Software

The Belgian news outlet VRT NWS claims to have gained access to audio recordings made as a result of Google Assistant 'listening' to user speech or activity. The recordings were leaked to VRT by a Google subcontractor. This apparent evidence suggests that the search giant allows these workers access to information that would have remained private were it not for the presence of the Assistant.

Huawei has released the schedule for its Developer Conference, which will take place in Dongguan, China, on August 9, 2019. The second talk in this event will concern EMUI 10, which is based on Android Q. It will be conducted by Wang Chenglu, Huawei's President of Consumer Business Software.

Xiaomi has released a new, official version of MIUI (10.3.5.0) for the Pocophone F1. This is normally great news, and would be in this case were it not for a sub-group of users who report problems such as screen freezing and ghost touch on their updated devices. The OEM has requested that affected owners send them their units for testing in relation to the issue.

Vivo has launched a phone called the S1 for the Indian market. Unlike the existing device of the same name for the Chinese region, it is a new product powered by the MediaTek Helio P65 SoC, runs Android 9.0 and has triple rear cameras.

The latest update for the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ locked its users out, requiring them to enter a PIN and restarting repeatedly no matter what they entered. Unfortunately, it looks like performing a Factory data reset is the only solution available for those affected by this issue.

Age of Wonders III arrived at the end of March 2014 for Microsoft Windows, but it became available for OS X and Linux as well one year later. Now, those interested can grab the original release for free via Steam until July 15 — and keep it forever after that, of course. Sadly, there are no expansions included and the free game will not generate any Steam trading cards.

Originally scheduled to arrive in 2018, Psychonauts 2 was expected to arrive later this year. This title for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 looks like its predecessor with improved graphics and a few new ideas. Sadly, its launch has been pushed to 2020 and we can only hope that it will not get another delay next year.

The new Oxford Circus flagship store in London is also Microsoft's first physical retail store in the UK. This venue covers no less than 22,000 square feet over three floors and brings together Surface devices, HoloLens, the Xbox Gaming Lounge, a Selfie Area, and more. The staff can provide assistance in no less than 45 languages.

New certifications pertaining to a device called the OPPO CPH1931 have allegedly been found online. This device as described is a phone with a 6.1-inch screen and a 5000mAh battery. Its most interesting attribute so far may be references to the recently-released CPU, the SM6125, or Snapdragon 665.

After more than six years since its initial release, World of Warplanes has just been updated to version 2.1. This new build comes with a Europe tech tree that replaces the previously available France tab, quite a few new premium and special reward planes, new equipment, as well as various tweaks and fixes.

A new leak indicates that LG has successfully attained trademarks for names that sound like flagship phones to be released after 2020. There is no G11 or G12, however: instead, they appear to fall in line with the Vx0 phablet line. Therefore, the G10's successor may be called the G20, and so on.

Qualcomm and Ericsson has announced that their technology has passed an important milestone in the roll-out of 5G across a country the size of the US on the same band. This 600-megahertz (MHz) frequency, one of the lowest to be associated with the new data standard, is also in use at T-Mobile to establish its own next-gen network.

Various leaks have indicated that Xiaomi's Mi Ax series will be updated soon. Some leaks have also suggested that this year's iteration will be a rebrand of the OEM's new quasi-premium, youth-oriented Mi CC9e. However, the freshest twist in this tale indicates that there will be 2 Mi A3 variants, which will rock the Snapdragons 730 and 675 respectively.

The latest market analysis indicates that the volume of eSIM-enabled device shipments reached 384 million last year. The resulting projections suggest that this figure will grow to about 2 billion over the next 6 years. Smartphones will account for the vast majority of the units in question.

The Nest Hello device is a smart doorbell with an inbuilt camera. A leak concerning a software update for this product has found that it may gain the ability to detect when a package has been delivered. This code may also allow for a follow-up feature in which it can tell when the same has been picked up again.

Mobvoi has unveiled a new, LTE-enabled version of the Ticwatch Pro. This wearable has most of the specs of its original variant, including its innovative battery-saving dual display. On the other hand, the LTE model is enhanced with Corning Gorilla Glass and double the RAM.

Those who own the Mi TV 4A can now apply for a kind of Android Pie beta-test. Xiaomi is working on what it calls an 'early-access build' for this 32- or 43-inch device, and is currently inviting users to install and test it. The 4A's new OS adds support for the Play Store and Google Assistant (albeit in a slightly roundabout way).

The ability to use Spotify on your phone may be restricted in terms of the storage it can take up. The new Lite version of this Android app, however, takes up about a tenth of the space compared to the regular download. It also has a meter for the cellular data used while streaming music.

If the two-year-old StarCraft: Remastered was not enough to draw the attention of the hardcore fans of Blizzard's iconic title that was released at the end of March 1998, the Cartooned mod might make them finally pay attention to it. The US$9.99 mod comes with all-new, cartoon-style graphics and is fully compatible with online play.

Android Q is nearly upon us, bringing with it a slew of changes and refinements. Beta 5 has started rolling out too, but it seemingly confirms that gesture navigation controls will not work with third-party launchers. The slow-march to a closed-source Android seems upon us.

GPU as a Service involves offering access to the functions of an advanced, dedicated or powerful GPU set-up from a remote location. It is increasingly prominent in cloud and AI applications. The latest market research indicates that its market will grow based on its use in CAD, modelling and 3D animation.

A Samsung phone with an unfamiliar model number has appeared on the Geekbench testing database. It is described as having 4GB of RAM and being powered by the Exynos 9610 SoC - as is the Galaxy A50, which was released some time ago. Therefore, this phone may be getting a new variant, albeit one nearly entirely the same as the old.

An industrial consultant firm, Grail Insights, has released the results of a survey-based study on public attitudes towards 'big tech' companies, their effects on consumer privacy and the role national authorities should adopt in the matter. They show that 62% of respondents believe that the government needs to step in when these corporations gain "too much power".

In addition to the usual system optimizations and general bug fixes, the OxygenOS 9.5.9 OTA update for the OnePlus 7 Pro comes with new enhancements for the camera: improved back-to-front switching, faster autofocus, advanced Panorama mode photo-stitching, as well as better quality of 48 MP JPG images in Pro mode.

Qualcomm has introduced the latest iteration of its 2-series for entry-level mobile devices. The 215 is the first of this line to support dual image signalling processors (ISPs) and 64-bit processing. It would also introduce HD+ resolution to the phones in which it will be integrated.

The latest stable Debian release is codenamed "buster" and comes at the end of a 25-month development period. Debian 10 will be supported for the next five years and comes with many updated packages, support for ten architectures — including older 32-bit PCs, as well as a wide range of desktop environments: Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE Plasma, LXDE, LXQt, MATE, and Xfce.

A tech blogger has posted a new video citing rumors that Microsoft is working on hardware for its xCloud platform. This console would apparently work with existing Xbox controllers, but also act as a competitor for Google's own starter pack for Stadia. As this putative box could cost as little as US$60, it would also undercut the "Founder's Edition".

Samsung's SmartThings app has been found to contain diagrams of heretofore-unreleased pairs of headphones and wireless earbuds. The latter have AKG branding, whereas the former have these 3 letters as part of their model number. It is now thought that they may be products that could be unveiled at the next Galaxy Unpacked event.

A United States Senator has obtained a response to a letter sent to Amazon HQ concerning user privacy as it relates to the retail giant's Alexa platform. It advised the public representative that, although a given user can delete their own voice data from their accounts at will, the voice assistant's responses to queries are recorded and retained by Amazon for its own purposes.

Android Q may be just around the corner, but HTC has finally started rolling out Android Pie to the HTC U11+. Previously slated for a Q2 2019 release, the Taiwanese company has now begun pushing out Android Pie via an OTA to handsets in its home country. Better late than never, right?

Fully compatible with a wide range of graphics adapters, the AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 19.7.1 driver comes with a new image sharpening feature (on AMD Radeon RX 5700 hardware in DirectX 9, DirectX 12, and Vulkan titles) and anti-lag for DirectX 9 and DirectX 11 games, which improves input-to-display response time by up to 31 percent.

SwiftKey users will soon be able to create their own virtual character that matches their head movements and facial expressions. This AR emoji feature is similar to Apple's Animoji and currently comes with five characters: Dinosaur, Panda, Cat, Owl, and Dog. For now, it is only available in SwiftKey Beta.

Although its relationship with the US has improved a lot and last month's troubles seem to be gone, Huawei is working hard on its own operating system. HongMeng OS will replace Android on a wide range of devices and some of its components — LiveFace, Meetime, LinkTime, and Belink — have just been trademarked.

Facial recognition is projected to continue to grow as an industry into the next decade. Its market is estimated at being worth US$3.2 billion now. However, this value is projected to grow to $7 billion by 2024.

Mobvoi has released a YouTube video offering hints of its next product release. It appears to be a new smartwatch, most likely of the Ticwatch line. The OEM claims that it can "boost your daily efficiency" and has an improved heart rate monitor.

TENAA has reportedly certified a new device for Vivo. It is described as a 6.38 inch-display phone with a 4420mAh battery. The images associated with this listing show 3 rear-facing cameras and no visible fingerprint scanner.

The Pixel C was released back in 2015 and received two major updates and about four years of software support in total. Starting this month, July 2019, though, Google will stop sending out security updates to the tablet. This comes after reports a few weeks ago that Google is planning to kill off its tablet business completely.

The Mi CC9e is one of Xiaomi's latest phones on the Chinese market. Despite its mid-range specs, it still features an in-display fingerprint scanner and the new Snapdragon 665 processor. There is now evidence that this device may be released as the long-awaited Mi A3 in other regions.

Samsung has launched a new entry-level tablet today (July 5, 2019). It is the 8-inch Galaxy Tab A model for this year. This slate has a 1200x800 resolution, 2GB of RAM and the Snapdragon 425 processor.

The latest report from SensorTower shows that app purchases generated a revenue of US$39.7 billion in the 1st 6 months of 2019. This impressive figure also represents a 15% year-on-year increase in the same kind of spending. The Apple App Store accounted for 64% of these takings.

UMIDIGI's latest smartwatch, the Uwatch2, boasts a fully metallic unibody, an IP67 rating and a 1.33-inch 240x240 display. The OEM claims that it offers 25 days' worth of standby time and 7 to 10 days of active use. It is sold at US$33.32, although this comes down to $24 with an upcoming promotion.

Lenovo has unveiled its latest phone, the Z6, in China today (July 4, 2019). It has a 6.39-inch FHD+ OLED display with a waterdrop notch and a 120-hertz refresh rate. The Lenovo Z6 also has 3 rear cameras, a 4000mAh battery and the Snapdragon 730 SoC.

YI (or Xiaoyi) is a company known for camera-related product and accessories, including dash-cams. Its newest version of these is the Nightscape, a 1080p, Wi-Fi enabled device with a 140-degree field of view. It also integrates Sony's STARVIS technology for improved low-light imaging.

AMD has posted Linux kernel patches for Navi 14 even though the GPU is yet to be officially announced. The company has also updated the Mesa graphics library 19.2 with support for Navi 10 GPUs such as the Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT. Vulkan support is yet to arrive for Navi on Linux so we are likely to see only OpenGL Linux benchmarks on launch day.

The Vivo Z1 Pro has been released for sale in the Chinese and Indian markets. It is a mid-range device with the relatively new Snapdragon 712 processor. The Z1 Pro also offers a 5000mAh battery, a punch-hole display, and 4GB of RAM for INR 14990 (~ US$217) - on the other hand, it has some compromises too.

OnePlus has recently updated the 6 and 6T, its second-last generation of flagship phones. The upgrade confers the June 2019 security patch level on the devices. It also adds a native screen-recorder, which is now found in the series' Quick Settings in their UI.

Vuzix has filed a new patent with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). It will inform future smart glasses made by this OEM, particularly regarding their use in augmented reality (AR) applications. Vuzix also claims that it will help the company use the latest materials in the spectacle-making industry, as well as the most up-to-date AR sensors.

Xiaomi has finally premiered its new brand, CC, in China. So far, it consists of 3 discrete variants: the Mi CC9e, the Mi CC9 and Mi CC9mt. These phones strongly resemble the Mi 9, have 6 inch-plus AMOLED displays and triple rear cameras. The Mi CC9 and CC9mt will be first to go on sale on July 5, 2019.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a USB firmware update for the Raspberry Pi 4 that reduces its SoC operating temperatures by up to 4 °C. The update is available to download now and should reduce throttling in multi-core tasks. Beware though, it will possibly reduce USB transfer speeds.

Sony has unveiled the UBP-X1100ES, its latest 4K/UHD Blu-ray player. This machine supports HDR, Dolby Vision, 4K upscaling and the new BT.2020 color-space standard. Sony also asserts that this new disc player has every kind of connectivity needed to integrate into any system.