Google Chrome 66 beta for Android brings experimental ‘Modern Design UI,’ updated media player and more

Google is now rolling out  Chrome 66 beta for Android which brings some new and experimental features on the table like the 'Modern Design' interface, updated to the media player and a new Clipboard API. Though Google did test the new Chrome Home U.I for a while which is expected to replace the age-old design of browser, it was canceled at the last minute. Now, Google is introducing a new 'Modern Design UI' with more rounded edges, and it looks like this U.I will be retained as the flags #enable-chrome-modern-design is available in this release. The new interface looks a lot like the Chrome Home, except for the address bar which was previously present at the bottom. The New Tab Page has a white background with light gray elements, and the icons for frequently-visited sites are smaller. The tab switcher has a white background, and the tab button is slightly rounded. The status bar is no longer dark and matches the color of the site you are viewing. Furthermore, the new design change also bought a new improved video player which now has the play/pause button in the center, and the remaining controls moved to above the timeline, and now you can just double tap on the ...

Over 4 lakh Xiaomi Redmi 5 smartphones will go on sale in India on March 20

Xiaomi launched its budget Redmi 5 smartphone in India last week and said that it will be available exclusively from Amazon.in as well as  Mi.com and Mi Home Stores starting March 20th. Today the company has announced that over 4 lakh units will be available for tomorrow's sale compared to 3 lakh units for the Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro that were sold out in 3 minutes  during the first sale. [HTML1] To remind you, the Redmi 5 has a 5.7-inch HD+ 18:9 full-screen display and is powered by Snapdragon 450 with up to 4GB RAM, runs Android 7.1.2 (Nougat) with MIUI 9, has a 12-megapixel rear camera with 1.25μm pixel size sensor, 5-megapixel front-facing camera with selfie flash, has a metal finish, is just 7.7mm thick, 11% slimmer than the Redmi 4, has a fingerprint sensor on the back and packs a 3300mAh battery. The Xiaomi Redmi 5 comes in Black, Gold, Rose Gold and Lake Blue colors, starts at Rs. 7999 for the 2GB RAM with 16GB storage version and goes up to Rs. 10,999 for the 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version. Xiaomi is also offering  Rs. 2200 cashback offer and 100GB additional 4G data for Reliance Jio customers,  5% instant discount with SBI Credit Cards and 90% (up to Rs. 400) discount on ...

YouTube testing picture-in-picture mode on the web to watch and browse videos simultaneously

YouTube for iOS and Android feature the picture-in-picture option for quite some time now and it looks like YouTube is aiming to bring the same to the web as well. The company is currently testing out the feature on a small subset of users. Once the feature is enabled, users can start a video and then click anywhere on YouTube including returning to the homepage, performing a search, or viewing a channel. The video will continue to play in a floating window in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Controls for the minimized window include play/pause, replay, or watch the next clip and the name of the video clip appears underneath, while full playlists can be viewed and scrolled by tapping an icon in the bottom-right corner. At this moment it is hard to tell if this feature will be default like on YouTube mobile apps or users can disable it if they wish to. There is also a chance that it might be restricted to those with a YouTube Red subscription. Since this is a testing phase, YouTube could still decide not to launch it all together. Source

Apple said to be developing its own MicroLED display for future devices

Apple for the first time is said to be developing its own MicroLED display panels for future devices in a secret manufacturing facility in California. According to a report from Bloomberg, the company will use Apple Watch as its first product for the newly developed MicroLED technology. For now, Apple is planning to make small numbers of the screens for testing purposes. The company is also said to be investing a significant amount in the development of next-generation MicroLED screens. The MicroLED display uses different light-emitting compounds than the current OLED displays that will make the future devices slimmer, brighter and less power-hungry. Unlike OLED panels, MicroLED display panels are far more challenging to produce, and the company almost canceled the project a year ago. While the technology for that is now in a stage that is achievable, but it might be years before consumers can see the results. While Apple makes its own processors in-house, the company's move to produce its individual display panels will definitely hurt a range of suppliers including Samsung, LG. This move of Apple taking control over the MicroLED display will give Apple an edge over Samsung who is the market leader for displays currently. DisplayMate Technologies who rates smartphone displays said: "bringing the design in-house is a 'golden ...

Samsung Galaxy S9+ reportedly costs $379 to make, costlier than Galaxy Note8

Calculating cost of making a flagship phone is not a simple task and even the companies don't often share such details. Third-party companies rely on various sources or component costs to estimate the making costs. As for the recently launched Galaxy S9+, according to TechInisghts, it costs $379 to make which is more expensive than the Note 8's $369.  Though the S9+ is cheaper than the Note8 at the time of launch, it apparently costs lesser than it for making. The Apple's iPhone X tops the chart at $389.5 while the iPhone 8+ costs $324.5  which is the lowest on the list. Samsung has an advantage here as it manufactures most of the components used in its smartphones and it pays for the groups that make them internally. Apple, on the other hand, buys the components used for its iPhones including Samsung. In addition to the manufacturing cost, the device's final price also includes other substantial costs such as R&D, marketing expenses, software development costs, distribution costs, etc. The Samsung Galaxy S9+ Display / Touchscreen costs $72.50, while the camera and imaging  components cost $48 of the total cost. Samsung has invested more in a better processor, increased LTE speed, and a better dual aperture camera in the ...

LG G7 said to feature LCD display instead of OLED as a cost-cutting measure

LG Electronics to likely roll back to LCD display for its upcoming G7 flagship in a bid to reduce costs and sustain market losses. Though OLED displays are slimmer and more energy-efficient, they almost cost double or triple the price of LCD panels. According to research firm IHS Markit, a 5.5-inch LCD screen of the iPhone 8 Plus costs Apple US$52 while the iPhone X's 5.8-inch OLED display comes at US$110. Going by the previous reports, the upcoming LG flagship said to sport an LG Display’s MLCD+ display which consumes 35% less power than a conventional LCD display and boasts better brightness. LG V30 is the first LG flagship to feature an OLED panel late last year, but even that didn't help LG electronics to boost its sales. With Apple going the LCD route for its 6.1-inch iPhone that is slated to go, official, later this year, LG to seem a possibility of G7 to click among mass markets. According to Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at KGI Securities, iPhones with LCD display will account for some 50% shipments later this year. LG Display will supply the display for its upcoming LG G7 flagship. Since these are just early rumors, we need to wait for LG to make an ...

OPPO R15 with 6.28-inch FHD+ 19:9 OLED display, 20MP front camera, dual rear cameras, Android 8.1 announced

OPPO just announced its flagship R15 series of smartphones in China. It comes with a 6.28-inch FHD+ 19:9 aspect ratio OLED display with a notch with a 1.78mm narrow frame and 90% screen-to-body ratio. It calls it Super-V Display. The R15 is powered by the latest MediaTek Helio P60 12nm SoC, while the R15 Dream Mirror Edition is powered by Snapdragon 660 SoC. Both the phones have 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage.  These also have a 16-megapixel rear camera 1/2.6" Sony IMX519 sensor with 1.22μm pixel size and f/1.7 aperture and come with AI Intelligent Scene Recognition that can recognize 16 kinds of scenes and 120 kinds of multi-scene combinations and also comes with AI portraits with built-in AI chip . The R15 has a 5-megapixel secondary rear camera, while the Dream Mirror Edition features a 20-megapixel secondary camera with f/1.7 aperture. These also have a 20-megapixel front camera with AI smart beauty that can scan 296 feature points of the face, which is 16.5% more than the previous generation. Both these have a glass back, but there is a special Edition Dream Mirror Edition with a ceramic body. These have a fingerprint sensor on the back and comes with VOOC Flash Charging to offer 2 hours of ...

Xiaomi MIUI App Vault listed on Play Store, gets new Stocks card

Xiaomi’s MIUI is amongst the most popular Android skins with more than 300 million worldwide users. MIUI is a heavy skin on top of Android, but what sets it apart from other Android skins is its feature richness and customizations. MIUI focuses towards providing a rich user experience and to fulfil this, MIUI is loaded with many system apps like Calculator, Recorder, Mi Explorer, Mi Drop, App Vault, Mi Video, Yellow pages and many more. Xiaomi never bothered to list these apps to Play Store and kept it exclusive to MIUI users but after the launch of company’s maiden Android One device Mi A1 last year, Xiaomi slowly started listing in-house MIUI apps on Play Store. Company listed its feature-packed Calculator, Mi Drop, Mi Explorer apps on play store last year, and last week Xiaomi listed its smart assistant called App Vault on Play Store. The app is listed as a unreleased app, and currently it’s not compatible with Non MIUI devices. After listing the app on Play Store, Xiaomi has rolled out an update for the app which adds one more card to the App Vault. The latest addition to the smart cards is a new Stocks card which provides stock ...

Xiaomi starts rolling out MIUI 9.5 Stable ROM, finally brings New Notification Shade with Quick Replies

Google introduced Quick Reply and Bundled Notifications with Android Nougat back in 2016, but devices running on MIUI didn’t get these features despite devices running on Android Nougat. Xiaomi announced the lightning fast MIUI 9 Global ROM back in November 2017 with many fresh changes including Split Screen, Interactive and Fresh UI changes, New Gallery App, Calendar Cards, App Vault, New Notification Shade, Mi Video App, New Mi Explorer and Mi Drop. In January Xiaomi rolled out App Vault, Mi Video App and Gallery Editor with MIUI 9.2 but New Notification Shade couldn’t make its way to Stable ROM. [gallery link="file" size="large" ids="235833,235834,235835"] If you’re still struggling with expanding notifications with two finger swipe down gesture and have a Xiaomi device running Android 7.0 or above, there is be a good news for you as Xiaomi has finally started rolling out New Notification Shade feature with MIUI 9.5 Stable ROM. As per users on Mi Community, company has started rolling out MIUI 9.5.4.0.NCFMIFA for Redmi Note 4, February security patch is also included in this update. Apart from these, Xiaomi has introduced new Ringtones, Charging Sound, Lock/Unlock Sound as it did on Global Beta ROM back in January with MIUI Global Beta 8.1.8. [gallery ...

Microsoft Edge Browser beta now available for iPad

Microsoft first introduced the Edge Browser beta for Android and iOS back in October 2017 and during the announcement it mentioned that browser for iPads will be made available soon, and now the day has finally arrived. Edge Browser is now finally available for iPads in beta via the Apple TestFlight system. Just as you would expect, Microsoft has scaled up the interface of the browser to fit the large-screen and features like “continue on PC,” options to change from a light to a dark theme are accounted for. For now, however, Microsoft didn't include iOS 11 split screen support, which means you can't run any other app while browsing. But since this in beta, there's hope for the feature to make its way in the final release. [HTML1] Like on iPhones, Microsoft still doesn't offer any support for tab syncing between a Windows PC and the iPad or iPhone versions of Edge, but it did mention that it is working on introducing such feature soon. Other familiar features like your Favorites, Reading List, New Tab Page, Reading View, are all present here as well. If you are a Microsoft Edge tester on iOS, you can download the app right away from TestFlight. For others, Microsoft Edge would be available ...