a local or global issue, using Microsoft Azure. One former finalist described Imagine Cup as the “Olympic Games of Student Technology,” providing students the chance to not only share their idea with industry professionals, but also gain a $100,000 prize and the opportunity to receive mentorship with Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella.

This year’s six finalists have created projects that touch on topics such as the environment, mental health, accessibility, and healthcare, with an overarching focus on inclusivity. Taking on the challenges they have seen in their own lives, they are bringing focus, passion, and ingenuity to our world, pushing the envelope on what is possible.

Meet the six final teams and learn more about their projects:

Team Deeptector: US, University of Missouri

Team members: Caleb Heinzman, Kolton Speer, and Imad Eddine Toubal

Projects: Deeptector.io

Team quote: “As with any revolutionary technology, as the benefits of artificial intelligence grow, so does the potential for harm. Our goal for Deeptector is to use AI to help protect the world from the harmful effects of AI.” – Caleb Heinzman, Deeptector

Their project: Deeptector.io is a web app that detects deepfakes, an increasingly common method for propagating misinformation. Using the same AI methods that generate state-of-the-art deepfakes, Deeptector aims to protect journalists and the public from the damage of misinformation. The algorithms that Deeptector uses are commonly known as deep neural networks, which train themselves to differentiate between real videos and fake ones by looking at thousands of examples of each. The team uses Microsoft Azure virtual machines, Storage, and containers, in addition to Twitter API, Python, Flask, and Pytorch.

Their inspiration: The negative consequences of misinformation within society, and Alan Turing

Who can use it? The web app is designed to be as accessible as possible for everyone.

————–

Team Hollo: Hong Kong SAR, the University of Hong Kong

Team members: Piyush Jha, Natalie Lee, Cameron van Breda

Project: Hollo

Team quote: “The younger generation would like to be heard and for their problems to be seen, and we’re here to help them do that.” ‒ Cameron van Breda, Team Hollo

Their project: Hollo is a digital, mental health companion and therapist, used to enhance practices by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and therapists through an AI chatbot. It leverages Big Data and AI to introduce youth to therapy and counseling practices through online gamified journaling and mindfulness activities. Data from the AI chatbots and journaling can then be collected to generate actionable findings. This scalable model aims to cut the heavy cost of mental health care for youth and supplements existing self-help techniques and therapy practices.

Why it’s important: According to the team, the current model of counseling is not reaching the younger generation. Hollo is making huge strides in becoming a product to help this generation.

Future plans: The team aims to launch within the year to place Hollo in institutions all over Hong Kong and possibly expand to other countries around Asia within a couple of years.

——————-

Team The Knights: Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

Team members: Kenneth Gicira, Michael Mwaisakenyi

Project: Weeding Bot

What’s important to The Knights? They want to highlight the problems Kenyan farmers face with weeds on a larger scale in order to bring more visibility to the issue, and how their technology can offer a solution.

Their project: The autonomous weeding bot uses AI (and four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering) to discriminate between weeds and crops achieved through cameras as sensors gathering input from the environment. The vehicle uses the cameras to navigate rows of crops. It encompasses a robotic arm for weeding in between the crop row and a ploughlike weeding tool that is dragged by the robot as it passes in between the rows of crops to remove interrow weeds. Microsoft Azure technology that the team uses includes App Services for mobile and web, Storage, analytics, and Cognitive Services.

Their inspiration: Elon Musk, solving problems on a global scale

Who can use it? The robot can be used by anybody and does not require technical skills to operate. The team made sure that the farmer needs only to place the robot at a given part of the farm, and it will do the rest.

————–

Team RedWalls: Tunisia, National Institute of Applied Science and Technology

Team members: Mohamed Said Fayache, Achraf Feydi, Meriem Zhang

Project: I-Remember

Team quote: “Everyone says that there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease or a way to slow its progression yet. But as Robert A. Heinlein said, ‘Everything is theoretically impossible until it is done.’ Today … the only thing that can make us abandon our fight with this disease is believing that it’s incurable.” – Achraf Feydi, Team RedWalls

Their project: I-Remember is a two-part mobile application designed for the well-being of both the Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers. The patient interface includes task reminders, live facial recognition, labeled photos, emergency location, and call assistance, in addition to memory games to help evaluate and train the user’s memory. The caregiver interface provides the same, but with supervisor features. The team uses Microsoft Azure Storage, containers, and Cognitive Services.

Who can use it? Anyone with a phone can download it for free.

Their inspiration: The movie Still Alice, about a linguistic professor who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, sparked the team’s interest in how technology can be applied to help people.

————–

Team Syrinx: Japan, the University of Tokyo

Team members: Jaesol Ahn, Kunhak Lee, Masaki Takeuchi

Project: Syrinx

Team quote: “Syrinx will be a device for not only laryngectomy or tracheostomy patients, but also people all over the world.” ‒ Masaki Takeuchi, Team Syrinx

Their project: Syrinx, a neck wearable EL (electrolarynx) device, restores the ability to speak for people who have lost their voices. Leveraging Azure Notebooks technology, Syrinx’s device vibrates the user’s throat to create the sound that matches the movement of the user’s mouth, then uses neural networks to learn the lost voice characteristics and restore it. Previous systems were robotic, whereas Syrinx provides both female and male voices.

Future plans: Team Syrinx plans to improve the quality of the device voice by incorporating Microsoft Azure Machine Learning, noise canceling, and making it applicable to anyone with a need or interest in this type of voice technology.

How they met: At a summer program for society-based projects at the University of Tokyo, where they set out to “solve a problem for people with a disability”

————–

Team Tremor Vision: US, University of Washington

Team members: Janae Chan, Drew Gallardo, and Robert Minneker

Project: Tremor Vision

Team quote: “I grew up in a rural, low-income household in Eastern Washington, where I lived with my disabled brother. A major challenge we faced as a family was driving over 150 miles to get my brother to his regular doctor’s appointments, oftentimes in terrible weather conditions. With the help of telehealth platforms, like Tremor Vision, we could eliminate the need for patients to travel vast distances for routine clinic visits and increase access to quality healthcare.” ‒ Drew Gallardo, Team Tremor Vision

Their project: Tremor Vision is a web-based tool that enables physicians to detect early-onset Parkinson’s and quantitatively track patient progress throughout a prescribed treatment plan. By using a touchscreen device connected to the internet, users send clinical results to their physician. The platform empowers patients to save the time and money required by routine clinical visits and increases a physician’s reach in screening for early signs of Parkinson’s. The team uses Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services, MATLAB, and Microsoft Visual Studio.

Their inspiration: Pioneers using technology in innovative ways to contribute to human health and well-being

Why it’s important: Parkinson’s is the second most-common age-related neurodegenerative disorder. There is no standardized way of evaluating the spiral test, one of the most commonly conducted tests to detect early-onset Parkinson’s and track its progression.

————–

The safety of our community is top priority, and in light of global health concerns due to COVID-19, we have moved this year’s competition to a virtual format. Please join us in wishing all the teams best wishes on the final stage of competition and follow the finalists’ journey on Twitter and Instagram as they head to the World Championship to compete during the Microsoft Build digital event in May.