Tag: Google

Categories
Mobile Syrup

More Pixel Tablet details emerge, confirm no ‘pro’ variant

We’ve known for a while that Google is working on a Pixel Tablet — the company has teased the tablet multiple times already. However, beyond snippets of information from Google, we’ve had to rely on leaks and rumours for everything else we know. Well, the latest leak indicates some previous information about the Pixel Tablet was incorrect, namely the existence of a Pixel Tablet Pro.

Researcher and leaker Kuba Wojciechowski took to Twitter to share a new round of information about Google’s upcoming tablet. Wojciechowski started by explaining new information that supersedes their previous leak about the Pro tablet, based on uncovered codenames ‘tangor’ and ‘tangorpro.’ In short, Wojciechowski learned that tangorpro actually replaces the tangor variant of the Pixel Tablet — the only major difference between the two devices was the chip, with tangor using the first-gen Tensor and tangorpro using Tensor G2.

Wojciechowski tweeted that Google cancelled the tangor project and that we’re likely to get one Pixel Tablet — the tangorpro variant.

Moreover, Wojciechowski shared some information on the tablet’s other specs, citing an anonymous source. The Pixel Tablet will reportedly include 8GB of Samsung LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of Kioxia UFS storage. The tablet will also sport a side-mounted fingerprint reader and a 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution display. Wojciechowski  noted details of the display driver, writing that it’s “typically used for driving the backlight layer on LCDs, which means that the Pixel Tablet most likely doesn’t have an OLED screen.”

The Pixel Tablet does have two docking station options, one with a speaker and one that’s just for charging, as previously rumoured.

Finally, Wojciechowski shared several pictures of a Pixel Tablet on a charging stand, but the pictures don’t really reveal much we didn’t already know about the device. The biggest piece of information is a sticker on the tablet with the acronym ‘EVT,’ which stands for “engineering validation test.” According to 9to5Google, EVT is a common step in building and testing a new device. The stickers also reference the two docking stations.

Source: @Za_Raczke Via: 9to5Google

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google’s Find My Device getting ‘Store recent location’ toggle

Over the last few years, rumours and leaks have pointed toward Google’s work on a possible competitor to Apple’s Find My network. Rumours have heated up recently, and now, a new change rolling out to Google’s existing Find My Device service appears to be part of the foundation for a larger finding service.

As spotted by Android Police, the Find My Device app is getting a toggle to ‘Store recent location.’ Enabling the feature will let Google encrypt and save the last known location of your smartphone and compatible accessories. Alternatively, the toggle would let users stop Google from storing that data as well.

Storing the recent location of a device is a big part of finding something that doesn’t have an internet connection, which would prevent users from tracking the device’s live location.

It’s not clear when the toggle will start showing up on devices — at the time of writing, my Pixel 7 didn’t have it. You can check by heading to Settings > Security > Find My Device.

Android Police notes that Samsung’s Find My Mobile feature for Galaxy devices features a similar ‘Send last location’ toggle that lets the device send its last location to Samsung servers when the battery level drops below a certain point.

Aside from this change, earlier this year, we learned that Google was working on expanding Find My Device to work with Fast Pair devices using ‘last known location’ reports. Currently, Find My Device works with Fast Pair accessories, but only while they are connected to your phone. Google also recently modernized the Find My Device app with a Material You redesign.

Meanwhile, a concept artist imagined what Google’s take on the AirTag tracker would look like and hilariously dubbed the concept tracker the ‘G Spot.’

Source: Android Police

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google releases January 2023 Play system update for Pixel 7 and 6

The Pixel 7 and 6 are finally getting the latest Play system build update.

The update comes in at 63MB for the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 6 at 59MB. Oddly, after some users on Reddit updated their Play System, the build will continue to say November 1st, 2022.

It’s unclear why this is happening, but the update should still work. However, some users aren’t receiving the update at all, unfortunately.

The Google system updates have the following updates this January.

Critical Fixes

  • [Phone, Wear OS] Bug fixes for Account Management, Security & Privacy, System Management & Diagnostics, and Utilities related services.

Games

  • [Phone, PC] Expanding the range of users and use cases supported by the Play Games profile.

Google Play Store

  • New Features to help you discover the Apps & Games you love.
  • Optimizations allowing faster and more reliable download and installation.
  • Continuous improvements to Play Protect to keep your device safe.
  • Various performance optimizations, bug fixes and improvements to security, stability and accessibility.

Security & Privacy

  • [Phone] Password manager helps you save different passwords to your Google account and lets you use them across various websites and devices. With the new change, you will be able to add notes to your existing and new passwords.

Wallet

  • [Phone] Visual and infrastructure updates to Wallet mobile web experience.

Developer Services

  • [Phone] New developer features for Google and third party app developers to support Device Connectivity, and Machine Learning & AI related developer services in their apps.
  • [Phone] Update the platform QR scanner with the ability to select an existing photo and add support for handling Matter and UPI codes from OEM cameras.

System Management

  • [Phone] Updates to System Management, and Usability services that improve Device Connectivity, Device Performance, Network Usage, Privacy, Security, Stability, and Usability.

Source: Google Support Via: Android Police

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google defends layoffs as former employees outline lack of notice

Many former Google employees who were part of the company’s layoffs earlier this week appeared to be blindsided by the move.

Various former employees took to social media to share they only found out they were impacted because they could not log in to their emails or enter their workplace with their passes.

In a town hall earlier this week, Google executives defended their actions. “Cuts were made in a very structured, very prioritized way, nothing was random about it,” CEO Sundar Pichai said, according to reporting from Business Insider.

But this isn’t how employees saw it. Social media posts from former employees reveal they did receive an email notifying them of their layoffs, but it was last minute and came at odd hours, like one employee who received her email at 4:47am, hours before the start of her typical workday.

This TikTok from @nicolesdailyvlog outlined that experience in real-time, revealing her manager wasn’t even informed of her layoff.

@nicolesdailyvlog

The Google layoffs were not how I expected to start off 2023, but I know it’s only up from here 🥲 #techlayoffs #googlelayoffs #techgirl #corporatelife #techvlog #dayinmylife #techlayoffs2023

♬ Flowers – Miley Cyrus

Google laid off 12,000 employees in total. Fiona Cicconi, the company’s chief people officer, said 750 executives were involved in making the layoff decisions, Business Insider reports. The company’s strategic priorities and the performance and productivity of each employee were considered.

Source: Business Insider Via: 9to5Google

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Android 14 could block the installation of old apps

The next version of Android looks set to start blocking the installation of apps built for older versions of Android.

9to5Google spotted changes to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) that detail the incoming changes, which should go live in Android 14. It’s worth noting that at the time of writing, I wasn’t able to access the AOSP link because don’t have “enough privileges,” according to a pop-up when I tried to access the change. However, before we get into the details, there are a few things to understand.

First, developers can target their apps to Android versions, which have different API levels — application programming interfaces enable new features, security capabilities, and more. Targeting newer versions of Android is important for ensuring compatibility with new features and support for the latest security improvements. Still, developers can target older versions of Android because very few smartphones run the latest version of the OS.

Google has used Play Store guidelines to push developers to keep apps up-to-date and target new versions of the OS. For example, Google updated those guidelines earlier this month to require newly listed Play Store apps to target Android 12 or newer.

However, these guidelines only apply to apps available through the Google Play Store. That loophole is beneficial for developers who want to target older versions of Android, but it also opens a potential security vulnerability for people sideloading apps — for example, malware in a sideloaded app could target an older version of Android with less security. The AOSP change spotted by 9to5 seeks to fix that.

The Android 14 change would make API requirements more strict and block the installation of outdated apps, which would impact both the Play Store and sideloading apps from other sources. To start, Android 14 will block apps targeting very old versions of Android, but ramp up over time to Android 6.0 (Marshmallow). 9to5 notes that device manufacturers may be able to decide their own threshold or even disable the feature entirely.

Moreover, there will still be ways to install outdated apps, but it will require the use of a command shell — the additional steps should prevent regular users from accidentally installing outdated, risky apps.

Source: AOSP Via: 9to5Google

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google might be working on Profiles for Google Messages

After expanding end-to-end encryption to group chats in Google Messages in December 2022, Google is now reportedly working on profiles for Messages.

Reddit user u/seeareeff recently shared a screenshot of what appears to be a setting menu for “Profile” in Messages, with toggles for ‘Profile Sharing,’ ‘Notifications for contact updates’ and ‘Notifications for new contacts found.’

The feature, if implemented, would allow users to create their own profiles using their email addresses or their phone number, and upload a profile photo to personalize the profile. There may also be a visibility option to select who can view the profile, such as ‘public,’ ‘contacts,’ or ‘only you,’ similar to how profiles work on other popular messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.

According to some of the comments in the Reddit thread, the UI for Profiles has been in the app for “the past couple months,” but it’s not implemented, and is “just a bare bones UI.”

It’s worth noting that the Profiles feature is not yet functional in the Google Messages app, and it’s unclear when it will be made available to the public. However, the addition of profiles to Google Messages will bring a new level of personalization to the app, and bring it on level terms with applications like WhatsApp and Messenger.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Reddit ‘seeareeff‘

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google Meet, Zoom to roll out hardware interoperability on January 26

As promised back in October 2022, Google and Zoom are now rolling out support for interoperability between Google’s Meet platform and Zoom’s video calling software.

That means you can now hop onto a Meet call from a Zoom Room (as the name implies, a room for Zoom) and use Meet hardware for Zoom calls. Before you get too excited, this doesn’t appear to allow anyone to hop onto a Zoom call using Google Meet (or vice versa) — it’s interoperability for the in-office hardware used to combine in-person and remote workers into one meeting.

Unfortunately, that means if you absolutely despise Zoom’s awful interface and detest using it (like I do) this is not the escape you’re looking for.

Anyway, it’s worth keeping in mind that interoperability only supports “core video conferencing features,” according to Google:

“Some advanced features, such as polls, wired present, and dual-screen support may not be available when using Meet hardware to join Zoom Meetings and vice versa… Scheduled join and join via meeting code will be supported, as will the ability to configure no-knock joining (lobby bypass) in either direction.”

Interoperability will be available at no additional cost. Moreover, Google notes that it offers similar interoperability between Meet and Cisco Webex and Pexip also offers the ability to join Meet meetings.

The features will be available starting January 26th (Meet integration in Zoom Rooms will be available right away, while Zoom on Meet hardware could take up to 15 days to roll out). Learn more here.

Source: Google Via: Android Police

Categories
Mobile Syrup

The Last of Us takes over Google Search with creepy easter egg

Google now features a little fungal easter egg to celebrate HBO’s new The Last of Us series.

When you search “The Last of Us” on Google, a little mushroom will pop up. Clicking the fungus will then cause an outgrowth to appear on your screen. Amusingly, you can keep clicking the icon and the infection will grow and spread to cover more and more of the Google page.

Of course, the easter egg is referencing the Cordyceps infection that decimates humanity in The Last of Us. Notably, Cordyceps is a real life fungus that affects insects and arthropods, but The Last of Us takes creative liberty and extends that to humans.

Based on PlayStation’s 2013 game of the same name, HBO’s The Last of Us just premiered its second of nine episodes on January 22nd. In the series, a hardened smuggler is hired to escort a teenager across a pandemic-ravaged U.S.

The Last of Us was created by Neil Druckmann (the original PlayStation game’s writer/co-director) and Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and stars Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones).

The series is currently streaming on Crave. For more on The Last of Us, check out our interview with Druckmann, Mazin, Pascal and Ramsey.

Image credit: HBO

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Fitbit’s Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications showing up on some Pixel Watches

Some Pixel Watch owners report getting access to the heart health ‘Irregular Rhythm Notifications’ feature despite it not being officially supported.

Pixel Watch owners took to Reddit to share the revelation, and Android Police and 9to5Google also picked up the story confirming some of their Pixel Watches had the feature. Even my Pixel Watch appears to have Irregular Rhythm Notifications. If you’re curious about yours, you can check by opening Fitbit and going to Discover > Assessments & Reports > Irregular Rhythm Notifications.

For most Pixel Watch owners, the Assessments & Reports page only shows ‘Wellness Report’ (if you’re subscribed to Fitbit Premium) and ‘Heart Rhythm Assessment,’ a manual version of the Irregular Rhythm Notifications.

This brings up an information screen with details about irregular rhythm notifications, noting that they can be a sign of things like atrial fibrillation (AFib). In short, the feature runs in the background, monitoring users’ heart rhythm data and will notify them if an irregular rhythm is detected.

Moreover, users can tap ‘View notifications’ to see a list of irregular rhythm notifications as well as the last time Fitbit analyzed data.

The thing is, these alerts aren’t officially supported on the Pixel Watch. Several Fitbit devices, including the Sense series, Versa series, Charge 3, 4, and 5, Luxe, and Inspire 2 and 3, support it — the Pixel Watch, however, doesn’t list support for the feature in support documents, product pages, or in specifications.

It remains unclear whether the feature is active for those who have it or if it’s showing up by mistake. Moreover, some Reddit users think that the feature is showing up in the Fitbit app for people who previously connected a Fitbit device that supports the feature. That would be true for me — I used several Fitbit devices on my Fitbit account prior to using the Pixel Watch — but it’s not certain if the two are connected yet.

Source: Reddit ‘Working-March‘ Via: 9to5Google, Android Police

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google is getting ready to respond to ChatGPT

Google will reportedly release more than 20 artificial intelligence products this year in response to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

According to reporting from The New York Times and coverage from The Verge, Google will also “demonstrate a version of its search engine with chatbot features.”

It’s unclear when the 20 products will be released, but The Times reports some of the projects could be introduced at Google’s I/O event in May. These products reportedly include a photo studio that “creates and edits images” and a prototype testing app.

It’s unclear if Google’s chatbot, which will focus on “getting facts right, ensuring safety and getting rid of misinformation,” will be part of the May release.

Google execs were reportedly concerned that moving too fast to produce something like ChatGPT could harm the company and its reputation. However, Google appears to be putting a greater focus on AI. Earlier today, the company laid off 12,000 employees and said it would shift its focus to artificial intelligence.

The Times further reports Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have provided advice, ideas, and approved plans when discussing ChatGPT with company executives at the request of CEO Sundar Pichai.

Source: The New York Times, The Verge