Tag: Google

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Developer gets Windows 11 to work on Pixel 6 running Android 13

A Pixel 6 running Windows 11 is at the top of my list of things I’ve never wanted.

However, that hasn’t stopped developer ‘kdrag0n’ from running Microsoft’s desktop operating system on Google’s Android device using a  Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) found in the Android 13 developer preview. 

kdrag0n says that they focused on performance and that the Windows Virtual Machine is “actually really usable.”

kdrag0n goes on to outline that they were able to run Doom on the Pixel 6 using the phone’s Windows Virtual Machine and that they utilized their computer’s keyboard for input.

XDA Developers explains that Android 13 makes it easier to access the kernel-based virtual machine that’s available on the device, and that they took advantage of this exploit to unlock the full virtual machine on the Pixel 6.

Microsoft first launched its Windows Phone operating system back in 2010, but it was eventually killed off roughly seven years later in 2017. 

Source: @kdrag0n Via: XDA Developers

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Knowing I’ll never have this Google smart lamp makes me want it more

Google makes a variety of products — many good, some bad. I’m generally a fan of the company’s smart home devices, despite some issues. Well, apparently Google also has a smart lamp, called ‘dLight,’ that you can’t buy unless you work for the company.

And it looks great.

Ben Gold, a designer at Google, tweeted about the dLight and shared a picture of it. Gold also confirmed the dLight would “likely never be for sale outside of the company.”

Android Police added more detail, reporting that the lamp supports Wi-Fi connectivity and has an Assistant logo, suggesting it could be controlled via Google’s Home app and through Assistant. The lamp doesn’t have RGB lighting, but Gold noted it offers variable colour temperature and various presets.

Moreover, the light can pivot “quite a bit” and can either shine down to illuminate your desk or shine towards you to light up your face. That makes the dLight a great option for video calls, which is part of the appeal (at least for me). I could use a much better desk lamp situation to help illuminate my face for meetings.

Apparently, the light costs between $170 and $180 USD (about $216 to $228). While that’s a bit more than I’d like to pay for a desk lamp, it doesn’t much matter since I won’t be able to buy it anyway.

Source: Ben Gold (Twitter) Via: Android Police

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Android 13 Developer Preview 1 can auto clear your clipboard after one hour

Google recently launched the Android 13 Developer Preview 1, showing off several new features for developers to try out in the updated operating system.

Android 13 is introducing a function that can clear your clipboard automatically if you haven’t copied anything recently. This was spotted in Esper’s Android 13 deep-dive, which indicates that the feature is disabled by default. The feature will remove your Android clipboard after 60 minutes if you don’t copy or cut anything new.

Technical editor Mishaal Rahman posted a clip of how this feature works on YouTube:

Rahman reduced the timeout to five seconds for the purposes of the video.

Alongside this feature, Android 13 DP1 silences keyboard haptics and other vibrations when you disable the keyboard, and ‘Material You’ adds dynamic colours to all app icons.

You can learn more about what’s new on the Android 13 DP1, here. 

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Android 13 Developer Preview 1 is now available

Android 13’s Developer Preview 1 is now available. This preview isn’t like the public beta that’s available for everyone — instead, it’s aimed at developers and some enthusiasts.

Google plans to launch several Android 13 releases in the coming months before the official version hits its Pixel smartphones and other manufacturers’ devices in the latter half of the year. For those Pixel enthusiasts with either a Pixel 4 (XL), Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, Pixel 5a  (U.S. only), Pixel 6, or Pixel 6 Pro, 9to5Google has released a step-by-step guide on how to install the preview. 

If you’re not a developer, you’ll only have to wait two more months for the public beta of Android 13.

Here’s a list of some of the new features included in the update:

  • Users who are on a guest profile can access installed apps from the main profile.
  • Silent mode disables keyboard haptics and other vibrations.
  • Typically you can invoke the Google Assistant by holding the Home button (when using three-button navigation). Now you can disable this feature.
  • There’s also a Photo picker to help protect the photo and video privacy of users. It offers a standard and optimized way for users to share both local and cloud-based photos securely.

  • There’s a new UI when you are looking at your output devices and there’s a volume slider.
  • There are also new themed app icons extending ‘Material You’ dynamic colours beyond Google apps to all icons.

  • Android 13 introduces several new runtime permissions for nearby Wi-Fi devices.
  • There are changes in the Quick Settings, which allows developers to create their own custom tile for the notification shade

You can find all of Android 13’s new features in Google’s latest Android Developer blog post.

Tiramisu

It’s also worth noting that Google has confirmed the dessert name for Android 13 — Tiramisu. While Google doesn’t use dessert names anymore publically, the convention still exists for internal use.

Since Google re-branded Android three years ago, the company has avoided using dessert brands, though the unique names still live on. For example, Android 10 is Queen Cake, Android 11 is Red Velvet Cake and Android 12 is Snow Cone.

If you’re a part of the Android 13 Developer Preview, head into Settings > About Phone and tap on the Android version to check this out yourself.

Image credit: Google

Source: Android Developer Blog, Droid Life  

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google rolls out February update to Pixel 3a and newer

Google Pixel smartphones have started receiving their February security update. Unlike the last few updates, this update should also hit your Pixel 6 series device.

Here’s what’s included in this patch:

Camera
  • Fix for issue causing device reboot when using camera in certain conditions [Pixel 6, 6 Pro].
Bluetooth
  • Fix for issue causing audio playback to disconnect while using certain Bluetooth devices [Pixel 6, 6 Pro].
  • General improvements for Bluetooth audio quality with certain media codecs [Pixel 6, 6 Pro].
Framework
  • Fix for issue causing keyboard to display over input text in certain conditions [Pixel 3a and newer].
Telephony
  • Connectivity fixes for specific carrier networks [Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 4a (5G), Pixel 5].

Hopefully, this update doesn’t come with any bugs last December’s update. Google’s update page says that this should be rolling out over the coming weeks. In theory, it should be hitting your Pixel phones in Canada, but oddly enough neither the Rogers or Telus OS schedules mention Pixel smartphones.

To update your phone navigate to Settings > System > System Update > Check for Updates.

Let us know in the comments below if your Pixel smartphone has received the patch.

Source: Google

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google rolls out February update to Pixel 3a and newer

Google Pixel smartphones have started receiving their February security update. Unlike the last few updates, this update should also hit your Pixel 6 series device.

Here’s what’s included in this patch:

Camera
  • Fix for issue causing device reboot when using camera in certain conditions [Pixel 6, 6 Pro].
Bluetooth
  • Fix for issue causing audio playback to disconnect while using certain Bluetooth devices [Pixel 6, 6 Pro].
  • General improvements for Bluetooth audio quality with certain media codecs [Pixel 6, 6 Pro].
Framework
  • Fix for issue causing keyboard to display over input text in certain conditions [Pixel 3a and newer].
Telephony
  • Connectivity fixes for specific carrier networks [Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 4a (5G), Pixel 5].

Hopefully, this update doesn’t come with any bugs last December’s update. Google’s update page says that this should be rolling out over the coming weeks. In theory, it should be hitting your Pixel phones in Canada, but oddly enough neither the Rogers or Telus OS schedules mention Pixel smartphones.

To update your phone navigate to Settings > System > System Update > Check for Updates.

Let us know in the comments below if your Pixel smartphone has received the patch.

Source: Google

Categories
Mobile Syrup

What smartphone tech are you excited for in 2022?

In 2022, we’re expected to see a variety of smartphones from notable players in the industry like Samsung, Apple, Google and more. For example, next week Samsung will almost certainly show off its anticipated Galaxy S22 series.

In 2021, several pretty cool smartphones appeared on the scene. I’m a big fan of foldables, so getting my hands on devices like the Z Fold 3 and the Z Flip 3 was pretty exciting. I was also thrilled by the Oppo Find N’s unique form factor that offered a more traditional aspect ratio on its cover display.

This year, Google is expected to release a Pixel-branded foldable smartphone, we’ll see the iPhone 14 series, the aforementioned S22 line and maybe even a few surprises from Samsung based on the South Korean tech giant’s Flex G and Flex S foldable form factors (seen below).

With all of this in mind, what smartphone technology are you excited to see this year? Let us know in the comments below.

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google Messages beta gets Photos link to send videos without quality loss

If you’re enrolled in the Google Messages beta, you may soon see a few new updates appear in the Messages app.

As spotted by 9to5Google, people running the latest beta version of Messages (specifically, ‘messages.android_20220128_02_RC00.phone.openbeta_dynamic’) should see a new prompt to “Share videos as they’re meant to be seen.” I was also able to access these features on both a Pixel 4 and Pixel 6 running the Messages beta.

The prompt encourages users to connect their Google account to leverage Google Photos links to share videos and “preserve sharp video clarity.” Tapping the ‘How it works’ text reveals the following message:

“Your Google Account powers features such as Google Photos link sharing in Messages without accessing your conversations. Messages still send from your phone number.”

The text implies that connecting a Google Account powers other features in Messages, but it’s not entirely clear what those are. Finally, at the bottom, there’s an option to continue with your account or use Messages without an account.

Like other Google-made Android apps, the change adds your Google Account profile picture to the search bar at the top of the app. Users can tap the profile picture to change their account or access settings.

Further, the new Photos link feature adds a new ‘Google Photos’ section in Messages’ settings where users can toggle where to send videos or images via Photos links instead of through the SMS or MMS standard. The settings menu notes that enabling these settings will allow Messages to upload to Google Photos.

My initial impressions are that this change is an overly complex way to fix a long-running problem with SMS and MMS protocols reducing the quality of media sent using the standard. You could always get around that problem by generating a Google Photos link and sending that — this change appears to streamlines that process. However, in my experience using Google Photos links, less tech-savvy users would rather I just send the low-quality image rather than deal with opening Google Photos links.

The new Messages update also introduces a navigation drawer with quick access to your Messages inbox, starred messages, archived messages, spam and blocked messages, and more.

Source: 9to5Google

Categories
Mobile Syrup

App downloads suggest roughly 10 million modern Pixel devices run Android 12

We may finally have an idea of roughly how many ‘modern’ Pixel devices running Android 12 are out there — about 10 million, according to app details on the Play Store.

As spotted by 9to5Google, a recently-added app called ‘Security Hub’ currently lists over 10 million downloads on the Play Store. As explained by 9to5, the Security Hub app shipped with the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, and later became available for Pixel 4, 4 XL, 4a, 4a 5G, 5, and 5a devices running Android 12. Devices older than the Pixel 4 don’t support the Security Hub app, even if they’re on Android 12.

In November, the Play Store listed the download count for Security Hub as 5 million, but 9to5 reports the number jumped up to 10 million a few days ago.

Considering the limits around which Pixel devices have the Security Hub app, it gives us a very, very rough estimate of the number of recent Pixel devices running Android 12. It’s especially interesting given that Google just reported an all-time quarterly sales record for Pixel (likely off the back of the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro). The search giant did not share specific sales numbers, however.

Needless to say, 10 million isn’t a lot when it comes to smartphones. Samsung shipped an estimated 76.5 million smartphones and Apple shipped an estimated 52.4 million units in just one quarter of 2021. Heck, estimates for the arguably incredibly niche foldable segment point to some 9 million units shipped for all of 2021.

Granted, it’s entirely possible that not all of the Pixels ranging from the 4 series to the 6 series are running Android 12. But, I find that unlikely — one of the main benefits of getting a Pixel over another Android device is the frequency of updates and first access to new versions of Android. Roughly 10 million devices across three years of products isn’t a great look.

Source: 9to5Google

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Stadia reportedly deprioritized as Google shifts focus to selling streaming tech

Despite hardcore Stadia fans’ sometimes naive best efforts, a new report indicates that Google is deprioritizing the game streaming service to focus on selling the underlying tech that powers it as a white-label platform.

According to Business Insider, Google was in talks with Bungie to use its white-label streaming technology, ‘Google Stream,’ with Destiny 2. However, Sony’s acquisition of the developer likely killed those talks. The Destiny developer would have owned the “content and control the front-end experience,” with Google Stream being the underlying architecture that powers it.

Google is also reportedly in talks with Capcom regarding utilizing Google Stream technology. Outside of the gaming space, the report mentions that Peloton could take advantage of Google Stream to bring gaming-related content to its fitness equipment.

According to the report, “about 20 percent” of the Stadia team’s efforts are currently focused on the consumer side of the business, with the rest of the division working on Google Stream. Lastly, Business Insider says that Google failed to reach its one million monthly active users goal for Stadia by “about 25 percent,” with retention being a critical issue.

In a statement to Business Insider, Google says that it’s “still focused on bringing great games to Stadia in 2022.” If you’ve been following the news surrounding Stadia for the best few years, this report isn’t the least bit surprising. Google’s lack of interest in making Stadia a real contender in the video game industry became apparent when the tech giant closed its internal studios early last year.

Of all the major streaming video game platforms, I did find that Stadia performed the best on a technical level. That said, Stadia Pro is a tough sell in the face of Microsoft’s excellent all-in-one Game Pass Ultimate platform that also includes Xbox Game Streaming (formerly called xCloud).

Source: Business Insider