The punch hole camera cutout was a unique take on Samsung’s design philosophy, and the company is embracing it quite well. This layout, formally known as Infinity-O display, was initially introduced by the Galaxy A8s, but the Galaxy S10 lineup was responsible for making it a household name. Despite having a rather polarizing review, modders have targeted these display holes for tinkering and come up with creative apps, such as Energy Ring, to turn the area around the camera hole into a battery indicator. The man behind the tweak, XDA Recognized Developer jagan2, has now added support for the Galaxy A51, Galaxy A71, Galaxy S10 Lite, and the Galaxy Z Flip.
Energy Ring was originally developed for the Galaxy S10‘s singular camera hole, but jagan2 eventually added support for the wider camera cutout on the Galaxy S10+. Since then, major Samsung flagships with punch hole camera(s), such as the Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy S20 series, gained compatibility with this unique mod. According to the developer, the app consumes minuscule CPU horsepower and puts itself into deep sleep when the screen is turned off.
From changing colors based on battery level to defining the direction of depletion, there are a lot of customization options offered by the app, while a few extra features can be unlocked via in-app purchases. A special note for the owners of the Galaxy Z Flip: the current version of the app doesn’t support the cover screen LED due to the lack of official APIs.
The developer has decided to publish a dedicated version of the app targeting the aforementioned devices, which is linked below. The device-specific discussion threads are also listed separately.
Back in 2018, Google launched a new experimental app called Neighbourly which was designed to help users learn more about their neighborhood through local experts. The app was initially rolled out in Mumbai, India and was later extended to a few other cities across the country. For the unaware, the Neighbourly app allowed you to post questions about any particular neighborhood in a supported city and others familiar with the neighborhood could use it to answer your queries. While the concept was definitely quite unique and helpful, the app doesn’t seem to have garnered enough interest. As a result, Google will be shutting the app down in May this year, just two years after its launch.
According to a recent report from TNW, Google recently made the announcement in emails sent out to Neighbourly users which read, “We launched Neighbourly as a Beta app to connect you with your neighbors and make sharing local information more human and helpful. As a community, you’ve come together to celebrate local festivals, shared crucial information during floods, and answered over a million questions…But Neighbourly hasn’t grown as we had hoped. In these difficult times, we believe that we can help more people by focusing on other Google apps that are already serving millions of people everyday.”
Google further added that users interested in helping others out could now make use of the Google Maps Local Guides feature instead. The Neighbourly app will be shutting down on May 12th and users will be able to download their content until October 12th. It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the first service that Google has killed off this year. Earlier this year in January the company announced that it will be shutting down its App Maker in 2021 and it recently removed the location sharing from its popular messaging service Hangouts, which suggests that the service may also be shut down soon. Google has killed off a ton of apps and services in the recent past and you can check out all the apps/services that were recently discontinued by visiting the Google graveyard.
Google has had a history of killing messaging apps unpleasantly in favor of newer communication apps that too are killed eventually. Google Duo has, so far, been an exception since it was launched alongside Allo, the now-defunct messaging service. Duo has continuously received Google’s attention and frequent addition of new features like 1080p support on 5G Samsung S20 phones, (upcoming) live captions, doodles, and up to 12 participants in a group call. Now, Google is applying machine learning to abate the major problem of jitters for a smoother and uninterrupted audio experience.
Video calling has become a vital way of official communication during the COVID-19 quarantine period and jittery audio can cost you or your company financially. Google acknowledges that 99% of the calls on Duo suffer from interruptions due to network delays. About a fifth of these calls suffers a 3% loss in audio while a tenth loses nearly 8% of the audio, much of which could be very significant information that you end up missing. This happens as packets of data are either delayed or lost in transmission and the absence of these packets results in glitches in the audio, rendering much of it incomprehensible.
Google’s new WaveNetEQ machine learning algorithm works on a technique called “packet loss concealment” (PLC). WaveNet EQ is a generative model based on DeepMind’sWaveRNN and creates chunks of audio to plug in gaps with realistic fillers. The AI model has been trained by feeding a large pool of speech-related data. Due to end-to-end encryption in Google Duo, the model runs on the receiver’s device. But Google claims that it is “fast enough to run on a phone, while still providing state-of-the-art audio quality.”
WaveRRN relies on a text-to-speech model and besides being trained for “what to say,” it has also been trained for “how to say” things. It analyzes the input with a strong phonetic understanding to predict sounds in the immediate future. Besides filling up gaps, the model also produces surplus audio in the raw waveform to overlap the part which follows the jitter. This signal overlaps with the actual audio with a bit of cross-fading and results in a smoother transition.
Google Duo’s WaveNetEQ model has been trained in 48 languages fed by 100 individuals so that it can learn the general characteristics of human voice instead of just one language. The model is trained to mostly produce syllables and can fill up to 120ms long gaps.
The feature is already available on the Google Pixel 4 and is now rolling out to other Android devices.
The Huawei P40, P40 Pro, and P40 Pro+ were launched in an online event last month. These are the latest flagships from Huawei, bringing along some very enticing hardware technologies to the average consumer. There are design changes on board, better displays, better cameras, and much more, giving users plenty of reason to be excited about these new smartphones.
Some of the highlights of the Huawei P40 series includes the 90Hz “Overflow” display, a 50MP RYYB 1/1.28” “Ultra Vision Sensor” on all three phones, Kirin 990 5G SoC, large batteries with fast wired charging on all phones, and fast wireless charging on the higher end models, and much more. Specifications vary across the three phones, naturally, so be sure to check out the specification sheet for the exact details on the model you are interested in.
Huawei P40 Series: Specifications
Specifications
Huawei P40
Huawei P40 Pro
Huawei P40 Pro+
Size & Weight
148.9 x 71.06 x 8.5mm
175g
158.2 x 72.6 x 8.95mm
203g
158.2 x 72.6 x 9.0mm
226g
Display
6.1 inches
OLED
2340 x 1080
6.58 inches
OLED
2640 x 1200
90 Hz
6.58 inches
OLED
2640 x 1200
90 Hz
CPU
Kirin 990 5G OctaCore CPU:
2x Cortex-A76 @ 2.86 GHz
2x Cortex-A76 @ 2.36 GHz
4x Cortex A55 @ 1.95 GHz
Kirin 990 5G OctaCore CPU:
2x Cortex-A76 @ 2.86 GHz
2x Cortex-A76 @ 2.36 GHz
4x Cortex A55 @ 1.95 GHz
Kirin 990 5G OctaCore CPU:
2x Cortex-A76 @ 2.86 GHz
2x Cortex-A76 @ 2.36 GHz
4x Cortex A55 @ 1.95 GHz
RAM
8GB
8GB
8GB
Storage
128GB, nano memory card expansion
256GB, nano memory card expansion
512GB, nano memory card expansion
Rear Cameras
50MP UltraVision with RYYB, 4-in-1 pixel binning, f/1.9
16MP ultra wide-angle camera, f/2.2
8 megapixel telephoto with OIS, f/2.4
50MP UltraVision with RYYB, 4-in-1 pixel binning, f/1.9, OIS
40MP video and ultra-wide-angle camera, f/1.8
12MP SuperSensing Telephoto, f/3.4
TOF sensor
50MP UltraVision with RYYB, 4-in-1 pixel binning, f/1.9, OIS
40MP video and ultra-wide-angle camera, f/1.8
8MP 10X optical super periscope telephoto
8MP 3X optical telephoto
TOF sensor
Front Cameras
32MP, f/2.2
32MP, f/2.2
IR depth sensor
32MP, f/2.2
IR depth sensor
OS
EMUI 10.1 based on Android 10 (no Google services)
EMUI 10.1 based on Android 10 (no Google services)
EMUI 10.1 based on Android 10 (no Google services)
Pricing for the European region was revealed during the P40 series launch event. Now, the Huawei P40 and P40 Pro are launching in the UK, giving consumers in this region the opportunity to own and experience the new phones.
Huawei P40 Series: Availability and Pricing for UK
The Huawei P40 Pro will launch in the UK in Black and Silver Frost colors for a Recommended Retail Price of £899. Pre-orders for the phone are already live with Carphone Warehouse, Virgin Mobile, Three, and other selected retailers. If you pre-order the phone, you can redeem yourself a bundle which includes the Huawei FreeBuds 3, Huawei SuperCharge Wireless Car Charger, and Huawei SuperCharge Wireless Charger. The open sale of the phone begins on April 7, 2020. You can of course, also purchase the phone directly from the UK Huawei Store.
The Huawei Pro will launch in the UK in Silver Frost color (via Carphone Warehouse only), and Black (Virgin Mobile and other selected retailers). Pre-orders are already live and continue up to April 6, 2020. You can get a Huawei FreeBuds 3 if you preorder. The phone goes on sale from April 7, 2020, and you can purchase it directly from the UK Huawei Store.
The Huawei P40 Pro+ will also be made available in the region in the near future.
Over the last couple of months, Google has added a number of features to Chrome to offer users a better media playback experience. Back in December last year, Google Chrome received a new media control tool with support for Chromecast and early last month, they started testing a new picture-in-picture button in the media control center. Now, it appears that Google is preparing to add another new feature that will help you track your media playback history in the browser.
We’ve recently spotted a series of commits in the Chromium Gerrit with the tag “media-history”. The feature, as its name suggests, will allow you to easily access your media playback history just like you access your browser history currently. The feature is currently being tested and is gated behind the flag chrome://flags#media-history. As with the browser history, the feature will give you to option to delete media URLs from media history and it will do so automatically when you delete an item from the Chrome History.
As of now, a basic web UI for the feature is available at chrome://media-history, but it’s quite barebones and not intended for users yet. It’s possible, however, that Google will continue iterating on the UI and may roll out media history as a separate page. It’s also quite possible that Google might integrate the new feature as a separate list in Chrome History. For now, Google has released no official information about this upcoming feature but we expect the company to make an announcement once the feature is close to its launch.
Popular music streaming app Spotify recently rolled out a new mobile UI with a refreshed home screen layout, a universal Shuffle Play button, a redesigned Action row, and more. According to Spotify, the new UI was designed to make the app more streamlined and easier to use with just one hand, with the updated home screen allowing users to quickly jump back into familiar content. Now, in a bid to help users discover new music from their favorite artists, the service is rolling out a new feature called “Follow Feed”.
Spotify is working on “Follow Feed” of “New releases from artists you follow and more” pic.twitter.com/8DdoUXtseq
The “Follow Feed” feature was first spotted earlier this year by prolific reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) and, as previously revealed, the feature lists down new releases from the artists that you’ve followed on the app. On top of that, the feature also suggests new artists that you can follow based on the ones that you’re already following on Spotify.
Spotify has now started rolling out the feature to a few users worldwide via a server-side update and Tushar from our team has already received it on his device. The feature is reportedly available on Spotify v8.5.51.941, however, I didn’t see it on my device even after updating the app to the latest release. This suggests that Spotify is currently testing the feature with just a handful of users and will begin a broader rollout in the coming days. As you can see in the screenshots above, the feature shows up as a new lightning bolt icon in the top right corner of the app next to the settings cog. Clicking on the icon opens up the Follow Feed, where you’ll be able to see all the latest releases from the artists you’re following, along with a few artist suggestions.
We recently learned that OnePlus was planning on launching its next-gen flagship lineup — the OnePlus 8 series — on April 14th. Along with the launch announcement, the company also revealed some key specifications about the upcoming devices and also hinted at a new pair of wireless earbuds in a rather cryptic tweet. Previous leaks about the earphones suggested that the company would be launching a new pair of truly wireless earbuds along with the OnePlus 8 series. However, renowned leakster Evan Blass (@evleaks) has now shared images of the upcoming earbuds and it turns out that they aren’t of the truly wireless variety after all.
The images in question were shared via Blass on his Patreon page and they reveal a design almost identical to the OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2, with probably the only difference being the additional color variants. The upcoming wireless earbuds from OnePlus will be available in 4 color variants — black, blue, white, and green. Blass has also revealed that the earbuds will be called the Bullets Wireless Z, but he hasn’t confirmed any specifications yet. Even though we don’t have any further information about the upcoming wireless earbuds, we can safely assume that they’ll offer better audio quality and, perhaps, improved battery backup than the Bullets Wireless 2. OnePlus itself hasn’t revealed any information about the Bullets Wireless Z yet, but we expect the company to divulge more information in the days leading up to the launch.
What’s your take on the Bullets Wireless Z? Are you looking forward to the neckband design or would you have preferred a truly wireless design instead? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
