Google launches its new Nest Aware subscription service to simplify smart home management

In response to user feedback regarding the pricing of the current Nest Aware subscription plans, Google announced new affordable plans back in October last year. However, at the time, the company only detailed the new plans and revealed that the plans would be launched early this year. In keeping with the previous announcement, Google is now finally rolling out the new Nest Aware subscription plans in 19 countries around the world.

The new Nest Aware plans, which will be available in 19 markets starting this week, offer more affordable and simplified pricing. As a recent blog post from the company points out, users will now be able to choose one subscription for all their Nest smart home devices — including cameras, speakers, and displays —instead of paying per device.

You can either choose the standard Nest Aware plan for $6 a month (or $60 annually) to get 30 days of event video history or you can get the Nest Aware Plus plan for $12 a month (or $120 annually) to get 60 days of event video history and 10 days of 24/7 video history. Both the plans also include integrated 911 call support in the Google Home app (U.S only).

In case you already have an existing Nest Aware plan, you’ll be able to easily upgrade to the new plan from the Google Store. But upgrading to the new plan will require you to migrate your Nest account to a Google account. If you’re happy with your existing plan and don’t intend on adding more devices to your Nest ecosystem, you also get the option to continue the old plan without any changes in pricing. It’s also worth noting that the new Nest Aware settings are now available in the latest version of the Google Home app (v2.22.1.11); which we had previously spotted in a teardown of the Google Home app earlier this year.

Along with the new Nest Aware plans, Google is also updating the price for some of its Nest products. Starting today, the Nest Hub will be available at a revised price of $89.99 and the Nest Cam Indoor will be available for $129.99.

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Source: Google Blog, Google Nest Help

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Realme announces long term beta and Android 11 Early Access for the Realme X2 Pro

According to Google, the first beta of Android 11 should be available on June 3rd, 2020. The Mountain View giant had to delay the release due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and consequently published yet another Developer Preview version to fill the void. While the Developer Preview builds are meant for the Pixel lineup, Realme has now announced that the owners of the Realme X2 Pro will soon get “Early Access” to Android 11.

Realme X2 Pro XDA Forums ||| Buy Realme X2 Pro from Flipkart

For your information, this is not the first time a Realme phone gets whitelisted for receiving work-in-progress build of an upcoming Android version. The OEM has labelled the year-long program as “Long-term Beta”, and they are planning to perform some kind of closed beta testing of freshly baked Realme UI features during this time period. The second phase is more interesting, as it will introduce Android 11 in its beta form to the Realme X2 Pro. We are, however, not sure whether Realme is going to seamlessly replace the underlying layer of Realme UI with Android 11 or publish an AOSP-based beta instead.

The enrollment process is quite simple: users who posted at least one post on Realme’s official community need to fill this Google Form before May 18th. The selected beta testers will be announced on May 22nd. The company will allow only 100 applicants for the initial wave, though. For those wanting to restore the stable version of Realme UI based on Android 10, a special rollback build should be available soon.

Realme recently published the Android 10 kernel source code for the Realme X2 Pro. The custom development scene for their first true flagship is flourishing as well. Hopefully the long term beta will play a vital role shaping Realme’s custom skin and prepare it to adopt the changes coming with the next big update of Android.

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Source: Realme Community

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The Huawei Mate 30 series will get the EMUI 10.1 update globally next month

Due to the US trade ban, Huawei is barred from conducting business with US-based companies. One of the direct implications of this decision in the Android context is that the company can no longer ship Google apps on its phones. However, that isn’t stopping the Chinese smartphone maker from providing its phones with the latest software updates via EMUI 10.1.

In March, Huawei unveiled the Huawei P40 series that came running EMUI 10.1, a slightly updated version of EMUI 10. Shortly after the launch, the company released a list of phones that would be receiving the EMUI 10.1 update with Android 10. As promised the company rolled out a beta of EMUI 10.1 based on Android 10 to the Huawei Mate 30, P30, and Nova 5T. What remained unclear, however, was the exact timeline about the stable rollout. But that changes today.

Huawei Mate 30 XDA Forums

A Huawei spokesperson has now confirmed to us that the company is planning to release the stable EMUI 10.1 update based on Android 10 to the Huawei Mate 30 series in mid-June. In the first phase, the update will be rolled out to users in the UK, Spain, France, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, with the rollout hopefully expanding to more regions at a later date. It should be noted that the Chinese variants of Huawei Mate 30 have already received a stable update.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro XDA Forums

As a refresher, the Huawei Mate 30 series was announced in September last year — consisting of the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro. The Pro variant packed a curved 6.53-inch OLED display, quad cameras, Exynos 990 SoC, up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, a 4,500 battery, and IP68 dust and water resistance. The standard Mate 30, on the other hand, featured a flat 6.63-inch display, a smaller 4,200 mAh battery, IP53 rating, and retained the 3.5mm jack. The Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro were the first phones to launch outside China without Google apps. The phones came running EMUI 10 based on Android 10 but swapped Google Mobile Services (GMS) for Huawei’s own Huawei Mobile Services (HMS).

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Google Lens tests a new Education mode for solving math problems and a new Places mode to look up buildings

Earlier this year in March, an APK teardown of the Google App v11.3.7.29 revealed two unreleased features — Offline Translations and an Education Mode for Google Lens. At the time, we managed to briefly surface the Education mode and learned that the mode would allow users to solve math problems by pointing the camera at an equation. However, we weren’t able to see the mode in action in the previous release. Google recently started rolling out version 11.9.14.29 of the Google App and our Editor-in-Chief, Mishaal Rahman, has now successfully managed to enable the Education mode.

As you can see in the screenshots below, the new Education mode in Google Lens allows you to easily solve math problems by simply pointing your smartphone’s camera at the equation. The feature works pretty much like the Microsoft Math Solver or the Photomath app, making use of Google’s AI to identify the equation and then subsequently deliver a result.

Unlike the other two apps, however, the feature also brings up related search results to help users understand how it reached the solution. It’s worth noting that we aren’t completely sure of the new Education mode’s capabilities and whether it will be able to solve complex equations like Math Solver and Photomath.

 

Additionally, Mishaal also managed to surface another upcoming Google Lens mode called Places that will help users recognize famous landmarks in a similar fashion. While we weren’t able to properly test the Places mode due to the current travel limitations, we tried using it with some images of famous buildings from Google Images.

As of now, the feature doesn’t work with images of landmarks but that might change by the time it’s officially released. Speaking of which, we currently don’t have any information from Google regarding these new modes or when they will be released to the public.

Google (Free, Google Play) →

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[Update: Launched in India] FreeBuds 3 are Huawei’s newest wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation and wireless charging

Update 1 (05/13/2020 @ 03:55 AM ET): Huawei has launched the FreeBuds 3 in India. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on September 7, 2019, is preserved below.

Huawei is taking the stage at IFA 2019 to announce some important devices in its portfolio. First up was the Kirin 990 and Kirin 990 5G flagship SoCs, one of which comes with an integrated modem, and which will find their way inside the upcoming Huawei Mate 30 series smartphones. Next up was the Huawei P30 Pro, which received dual-tone color finish options. At the event, Huawei also announced the FreeBuds 3: their newest wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation.

The Huawei FreeBuds 3 are visually identical to the Apple Airpods, and the similarities are very obvious in the design of the earbuds, though the charging case sees some variance. The earbuds individually weigh just 4.5g each, while the charging case weighs 48g on its own.

The FreeBuds 3 employ HiSilicon’s Kirin A1 Bluetooth chipset that lets it enjoy dual-mode Bluetooth 5.1  and BLE 5.1 connectivity support, as well as allowing the FreeBuds 3 pair to deliver true stereo sound simultaneously yet independently with a claimed latency as low as 190ms. The earbuds come with a high-sensitivity 14mm dynamic driver.

The standout feature on these earbuds is the fact that they come with active noise cancellation, promising to eliminate background noise and enhance voice output during calls, despite being an open-fit style earbuds. The built-in bone voice sensor also helps pick up your voice better and reduce ambient sound around it. Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) can also be controlled by double-tapping the left earbud.

For charging, the Huawei FreeBuds 3 relies on its rounded charging case to provide up to 20 hours of battery life with its 410mAh battery, and 4 hours of music playback by themselves through their individual 30mAh battery. You can charge the case with a USB Type-C cable, or wirelessly through a wireless charger or a phone with reverse wireless charging. The earbuds and case come in Ceramic White and Carbon Black color variants. Pricing and market availability have not been announced, but we reckon these will see marketing centered around the Huawei Mate 30 series.

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Update: Huawei FreeBuds 3 launched in India for ₹12,990

Huawei has finally launched the FreeBuds 3 in India. Available in White, Black, and Red colors, these Bluetooth earbuds from Huawei with active noise cancellation will be an Amazon.in-exclusive. They are priced at ₹12,990. The earbuds will go on sale from May 20, 2020 onwards.

Buy the Huawei FreeBuds 3 from Amazon.in

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Samsung Internet 12 beta adds support for multiple password autofill apps

Samsung Internet is one of the most popular Chromium-based web browsers out there, as it packs in a number of additional features that you don’t get on Google Chrome. These include things like a built-in autoplay video blocker, the ability to block links that open apps, and much more. What’s even better is that the browser keeps getting new features ever so often. Most recently, a beta update for the browser introduced a privacy feature that helps you prevent sites that stop you from going back. Now, with the latest beta update, the Samsung Internet browser is getting support for multiple password autofill apps.

Up until now, one of the few drawbacks of using the Samsung Internet browser was that it only allowed you to store your login credentials in Samsung’s own cloud storage. This proved to be a bit of a hassle for people who depend on other password managers like LastPass. With the latest beta release, however, the browser is finally getting support for multiple password autofill apps.

As a recent report from Android Police points out, Samsung Internet beta 12.0.1.4 brings partial support for the Autofill API that was introduced with Android 8.0 Oreo. For the unaware, the Autofill API is designed to work equally well with any password manager you use. But since Samsung Internet is enforcing a whitelist system, it currently only supports 1Password, LastPass, and Dashlane. Google’s own password manager and Firefox Lockwise still aren’t supported in the latest update.

Along with the third-party password autofill app support, the latest beta release updates the rending engine to Chromium 79. This is a massive improvement over the Chromium 71 engine core that is currently in use on the stable channel. Sadly though, the browser doesn’t seem to support the dark themes provided by websites; a feature that was introduced in Chrome 76 last year and later improved in Chrome 77. According to the changelog on APK Mirror, the update also brings an option that will allow users to open links in secret mode from the context menu.

Samsung Internet Browser Beta (Free, Google Play) →

Download Samsung Internet beta 12.0.1.4 from APK Mirror

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Via: Android Police

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LG is working on a crazy new dual screen smartphone that swivels horizontally

With an increasing number of smartphone OEMs releasing dual-screen devices last year, South Korean manufacturer LG also jumped on the bandwagon with the launch of the LG V50. However, the company’s approach to a dual-screen smartphone wasn’t anything like the Samsung Galaxy Fold or the Huawei Mate X. Instead of a foldable display, the company offered an optional dual-screen attachment with the LG V50, which was later also offered with the G8X ThinQ and the V60 ThinQ. Now, it seems like LG is planning to ditch the dual-screen attachment in favor of a new, more radical design.

According to a recent report from Korean publication ETNews, the company is currently working on a new smartphone, code-named LG Wing, which is expected to hit the market in the second half of this year. Unlike existing foldable dual-screen devices, the Wing features a second 4-inch display hidden beneath the main 6.8-inch display that can be accessed by swiveling the main display into a horizontal position.

As you can see in the image above, the second screen on the LG Wing focuses on increasing content immersion by allowing you to use the keyboard without obstructing the content on the main display. Additionally, the second screen can also be used in the portrait orientation to show related information while you work on the main display. Much like the recently released LG Velvet, the upcoming LG Wing is expected to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 700 series processor with 5G capability. The device will be equipped with a triple camera setup on the back, with a 64MP primary sensor, and the rest of the specifications will fall in line with LG’s ‘mass premium’ market strategy.

In order to highlight its premium image, the LG Wing is also expected to come with a personalization service that will allow buyers to choose the color of their device. As mentioned earlier, the device is scheduled to hit the market in the second half of this year with a price tag close to 1 million Won (~$816).

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Source: Heraldcorp, ETNews

Image courtesy of ETNews

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