The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro will finally get Google’s December/January Android security patch next week if Canadian carriers are correct.
According to Fido’s and Telus’ OS update schedules, the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro will receive the anticipated security update on January 17th.
Google initially rolled out the update back on December 13th. The December update was delayed more than a week, but it came with 80 fixes and other improvements. However, it also included a nasty bug that cause the phone to drop calls. Because of this issue, Google paused the rollout of the update.
When the beginning of January rolled around, many hoped the January and December update would hit their Pixel 6 devices, but that wasn’t the case. Only Pixel devices ranging from the Pixel 3a to Pixel 5a received the patch.
My Pixel 6 Pro has slowly gotten so buggy since launch in October that I can no longer recommend it at $900. Combined with the latest botched update it's just been a bad experience. My SIM is back in an S21 Ultra til the next review.
But hopefully, next week’s update solves these problems.
The update’s standout features include improved fingerprint sensor stability and performance, fixes for screen flickering and full 23W wireless charging from the Pixel Stand 2.
Further, there are also several specific camera updates:
General image quality improvements in camera preview/capture
General improvements for camera stability and performance
General improvements for auto-focus response in certain capture modes
General improvements for colour consistency in viewfinder preview
Fix for issue causing blank viewfinder preview in certain conditions
You can check out the complete list of fixes from the December update, here.
The January security patch provides a fix for an Android issue that can prevent emergency calls. The update also fixes Wi-Fi call dropping issues, incorrect data usage accounting, a memory leak in the system UI and more.
You can find all the fixes for the January update, here.
Hopefully, the above carrier release timeline is accurate because otherwise, there will be a lot of upset Canadian Pixel 6 owners.
While previous leaks indicated that Google was cancelling its foldable project, it looks like that isn’t the case after all.
That’s because 9to5Google looked into some animations found in Android 12L Beta 2 update, and some showcased a SIM card going into the device. It looks to have its volume rocker on the handset’s right side, even when unfolded. This is similar to the Z Fold 3 that also features a volume rocker on its right side.
The SIM card tray is placed on the bottom left side of the device when unfolded. This is similar to Oppo’s newly unveiled Find N.
It looks like the Pixel Fold animation shows that the phone will have more of an 8.4:9 aspect ratio that’s more square-like and similar to the Oppo Find N. Previous device leaks made the phone look more 22.5:18 aspect ratio similar to the Z Fold 3.
9to5Google did some measurements and says it believes that the Pixel Fold will sport a 7:8 aspect ratio if the phone still has the rumoured 7.6-inch display.
A previous rumour indicated that Google cancelled its foldable phone due to competition with the Z Fold 3. However, with a different form factor that’s reportedly more suitable for multitasking and app usage, Google might have an edge over the South Korean phone makers.
Canadian tennis star Leylah Fernandez has been named the latest ambassador for Google’s Pixel 6 and 6 Pro.
Fernandez was the top-ranked Canadian in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and received international recognition after appearing in the 2021 U.S. Open.
The Montreal native is part of a national English and French-speaking ad campaign, which she revealed on Instagram today.
Fernandez, who’s trilingual, will be utilizing the Pixel 6’s Live Translate feature as she’s a WTA pro who travels often. In addition to the ad, Leylah will also share her experience with the Pixel 6 on her social media accounts.
“After her incredible year on the women’s tennis circuit, and how she won the hearts of the Canadians with her grit and grace, it was an easy decision to partner Leylah as a spokesperson for the Pixel 6,” said Laura Pearce, head of marketing, at Google Canada in a press release.
“The Pixel provides all the helpfulness of Google for consumers to see, experience and do more — and that’s exactly what we expect Leylah to do as she takes the tennis world by storm.”
Android 12 brought several major changes to Google mobile OS, and several bugs too. Aside from the various problems plaguing Google’s new Pixel 6 and 6 Pro smartphones, other devices running Android 12 have experienced issues. For example, there’s an audio bug messing up Google Duo for several Android 12 users.
“We have discovered that users on Android 12 devices sometimes don’t hear audio when answering a Duo call from an incoming call notification. We are working on a fix, but in the meantime, a workaround is to try the call once more but have your Duo app open so you can answer the call from within the app instead of via the notification alert.”
The problem, if you haven’t experienced it yourself yet, happens when you answer an incoming Google Duo call. The bug prevents the caller from being able to hear the recipient’s voice, but that person can hear the caller. The bug goes away when the recipient ends the call and re-opens Google Duo.
Frustratingly, common fixes like clearing the app’s cache or re-installing it from the Play Store don’t help.
According to the post from the Google community manager, the bug may have something to do with answering Duo calls from the notification rather than from within the app. The current recommended workaround is for people to open the Duo app and answer the call in the app rather than using the notification.
9to5 also points out that not everyone running Android 12 has experienced the Duo bug. I can’t say that I have, but to be fair, it’s been a while since I last used Google Duo for anything.
Regardless, there are clearly issues with Duo on Android 12. If you’ve been plagued by the audio bug above, at least there’s a fix on the way soon (and hopefully the workaround can help out for the time being).
Android 12 brought several major changes to Google mobile OS, and several bugs too. Aside from the various problems plaguing Google’s new Pixel 6 and 6 Pro smartphones, other devices running Android 12 have experienced issues. For example, there’s an audio bug messing up Google Duo for several Android 12 users.
“We have discovered that users on Android 12 devices sometimes don’t hear audio when answering a Duo call from an incoming call notification. We are working on a fix, but in the meantime, a workaround is to try the call once more but have your Duo app open so you can answer the call from within the app instead of via the notification alert.”
The problem, if you haven’t experienced it yourself yet, happens when you answer an incoming Google Duo call. The bug prevents the caller from being able to hear the recipient’s voice, but that person can hear the caller. The bug goes away when the recipient ends the call and re-opens Google Duo.
Frustratingly, common fixes like clearing the app’s cache or re-installing it from the Play Store don’t help.
According to the post from the Google community manager, the bug may have something to do with answering Duo calls from the notification rather than from within the app. The current recommended workaround is for people to open the Duo app and answer the call in the app rather than using the notification.
9to5 also points out that not everyone running Android 12 has experienced the Duo bug. I can’t say that I have, but to be fair, it’s been a while since I last used Google Duo for anything.
Regardless, there are clearly issues with Duo on Android 12. If you’ve been plagued by the audio bug above, at least there’s a fix on the way soon (and hopefully the workaround can help out for the time being).
If you’ve tried to use a Google Nest display to set a timer anytime in the last few days, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered a problem.
I’ve stumbled across this issue a bunch recently, usually when cooking — I’ll ask for a timer and my Google Nest Hub will reply with something along the lines of “I don’t know how to help with that” while displaying a screen with “Other things you can try,” which includes buttons to set a timer (as seen in the above image).
Usually, the Google Nest Hub sets a timer fine when I ask a second time. Still, it’s incredibly annoying to have to deal with when I need a quick timer.
Several people over at Android Police, as well as Phil Nickinson from Digital Trends, have reported experiencing the same issue. A Google spokesperson confirmed to Android Police that the company is aware of the problem and is “working on an immediate fix.”
So, if you’re getting hit with the weird timer issues, at least there should be a fix sometime soon. However, I’ve found my Google Nest Hub doing other weird things with timers, too.
For example, the other day it seemed to register my timer request and even displayed the timer with the correct time as normal, but the timer never actually started counting down. After fiddling with it, I eventually gave up and made a timer on my phone instead. It’s not clear whether that’s part of the same issue, another issue entirely or just my Nest Hub doing something weird (which it tends to do).
Google’s Pixel Launcher’s ‘At a Glance’ widget has received a new update.
The company recently overhauled ‘At a Glance’ with Android 12, but not it’s getting even more features, according to the former editor-in-chief of XDA Developers, Mishaal Rahman, via tipster Nick Cipriani.
A big feature update is coming soon for the At a Glance widget. Integrated Nest doorbell alerts started working for tipster Nick Cipriani today w/ Google App v13.0.6.29. I can also confirm doorbell alerts are working, and I also enabled the new settings page. pic.twitter.com/HhhULDOKhl
Further, the update offers an At a Glance widget that includes a new doorbell preview, according to Rahman, who discovered the upcoming feature in a server-side update. The leaked information also indicates that At a Glance will sport a new settings menu layout that looks more up-to-date.
The new doorbell preview will work with compatible smart home security accessories without checking the Google Home app. You’ll also get a quick notification that allows you to check the front door, alongside a small preview.
Additionally, the new At a Glance settings redesign is reminiscent of other ‘Material You’ that came along with Android 12. Like other menus, it changes alongside the colour of your background theme.
Rahman says that the doorbell alerts are the only features working as part of the server-side update and that he isn’t seeing any information about other connected devices or the personal reminder when the flashlight is turned on.
Ripple is a new mini radar standard Google plans to sell to other companies like Ford under the guise of the Consumer Technology Association. However, a report from The Vergementions that once you dive deeper into the code and paperwork surrounding the tech, it’s clearly being built by a team at Google and mentions the tech giant many times.
This isn’t necessarily a negative thing, but it’s worth pointing out since it helps add context regarding what the radar tech might be able to do. Another point The Verge makes is that Ford has signed on to use the new technology and that the legacy automaker plans to add the radar technology to future vehicles. However, there’s no mention of specific features.
There are also other companies signed onto Project Ripple, including Texas Instruments, so we may start to see the Google-made radar technology appearing in more devices in the future.
Earlier this week, Samsung revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show that the game streaming services Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now are coming to its 2022 smart TVs.
It’s a pretty cool announcement, as it points to the slow advancement towards high-quality gaming experiences that don’t require expensive hardware to access. Being able to play games directly from your TV, no console or PC required? That’s neat!
But on the other hand, it raises the question: what even is the deal with Google Stadia right now? For some people, seeing Stadia in that announcement was likely akin to Obi-Wan Kenobi hearing his name for the first time in a while.
Naturally, then, MobileSyrup‘s Patrick O’Rourke made an offhand comment about Stadia’s relevancy when the CES news dropped. But immediately, multiple Stadia fans jumped on him. Now, fanboys are nothing new, and every platform has them. But I can at least understand (to a degree, of course — not condoning toxicity) one’s fanboyism for any of the other platforms. PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo and PC, with their own respective strengths, are all in a pretty good place right now. Hardware and software sales back that up.
However, I truly don’t understand how these Stadia fans continuously attempt to argue that their platform of choice is doing so well. One commenter said Patrick was “ignoring the other developments for Stadia over the last year,” which multiple people liked. Yet, the only “evidence” of that from any of these people is that Google is hiring a few people in Stadia-related positions (as if the fact that Google looking to fill a few roles is at all equivalent to the long-term healthy future of a platform). So then, Stadia fans, I ask you sincerely: why are you so continuously bullish on the future of a platform that has really given you no reason to be so?
“If Stadia was truly “alive and well,” wouldn’t Google say anything about it?”
First and foremost: what data do you have? Google itself has declined to provide any actual info on how Stadia is performing, so we don’t know how many people are subscribed to the $11.99/month Pro membership or even using the free tier that only requires you to buy games à la carte. Generally, a company is loud when its products and services are doing well, and completely silent when it’s not. Remember how Sony pretended the Vita didn’t exist amid its failure, but wouldn’t stop boasting about the PS4’s massive successes? If Stadia was truly “alive and well,” wouldn’t Google say anything about it? Hell, the company didn’t even acknowledge the service during a two-hour keynote.
Stadia’s third-party partners don’t say how well their games do on the platform, either. Take Cyberpunk 2077, which got an unexpected player bump on Stadia when it launched in December 2020 because it was the least buggy version — CD Projekt just lumped Stadia sales in with “PC.” Per CD Projekt, 56 percent of sales within the first five months came from PC. The company’s CEO even laughed nervously when asked how much of the overall PC sales were accounted for by Stadia. Fans of Stadia can point to there now being 250-plus games on the platform as evidence that it’s receiving steady support, and sure, that’s a big step up from the lacklustre catalogue in the first several months. But getting notable 2021 games like Hitman 3, Resident Evil Village, Far Cry 6 and more means little if we don’t even know how many people are buying them.
At the end of the day, knowing how third-party games fare on Stadia is essential if you’re trying to argue the platform is doing well. After all, that’s is the only support it’s going to get. Because Google closed its first-party development division last February before it even put out a single game, it relies entirely on third parties now.
“I’ve seen some Stadia fans try to argue that there’s a media bias against the platform, which is silly since sites will always gravitate towards stories that garner the most readers.”
Not like the company has even been securing much in the way of exclusive third-party titles, though. In 2021, Stadia only received two exclusive titles, Hello Engineer and Pixeljunk Raiders, as well as two timed exclusives in Young Souls and Wavetale. No disrespect to the developers of these games, of course, but they aren’t the types of exclusive experiences that draw in swaths of people.
Without real sales data of any kind, we have to turn outside of Google. What we really only have to go off are February 2021 reports from Wired and Bloomberg, which expounded on the challenges the company faced in making games. The latter outlet even said Google “missed its targets for sales of controllers and monthly active users by hundreds of thousands,” despite paying “tens of millions” to secure games like Red Dead Redemption 2. Of course, the aforementioned Stadia fans will try to paint those reports as “outdated,” but if we haven’t heard any update since, how can you say things have improved?
There’s also the apparent relative lack of buzz among consumers. Of course, this sort of metric will always be anecdotal to a degree, but trying to look at it empirically, here’s what Google Trends says about searches for “Google Stadia” for 2021:
Per Google, a value of 100 means “peak popularity” for the search term, a value of 50 means “half as popular” and 0 means “not enough data.” Based on this chart, we saw interest rise in January, likely coming off of the platform’s deserved praise for being a top-tier Cyberpunk 2077 platform, and peak in the first week of February, right when the news of Stadia’s first-party closures dropped. From there, search interest has pretty much hovered around/below 50. Even search interest for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One remained consistently higher in 2021 despite them being old hardware with hot new successors on the market.
Media coverage of Stadia has also been minimal since February 2021, especially amid the early months of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S and the continued success of the Nintendo Switch. I’ve seen some Stadia fans try to argue that there’s a media bias against the platform, which is silly since sites will always gravitate towards stories that garner the most readers. That’s just common sense.
“Google is one of the largest companies in the world — it isn’t your friend…”
Now, some Stadia defenders might rule me off as “a hater,” but I’m not. I, too, was excited about Stadia in the months leading up to release. I still think the core technology is impressive, and the potential innovations cloud gaming can bring remain tantalizing. I always go back to examples floated around by Canadian games producer and former Stadia exec Jade Raymond, which include Stadia-powered interactive YouTube documentaries or Duplex-boosted NPC dialogue.
I don’t actively want Stadia to fail. I also know that for some, especially fathers, who like the relatively hardware-free convenience that Stadia affords. Hell, I’m bullish on cloud services in general in part for that reason, and I’ve praised both Xbox and PlayStation for taking more measured, complementary approaches to the technology that can be expanded upon over time.
But at the same time, some people need to stop being so forgiving about Stadia. There’s this “woe, poor Stadia” mentality that these people seem to have, which is incredibly misguided. Google is one of the largest companies in the world — it isn’t your friend, and it isn’t some scrappy little indie startup.
Given its stature, it should be held to a higher standard than most. (The overall company, to be clear, not individual workers who are undoubtedly doing their best.) A major platform lacking something as basic as a search bar for a year-and-a-half (that’s owned and operated by the search engine company, no less) is, frankly, embarrassing. Potential only means something if you actually put in a marked effort to realize it, and it seems like Google’s been doing anything but.
Ultimately, if you’re someone who enjoys using Stadia, I don’t want to take that away from you. I really have no idea how many of you are out there since Google won’t say, but regardless, more power to you. As someone who owns all of the main three consoles and occasionally games on Mac as a substitute for PC, I truly have no allegiance to any particular brand. Play on whatever platform you like! And hey, I’d love to see Stadia somehow do a massive 180 this year. But I’m really not optimistic on the platform’s long-term future, and I’m still waiting to be given a real reason to be.
If you spend much time online, there’s a good chance you’ve visited a website that presented you with a convoluted, confusing menu about cookies. These menus have largely replaced the old banners that appeared at the top of sites that let users know the site used cookies, with the only option being “I accept.”
Most of these confusing menus include an option to reject cookies, which is an improvement over the old banners. However, the new cookie menus also bury those options under a myriad of settings while prominently displaying the ‘Accept’ button. It’s an all-too-common practice meant to drive people to click accept rather than spending their valuable time trying to find an option to reject cookies.
Well, France has fined Google and Facebook for doing just that.
CNIL says both companies hid options to reject cookies
With Google, CNIL notes that the company’s websites (including YouTube) let users accept all cookies with a single click. However, to reject cookies, users must click through several different menu items. As such, CNIL felt that it discouraged users from refusing cookies since it was significantly easier to accept them.
Facebook, on the other hand, set up a menu that required users to click a button labelled ‘Accept cookies’ before they could refuse cookies. CNIL said that the label “necessarily generates confusion” and may cause users to think it’s not possible to reject cookies. Moreover, Facebook hid that button behind several clicks while the site prominently displays the ‘Accept cookies’ button.
As The Verge explains, EU law says that when citizens hand over data online, they must do so freely and with a full understanding of the choice they’re making. CNIL believes Google and Facebook are effectively tricking users with the confusing cookie menus, thus breaking the law.
Both companies have three months to fix the cookie menus — failure to do so will risk additional fines of €100,000 (about $143,862 CAD) per day.
Fines will hopefully lead to clear, concise cookie menus
Another interesting tidbit is that CNIL acted under the authority of the EU’s older ePrivacy Directive rather than the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). TechCrunchhas a much more detailed explanation of why CNIL went this route. The short version is that GDPR enforcement is funnelled through the data watchdog in Ireland, which also happens to be where many U.S. tech firms locate their European headquarters. The Irish watchdog tends to be slow when it comes to dealing with issues like this (as The Verge points out, perhaps because of a friendly regulatory environment designed to attract U.S. tech firms in the first place). You can read more about that here.
Obviously, fines in France won’t do much to benefit other places — for example, Canada. Still, it’s important to pay attention to these events since they can influence regulatory moves in other places. The CNIL fines may lead to better cookie menus for people who live in France and could pave the way for regulatory agencies in other countries to take similar action.
Ultimately, making it easier for people to reject cookies on websites is not the be-all and end-all of data privacy regulation. There is a lot more that can (and should) be done, but I’ll take the little victories along the way.
On another note, I am well aware that MobileSyrup does not currently give visitors a choice when it comes to cookies.
