Tag: Pixel 6

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Mobile Syrup

Fido update schedule indicates Pixel 6 security update will arrive on February 7th

Google’s Pixel December Security Update dropped on December 13th and was swiftly removed due to an issue related to dropped calls and disconnections.

The update — along with the January update — was then redistributed on January 14th and seems to have caused no issues. While the January update rolled out for the Pixel 3a to Pixel 5a devices on time, due to the December update lagging behind, Pixel 6 and 6 Pro users had to wait a little longer.

Well, the backlog has now been cleared and according to 9to5Google, Google’s latest flagships can now expect to receive the February update on the same day as other Pixel devices.

The information was also revealed in Fido’s community page where a community manager shared an “OS Upgrade Schedule” that shows that the Pixel 6/6 Pro will receive the February update on Monday, February 7th on the same day as the rest of the Pixel lineup.

Since Fido is a Canadian carrier, it’s likely that the update will arrive on February 7th across all carriers. That said, the date might be different for the rest of the world.

Image credit: Fido

Source: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Canadian tennis star Leylah Fernandez is Google’s latest Pixel 6 series ambassador

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.”

Source: Google Blog 

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Mobile Syrup

Google removes all traces of Pixel 6 series December 2021 update

All signs of the Google Pixel 6 series December 2021 security patch have officially disappeared.

In December, Google released its December 2021 security update for the Pixel 6 series a little late and only to some users. Following that, this, the tech giant paused the rollout due to an issue related to dropped calls and disconnections, but the company didn’t take down the image files from its developer site, allowing users to still manually update on the Google flagship.

However, following the January 2022 update, Google has officially removed all links to the December update for the Pixel 6 series.

Google’s factory image and OTA image pages for the Pixel now lack the December update and only mentions the November 2021 patch.

January’s update rolled out to the Pixel 3a and the Pixel 5a (not available in Canada.

Unfortunately, Pixel 6 owners won’t get the January or December update until later this month. Pixel 6 owners will recieve the January and December update later this January.

Source: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

No explanation available to sporadic breaking of auto-rotate feature on Pixel 6

According to Android Police, some Pixel 6 phones aren’t reading the data of some sensors correctly, causing issues to features like auto-rotate and horizontal photography.

The issue appears to be happening at random, as reported by Pixel 6 users from around the world.

The only fix that seems to be available at this time isn’t permanent. Users can restart their phones, allowing the features to function again, but the random breakdowns continue to happen.

Android Police reports the phones do have trouble communicating with some sensors that allow the auto-rotate feature to be used, but they only found this in phones staff tested.

It’s unclear what’s causing the global problem at this time.

Source: Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

Google disabling ‘Call Screen,’ ‘Hold for Me’ on Pixel 6 due to bug

Google recently rolled out its big December security update for Pixels, which included a significant number of bug fixes for Pixel 6 and 6 Pro phones. However, that update appears to have shipped with a few issues of its own, including one that’s caused Google to temporarily disable the ‘Call Screen’ and ‘Hold for Me’ features.

In a post on Google’s support site, a company product manager noted that it’s disabling the two features for Pixel 6 phones running Android version SQ1D.211205.016.A4. If you’re unsure what version your Pixel 6 is on, there are a few ways to check. You can open the Quick Settings panel by swiping down to open the notification panel, then swiping down a second time.

Look at the bottom of the Quick Settings bubbles on the left side of the screen, above the ‘Pencil’ icon — you should see the current Android version number scrolling by. Alternatively, you can go to Settings > About phone > scroll to ‘Build number’ at the very bottom.

Google said in the post that it would disable the features because of a “bug in the December Android update” until it fixes the underlying problem. However, the search giant didn’t elaborate on what the issue was. Additionally, Google said it would provide updates on the post and invited users to click the ‘Subscribe’ button to receive email notifications about status updates.

Neither 9to5Google nor Droid Life, who both reported on the issue, had any additional detail about what was going on.

On my Pixel 6 running the December patch, I still had Call Screen listed in the Phone app’s settings menu and when I tested the feature, it worked fine. However, Droid Life reports that Call Screen and Hold for Me are both missing from its Pixel 6. For Canadians, Hold for Me has only shown up for some Pixel users in preview so far and hasn’t yet officially rolled out. That said, I’ve never seen the feature on my Pixel 6.

Source: Google Via: 9to5Google, Droid Life

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Mobile Syrup

Pixel 6 bug crashes apps, plays screeching sound when using external DAC

Google’s Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are pretty great phones but have their fair share of issues too. Unfortunately for audiophiles who like to get the best quality sound out of their phone with an external digital-to-analog converter (DAC), the Pixel 6 line’s issues are a major problem.

According to Android Police, several Pixel 6 and 6 Pro owners report that a bug with the phones prevents using external Hi-Fi DACs over the USB-C port. The bug causes several music apps to play no sound and crash — those that don’t crash play a screeching sound instead.

Reports about the problem first emerged shortly after the Pixel 6 launched. Some hopeful users waited for Google to fix the problem with the December security patch — unfortunately, Google didn’t. Worse, the search giant has yet to acknowledge the problem posted to the Google Issue Tracker.

For those unfamiliar with DACs and Android audio processing, most modern Android phones have a built-in DAC for processing audio. However, that DAC isn’t powerful enough for high-res audio files, plus Android’s audio stack limits audio to 28 or 48kHz sampling rates. Android Police notes that high-res audio files have sampling rates of 192kHz.

A few DACs do seem to work on the Pixel 6 series, but they don’t bypass Android’s sound processing, which means users miss out on the benefits of high-res audio.

The DAC issue is one of several significant issues still plaguing the Pixel 6 series, even with the December security patch delivering numerous bug fixes. Hopefully, Google can remedy these issues soon.

Source: Google Issue Tracker Via: Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

Adobe Lightroom adds RAW support for Pixel 6, 6 Pro and other phones

Adobe recently added official support for RAW images from several phones, including Google’s new Pixel 6 and 6 Pro.

9to5Google spotted the change in a help page for Adobe’s ‘Camera Raw’ extension, which handles the processing of RAW images for many Adobe services (like Lightroom and Photoshop). The extension’s December update, or version 14.1, expands RAW support to several devices, including:

  • Google Pixel 6
  • Google Pixel 6 Pro
  • Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3
  • Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
  • iPhone 12
  • iPhone 12 mini

It’s worth noting that Adobe lists RAW support on a per-camera basis. For example, the Galaxy S21 Ultra received RAW support for its telephoto and “super” telephoto cameras, while both iPhones got support for the ultrawide cameras (Camera Raw already supported both phones’ main cameras).

With the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, Adobe added support for all the cameras, including the selfie camera, main rear camera, the ultrawide camera and the 6 Pro’s telephoto camera.

Official RAW support should make it easier to edit RAW photos captured with the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. One of the main benefits of the RAW format is that it captures more data from the camera sensor, which gives editors more room to play with when they bring the image into a program like Adobe’s Camera Raw.

If you haven’t used RAW images on your Pixel before, here’s how to turn them on: Open the camera > Tap the gear icon in the top-left corner > More settings > Advanced > Turn on RAW+JPEG control. Now if you go back to the camera and tap the gear icon again, there should be an option to toggle capturing just a JPEG file or a RAW and JPEG file.

You can find a full list of devices supported by Camera Raw here.

Source: Adobe Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Google might bring ‘Face Unlock’ to the Pixel 6 Pro

‘Face Unlock’ might be heading to the Pixel 6 Pro, Google’s latest flagship smartphone.

According to 9to5Google’s digging into the Android 12L beta for Pixel devices, Google is looking to bring back Face Unlock to its smartphone line.

The code specifically mentions the ability to use “face or fingerprint” authentication, which would be a first for a Google handset. A further dive into the APK reveals references to a face authentication feature for the Pixel 6 that Google considers “experimental.”

However, it’s unclear if this feature will launch alongside the Android 12L beta or if it will be part of a future Pixel ‘feature drop’ only available for the Pixel 6 Pro.

It’s unclear why Face Unlock might only release on for the Pixel 6 Pro, as the Pixel 6’s selfie hardware is nearly identical. The smaller model offers a narrower field-of-view and features an 8-megapixel shooter compared to the Pro’s 11.1-megapixels, but otherwise, it’s the same.

This isn’t the first time Android code has hinted at a potential Pixel 6 Pro Face Unlock feature. Back in November, a developer found some code in the Pixel 6 series’ ‘PowerHAL’ config file that referenced Face Unlock.

It’s worth mentioning that the Pixel 4 series was the last Google smartphone to offer Face Unlock, though it also lacked a fingerprint scanner. However, the Pixel 4 also had specific hardware to handle facial unlock, whereas the Pixel 6 line doesn’t.

Source: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Google finally rolling out Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro December security patch

Google’s December security patch is finally rolling out to the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, according to 9to5Google and Reddit.

The update was delayed more than a week, but it’s here now and comes with 80 bug fixes and much-needed improvements.

Some of the standouts of this update 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 some specific camera updates included as well.

  • 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 color consistency in viewfinder preview
  • Fix for issue causing blank viewfinder preview in certain conditions

You can check out the full list of fixes, here.

The patch also fixes several security vulnerabilities that ranged from moderate to high. To download the update head to ‘Settings’ > ‘System’ > ‘System update.’

It’s worth mentioning that I haven’t received the update on my Pixel 6 Pro and many others on Reddit are also waiting for the patch, so it seems as the update hasn’t hit everyone. Hopefully, it won’t take too much longer.

Source: Google (2), Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Android 12 seems to be causing connectivity issues on Pixel 6 devices

It seems Android 12 has brought along with it several bugs, including one related to connectivity problems.

Several Pixel 6 owners posting on Reddit and Google’s forums are reporting that their devices are experiencing connectivity issues that are leaving some users without any cellular data. Some users say that rebooting their device fixes the problem, but that doesn’t work for everyone, according to the posts.

Some of these problems include a SIM showing connectivity that doesn’t actually connect to LTE or 5G. Other users are reporting that their Pixel 6 indicates it doesn’t have a SIM in it despite one being inserted into the smartphone.

It seems the issue is not only affecting the Pixel 6, but also the Pixel 4 and the Pixel 4a. That said, most of the reports seem to be related to the Pixel 6 series.

Some of the users have found that turning off Google’s ‘Adaptive Connectivity’ feature in the Settings menu solves the problem. Adaptive Connectivity aims to help extend battery life by managing network connections.

None of the Pixel 6 series devices MobileSyrup has are experiencing this issue, but if you’re suffering from this problem, try rebooting your device or turning off the Adaptive Connecitiy functionality.

Source: Reddit, Google Support forums Via: 9to5Google