Update 2 (10/15/2020 @ 7:44 PM ET): Verizon has finally announced the pricing and availability of the Motorola One 5G on its network.
Update 1 (09/14/2020 @ 02:46 PM ET): AT&T has confirmed the pricing and availability for the Motorola One 5G on its network. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on August 31, 2020, is preserved below.
Motorola burst back into the flagship scene earlier this year with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865-powered, 5G-enabled Motorola Edge+. Alongside the Edge+, Motorola also unveiled the slightly cheaper Edge with the upper mid-range (but still 5G-enabled) Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G. And about a month ago, Motorola had announced an even more affordable 5G-enabled smartphone in the form of the Moto G 5G Plus. Now, Motorola is bringing over this smartphone to the USA in the form of the Motorola One 5G.
Motorola One 5G: Specifications
Specification
Motorola Moto G 5G Plus / Motorola One 5G
Dimensions & Weight
168 x 74 x 9 mm
207g
Display
6.7″ FHD+ LTPS LCD
21:9 aspect ratio, 2520 x 1080
90Hz refresh rate
HDR10
Dual hole-punch display
SoC
Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G:
1x Kryo 475 (ARM Cortex-A76-based) Prime core @ 2.4GHz
The Motorola One 5G is a rebranded Moto G 5G Plus, but we’re okay with the rebranding because that was a terrible name in the first place. One of the highlights of this device is its 21:9 aspect ratio display. Motorola mentions that 87% of its users preferred a 21:9 aspect ratio, so that is what it adopted on this smartphone. You do get a 90Hz refresh rate, though the panel is LCD — but since this phone is not aiming to be a flagship, this specification isn’t judged as harshly. The smartphone itself has a humble design made largely out of polycarbonate, so most of the 207g weight is coming from the beefy 5,000 mAh battery.
On the inside, you get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, which should help keep things running smoothly despite not being an 8-series flagship SoC.
The Motorola One 5G comes with Android 10 out of the box. The OS is largely left unadulterated, but you get a few Motorola touches like the “chop to launch flashlight” feature and the Moto Power Touch feature that lets you reassign the double-power-button press. The power button also integrates the fingerprint sensor.
Motorola is only committing to one year of Android OS updates and two years of security updates at this moment.
Pricing and Availability
The Motorola One 5G will be a sub-$500 device in the USA and will be available through AT&T (sub-6GHz) and Verizon (with mmWave) in 4GB + 128GB configuration. The AT&T model will launch later this month while the Verizon model will launch in October, the latter presumably at a higher price due to the added costs of mmWave antennas and RF components. There will not be any unlocked versions of this phone in the USA.
Update 1: AT&T
The AT&T Motorola One 5G is launching September 18th at a retail price of $444.99. “Well qualified customers” can pay $5 a month for 30 months to get the device at over half off its retail price when adding a new line on an AT&T unlimited wireless plan. The device will be available on AT&T in its Oxford Blue color.
On a blog post, Verizon confirmed that the Motorola One 5G can be picked up starting today for a retail price of $549.99 or $22.91 a month for 24 months on a device payment plan. The device is compatible with Verizon’s 5G Ultrawide Band (mmWave) and new 5G Nationwide (sub-6GHz) network.
Google this year has made some big changes to Assistant, Meet, and its suite of productivity apps. Now, at the company’s Search On event on Thursday, Google detailed several changes coming to some of its other major services, including Google Search, Google Lens, Google Maps, and Google Duplex.
Google Search
Google said Search is making the biggest leap forward we’ve seen in a decade. Already, Google has made major strides in improving the quality of results for search queries. Last year, Google detailed its use of Bidirectional Encoder Representations (BERT), a neural network-based technique for natural language processing (NLP), to train a “state-of-the-art question answering system.” Google now says that BERT is “now used in almost every query in English.”
In addition, Google Search can now better understand misspelled words — which is important, because Google said 1 in 10 queries are misspelled. The new algorithm uses a deep neural net that will allow Search to better decipher misspellings, so even when a word isn’t spelled correctly, Search will understand the context and suggest a correction.
Google is also making Search better at providing users with more specific information. When you search for something, rather than the info you need being buried deep in a web page, Google Search will display individual passages from pages. “By better understanding the relevancy of specific passages, not just the overall page, we can find that needle-in-the-haystack information you’re looking for,” Google said.
Google said it’s now able to identify key moments in videos, too. Using AI, it can highlight specific moments in a video, allowing viewers to navigate them like chapters in a book. Google said the feature will come in handy when you’re watching a recipe guide or watching sports highlights. This feature has already been in testing, but Google expects that 10% of Google searches will use this technology by the end of this year.
Google Search is also getting a deeper understanding of subtopics around an interest, in order to deliver more diverse content when searching for something broad. As an example, searching on Google for “home exercise equipment” will surface relevant subtopics like budget equipment, premium picks, and small space ideas. These will be shown on the search results page as cards, but the feature is not live yet and will roll out by the end of this year.
When your search result involves statistical data, Google will now attempt to map your search to “one specific set of the billions of data points” from the Data Commons Project, a database of statistical data made in collaboration with the U.S. Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, World Bank, and other organizations. If you ask Google for data on how many people work in Chicago, for example, you’ll see an easy-to-understand visual with the right stat as well as other relevant data and context.
One of the most exciting new features in Google Search is called “hum to search”, and it lets you search for a song by simply humming the tune. To access this feature, open the Google App, tap the Google Search widget, or call up the Google Assistant, and then tap the mic icon and ask “what’s this song” or select the “search a song” button. Then, start humming the tune for 10-15 seconds. Google will then process your hums and run it through a machine learning algorithm to identify potential song matches. You don’t need to have perfect pitch since Google Search will show you a list of likely matches from which you can select the best match.
Once you pick a match, you’ll be able to explore relevant information about the song and artist, see the accompanying music video (if any), find lyrics, start listening to it on supported music apps, and more. This feature is available in English for iOS users and in more than 20 languages on Android. If this feature seems like black magic to you and you’re wondering how it even works, you can read Google’s high-level overview of how Google Search can recognize melodies. What’s interesting is how Google cites this work as an extension of the Pixel’s Now Playing feature, which debuted on the Pixel 2 back in 2017.
Lastly, Google is launching Pinpoint, a new tool for journalists that sifts through documents online and automatically identifies and organizes them by the most frequently mentioned people, organizations, and locations.
To help people navigate and stay safe during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Google is expanding its live busyness feature in Google Maps. The feature builds on the busyness information Google added to Maps back in 2016, which used historical data to tell people how busy a place might be at a given time.
Live busyness will increase global coverage by five times compared to June 2020, giving people all around the world the data to plan their trips to the store. The expansion will include more outdoor areas and essential places, including grocery stores, gas stations, and laundromats. Busyness information will also show in directions and right on the map, so you can get an idea of where crowds are in your area.
In addition, even if historical data shows a place isn’t busy on a certain day, live busyness can still reflect when a place is busy, like when an ice cream shop is giving away a free scoop on Tuesday. Live busyness updates are coming soon to Android, iOS, and desktop users around the world.
Next, Google will show more important health and safety information about businesses in Google Maps and Google Search results. A Health & Safety page will show whether an establishment requires reservations, has a mask mandate, whether they check temperatures, etc. This information comes directly from the businesses themselves and is regularly updated by Google using its Duplex conversational tool to call businesses.
Live View, an augmented reality view of the world around you within Google Maps, can now show you if a place is open, how busy it is, what its star rating is, and if any relevant health and safety information is available. All you have to do is point your camera at the location to get all of this data.
Google Lens has always been a fantastic tool for identifying plants, animals, landmarks, and more. Recently, the tool even became a lifesaver for students who need help solving a homework problem.
Now, Google is making Lens even handier for shopping. Users will be able to find items of clothing just from a picture by tapping and holding on the image in the Google app or Chrome for Android. Google says Lens uses Style Engine technology to combine their database of products with millions of style images.
In addition, Google Lens will also bring new car models into the real world, giving people a better idea of what it’s like outside of a showroom. You’ll be able to see what the car looks like in different colors, zoom in to see intricate details, view the car against different backdrops, and experiment with seeing it in your driveway. Google is working with auto brands like Volvo and Porsche to bring their cars to life in AR.
Finally, Google is making improvements to Duplex. As previously mentioned, Google said it has been using Duplex to call businesses to update their listings on Google Maps and Google Search to more accurately represent their status under COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. That means details regarding hours of operation, whether takeout is offered, and if there’s no-contact delivery are being kept up-to-date. This is all being done without a business having to manually update their info.
Google Duplex is also being applied to the web to make arduous tasks a little easier. Using Google Duplex in Chrome, users can quickly complete tasks that would otherwise take up to 20 steps to complete, like renting a vehicle or buying a movie ticket. Google said these same features will soon come to shopping and ordering food for a faster, smoother checkout experience.
We weren’t expecting much from Google’s Search On event given that Google only teased it earlier this week, but the company has surprised us by announcing a plethora of new features coming to Google Search, Google Maps, Google Lens, and Google Duplex. What do you make of all these new features?
If you value your privacy, chances are you’ve heard of or already use Signal. The popular chat app is an encrypted messaging service that’s widely used for secure messaging, but it’s not as feature-filled as some of the more popular messaging services out there, especially when it comes to group chats. Today, that’s changing, because Signal is finally getting user @ mentions, admins, and group permissions.
Whether you’re arranging a party or getting work done, Signal users can now set admins in a group chat. Admins have more control over removing members from groups, managing group permissions, and also setting other admins. They can also specify who can add new member to a group.
Admins can add and remove people from groups without a Signal server ever being aware of that group’s members, Signal explained earlier this year. The new system is designed in partnership with Microsoft Research where an app uses “anonymous credentials” for gatekeeping user entry into a group.
Signal users can also now take advantage of @mentions in groups. Simply type “@“ and you can then select a user from the picker. If someone mentions you, you’ll be able to quickly jump to that message using a new button that appears when you open the chat, Signal said in a blog post. If you want, you can configure the group notifications to only notify you when you’re mentioned.
Unfortunately, if you’re chatting in an existing Signal group, you can’t use these features just yet. The company said they’re only available in new groups — but they will come to existing groups in a future update. The company said you’ll get a notice if the group you’re about to create is going to be a New Group or Legacy Group, so you know what type of control you have.
With the launch of the Pixel 4a 5G and the Pixel 5 last month, Google has finally hopped on the 5G bandwagon. Thanks to the plethora of leaks around the phone duo, there weren’t many surprises at the launch event. This is the first time the latest premium Pixel smartphone doesn’t feature a Snapdragon 800-series processor, but rather the mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G SoC. We’ve already seen the new Google Camera 8.0 APK from these devices get extracted for older Pixel smartphones, while the new live wallpapers can now be installed on non-Pixel devices as well. If you’ve got your hands on either device and want to start building TWRP or port a custom ROM like LineageOS, then you’ll be happy to know that Google has now released the factory images and the kernel source code for the Pixel 4a 5G and the Pixel 5.
Developers who have been waiting for the Pixel 4a 5G/Pixel 5’s stock apps and other system files, the factory images give you access to everything on these devices. Regular users, on the other hand, can use the appropriate image to return to the stock software on their phones. This is particularly useful while tinkering with the device, as you know that you have an option to get back to the working state in case things go south.
The device trees for the new Pixel devices have also been uploaded, while the kernel sources are in the process of being uploaded. These sources will be immensely useful for custom kernel, recovery, and ROM developers in order to kickstart aftermarket development efforts on these phones.
Prime Day was wild, wasn’t it? After 48-hours of deals layered in more deals, you think there would be nothing to talk about today! But you’d be wrong. Very wrong. Deals don’t stop. There will never be a day on this Earth where you cannot save money on something, and it’s my job to let you know that there are even more ways to save. I will never escape the deals, which means you won’t, either.
So, with that said, today’s top tech deals include a year of Bitdefender Total Security for $20, a Monoprice curved monitor for $300, and more!
Select JBL products were on sale at Amazon for Prime Day, but now, you can save on a wider variety of JBL speakers and headsets… and you don’t even need a Prime membership! If you didn’t pick up one of the many headphone deals over the last two days, you and still save on JBL’s Live 650BTNC or Club One, both being great headphones in their own right. Or you can pick up the Clip 3, a portable waterproof Bluetooth speaker.
Pick up some quality speakers, headsets, and more with JBL's sale on Amazon. With the Clip 3 wireless speaker for only $40, there's no reason to not pick one up!
There are a lot of anti-virus software choices out there, so I wouldn’t blame you if you were left overwhelmed with the options. I’m here to tell you, though, is that Bitdefender is one of the standouts. I’ve used Bitdefender, and only Bitdefender, for years now, and it does an amazing job of keeping my PC safe and secure. At Amazon, clip the coupon on the store page in order to get a year of anti-virus security for up to five devices for only $20.
Keep your devices secure for cheap. Clip the coupon on the store page in order to get one year of Bitdefender Total Security for just $20! This subscription will protect up to five devices, whether they be PC, Mac, or mobile.
If you aren’t a fan of Razer, you might have found the headsets on sale during Prime Day a little… lacking. Best Buy has you covered, though, and you can save $20 on the Corsair HS60 gaming headset. With an understated yellow flair, this headset looks a lot better than the average gaming headset, where it seems bold and garish color schemes are popular choices. The Best Buy reviews are very positive for the headset too, stating clear sound and a sensitive mic.
For just $50, get a quality gaming headset that isn't an eyesore. Corsair's HS60 gaming headset looks good and sounds good, offering great audio and a quality microphone.
An ultrawide curved gaming monitor for just $300? This isn’t only Amazon or Newegg–you’ll have to go to eBay for this deal! Monoprice is selling its 35-inch Zero-G curved monitor there, and the price is really good for this style of monitor. a 100Hz refresh rate is nothing to scoff at either, especially as most 120Hz monitors come at a much, much higher price. If you’re upgrading your PC on a budget, this monitor is a great choice.
Head on over to eBay to get yourself a nice curved monitor for cheap. Monoprice's 35-inch curved monitor is just $300, and with FreeSync technology built-in, this monitor will give you a great gaming experience.
Most of the other retailers have ended their big events for the week, but Walmart is still going strong with the Big Save Event, which ends today. With it, you can grab yourself a Galaxy Tab A7 for just $170, $60 off the MSRP. It doesn’t come with a keyboard cover, and it’s definitely not the latest model of the Tab A line, but it’s a capable tablet in its own right. If you’re looking for a tablet to do a few simple tasks, you don’t really need the bleeding edge anyway, and the Tab A7 will be a great budget grab.
It's the final day of the Big Save Event, so it's the last chance to save on the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7! The Tab A7 is a solid budget pick, and saving $60 on it makes picking one up even more enticing.
Looking for even more tech deals? We have them for you below! The Soundcore Life Q20 headphones are still at their base Prime Day price of $45, so pick them up if you haven’t already!
Embattled Chinese tech manufacturer Huawei is set to announce the Freebuds Studio, its first premium over-ear wireless headphones, alongside next week’s Mate 40 phone range. Despite the name, the Huawei Freebuds Studio are definitely not earbuds, but rather a high-end pair of Bluetooth headphones, seemingly meant to ape the success of Apple’s Beats.
Don’t expect a bargain — official pricing will likely be announced on the day of the event, but WinFuture reports the price will be set at just under €400, putting them squarely in the Bose/Sennheiser/Sony bracket. This sort of statement of intent is always a risk for a company breaking into a new market, and with Huawei’s current global reputation, it’ll be interesting to see how many people are willing to take such an expensive punt on an unknown product.
Left: Huawei FreeBuds Studio in Graphite Black. Right: Blush Gold. Credits: WinFuture
Offering a 40mm dynamic driver backed by a Huawei Kirin A1 audio processor chip, the headphones should deliver decent sound quality, though we only have the company’s premium true wireless earbuds to compare to. Automatic Noise Cancelling (ANC) is standard, which will reduce ambient noise by up to 40dB. This feature can be turned on or off from a hardware button.
There are two 410mAh batteries within the 265g headphone, which will apparently offer up to 20 hours of music playback or 15 hours of calls — though we’d hasten to add that we don’t expect it’ll be anything like that much with the ANC switched on. Either way, the whole unit is said to be charged in around 70 minutes, but marketing material reviewed by WinFuture claims that 10 minutes of charging via the USB-C port will give you 5 hours playback (again, probably without ANC).
Connection to a Huawei EMUI 10.x device is made simple by quick pairing, and this will also allow you to see the battery level of the headphones from your phone. Offering the latest Bluetooth 5.2 (but fully backwards compatible), the Huawei Freebuds Studio will be available in ‘Blush Gold’ and ‘Graphite Black’, as shown in the leaked renders above.
Huawei doesn’t always range its accessories in every territory, so we won’t find out for certain where you’ll be able to buy them (or perhaps pick them up free with a phone) until the Mate 40 range is unveiled next week.
SARS-CoV-2, also known colloquially as just the coronavirus, has wreaked havoc across the world. Many countries shut down large parts of the economy in order to contain the spread of the virus. As countries reopen their economies, many health experts fear a “second wave”, ie. resurgence, of COVID-19. To prevent a second wave, public health experts are advocating that nations adopt contact tracing, ie. tracing all the people who have recently come into contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 and then undertaking steps to isolate those individuals. Contact tracing is difficult to implement correctly without violating an individual’s privacy. The threat to personal privacy was severe enough for Google and Apple to collaborate on an API that developers of public health agencies can use to implement app-based contact tracing solutions. This contact tracing API, which Google and Apple call the Exposure Notification API, is designed to respect user privacy and security.
Once a user downloads an app that uses the Exposure Notification API and opts in to contact tracing, their device starts generating “proximity identifiers” that are changed every 15 minutes (on average). Via Bluetooth Low Energy, these “proximity identifiers” are periodically shared with nearby devices whose users have also opted into contact tracing. The proximity identifier is then processed on-device and does not reveal information about a user’s location or other personally identifiable information. Once a user confirms a positive diagnosis of COVID-19, they can share their diagnosis with the app they installed, which will then inform other users who have come into close contact with them in the last 14 days. For more information on how the Exposure Notification API works, we recommend reading our initial coverage.
Google first rolled out the Exposure Notification API for Android devices on May 20, 2020, as part of an update to Google Play Services, but its use is restricted to apps that have been developed by official public health agencies (for obvious reasons). However, neither Google nor Apple has made details public about the list of apps that have been whitelisted for using this API, so unless you’re constantly keeping up with the news, it’s hard to know which countries have adopted the API. We’ve previously covered some of the countries that have adopted the Exposure Notification API when we talked about the various open-source contact tracing projects that are out there. In this article, we have compiled a list of official contact tracing apps from designated health agencies from various countries that are using Google and Apple’s Exposure Notification API. Our list contains COVID-19 contact tracing apps that have been released or are currently in development.
We discovered Google’s hidden whitelist of application package names for the API. Subsequently, these package names were traced back to apps, their listing, and the countries they belong to. The information is compiled below in a table for easy reference. We have also added Google Play Store and Apple App Store links, if the app has been publicly released, as well as the source code and the official website link, wherever available. We will update the following tables as more countries/regions adopt the API.
Updated Ireland’s listing to include the source code
Added the name and package name of Spain’s app.
Google has updated the package name “eg.nc.moh.bruhealthtrace” to “egnc.moh.bruhealthtrace.” This matches the “BruHealth” contact tracing app from the government of “Brunei.” We have updated the table accordingly.
June 30, 2020
Added Spain’s Radar COVID app
July 1, 2020
Fixed Japan’s listing to reflect that COCOA – COVID-19 Contact App has already been released.
Added a separate table for open contact tracing implementations based on Google and Apple’s Exposure Notification API. PathCheck SafePlaces was moved to this table and COVID Shield and Common Circle were added.
July 6, 2020
Ireland’s COVID Tracker app has been released on Google Play and the Apple App Store, so the listing in the table has been updated with links to reflect that.
July 8, 2020
Added: North Ireland, the Netherlands (second app), Finland, and MITRE’s COVID Aware app
July 15, 2020
Added: Arizona, CV Key
Updated: New Canadian app, package names for UK apps, Mexican app, updated Ghana –> Gibraltar
July 22, 2020
Added: Nevada (?) pending verification
August 5, 2020
Added: Belgium (In-Development), New York (In-Development)
Updated: Virginia (Released), North Dakota (In-Development), Canada (Released), Croatia (Released), Ecuador (Released), Northern Ireland (Released)
August 10, 2020
Added: Slovenia, Arizona, South Africa (?) pending verification
Re-verified that released apps are using COVID-19 ENS.
