Google teases August 3rd as the Pixel 4a launch date

We know the Google Pixel 4a exists. After all, Google once again couldn’t prevent the phone from leaking in its entirety. However, we expected the phone to launch back in May at Google I/O 2020, which was canceled. Then we expected it to launch in June at the Android 11 Beta Launch Show…which was also canceled. We heard the phone may launch in July, but tomorrow is the last day of the month. Finally, thanks to Google, we have an idea for when the Pixel 4a will be announced.

The company on Thursday introduced a new campaign that is likely teasing the much-anticipated Pixel 4a. If you head to this website, you’ll find a page with placeholder “lorem ipsum” text along with information that’s seemingly been redacted. If you prod around on the website, however, you’ll discover that you can change the color of the blocks. Arrange the colors in the right order (blue, red, yellow, blue, green, red) and the text will be revealed.

“What are you looking at?” “Just What You’ve Been Waiting For,” the text reads, with a large date of August 3 overlaying the checkered image of a generic phone. That means we can expect the device to launch next week, just two days before Galaxy Unpacked.

Google Pixel 4A Forums

The Pixel 4a has been the subject of rumors for months now, with the affordable handset looking to build upon the success of last year’s (now discontinued) Pixel 3a. According to previous leaks, the device will reportedly pack a 5.8-inch AMOLED display, 6GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of storage. The device is also expected to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor and a 3,080mAh battery. While none of these details have been confirmed, they’ve all come from reliable sources. A YouTuber in Cuba put the Pixel 4a through the works already, with a performance review, camera review, and hands-on already done before the official launch.

To add further intrigue to Google’s teaser website, the company also updated its Made by Google accounts on Twitter and Facebook with brand new assets. August 3 is next Monday, so it won’t be long until the Pixel 4a becomes official. The phone will reportedly cost just $349, making it an excellent choice in the mid-range category.

Rumored Google Pixel 4a Specifications:

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 730
• GPU: Adreno 618
• RAM: 6GB
• Internal storage: 64GB(?), 128GB UFS 2.1
• Display: Single hole-punch 5.81-inch display, 2,340 x 1,080 resolution, 443 dpi, 60Hz refresh rate
• Rear camera: 12.2 MP Sony IMX363, f/1.73 aperture, 1.4µm pixels, OIS, EIS, LED flash, 4K video recording, Autofocus
• Front camera: 8.0 MP Sony IMX355, f/2.0 aperture, 1.14µm pixels, EIS, Fixed focus
• Connectivity: 4G, Dual SIM, GPS, WiFi 5, Bluetooth, GLONASS
• Ports: USB Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Security: Rear fingerprint sensor
• Battery: 3,080 mAh
• Software: Android 10

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Google Camera 7.5 corroborates Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5, hints at Audio Zoom, expanded Social Share, and more

The latest version of the Google Camera app for Google Pixel smartphones, version 7.5, started rolling out last night. We decompiled the APK to see if we could find any clues about upcoming Pixel camera features, and we found a few noteworthy features. We also discovered more evidence that there won’t be a Pixel 5 XL model this year, but that there will be a Pixel 4a 5G in addition to the standard Pixel 4a that’s leaked extensively already.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

Google Pixel 4a 5G = bramble, Google Pixel 5 = redfin

Earlier this month, code within the Google App suggested that the two late 2020 Pixel devices will be called the Pixel 4a 5G (code-named “bramble”) and Pixel 5 (“redfin”). We’ve seen the code-names “bramble” and “redfin” before when an AOSP repository revealed that these devices will be powered by the sm7250 mobile platform, which is either the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765, Snapdragon 765G, or Snapdragon 768. We’ve also seen “redfin” appear in Android 11 code for reverse wireless charging, suggesting this premium feature won’t be available on “bramble.” Once again, we’re seeing code that suggests there won’t be a Pixel 5 XL this year. A class within Google Camera 7.5 (the same Google Lens-related class as seen in the Google App, mind you) makes the same reference to “bramble” being the Pixel 4a 5G and “redfin” being the Pixel 5.

One line within a library suggests that either the Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, or both devices will have dual cameras. The line makes reference to a binary called p20_dual_camera_rig_proto.binarypb that we don’t have access to. We aren’t too confident to draw any conclusions from this one line just yet, but we’ll keep an eye out for more evidence of the camera capabilities of this year’s Pixel flagships.

Audio Zoom

Ahead of the Pixel 4’s launch, we first discovered that Google was working on a new feature called Audio Zoom. This feature, as seen on several smartphones from HTC, LG, Samsung, and other device makers, uses the phone’s microphones to adjust the audio focus when you zoom in or out. When the Pixel 4 launched, the feature wasn’t present. However, it’s still in the works, as evidenced by new strings added in Google Camera 7.5:

<string name="pref_audio_zoom_summary">Boost the sound where the user is zooming in on.</string>
<string name="pref_audio_zoom_title">Audio zoom</string>

With the help of XDA Senior Member cstark27, we surfaced the toggle for Audio Zoom in Google Camera’s settings. However, it doesn’t work on my Pixel 4. Perhaps my device is missing the necessary hardware (another microphone next to the camera?) or libraries needed to make this feature work.

Help Improve Google Camera

Another new toggle that’s coming to the Google Camera app is a preference to improve the camera over time. According to the string, the camera app will “learn over time” as you use it. All data stored by the camera app will “[stay] on your device,” though Google will use “privacy-preserving technology” to “[combine] information from you and many other participants to make Camera smarter for everyone.” We’re not sure what kind of data Google will collect and what kinds of improvements can be made based on this data.

<string name="pref_camera_improve_camera_summary">Allow Camera to learn over time as you use it. Your data stays on your device while privacy-preserving technology combines information from you and many other participants to make Camera smarter for everyone.</string>

Expanded Social Share

A nifty feature introduced in the Google Camera app with the Pixel 4 launch is “Social Share.” This feature makes it quick and easy to share photos you’ve just taken. After you take a photo, simply swipe up from the thumbnail to share the photo to social media. In Google Camera’s settings, you can choose which 3 social media apps appear in Social Share’s carousel. The social media apps that are supported include Discord, Facebook Messenger, Facebook Messenger Lite, Chat, Messages, GroupMe, Hangouts, Helo, Imo Messenger, Instagram Stories, KakaoTalk, Kik, LINE, ShareChat, Signal, Skype, Snapchat, Telegram, Textra, Twitter, Verizon Message+, Viber, WeChat, and WhatsApp.

Hidden deep within Google Camera 7.5’s code is an allowlist of 25 apps that users will be able to quickly share videos to. In essence, Google is expanding Social Share to support quickly sharing videos to social media and/or messaging apps. The supported apps currently include Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Google Messages, Instagram, KakaoTalk, Line, Snapchat, Telegram, Viber, WeChat, WhatsApp, GroupMe, Kik, Skype, Discord, Signal, imo, ShareChat, Helo, Verizon Messages, Textra, Twitter, Hangouts, Slack, and VSCO.

New Camera Modes

We’ve been tracking the addition of new camera features to Google Camera, and version 7.5 adds even more camera modes obfuscated behind code-names. These include Lasagna, Naruto, Catfish, and Catshark. Once we’re confident we know exactly what these are, we’ll let you know.

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Thanks to XDA Senior Member cstark27 for their assistance in these findings and to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler, a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.

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Google Assistant-enabled Smart Displays can now play some games

Google Assistant-enabled Smart Displays are great for watching YouTube videos, checking the weather, viewing photos of family and friends, and most recently, watching Netflix. Starting today, these devices also make for a great party distraction thanks to the addition of games.

Google announced today on its official blog that devices like the Nest Hub and Nest Max can now access games “that take full advantage of the screen, and combine with voice and touch controls for instant, easy fun.” Simply say, “Hey Google, Let’s Play a Game,” and you can browse what’s available.

There are a variety of games to choose from, according to Google, including “Jeopardy!”, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”, “Trivia Crack”, and something called “Guess the Drawing”, which challenges players to guess drawings as quickly as possible.

With families and friends quarantined together, these games are meant to provide a light-hearted distraction from the madness. It’s also just a nice way to add more value to Google Assistant-enabled Smart Displays, which are already great home companions.

Google said a handful of games are available beginning today, with more titles from “top game developers” coming later this year. It’s unclear what other titles are planned, but they’ll likely be party-focused.

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Source: Google

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Google Chrome for Android is adding biometric authentication for payments and touch-to-fill for passwords

Google Chrome rolled out support for Windows Hello biometric authentication for payments earlier this year, allowing users with Windows Hello capable devices to authenticate payments on the browser with their face or fingerprint. Earlier this month, we learned that Google was working to bring a similar feature to Chrome for Android which would allow users to select “Screen lock” as an additional payment confirmation method on their smartphones. Now, Google has officially announced that biometric authentication support is making its way to Chrome for Android, along with a few improvements to the Autofill experience.

Once the feature rolls out to Google Chrome for Android, users will be able to enroll their device and retrieve card details via biometric authentication. While the feature will require users to enter their CVC manually the first time they use their credit card, all subsequent transactions will just require biometric authentication to confirm the credit card details. The biometric authentication feature will be optional and users will be able to enable or disable it from within Chrome settings.

Google further reveals that the browser will make use of the W3C standard WebAuthn to securely enroll you for biometric authentication and ensures that none of your biometric information will ever leave your device. It’s worth noting that the feature isn’t available in the current build of Google Chrome for Android and it should roll out to users in the coming weeks.

Along with biometric authentication support, Google Chrome for Android is also getting a touch-to-fill feature that will present your saved accounts for the current website in a new dialog. The dialog will let you quickly fill in your information without requiring you to scroll to the respective form fields to choose an account. As with the biometric authentication support, the new touch-to-fill feature isn’t available in the current build of Chrome for Android and should roll out in the coming weeks.

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Report: Huawei overtook Samsung in Q2 2020 to become the #1 smartphone vendor

The Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG), which both the Huawei and Honor smartphone brands are part of, has achieved incredible growth in the last few years. The Chinese technology giant is a major player in not only its home market of China but also in certain markets in Europe and other parts of Asia. The company’s growth has led them to become the #1 smartphone vendor in the second quarter of this year, finally overtaking Samsung. That’s according to a new report by technology analyst firm Canalys.

Canalys‘ data shows that Huawei shipped 55.8 million devices in Q2 2020, while Samsung shipped 53.7 million phones in the same period. As a result of the smartphone market contraction brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic, Huawei’s smartphone shipments actually dropped 5% year-on-year. However, Samsung’s smartphone shipments dropped a whopping 30% in the same period, which is what has allowed Huawei to overtake Samsung as the global smartphone vendor. In response to this news, Huawei issued a statement saying that their business has “demonstrated exceptional resilience in these difficult times. Amidst a period of unprecedented global economic slowdown and challenges, we’ve continued to grow and further our leadership position by providing innovative products and experience to consumers.”

There’s a big caveat with these smartphone shipment numbers, though. Much of Huawei’s success in Q2 2020 came from increased smartphone shipments in its home market of China where they increased shipments by 8%. In contrast, Samsung has a minuscule presence in China, with only less than 1% of the total market share. Samsung’s core markets including Brazil, India, the U.S., and Europe have been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, and their economic activity contracting as a consequence. In these overseas markets, Huawei’s smartphone shipments actually dropped 27%, a decrease similar to the one Samsung suffered.

Samsung and Huawei’s worldwide smartphone shipments in millions of units tracked from Q1 2015 to Q2 2020. Source: Canalys.

This data is surprising for a big reason. First, U.S. trade sanctions have threatened Huawei’s ability to make new Android smartphones since 2019. With the sanctions in place, Huawei cannot license Google Mobile Services (GMS) for new smartphone models, which means that the company’s latest smartphone models do not ship with the Google Play Store or Google Play Services. Users in Western markets rely on many apps that are either downloaded from the Google Play Store or depend on APIs within Google Play Services. While Huawei offers its own alternatives to the Google Play Store and Google Play Services in the form of the Huawei AppGallery and Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) respectively, many developers have not yet adapted their apps for deployment on HMS-only devices. Huawei has continued to sell smartphones with GMS on board thanks to a clever trick: Rebadging older, already-Google-certified models as new releases with slight design changes. However, this tactic of rebadging older models, as well as the company’s ability to create truly new smartphone models, is in jeopardy with the recent news that contract chip-makers have been barred from using U.S.-developed technology to fabricate chips for Huawei’s HiSilicon. The former measure affects the Chinese market very little, though, as the Chinese app ecosystem is wholly decoupled from Google already, while the latter measure is too recent for us to see the effects of in Q2 2020 smartphone shipments.

Then there’s the fact that we’re still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic effects of which have grown substantially during Q2. With the pandemic came a global recession as stay-at-home orders have affected both supply and demand for new smartphones. It’s thus no surprise to learn that the smartphone market contracted significantly this quarter. Huawei’s lead this quarter can be partly attributed to the effects on the market from the pandemic. Although the outbreak started in China, the country has managed to bounce back to relative normality as factories have reopened and new outbreaks are tightly controlled. Smartphone sales in the country are, thus, returning to normal, and since 70% of Huawei’s shipments are in China, they have weathered the storm better than Samsung.

It may be difficult for Huawei to maintain this lead going forward, though. As President Trump’s administration keeps imposing harsher trade sanctions on Huawei, it will become increasingly difficult for the company to compete in the global smartphone market. When the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy, and thus, smartphone shipments, will bounce back. China may be Huawei’s most important market, but it won’t be enough to keep Huawei at the #1 spot for much longer.

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HMD Global’s first 5G smartphone, the Nokia 8.3 5G, is coming to the US this fall

The Nokia 8.3 5G was announced a few months back as HMD Global’s highest-end smartphone in 2020 so far (although there are rumors floating around of a Nokia 9.3 PureView in the works, so this could very well change soon). The Nokia 8.3 5G is also the company’s first, and so far only, 5G-enabled smartphone. While it’s not powered by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, it does have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, which has been the common choice for mid-range smartphones with 5G support throughout the year. Not only this, but HMD Global also claimed that theirs was the first 5G device in the market to be compatible with all 5G bands globally. This device was previously planned for a global release following an announcement at MWC 2020 but plans obviously changed because of COVID-19 (MWC was canceled, the phone’s announcement was delayed, etc.) Now, HMD Global has announced that the Nokia 8.3 5G is coming to the United States very soon.

The Nokia 8.3 5G. Source: HMD Global

How soon, you might ask? The phone is launching sometime in the fall as per the company’s official announcement. For now, though, HMD Global has not given an exact release date and there is also a lot of information essential to the U.S. market that has not been disclosed right now, such as which carriers will have the phone, which retailers will sell it, what RAM/storage configurations will be available, and more. All of this information will probably be disclosed as we get closer to the phone’s release.

HMD Global is also increasing its focus on the American market; they have already had a presence in the U.S. for years, but the company plans to increase its presence as they’ve done in other parts of the world. The release of the Nokia 8.3 5G in the U.S. is only a part of this renewed push; Juho Sarvikas, the current Chief Product Officer of HMD Global, has been appointed Vice President of North America in order to work more closely with carriers and bring even more Nokia-branded smartphones to Americans.

This is all amazing news for Nokia fans in the United States. Are you excited about the Nokia 8.3 5G?

Nokia 8.3 5G Specifications

• 6.81-inch (1080 × 2400 pixels) Full HD+ 20:9 LCD screen with 120Hz refresh rate
• Octa Core (1 x 2.4GHz + 1 x 2.2GHz + 6 x 1.8GHz Kryo 475 CPUs) Snapdragon 765G 7nm EUV Mobile Platform with Adreno 620 GPU
• 6GB LPDDR4X RAM with 64GB storage, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128GB storage, expandable memory with miroSD
• Android 10
• Single / Dual SIM
• 64MP rear camera with Dual LED flash, ZEISS Optics, 12MP ultra-wide angle lens, 2MP macro and 2MP depth sensor
• 24MP front-facing camera
• Side-mounted fingerprint sensor
• 3.5 mm headphone jack, FM radio receiver, OZO audio
• Dimensions: 171.90 x 78.56 x 8.99mm; Weight: 220g
• 5G SA/ NSA / Dual 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, USB Type-C
• 4500mAh battery with 18W fast charging

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HMS Core 5.0 introduces an AR Engine, Computer Graphics Kit, Accelerate Kit and more improvements

Huawei Mobile Services, or HMS, is Huawei’s alternative to GMS, and it similarly consists of user-facing applications as well as core background services. HMS provides an experience that is consistent across devices and independent of the platform version. The HMS ecosystem is comprised of HMS Apps, the HMS Core, and the HMS Capabilities that the Core enables through its available APIs. The latest milestone update to HMS Core 5.0 introduces several APIs and improvements to existing APIs.

Huawei has doubled down on improving HMS Core and its allied services. After all, these services and service frameworks form the backbone of Huawei and Honor’s current experience. As of March 2020, Huawei’s global monthly active users has reached 650 million, representing an increase of 25% YoY. The number of registered developers on Huawei’s platform has also reached 1.4 million, a 115% YoY increase. And the total number of HMS Core apps has also exceeded 60,000 globally, which is a 67% YoY growth. Huawei is placing all of its bets on its own ecosystem, and the constant improvements in HMS Core are testimony to its long-term commitment towards the HMS vision.

HMS Core 4.0 was launched back in January 15, 2020, introducing new APIs in the form of the Map Kit, Machine Learning Kit, Scan Kit, WisePlay DRM, and more. Now, with HMS Core 5.0, Huawei is introducing some more new APIs: AR Engine, Computer Graphics Kit, Accelerate Kit.

AR Engine

Huawei AR Engine is equivalent to Google Play’s ARCore service. Thie AR Engine in HMS Core serves as a platform for building augmented reality (AR) apps on Android smartphones with HiSilicon Kirin chips. It integrates core algorithms for AR to provide basic AR capabilities such as motion tracking, environment tracking, and body and face tracking. With the AR Engine, you can build apps that bridge the virtual world with the real world.

In a nutshell, the Huawei AR Engine continuously tracks the device location and poses in order to provide motion tracking and environment tracking abilities. It makes use of the device camera to identify feature points in a given space, and then tracks the movement relative to these points, and subsequently integrates these changes with the data reported by the inertial sensor on the device. It can also recognize flat planes such as floors and walls, and it can also make an estimation of the lighting intensity around them when identifying feature points.

What makes Huawei’s AR Engine special is its ability to also enable movement tracking for humans. It can allow locating hand locations and recognize specific gestures. There is also a depth component within the API, which then comes together to let the API track as many as 21 hand skeleton points to implement precise interactive controls and special effect overlays. It can also track 23 body skeleton points to detect human posture in real-time, and Huawei envisages that you can use this data to build innovative apps around fitness and health too.

Computer Graphics Kit

The Huawei Computer Graphics Kit is a Vulkan-based high-performance computer graphics rendering framework. This framework consists of the PBR (physically based rendering) material, models, textures, light, component systems, and more. The idea behind the rending framework is to provide the best 3D rendering capabilities on Huawei devices that make use of HiSilicon Kirin chips. The framework also supports secondary development with reduced difficulty and complexity, which Huawei claims helps significantly increase development efficiency.

The Huawei Computer Graphics Kit can be used for 3D applications use cases as it encapsulates the necessary Vulkan API call methods, and also implements dedicated optimization on the Huawei GPU. This greatly reduces the workload in developing high-quality 3D static models. The Kit also provides for a high-performance multi-thread rending module that integrates the best practices in usage of Huawei-dedicated Vulkan enhancements and extensions. In essence, the Computer Graphics Kit helps accelerate the adoption of computer graphics in apps by offering developers the cutting edge tools they need to integrate the same into their software.

Accelerate Kit

The Huawei Accelerate Kit provides for multi-threaded acceleration capability that claims to efficiently improve the concurrent execution of multiple threads, thereby optimizing apps. This Kit opens this capability to developers as a set of C-language APIs. This will allow developers much more flexibility on current-generation Android devices that run on a multi-core setup. Multi-thread programming is generally achieved by controlling task execution by managing threads. With the Accelerate Kit, developers are freed from thread management details, so they can focus more on their own app while still gaining efficiency.

Audio Kit, Image Kit, Video Kit within HMS Core

HMS Core 5.0 also adds three new kits relating to the phone’s audio, video, and image capabilities. The Audio Kit enables audio playback capabilities based on the HMS Core ecosystem, including audio encoding, decoding capabilities at the hardware level and system bottom layer. The Image Kit allows you to incorporate scene-specific design and animation production functions into your app. The Video Kit currently provides for video playback capabilities, and work is on to incorporate video editing and even video hosting APIs in later releases. This will let you easily build apps that can play streaming media from an address provided by a third party.

Other upgrades to HMS Core

While the major focus of the version release is the new APIs, several new APIs are also getting new features. For instance, the Scan Kit now features deep learning-based scanning codes to improve scanning accuracy in more challenging situations with higher response speeds. The Map Kit has gained bus and subway route planning information, so developers can now use these to improve the functions within their apps. The Location Kit now supports fence management capabilities.

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HMS presents itself as a window of opportunity for reducing your app’s reliance on Google services as well as an opening into Huawei and Honor’s device ecosystem, which still forms a substantial and unignorable part of the market. Huawei is in one of the rare positions of being able to offer a robust set of alternative APIs that provide a similar set of expected functionalities to both developers and users. Huawei intends to move ahead with HMS Core integration within its devices, so as a developer, can you really afford to ignore this important part of the market?

Check out all API Kits present in Huawei Mobile Services

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