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I can’t put this off any longer, so here are the tech predictions I made a year ago for 2018. We have to see how well or poorly I did before we can move on to my predictions for 2019 and beyond. These old predictions have been edited for length, but not to avoid embarrassment. I try to never avoid embarrassment.

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that my predictions get longer and longer (this column, alone, is 4329 words -- my second longest, ever) as they have drifted from new products to explaining new strategies. This sometimes works against the prediction since it is often easier to claim success if your goal is vague, but I see it more as a tribute to my readers. Many of you have been with me for decades and the very fact that we are both still here has as much to do with the work as with its results. How the future fits together is just as important as where it is heading.

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Driven by the growth of mobile computing, IoT devices and the upcoming 5G rollout, edge networking is on the rise and leading businesses to take a fresh look at their networking strategies.

But going from a traditional approach to a virtualized, cloud-native, and software-driven network that connects headquarters to multiple branches and deploys new services like SD-WAN, Virtualized Customer Premises Equipment (vCPE), and IoT devices isn’t easy.

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microSD cards still blow my mind. It remains amazing to me that so much storage can be offered on a card smaller than a postage stamp. They come in very handy for devices like smartphones, tablets, and drones, to name a few.

The SD Association is continuing to push the envelope, however, making these diminutive cards even better. No, the cards are not getting physically smaller -- thank goodness. Actually, they are getting faster. Joining the existing SD Express, the micro cards are also getting the speedy "Express" treatment. Yes, microSD Express cards are on the way.

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The age of the folding phone is upon us. Gone are the days of prototypes -- now we have hardware we can actually buy... or at least will be able to very soon indeed. Both Samsung and Huawei have unveiled foldables in recent days, but how do they stack up?

The two companies have taken different approaches with the Galaxy Fold and the Mate X when it comes to the hinging, but there are also specs to consider -- and, of course, price. So how do the two flagship foldables compare?

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Google has a history of changing its mind about messaging services, launching and closing them left, right and center. The company now seems pretty invested in its Messages platform, and has been gradually adding more and more features to increase its appeal.

Google's latest move sees it bringing Assistant integration to the Messages app so you can get one-tap access to AI-powered help and information. The company also says that it remains committed to RCS (Rich Communication Service) and wants to bring the standard to more Android users.

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Late last year, in the beginning of December, Mageia 7 officially entered the beta stage. Fans of the operating system were obviously excited, but since then, all has been quiet.

Today, however, this changes — Mageia 7 Beta 2 is officially here! Unfortunately, according to the developers, a stable version is still far off.

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"Elegance" and "value." Those two words are synonymous with HUAWEI. The company is still establishing itself in the USA, but in China, HUAWEI's products are insanely popular. Its laptops, tablets, and smartphones are designed to be beautiful and functional, while also offering a great value. In some ways, it has matched or exceeded the legendary Apple in the design department.

HUAWEI's laptops in particular are top notch, putting the Windows 10 machines from other manufacturers to shame. The MateBook X Pro, for instance, offers insane performance in an affordable and attractive package. Today, the company announces a refresh to that laptop, while also unveiling a new model -- the MateBook 14. After coming away extremely impressed by the MateBook 13 earlier this month, I have very high hopes for the 14. The X Pro and 14 both have the much desired 3:2 aspect ratio, but the former has higher resolution. Another big difference between the two is that the X Pro has Thunderbolt 3, while the 14 does not. With that said, the 14 does have HDMI, so you can output video without a dongle -- a nice feature for some.

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If you balked when the price of the Samsung Galaxy Fold was revealed ($1,980, in case you missed it), the price tag attached to the newly revealed Huawei Mate X may trigger heart failure. At $2,600, the 5G folding smartphone is, the words of Huawei's Richard Yu, "very expensive", but you will get a lot of phone for your money.

The Mate X is scheduled for release in the middle of the year, and it differs from the Samsung Galaxy Fold in an important way. While Samsung's offering opens up to reveal a large screen on the inside, Huawei has instead opted to wrap the foldable screen around the front and back using the unique Falcon Wing Mechanical Hinge. In folded mode, this is a 6.6-inch smartphone; opened up, it is an 8-inch tablet. The price may be extraordinarily high, but you get some impressive hardware.

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SATA solid states are hardly exciting to tech enthusiasts and hardcore PC builders these days. After all, NVMe SSDs are much faster and getting more affordable all the time. The problem? Many consumers simply don't own a computer with the NVMe-compatible m.2 slot needed to accommodate the speedier drive. With that said, many computer users do own machines with the ubiquitous SATA. If they want to replace an aging mechanical hard drive -- or even an existing 2.5-inch solid state drive -- a SATA variant is an affordable and easy drop-in upgrade.

ADATA has a new SATA solid state drive that is designed for upgraders. Called "SU750," it is a 2.5-inch SSD that utilizes 3D TLC NAND Flash with capacities up to 1TB. Performance is exactly what you would expect from such a SATA drive, as all of them are pretty much the same speed these days. Despite being a fairly unremarkable SSD, ADATA is dubbing it "Ultimate" for some reason -- marketing, I suppose.

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Having recently started public testing of Windows 10 20H1, Microsoft has a new build for Insiders on the Skip Ahead ring to try out.

Windows 10 20H1 Build 18841 is really just a bug-fixing build but it comes with a warning from Microsoft that: "As is normal with builds early in the development cycle, these builds may contain bugs that might be painful for some". If that whets your appetite, dive in!

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Microsoft has started rolling out build 18343 of Windows 10 19H1 to Windows Insiders on the Fast Ring.

This latest build is mainly comprised of bug fixes, and there are also improvements to the Windows Sandbox feature. As we are now so close to the final release of Windows 10 19H1, Microsoft has locked down the apps -- and you may even notice that some features have gone missing.

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A couple of days ago we shared with you that legendary "shock jock" Howard Stern's video content was now accessible on Fire TV by way of the SiriusXM app. While it was certainly exciting, many folks felt left out. After all, not everyone owns one of Amazon's media devices. People like me, for instance, love Howard Stern but own Apple TV instead.

Thankfully, starting today, Stern's videos are accessible on Apple TV too. Yes, the SiriusXM app on Apple's media box will now show his video content -- the same as Amazon Fire TV.

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Opera Software has unveiled no fewer than 24 improvements since launching its mobile browser for Android and iOS. The latest build, Opera Touch 1.5.0 delivers a much-needed setting for automatically handling website cookie dialogs.

Other improvements since launch have included expanding the My Flow feature to connect mobile and desktop iterations of Opera, support for Private Browsing mode and a dark theme

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When it comes to building a PC, RGB lighting is a very polarizing topic. Some consumers love the customizable lighting, while others detest it. As far as I'm concerned, those that hate RGB are simply wrong -- they need to open their hearts and minds and have a bit of fun. Not to mention, the lights can typically be turned off entirely if you absolutely can't stand it.

If you love RGB lighting like I do, you will surely be excited about CORSAIR's newest RAM kits. Called "DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB DDR4," each stick features an amazing 12 RGB LEDs. You can customize the lighting using CORSAIR's "iCUe" software. This memory is not only about appearances, however. Actually, this RAM is insanely fast too, featuring speeds of up to 4,800MHz! Kits can be had in sizes ranging from 16GB (2x 8GB) to 128GB (8x 16GB).

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If you use a laptop with a small SSD, you'll want to make sure you can reclaim as much hard drive space as possible. Many of the default apps Microsoft installs with Windows 10 can take up more space than you might realise and, better still, most can be removed simply and easily.

Take the Skype app, as an example. This app is now installed by default as Microsoft is keen to encourage us to use their technology. Problem is, it takes up nearly 0.5GB of your SSD, for an app you may never consider using.

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