Google Search will start ranking websites based on “page experience” next year

Google Search is responsible for a huge amount of web traffic. Anyone that runs a website knows how important it is to rank highly on Google. So it’s always a very big deal when the company changes the way it ranks websites. Today, Google announced a new ranking algorithm that will start taking “page experience” into consideration.

“Page experience” is all about how users perceive the experience of interacting with a webpage. Simply put, if Google thinks people don’t enjoy using a website, it will not rank it as highly in Search results. There are a number of metrics and considerations used to understand how a user perceives the experience.

Some of these considerations include page loading speed, interactivity, and the stability of content as it loads. Google calls these things “Core Web Vitals.” In addition, Google is using some existing signals, including mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS, and intrusive ads. All of these things together make up the “page experience” secret sauce.

If you’ve ever accidentally tapped the wrong thing because content on the page was jumping around, that’s something Google Search would consider a bad experience. It’s important to note, however, that page experience isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to ranking. The company says it will still rank pages “with the best information overall, even if some aspects of page experience are subpar.” In other words, delivering the information that the user is looking for is still ultimately the goal. But if there are pages with similar content, page experience becomes a differentiating factor.

Google says these changes will not be going live this year. The company will give 6-months notice before they go live sometime in 2021. If you have a website, it’s time to get ready for the changes.

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Source: Google | Via: Search Engine Land

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HMD Global launches 3 budget Nokia smartphones for Cricket Wireless

Since HMD Global licensed the rights to the Nokia smartphone brand, the company has been releasing out new Android smartphones like it’s nobody’s business. They’ve released a few high-end smartphones but they’ve mostly focused on mid-range and budget devices. In the U.S., HMD Global sells a lot of budget Nokia smartphones through carriers. Today, the company announced the Nokia C5 Endi, Nokia C2 Tava, and Nokia C2 Tennen for Cricket Wireless.

These 3 new Nokia smartphones are available for between $70-$170 on the AT&T-owned prepaid wireless carrier. Their names aren’t exciting and neither is the software or hardware inside them, but they’re very cheap smartphones in a market littered with overpriced options, so there’s not much to complain about.

Nokia C5 Endi

The Nokia C5 Endi has a 6.5″ 19.9 panel, so it’s a pretty big budget phone all things considered. The display itself has an HD+ 720p resolution with a notch cutout. There is a sizeable 4,000 mAh battery, a MediaTek Helio P22 processor, 3GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, a triple rear camera array with a 13MP primary sensor + 5MP wide-angle sensor + depth-sensor, and Android 10.

 

Nokia C2 Tava

There is also the Nokia C2 Tava with more low-end specifications including a MediaTek Helio A22 processor, a 3,000 mAh battery, a 5.45″ 18:9 HD+ display, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, dual rear cameras including an 8MP primary and 2MP depth sensor, a plastic body, and Android 10.

Nokia C2 Tennen

We also have the Nokia C2 Tennen which is basically the same device as the C2 Tava but comes in “vibrant Steel.”

Nokia C5 Endi, C2 Tava, and C2 Tennen Pricing and Availability

The Nokia C5 Endi will be available for $169.99 from June 5th, 2020 in Deep Midnight Blue. The Nokia C2 Tava will be available for $109.99 and will be available starting tomorrow, May 29th. The Nokia C2 Tennen will not go on sale online, though. Instead, it’s becoming available in select retail stores for $69.99 from June 15th.

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OPPO Find X2 Neo and Find X2 Lite forums are open as both go on pre-order in Europe

OPPO recently brought back its Find flagship smartphone line with the launch of the Find X2 and Find X2 Pro. Unlike the original Find X series, though, the Find X2 series also comes in mid-range variants for those who want to get a taste of the flagship experience but can’t pay the high-end devices’ steep prices. The OPPO Find X2 Neo and the OPPO Find X2 Lite are both upper mid-range smartphones in the Find X2 series, and after launching in Germany last week, the two phones are now available in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, and other countries in Europe.

Both the Find X2 Lite and the Find X2 Neo are powered by the Snapdragon 765G, Qualcomm’s upper mid-range mobile processor with integrated 5G, but their specification sheets differ in other areas. The OPPO Find X2 Neo is basically a rebranded version of the Chinese OPPO Reno3 Pro, which was a completely different device than what OPPO launched globally as the Reno3 Pro. The Find X2 Neo features a quad rear camera setup (with a 48MP primary sensor), a 44MP front-facing camera, a 6.5-inch AMOLED display with a single hole-punch cutout and a 90Hz refresh rate, a 4,025 mAh battery, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and more.

The OPPO Find X2 Lite, on the other hand, is a rebrand of the little known OPPO Reno3 Vitality Edition that was only released in China. It also features a quad rear camera setup, though it has a 2MP depth sensor instead of a 13MP 2X telephoto camera. It also has a lower resolution 32MP front-facing camera, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with a waterdrop notch cutout at a standard 60Hz refresh rate. On the plus side, the Find X2 Lite has a 3.5mm headphone jack while the Find X2 Neo does not, though both devices sadly lack expandable storage.

Product pages for both the OPPO Find X2 Neo and the OPPO Find X2 Lite are now available on OPPO.com in Germany, the UK, France, Spain, Italy, and other European countries. The Find X2 Lite retails for €499/£399 while the Find X2 Neo retails for €699/£599, though there are various pre-order offers and carrier deals that can bring down the price and/or net you a free Bluetooth audio accessory. The Neo is available in “Moonlight Black” and “Starry Blue” colors while the Lite is available in simply “White” or “Black.”

If you’re interested in purchasing one of these two devices, then check out our newly opened XDA forums to discuss them with fellow owners.

OPPO Find X2 Neo Forums ||| OPPO Find X2 Lite Forums

Specification	OPPO Find X2 Neo	OPPO Find X2 Lite
Dimensions and Weight	159.4 x 72.4 x 7.7mm 171g	160.3 x 74.3 x 7.96 mm 180g
Display	6.5″ FHD+ (2400×1080) AMOLED; Hole-punch display cutout Corning Gorilla Glass 5 90Hz refresh rate	6.4″ FHD+ (2400 x 1080) AMOLED; Waterdrop-style notch Corning Gorilla Glass 5
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G Adreno 620	Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G Adreno 620
RAM and Storage	12GB LPDDR4X RAM 256GB UFS 2.1	8GB LPDDR4x RAM 128GB UFS 2.1
Battery & Charging	4,025mAh battery 30W VOOC Flash 4.0 fast charging Fast charger included within the box	4,025mAh battery 30W VOOC Flash 4.0 fast charging Fast charger included within the box
Rear Cameras	Photo: Primary: 48MP, f/1.7 Secondary: 13MP 2X Telephoto Camera, f/2.4 Tertiary: 8MP Wide-Angle Camera, f/2.2 Quaternary: 2MP, f/2.4 monochrome sensor Video: 4K @ 30fps 1080p @ 60fps/30fps 720p @ 60fps/30fps	Photo: Primary: 48MP, f/1.7 Secondary: 8MP Wide-Angle Camera, f/2.2 Tertiary: 2MP, f/2.4 monochrome sensor Quaternary: 2MP, f/2.4 Depth Sensor Video: 4K @ 30fps 1080p @ 60fps/30fps 720p @ 60fps/30fps
Front Camera	44MP, f/2.0	32MP, f/2.0
Other Features	No 3.5mm headphone jack In-display fingerprint scanner	3.5mm headphone jack In-display fingerprint scanner
Android Version	ColorOS 7 based on Android 10	ColorOS 7 based on Android 10

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Raspberry Pi 4 now comes with up to 8GB of RAM for $75

The Raspberry Pi 4 was announced close to a year ago. It provided amazing specs in the all-familiar credit card-sized presentation and proved to be a well-received successor to the Raspberry Pi 3. Among some of the improvements that were included with this device were a more powerful ARM SoC, a USB-C power supply, and several RAM options including 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB. Let’s go back to the RAM for a bit, though: The Raspberry Pi Foundation is now adding a new 8GB RAM tier for the Pi 4, priced at just $75.

According to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, an 8GB version of the Raspberry Pi 4 was always part of their plans, and it even seemingly accidentally showed up on documents such as the Beginner’s Guide. The Raspberry Pi 4’s BCM2711 chip can actually handle up to 16GB of LPDDR4 SDRAM, but according to the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s official blog post, a suitable 8GB RAM module didn’t exist until late last year after the device was released. Now that the part exists, though, this version can be released. There are also a couple of changes made to the design of the board itself, including new switchers and inductors, in order to accommodate the higher power demands that 8GB of RAM requires. Apparently, the COVID-19 pandemic also set back the release date of this model as the inductor supply from Asia was interrupted.

8GB of RAM also requires a 64-bit OS on board, but Raspberry Pi’s default OS doesn’t support that yet. At least it didn’t until now, as the team has released an early 64-bit beta of its own OS, which will probably have its fair share of bugs initially (that will be eventually ironed out). The team is now calling its Debian-based OS “Raspberry Pi OS,” by the way, but users can choose to install other GNU/Linux distributions ported for ARM64 such as Ubuntu or Gentoo.

Speaking of software, the Raspberry team has done “enormous amounts of work to reduce the idle and loaded power consumption of the device, passed OpenGL ES 3.1 conformance, started work on a Vulkan driver, and shipped PXE network boot mode and a prototype of USB mass storage boot mode” since initially shipping the Pi 4.

Oh, and as a fun fact, the 1GB RAM version is no longer available for purchase as the official site lists only 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB versions. The 2GB version now costs $35, which is the same price that the 1GB version originally had. It’s probably safe to assume that this 1GB RAM version was completely discontinued. Oddly enough, this wasn’t mentioned in the blog post at all, but it also means you’re getting twice the RAM for the same price, so I don’t think anyone will miss it.

You can purchase an 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 for $75 right now on their website.

Raspberry Pi Forums

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Download: Xiaomi rolls out the stable Android 10 update for the Mi Note 10

The Mi Note 10 was the first phone from Xiaomi to launch with the Samsung ISOCELL Bright HMX 108MP camera sensor. Instead of designing a new device from scratch as a successor to 2017’s Mi Note 3, the Chinese OEM decided to rebrand the China-exclusive Mi CC9 Pro as the Mi Note 10 for the international market. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G-powered phone was originally shipped with MIUI 11 on top of Android 9 Pie, and Xiaomi is now rolling out the stable Android 10 update for it across the globe.

Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Forums

The global variant of the Mi Note 10 is receiving software version V11.1.2.0.QFDMIXM that contains all the goodness of Android 10 as well as the April 2020 security patches. Being a major update, the size of the OTA package is around 2.6GB. The company also offers a Fastboot firmware bundle so that experienced users can manually flash the new build on their phones. Interestingly, the update for the European and the Russian Mi Note 10 variants are still considered “stable beta”, which means no Fastboot ROMs are available for them as of yet.

Note that there is virtually no difference between the Mi Note 10 and the Mi Note 10 Pro (except their lens setup – 7P on the regular versus 8P on the Pro model), thus they share a common firmware. You can directly download the ZIP package for the global variant from the index below and perform a “Local Update“, but the two aforementioned regional builds might require Mi Account authorization. If your phone has an unlocked bootloader, you can bypass that restriction by flashing the builds via TWRP.

Device and Device Codename	Region	Build Number	Recovery ROM	Fastboot ROM
Mi Note 10 / Mi Note 10 Pro (tucana)	Global	V11.1.2.0.QFDMIXM	Download Recovery ROM	Download Fastboot ROM
	Europe	V11.1.1.0.QFDEUXM	Download Recovery ROM	–
	Russia	V11.1.1.0.QFDRUXM	Download Recovery ROM	–

While the current Android 10 build is based on MIUI 11, owners of this phone can get an early glimpse of MIUI 12 by flashing the Chinese closed beta and/or the Xiaomi.EU ROM. Aftermarket developers may have to wait a bit, though, as Xiaomi has yet to update the existing kernel source code for the device.

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Source: Mi Community (1, 2, 3)

 

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Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 and 6700 will bring Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 to high-end Android devices

By now, it’s well known how crucial connectivity is for mobile devices. Without a strong Wi-Fi connection or mobile data, even the most expensive flagship smartphone has crippled functionality. These devices are only as good as their weak link, and most of the time, wireless connectivity happens to be the weak link. The use of Wi-Fi, 4G LTE, and the nascent 5G ecosystem has only reflected the modern reality where Internet connectivity is a must, where people are working from home more than ever (admittedly, that is because of a pandemic and not because of improved connectivity), where mission-critical work is done from a smartphone. As such, it’s imperative that connectivity systems continue to improve. The advent of 5G hasn’t meant that 4G modems have stopped improving, for example. Wi-Fi is just as vital when we consider the expensive nature of mobile data. The march forward in standards has led us from Wi-Fi 4 to Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) to Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax). Few people have Wi-Fi 6 routers yet, so its speed benefits are only just starting to be realized. However, Wi-Fi 6 has already been extended by 1200MHz of spectrum in the 6GHz band, which is known as Wi-Fi 6E, which is a much more major announcement. As Wi-Fi 6E has now been formally approved, Qualcomm has announced two new mobile connectivity solutions in the form of the FastConnect 6900 and FastConnect 6700.

The background is that in February, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced the Wi-Fi 6E extension to the Wi-Fi 6 standard. In April, the U.S. FCC allocated almost 1200MHz of unlicensed spectrum in the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi 6, thus formally paving the way for Wi-Fi 6e. The key thing with Wi-Fi 6e is that it fixes Wi-Fi’s most significant issue: capacity. Previously, Wi-Fi could only operate in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz ranges, leading to congestion issues. 5GHz Wi-Fi was adopted because of severe congestion with 2.4GHz, but the proliferation of devices meant that even 5GHz started experiencing congestion, because there was a lack of spectrum. Up until now, Wi-Fi had approximately only 400MHz of spectrum. The extension of almost 1200MHz of spectrum in the 6GHz range meant that Wi-Fi’s spectrum has now been nearly tripled – no wonder, then, that tech companies are calling Wi-Fi 6E the next generation of Wi-Fi networks.

By the time of the FCC’s allocation of spectrum, Broadcom had already announced its first Wi-Fi 6E chip, the Broadcom BCM4389. Now, Qualcomm has entered the fray by announcing two next-generation FastConnect mobile connectivity systems. The FastConnect 6900 and the FastConnect 6700 succeed the FastConnect 6800 and FastConnect 6200 respectively. These mobile connectivity systems are sold alongside Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile SoCs. The Snapdragon 865, for example, comes with the FastConnect 6800, while the Snapdragon 765 comes with the FastConnect 6200. Therefore, it’s likely that the successors of these two SoCs will come with Qualcomm’s newly announced mobile connectivity solutions for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in 2021.

Qualcomm says the new FastConnect connectivity systems represent the most advanced Wi-Fi 6e offerings of their kind, building upon Qualcomm’s Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth audio technology features. They feature the fastest available Wi-Fi speeds in the industry (up to 3.6Gbps) on a mobile Wi-Fi offering, VR-class low latency, and Bluetooth advancements that deliver better audio experiences for classic and emerging LE Audio use cases.

The new FastConnect 6900 and FastConnect 6700 extend Wi-Fi 6 into the 6GHz band. The FastConnect 6900 offers the fastest available Wi-Fi 6 speed at up to 3.6Gbps of any mobile Wi-Fi offering in the industry, according to Qualcomm. The FastConnect 6700, on the other hand, delivers peak speeds approaching 3Gbps.

These high speeds are driven by features such as Qualcomm 4K QAM at 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz. Qualcomm claims this is an industry first implementation of this advanced modulation technique, and it can extend the maximum QAM rate (quadrature amplitude modulation) from 1K to 4K for enhanced gaming and 4K video streaming. 160MHz channels support in both 5GHz and 6GHz bands drastically expand throughput while simultaneously reducing congestion. In addition, the FastConnect 6900 delivers extra performance through a unique feature implementation of 4-stream Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) with multi-band (including 6GHz). In English, this means the FastConnect 6900 can use 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands for Wi-Fi at the same time.

Qualcomm notes that 6GHz dramatically expands Wi-Fi capacity by adding up to 1200Mhz of additional spectrum, which more than doubles the number of pathways currently available for sending and receiving data. The dual band 160MHz supports up to seven additional non-overlapping channels in the 6GHz band, in addition to 160MHz channels available in the 5GHz band. The FastConnect systems deploy high-performance Uplink / Downlink MU-MIMO and OFDMA mobile technologies across all available bands. The new Wi-Fi 6 Uplink MU-MIMO capability can increase network capacity by more than 2.5x.

Qualcomm is also making proud claims about latency. The FastConnect systems’ feature implementation is said to deliver latency reduction up to 8x in congested environments for improved gaming experiences. Wireless VR-class latency (<3ms) for Head Mounted Displays (HMD) is offered, and Qualcomm hopes that it provides a strong foundation for XR applications.

Qualcomm then moves on to power efficiency. These systems provide power savings due to less channel congestion and improved scheduling. The 14nm process node, when combined with “advanced power management architecture”, provides up to 50% improvement in power efficiency when compared to previous generation solutions, Qualcomm claims.

Finally, the other part of the equation is Bluetooth. The FastConnect 6900 and the FastConnect 6700 will bring Bluetooth 5.2 to Android phones next year. They integrate Bluetooth 5.2 with the latest audio advancements. Qualcomm says that its Bluetooth 5.2 implementation includes a second Bluetooth antenna with intelligent switching capabilities that overcome common signal shadowing issues for “unparalleled” Bluetooth reliability and range. These solutions are also engineered to be ready to address emerging LE Audio experiences such as multi-point audio sharing and broadcast audio, enabling multiple audio connections simultaneously.

Qualcomm notes that its aptX Adaptive supports wire-equivalent audio up to 96kHz, while aptX Voice provides “super-wideband quality calls”. When paired with the premium features of Qualcomm QCC5141, QCC5144, QCC3046 and QCC3040 Audio SoCs, Qualcomm says users will get “robust, premium audio quality with low power consumption”. Finally, the transmit power and coexistence algorithms deliver “materially improved” range and “link robustness”.

The FastConnect 6900 and the FastConnect 6700 mobile connectivity systems are sampling now and will ship in production during the second half of 2020. Smartphones that are powered by these solutions will probably launch in early 2021.

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Google Chat gets a standalone app, but it only works with Chrome

Google has a long tumultuous relationship with messaging apps and its latest fling is with Google Chat. Previously known as Hangouts Chat, Google Chat is the company’s Slack-like team communication platform for G Suite. It’s not to be confused with “Classic” Hangouts or the long-dead “GChat.” Google is finally releasing a standalone app for Chat, but it’s limited in use.

The new Google Chat app is a progressive web app (PWA) and it replaces the old Electron client. Electron apps are essentially web apps with a wrapper and they aren’t super well-liked. A PWA, on the other hand, is basically a webpage that integrates with the device’s OS, making it feel more like a native app. Google has long been a big advocate for PWAs, so it’s no surprise to see this development.

The Google Chat app has wider compatibility as it can work on Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, and Linux. However, you must have Chrome 73 or higher installed to use it. Chrome doesn’t need to be your default browser, but it still has to be installed on your device. Google does mention, however, that they are working on that limitation.

While Google Chat is limited to G Suite customers right now, the company has shown signs of making it available to everyone. Google recently opened up its Zoom competitor, Meet, to anyone with a Google account. It also recently made it possible to view Classic Hangouts conversations in Google Chat. The groundwork could be in place to make it available to all Google users.

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Source: Google

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