The Google Pixel 4a is already available for pre-order on Amazon USA

The Google Pixel 4a has been one of Google’s most leaked smartphones, with a performance review, camera review, and hands-on already available long before the official launch. And that was a high bar to clear as most of Google’s smartphones have not exactly been best-kept secrets either. We are just a few hours away from Google’s event where they are expected to announce the PIxel 4a, but as it turns out, the device is already available for pre-order from Amazon.com in the USA.

The Pixel 4a is available in a bundle for the phone as well as the case for $389. Amazon USA says that the device will be released on August 20, 2020, which means that that is the earliest you can expect to lay your hands on the device. Previous rumors suggested a lower price tag, but keep in mind that this listing is for the bundle and not just for the phone itself, so the phone is likely to be priced lower.

You can wait for Google to officially unveil its product in the next few hours and provide definitive details on pricing and availability. Or, if you just can’t wait, you can go right ahead and preorder the phone using the affiliate link provided below:

Pre-order Google Pixel 4a plus Case on Amazon USA (affiliate link)

The tip that we received mentioned that you could add the bundle and then remove the case from your cart. However, when we attempted the same for ourselves, removing the case removes the whole bundle. So for now, you may have to buy the phone with the case included. Note that the variant available for pre-order in this bundle is the 128GB storage variant.

Pixel 4a XDA Forums

Rumored Google Pixel 4a Specifications:

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 730
• GPU: Adreno 618
• RAM: 6GB
• Internal storage: 64GB(?), 128GB UFS 2.1
• Display: Single hole-punch 5.81-inch display, 2,340 x 1,080 resolution, 443 dpi, 60Hz refresh rate
• Rear camera: 12.2 MP Sony IMX363, f/1.73 aperture, 1.4µm pixels, OIS, EIS, LED flash, 4K video recording, Autofocus
• Front camera: 8.0 MP Sony IMX355, f/2.0 aperture, 1.14µm pixels, EIS, Fixed focus
• Connectivity: 4G, Dual SIM, GPS, WiFi 5, Bluetooth, GLONASS
• Ports: USB Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Security: Rear fingerprint sensor
• Battery: 3,080 mAh
• Software: Android 10

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Thanks to XDA Senior Member Uh60m Pilot for the tip!

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Turn Your Laptop Into a Three-Screen Workstation With Mobile Pixels TRIO — Now 16% off

For many tasks, using more than one monitor can really improve your productivity. It’s pretty easy to set up multiple displays at your desk. But what about when you’re working on the go? The Mobile Pixels TRIO is a brilliant laptop accessory that adds extra screen space to your laptop. It’s super portable, easy to use, and currently just $214.99 at the XDA Developers Depot.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/JxJzpQEl7Y4

Writers, developers, stock traders, entrepreneurs, students — many of us could benefit from a little extra screen space. Being able to switch your focus by moving your head is much better than skipping between virtual spaces.

With the Mobile Pixels TRIO, you can create the ultimate multi-display workflow wherever you go. To get started, you simply clip the screen onto the side of your laptop and connect them via USB.

Each display offers crisp 1080p pictures with adjustable brightness, and the supplied clip provides freedom of movement. This means you can find the perfect angle, and even flip it around for presentations. TRIO is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome devices, and you can connect two extra displays at the same time.

It’s easy to see how the TRIO raised $1,452,559 on Indiegogo, and it’s now 16% off MSRP at $214.99. You can also grab the larger TRIO MAX for 15” and 16” laptops for $269.99 (was $319).

 

Mobile Pixels TRIO: Portable Dual Screen Laptop Monitor – $214.99

See Deal

Prices subject to change 

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Google says Android 11 won’t show lockscreen album art

Android 11 contains a fair few changes in how media playback is handled across the user experience. The first Developer Preview tested off the controversial move of shifting the music player notification up to the Quick Settings panel. Beta 1 made the feature accessible, while Beta 2 enables it by default. Then there are Media Controls that make it easy to switch the output device for audio and video, even letting the phone remember up to 5 previous media sessions across reboots. Now, information has surfaced that Google maybe including another change in Android 11, removing the ability to see album art previewed across the whole lockscreen.

Whenever you have music playing on your device on previous versions of Android, the album art from the music is stretched across the lockscreen. Android 10 even applied a slight blur effect to the artwork. So throughout your playlist, you would have different album artworks displayed across your lockscreen. This was a small and temporary, yet refreshing change to the UX, one that went back to displaying your set wallpaper once you stop music playback.

As it turns out, Google has decided to remove the ability to show album art on the lockscreen on Android R / Android 11, as confirmed on the Google Issue Tracker.

“We no longer show album art on the lock screen in R. comment #1 : Has been fixed on our internal build (which is ahead of the public release) & will be available in future.”

Users were initially pointing out how the lockscreen album art disappears if face unlock is enabled, presuming a bug. However, the bug is the appearance in the first place, as Google no longer intends to have the album art showing up across the lockscreen on Android 11. Why? We don’t really know, as no real reason or explanation has been provided for this move.

Android 11 News on XDA

As the comment mentions, the issue has been “fixed” in the internal Android 11 releases. So with the stable rollout of Android 11, expected around September 8, 2020, we will no longer have this temporary spruce up in lockscreen visuals.

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Source: Google Issue Tracker
Story Via: /r/AndroidApps

Thanks to XDA Senior Member AndroidDeveloperLB for the tip!

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HDC 2020 starts September 10th, EMUI 11 based on Android 11 and Harmony OS 2.0 expected

Huawei holds several events throughout the year, covering a wide spectrum of topics across its entire ecosystem of products. One of its key events is the annual Huawei Developer Conference, or HDC, which sees wide participation across the industry, and attendance from Chinese as well as international guests. Since COVID-19 has made international travel difficult, this year’s HDC is expected to rely much more on online presence rather than on-site presence. Now, Huawei has announced that HDC 2020 will be held from September 10, 2020, to September 12, 2020.

#HDC2020 is coming… it’s time to experience a fully connected, intelligent world.
Want in? Save the Date now: 10-12 September 2020.#Huawei pic.twitter.com/OMc6k13aQC

— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) August 2, 2020

This year’s event will be held at Songshan Lake in Dongguan, China, where Huawei has an office, but we expect ready livestreaming facilities for all major events. The first day will host the keynote speech, after which we expect several presentations and activities over the course of three days. A lot of these presentations will be developer-focused, as is the theme of the event, but we do expect to hear more about Huawei’s upcoming strategies and consumer-facing products.

For instance, HDC 2019 was the first event where Harmony OS was first shown off, and for HDC 2020, we are expecting Harmony OS 2.0 to make an appearance. Further, we also expect EMUI 11 based on Android 11 to be shown off, continuing the tradition of showcasing beta builds of the upcoming UX upgrade at the event, as they did for EMUI 10. Other items on the agenda should be HMS Core and its new Kits, 5G, AI, and other changes to the Huawei ecosystem. The main keynote will be followed by different tech sessions where developers can expect to hear more from industry leaders, as well as codelabs for live sessions involving coding and programming.

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OnePlus will unveil its Android 11-based HydrogenOS 11 software on August 10th

The OnePlus One is remembered for a lot of firsts for the company as well as for the industry. Surprisingly, the OnePlus One did not ship with OnePlus’s own software but shipped with CyanogenOS, and that was actually one of the reasons why the tech enthusiasts circles first noticed the device. But a while after the launch of the phone, OnePlus parted ways with Cyanogen and began working on its own software solutions — OxygenOS and HydrogenOS. From 2015 to 2020, OnePlus has grown tremendously as a company, and now, the Chinese OEM is preparing to unveil HydrogenOS 11 based on Android 11 on August 10, 2020.

OnePlus One Hydrogen OS: First Impressions

OxygenOS and HydrogenOS are software “skins” and user experiences from OnePlus, both of which trace their roots back to the early years of the company. While OxygenOS served the needs of international users, HydrogenOS served the needs of users in China, with features and UI that appeases that set of audience. Initially, the ROMs sported very different looks and several different features. But after more than a year of separate existence, OnePlus had decided to merge the codebase for OxygenOS and HydrogenOS with a view of providing quick software updates to its user base.

Download the new Hydrogen Icon Pack from the OnePlus 8

In essence, OnePlus has more or less merged the software experience on its devices across regions. HydrogenOS still exists for the Chinese region, but apart from a few China-specific features, it is very similar to the global software. These features are not unlike the India-specific features that we see from the company.

All Android 11 News on XDA

With HydrogenOS 11 and Android 11 officially making an appearance on August 11, we can take a look at some of the changes that OnePlus has in store for its software. While the teaser does not explicitly mention so, we expect the first public releases to be within the Open Beta tracks, so users looking for a stable experience on day 1 should probably keep their expectations grounded. Since Android 11 has largely been available for Snapdragon 865-based flagships (with some rare exceptions), we also wouldn’t be too surprised if the initial releases remain restricted to the company’s flagships, OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro. As far as expected features are concerned, we are expecting a redesign of the Weather app, but we are also hoping for an Always-On Display implementation as well as has long been promised. We also expect most of the features to migrate over onto OxygenOS as well.

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Source: OnePlus Weibo

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Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series expected to support Ultra-wide band technology for precise, indoor positioning

The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series will pick up the crown from the Samsung Galaxy S20 series as the flagship series from the South Korean company, showing off the best of consumer-centric technologies that the company has to offer. We already have a fair idea of what to expect from the Galaxy Note 20 and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, and the phones are right around the corner, but it seems that one key highlight feature has seemingly flown under the radar so far. The Galaxy Note 20 series is expected to come with Ultra-Wide Band technology for precise, indoor positioning.

As pointed out by a tweet from Twitter user @SaudiAndroid, Samsung will be launching a technology called UWP (though this could be a spelling error and it is likely to be called UWB) that will allow users on the new Galaxy Note 20 phones to transfer files at very high speed. We spotted several certification reports that corroborate the testing of Ultra-Wide Band technology by Samsung, indicating usage at 8250MHz.

According to XDA’s own Max Weinbach, the Ultra-Wide Band chip on the Galaxy Note 20 series could possibly be used for faster device-to-device connections and consequent file transfers. Possibly, you would be able to point the Note 20 at another Note 20 (or other future Samsung phones with the UWB chip) to prioritize connecting to that particular device, taking advantage of the precise, indoor positioning features enabled by the technology.

This feature would be similar to what Apple promises with Ultra-Wide Band on the iPhone 11:

The new Apple‑designed U1 chip uses Ultra-Wide band technology for spatial awareness — allowing iPhone 11 to understand its precise location relative to other nearby U1‑equipped Apple devices. Think GPS at the scale of your living room. So if you want to share a file with someone using AirDrop, just point your iPhone at theirs and they’ll be first on the list.

We are unable to conclusively ascertain whether the feature will be made available to both, the Galaxy Note 20 and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, or whether it will remain restricted to the top tier flagship only. For the technology to take off, it would make sense for Samsung to expand it to as many phones as possible within its lineup. We expect Samsung to reveal more during Samsung Unpacked.

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Source: FCCID (1, 2)
Story Via: @SaudiAndroid

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MediaTek’s 5G Dimensity chips will finally start shipping on smartphones outside of China later this year

MediaTek has enjoyed great success in the budget and mid-range SoC segments over the years. However, the company has struggled to replicate a similar success story in the upper mid-range and flagship space, where it loses out to Qualcomm. At one point, the company even decided to give up on the high-end segment altogether and centered its efforts solely on the entry-level chipsets, only to make a comeback a year later under new branding, Dimensity. The MediaTek Dimensity 1000 was the first SoC in the new lineup, featuring the latest ARM Cortex-A77 cores, Mali-G77 GPU, and 5G modem. However, so far, devices with the MediaTek Dimensity 1000 have curiously been restricted to China, but that could change soon.

The company went on to launch a few more chipsets under the new brand, including the mid-range Dimensity 800, Dimensity 820, Dimensity 1000+, and Dimensity 720, which was unveiled just last week.

As impressive as these chipsets might sound on paper, we have yet to see a device with a Dimensity chipset launch internationally. Every single smartphone that launched with the MediaTek Dimensity SoC so far has been limited to the Chinese market only.  But that might soon change as the company has now officially confirmed its plans to bring the Dimensity chipsets to more markets outside China.

During MediaTek’s Q2 2020 earning call, the company made the following remarks to give us an idea as to when we can expect devices featuring Dimensity SoCs to hit the international markets:

“Very importantly, our 5G smartphone shipment to regions beyond Mainland China will start in the third quarter.”

MediaTek didn’t reveal much info beyond just stating that shipments of chipsets will begin in Q3 2020. It remains unclear which OEMs will be among the first to bring smartphones powered by Dimensity SoC to the global markets.

The current list of smartphones with Dimensity SoC includes the iQOO Z1 (Dimensity 1000+), Oppo Reno3 5G (Dimensity 1000L), Redmi 10X series (Dimensity 820), ZTE Axon 11 SE, Honor Play 4 series, and Honor X10 Max (Dimensity 800).

The flagship SoC space is in a desperate need for a competitive, alternative option, and it looks like MediaTek’s Dimensity lineup might just be the answer we are looking for. It remains to be seen whether MediaTek will be able to leverage its new branding to gain a foothold against Qualcomm and, more importantly, deliver performance and efficiency that closely rival the Snapdragon’s 7xx and 8xx series of chipsets.

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Source: Seeking Alpha
Story Via: @bryanbma

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