First hinted at earlier this year, the company has now officially revealed a stripped-down version of its Outlook email service that it says can run smoothly on even the most basic of Android smartphones.

Available now, Outlook Lite offers all the key ingredients of the popular platform, but without the drain on battery life and system resources for those with low-end phones.

Outlook Lite

The Outlook Lite app comes in at just 5MB, and was designed to run on devices with as little as 1GB RAM and also perform well on older 2G and 3G networks found in many undeveloped countries.

Despite that, Microsoft says it has packed all the most important part of the service into Outlook Lite, whilst making sure the app runs smoothly and speedily for users everywhere.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

"Outlook is used by millions of people daily for their email and calendaring needs across the world," Microsoft senior product manager Pradeep Elavarasan wrote in a blog post (opens in new tab) announcing the launch. "Yet, there are a wide range of devices that do not have all the capabilities required to get the best Outlook experience on their smartphone."

Elavarasan noted that the new service would be able to empower more individuals, schools, universities, and small businesses with an effective and efficient offering for their lightweight mobile devices.

Microsoft also notes that the new service will support Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, MSN, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Exchange Online accounts - so won't work with Gmail just yet.

Outlook Lite will initially be available to users in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Mexico, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Venezuela - with more countries possibly coming soon.

The launch comes as Microsoft also continues work on its future of the desktop Outlook service. Nicknamed One Outlook, the new release is aimed at business and education customers who subscribe to Microsoft 365 or Office 365.

Microsoft has added a number of updates and changes, including a new look and feel, message reminders, a single view for calendar, email, and to-do items, and the ability to more easily attach cloud files.

Source

Also:  Outlook Lite is now available, weighs in at only 5MB.

Initially, the kits will only cover a limited number of repairs for the said Galaxy devices, including replacing display assemblies, back glass, and charging ports. Each one will come with dedicated step-by-step repair guides and handy tools, such as precision bits, suction handle, magnetized driver, opening tool, spudger, and ESD-safe tweezers. On a side note, the prices of the kits will vary depending on the device’s repair parts you will order.

Users who will avail of the kits can also send back the used and broken parts to Samsung for recycling, helping the company push for its sustainability efforts.

“Working together with Samsung, we are making it easier for Galaxy owners to take product repair into your own hands,” iFixit says on its website promoting the new repair option, in addition to Samsung’s repair appointment service. With this offering, you can prolong the use of your devices, promote a circular economy and minimize e-waste.”

And while the repair parts and devices covered by this new offering from Samsung and iFixit are very limited, both companies promise to expand the service options in the future.

Samsung partners with iFixit to offer Galaxy self-repair kits

Outlook Lite is available in the following countries only at the time of writing: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Mexico, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Venezuela.

When you visit the official Google Play Store listing, which is available here in any modern web browser, you are informed that the app is not available, unless you are connected from one of the official launch countries.

Outlook vs. Outlook Lite

Before we tell you how to get your hands on the Outlook Lite app, regardless of the region you are in, we will take a look at the differences between the Outlook app for Android and its Outlook Lite sibling.

First thing you will notice is that the Outlook Lite app is much smaller than the official Outlook app. At about 5 Megabytes, its size is about 18 times smaller than the Outlook apps' 88 Megabytes.

That is not all though. Outlook Lite is optimized to run on devices that have less than 1 Gigabyte of RAM and will use less battery when it is used on a device.

Outlook Lite supports Outlook.com, Hotmail, MSN, Live, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Exchange Online accounts. That is less than what the main Outlook app can do, as it supports Microsoft Exchange Server, GMail, and Yahoo! Mail, as well as OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, Dropbox, Google Drive and Box besides those.

If you require one of the missing services, you can't use the Outlook Lite app for that as these are not supported by it.

How to get the Outlook Lite app for Android

If you live in one of the supported regions or are there right now, visit the Google Play Store to download the app from it.

While you may be able to use a VPN connection to one of the supported countries to download the Outlook Lite app this way, you may also download it from an APK download site.

APK Mirror is a popular and well respected site. Please note that there is always a risk involved when downloading Android APK files from third-party sites.

Visit the Microsoft Outlook Lite profile page on APK Mirror and download the latest version of the application to the Android system.

You need to enable the installation of Android apps from unknown sources in the Settings to install the app. There is no regional block in place during installation or afterwards.

Now You: do you use email apps on your Android device? If so which, and why?

Microsoft Outlook Lite: core differences to Outlook, how to get the app

The top five tablet companies, and their year-over-year performance, are as follows:

The same figures for Chromebooks were:

While Chromebook manufacturers will definitely be feeling the pain, Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at IDC, was hopeful. He said that schools are likely to continue buying laptops for every student and because Chromebooks are popular in schools, they should continue to do well in the future.

With schools set to resume in September, Chromebook manufacturers could see a boost in sales as educational institutions buy in the hardware they need. Only time will tell.

IDC says tablet shipment growth remained flat in Q2 YoY while Chromebooks declined sharply

Apple Pay could finally be compatible with Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox in iOS 16. MacRumors contributor Steve Moser found that Apple Pay works with Edge and Chrome in the iOS 16 beta 4, and shared his findings on Twitter.

Moser’s screenshots show a “Continue with Apple Pay” option on Apple’s checkout page when using Edge. Apple Pay only works in Safari on iOS 15 and older, preventing you from using any other browser if you want to pay with Apple Pay when shopping on the web.

Although Moser doesn’t mention Firefox, other users noticed Apple Pay compatibility with the browser before the release of iOS 16 beta 4. A post on Reddit from earlier this month shows an option to pay with Apple Pay in iOS 16 beta 2 while using Firefox. Another user on iOS 16 beta 3 says they have the option to pay with Apple Pay on Firefox as well. We’re not certain of when Apple started expanding support for Apple Pay, and to which browsers. Apple didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Apple Pay still isn’t available in the latest macOS beta, however. As Moser notes, this is likely because Chrome, Edge, and Firefox all use Safari’s rendering engine, WebKit, on iOS due to Apple’s requirements. Third-party browsers are free to use their own engines on macOS, so we might not see support for Apple Pay outside of Safari on Macs anytime soon.

But Apple’s change of heart on iOS might be related to the European Union’s plans to crack down on big tech’s anticompetitive practices. The Digital Markets Act is set to go into effect in spring 2023, and imposes a set of rules on large companies, like Apple, Meta, and Google, to promote competition with smaller entities. A draft of the new legislation obtained by The Register specifically goes after companies that force app developers to use their own rendering engine. While this change could be an indication that Apple’s at least attempting to bend to the upcoming rules, the company isn’t likely to go down without a fight — it incurred millions in fees before complying with the Netherlands’ rules on in-app payment systems in Dutch dating apps.

Apple Pay may finally work on Chrome, Edge, and Firefox in iOS 16

Google has finally rolled out the immersive Google Maps views it promised back in May, along with a few other helpful features for cyclists, and travelers in groups.

First announced at the Google I/O 2022 developer conference, immersive views will combine Google Map’s Street View, satellite, and aerial images to create 3D recreations of landmarks. This first iteration of the feature is currently incomplete, but still supports over 100 locations across major cities including London, San Francisco and Tokyo.

Eventually, the feature will go beyond traditional landmarks, and will be used to bring to life local hotspots like restaurants, to give potential tourists a better feel of the place they’re looking to visit.

This comes as Google is trying to fight back against apps like TikTok and Instagram, which have become the most popular tools for young people looking to discover new places, ahead of Google’s services.

With Instagram itself capitalizing on this trend with its own searchable maps feature, we’ll have to see whether Google Maps’ immersive views and other future features will be enough to win back lost users.

Two phones showing Google Maps Immersive View (Image credit: Google)

Improved bike navigation

Google Maps is also getting better navigation tools for cyclists. While Maps has offered bike navigation for a long time now, this update aims to make it more like its car navigation, giving cyclists more information about their route.

Specifically, it means that cyclists will be able to see if their route is impacted by car traffic, as well as if the route includes bike lanes, how steep or windy a route is, and what kind of roads they’ll be riding on. Users can use this information to choose alternative paths; in some cases, Google Maps will offer riders multiple possible routes other than the fastest, including a path with more bike lanes, or one that requires fewer turns.

(Image credit: Google)

Location-sharing upgrades

Google is also upgrading location sharing. Now, in addition to sharing your location, you can ping notifications to a friend to let them know you’re leaving one location, and automatically send another when you arrive at your destination. The app will also be better at warning you that you’ve left the feature turned on if you didn’t set a time limit when you started sharing your location.

If you think location sharing and the other updates are neat features, here are a few other hidden Google Maps tools that you might not know about.

Source

Pixel 6a teardown shows off bendy, plastic back, soldered-in USB-C port

In a blog post, Google has highlighted the success of its major Google Play features such as Google Play Pass, Google Play Instant, Google Play Points, and many more. The search giant has also highlighted how Google Play has become a secure and trusted space with Google Play Protect, the company’s in-built malware protection solution for Android devices. It also points out how it helped developers of all sizes grow their businesses, made investments in local economies, and enabled the developer community to bring better apps and games to people worldwide.

As part of the celebration of 10 years of Google Play, Google has also launched a new logo to match the branding shared by many of the company’s products — Search, Assistant, Photos, Gmail, and more. Also, to celebrate the milestone, Play Points members can now get 10x points on everything they buy by activating a points booster. The official start date varies by country, so you can visit the “Earn” tab of Play Points Home to learn more.

New Google Play logo

If you are an Android user, do you get all your apps from Google Play? Let us know in the comments.

Google celebrates 10 years of Google Play

Google says it’s rolling back its decision to remove a section from the Play Store that listed which permissions an app uses. The company had more or less replaced that info with its Data Safety section, which is supposed to give you an idea of what data apps are collecting and how that data is used.

The problem, as several commentators pointed out, is that the information in the Data Safety section came from developers, whereas the app permissions section was generated by Google. By removing it, Google made it impossible for users to do a quick fact-check by comparing the two sections or to use the info from both to get a more complete picture of what an app is up to and what it has access to.

In a Twitter thread on Thursday spotted by Android Police, Google says the app permissions section will return soon and that it made the decision to bring it back because of user feedback. At time of writing, I wasn’t able to see it on my device, but when the section returns, it should be available along with the Data Safety section.

Google’s Data Safety section, which it announced in May 2021 and started rolling out in April this year, is similar to Apple’s privacy labels. Developers have to tell Google what they do with users’ data (such as whether it’s shared with third parties and what kind of data the app collects) and provide other info, like whether users can ask that their data be deleted and if the data is encrypted. While Google says that only developers know those details, it does say that it will take action against an app if it finds inaccuracies in the Data Safety info.

Google’s adding the app permissions section back to the Play Store after removing it

Recently, Twitter users noticed that the app has started making a new sound — when you pull down to refresh your timeline, notifications, DMs, or pretty much anything else in the official app, there’s a robotic chirp sound that sounds like a futuristic bird or frog. The sound has been polarizing — some people have been mesmerized by it, while others hate it.

Thankfully, there are a few ways to make sure you don’t hear it, which I’ll cover in this article.

Set your phone to silent

The first is astoundingly simple: according to my tests, turning your phone to silent mode makes it so that the sound doesn’t play. On iPhones, that means flipping the ringer switch on the left side of the phone above the volume buttons so the switch is closer to the back of the phone.

The pull-to-refresh sound doesn’t appear to have rolled out to every Android phone (and indeed, it appears to be a different sound). If you do have it, though, you can generally silence your ringer through the menu that shows up after you use the volume buttons or by going to settings and setting your phone to vibrate or mute.

Samsung’s current interface for managing volume — turning the third slider down all the way puts your phone on vibrate, silencing Twitter’s refresh noise.

Setting a Pixel 2 to vibrate, then silent.

Turn off Twitter’s sound effects

Of course, muting your phone isn’t an ideal solution if you want your phone to make other noises, like when you get a call or text. The good news is that Twitter spokesperson Trenton Kennedy shared a video on Wednesday showing an option in the Twitter app that lets you turn off the sound.

On iOS, you can access it by going to the Twitter app and tapping on your profile picture in the top left. Then, go to Settings and Privacy > Accessibility, display, and languages > Display and Sound. Under the Sound heading, toggle Sound effects off.

The sound effects toggle in the iOS (left) and Android (right) versions of the Twitter app.

In the Android version of the app, the menu has slightly different labels and options. In the Twitter app, go to Settings and Privacy > Accessibility, display and languages > Display, and toggle Sound effects off.

After you’ve turned off the toggle, you should no longer hear the sound when you refresh a page. While, in theory, this will turn off other sound effects in the app, I wasn’t able to find any prominent ones that played when I had the toggle on, apart from the pull-to-refresh one.

Enjoy your silent refreshing!

Here’s how to turn off Twitter’s weird new refresh sound

VLC users who do not want to wait for that to happen may download the latest version directly from the VideoLAN website.

VLC 3.5 for Android

VLC 3.5 for Android is a new major release. It is the first stable release of the media player in 2022; the last release, VLC for Android 3.4.0, dates back to September of 2021.

VLC for Android 3.5 includes several major improvements and changes. Widgets, for one, have undergone significant changes and improvements.

Widgets support Material You now and include customization options, such as setting the opacity or forward and backward time delays. Another new feature is the ability to create shortcuts to media files directly on the home screen.

Just select the settings icon of the media file and then "create a launcher shortcut" from the menu that opens to do so.

VLC supports all major media formats, which means that it can be used to play audio files. When you play audio files for the first time in VLC 3.5 for Android, you may notice audio screen improvements. The album screen, for instance, displays more information than in previous versions of the player.

One interesting new feature is the ability to customize player controls. A tap on the settings icon while media plays and the selection of control settings displays the customization options.

Here you get access to the following configuration options:

• Audio-boost (enabled by default).
• Volume and Brightness gesture. These are available while the video plays to change the volume or brightness with a single swipe.
• Double-tap to seek or play/pause.
• Swipe to seek.
• Double tap time delay.
• Show rewind and fast forward seek buttons.
• Define seek button delays and long tap functionality.
• Video player controls hiding delay.

Other new features in VLC for Android 3.5 include improved tablet and foldable devices support, automatic detection of a device's form factor to adjust the interface accordingly, and Samba shares network indexation support.

The developers of VLC for Android improved the performance and resource usage of the player in the new version, especially on low-end and older devices.

There is also a new permissions dialog that explains the three different options and functionality of the player depending on the choice made.

• No Permission -- auto-discovery of media is not available.
• Standard permissions -- auto-discovery of regular media files supported.
• Manage all files permission -- auto-discover all file types, including compressed files and less popular ones.

Closing words

VLC for Android 3.5 is a huge step in the right direction for the media player. It adds customization options and a lot of polish to VLC, and improves playback on older and low-end devices.

Now You: which media player do you use on your mobile devices?

Media Player VLC 3.5 for Android has been released

HTTP/3 is the third major version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which relies on QUIC, a multiplexed transport protocol built on UDP, rather than TCP like previous versions.

The new protocol fixes the problem of "head-of-line blocking," which slows down internet data transactions when a packet is lost or reordered, something quite common when moving around on mobile and switching connections frequently.

Android previously supported DNS-over-TLS (DoT) for version 9 and later to bolster DNS query privacy, but this system inevitably slowed down DNS requests due to the encryption overhead.

Moreover, DoT requires a complete renegotiation of the new connection when changing networks. In contrast, QUIC can resume a suspended connection in a single RTT (time needed for a signal to reach the destination).

With DoH3, many of DoT's performance burdens are lifted, and according to Google's measurements, achieves a 24% increase in performance for median query times. In some cases, Google has seen performance increases up to 44%.

Additionally, DoH3 may help with unreliable networks, even outperforming traditional DNS thanks to the proactive flow control mechanisms that immediately generate package delivery fail alerts instead of waiting for timeouts to elapse.

DNS-over-HTTPS is already widely supported by many DNS providers to provide increased privacy when performing DNS requests.

With Google supporting DNS-over-HTTP/3 Android and DNS-over-QUIC now a proposed standard, we will likely see increased adoption by DNS providers shortly.

However, as part of this feature's launch, Android devices will use Cloudflare DNS and Google Public DNS, which already support DNS-over-QUIC.

In the future, Google plans on adding support for other DoH3 providers through the use of Discovery of Designated Resolvers (DDR), which automatically selects the best provider for your specific configuration.

Secure and lean implementation

Another point of superiority of DoH3 is the use of Rust in its implementation, which resulted in a lean system comprising 1,640 lines of code that use a single runtime thread instead of DoT’s four.

The result is a performant low-level system with a few dependencies, is light, and uses a memory-safe language that reduces the number of bugs attackers can leverage to abuse it.

Roll-out

At the time of reading this, all Android devices running Android 11 and later should use DoH3 for Google DNS and Cloudflare DNS (more to be added soon).

In addition, a subset of Android 10 devices whose vendors adopted Google Play system updates early will also receive this new feature.

The end-users don’t have to take any action to enable the new feature, as Android will handle this part automatically.

Google boosts Android privacy with support for DNS-over-HTTP/3

Tired of recharging your smartwatch every night? Qualcomm has a solution: a more efficient chip built specifically for smartwatches. If it sounds familiar, that's because Qualcomm has been releasing new smartwatch chips every two years with the same premise. But this year's processors—the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 and W5 Gen 1—just might be the biggest leaps to date (if not the biggest mouthfuls).

The new chips, which are also being rebranded and ditching the previous “Snapdragon Wear” name, are built on a 4-nanometer process. The last generation of Qualcomm’s chip for wearables was built on a 12-nanometer process. Processors are made up of transistors, and the size of those transistors is measured in nanometers. As you go smaller, you decrease the distance that electrons have to travel inside the chip, so you end up with speedier processing, less heat, and lower power consumption.

Tiny Chips

Going from a 12-nm process to 4 nanometers is a startlingly big jump. Apple hasn't shared the transistor size on its latest S7 chip powering the Apple Watch Series 7, but it's likely built on a 7-nm process, potentially making the new W5 chips some of the most efficient wearable processors on the market.

Qualcomm claims the 30 percent reduction in size halves the chip's power consumption while doubling its performance. This means you can expect smartwatches utilizing the chips to be smaller (or the same size with room for beefier batteries). But the more important metric is that Qualcomm says battery life is 50 percent longer when compared to smartwatches using its prior Wear 4100+ chipset, which usually lasted a little more than a day, depending on the watch.

“This is not another chip launch,” says Pankaj Kedia, global head of Smart Wearables at Qualcomm. “This unleashes a new era in wearable computing. We hope to change the dynamic in the industry in wearables and make them indispensable because you can do all the things you ever wanted to.”

The second piece of big news is that Qualcomm says it has moved several core functions off the main processor and on to a 22-nm coprocessor. Wearable chips of late come with a primary processor and a coprocessor, the latter of which manages most of the ambient tasks (like the always-on display), allowing the main processor to kick in only when you interact with the device. This strategy reduces overall power consumption.

One such example is moving Bluetooth (5.3) into the coprocessor, which no longer needs to wake the main processor up when you simply receive a notification alert from your smartphone. Qualcomm says this translates to 57 percent lower power consumption for notifications compared to the last-gen Wear 4100+ chip. Some always-on health features can also rely on the machine learning core in the coprocessor, such as activity recognition, sleep tracking, and fall detection, meaning these functions might not cost you as much battery life as before.  

Only the W5+ Gen 1 has a coprocessor; the W5 Gen 1 omits this and is primarily meant to be used in watches for seniors and kids, where you'll want some of the primary functions—like GPS—to be on all the time so you can check whether your loved one made it home on time.

These chips also have a modem that has all the radio-frequency bands necessary to work anywhere in the world. Most smartwatches with an LTE (or 5G) connection today won't connect universally in every country as the modem has limited band support, but that won't be the case here.

Tick Tock

The big question is how well the W5+ Gen 1 will work with Google's Wear OS operating system. Many Wear OS watches use Qualcomm's processors, and those devices that have the Wear 4100 chip have yet to receive the latest version of Google's Wear OS. There is some good news here. Qualcomm says it's been working with Google to optimize Wear OS for its newest chip family, and Google confirmed that smartwatches with W5+ Gen 1 will only launch with the very latest version of its software.

The first smartwatch to use the W5 Gen 1 will be from the Chinese phone manufacturer Oppo, which will be launching the Oppo Watch 3 in August. Device maker Mobvoi will be releasing a new TicWatch running Google's Wear OS powered by the W5+ Gen 1 later this year. Qualcomm says there are more than 25 other designs in the works utilizing these chips from a variety of different manufacturers. 

Jitesh Ubrani, an analyst at the International Data Corporation, says all eyes are on Qualcomm for this wearable chip release. “When the 4100 launched, Qualcomm faced an uphill battle and there were things working against them because Wear OS wasn’t ready. The latest version of Wear OS came out late last year and some vendors held off on adopting the latest processor because they couldn’t get the latest version of the operating system to work on that chip. But Wear OS is ready for prime time now.” 

Apple, however, still maintains a sizable lead in the smartwatch space. In the first quarter of 2022, it shipped more than 8.5 million units, with Samsung in second at 3.2 million and Google in fifth at 607,000. But competition is ramping up. Not only are new smartwatches on the way with Qualcomm's chips, but Google is set to release a Pixel Watch later this year (notably powered by a Samsung processor) and Samsung is expected to announce a new Wear OS-powered Galaxy Watch in August.

Qualcomm’s New Smartwatch Chips Promise Big Battery Life Gains

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While the official launch date is still under wraps, the Pixel 6a India pricing seems to have leaked before its official launch. Leakers based in India have somehow managed to unveil the box price of Google Pixel 6a. The box price is INR 43,999, and according to leaker Abhishek Yadav, the Indian variant could launch at a retail price of around INR 37,000. In the US, it starts at $449 (? INR 35,000).

The original Google Pixel 6 skipped the Indian markets, leaving Pixel fans in the country disappointed. But a more budget-friendly Pixel 6a could be the best bet for price-sensitive markets like India. Below are the specifications of the 6a.

GOOGLE PIXEL 6a SPECIFICATIONS

Google Pixel 6a features a 6.2-inch flat OLED display with a single centered punch-hole camera. The 6a is also expected to have dual rear cameras and a single LED flash. The Google Pixel 6a has a dual rear camera setup, consisting of 12.2 MP, f/1.7, 27mm, (wide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS, and 12 MP, f/2.2, 17mm, 114? (ultrawide), 1.25µm. It also has a single selfie camera of 8 MP, f/2.0. For computational power, the 6a will use the Google Tensor chip based on the 5nm process.

It is equipped with 128GB UFS 3.1 storage and 6GB RAM. The phone is powered by Li-Po 4410 mAh battery, with support for up to 18W fast charging.

Other features include a USB Type-C and an in-display fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, and barometer.

This is how much the Google Pixel 6a could cost in India

Up until now, Google Play displayed permissions that an application needed to function. All applications have access to a base set of permissions that are not highlighted, but anything that goes beyond that needs to be specified in the application's manifest.

When you browse apps or games on Google Play now, you may notice that the permissions listing is no longer available. It appears that Google decided that the new data safety listing is sufficient in this regard.

Publishers are required to provide data safety information, as Google made it mandatory. It is up to the publisher to fill out the information though. Neither the Google Play application nor the Google Play store website list permissions anymore.

Google has not revealed why it decided to remove the option to view application and game permissions on its Android store. It is possible that Google thought that the new Data Safety listing is sufficient, or that permissions could scare users.

There are still options to display permissions.

How to display Google Play Store permissions

Android users have some options when it comes to displaying application permissions. One option would be to analyze an application's manifest file before installation, but this is time consuming and not really that practical.

A better option, highlighted by Mishaal Rahman on Twitter, is to use the open source Aurora Store application. Aurora Store is available on F-Droid, a free and privacy focused Android marketplace.

Aurora Store is a frontend for Google Play, which means that it pulls data directly from Google's Store. Unlike Google Play, it provides users with important information, including permissions that applications request. The app lists trackers that are included in applications and games as well, which is another useful information.

A click on the permissions listing of an app in Aurora Store displays all the permissions that it requests. Note that Aurora Store does not display the Data Safety information yet in the interface.

With Aurora Store installed on the Android device, you could use it to look up the permissions of an app or game. Whether you install it from Google Play or through Aurora Store then is up to you.

Closing Words

The removal of permissions from Google Play is a step in the wrong direction. Google is still focused on limiting information and functionality to create a frictionless yet limited experience for its users. Users who need more information or options need to look elsewhere once again to obtain those.

Now You: what is your take on the removal of permissions on Google Play?

App Permissions are no longer displayed on Google Play

ETNews has reported the first details of Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 devices. According to the publisher, The Z Fold 5 will have a triple rear camera setup, with 50MP ISOCELL GN3 as the primary camera. It will also use a 12MP selfie front camera. However, the company may either upgrade the under-display selfie camera or completely remove it. The camera details of the Z Flip are not available at the moment.

Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 both will use Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, whereas the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 will be powered by Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. And that’s all details the news outlet has published about their specifications.

Aside from the specifications, the publisher has revealed that Samsung is planning to sell over 10 million units of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 in the second half of 2023 alone. Of these 10 million total units, eight million units will be the Galaxy Z Flip 5, while the Z Fold 5 will sales target is only 2 million units. The combined sales target of Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4 is 15 million units.

Samsung is expected to host an event in August to launch Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4. As per various rumors, the official launch will take place on August 10. Samsung will announce the official launch date in the coming days, hopefully before the end of July.

Let us know in the comments if you are excited about Samsung’s next-generation foldable phones.

via 9to5google

Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 details leak for the first time

A few of us at The Verge have noticed something new about Twitter’s iOS app: when you pull down to refresh your feed, you might hear a couple of new noises. One is a little windup trill that plays when you first pull the feed, and after your feed is done refreshing, you might hear a short confirmation chirp. (Though the sounds are more robotic than any real-life bird I’ve heard.)

I made a recording so you can hear what I’m hearing. It’s a little different from the short “pop” you might have heard when refreshing before.

We’re not exactly sure when the change kicked in, but we first noticed it Friday afternoon, and we’ve seen a bunch of tweets about the new chirp from Friday as well. There are also a handful of tweets mentioning a chirp over the past couple of weeks, which could mean that Twitter has been rolling it out slowly ahead of a bigger release.

This seemingly isn’t an iOS-only change. One Verge staffer on Android is occasionally hearing the second new noise I described, and a few of the tweets I’ve found about the chirp were sent from Android.

If you want to hear the noise for yourself on your phone, just try pulling down to refresh your feed. If you don’t hear it, try force closing the Twitter app and opening it again (this is what worked for me), and make sure you’re on the latest version of the app. We’re not sure how widely this is rolled out, so you may not have the sounds just yet even if you try those steps.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to refresh the app to hear the lovely new sounds again. And again. Maybe just one more time. Last time, I promise...

You’re not hearing things — yes, the Twitter app chirps now

Android 13 marches toward release with final beta version

TheThe iPad is Apple’s most versatile device. I don’t necessarily mean that as a compliment, at least not entirely: there’s no other device in Apple’s lineup that can do more things in more ways, but Apple has spent the last couple of years adding so many features, input methods, and UI systems to its tablet that it’s starting to feel a bit… crufty.

I’ve been using the iPadOS 16 beta for a bit now ahead of the public beta that’s launching today. Even for an early beta, iPadOS 16 itself feels relatively polished and functional — though I’d never recommend installing beta software onto your main device — but the apps running on it don’t. As the iPad becomes a more flexible device, developers have a surprising amount of work to do for their apps to work seamlessly everywhere.

iPadOS 16 is a big step in the direction of user choice and flexibility, and it comes with lots of features I really like. But my overall feeling after a few weeks is that the iPad is a stupendously powerful device… and I increasingly have no idea how to use it. Should I use the touchscreen or the trackpad? Do I want to use Stage Manager to switch between apps or the funky two-apps-and-slide-over multitasking system or just do one app at a time? Which apps should I put on the external monitor, and which apps work better on the small screen? Apple’s answer would be that it doesn’t matter. It all works well, so you can use it however you like! That’s often true, but I can’t help but wish Apple had more opinions on the subject.

Power users only

If you’re the kind of person who uses an iPad as your main workhorse, iPadOS 16 is for you. Just the ability to plug in an external monitor and use it as a second screen is a game-changer for anyone who spends hours a day doing work on their iPad. The process is pretty seamless: you can buy a specific USB-C to HDMI cable, but my USB-C hub worked well, too, and as soon as I plugged it in, it popped up a second screen with its own dock ready to go.

The iPad assumes the second screen is above it by default, so you drag windows up from your iPad onto your second screen. (You can tweak this in Settings.) Most apps just treat the monitor as a really big iPad with no touchscreen, which works well enough, but a few get crazy with it: Netflix played everything turned 90 degrees to the right, for instance, and YouTube expanded into some deeply broken layout I’ve never seen before. These are all solvable problems, and are why betas exist, but this actually isn’t an easy fix for everyone. Should apps actually treat it like a big iPad and give you 30-plus inches of a 10-inch app? Some apps are already built to be responsive and resize nimbly as you move them around, but no iPad developer has had to reckon with screens this size — or this many different sizes, period — before.

Managing monitors is easy in iPadOS 16, though not every app works well on the bigger screen.

Stage Manager is the other thing that’s going to cause developers headaches. It’s also likely to be the most controversial thing about iPadOS 16: a new tool for multitasking designed to make it easier to quickly switch between a lot of apps. Once you turn on Stage Manager — it’s actually off by default, so you have to actively decide to use it before it appears — it puts four “piles” of apps onto the left side of your screen, like a dock of your various screen configurations. (“Pile” is Apple software chief Craig Federighi’s term, not mine, and it’s not particularly flattering, but it’s pretty accurate.) I have my calendar, to-do list, and notes app in one pile, Slack and email in another, and Spotify and Pocket Casts in a third. It’s not a replacement for the other ways of multitasking — just a new way to use a lot of apps at a time.

We’ll reserve full judgment for our review this fall, but so far, I hate Stage Manager. The piles take up too much room on the screen, and it takes way too much work to place the app windows just so. (One funny beta moment: when you turn on Stage Manager, it instantly forces the Settings app to render at a size it doesn’t support, and it breaks. Lots of other apps do, too.) When you open a full-screen app, you’re out of Stage Manager, and it’s not obvious how to get back or put things into the piles.

Stage Manager makes more apps accessible at once, but it doesn’t make much sense.

It might be better, oddly enough, if Stage Manager completely took over the device when you turned it on. But you can still Command-Tab your way through apps, use Mission Control, and open two apps side by side with a third slid over. It’s just too many ways to mess with your apps. So far, I’ve seen nothing about it that’s more useful than the side-by-side multitasking Apple has offered for years, and I’m going to turn State Manager off as soon as I finish… this paragraph.

Collaboration is the other big power-user feature in iPadOS 16. Apple’s building real-time collaboration tools into Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, along with a way to share tab groups in Safari. The system for sharing and collaborating works really well. You just send a link to someone, and as long as they’re also using the latest software, they immediately have access to your documents. But “real-time collaboration” is a bit of a stretch here. When my colleague Dan Seifert and I were in a Pages doc together, it seemed to update every sentence or so, so we were constantly writing over top of each other. Tools like Google Docs and Figma do this kind of co-authoring much more seamlessly.

The most collaboration-friendly Apple app doesn’t exist yet: it’s called Freeform, and it’s Apple’s infinite whiteboard answer to the Figmas and Miros of the world. The app is scheduled for release later this year, so I wasn’t able to test it, but that will be the truest test of how well Apple can let people actually work together.

Sharing tabs and documents is easy, but real-time collaboration isn’t quite in real time yet.

For now, think of document collaboration more like shared photo albums; you’re making sure you’ll always have the most updated thing, and you can look at them together, but it’s not great for multiple people mucking around in the file.

Again, this is all beta software, so much of the success of iPadOS 16 will come down to how developers change their apps to match. For collaboration, Apple’s treating the tech as a sort of Collaboration as a Service tool, though, offering some of the front-end features — inviting someone to collaborate in Messages, bringing a FaceTime call into the app while you’re working together — to third-party developers. But the actual collaborative work will be handled by the app itself, so they could conceivably do it better than Apple.

Keep an eye also on how many apps you use ship updates that take advantage of Apple’s “size classes,” which is how Apple describes an app’s ability to shift to different sizes on the iPad’s screen. Size class support is how apps fit in slide over, side by side, and now, in the iPad’s other display modes, too. Gmail and many others have been resolutely full screen-only for years, and for iPadOS 16 to really work, those apps are going to need to be much more resizable.

Oh, and there’s one other developer unknown: Apple has been touting the idea that the iPad is getting “desktop-class apps,” but so far, there’s not much of that to see in the App Store. What that seems to mean is that Apple is bringing a more consistent menu bar to the iPad in hopes of making settings and tools easier to find across apps. It’s also bringing undo and redo to more apps and making search a more universally accessible tool as well. Apple’s even rethinking how printing works from the iPad, which tells you exactly who these features are for. The menu bar is a particularly good idea given how many apps tend to bury their settings behind inscrutable icons, but we’ll have to wait and see how it turns out.

Still a big iPhone

Most of the rest of what’s coming to iPadOS 16 matches what’s coming to iOS 16 on the iPhone. You’ll get the new Messages features that let you mark a message as unread or edit a message after you send it; the new Passkeys that aim to replace your insecure passwords; and a bunch of handy new accessibility features that improve everything from making calls to on-device captions for videos and FaceTime calls.

Most of Apple’s built-in apps are getting some love in iPadOS 16, too. The Home app’s redesign looks nice and definitely puts more controls front and center on the page — but the real shift is going to be when Apple moves to a “new architecture” for HomeKit that seems like it’s not going to support the iPad as a Home hub anymore. We’ll have to report back on that one. The Notes app is getting some better organization tools that will automatically show you recent notes, notes with attachments, or notes you’ve shared with other people, which I’ve found pretty handy. And, as an inveterate to-do list addict, the addition of templates and pinned lists to Reminders makes me much happier than it should. Oh, and there’s a Weather app! It’s… a Weather app! On the iPad! What a concept!

Look! A weather app on the iPad!

Most of these features don’t include much in the way of iPad-specific features or design, though, instead just lifting from what’s also coming to the iPhone. One thing I wish were coming? More lock screen controls. The iPhone’s lock screen is getting a total overhaul, but the iPad’s still just a clock and a bunch of notifications. I think I understand the logic here, which is that the iPhone is a much more glanceable device, and you’re rarely going to turn on your iPad unless you plan to do something with it. But I don’t buy that logic. I’d rather be able to control and customize my lock screen. And I really, really want widgets on there.

The cynical way to read iPadOS 16 would be to think of the iPad as a device caught between two worlds, unsure of whether it’s a big iPhone or a touchscreen MacBook, and suffering as a result. The more optimistic view — which I think I still subscribe to — is that the iPad could actually be all things to all people, the best of all worlds, a power-user device that’s also incredibly approachable, and it’s just going to be a long journey to get there. In its best moments, iPadOS 16 feels like there’s no job it can’t handle. In its worst, it feels like it’s trying way, way too hard. So many times, I found myself flinching as I tapped the three-dot button at the top of a window to resize it because who knew what was about to happen?

More so than usual, the next few months will be crucial for iPadOS 16. As Apple makes its operating system more flexible, it needs developers to do the same with their apps or else it risks having users constantly caught between past and future systems. Apple’s better than anyone at cajoling developers into keeping up with the times, but nearly everything cool about the new software — from the collaboration and the multiscreen support to even maybe making Stage Manager useful — will require developers to think as broadly about the iPad’s possibilities as Apple does.

And eventually, Apple’s going to need to have fewer and better ideas about multitasking. Because whatever the future looks like, I don’t think it’s piles.

Photography by David Pierce / The Verge

iPadOS 16 preview: jack of all trades, master of some

• Wi-Fi is now functional (2.5Ghz/5Ghz). Mac Address retrieval is not yet here, however.
• Cellular Data is now functional (LTEA/LTE/HSDPA+/HSDPA/EDGE/GPRS).
• Cellular Texts are now functional. Use the Chat application to send and get messages.
• Calls, VoLTE, RCS, and more are coming soon in a later release.
• eSIM support is now enabled in this release.
• GPS is now functional.

Although the project has received multiple improvements and enhancements, it is still far from being ready to substitute the stock Android for daily use. In addition to missing calls support, you get a non-functioning camera, graphical rendering issues, problems with automatic orientation, broken USB dongles, and other bugs.

For now, Windows for the original Surface Duo remains a fun experiment for those having a spare Surface Duo. Also, it is a way to get a taste of the now-dead Surface Neo, a device that Microsoft does not plan to resurrect any time soon.

If you prefer to use your Surface Duo with its original OS, you may want to check out the latest improvements and enhancements Microsoft released in the July 2022 firmware update.

Surface Duo with Windows 11 gets working Wi-Fi, Cellular, eSIM, and GPS

Asus accidentally leaked a promo video for its apparently upcoming Zenfone 9 on its YouTube channel, and the phone’s got some very interesting quirks and features, to borrow a phrase (via XDA, TechGoing). Perhaps the most interesting (at least for the people who could take or leave a headphone jack) is what Asus has done with the side-mounted fingerprint sensor, which the video labels as the “smart key”: it shows a creepy CGI hand swiping through a webpage by sliding its finger along the side of the phone.

It’s not exactly unusual to have some sort of gesture built into the fingerprint reader — phones like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip / Fold 3 let you bring down the notification shade with a similar swipe. (And those phones are far from the first to do it; I remember that feature from my Pixel 2.) But using it to actually scroll through content feels like a fun throwback to the age where phones had physical dials or roller balls for scrolling. Will Asus’ version, which it calls “ZenTouch,” be an RSI disaster or a gimmick you use once before turning it off forever? Perhaps. But will it feel rad as hell that one time you try it? I’d bet yes.

Fun side button aside, the Zenfone 9 seems like a very interesting gadget. According to Twitter user SnoopyTech (who’s had some accurate leaks before), the phone will have a 5.9-inch screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and will be powered by the same Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip that Asus put in its gaming-focused ROG Phone 6. They also say the phone will cost between 800 and 900 euros, around $850 to $950 US. That’s a fair bit higher than the $699 starting price for the previous-gen Zenfone 8, which my colleague Allison Johnson called “fantastic” in her review.

Plus, it comes in fun colors. Image: SnoopyTech

We’ll have to wait for an official announcement and hands-on to see if that price jump is justified (or if it’s even accurate), but the video does indicate at least a few improvements that could help justify the added cost. The battery has gotten a bit bigger compared to the Zenphone 8, which had a 4,000mAh cell that provided “just okay” runtime. The video also says that the phone’s two cameras are “massively upgraded” and shows that the main one features a “6-axis hybrid gimbal stabilizer.” It then shows that feature being used with a truly whacky accessory called the smart backpack mount, which looks like it’s trying to emulate a piece of gear that professional videographers use to hoist heavy cameras all day — but for a phone.

Quick question: what?? Gif: SnoopyTech

Accessories aside (there’s also a seemingly modular phone case that you can connect a kickstand / wallet to), this preview actually gets me excited to see the Zenfone 9 officially revealed. Sure, it’s not the iPhone Mini clone running Android that some people want, but it seems like it’ll continue the Zenfone tradition of being a compact-ish but high-end Android phone with a few fun features thrown in to keep things interesting. And a headphone jack — I cannot get enough of the headphone jack.

Asus’ leaked Zenfone 9 video shows fun gimmicks like a scroll key and shoulder mount

According to renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple's latest chips will be exclusive to high-end iPhone models, the upcoming iPhone 14 Pro, for example. It means SE and 'non-Pro' models are not going to get benefited from Apple's latest chipset. Expectedly, the 'Pro' models will look far more superior to the non-Pro ones if Kuo's report is true.

Back in the day, it used to be the camera system that was far superior in 'Pro' as compared to the regular model, but now, it's no longer just the camera. For instance, the iPhone 13 Pro comes with what Apple calls a ProMotion display, which is essentially a fancy way of describing a 120 Hz panel, something that is not present in the regular iPhone 13 models.

Apple hopes that a huge difference between 'Pro' and 'non-Pro' models will lead to more people buying the premium iPhones, which, in turn, will make the average iPhone price go up. And that means more profit for Apple. As noted by Kuo, Apple's new strategy will also benefit camera suppliers for high-end iPhones.

However, the end-user will be the sole loser, as they will now need to pay a lot more to own an iPhone powered by Apple's newest chipset.

Do you think it's the right strategy to increase profit? If you're an iPhone user, are you willing to pay more to get the latest Bionic chip? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Ming-Chi Kuo | via 9to5Mac

Apple may change its iPhone business strategy to increase profit

Microsoft Remote Desktop Mobile Version 10.4.1 introduces thumbnail snapshots for published PC resources to the Workspaces tab of the Connection Center. Microsoft has also created an in-app highlights UI to advertise new features. Additionally, it comes with a fix for an issue causing the mouse cursor to get temporarily stuck at the bottom of the screen. You can read the complete official changelog below.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Version 10.4.1

Microsoft’s last significant update to the Remote Desktop Mobile app for iOS was released a couple of months ago. In the previous update, the app received the ability to dynamically change the orientation of the remote session while connected to Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, and later. It also introduced several improvements and other noteworthy changes.

The latest update is not as big as the previous one when it comes to the number of features, but it offers some UI changes, a new thumbnail, and bug fixes. All in all, Version 10.4.1 provides exciting changes, making the overall app experience even better.

You can download and install the Microsoft Remote Desktop Mobile app on your iOS device.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Mobile for iOS gets updated with UI changes and more

Your phone’s lock screen is the hottest new real estate in tech. Apple made the iPhone’s lock screen a centerpiece of iOS 16, giving users more control over how theirs looks and works. But while Apple talked about pretty clock fonts and nifty color-matched wallpapers, it also showed off a world in which your lock screen is more than just a security measure: it’s becoming another surface on which companies can put information, apps, and even ads. Apple’s far from the only company thinking about this, too. TechCrunch reports that Glance, a lock screen content company (which apparently is a thing!) is already in talks with US carriers and plans to launch on some Android phones in the US in the next two months.

The competition for your eyeballs and attention has already come out of apps and onto your home screen, through widgets and notifications. Now it looks like it’s headed one step further: onto the first thing you see when you turn on your phone, before you even pick it up or unlock it. That might be at least one step too far.

If you’ve never seen a Glance-running device before, one way to imagine the app is sort of like a Snapchat Discover feed on your phone’s lock screen. The company serves up a rotating set of news headlines, videos, quizzes, games, and photos that appear every time your phone screen turns on. Glance calls these content cards “glances,” naturally, and says that users consume these glances 65 times a day on average.

Glance is a neverending content machine, on your lock screen Image: Glance

And, of course, it’s all filled with ads. Glance is a subsidiary of InMobi Group, an Indian ad tech company. It has partnerships with a number of manufacturers, including Samsung and Xiaomi, and the company says its software is built into more than 400 million phones around Asia. Google is an investor in the company; so is Peter Thiel.

In a certain light, Glance or something like it is a totally sensible idea. You don’t need to constantly dip in and out of apps looking for news and information, you don’t even need to unlock your phone, you just trust your device to bring you something interesting every time you turn it on. And a couple of non-intrusive ads won’t hurt, right? After all, I bought the Kindle with ads on the lock screen to save a few bucks, and it doesn’t bother me. (Though I never would have bought the Prime Exclusive Phones that came with lock screen ads, and apparently neither would anyone else.)

Apple has echoed this idea, talking about how it sees a more feature-rich lock screen as a way to help you use your phone less. Apple’s software chief Craig Federighi referred to the lock screen as “the face of your phone,” and said that features like Live Activities could make it easier to get quick information without having to unlock your phone and open yourself up to all the distractions inside. “If you can get the answer at a glance, then you don’t unlock,” he said, “and once you’ve unlocked your phone, you almost forget why you’re there in the first place!”

Letting you customize your lock screen is a good idea! Image: Apple

But by opening up this space, these companies are offering apps and advertisers a chance to get even closer to you. Developers will surely build Live Activities that stick around long after they’re done being useful, the better to grab you every time your phone lights up. Platforms will find ways to pull more of their content onto lock screens, attempting to hook you into the feed before you even press a button.

Generally speaking, most users don’t change their settings, and you better believe developers will use that to their advantage. “Consumers will move from seeking content to consuming what is shown to them,” InMobi CEO Naveen Tewari told Forbes when Glance launched. That’s super bleak! And probably true!

Most of all, a Glance-like future is a way of turning smartphones even further into consumption-only devices. And is “easier access to endless feeds of medium-interesting content” really a worthwhile goal? As we look to reset our relationship with technology, I would argue we should be finding places to add friction, to give you what you need when you look at your phone... but to also help you realize you didn’t need to look at your phone at all. And if, as Federighi said, the lock screen’s job is to help you avoid distraction, I can’t imagine a worse idea than putting a TikTok-style video feed between you and your home screen.

Glance will surely have competition, but it’s already a good example of where this is all headed. In June, it held Glance Live Fest, a virtual three-day festival that took place entirely on users’ lock screens. It streamed concerts and interactive challenges, live tutorials and interviews, and a ton of live shopping content, to more than 70 million users. It’s like an opt-out music festival, to which you’re transported every time someone sends you a text. That sounds distracting, frustrating, and just flat-out exhausting.

There’s no question that our lock screens could be better. The whole “running list of notifications” thing isn’t great, and a push for more personalization will make a lot of users happy. But that space should belong to users and users only, not turn into yet another breeding ground for distraction and advertising. We should be taking back control of our phones, not giving more of it away.

Apps and advertisers are coming for your lock screen, and it’s going to be exhausting

Although internet and communication services have largely been restored, au mobile phones are still having difficulty making phone calls due to a temporary limit placed on network traffic. Around 260,000 customers out of the total 40 million affected belonged to corporate sectors. The outage disrupted payment machines, bank teller machines, parcel deliveries, and even the Meteorological Agency's weather data.

At a press conference, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara said that the problem is extremely regrettable as mobile networks are important infrastructure for the public and their activities. He also demanded an "in-depth explanation for users" from the carrier.

KDDI President Makoto Takahashi apologized for the disruption at a press conference, admitting that it was the largest outage in the company's history. The carrier is also considering compensating individual and corporate users.

KDDI is Japan's second largest mobile carrier by subscribers. The company says that the problem occurred due to a facility failure before dawn on Saturday. The failure was due to the switching system for voice calls that was replaced during regular maintenance. The repair work triggered a greater concentration of traffic that made the company put limits.

The carrier is taking measures such as flow control to reduce traffic congestion for voice calls and data.

ATMs at Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank, among others, still remain out of service as of Monday morning. Transport company Yamoto Transport Co reported that its delivery system was disrupted. Drivers using Toyota's connected car service were unable to reach a call center or do other tasks too.

The problem also affected low-cost UQ mobile brand and its "povo" mobile customers, as well as other small leasing companies such as Rakuten Mobile Inc.

KDDI recommended people to use landlines or public phones in case of an emergency.

Japan telco outage puts 40 million people offline for more than two days