Tag: Google

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Mobile Syrup

Google’s sleek-looking Pixel Tablet dock showcased in new leak

Google’s Pixel Tablet is expected to launch sometime this year, and with the release drawing closer, we’re starting to see more information leak about the upcoming tablet/smart home hybrid device.

This latest leak from SnoopyTech showcases the Pixel Tablet’s stand. While we’ve seen the tablet and its stand in promotional material in the past, we haven’t caught a glimpse of it from angles like this.

The tablet’s stand features a gray colour that will likely be called ‘Chalk’ and features what looks like the same fabric as other Nest devices. It also looks like it uses the same power supply as the Nest Hub. Finally, there’s a Google ‘G’ logo on the back of the speaker and another on the stand’s surface, alongside a hardware button.

According to a previous rumour, the Pixel Tablet’s ‘Hub Mode’ activates when you place the tablet on the stand, allowing you to assign the dock to a room, similar to other smart home speakers.

It’s unclear when the Pixel Tablet will release, but it will likely release alongside the Pixel 7a at Google I/O on May 10th.

Image credit: Google

Source: @_snoopytech_

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Mobile Syrup

Google might fix Android’s auto brightness so you don’t get blinded at night

Have you ever turned on your Android phone in a dark room only to be blinded like you just got flashbanged in a Call of Duty game? Well, Google might finally fix the problem.

Android expert Mishaal Rahman shared in a thread of information gleaned from the Android 13 QPR2 source code a link to the Google Git detailing work on a change to Android’s auto brightness (via Android Police). Git, for those unfamiliar, is a system used for tracking changes to code. These changes would impact how Android phones adjust brightness when users turn on the screen.

Currently, Android doesn’t take into account the ambient brightness until after you turn on the screen, which is what causes that blinding brightness. When the screen turns on, it’s set to whatever brightness level it was when you turned off the screen and, chances are, it was a lot brighter when you turned off the screen.

Per Rahman’s findings, Android could start using the brightness sensor to “determine the screen’s initial brightness,” which should mean that phone screens will come on at a reasonable brightness for your current environment.

Unfortunately, it’s not entirely clear when this will actually roll out to users. It could arrive in a Pixel Feature Drop or end up rolling out with Android 14 later this year.

Whenever it arrives, it’ll be yet another small but important improvement to Android’s auto brightness system, which has long had issues with consistency and reliability.

Source: Google Git Via: Mishaal Rahman, Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

Generative AI features for Gmail already visible in latest app code

Just last week, Google announced it will soon add generative AI features to Gmail, and it looks like code for the new features is already starting to show up.

As found in the latest Android Gmail app ‘version 2023.03.05.515729449’ by 9to5Google, there’s code related to “Help me write feature,” which was also hinted at in last week’s announcement. 9to5Google even shared what the feature would look like after it was able to successfully activate the update’s UI element.

Upon tapping the ‘Help me write’ button, a text entry field appears at the bottom of the screen with a prompt asking the user to “Tell Gmail what to write for you.” If the prompt you give Gmail is too short, it will ask you to keep typing.

It’s currently possible to add text to this box, but support from Google’s end is non-existent, and no matter what the user types in, a preview or result is not generated.

The publication said that Google is also working on a “Refine my message” feature that would essentially polish a piece of text that you’ve already typed in to improve and clarify it.

When the AI has finished generating the text, users will either be able to insert what it generated or get another draft by tapping a “View another” option. Users would also be able to “thumbs up/thumbs down” the refined text.

It looks like those are the two features that Google is starting out with, but it did say that new generative-AI features will be rolled out to “trusted testers” throughout the year before rolling out the features widely to the public.

Source: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Did your Google smart speaker just get louder? You’re not alone

Google’s Nest Hub and other smart speakers have gotten louder for some people and for no apparent reason.

9to5Google reported on the issue and cited a couple of Reddit threads about it as well. The first and second-gen Nest Hub, the Nest Hub Max, Nest Audio and other speakers have all been mentioned as experiencing the issue.

MobileSyrup’s editor-in-chief, Patrick O’Rourke, has also experienced the problem, and I’ve noticed my first-gen Nest Hub volume has gotten louder as well, though my Nest Hub Max hasn’t had any issues. Oddly, my Nest Hub seems to sporadically change its volume as well, which doesn’t seem to be as widespread of an issue.

Based on the various reports, it seems that most Google smart speakers are as loud at one percent volume as they used to be at around 10 percent volume. While seemingly not a huge deal, considering many people use the Nest Hub on a bedside table — like I do — it’s understandably frustrating when the low volume suddenly gets much louder.

Unfortunately, it remains unclear what’s causing the problem, and Google hasn’t acknowledged the issue yet. Hopefully we can at least learn what’s behind the change, or even better, get Google to change it back. But only time will tell.

Source: 9to5Google, Reddit, (2)

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Mobile Syrup

You can un-crop screenshots captured by the Windows 11 Snipping Tool

Earlier this month, details emerged about a flaw with Pixel phones’ Markup tool for editing screenshots. Dubbed ‘aCropalypse,’ the flaw allowed malicious actors to restore some or all of a cropped or redacted image.

Now it appears Windows 11 is impacted by a similar flaw.

Developer Chris Blume uncovered that the Windows 11 Snipping Tool is vulnerable to a similar exploit as was used for aCropalypse and shared the finding with Simon Aarons, one of the reverse engineers who discovered aCropalypse, on Twitter.

Bleeping Computer verified the exploit with David Buchanan, the other reverse engineer behind aCropalypse, and found that a slightly modified version of the script Buchanan made to extract hidden info from an edited Pixel screenshot worked on the Windows 11 Snipping Tool.

As with Pixel’s Markup software, the Snipping tool doesn’t completely erase unused parts of the PNG image data, such as parts of the image that are cropped out. This data can be partially or fully recovered.

However, it’s worth noting that the problem doesn’t impact all PNG files captured with the Snipping Tool, with optimized images being among those unaffected. Moreover, JPEG files also leave behind data, but so far, the exploit isn’t known to work with that file format. Finally, images that have been saved as another file in an image editing tool should be safe as well.

Microsoft told Bleeping Computer it was “aware of these reports and [is] investigating,” and it will take necessary action to protect users.

The flaw doesn’t appear to impact the Windows 10 Snipping Tool. Moreover, Buchanan isn’t publishing the modified scripts for the Windows 11 Snipping Tool since Microsoft hasn’t had a chance to patch it.

Meanwhile, Windows 11 users will want to be careful with what they capture using the Snipping Tool and where they share images. The main concern here is that someone might capture sensitive information in a screenshot and crop it out, but a malicious actor could restore the information using the modified aCropalypse script.

It’s worth noting that Google already pushed out a patch for aCropalypse to Pixel phones, but it doesn’t fix screenshots captured before the update.

Source: Chris Blume, David Buchanan, Bleeping Computer, Via: Engadget

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Mobile Syrup

Google’s Assistant team is helping with Bard

Generative AI and large language models (LLMs) are all the rage right now thanks to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4, Microsoft’s Bing Chat (which runs on GPT-4) and now Google’s Bard, which is available in preview in the U.S. and U.K. The main way to interact with these services now is through text and chat interfaces. But what if you could speak to the AI instead? It might not be too far away.

At least, that seems to be the direction Google wants to go. As noted by 9to5Google, the search giant has previously expressed its Assistant as a product where it wants to incorporate “better conversational features.” Though that hasn’t happened yet, the Google Assistant team is helping lead Bard development, suggesting there’s a clear path to integration.

Google told 9to5 that Bard is an experimental service and is separate from Google Assistant, even though Sissie Hsiao, vice president and general manager of Google Assistant, joined Eli Collins, vice president of Google Research, to announce the company was opening access to Bard.

While the products remain separate for now, Google does see the potential crossover. For example, the Assistant team has worked on conversational AI and speech understanding for years, skills that can and have been applied to Bard.

Plus, 9to5 argues that the Assistant team has plenty of experience turning research into products and services that regular people can use with ease.

Given how quickly these AI tools have improved in the short time they’ve been publicly available, it’s hard to say how long it’ll be before we gain access to something like a Bard-powered Google Assistant. But I do think it’ll happen sooner than people expect, barring any significant problems arising from Bard.

Source: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Pixel Watch March update lets you check the time when your watch is off

Google’s March 2023 update is rolling out now for the Pixel Watch, bringing a handful of useful new features and fixes.

The headliner addition with the March 2023 update is fall detection, though technically, that started rolling out late in February. Fall detection has been a long time coming, but it should now be available for most people who live in supported regions. You can learn more about fall detection on the Pixel Watch here.

However, fall detection isn’t the only new feature in the March update (and it might not even be the most interesting). Another new feature is the ability to view the time on your Pixel Watch, even when the watch is powered down. You can do this by pressing the crown on your Pixel Watch.

Other tweaks include the ability to turn on power saving mode directly from the quick settings tile, the option to wake the screen by turning the crown, touch sensivitvty optimizations and more.

Google also noted that it’s working on a fix for an issue causing alarms to go off late or not at all. That should arrive “in the coming weeks” via a Play Store update to the Pixel Watch’s Clock app.

You can grab the update on your watch by heading into Settings > System > System updates. However, it’s worth noting that these updates often take time to roll out so if it’s not there right away, it should show up soon.

Source: Google Via: Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

March security patch starts rolling out to Pixel 6 series after delay

The March 2023 security patch is now rolling out to Google’s Pixel 6 series of phones, including the Pixel 6, 6 Pro and 6a.

The update was initially delayed, with other Pixel phones getting it on March 13th — a week later than usual. However, the Pixel 6 devices were mysteriously absent from the 13th release.

There’s some speculation that the delay was related to the first-gen Tensor chip since it’s a common element across all three Pixel 6 devices. Plus, there’s the recent revelation that exploits in Samsung-made modems could allow malicious actors to access things like phone calls or text messages using just your phone number.

A patch for the exploits rolled out in the March security update for Pixels, but since it was delayed for the Pixel 6 series, some have wondered if there was an issue related to fixing those flaws on phones with the first-gen Tensor chip.

Of course, we don’t know for sure if that’s the case, though it seems possible. Regardless, the update is rolling out now. You can get it by heading into Settings > System > System update.

Aside from security fixes, the March patch includes some changes to the appearance of Quick Settings and minor tweaks to the Pixel Launcher. There are also tons of other bugfixes for the Pixel 6 series, including extra tuning for haptics, a fix for a bug that stopped the bootloader from unlocking in certain conditions, and a fix for a problem that stopped the devices from booting to Android.

Source: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Google tests Messages tweak that adds contact photos to chats

Google likes to test all kinds of little tweaks and changes in its apps, and the latest is a small update to Messages that would add a contact photo to the top of your conversations.

Currently, the Messages app shows a contact’s name at the top of the screen when viewing the conversation, along with icons to start a video call, phone call, or search the chat. However, in Messages version ‘20230313_01_RC00.phone.openbeta_dynamic,’ the top bar gets the contact photo on the left side of the name.

Unfortunately, the addition of the contact photo means the search function gets relegated to the overflow menu. That could be a major inconvenience if you often search your conversations.

On the whole, I think having the contact photo is a net positive. It should make it easier to parse who you’re talking with at a glance.

Interestingly, Android Police notes that the contact photo change isn’t showing for people who download the beta, indicating the roll out could be limited in some way or another. That’s hardly a surprise though, given Google A/B tests just about every minor addition to its apps.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

Pixel users could get separate ring, notification volume in Android 14

The second Android 14 Developer Preview has been out for a little bit now, but people are still uncovering new features and tweaks. One such discovery is that Android 14 splits the ring and notification volume levels, letting users have a loud ringtone for incoming calls and quiet notifications for emails and texts.

Of course, if you don’t use a Pixel, this is something you’ve likely had access to for a while (and even older Pixels offered this feature before Google did away with it). For example, Samsung smartphones offer separate ring and notification volume controls.

While certainly not a major change, it is a nice quality-of-life adjustment for anyone over the age of 50 who doesn’t keep their phone on vibrate.

Android expert Mishaal Rahman tweeted that Google has been working on separating ring and notification volumes for a little while, with the feature appearing in the Android 13 QPR2 beta. However, in the 13 QPR2 beta, users needed to enable a flag to get the separated volumes. Based on the reports about Android 14 DP2, the feature just turned on, with Rahman writing that it looks like Google toggled the flag remotely.

It will be interesting to see if the volume separation is enabled in the Android 13 QPR3 beta. If it is, then the change could hit devices as part of the June 2023 Pixel Feature Drop. Otherwise, ring and notification volumes might remain together until Android 14 arrives.

Source: @MishaalRahman Via: Android Police