Smart Home

Starting next month, Xiaomi is bringing Android 9.0 Pie to four Mi TV devices. The TVs, which launched running Android 8.1 Oreo, will be updated in batches with a wider roll-out planned a few months later. Xiaomi also told XDA Developers that these updates represent it trying to set a standard for how frequently and quickly Android TVs receive OS upgrades.

The Xiaomi sub-brand Redmi has been previewing the 48MP capabilities of its upcoming smartphone the Note 8. It has posted some attractive shots with a watermark indicating they were taken by the phone. One of its new modes, Super Night Scene, was also described as "shocking".

The One Zoom may be a device soon to be released by Motorola. It is projected to be a quad-rear-camera device with Amazon Alexa integration. Some new images, shared by the legendary leaker Ishan Agarwal, may show what this phone will look like.

The CEO of OnePlus (Pete Lau) has confirmed that the first-gen TV from this OEM will launch in a month from now (August 2019). It will be released to the Indian market initially. A Twitter tipster claims to have dug its CPU, GPU and Android version info, which also applies to this region.

Redmi has packed a number of exciting details in its latest official announcement. Firstly, it has confirmed that its promised 64MP camera will debut in the Redmi Note 8 Pro. It will be released alongside the base Note 8 at an event on August 29, 2019. The 70-inch Redmi 4K TV will also be unveiled at this event.

Huawei and its sub-brand Honor has attracted attention recently as it has sent what seems to be a whole generation of new smartphones, tablets and assorted wireless accessories to the Bluetooth SIG for certification simultaneously. Now, however, it has done the same with even more products. They include 6 new models clearly labelled as TVs.

OnePlus has just introduced its first large-screen product as the...well...OnePlus TV. Leaks from other sources have claimed that this new product will be released in the last week or so of September 2019. It is also rumored to come in sizes from 43 to 75 inches and to have Bluetooth 5.0.

After Huawei presented EMUI 10 at its Developer Conference last week, more details about features and innovations have appeared online. A teaser video for the upcoming Android Q-based OS and promotional pictures offer an insight into the redesign, with Huawei having announced the commencement of its beta program too and which smartphones are included.

The YI Home Camera 3 is an AI-powered security camera. It notifies the user about possible intrusions - however, it solves the problem of potentially indiscriminate, unnecessary messages by using its new software to judge which ones will be important. The new YI camera also has a magnetic stand, so it can be installed anywhere.

Huawei’s in-house HongMengOS is here and its shipping name is officially HarmonyOS. The idea behind the naming is that is a scalable micro-kernal that can work across internet of things devices right through to TVs, wearables and smartphones.

Huawei's first TV is in fact slated to be released by its sub-brand Honor, and is to be called the Smart Screen. It may be reasonable to assume that this product will run Android for these larger devices. However, the OEM is now rumored to deploy one of its own long-anticipated OSs on the new product.

A new publication by Microsoft's Threat Intelligence Center points out an increasingly popular avenue used for cyber attacks: the Internet of Things (IoT). The publication states that researchers discovered a new attack that exploited vulnerabilities in simple IoT devices like a printer and a VOIP phone to access an enterprise network.

According to reports from China, Apple will start mass-producing displays with an in-screen Touch ID sensor that will complement Face ID in anticipation of their inclusion in the 2021 iPhone series. The upcoming displays will likely have a custom Qualcomm ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which will have a larger recognition area than comparable sensors found in current flagships like the Mate 20 Pro, P30 Pro and Galaxy S10 series.

A study conducted by Consumers International, in conjunction with the Internet Society has reportedly found that most individuals surveyed find connected devices (mostly IoT or "smart home" products) "creepy". In addition, 53% of this group said that they do not trust these devices with their privacy. Concerns such as these put 28% of a sub-group without these devices off buying one.

Google Nest - the new name for this company's smart-home arm - has partnered with the Reeve Foundation to help members of the community built around this organization. They are individuals affected by paralysis or movement loss disorders. As many as 100,000 of them will receive a free Home Mini as a result of this collaboration.

Honor now plans to release its first smart TV in the near future. This product is to be called the Vision, and will be powered by a newly-announced SoC, the Honghu 818. It will also incorporate a pop-up camera for user authentication.

Internet-protocol (or IP) cameras shipments are thought to grow to over 100 million by 2025, or 20% more than there are now. These projections are part of newly-published research on the IP surveillance market. It is thought to be mainly driven by commercial buyers, although domestic products may also play a role in their growth.

Prime Day 2019 is now over, and the stats on it are rolling in. Preliminary analysis published by WD Partners show that the online traffic to the retail site for the event's 1st 24 hours increased 100% compared to the same averaged over the preceding 5 days. This may contribute to the US$400+ billion in takings projected for the company this year.

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.

Thanks to its dual-NPU design, the i700 SoC provides 5X increased A.I. acceleration when compared to the already available i500 chip. It also features eight ARM Cortex cores, a PowerVR GM 9446 GPU and supports up to 8 GB of LPDDR4x-1866 RAM. The chip is targeted at smart IoT devices, fitness and entertainment devices that enable AR experiences and warehouse autonomous vehicles.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Last year, OnePlus announced that it was to release its first ever TV. However, not much has been heard about this product since then. Now, a renowned leaker claims that it is "not very far away", but that it is likely to have an LCD panel when it arrives.

Although ZTE is also affected by various bans similar to those imposed by the US on Huawei, this Chinese brand seems to be doing all right in Spain. Yesterday, Orange and its Chinese partner have shown various 5G applications at the Global 5G Event and the European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC) in Valencia.

The Sony Xperia 1 is the company's most cohesive flagship smartphone in years. It has got virtually all the right ingredients expected in a flagship smartphone, but it sequel looks set to ramp things up even further in the camera department.

Did you buy a Nexus 6P in the US between September 25, 2015, and May 3, 2019? If so, then you can now file a class action compensation claim against Google and Huawei for up to US$400. Your Nexus 6P does not need to be stuck in a bootloop or have experienced high battery drain for you to be eligible for a claim either.

Speakers with built-in Bluetooth have become better and better at bringing your music places where traditional wired devices can't go. The market built up around these products is now estimated to grow to the tune of US$2.64 billion in 6 years. This may be driven by increased uptake in emerging economies like India.

LG's XBOOM series is often worth a look, as they can be high-powered speakers in relatively compact or portable form-factors. Its 2019 iterations are not exceptions to this rule. They range from entire sound-systems to smart speakers with inbuilt screens.

Some of the most recently-released LG ThinQ TVs have been advertized as Amazon Alexa-capable. However, customers in the US may have noticed that this apparent functionality was missing - until now. The OEM has announced that the smart assistant app on these devices should become active over the next few weeks.

Coral is a platform developed by Google to support and facilitate on-device AI. Asus has announced that it will use its system-on-module (SOM) on its new AI development kit and single-board computer (SBC). They will be called Tinker Edge T and the CR1S-CM-A respectively.

The Sprint TREBL with Magic Box is a small cell solution that also integrates Amazon Alexa voice-assistance and Harman Kardon sound quality. This combination makes it unique in its product category. Perhaps this is how it has won the Small Cell Forum's Judges' Choice Award for this year.

Due to their small footprint, the new Intel NUC 8 Mainstream-G mini PCs have a limited number of upgradeable components. These models integrate Intel's 15 W i7-8565U and i5-8265U quad-core CPUs, but the 8 GB of LPDDR3-1866 RAM and the Radeon RX 540X GPU are soldered. There are variants with Intel Optane Memory, SSD + HDD storage combos, plus kits that come without any storage or OS.

The Reolink Go is a possibly worthwhile innovation in the security-cam industry: it is a truly stand-alone product that does not require external power or cables of any sort. Therefore, it can be installed so as to surveil anything the user wants. However, its need for 4G connectivity could be a drawback in some circumstances.

Google has started to spill some of the details about its new desktop mode previously spotted hidden within the Android Q beta. At developer talk, Google revealed it is actively working on the functionality and is also encouraging developers to start creating apps for multiple instances of the Android UI across different device types.

Hisense's all-new Android TV line up for 2019 has started to reach stores in the US, and as usual, the range is attractively priced for the features on offer. There are two new model ranges, the H8F series and the H9F series, that come in varying sizes and price points.

Google has unveiled its latest Nest product at I/O 2019. It is called the Nest Hub Max: a possibly more extensive, useful and powerful version of the Google Home Hub released earlier. It will retail for US$229, or its regional equivalent.

A number of 'new brands' are emerging rapidly in the US smart TV market, despite being less than readily associated with this product category. Prominent examples include Hisense, TCL and Vizio. Recent research indicates that, of these, Hisense is regarded as the superior option among US customers.

The Exynos i T100, Samsung's latest IoT solution is now official as a 28 nm chip that targets short-range devices that automate and control environments within homes or businesses. Its list of features and capabilities includes BLE 5.0 and Zigbee 3.0 support, as well as a hardware block for data encryption.

Samsung has unveiled a new line of TVs in South Korea recently. However, rather than being mere flat content-displays, this new line is apparently designed to fit into the 'millennial' lifestyle. To this end, one of them, the Sero, can be switched between horizontal and vertical orientations.

Need an original twist on the common-or-garden wireless speaker? The start-up Coolgeek might have you covered with their new Soundesk product. It is a round glass coffee table with a conical aluminum stand - that also houses a 360-degree speaker. The Soundesk can work via Bluetooth or an AUX cable for allegedly clear, high-quality sound.

A new report released by Parks Associates has found that 36% of US households with broadband-level internet connections also owned at least 1 voice-controlled smart speaker in early 2019. This data suggests that these connected devices are becoming more popular, and that their use as automatic home controls may be getting more and more familiar.

It looks like V20 owners will have to wait a few more months before they see Android Pie on their device. LG will not be updating the device before the summer according to its recently published Q2 2019 update schedule. The V30, V30S ThinQ, V35 ThinQ and V40 ThinQ are in luck though.

XDA contributors have noticed that the latest update to the Android TV OS has resulted in the appearance of "sponsored content" on the launcher visible from several kinds of device. They include the Sony Bravia X900F, the Mi Box 3 and NVIDIA's Shield TV. At present, this can be circumvented by uninstalling the updates from a specific app.

Google has accidentally leaked a new product in its Google Home range. The Nest Hub Max, which was spotted by Android Police, was featured in the Connected Home section of the tech giant’s website. The information about the Nest Hub Max has now been taken down, but not before it was shared online.

The Cupertino giant has unveiled the next generation of its TV arm. However, it is not a device; rather, it is a software- and content-based upgrade. The new Apple TV app allows users to cherry-pick channels or streaming providers at need. They could also add Apple TV Plus: the company's new panel of original shows available via subscription.