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Google Assistant may add Voice Shortcuts that don't need "Hey Google" to activate
Google Assistant might be adding Voice Shortcuts in a future update, as the toggle for the seemingly unfinished feature went live.
Google Assistant has gone on to be one of the handiest tools in our lives, as it allows us to interact with our smartphones while we're not touching them. But if I want to use it that way, I have to say "Hey Google" in order for the Google Assistant to start listening to me. Else, I have to manually bring it up. "Hey Google" is the keyword that the Assistant uses to know if someone's talking to it. Sometimes, though, "Hey Google" is too many words for doing things like snoozing your alarm, so Google might be adding "Voice Shortcuts" to the Google Assistant soon through something that's apparently internally called Guacamole.
Android's screenshot UI on Pixel phones now shows a Google Lens translate shortcut
If you have a Google Pixel running Android 11, a translate with Google Lens shortcut has been added to Android's screenshot UI.
Google Lens has been seamlessly integrated into Google's Android and many other smartphones since it was first introduced in 2017. And perhaps one of the most useful capabilities of it is the ability to translate text off pictures and screenshots. While the Google Translate app has offered this feature for a long time, Google Lens adds that capability to your camera app and makes the feature accessible from any part of the UI. But it doesn't just allow you to translate pictures, as you can translate screenshots, or parts of a screenshot, as well. And the screenshot UI on Google Pixel phones now makes this even easier.
Facebook begins testing ads on Instagram Reels in India
Facebook will start to test ads for Instagram Reels in India and a handful of other markets in the coming weeks. Read on to know more!
TikTok popularized the concept of short videos, and while Instagram Reels, the Facebook-flavored clone, remains a close second, it actually enjoys overwhelming success in countries like India, where TikTok has actually been banned by the government. Instagram has over 120 million monthly active users in India, and a big chunk of them are Reels users. Politics aside, it's time to get to the point and talk about the bad news for which you clicked this article: Facebook will begin testing ads for Instagram Reels in Brazil, Germany, Australia, and India.
Realme is reportedly launching a new flagship phone in India soon
A new flagship from Realme might be coming to India soon in the form of the X7 Max, a possible rebrand of the Realme GT Neo.
While we've seen a couple of Realme flagship phones before, the brand's strength is in mid-range phones, as those are the ones that usually sell the best and are overall more popular. The recently launched Realme 8 series is a good example of this. But that doesn't mean Realme doesn't like releasing a phone with flagship specifications and higher pricing every once in a while. The Realme X2 Pro came as Realme's strongest offering in 2019 in terms of specifications. Now, Realme might be planning to release yet another phone in the Realme X series, and it could see the light as the Realme X7 Max.
The Galaxy A22 could be Samsung's most affordable 5G phone
The Galaxy A22 is coming, and it may come with support for 5G connectivity, making it Samsung's most affordable 5G phone to date.
The rollout of 5G technology is heavily dependent not just on rolling out the technology and infrastructure for it, but also on getting 5G smartphones on people's hands. And while pretty much all 2021 flagships and even some mid-range phones are launching with 5G compatibility, there's also a lot of phones on the budget side of the aisle that is 7uy still coming with only LTE support at most. While it will be a while before 5G is as mainstream as 4G is right now, we have to start somewhere. And Samsung's upcoming Galaxy A22 is purported to be the most affordable Samsung smartphone with 5G support, if leaks are to be believed.
OnePlus Store app launches in North America and is coming soon to Europe
The official OnePlus Store app lets you purchase OnePlus devices, accessories, and gear in North America and soon in Europe.
While OnePlus phones can be found in the major U.S. carriers, if you want to buy an unlocked smartphone, the official OnePlus Store is probably the best way to do so. In fact, before carriers started selling OnePlus smartphones, the only way you could get an OnePlus phone in the U.S. was through the OnePlus Store, and the first devices in particular years back even required an invitation to be able to buy one. While those days are long gone, the OnePlus Store is still a valuable resource where you can get all OnePlus devices, products, and official accessories and where you can still grab amazing deals. It's now easier to access from your mobile device, too, as the company has launched an official OnePlus Store app for North American customers.
OnePlus has launched gaming triggers for enhancing your smartphone's gaming experience
OnePlus has launched a new shoulder triggers accessory called the OnePlus Gaming Triggers, meant to enhance your performance in games.
While it's possible to play first-person shooters like Call of Duty: Mobile and battle royale games like Free Fire and PUBG using your phone's display, there's a lot of benefits to actually using physical buttons instead of virtual ones on your touch screen. They can allow you to react faster, move more easily, and overall do things more quickly and efficiently when in-game. But what if I don't want to carry around a controller everywhere I go? OnePlus thinks they have the solution: the new OnePlus Gaming Triggers are here.
Stolen Apple schematics confirm key details of next-gen MacBook Pro
The next gen MacBook Pro may come with more ports, no touch bar, and MagSafe charging, if stolen schematics from Apple are to be believed.
So Apple recently got caught up in an interesting situation. Just as their latest event, where we saw a renewed iMac, a new M1-powered iPad Pro, and more, was unfolding, the developers of the REvil ransomware got hold of confidential information from Apple and were trying to blackmail them for a ransom. The hackers had allegedly gained access to these confidential documents by attacking Quanta Computers, a manufacturer of computers for a bunch of companies, including Apple. And they have threatened to release new documents every day until Apple pays the ransom. One of the stolen documents that got released shows what's apparently the next-gen MacBook Pro, and the schematics seem to confirm a few things that have been rumored about the device for quite a while.
The Pixel 5a 5G may have the same chip as last year's Pixel 4a 5G
The Google Pixel 5a 5G might come with the same Snapdragon 765G chipset that powered its predecessor, the Pixel 4a 5G.
We're heading into the half of the year, which means that it shouldn't be much longer before we see new Pixel smartphones. But things seem a tad bit muddier this year, not just because of the COVID-19 pandemic still going strong, but also because of a new problem that's affecting all kinds of electronics appliances: a global chip shortage. While the effects of that shortage have been felt mostly on PC components like graphics cards, it has started to affect smartphones. Nonetheless, plans are still going forward for Google to release their usual Pixel 2021 lineup, which will reportedly include the Pixel 5a 5G. But if you were expecting to see any major changes, prepare to be disappointed: it will reportedly still have the same SoC as the Pixel 5 and the Pixel 4a 5G, the Snapdragon 765G.
Google Meet gets a more spacious design and video backgrounds
Google Meet has added an all-new UI for their web desktop app as well as a handful of new features, including video backgrounds.
Previously a business-only service, Google Meet opened up for everyone last year as a very contagious virus started making the rounds, and people needed a tool to replace face-to-face meetings in an efficient way. While Zoom remains arguably the most popular option, Google Meet quickly became a very solid alternative with an enormous feature set and market share. Now, Google Meet is getting a redesign as well as options to make your calls more accessible and engaging.
You can now add content to albums in Google Photos when you're offline
The Google Photos app now allows you to create albums and add and remove content from existing albums when you're offline. Check it out!
Despite Google Photos pretty much replacing the offline gallery app in a lot of smartphones, it is still pretty much an online-first app. Your photos are backed up to the cloud and you can access them anytime from any device (although unlimited storage for this service is going away, so you'll have to pay if you want more than 15 GB for your backed-up photos and videos). And you can even edit your photos and add certain effects on them, all in the cloud. But because of the app's online-first nature, it wasn't possible to create albums or add content to them unless you were online. Now, that is possible.
Microsoft will soon enable audio passthrough on the new Xbox
Microsoft will enable audio passthrough on the new Xbox soon, allowing users to squeeze the best possible audio quality out of their content.
If you're an audiophile and you want to squeeze the best possible sound out of your movies and series, you probably feed your devices through an external device such as a soundbar. In the case of the Xbox Series X, however, you don't get much advantage out of doing this, since audio is still processed inside the console and outputted through whatever speaker you're using. If you're not okay with this, though, then you'll be glad to know Microsoft is soon going to enable audio passthrough on the Xbox Series S and the Xbox Series X.
Facebook is bringing audio chat rooms, podcasts, and "sound bites" to the mobile app
Facebook is adding several audio-focused features to its mobile app, including audio chat rooms with Clubhouse-like functionality and more.
Audio-based social media is all the rage these days—just ask Clubhouse and the countless clones that have sprung up in the past few days as companies race to get a piece of this audio cake. And I say "clones" because the core functionality doesn't really differ much, if at all, between all the different takes we've seen: audio chat rooms where a handful of people serve as "speakers" or "hosts" and the rest can hop in, listen, and interact with the hosts. Today, Facebook has announced a handful of audio-focused features coming to their mobile app, including audio chat rooms, podcasts, and "sound bites".
Microsoft Edge's Performance Mode rolls out in Canary channel, optimizes CPU, RAM, and battery usage
Microsoft Edge's new Performance Mode is currently rolling out in the Canary channel, meant to optimize CPU, RAM, and battery usage.
Microsoft Edge was a big step forward for Microsoft compared to where they were with Internet Explorer. While Internet Explorer was considered slow and unpractical, Microsoft Edge was in a similar place to where browsers like Google Chrome were in terms of functionality back then. More recently, Edge switched over from their proprietary engine to the tried-and-tested Chromium engine that powers Chrome and a handful of other browsers, and usage numbers have skyrocketed since then, now being the second most used desktop browser, just behind Chrome. But modern browsers can be resource hogs, and you probably know this if you ever fired up Task Manager and took a peek at how much CPU and RAM your browser is eating up right now. Now, Microsoft Edge is adding a new "performance mode" to help mitigate this, as reported in Microsoft's forums.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 may not have an S Pen slot
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is coming, but unlike previous rumors and leaks might've suggested, it may not come with an S Pen slot after all.
With the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, Samsung made a bold step by adding support for the S Pen, which has been for several years a hallmark feature of the Galaxy Note lineup, to the point it was often was the sole reason for some buyers to go for a Note device instead of an S series. The S21 Ultra lacks an S Pen slot like the one in the Note 20 Ultra, but the S Pen is fully supported, and you can even purchase it separately together with a case that can hold it. And Samsung seems to be more invested in the S Pen than ever before, as it's also rumored that their 2021 foldables, including the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 3, are also coming with S Pen support.
T-Mobile's Galaxy Note 20 Ultra gets an update with eSIM support
Samsung's Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has received an update on T-Mobile enabling eSIM support and DSDS. Read on to know more!
While physical SIM cards are long from gone just yet, eSIM adoption has been growing slowly but steadily in countries like the United States. Apple's iPhones since the iPhone XS have featured dual SIM functionality with a nano-SIM and an eSIM. But it's not really a huge thing just yet. While it's more convenient as you don't have to insert and take out physical SIMs, many phones in the U.S. still don't have eSIM support thanks to carriers, even though some of them actually have eSIM hardware. Right now, if you want eSIM support in the United States, you either have to go for an iPhone or a Google Pixel. The newest update for the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra on T-Mobile is, however, bringing support for eSIM through an update, as reported by a Reddit user on /r/tmobile.
iPhone lineup in 2022 may come with 48MP cameras, no "Mini" 5.4-inch model
The 2022 iPhone lineup might come with 48MP cameras, but will not be available in a "Mini" 5.4-inch flavor, if rumors are to be believed.
While this year's iPhone lineup will not be unveiled until the end of this year, rumors have already started to surface regarding Apple's 2022 and even 2023 iPhone models. And while these kinds of rumors must not be taken at face value as they can be wrong and plans can always change, especially in such a long period of time, they also often give us clues on features and improvements ahead of time. One of the newest Apple rumors floating around comes from renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and talks about Apple's 2022 iPhone lineup, which may be called the iPhone 14 when it sees the light by the end of next year (via 9to5Mac).
You can now run Windows 10 on ARM on Apple Silicon Macs
You can now run WIndows 10 on ARM on your Apple M1-based MacBook or Mac Mini, thanks to Parallels' new 16.5 update. Read on to know more!
Apple is currently in the process of moving on from Intel x86 processors to their own, ARM-based silicon on their computers and laptops. And the transition so far has been shockingly painless. However, one feature of Macs that has not been able to make it to the ARM side is Boot Camp, the utility that allows users to install and use Windows on a Mac. And it's not that the new ARM-based Macs can't run Windows: Craig Federighi, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, has previously confirmed that the only thing standing between ARM Macs and Windows support is Microsoft's licensing policy for Windows 10 on ARM. So while you can't use Boot Camp (yet), if you have an M1 MacBook or Mac Mini and want to enjoy Windows 10, Parallels has your back.
Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T end their cross-carrier RCS plans
Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T have officially ended the CCMI, their joint cross-carrier RCS initiative. Read on to know more!
The rollout of the RCS standard to replace SMS has been... well, rough, for lack of a better word. Google has been the main force behind broadening RCS adoption by including the feature inside their Messages app, cutting the middlemen (carriers) so everyone can get RCS with a simple toggle from their app, and making deals with OEMs, so the app comes preloaded on a lot of Android phones, but everyone also wants to do things their own way while others insist on proprietary messaging platforms for cold, hard cash (I'm looking at you, Apple). The result? Things are currently a mess, although they have improved a lot. Nonetheless, among those interested in RCS adoption are the 3 major U.S. carriers: Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T. And their joint RCS initiative, the Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative, was apparently axed according to a report from Light Reading (via: The Verge).
T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon have closed an SMS hijacking loophole
All 3 major U.S. carriers (T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon) have all patched a loophole that allowed external services to reroute SMS texts.
You might've read a couple of news pieces from a couple of weeks back on a scary kind of SMS hijacking attack that was also scarily easy to perpetrate by anyone. Basically, using a service from a company called Sakari, meant to help businesses do SMS marketing, can allow you to take over someone's number and redirect their SMS text messages to you: no questions asked, the victim doesn't even get a notification, and the service's cheapest plan that allows you to do this is just $16. This report from Motherboard surfaced a gigantic loophole: if you're using something that uses text messages as an authentication method, all a hacker had to do was to pay $16 to reroute your messages. You can now rest easy, though, as T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon have all patched this loophole.