Author: Mobile Syrup

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Mobile Syrup

Developer turns old Android tablet into an Android Automotive head unit

Old smartphones and tablets can serve a lot of purposes. You can trade them in exchange for credits, use them as a remote control, or even turn them into smart home hubs. On the other hand, you can do something more technical with it, like Esper’s senior technical editor Mishaal Rahman.

Rahman was able to turn an old Galaxy Tab S5e into an Android Automotive head unit with support for Android Auto.

As displayed in a Twitter thread, Rahmaan’s creation runs on the Vanilla version of the Android Automotive (the most basic version of the OS), and can be connected to a phone via USB for Android Auto support. According to Rahmaan, everything works as intended, for the most part. Google Maps intermittently crashed, while location access seems to be wonky too. Rahmaan also isn’t able to complete the profile setup, while the Android Auto Receiver is only working in wired mode.

The weather widget on the home screen seems to be blank, which Rahmaan says is due to it being just a placeholder. And behind the UI is a watermark that reads “Pre-production hardware not for sale,” which, according to Rahmaan, is from Android Auto on the connected phone, not the tablet.

Rahmaan says he’s planning to bring Android Automotive to more devices, and will likely share a generic system image (GSI) that others can use on their old devices to double as a head unit. He also stated that he will share his journey with converting the old Tab S5e into an Android Automotive device in a blog post over on Esper soon, so keep an eye out.

Image credit: @MishaalRahman

Source: @MishaalRahman Via: AndroidPolice

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Mobile Syrup

Xplornet undergoes rebranding, is now known as Xplore

Rural broadband provider Xplornet is getting a makeover. 

The company has been rebranded to Xplore. A press release announcing the change says the move represents its “identity, vision and future”, cementing its place as providing rural residents with fibre and 5G broadband access. 

The company replaces its blue and grey logo with a palette hosting shades of green, which got its inspiration from the northern lights. 

“Today, Xplore is committing to the relentless pursuit of an improved broadband experience for the better everyday living of rural Canadians,” Allison Lenehan, Xplore’s president and CEO, said.

“We have already started with the rollout of Xplore’s new fibre-to-the-premise and 5G broadband services.”

The change comes as the company works to expand its fibre optic network in seven provinces and roll out its rural 5G standalone network.  

Image credit: Xplore

Source: Xplore

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Mobile Syrup

Here’s your chance to win Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 4 with MobileSyrup

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 4 has been out for a month now, and the phone has received pretty notable buzz for being somewhat affordable and offering flagship specs and cool colours.

Outright the Z Flip 4 costs $1,259, which is definitely far better than the $2,259 Z Fold 4. However, that amount may not be affordable for everyone, so MobileSyrup has got you covered.

Spec-wise, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 sports a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, 6.7-inch foldable screen and a smaller 1.9-inch display. Further, the handset features two 12-megapixel shooters and a 10-megapixel selfie camera.

Sign up for our newsletter in the form below for a chance to win. It’s worth noting that the Z Flip 4 we have for the contest is ‘Black’ and comes with 256GB of storage.

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Mobile Syrup

Here’s everything shown off during PlayStation’s September State of Play

PlayStation held a new State of Play presentation on September 13th, showing off around a dozen games for PS4, PS5 and PS VR2.

See below for a breakdown of what was featured during the roughly 20-minute presentation:

Of these games, which are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: PlayStation

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Mobile Syrup

Android YouTube Music bug causes phone display to remain on indefinitely

A new YouTube Music Android app bug is causing users’ phone displays to remain on, bypassing the screen timeout interval, as reported by 9to5Google.

The issue is present in YouTube Music version 5.23.50 and causes your phone’s display to stay on regardless of where in the app you are, even if you leave your device and don’t interact with it.

9to5Google says it checked the bug on Pixel phones running Android 13 and Samsung devices running 12L and it was prevalent on both. “In one test, the display remained active for around 15 minutes while music was playing,” wrote the publication.

The bug affects those with a YouTube Premium subscription, and a patch for the app should be in the works to fix the issue.

Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

iOS 16 now sort messages between known and unknown senders

iOS 16 is out now and available for the public to download. We’ve written about almost all of the cool new features, especially the additions to messaging, like the ability to edit and unsend messages.

Another neat new feature that flew under the radar is the ability to filter messages under criteria like ‘Known Senders,’ Unknown Senders,’ ‘Unread Messages,’ and ‘Recently Deleted,’ as shared by The Verge.

To enable the feature, head to Settings > Messages > and toggle on ‘Filter Unknown Senders.’

Now, when you head back to messages, the screen will look like the second screenshot below:

Enabling the feature surely makes your messages inbox clutter-free, and makes it easier to stay on top of unread messages that you need to get back to. You can also mark specific messages as unread, and use the list as a to-do list.

Follow the link below to read our in-depth iOS 16 review:


iOS 16 Review: New lock screen, new you?


iOS 16 Review: New lock screen, new you?

iOS 16 is here. Are you excited about the new features?


Read Now

Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Apple Watch Ultra, Series 8 battery sizes revealed in filing

Apple tends to keep some of the more technical aspects of its hardware, like RAM and battery size, under wraps. However, there’s always a way to find out this information. Earlier this week, a filing on the Chemtrec website revealed the sizes of the batteries in the iPhone 14 line, and now the Apple Watch batteries have been revealed too.

As spotted by MySmartPrice, a listing on the 3C website revealed the capacity of the battery in the Apple Watch SE, Series 8, and Ultra:

  • Apple Watch SE (40mm) – 245mAh
  • Apple Watch SE (44mm) – 296mAh
  • Apple Watch Series 8 (41mm) – 282mAh
  • Apple Watch Series 8 (45mm) – 308mAh
  • Apple Watch Ultra – 542mAh

To put those numbers in perspective, the Watch Series 7 sported a 303.8mAh battery in the 41mm watch, and a 309mAh battery in the 45mm watch. Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 sports either a 247mAh or 361mAh battery, depending on the watch size. The new Watch 5 is between 284mAh and 410mAh, while the Watch 5 Pro clocks in at 590mAh. Google’s upcoming Pixel Watch is rumoured to sport a 300mAh battery.

While the Apple Watch Ultra’s larger battery is certainly impressive, the Ultra likely needs the extra power (and it has the room for it with that 49mm case!). Apple claims the Watch Ultra can get 36 to 70 hours of battery life, and while that certainly sounds like a lot, the massive battery suggests it could last that long.

At the same time, Samsung said the Watch 5 Pro could last up to 80 hours. It has a larger battery than the Watch Ultra, however, the 5 Pro apparently hasn’t lived up to the 80-hour claim.

It remains to be seen whether the Watch Ultra can live up to that lofty battery life claim, but we’ll likely know soon thanks to reviews. In the meantime, you can learn more about the Watch Ultra here.

Source: MySmartPrice

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Mobile Syrup

Google reportedly scraps new Pixelbook, shutters team behind it

Google is out of the laptop game — the company has reportedly killed its next big Pixelbook and dissolved the team working on it.

The details come from The Verge, which cites a “person familiar with the matter.” The news is somewhat contradictory to what Google itself has said over the last few months — notably, at its I/O developer conference in May, Google’s hardware chief Rick Osterloh told The Verge that the company was “going to do Pixelbooks in the future,” while acknowledging that the market has changed significantly.

However, Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, has been vocal for months about plans to slow down hiring at Google and cut some of the company’s projects. It very much seems like the Pixelbook and the team behind it were one such project.

A Google spokesperson told The Verge that it doesn’t share plans on future products and that in “regards to our people, in times where we do shift priorities we work to transition team members across devices and services.”

The Verge included a look through the history of Google’s Chromebook and Pixelbook ambitions, which is worth the read if you’re interested in that kind of thing. The main takeaway, however, is that the main customers for ChromeOS and Chromebooks aren’t going to pay for pricey Pixelbook hardware. For example, ChromeOS is huge with schools, but schools won’t be kitting out teachers and students with $1,000 Pixelbooks.

Source: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Google brings back its potato chips, but in Japan only

Google is bringing back its flavoured potato chips to launch with the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro.

Similar to last year, the chips are only available in Japan, but this time they weirdly come in boxes.  The packaging comes in the four colours of the Pixel 7 but with weird flavour names: ‘Snow Cheese,’ ‘Obsidian Pepper,’ ‘Salty Lemon,’ and ‘Hazel Onion.’ Additionally, the packaging sports the camera bar with a pill and circle. Last year’s Pixel 6 chips came in different colours, but only came in the ‘Googley Salty Flavor’ that was actually just original Lays chips.

Those in Japan can enter a lottery to win one of 2,000 boxes.

This comes at the end of a Google Store weekend sale in Japan and other Asia-Pacific countries that came with an exclusive phone case.

The actual Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7 launch on October 6th.

Source: Google Store Japan 

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Mobile Syrup

Intel published details of some unreleased 13th Gen chips on its Canadian site

Intel accidentally published specs for several of its upcoming 13th Gen processors, which the company is set to reveal later this month.

As spotted by several users on Twitter (via The Verge), the Intel Canada website briefly detailed specs for upcoming i9, i7, and i5 processors. The details are still available via a cached version of the site, which you can find here.

The site details the 13th Gen Core i9-13900K desktop processor with 5.4GHz max frequency and 24 cores with 32 threads. There was also the 13th Gen Core i7-13700K desktop CPU with up to 5.3GHz max frequency, 16 cores and 24 threads. Finally, the site mentioned the 13th Gen Core i5-13600K with 14 cores and 20 threads clocked at 5.1GHz.

The Verge notes that all this information matches up with earlier leaks about Intel’s 13th Gen ‘Raptor Lake’ CPUs. Those previous leaks also indicated that both the Core i9 and i7 CPUs will be able to use two performance cores to boost up to 5.8GHz, thanks to Intel’s Thermal Velocity Boost.

However, the leak doesn’t provide many details about which CPU will hit 6GHz. Based on a tease included in a recent Intel slideshow, at least one of the company’s new CPUs will hit 6GHz out of the box and potentially up to 8GHz with overclocking.

Intel also previously teased that its 13th Gen Raptor Lake chips will boast 15 percent improved single-thread performance and 41 percent better multi-threaded performance.

The company will likely launch the new CPUs at its upcoming ‘Innovation’ event on September 27th, which just so happens to be the same day AMD plans to release its Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 CPUs.

Source: Intel Canada (archived) Via: The Verge, Twitter