Browser extensions can be difficult to develop and maintain, especially for extensions that want to support more than one browser. Firefox, Edge, Opera, and others have based their extension APIs on Chrome’s, but each browser adds their own changes and don’t always implement Google’s new APIs. Thankfully, all the major browser vendors have now agreed to form the WebExtensions Community Group, which aims to standardize APIs and functionality across all browsers.
“We’re excited to announce the launch of the WebExtensions Community Group (WECG),” the W3C announced in a blog post today. “Apple, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla are initiating this community group, and we welcome other browser makers, extension developers, and interested parties to join this effort!”
The group is aiming for extension development to become easier, by establishing a common core of functionality, APIs, and permissions. The standardization process will follow the same pattern as the development of web standards (which generally works well), but it won’t force browsers to disregard exclusive functionality or APIs. “Each browser vendor will continue to operate their extension store fully independently, with their own technical, review, and editorial policies,” the post said.
WebExtensions has been used as a general term for Chrome’s extension API over the past few years. Opera adopted it when the browser switched to a Chromium base in 2013, Firefox moved to the API in 2017 (Mozilla largely coined the term ‘WebExtensions’), and Safari added support for it last year. However, the permissions and available APIs vary significantly across different browsers, so the standardization process will be great news for developers. Chromium-based browsers, like Vivaldi and the new Microsoft Edge, largely follow Chrome’s implementation with few (if any) modifications.
The WebExtensions Community Group Charter can be viewed here.
Calling 9-1-1 in the United States (and many other countries) sends the caller’s location to emergency services, so the dispatcher can send assistance as quickly as possible. However, the location data isn’t perfect — most notably, it doesn’t include the caller’s vertical location, an important factor in taller buildings. The three major carriers in the US have now agreed to start providing vertical location data for 911 calls, though it might be a while before the data can be used by emergency services.
The FCC wrote in its announcement (via Engadget), “FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel todayannounced breakthrough agreements with America’s three largest mobile phone providers tostart delivering vertical location information in connection with 911 calls nationwide in thecoming days. This information will help first responders quickly locate 911 callers in multi-story buildings, which will reduce response times and ultimately save lives.”
The FCC first announced in 2015 that carriers would be required to start sharing vertical location data. The original deadline was June 2nd, 2021, but AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon wanted an 18-month extension (allegedly due to issues testing the functionality during the COVID-19 pandemic). With the deadline rapidly approaching, the FCC began an investigation in April to find out what was taking carriers so long. All three major carriers have now agreed to start providing vertical location data to 911 call centers within the next seven days, and each company will pay a $100,000 settlement.
The agreement also increases the scope of the vertical location data; instead of the data only being provided in select areas, vertical location information will be provided by carriers across the entire United States. However, it will likely take longer than a week for the vertical data to be used in most 9-1-1 call centers, as the change will require updated software and (possibly) additional training for emergency dispatchers.
Our smartphones come with cameras that are able to take some pretty amazing videos and photos. With phones featuring 100MP+ sensors, 4K and 8K video, zoom, and ultrawide lenses, you’re able to do some fantastic photography. Even with all of this technology, if you’re shooting handheld videos and photos, you’re only using a fraction of what your camera is capable of. By using a smart gimbal to stabilize your phone, you’ll be able to unlock photo and video quality that you didn’t even know your phone was able to achieve.
There are different gimbals available for smartphones, but most of them are bulky and inconvenient to bring with you. So in order to create a balance between better photography and convenience, you’ll need something that is compact, easy to use and serves multiple camera-related needs. This is where the new PowerVision S1 comes into play. This is a feature-packed smartphone companion that weighs only 298g. It’s only a third of the size of other products that attempt to offer these features.
PowerVision S1
Sharper Photos and Smoother Videos
The PowerVision S1 is a multi-function smartphone companion with a smart 3-axis gimbal that has the ability to stabilize your footage and take better photos. This can be used to capture smooth 4k video, taking the stress of optical or digital image stabilization off of your smartphone. When you use your phone’s built-in stabilization, your video quality is reduced, to be able to perform the necessary digital stabilization. When you use the PowerVision S1, you can shoot at your maximum resolution, creating higher-quality videos.
While shooting videos of yourself, you’ll be able to set the S1 in place using the integrated tripod, while you direct the position of your camera using gestures. The smart capabilities of the gimbal use a feature called PowerFollow to keep the camera pointed at the subject. This prevents you from having to leave the frame to reposition the camera from the other side of the display. AI tracking will keep you in the shot as you move around your environment. Once you’ve got your shot, you can use the smart editing app to trim your clips. These smart features are also available for livestreaming, so your viewers are never missing the content.
Photos can also benefit from a gimbal. When you take a photo while holding your phone in your hand, you are creating tons of minor jitters and twitches that come from your natural movements. If you shoot a photo while using the gimbal, you are eliminating motion blur, and artificial sharpening effects that camera software will use to try and give you better results. It creates a more natural-looking photo with more details and overall better quality. You can even use the built-in stand to set your PowerVision S1 in place, capturing a perfect shot.
Panoramic photos can be a hit or miss when using a handheld smartphone. Any little bump can cause glitches when your images are stitched together. With the PowerVision S1, you can use the app to take smooth panoramic images that stitch together beautifully.
PowerVision S1
A Wireless Charger, Gimbal, and Tripod in One
PowerVision S1 is able to deliver on all of the benefits of a smartphone gimbal, in a much smaller package. Along with the gimbal features, the PowerVision S1 acts as a wireless power bank that can be used for charging your phone. It even supports wireless charging, allowing you to simply set your phone on top of the S1 and let it charge. The magnetic phone case makes mounting your phone to the gimbal very easy. It just snaps into place and can be removed when you’re done.
You have a total of three different ways to connect your phone to the S1. You can use the magnetic phone case, the magnetic phone holder, and the magnetic clamp. These different connection options make the S1 compatible with a huge variety of devices. When using the magnetic options, you’ll open your device up to an entire ecosystem of magnetic accessories from PowerVision. Use it with their magnetic car mount and sticky patch, which let you attach your phone to your dashboard or any wall.
The PowerVision S1 is meant to be a complete solution for all smartphone users. Not only do you get all the benefits of the 3-axis gimbal, but by using it as a mobile power bank, you can use your phone without the anxiety caused by short battery life.
You can signup to buy the PowerVision S1 on their website, using the link below. Early adopters can get up to 49% off of their purchase, in a special launch-day deal. [Limited-time offer]
We thank PowerVision for sponsoring this post. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including server costs, full time developers, news writers, and much more. XDA will never compromise its journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company, or alter our opinions or views in any way. Our opinion cannot be bought.
One of the biggest news that came out of this year’s Computex event was Samsung and AMD detailing their upcoming mobile GPU that both companies have been working on since 2019. As AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su revealed during the keynote, the next-gen Exynos will feature AMD’s RDNA 2 GPU along with support for ray tracing and variable rate shading. While you might have expected NVIDIA to make a similar announcement this year, it looks like AMD’s rival won’t be joining the mobile GPU party anytime soon.
NVIDIA is in the middle of acquiring ARM, and there have been speculations that the acquisition will open up the door for NVIDIA to bring its GeForce lineup of GPUs to Android smartphones. But that won’t happen anytime in the near future, as per NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang (via ZDNet). According to Huang, now isn’t the right time for the company to bring ray tracing games to smartphones.
“Ray tracing games are quite large, to be honest. The data set is quite large, and there’ll be a time for it. When the time is right, we might consider it,” said Huang during a press conference on Wednesday.
Huang added that the current best route to reach mobile gamers is through NVIDIA’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service, which currently offers 1,000+ titles and boasts of over 10 million users across 70 countries.
That’s how we would like to reach Android devices, Chrome devices, iOS devices, Mac OS devices, Linux devices, all kinds of devices, whether it’s on TV, mobile device, or PC. I think that for us, right now, that’s the best strategy.
Responding to media queries about whether NVIDIA was looking to invest in proprietary fabrication nodes, the CEO said there were no such plans, and NVIDIA would continue to rely on TSMC and other fabricators. “You could spin up a fab, but it won’t be a good foundry,” Huang said. “The business is not easy, what TSMC does for a living is not easy, and it’s not gonna get any easier.”
NVIDIA has tried its hand at smartphone chips in the past with its Tegra lineup of SoCs. The chips have featured in several Android smartphones and tablets such as Motorola Atrix 4G, Samsung Galaxy R, Google Nexus 7 (2012), Xperia Tablet S, and more. Nowadays, though, the Tegra chips are only found on the NVIDIA SHIELD TV lineup.
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a launch event for “the next generation of Windows”. But even before then, there’s been a lot of speculation on what this new version will be called. All signs are starting to point to the launch of Windows 11. The firm hasn’t publicly said so, and won’t until its big launch event.
First of all, the branding is clearly changing. People like CEO Satya Nadella and Windows and devices chief Panos Panay are calling it the next generation of Windows, not of Windows 10. When Windows 10 was the brand, that was key. Microsoft doesn’t write these scripts by accident.
But let’s look at the hints that Microsoft itself has dropped, and there are a few. Here’s the tweet that’s been floating around announcing the June 24 event.
At first glance, it might appear that this is a still image, but there are subtle movements in the six-second video. The light projected through the Windows logo is moving, and that’s definitely on purpose. Could it be the sun setting on Windows 10? Perhaps. It could also simply be the sun moving across the sky, representative of the Sun Valley codename.
One key thing is that the horizontal crossbar in the Windows logo is not present in the light shining through. Because of this intentional change, it looks more like an 11.
The event is also being held at 11am Eastern Time. While that in itself isn’t too strange, Microsoft is located in Redmond, Washington. It usually announces events in Pacific Time. In other words, it’s just one more 11 theme.
Aside from Microsoft’s official teasers, leakster Evan Blass has confirmed the name as well.
From the “Don’t take screenshots of this build” department: a forthcoming Microsoft OS called Windows 11.
You can expect more Windows 11 leaks in the coming weeks ahead of the launch. Microsoft really isn’t very good at keeping this stuff secret. There are going to be internal builds that leak, and we’ll likely know everything about it before the event.
Philips has rebuilt the Philips Hue app on Android and iOS from the ground up, and it comes with a brand new design. The updated app has started rolling out to users via Google Play and the App Store, and it includes the following changes:
The new Philips Hue app comes with a new intuitive interface that gives you easier access to all your connected devices. Although it looks pretty much the same as the existing app, Philips has made some useful tweaks to improve performance. Check out the video below for a quick look at the updated design:
The simplified user interface promises a seamless experience by giving you quick access to scenes, brightness controls, and toggles for all lights on the same screen. The new app gives you faster access to room controls. You can tap on a room to view a grid of all the available lights and preset scenes, which will let you change all settings right away. This is a significant improvement over the previous layout, which required users to switch between different tabs to change these settings.
Updated room controls
Furthermore, the new Philips Hue app now gives you the ability to add new lights right from within the Room tab, instead of going to the app settings for each new device. If you happen to have multiple Hue bridges, the app now also lets you quickly switch between them with a new button on the homescreen.
Easily switch between multiple Hue bridges
The new “automations” tab is another significant addition to the Philips Hue app. It replaces the existing “routines” feature and offers more advanced automation options to turn your lights on/off based on various parameters. On top of all that, Philips plans to add a new “dynamic scenes” feature to the app later this year, which will let you cycle through different colors over time. If you’re a Philips Hue user, you can download the new app by following the Play Store link below.
Shortly after releasing a fresh OxygenOS stable channel build for the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro, OnePlus is back again with a new update for the cheapest phone in the lineup: the OnePlus 9R. The last OxygenOS update for the OnePlus 9R came in late May, bringing several fixes and May 2021 security patches. Well, the new build is not that much interesting, cause it is more of a hotfix that addresses some issues found in the previous build.
Thanks to OnePlus Community user Rahul G S for the screenshot!
According to a recent post on the OnePlus Community forums, the OEM has now started rolling out the new stable channel build for the OnePlus 9R in India in the form of OxygenOS 11.2.3.3. This update includes a fix for the issue that caused the previous release to consume battery power in an abnormal fashion. Other than that, the new build is pretty much the same in terms of features.
The changelog for OxygenOS 11.2.3.3 is as follows:
System
Reduced power consumption in specific scenarios
Fixed known issues for a better experience
Since this is a hotfix build, those running the original May 2021 release should receive the over-the-air (OTA) update soon. If you don’t want to wait, you can download the OTA package from the downloads section below and install it right away on your OnePlus 9R.
The OnePlus 9R marks OnePlus' return to the affordable flagship space. The phone is a rehashed version of last year's OnePlus 8T, with a slightly updated design and the new Snapdragon 870 chip.
If you’re on OxygenOS 11.2.1.2 and haven’t modified the device, download the incremental package. If you’re running an older stable version or rooted your device, pick the full OTA package. Although a manual flashing shouldn’t touch the data partition, it is always better to backup your data before performing an update.
#w3ccommunity Forming the WebExtensions Community Group https://t.co/WrPPsRt23M
