New NFC standard enables 1W wireless charging for small devices

Wireless charging has become a mainstream feature these days, as both phones and phone accessories rely on the technology to provide convenience in addition to wired charging. Wireless charging by itself is also evolving, as tech innovators opt for features such as fast wireless charging and reverse wireless charging to make the product ecosystem even more alluring. These features require dedicated coils inside the appliance that can wirelessly transmit power. But since space can be at a premium in these appliances, especially on smaller wearables, there is an incentive to explore alternative approaches. The NFC Forum has come up with one, as it announced the approval of a wireless charging specification that will let you charge your devices via NFC chips instead of dedicated wireless coils.

The NFC Forum, the global standards and advocacy association for Near Field Communication technology, announced today that its Board of Directors approved and adopted the Wireless Charging Specification (WLC) that makes it possible to wirelessly charge small, battery-powered consumer and IoT devices with a smartphone or other NFC charging device at a power transfer rate of up to one watt.

Wireless Charging enabled through NFC allows for wirelessly charging small battery-powered devices, namely IoT devices and wearables. The approach is intended to alleviate the need for a separate wireless charging component for these small devices if they include NFC. As an example, a Bluetooth headset which includes NFC for pairing could also use it for wireless charging under this new specification. The NFC antenna will be used to exchange pairing information and to transfer power, albeit at a maximum of 1W.

The NFC spec will use the 13.56MHz base frequency and leverage the NFC communication link to control the power transfer. The tech already allows the transfer of power to an NFC tag to enable communication by providing a constant carrier signal. The WLC spec extends this communication functionality of NFC to enable wireless charging. There are two modes for charging: static and negotiated mode. The static mode uses standard radio frequency field strength and provides a consistent power level. The negotiated mode uses a higher RF field supporting four power transfer classes of 250, 500, 750, and 1000 milliwatts.

Hardware requirements for WLC have not been mentioned, but we can presume that it would require newer chips and is not a feature that can be safely backported to older devices.

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Source: NFC Forum
Story Via: Android Authority

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Google Authenticator update brings a major redesign and finally adds the ability to transfer accounts

Setting up two-factor authentication (2FA) is one of the first steps you should take in order to secure any of your accounts on the web. While there are several apps on the Play Store that you can use to set up 2FA, Google Authenticator is inarguably one of the most used apps out of the lot. However, despite its popularity, Google hasn’t updated the app’s design in quite a while. Thankfully, that changes with the latest update for the Google Authenticator app.

According to a recent report from Android Police, Google is now rolling out version 5.10 of the Google Authenticator via the Play Store and the update brings a much-need visual makeover for the app. As you can see in the attached screenshots, the app has received a Material Design 2.0 refresh with a true-black dark theme in tow. The redesign also adapts the app to the aspect rations of newer devices, instead of displaying an unsightly black bar at the bottom.

Along with the redesign, the update also adds a highly-requested feature to the app which will make it easy for you to port your keys over to another device. Up until now, the Google Authenticator app didn’t allow users to move their app’s credentials to another phone, and users had to go through a complex process through their Google account backend to do so.

With the update, the app now has an embedded import/export tool in the overflow menu that you can use to easily transfer your account details to a different device. The feature gives you the ability to select which accounts you want to export and then, after verifying with the device PIN or biometric authentication, displays a QR code that can be scanned by the other device to trigger the import mode.

The update is slowly rolling out via the Play Store and should reach most users in the coming days. In case you don’t wish to wait for the update, you can download Google Authenticator v5.10 from the APK Mirror link below.

Download Google Authenticator v5.10 from APK Mirror

Google Authenticator (Free, Google Play) →

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Via: Android Police

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LG Velvet unveiled with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 and Stylus support

Rumors about LG planning to shelve its flagship G-series in favor of a Snapdragon 700-series powered mid-range devices first materialized early last month when the company shared sketches of its new design approach. Soon thereafter, the company published a teaser video for the LG Velvet that showed off the phone in its entirety. The teaser also confirmed that the device would feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765 chipset. Towards the end of last month, the company confirmed some key specifications and, just a few days ago, we also got to see some hands-on images of the device. As per the launch schedule teased earlier, the company has now officially unveiled the LG Velvet in South Korea.

LG Velvet Specifications

Specification	LG Velvet
Display	6.8” POLED display 20.5:9 2460×1080 FHD+
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 765
RAM and Storage	8GB+ 128GB UFS 2.1 Expandable using microSD card slot
Battery & Charging	4,300mAh Fast wireless charging support
Rear Camera	Primary: 48MP Secondary: 8MP Ultra Wide-Angle Camera Tertiary: 5MP Depth Sensor
Front Camera	16MP
Other Features	3.5mm headphone jack Wacom stylus support with 4096 pressure levels USB Type-C In-display fingerprint scanner
Android Version	Android 10 with LG’s custom UI on top

As confirmed in previous leaks, the LG Velvet packs in a massive 6.8-inch POLED display with a waterdrop-style notch for the selfie camera. The display has an aspect ratio of 20.5:9, with a resolution of 2460×1080 pixels. While the display specifications seem quite standard, when compared to other mid-range devices in the market today, what sets the LG Velvet apart is that it features a special digitizer that enables Wacom stylus support with up to 4096 pressure levels. To help users make the most out of the stylus support, the device comes with the Nebo handwriting app preinstalled which can automatically convert handwriting into digital notes.

 

Powering the device is a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 chip, with a max boost clock of 2.2GHz and an integrated 5G modem. The Snapdragon 765 is accompanied by a respectable 8GB of RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage, which can be expanded further using the microSD card slot. In the camera department, the LG Velvet features a triple camera setup on the back which consists of a 48MP primary sensor with OIS, an 8MP ultra wide-angle camera, and a 5MP depth sensor. Over on the front, the device has a single 16MP selfie shooter.

 

Much like previous smartphones from the company, the LG Velvet offers quite a few special video modes for recording in cinema format, including variable frame rates and a special filter to record ASMR video. On top of that, LG has also included a special function to filter out ambient noise in video recordings. The LG Velvet runs Android 10 out of the box, with the company’s heavily customized UI on top.

Additionally, the device also features IP 68 dust and water resistance and LG claims that it has also passed 7 durability tests to earn the military standard 810G rating.

Pricing and Availability

The LG Velvet is currently available in South Korea in four color variants — Aurora White, Aurora Gray, Aurora Green, and Illusion Sunset — all of which feature LG’s new soft-touch finish. The device has been priced at the equivalent of just under €700 and is available on all major network operators in the country. As of now, LG hasn’t unveiled plans for an international launch but we expect to learn more about that in the following weeks.

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Source: LG Korea

Via: WinFuture

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Dolphin Emulator fixes crashes on Android TV and adds install WAD functionality on Android

Rather than finding your old console from the basement to play your favorite retro titles during this lockdown, one could also opt for emulating them on their Android devices, provided they are powerful enough. Dolphin Emulator is the most popular open-source emulator out there for the Nintendo GameCube and Wii, and it can actually handle the emulation job pretty well on high-end devices like the OnePlus 7 Pro or the NVIDIA Shield TV. The development team behind the Dolphin Emulator project recently published a blog post outlining their progress during the month of April, which also featured a ton of changes specific to the Android client.

Fixed Android TV support

LineageOS/TWRP contributor webgeek1234 fixed a bug that caused the Android TV client to crash. Apparently, Dolphin Emulator was crashing on Android TV devices because the emulator was bringing up a pop-up in a “deprecated way”. The fix for this was a change in one line of code, which essentially brought back all the thrills of retro-gaming on big screens.

Add SD card settings to GUI

The Nintendo Wii had an SD Card slot for storing game data, but it’s basically useless when it comes to Dolphin Emulator since its target platforms (PCs and current-gen Android devices) offer much more storage. However, some mods for Super Smash Bros. Brawl used the SD card, which made it difficult to enable those mods in Dolphin Emulator for Android. In the latest Dolphin Emulator build (since 5.0-11849 to be precise), though, you can enable the “Insert SD Card” option to create a 128MB virtual SD card. Dolphin, however, still can’t use an actual SD card.

Immediately update Wii remote settings

When configuring a Wii remote, you had to fully restart Dolphin in order for changes to take effect. Now, changes are reflected immediately and take effect when you reconfigure Wii remote settings.

Add install WAD functionality

WiiWare (software packages from the Nintendo Wii online shop) are distributed as .wad files. Since build 5.0-11909, it’s easy to install these .WAD files in Dolphin Emulator in Android with a new “Install WAD” menu option.

The team also simplified the external texture loading mechanism, as well as a number of graphics rendering and networking fixes have been made under-the-hood. You can take a look at the full blog post linked below to know about all the changes.

Dolphin Emulator (Free, Google Play) →

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Source: Dolphin Emulator Blog

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TiVo Stream 4K goes on sale as a $50 Android TV streaming stick

If you don’t like the site of blocky, black plastic set-top boxes on your TV stand, a streaming dongle is a great option. Devices like the Chromecast are super discreet and they transform any TV into a smart TV. Android TV devices have typically been of the set-top box variety, but we’re seeing more dongles on the market. The latest is the TiVo Stream 4K.

TiVo announced the Stream 4K streaming stick back at CES 2020 in January. As the name implies, this streaming stick is capable of streaming content at up to 4K UHD resolution. The device also has Dolby Vision HDR for better colors and Dolby Atmos for surround sound. The Android TV interface is controlled by the included remote, but the dongle also acts as a Chromecast.

Speaking of the remote, this is what really separates Chromecast and Android TV. The TiVo Stream 4K has a traditional Android TV interface that requires input from a remote to navigate. Along with the usual Back and Home buttons, the remote features a big Google Assistant button, Netflix button, and a TiVo button.

In terms of hardware, the dongle plugs into your TV via HDMI. The TiVo Stream 4K is powered by microUSB, but it also has a USB-C port that can be used to expand sotrage or with Ethernet adapters. Speaking of storage, it has 8GB of eMMC internal storage and 2GB of DDR4 RAM.

The company was aiming for an April launch, but that slipped slightly back to May. Starting today, the TiVo Stream 4K can be yours for just $50, which is $20 off the regular price for a limited time. There are no additional TiVo fees with a purchase. TiVo is throwing in its TiVo Plus service for free and a free 7-day trial of Sling TV as well.

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Source: TiVo

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Google will launch the Android 11 Beta on June 3rd, releases Developer Preview 4 today

Google announced the first Android 11 Developer Preview back in February. The first Developer Preview was released earlier than we expected because Google wanted to give developers more time to adapt to their apps to the new APIs and platform behaviors. Since DP 1, two more Developer Preview builds have been rolled out to the Pixel 2 onward. If it weren’t for the COVID-19 pandemic, Google would have released the first Android 11 Beta at Google I/O event, which was scheduled for May 12th-14th. This delay has impacted the Android 11 release timeline, and the tech giant has now announced that they are pushing back the release of the first Android 11 Beta. The first beta will now be revealed at an online event on June 3rd, 2020. To make up for the new gap between DP3 and Beta 1, Google is releasing Android 11 Developer Preview 4.

Google has aptly titled next month’s online event “#Android 11: The Beta Launch Show.” During this event, Google will release Android 11 Beta 1 which will contain the final SDK and NDK APIs. Google will also open up Play Store submissions for apps targeting the new Android version. Citing this change in plan, Google has also released an updated timeline for the release schedule.

Older Beta timeline

Updated Beta timeline

While Google had initially charted its plan to release only three Android 11 Developer Previews, it is releasing the Developer Preview 4 to fill up the gap caused by the delay in the release of Beta 1. Starting today, the DP4 builds for the Google Pixel 2/2 XL, Pixel 3/3 XL, Pixel 3a/3a XL, and Pixel 4/4 XL will be available for download. You can flash these builds manually to try out the upcoming Android version or wait for an OTA if you’re already enrolled in the Beta program.

Since Android 11 Beta 1 has been pushed back by about a month, Beta 2 will now be released in July instead of June. As with the previous schedule, Beta 2 will be the “Platform Stability” release. Google introduced this milestone with Android 11 to signify the finalization of internal and external APIs, app-facing behaviors, and non-SDK graylisting. According to official communication from Google, Android 11 Beta 3 will be released in August 2020, and this will be the “Release candidate” build. The Final Release is still expected to be available in Q3, which means it shouldn’t be pushed back to October or months after that.

While the exact date for Beta 2 onwards was not released, Flame Group – a company that consults with OEMs and ODMs to help them receive GMS certifications for devices – mentioned in a blog post that the “Final Release Candidate,” which is most likely Beta 2, will be released on July 6th. While Beta 3 is intended to be the Release candidate build, it appears that Flame Group is referring to Beta 2 when it talks about the “Final Release candidate.” Furthermore, the blog post states that Google will publish the Android 11 source code to the AOSP git repository on September 8th, 2020. Our source corroborates the information laid out in this blog post, as it is apparently information that Google shared with its partner OEMs.

Android 11 News on XDA

Android 11: The Beta Launch Show to substitute Google I/O 2020?

At the Android 11: The Beta Launch Show, Google will also be hosting a series of online talks and webinars for topics that were initially supposed to be covered at Google I/O 2020. The talks ranging “from Jetpack Compose to Android Studio and Google Play” will be held following the post-show Q&A session after the announcement launch. You can register yourself to get notified of the event on this page.

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Google releases Flutter 1.17 and Dart 2.8 stable SDKs for app development

Flutter is a cross-platform programming framework, aiming to solve the woes of developing cross-platform apps without the mess of non-native code. With knowledge of the Dart programming language, a developer can build apps for Android, iOS, web, and desktop with a unified UI look across all. Flutter 1.9 brought macOS and Catalina support in an alpha state, while v1.12 release matured their support past the pre-alpha state. Now, Google is out with a new v1.17 release of Flutter and v2.8 release of Dart, marking them as the first stable releases for Flutter and Dart in 2020.

Flutter 1.17

Last month, Google had announced changes to its release process. The company’s earlier process lacked clarity on when releases would be built, what code would be in it, and so on. Now, Google plans to ship stable releases on a roughly quarterly cycle. This by itself posed a few challenges, as the release infrastructure had to be retooled for the new release process. Now, Flutter 1.17 is being released to the stable channel for developers. Google has closed 6,339 issues since their previous Flutter 1.12 release, and they have closed more bugs than have been opened this year, leading to a net decrease of ~800 issues.

In addition to bug fixes, Flutter 1.17 brings substantial performance improvements, improved support for Metal on iOS, and includes new Material widgets.

Performance improvements

Apps built with Flutter 1.17 versus older releases will see a 20-37% speedup for the default navigation case in which there are opaque routes with no transparency. There’s also a considerable improvement in app sizes built with Flutter 1.17. For example, the Flutter Gallery sample is now 8.1MB in 2020 versus 9.6MB at the end of 2019. For memory usage, the 1.17 release brings a 70% memory reduction in fast scrolling through large images.

Metal support

Metal is Apple’s low-level graphics API that provides nearly direct access to the underlying GPU of iOS devices. Flutter now uses Metal by default when building for supported iOS devices, making Flutter apps run faster. The improved Metal support improves rendering speeds of iOS apps by about 50% on average. On iOS devices that don’t fully support Metal, namely devices with iOS versions lower than 10 and released before the A7 processor, Flutter falls back to OpenGL.

Material widgets

Flutter 1.17 adds support for new Material widgets. There are also updates to existing widgets. For instance, NavigationRail helps developers to add responsive app navigation models to apps and is great for apps that can switch between mobile and desktop form factors. DatePicker and TextSelection overflow widgets have also been updated: DatePicker’s new visuals match the updated Material guidelines and add a new text input mode, while TextSelection now has improved fidelity for iOS and Android when buttons are longer than can be displayed without overflowing. Lastly, Google is also shipping the new Animations Package that provides pre-built animations implementing the new Material motion specification.

Other changes in Flutter 1.17

• Google has completed implementing the Type Scale portion of the 2018 Material Design specification without breaking existing Flutter apps.
• Google Fonts for Flutter v1.0 is also now available. This lets developers experiment with and use any font from fonts.google.com in their app. The developer can decide whether to bundle the font with the APK or whether the user receives the font by downloading it from the API.

• Google has improved the accessibility of Flutter apps with fixes to scrolling, text fields, and other input widgets.
• Google is also preparing to swap out the current version of Dart DevTools with the new Flutter version. Developers can test this new version by starting DevTools and then clicking the “breaker” icon in the top-right hand corner of DevTools. The biggest improvement in the new Flutter version of Dart DevTools is the new Network tab which shows the network traffic for your Flutter app when you hit the “Record” button.
• Another improvement is an experimental “fast start” option allowing you to start Flutter app debugging up to 70% faster when you’re building an app for Android.

Google is also giving a shoutout to the Superformula team for remaking the entire MGM Resorts Android app in Flutter.

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Dart 2.8

Dart is the programming language used for building apps in Flutter. With the release of the Dart 2.8 SDK, Google is introducing a couple of changes:

• Improvements to the pub client tool, which is used to manage packages downloaded from the pub.dev package repository.
  • Google has improved the performance of pub get by adding support for parallel fetching of packages and deferring pub run precompilation.
  • Google has also added a new tool (pub outdated) for ensuring package dependencies are kept up-to-date.
• Preparation for Sound null safety, since null references are a common source of application crashes that happen when code attempts to read a variable that has a null value.
  • Google is preparing to add support for sound null safety in Dart, which will ensure that all variables expressed hold non-null values.
  • Implementing sound null safety is a huge undertaking that will initially cause breaks in the Dart language and libraries. Google wants developers to be aware of these breaking changes and file any issues on their issue tracker.

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You can read more about these and other changes in detail in the announcement posts for Flutter 1.17 and Dart 2.8.

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