2019 was the year of rejuvenation for Motorola. The company finally caught up with other smartphone brands in terms of the frequency of launches, dishing out three new phones under the Motorola One series, reviving the iconic Motorola Razr, and diversifying the G series. Besides the regular monikers – such as Plus and Play variants – in the G Series, Motorola announced the Moto G Power and the Moto G Stylus – intriguingly without the numeric identifier. Adding to these, the company also launched the Moto G8 Power Lite for Europe and LATAM regions last month and is now bringing the smartphone to India.
The “Power Lite” variant is a new addition in Motorola’s G Series and it sits between the Moto G8 Play and the Moto e6s global variants. The Moto G8 Power Lite uses a single unibody shell made of polycarbonate with a presumably matte finish. The phone comes in two colors – Arctic Blue and Royal Blue. The display on the front measures 6.5-inches and has an HD+ resolution.
The phone is powered by a MediaTek Helio P35 chipset and comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage as standard. The storage can be expanded further but there’s a hybrid SIM slot that can be limiting for certain users.
For photography, the Moto G8 Power Lite features a 16MP primary camera, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro camera. The front notch features an 8MP selfie camera.
Software-wise, the G8 Power Lite runs on Android 9 Pie out of the box with a clean and near-stock experience. In addition, the phone supports Moto gestures for opening the Camera app and flashlight.
Pricing & Availability
Motorola has set a price of ₹8,499 (~$112) for the smartphone. It will be available in India starting May 29th and sold exclusively via Flipkart.
Update 1 (05/21/2020 @ 03:00 AM ET): The POCO M2 Pro has been spotted on certification websites. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on May 6, 2020, is preserved below.
Shortly after the launch of the POCO X2 earlier this year, we learned that a new POCO phone was in the works. However, we knew it to be a flagship device called the POCO F2 Pro which would essentially be a rebranded version of the Redmi K30 Pro. But we now have evidence to believe that the POCO F2 Pro isn’t the only device that the company is working on right now and it may soon launch another mid-range device.
A new device, called the POCO M2 Pro, was recently spotted on the Mi India website, in the section where Xiaomi lists data from its SAR testing. The device has the model name “M2003J6CI” and, according to an analysis conducted by XDA tipsters kacskrz and akhilnarang, the device has the code-name “gram.” Kacskrz has also spotted firmware for “gram_in_global”, which suggests that the phone will launch in India. Interestingly, the code-name “gram” has previously appeared in the kernel source code for the Redmi Note 9 Pro and a watermark for “gram” has also appeared in the firmware for the Redmi Note 9 Pro.
Since the Note 9 Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G, we suspect that the upcoming POCO M2 Pro may also feature the same SoC. However, we can’t be sure of this, since it’s possible that the device is running on a Qualcomm processor that’s software compatible with the Snapdragon 720G, which would also explain why references to “gram” appear in the Redmi Note 9 Pro’s kernel source code and firmware. What we can safely assume, however, is that this POCO M2 Pro may be a mid-range smartphone powered by a Snapdragon 7 series processor.
It’s also worth mentioning that Xiaomi has since removed all mention of the POCO M2 Pro from the website, but you can still see the listing in an archived version of the page.
Update: POCO M2 Pro spotted on certification websites
The POCO M2 Pro has been spotted on Bluetooth and WiFi certification websites.
These certification listings confirm the existence of the POCO M2 Pro along with its codename, affirming the previous information we reported on the device. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot to learn about the device beyond this information. We’ll keep you posted when we find out more.
An APK teardown of the YouTube app on Android (v15.13.33) early last month revealed that the platform was working on a new feature called Bedtime Reminders. Now, according to a recent report from The Verge, YouTube has officially announced the new feature to help users log off the platform at night.
The bedtime reminders feature, much like the break reminders feature, gives you the option to set up a bedtime beforehand. Once that’s set up, the app then reminds you to go to sleep if you’re still watching videos at bedtime. In case you’re in the middle of an interesting video and don’t wish to be disturbed by a reminder, the app gives you an option to defer the reminder until you’ve finished watching the current video. You’ll also be able to snooze the reminder for 10 minutes or dismiss it altogether.
To set a bedtime reminder, you’ll have to navigate to the app’s settings page, tap on General, turn on the ‘Remind me when it’s bedtime’ option, and then select a start/end time for the reminders. Alternatively, you can tap on your profile picture in the YouTube app and then open up the ‘Time Watched’ section to set up a reminder.
Much like the break reminders feature, the ultimate goal of bedtime reminders is to help you use YouTube more responsibly and get a good night’s rest instead of getting sucked into the YouTube vortex. In a blog post on the matter, YouTube claims that its Digital Wellbeing tools have been quite popular so far and the company has sent over 3 billion “take a break” reminders since the feature was launched back in 2018. YouTube is rolling out bedtime reminders to both the Android and iOS apps starting today and the feature should reach all users over the next few days.
Update 3 (05/21/2020 @ 01:48 AM ET): Xiaomi has updated its browser settings to be clearer in their purpose, removing previous confusion.
Update 2 (05/03/2020 @ 10:14 AM ET): In its blog post update, Xiaomi has mentioned that its browsers will be updated with an option to allow users to opt-out of tracking in incognito mode.
Update 1 (05/01/2020 @ 03:36 PM EST): Xiaomi has published a blog post in response to these allegations. Scroll down for the update. The original story, as published on May 1st, 2020, at 06:18 AM EST, is as follows.
Xiaomi smartphones are unanimously agreed to be one of the best value purchases available in the market at any point in time. Packing some insane hardware at some very lucrative price points, especially at the lower end of the smartphone market, these phones make an offer that a lot of people just can’t refuse. Xiaomi has also been receptive to the needs of the developer community, with decisions such as allowing bootloader unlocking without sacrificing the manufacturer’s warranty — a combination that a lot of other popular OEMs discard, as well as vastly improving upon their kernel source releases. These reasons make them one of the most popular devices in our forums, and they have rightfully earned that spot of popularity.
However, recent reports from security researchers point towards a worrying privacy issue observed on Xiaomi’s web browsers. Forbes’ cybersecurity contributor and associate editor Thomas Brewster, along with cybersecurity researchers Gabriel Cirlig and Andrew Tierney recently concluded in a report that Xiaomi’s various web browsers were sending data to remote servers. They allege that the data being sent included a history of all websites visited, including the URLs, all search engine queries, and all the items viewed on Xiaomi’s news feed, along with device metadata. What’s even worrying about this data collection allegation is that this data is being collected even if you seemingly browse with “incognito mode” enabled.
This data collection seemingly occurs on the pre-installed stock browser on MIUI, as well as Mi Browser Pro and Mint Browser, both of which are available for download through the Google Play Store. Together, these browsers have over 15 million downloads on the Play Store, while the stock browser is preloaded on all Xiaomi devices. The devices tested include the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8, Xiaomi Mi A1, Xiaomi Mi 10, Xiaomi Redmi K20, and the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3. There wasn’t a distinction between Xiaomi’s Android One or MIUI devices, as the collection code was found in the default browser anyway. As such, this issue does not appear to be MIUI-centric but depends on whether you use any of these three browsers on your device, irrespective of the underlying OS. Other browsers, like Google Chrome and Apple Safari collect far less data, restricting themselves to usage and crash analytics.
Xiaomi responded by seemingly confirming that the browsing data it was collecting was fully compliant with local laws and regulations on user data privacy matters. The collected information was user-consented and anonymized. However, the company denied the claims in the research.
The research claims are untrue. Privacy and security is of top concern.
This video shows the collection of anonymous browsing data, which is one of the most common solutions adopted by internet companies to improve the overall browser product experience through analyzing non-personally identifiable information.
The researchers, however, found this claim of anonymity to be dubious. The data that Xiaomi was sending was admittedly “encrypted”, but it was encoded in base64, which can easily be decoded. Since the browsing data can be decoded in a rather trivial manner, and since the collected data also contained device metadata, this browsing data could seemingly be correlated to the actions by individual users without significant effort.
Further, the researchers found that the Xiaomi browsers were pinging domains related to Sensors Analytics, a Chinese startup also known as Sensors Data, known for providing behavioral analytics services. The browsers also contained an API called SensorDataAPI. Xiaomi is also listed as a customer on the Sensors Data website.
Xiaomi has responded to the report from Forbes with denial on several aspects:
While Sensors Analytics provides a data analysis solution for Xiaomi, the collected anonymous data are stored on Xiaomi’s own servers and will not be shared with Sensors Analytics, or any other third-party companies.
The researchers responded against Xiaomi’s denial with further proof of their data collection practice.
The parameter data_list is the one I am interested in.
With the information available at hand, there does appear to be a worrying privacy issue in the way these browsers function. We’ve reached out to Xiaomi for further comment on these claims.
In an official blog post on Mi.com, Xiaomi strongly denied the allegations that they were violating user privacy.
“Xiaomi was disappointed to read the recent article from Forbes. We feel they have misunderstood what we communicated regarding our data privacy principles and policy. Our user’s privacy and internet security is of top priority at Xiaomi; we are confident that we strictly follow and are fully compliant with local laws and regulations. We have reached out to Forbes to offer clarity on this unfortunate misinterpretation.”
The company confirms that they collect “aggregated usage statistics data,” which includes “system information, preferences, user interface feature usage, responsiveness, performance, memory usage, and crash reports.” They state that this information “cannot alone be used to identify any individual.” They confirm that URLs are collected, but that this is done to “identify web pages which load slowly” so they can figure out “how to best improve overall browsing performance.”
Next, the company states that individual browsing data history is synced, but that this is only done when “the user is signed on Mi Account…and the data sync function is set to ‘On’ under Settings.” They deny that browsing data, apart from the aforementioned aggregated usage statistics data, is being synced when the user has enabled incognito mode.
Xiaomi then published screenshots of code snippets from one of their browser apps (they did not specify which browser, though) that they claim demonstrate their points. The first code snippet, according to Xiaomi, shows a decompiled method for “how [they] create randomly generated unique tokens to append to aggregate usage statistics.” They state that “these tokens do not correspond to any individuals.” The next code snippet is seemingly from the browser’s source code and shows a method for “how the Mi Browser works under incognito mode, where no user browsing data will be synced.” The third code snippet demonstrates that the aggregated usage statistics that Xiaomi collects are “stored on Xiaomi’s domain” and aren’t passed to Sensor Analytics. Finally, the fourth image “shows that usage statistic data is transferred with HTTPS protocol of TLS 1.2 encryption.”
To cap it all off, Xiaomi then cites 4 certifications their software has received from TrustArc and British Standard Institution (BSI). These certifications include ISO27001:2013, ISO27018:2014, ISO29151:2017, and TRUSTe.
In response to this blog post, cybersecurity researcher Andrew Tierney took to Twitter to refute Xiaomi’s claims. He states that he and several others re-confirmed the findings across multiple devices—that there “is no doubt that the Mint Browser sends search terms and URLS whilst in Incognito mode.” He states that the code that Xiaomi published does not demonstrate that their “randomly generated unique tokens” can’t be correlated to individuals. The researchers note that the UUID seems to persist across browsing sessions and only changes when the browser is re-installed. Whether Xiaomi only stores the data on their own servers or elsewhere was not a point of contention for the researcher, too. In addition, the researcher states that Xiaomi wasn’t accused of sending the data to remote servers through insecure methods—Mr. Tierney notes that the issue at hand is the data itself that is being sent.
We’re glad to see Xiaomi address these allegations directly, but the explanation does not seem to satisfy the researchers at this point. We will keep an eye on this story for further developments.
Update 2: Xiaomi to offer opt-out option in next browser update
Xiaomi has updated its blog post to announce that the next update to Mint Browser and Mi Browser will include an option in incognito mode to switch off the “aggregated” data collection. The software updates will be submitted to Google Play Store for approval today itself and should be available to users pretty soon.
It remains to be seen whether this data collection will remain enabled by default within the incognito mode, or not. We hope it isn’t. Still, having an option to opt-out works to address some privacy concerns.
Update 3: Xiaomi is updating its Mi Browser and Mint Browser to clarify its incognito data collection toggle
While Xiaomi did address the privacy concerns with a new settings toggle, what actually happened was that the language used for the toggle was misleading, achieving the opposite of what was written. As Android Authority points out, the “enhanced incognito mode” toggle said: “Aggregated data stats won’t be uploaded when incognito mode is on”, which led users to believe that flipping the toggle on would make this statement true. But this was not the case. The wording reflected the current state of the toggle, and was not a true/false statement that you change by flipping the switch.
Old behavior
Now, Xiaomi has updated Mi Browser and Mint Browser to have better language on this toggle. The toggle is now called “Help us improve Mi/Mint Browser“, and the accompanying text says “Turn on to share usage stats with us when incognito mode is on“, with the text remaining the same when you flip the switch. This is much more clear to the purpose and the active state of the setting.
New behavior
In both the versions, the toggle needs to be in the off state if you wish to not have your data collected in incognito mode. It’s just the text that is changing to better reflect the state. The new update to both the browsers is being pushed to the Google Play Store.
Back in August last year, three Chinese OEMs — Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo — formed an alliance for the development of a new P2P file transfer protocol to simplify cross-device file transfers. The solution aimed to offer an AirDrop like experience in the Android ecosystem by allowing devices from different manufacturers to seamlessly share files between them. After months of development, it was finally rolled out earlier this year in February and now, a few more manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon.
According to recent posts on Chinese social media platform Weibo, OnePlus, Realme, Meizu, and Black Shark have now joined the P2P file transfer alliance. Thanks to this, cross-device file transfer support will soon be coming to devices from these manufacturers, allowing users to easily share files without the need for any third-party applications. The move is expected to benefit over 400 million users around the world.
For the unaware, the file transfer protocol supports a variety of file formats and it even lets users share entire folders with each other. The protocol supports file transfer speeds in the order of 20MBps over a stable connection, which is significantly better than file transfers over Bluetooth.
As of now, OnePlus, Realme, and Meizu haven’t revealed exactly when the feature will be released on their respective Android skins. However, as a recent report from BusinessWire points out, Black Shark’s new JoyUI 11 already includes support for the P2P file transfer protocol. The company recently rolled out JoyUI 11 for the Black Shark 2 and Black Shark 2 Pro, which means that these devices should already feature support for the file transfer protocol, along with the company’s latest Black Shark 3 series.
The big buzzword for mobile carriers right now is “5G,” and there’s little chance the marketing and hype will slow down anytime soon. After all, 5G is a great opportunity for carriers to plaster big, impressive-sounding numbers on every billboard and TV commercial. The only problem is that a lot of what they’re hyping up means little to the vast majority of people. Thankfully, two of the biggest offenders of overhyping 5G, AT&T and Verizon, are facing heavy criticism within the industry for misleading consumers.
We’ll start with AT&T, which has already faced its fair share of scrutiny over its bogus “5G Evolution” marketing. T-Mobile and Verizon pushed back against the moniker, and Sprint even went as far as suing the company (though they later settled). Now, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) is recommending that AT&T stop its “5G Evolution” advertising. If you’re not familiar with the BBB, they’re a private, nonprofit organization that was set up with the goal to improve consumer trust in businesses. (The BBB has had its fair share of controversies over favoritism and being generally toothless, but businesses tend to self-adhere to BBB standards or at least listen to consumer complaints filed with the BBB in order to appear better than competitors.)
Why the BBB is relevant to this story is because the National Advertising Review Board, which is part of the BBB, said AT&T should discontinue advertising “5G Evolution” as being “The First Step to 5G.” The panel determined this claim is misleading “reasonable consumers into believing that AT&T is offering a 5G network” when industry tests have found 5G E to be slower than other carriers’ 4G LTE networks. AT&T said it “respectfully disagrees” with the decision, but that it will stop the advertisements nonetheless. More importantly, however, is that AT&T refuses to stop the “5G E” branding on devices.
Verizon, like AT&T, has its own situation brewing with the BBB. The National Advertising Division of the BBB has told Verizon to stop claiming that it’s “building the most powerful 5G experience for America” and recommends it make it clear to consumers that the availability of its 5G network is very limited. Verizon has agreed to update its disclosures but will appeal the decision on the network construction claims.
Another concern of the NAD is Verizon’s spotty coverage in cities, some of which is only in stadiums and airports. The NAD said that Verizon’s billboards implied 5G coverage was coming wherever the ads were placed and the small print was obscured by colors and video transitions. Humorously, AT&T is the one that brought forth the initial complaint about the misleading Verizon ads.
While AT&T and Verizon are both fielding criticism from the BBB, mobile analytics company OpenSignal has released its 5G report detailing the 5G networks of popular carriers. The report compares network speeds across South Korea, Australia, the UK, and the US. In terms of speed, Verizon came out as the clear winner. The carrier’s Ultra Wideband (mmWave) network had average download speeds of 506 Mbps which was significantly higher than speeds possible with the other US carriers. Sprint averaged 114 Mbps, AT&T had 62 Mbps, and T-Mobile was last with 47 Mbps.
Of course, speed is only one part of the equation. In the case of 5G, coverage is a much bigger issue. OpenSignal’s report also said that Verizon customers are only using 5G 0.5% of the time. This fact harkens back to the BBB and its criticism of Verizon inflating the actual availability of its 5G network. Even if you live in one of the cities that has Verizon’s UWB 5G network, you have to be in a pretty precise location to actually use it. The fact is that it’s just not available for many people, even if they do have a compatible phone.
The other US carriers fared better in terms of coverage area. T-Mobile customers are using 5G 19.8% of the time, while AT&T customers use it 9.7% of the time. This is because both T-Mobile and AT&T have sub-6GHz 5G networks, which are considerably slower than Verizon’s mmWave 5G network but have dramatically better coverage. Still, if you’re only using Verizon’s hyper-fast 5G 0.5% of the time, maybe it’s better to be using the other carriers slower offerings more often? Even then, Verizon’s speed advantages may be slipping away, as PCMag reports that T-Mobile’s recent acquisition of Sprint’s mid-band 5G network have allowed for download speeds to exceed 1Gbps in New York City.
Well that was unexpected… Just two weeks after the 2.5GHz NYC launch, @TMobile upgrades the NR bandwidth from 40 to 60MHz!
NR spectral efficiency further improves… 1.2Gbps. pic.twitter.com/wDZBB6Ml4X
5G will continue to be a battleground when it comes to carrier marketing. The data is currently not on the side of the carriers and their boastful claims, however. Right now, consumers just aren’t seeing the benefits that carriers are touting. Did you know, for example, that Verizon just enabled uploads over its 5G network?
Update (5/20/20 @ 4:55 PM ET): The “Area F2” game has been removed from the Play Store.
For every popular game out there, there’s an equally popular rip-off that eventually ends up getting sued by the original publisher. But we’ve hardly ever heard of a publisher suing the platform hosting the offending title. Well, that’s exactly what’s happening in the case of Alibaba’s Rainbow Six: Siege clone. According to a recent report from Bloomberg, Ubisoft has sued Google and Apple for hosting Alibaba’s ‘Area F2’ which is claimed to be a near-identical clone of Rainbox Six: Siege.
For the unaware, Area F2 is a game published by Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd’s Ejoy.com which was released in the U.S. late last month. Ubisoft alleges that the game is a “near carbon copy” of Rainbow Six: Siege and that can’t “seriously be disputed.” The original game has over 55 million registered players around the world, according to Ubisoft’s copyright infringement lawsuit and it’s played by over 3 million people each day. Rainbow Six: Siege (R6S) is also played as a competitive “esport” and has both professional and semi-professional teams competing for millions of dollars in prizes.
Area F2 — Screenshots from the Google Play Store
In a statement regarding the matter, Ubisoft said, “R6S is among the most popular competitive multiplayer games in the world, and is among Ubisoft’s most valuable intellectual properties…Virtually every aspect of AF2 is copied from R6S, from the operator selection screen to the final scoring screen, and everything in between.” Due to this, the company had previously notified Apple and Google that Area F2 is infringing its copyrights, but the companies refused to remove the game from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. This eventually led to Ubisoft suing both Apple and Google, accusing the companies of selling a ripoff of R6S on their respective platforms. Keep in mind that both the stores keep a cut out of every IAP, so they are earning revenue from hosting Area F2.
Rainbow Six: Siege — Screenshots from the Steam Store
As of now, representatives from Google have offered no comment on the lawsuit. On the other hand, Alibaba and Apple didn’t respond to requests for comment made after regular business hours.
After Ubisoft sued Google (and Apple) for hosting an alleged Rainbow Six: Siege clone, the “Area 52” game has been removed from the Play Store. The developers announced the removal with a message saying “We will terminate the service of the current version at 12 PM on May 20, 2020.” Support for the game will continue until June 20, 2020 at 12 PM PDT.
