Samsung is planning to offer a debit card this summer

Samsung is the latest tech company looking to get into the personal finance game. According to Samsung, the company is planning to introduce a debit card for Samsung Pay this summer. The card will be backed by SoFi, an online personal finance company that has gained traction in the last five years.

Tech companies getting into personal finance is becoming a trend. The Apple Card is a credit card that was launched in 2019, whereas Google’s rumored to be working on a debit card of its own. Samsung’s plan is more in line with what we’re hearing about Google’s plan. The Samsung debit card will be tied into Samsung Pay and offer users more ways to manage money.

Samsung Pay was launched in 2015 and it allows select Galaxy devices to pay at virtually any terminal thanks to Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST). In contrast, platforms such as Google Pay and Apple Pay only use NFC for payments. To date, Samsung Pay has been about mobile payments and rewards, but the introduction of the debit card will bring new money management tools to the service as well.

This announcement comes as Samsung celebrates 5 years of Samsung Pay. The company says they will have more information to share in the coming weeks. What do you think of the idea of a Samsung debit card? Is this something you’re interested in?

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Source: Samsung

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Google’s messaging and communication apps are now led by a single team

If you are a person who follows technology news, you’re likely familiar with Google’s messaging problem. The company has launched many messaging services and several of these attempts have ended up abandoned, merged into different services, or rebranded. Google has repeatedly stated that they’re aware of this issue and they’re trying to clean things up. Its latest move is putting all of its communication apps under the same leadership.

Currently, Google has three main communication apps:

• Google Phone – Pre-installed dialer on Pixel and Android One devices.
• Google Duo – Video-calling for consumers, available to everyone in the Play Store.
• Google Messages – Default SMS and RCS app on some devices, available to everyone in the Play Store.

In addition to these three apps, Google also has Meet and Chat for G Suite customers. Javier Soltero was made the VP and GM of G Suite last year, which put him in charge of Meet and Chat. Soltero is behind the recent rebranding of Hangouts Meet and Chat. Now, Google is also putting him in charge of Phone, Duo, and Messages.

Previously, each of these services had a team that was operated largely independently from the others within Google. That’s why it’s not uncommon to see key features come to one service before the others. The apps themselves won’t be merging together, but the teams behind them will be combined under Soltero’s leadership.

The new team hopes to “drive more innovation and more clarity around how these products can fulfill their specific missions.” It doesn’t sound like Soltero plans to make any major changes right away. He even says it would be “irresponsible” to make rapid changes. It is worth noting, however, that it’s common at times of big change to say nothing will change, so we’ll have to wait and see how it turns out.

Google’s statement:

We are bringing all of Google’s collective communication products together under one leader and unified team that will be led by Javier Soltero, VP and GM of G Suite. Javier will remain in Cloud, but will also join the leadership team under Hiroshi Lockheimer, SVP of Platforms and Ecosystems. Outside of this update, there are no other changes to the personnel and Hiroshi will continue to play a significant role in our ongoing partnership efforts.

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Source: The Verge

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Google Lens can now copy text from your phone to computer, pronounce words, and more

Google Lens is one of the company’s products that has improved impressively since launch. Lens seems to be constantly getting new features and abilities. Today, Google showed off several additions to Lens that should make it an even more powerful tool.

First up is a feature that will be very welcomed to anyone who works with physical and digital documents. Google Lens already had great text recognition and now, not only can it copy the scanned text to your phone’s clipboard, it can also send it to another device. After you scan a document and select text, tap the “Copy to computer” option and choose another device with Chrome. The text will now be in that device’s clipboard.

Next up is a feature to help you pronounce words. Google Lens can already translate words, but now you can also use it to hear these words recited out loud. Of course, this doesn’t have to be only for words in different languages. It can be used to hear any word that you may not know how to pronounce. Simply select text with Lens and tap the “Listen” button to heart it.

Lastly, in-line Google Search results can help you define words and phrases. Select text in Google Lens and then you’ll see a Google Search tab slide up from the bottom with more information. No more opening a separate app to look something up. All of these features are rolling out to Android today.

Google Lens (Free, Google Play) →

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Source: Google

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The Dimensity 1000 Plus is a new 5G chip from MediaTek that supports 144Hz display

MediaTek is on a roll these days as they just unveiled yet another SoC after announcing the mid-ranger Helio G85 chipset. Dubbed as Dimensity 1000 Plus, the latest candidate belongs to the flagship-grade Dimensity 5G family and carries a handful of enhancements over the original Dimensity 1000 SoC. MediaTek wants to take the lion’s share of the flagship SoC market, which could be the prime reason behind launching a revised edition of an existing mobile platform within six months.

Connectivity

Similar to its predecessor, the Dimensity 1000 Plus (stylized as Dimensity 1000+) is built on a 7nm process and features an identical 5G modem. MediaTek, however, now added something called “5G UltraSave”, a built-in power saving mechanism that can dynamically switch between different power states to maximize the battery life. The modem itself capable of handling two 5G SIMs simultaneously, while it can also fall back to 4G depending on the connection quality.

144Hz Display Support

High refresh rate screens are the next big trend for smartphone displays and MediaTek likes to exploit the hype. The Dimensity 1000+ SoC natively supports 144Hz UHFR (ultra-high frame rate) display panels, while the dedicated MiraVision Picture Quality Engine inside the chipset can seamlessly upscale 4K SDR video contents to HDR10+. The company also backported their proprietary “AI PQ” tech from Smart TVs to smartphone displays via the new chipset to “enhance the picture quality of 4K videos and streams in real time”.

HyperEngine 2.0

HyperEngine, AKA the on-demand dynamic resource allocation module has received a new coat of paint. Version 2.0 now offers on-demand overclocking of CPU and GPU as well as several network optimizations, such as supporting 5G standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) modes simultaneously on both SIM slots (Call & Data Concurrency 2.0) and precise connectivity sensing across 5G NR, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi connections (Intelligent Multi-Network Prediction 2.0).

Availability

Vivo’s sub-brand iQOO has already announced that they are building a new phone based on the MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ platform. There is no word regarding the actual configuration or even a tentative release date, but we can easily speculate about a 144Hz screen as well as 5G connectivity on the upcoming device. On the other hand, it could be possible that MediaTek is going to phase out the original Dimensity 1000 in favor of the Dimensity 1000+, which is something that only time will tell.

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Source: MediaTek (1, 2)

Via: GSMArena

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NVIDIA announces 19 new games for GeForce NOW

NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW game-streaming service enjoys its share in the now-crowded game streaming market on the fact that it was one of the first to appear for end consumers. The service started beta testing for Android last year and opened up for everyone in February. NVIDIA had pledged to announce new games for GeForce NOW every week, and over the past weeks, it has kept to that promise on multiple occasions. Today, NVIDIA is announcing 19 new games that will now be available on GeForce NOW.

GeForce NOW  incorporates technology that utilizes AI and RTX GPUs to enable “the next generation of performance and visuals”. It’s NVIDIA’s improved deep learning neural network that “boosts frame rates while generating beautiful, sharp images for games”. Since the base technology is game streaming, games begin playing instantly when you fire them up. They also include an experience that has been optimized for cloud gaming and includes Game Ready Driver performance improvements, managed directly by NVIDIA.

Here is the complete list of new games that have been added to GeForce NOW this week:

• Population Zero
• Age of Conan: Unchained
• Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition
• Cube World
• Darksiders II
• Door Kickers: Action Squad
• EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair
• Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition
• Hitman: Blood Money
• King’s Bounty: Warriors of the North
• Sacred 2 Gold
• Space Hulk: Deathwing – Enhanced Edition
• STEINS;GATE
• Styx: Shards of Darkness
• The Guild II: Renaissance
• This Is the Police 2
• WORMS Armageddon
• WRC 7 FIA World Rally Championship
• X3: Terran Conflict

In addition to these, the service is also in the process of gaining access to the new Ghostrunner demo, the trailer of which was recently released by All In! Games.

Population Zero, from Emplex Games, has also been released on GeForce NOW at the same time as its PC launch via Steam.

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NVIDIA GeForce NOW (Free, Google Play) →

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A new version of Android TV may be coming, and it could be called Google TV

The market for Android TV Box is pretty erratic and confusing. Since the Nexus Player, Google’s efforts have been devoted to either making Chromecast dongles or enabling other OEMs to create their own smart TVs portfolio with devices running on the Android TV platform. Google, however, has been working on a 4K Android TV dongle for quite some time and even announced a new streaming device called ADT-3 for developers along with Android TV 10 in late 2019. Now, a recent report suggests that Google is working on a new streaming device actually available for consumers and running on the Android TV platform. Meanwhile, another suggests the platform could also be rebranded to Google TV.

The upcoming version of Android TV might come with significant improvements to the UI, lower hardware requirements, and more emphasis on movies and shows instead of apps. This content-focused approach is to ensure that the rumored streaming device can stand the competition from the likes of Amazon Fire Stick and Roku. Several of Protocol‘s sources confirmed these changes while one suggested that the upcoming device might be listed under the Nest brand, which is also owned by Google.

Protocol reports that Google is mulling the exact branding for the upcoming Android TV device and the addition to the Nest portfolio is quite possible. Meanwhile, 9to5Google also floats the idea of Google dropping the Android branding from Android TV and renaming it to Google TV. This is supported by a similar name change that a horde of other services such as Android Pay (now Google Pay), Android Wear (now Wear OS), Android Messages (now Messages) have gone through.

While Google I/O 2020 could have been the perfect platform to introduce the purported product, the conference had to be canceled due to COVID-19. Instead of an on-ground event, Google will be hosting an online event in June to announce the Android 11 Beta 1 but we can’t say for sure if this TV box would be announced then. While it’s natural to link the TV remote that passed through FCC back in March with this device, that remote might be for another telecommunication hardware (perhaps a video conferencing equipment) that Google is building.

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Samsung Galaxy A51 receives One UI 2.1 with April 2020 security patches

The Galaxy S20 series and Galaxy Z Flip were the first phones to run the latest revision of One UI. Since then Samsung has brought the new update to several of its high-end phones such as the Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 10, and Galaxy Fold. After updating the Galaxy Note 10 Lite and Galaxy S10 Lite last month, Samsung has now begun rolling out One UI 2.1 to the Galaxy A51 in multiple regions, giving the same update treatment to its upper mid-range phone.

Galaxy A51 XDA Forums || Buy Samsung Galaxy A51 from Amazon.in

Coming in at over 1.2GB in size, the update bumps the software version from A515FXXU2ATB1 to A515FXXU3BTD4 and also brings along April 2020 security patches. In terms of new features, the update adds new AR emoji, Quick Share feature for local file sharing, improvements to Samsung Keyboard and the Gallery app, and many other under-the-hood changes. As pointed out by our resident firmware expert Skanda Hazarika, this update has also bumped the bootloader version from v2 to v3, meaning it will not be possible for users to downgrade to previous software versions after installing this update.

The update is reportedly rolling out to Galaxy A51 users in parts of Egypt, Israel, Kenya, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Turkey and will likely extend to more markets including India in the following days.

Notably, Samsung has left out many of the One UI 2.1 specific features in this update such as Android 10’s Live Caption mode, AR Zone app, a Pro mode for video shooting, and Night Hyper Lapse Mode.

Launched in late December last year, the Galaxy A51 is an upper mid-range smartphone from Samsung, packing a 6.5-inch AMOLED display, Exynos 9811 octa-core SoC, quad cameras, 6GB of RAM, and a 4,000 mAh battery. It was launched with Android 10 with One UI 2.0 on top.

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Via: SamMobile

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