Software

A leak from earlier in 2019 suggested that the next processor designed for Wear OS devices would be based on the Snapdragon 429, an SoC that features in low-end phones and tablets. It was hypothesized to be called the Wear 2700. However, code recently added to a Qualcomm kernel source code database suggests that it is in fact to be known as the 3300 instead.

The Rich Communications Service (RCS) standard has been touted as the ultimate messaging platform for some time. Unfortunately, its implementation and adoption worldwide could be described as sluggish at best. Therefore, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile have collaborated on the Cross Carrier Messaging Initiative (CCMI), which aims to bring it to their customers by 2020.

Apple launched iOS 13.2 and iPadOS 13.2 today. The update brings 60 new emoji, the ability to opt-out of sharing Siri interactions with Apple, and Apple's Deep Fusion image processing technology for the iPhone 11 family of smartphones. However, given prior iOS 13 updates, it may be wise to wait on this one.

If you're a user of the Sprint model LG V40 who's been expecting the Pie update...well, look away; today's just not your day. A new OTA update is now rolling out to the last-gen flagship but therein lies disappointment, despair, and misery.

The Realme 5 Pro is a cost-effective Android phone released in 2019. Its latest software update adds the ability to shoot video in wide-angle mode. This upgrade also raises the 5 Pro's security patch level to 5 October 2019, although the phone remains on Android Pie (9.0).

NVIDIA now stocks the new Pro and non-Pro variants of the SHIELD TV on its official site. As projected, the latter is a 4K streaming stick with HDR 10. Both new Android 9.0 devices support Dolby Audio, can access GeForce NOW and have Google Assistant built in.

The "Mi Watch" is the likely name of Xiaomi's next wearable. The OEM has indicated that it is to be released on November 5, 2019, alongside the Mi TV 5 and Mi CC9 Pro. This new product is also projected to be a Wear OS device.

Earlier today, Kojima Productions announced that its hotly anticipated title Death Stranding will come to PC in the early summer of 2020. The game is slated for a PS4 release on November 8th of this year. Considering the impressive motion capture and model details in the game, it's likely the title will require high-end hardware to run at full settings.

Although it can also be used on iOS-powered devices, Google Play Music has just hit an impressive milestone with the help of its Android users alone — no less than five billion downloads. This music streaming service is available in 63 countries and will probably be replaced by YouTube Music in the long run.

The latest software update for the Galaxy S10 series comes with slow-motion video capabilities for the front camera, improved fingerprint recognition, Auto Hotspot, and a few minor changes. In China, these handsets have already started to receive the Android 10-based One UI 2.0 update (in a Beta testing stage).

Apple's AirPods are currently projected to gain a Pro version soon, thanks to a recent slew of leaks and rumors. The latest of these may indicate that they will finally launch in colors besides white for a change. Furthermore, it is even vaguely possible that they will match those of the iPhone 11 Pros.

Artem Russakovskii of Android Police has posted a video showing his Pixel 4 XL taking ages to open the Settings and Spotify apps. Video recording on the phones also appears to be less than stellar, with obvious stutters at the start of the video. So much for being the smoothest Android device.

The consumer-grade security development group Nok Nok Labs has unveiled its new SDK. It asserts that it is the first such app software capable of conferring FIDO-based authentication on smartwatches. This, then, may help users depend more on their wearable for more functions typically carried out on a phone.

The Canon RF lens series has now added its 9th and 10th members, in the form of the 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM and 85mm F1.2L USM DS products respectively. The former is described as the most compact device in its class, whereas the latter debuts the novel feature of Defocus Smoothing. The OEM asserts that either would be an asset to those with EOS R or RP cameras.

The Xiaomi Mi A1 was released back in 2017 and has already received two major OS updates: Oreo and Pie. Owners of the phone have been curious about their chances of getting the Android 10 and, well, there's bad news for them.

Another artbook-related leak has added fuel to the fire that Blizzard Entertainment is finally preparing to reveal Diablo 4 to expectant gamers. A single page about a character that is expected to appear in the dungeon crawler has been shared on Twitter, and it seems the Daughter of Hatred herself has good news for Diablo fans.

Asus had included the Zenfone 4 in its plans to update older phones to Android Pie (9.0). However, this device has just been excluded from this schedule. The OEM claims that this will conserve the 4's system integrity and general function, however.

Wandera, a security research firm, has found malware in 17 apps on the Apple App Store. The apps use a clicker trojan module to generate fraudulent web traffic in the background, likely to pump up ad revenue for specific websites. The apps passed through Apple's stringent review process because they connected to a remote server to execute the fraudulent activity rather than having malware embedded directly in their code.

The OnePlus 3 and 3T may have launched with Android Marshmallow in 2016 and received Android 9.0 Pie earlier this year, but both can now be upgraded to Android 10. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and 6 GB of RAM, or Snapdragon 821 in the case of the OnePlus 3T, should be well suited to run Google's latest version of Android too.

Xiaomi has released a stable build of MIUI 11 for the Redmi 7, but perhaps not the version for which people had hoped. While other devices in the first phase of the MIUI 11 rollout are receiving Android 10-based builds, the Redmi 7 is getting Android 9.0 Pie instead. The same goes for the Redmi 7a and Redmi K20 too.

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 now has an upgrade to MIUI 11, the Chinese company's version of Android 10. The update brings plenty of new features including improved screen casting, a system-wide dark mode and a new gesture mode. Mi Mix 3 owners can download the build now.

Qualcomm's Venture division has announced the implementation of the 5G Ecosystem Fund, a source of investment worth up to US$200 million. As the name suggests, it will help support start-ups involved in new, innovative and potentially lucrative applications of the new mobile-data standard. The company also intends the new fund to help get 5G in devices besides smartphones.

Motorola has launched 3 new Moto-series phones today (October 24, 2019). They include the already well-leaked G8 Plus and G8 Play. The Lenovo-owned brand also unveiled the E6 Play, another variant of the pre-existing E6. It also expanded the availability of the One Macro to various regions including Latin America and Australia.

Recently, Amazon may have accidentally spoiled the launch of the NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro, an upcoming update to the 2017 streaming machine. A new leak indicates that the OEM has indeed prepared a 4K HDR streaming stick as well as the usual full-scale box. It apparently has 8GB in internal storage, whereas the SHIELD TV Pro has 16.

Asus has now joined the list of OEMs to send out an Android 10 build to their smartphones. The Taiwanese OEM is currently rolling out the Android 10-based ZenUI 6 beta build to users of last year's flagship, the Zenfone 5Z. The Zenfone 6's rollout is expected to follow soon.

Realme makes good value for money hardware but are usually panned by enthusiasts for their software. The company has identified that flaw, however, and is set to shake things up by adopting a new skin said to be similar to stock Android.

Night Sight 2.0 with a new astrophotography mode, Live Caption and offline Google Assistant are just three examples of features debuting on the Pixel 4 series. However, these will not remain Pixel 4 exclusives, with Google planning to bring them to older generations too. We have laid out Google's plans in a brief overview, underlining that you need not buy the latest tech to get the latest software.

A Linux user has discovered that Disney+, Disney's new streaming service, doesn't work on his Fedora machine. The problem lies with the DRM used by Disney, which implements the highest possible security level. However, Disney has stated that the streaming service will work with Android devices and Chromebooks, both of which are built upon Linux.

Two UK Banks, National Westminster and Royal Bank of Scotland, have removed their respective mobile banking apps from the Google Play Store for Samsung Galaxy S10 users. Citing security concerns, it's likely the banks' decisions were driven by the recent news that the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner used in the S10 could be fooled with a cheap silicone screen protector.

Qualcomm has commissioned a Signals Research Group (SRG) study of 5G performance, efficiency and general UX in those countries and cities to which the new radio bands have been rolled out. It reportedly found that 5G can achieve up to 10X performance compared to 4G/LTE. In addition, it is also capable of 5 times the download speeds than the older standard.

LG has revealed that the G8X ThinQ will be released for sale in the United States on November 1, 2019. This phone is a variant of the OEM's 2019 flagship designed to work with the new Dual Screen accessory. Both devices also have US starting prices and the scope for promotional deals already.

Samsung has released a software patch to fix a security flaw in the ultrasonic fingerprint readers used in the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 device families. The patch should come as a notification to users who have registered their biometric data.

In a blog post published today, Google claims that its 54-qubit quantum computer Sycamore calculated a complex problem in 200 seconds. The company also estimates the same problem would take the world's fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to solve. However, IBM (who owns the world's fastest supercomputer) says the estimate should be closer to 2.5 days. Either way, Google's achievement is a big milestone for quantum computing.

A phone calling itself the "motorola moto g(8) plus" has been benchmarked as a Snapdragon 665 device with 4GB of RAM. These specs are in accordance with previous rumors surrounding this putative device. The new results also show that it runs Android 9.0, which suggests it could still launch this year.

"Joker" is a relatively new form of malware that reportedly acts to steal contacts and sign those with infected devices up for premium SMS services. Most recently, it has been detected in a heretofore-overlooked host on Android by the Pradeo security team. This lab has had the app removed from the Google Play Store, but potentially affected users are advised to uninstall it immediately.

A device with a model number purportedly associated with Samsung's Galaxy A51 has surfaced on the Geekbench database. However, its results depict it as powered by the Exynos 9611, and not the next-gen 8 nanometer (nm) model rumored for its 2020 line of phones. In addition, it apparently has only 4GB of RAM.

The full details of the technical specifications for the Zeiss ZX1 camera have been published. The renowned German manufacturer announced the device back at the Photokina trade event in 2018 with availability originally scheduled to start with chosen dealers in early 2019. However, the camera has failed to materialize on the market thus far.

A new study into user attitudes towards wearables found that health tracking is the most popular use of this electronics category. 36% of those polled reported concerns that these functions may not live up to reality, however. 10% of the respondents also said they worried about data security on these devices.

The Steam Halloween sale is scheduled for October 28 - November 1. The Autumn sale is set for November 26 - December 3. The Winter sale will occur from December 19 - January 2.

Multiple users are reporting a failure of the Ultra WideBand U1 chip in their iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, or iPhone 11 Pro Max after updating to iOS 13.1.3. While restoring an affected iPhone's firmware has solved the problem for some, others have received replacement devices.

Last week, Twitch streamer and tipster Metro claimed that Blizzard would release Diablo 4 alongside Diablo 2 Remastered at BlizzCon 2019. Now, this has seemingly been indirectly confirmed by Blizzard in an advert for a new Diablo artbook.

A series of tests have shown the Google Pixel 4 XL hilariously outpacing the OnePlus 7T in real-world, resource-intensive processing tasks. The fact that the Pixel 4 XL has less RAM and a weaker SoC than the 7T makes it all the more impressive.

The Honor Play was released just over a year ago and has received one major update: Android Pie. That will apparently be the end of the road for the device, which is unfair to owners of the Kirin 970-powered phone. Even worse, though, is Huawei's justification for the decision.

The Google Pixel 4 phones don't have support for shooting 4K60fps videos even though Android phones have been able to do that for well over a year. Google has now explained the rationale behind the decision but it's woefully unconvincing.

DeX is Samsung's proprietary facility that converts one of its Galaxy flagships into a desktop PC on connection to a monitor. One environment supported by the mode in Android 9.0 (Pie) is GNU/Linux. Unfortunately, its beta program will come to an end with the roll-out of Android 10.

Olympus has unveiled its newest Micro Four Thirds digital camera, the OM-D E-M5 Mark III. This mirrorless unit is based on a 20.4MP Live MOS sensor and a TruePic VIII Image Processor. The OEM asserts that it also packs a wide range of features into a relatively compact form-factor.

Google introduced Digital Wellbeing in order to allow users to track and manage their phone use, which extends to a per-app basis. This feature is now integrated into a new Chrome browser update. It can be used to display screen time and how much of it is spent on each website visited.

A carrier-provided list of Sony Xperia devices billed to get the Android 10 update has surfaced, and will be sure to leave owners of Sony's older flagships infuriated, as apparently, the Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact will not get Android 10.

OnePlus has once again shown its dedication to providing timely software updates, as it's now sending out the Android 10-based Oxygen OS 10 beta build to the OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T. The build is exclusive to factory unlocked, non-carrier models.

A British Galaxy S10 user has claimed that this phone's ultrasound sensor could be fooled into unlocking for non-registered fingerprints. This issue was allegedly caused by a cheap gel case with a clear flap to cover the screen. Samsung has admitted that this is the case, and has stated that it will push a software fix for it shortly.