APK Magic: Agustus 2018

Jumat, 31 Agustus 2018

Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL land at the FCC

The rumor mill has been nice enough to show us both of Google's upcoming smartphones, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, well ahead of the rumored October 9 launch date. And now it looks like the FCC is spending some time with the handsets. This is a required stop for both smartphones before they can launch to the public later this year, so it's good to see we're at least one step closer to making both officially official.

There is one interesting bit of information this time around. Unlike the previous years where Google's Pixel smartphones have stopped off at the FCC, this year's listings are actually filed by Google itself. Previously the FCC saw documentation filed by HTC and LG.

As is par for the course, there isn't a lot of information to parse through. However, it's likely that the Pixel 3′s model number is G013A while the Pixel 3 XL's model number is G013C. The FCC filing for both handsets also confirms that they will support all of the major wireless networks in the United States.

Whether or not that means Google is going to launch the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL on other carriers other than Verizon directly remains to be seen.

Sources: FCC (1), (2)

Android Match

ae

http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

Do you want Dunkin’ Donuts? Amazon Alexa can order some for you

We have some good news for those of you who are a fan of both Amazon Alexa and Dunkin' Donuts. The two companies have partnered up to make ordering donuts easier for their customers.

Those who have an Amazon Echo and a DD Perks account can connect the two in the Amazon Alexa app. From there you can say "Alexa, order from Dunkin' Donuts" and the assistant will ask you for details.

You have to select a store then select an order. You can set favorite orders in the Dunkin' Donuts mobile app. It's not as versatile as using the app, but it's easier if you have a favorite order that you get every time.

Are we going too far with ordering donuts from a smart speaker? Not really, because the donuts aren't being delivered. You still have to go to the store to pick them up. You get to skip the lines, but someone isn't bringing fresh donuts to your front door. So we have quite a bit further to go!

Android Match

ae

http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

Marshall announces Alexa and Google Assistant-enabled speakers coming later this year

Marshall has announced a set of new retro-styled speakers and they feature Amazon Alexa. The larger Stanmore II Voice and smaller Action II Voice both feature Amazon's voice assistant on top of Marshall's established speaker models.

But that's not the big news, as many of us are Google fans over Amazon's own assistant. Marshall announced that Google Assistant hasn't been forgotten and that Assistant-enabled speakers will be announced later this year.

The Stanmore II Voice will go for $399 and will launch on October 2, while pre-orders have already started. The Action II Voice will launch on November 9 for $299 and pre-orders start on October 2. Currently only the US is confirmed as a launch country. The speakers are pricey, but they should be even better when the Google Assistant variants launch.

Android Match

ae

http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

Qualcomm announces new aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codec

Qualcomm's Bluetooth codecs are quite impressive. Whether they're better than the competition is another story, but they're the most popular and well supported. Currently there are two: aptX HD and aptX Low Latency. One is for quality while the other prevents the delay that plagues Bluetooth.

Today Qualcomm has announced a new codec that combines the two. aptX Adaptive can do both: you can get "better than CD" quality or lower latency depending on what you require and how good your connection is. When you're listening to music, you'll get the best quality possible. When watching a movie, latency will be prioritized. The max bitrate is lower than aptX HD but Qualcomm claims that the quality is just as good thanks to improvements in compression.

The codec will make this determination during use to guarantee the best possible experience. Current devices that support aptX HD should be able to take advantage of aptX Adaptive if they're on Android Pie, but receiving devices will need a new audio chip, so your current hardware won't be able to use it.

Combining two codecs into one sounds like a great idea to us, and anything that improves the audio quality of Bluetooth is welcome. We do wonder how well the content adaptation will work, and if specific apps will have to have support added for the codec.

Android Match

ae

http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

Huawei Mate 20 Lite announced with 6.3-inch display for £379

Huawei has had a busy day at IFA. First, the company announced its newest high-end mobile processor, the Kirin 980, and confirmed it would be packed into the future flagship smartphone, the Mate 20.

After that, it unveiled its first smart speaker, the AI Cube (which is not actually a cube at all). And it also managed to find time to actually announce a smartphone, too. This is where the Mate 20 Lite comes in, featuring a mid-range design and spec sheet that aims to keep the price tag down. The Mate 20 Lite arrives in the United Kingdom beginning on September 15, and the SIM-free model is priced at £379.

The Mate 20 Lite features a 6.3-inch FHD+ display with a resolution of 1080×2340. There is Huawei's Kirin 710 processor inside, paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of built-in storage. The microSD card slot can support expandable storage up to 256GB if you need the extra space. There is a 3750mAh battery inside, and the Mate 20 Lite is running Android 8.1 Oreo under Huawei's proprietary EMUI 8.2 skin.

Meanwhile, the Mate 20 Lite has two cameras on the back. The 20MP primary shooter has an aperture of f/1.8, and it's accompanied by a 2MP sensor. Around front, the new handset has a 24MP "Fusion Pixel" camera with an aperture of f/2.0 that's also coupled with a 2MP camera. The Mate 20 Lite has a fingerprint reader on the back, too. Unfortunately, there's no water or dust resistance.

Carphone Warehouse and Vodaphone will launch the Mate 20 Lite on September 15. At some point in October, EE will also be offering the handset.

Is this your next daily driver?

Android Match

ae

http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

The Huawei AI Cube features Amazon Alexa and a 4G router

Smart speakers are starting to become a safe bet for companies, even if Google and Amazon are well ahead of the pack and don't seem to be slipping back anytime soon.

Of course, it helps when Amazon and Google can get their digital assistants on a variety of different devices, even smart speakers they don't make themselves. Take, for example, Huawei's AI Cube, which features Amazon Alexa on board.

The first thing you'll probably notice is that it looks like a Google Home, if a Home were to get elongated into a cone. You will probably also notice that the AI Cube is not actually a cube. This will probably lead to some fun interactions in people's homes when they say, "Yeah, this is the AI Cube. I know. It isn't a cube." But maybe that's Huawei's plan.

As far as features and specs go, Huawei managed to add at least one surprise in here. The AI Cube does feature Amazon Alexa, so that digital assistant will handle the voice-operated commands like playing music, checking the weather, keeping tabs on the news, and more.

The AI Cube features a SIM card slot, which means you can make it a 4G hotspot if you really wanted to. The device also has an Ethernet port, which means you can use it as a home Wi-Fi router as well. It measures in at 8.6 inches tall and it weighs two pounds. It has four microphones with far-field voice recognition on board, and Huawei says it will deliver high-performance audio quality.

The flat top houses the physical controls. That includes the ability to mute/unmute the microphones and the volume up/down controls as well.

Unfortunately, Huawei wasn't so forthcoming on price. The company did confirm that the AI Cube won't be launching in the United States, but it will be arriving in Europe "in the Christmas season". China won't be getting this exact model, but a variant that will probably not feature Alexa on board.

What do you think of the AI Cube's design?

Android Match

ae

http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

Huawei gives P20 Pro four new colors, including two leather options

It has been a few months since Huawei introduced the P20 Pro with its eye-catching color options, and now the company is back with four new hues.

Huawei has officially introduced four new color options for the P20 Pro, giving it a nice boost just before it officially announces its newest flagship smartphone in October. With the P20 Pro, Huawei introduced a pair of color gradient schemes, Twilight and Pink Gold. They made the smartphone standout in a sea of standard colors.

Now Huawei is welcoming two new gradient color options. The first is the most striking to date, called Morpho Aurora. Huawei says this is named after the morpho butterfly, and it has striking colors to match. Depending on the angle you're looking at the phone, it will look like a black, albeit shiny, handset. However, get it in the right light and the colors will explode across the surface. You can see the same purple and blue shade that's present in the Twilight variant of the P20 Pro, but there is also the addition of orange and yellow in there as well.

The second gradient option is called Mother of Pearl. It's not as bright or flashy as the other options, but there's a subtle shift in the white/off-white that can be seen. Huawei also included a copper trim to really help the handset stand out.

The two other options are brown and black, but these are genuine leather. It's been a while since we've seen a leather-backed phone, probably as far back as the LG G4.

These new color options definitely stand out, especially the Morpho Aurora variant. It would be nice to see smartphone manufacturers having a little more fun with color options in 2018.

The new colors and leather-backed options arrive on September 5. These variants feature 8GB of RAM and 256GB of built-in storage, with a retail price set at €999.

Android Match

ae

http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

Huawei will unveil the Mate 20 with Kirin 980 processor on October 16

The Huawei Mate 20 is coming soon, with the company confirming today when we should expect to see the official unveiling.

Huawei had plenty to talk about at this year's IFA, including unveiling its newest processor for smartphones and teasing the launch date for its newest flagship handset. The company took a moment to confirm that the Mate 20 will be announced on October 16 and that it will be the first smartphone powered by the Kirin 980 processor.

Of course, Huawei didn't actually announce anything about the phone, so we have to rely on what we've heard out of the rumor mill so far. If that pans out, then we should expect to see a 6.3-inch display, a battery that measures in at 4200mAh, and three cameras on the back.

We'll know more about the Mate 20 in October when Huawei announces the handset in London.

While that's something to look forward to, Huawei did announce the Kirin 980 today. This is Huawei's brand new 7nm system-on-chip (SoC), and it packs a lot of technology in a remarkably small package. The new processor is the first to boast Cortex-A76, and it comes packed with dual neural networks to handle processing routines.

TSMC manufactured the 7nm processor, which is based on a new octa-core architecture. There are two big cores that are clocked at 2.6GHz which handle heavy usage, including gaming. In the middle, there are a pair of middle cores that are clocked at 1.92GHz, which handle things like posting on social media networks. Finally, there are four Cortex-A55 cores running at 1.8GHz, which will handle playing music and the majority of backgrounds tasks.

The pair of Neural Processing Units (NPUs) are designed to help the Kirin 980 run artificial intelligence processes faster and more fluently. Huawei's example was image recognition. The Kirin 980 was able to identify 4,500 images per minute, while the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 managed to identify 2,371 during the same stretch of time.

That's not all, though. The Kirin 980 also comes with the brand new Mali G76 GPU. Huawei says this equals around 30 percent better efficiency, especially when playing intensive games on mobile devices. The processor also supports 2,133MHz LPDDR4X RAM, which should improve general multitasking.

That's an impressive processor, and it will be fun to see how well it handles out there in the real world when the Mate 20 launches into the public later this year.

Sources: Engadget (1), (2)

Android Match

ae

http://androidmatch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

Top 10 Android app updates this week: GIPHY, Kahoot!

Welcome back to our weekly Top 10 Android App Updates column, where we take a look at the most frequently upgraded apps for the week. We've found that one of the best ways to discover useful apps is to find the ones that are actually being updated by the developers rather than selecting the apps with the most installs. As in the past, we're going to filter out minor updates for the super-popular apps that have over 10 million installs, but we'll make exceptions for apps that have had significant updates. We hope you enjoy this weekly feature and that you discover some apps that end up being useful.