Android P beta available for OnePlus 6 on launch day

After Google announced Android P beta at its Google I/O event today, OnePlus has announced the availability of Android P Beta on its upcoming OnePlus 6 Android smartphone. OnePlus is one of the first manufacturers to bring Android P beta to its smartphone, and is also first to bring it at the launch. OnePlus already said that it has created specialized team called Team FSE (Fast, Stable, Efficient) to focus solely on maximizing the power of its flagship devices and ensure that OnePlus devices offer the fastest, and smoothest user experience available. OnePlus gained support from the developer community in 2014 with its first smartphone, the OnePlus One, which allowed users to fully customize the user interface using the Cyanogen OS. In early 2015, OnePlus launched Oxygen OS, its refined version of stock Android that retains a pure but fine-tuned experience. Oxygen OS evolves alongside the relationship between people and smartphones and discussions with members of the global OnePlus community. Oxygen OS has allowed OnePlus to provide some of the industry's fastest software updates. In 2017, the OnePlus 5 and 5T were some of the first devices to receive Android Oreo updates and the company prioritizes pushing out Android security patch updates within two months ...

Google, Qualcomm team up to support fast commercial availability of Android P

Google today started rolling out Android P beta for several smartphones. Qualcomm today has announced that it has been working with Google to bring the Android P; next-generation Android OS on selected Snapdragon mobile platforms has optimized the OS on Snapdragon 845, 660 and 636 Mobile Platforms to ensure that the Android P upgrade will be available at the time of launch. Qualcomm's position in the scale of the mobile world gives it a unique advantage and assist Google to improve the speed of its OS upgrade cycle, and for OEMs to bring the latest software enhancements to consumers more rapidly than previous Android OS releases. It brings on board some interesting features like multi-camera support, display cutout support, indoor navigation, HDR, among others. On the other hand, OEMs including Xiaomi, vivo, Sony Mobile, OPPO, and OnePlus are part of the developer preview of Android P and the public beta is already available on smartphones with the said mobile platform processors. Google's Android P is expected to be available to consumers later this year. Mike Genewich, director, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc said: We are excited to work with Google to pre-integrate our software with Android P, making it production ready for OEMs. Through our ...

Google rolls out Android P Beta for Pixel series and 7 more smartphones – Here are the supported devices

Google released Android developer preview for Android ‘P’, the next major Android release, back in March. As promised the company has started rolling out Android P beta for its Pixel smartphone. Thanks to Project Treble, Android P beta will also be available for flagships from Sony, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, Essential, and even Nokia 7 Plus and the upcoming OnePlus 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aYSxW1e638 Android P Beta supported devices Google Pixel Google Pixel XL Google Pixel 2 Google Pixel 2 XL Sony Xperia XZ2 Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S Nokia 7 Plus Oppo R15 Pro Vivo X21 OnePlus 6 Essential PH‑1 Android P bring Indoor Positioning with Wi-Fi RTT, Display cutout or notch support, Enhanced messaging experience, Multi-camera support, HDR VP9 Video, HEIF image compression, ImageDecoder for bitmaps and drawables, Data cost sensitivity in JobScheduler and more. If you are already on Android Beta Program, you will get the OTA update automatically on Pixel devices. For other smartphones, you can get the links to download the update from Android Developers website. Source

Google Assistant gets six new voices, continued conversations, multiple actions and more

Google at the I/O 2018 event has introduced a bunch of new feature and refinements to Assistant. The company announced that it will be available in more than 30 languages and 80 countries by the end of the year. It worked closely with WaveNet technology from DeepMind in creating more natural conversations.  Using AI and WaveNet technology from DeepMind, Google has created new voices to capture subtleties like pitch, pace, and all the pauses that convey meaning, all the voices are natural-sounding and unique. Furthermore, it is also bringing six new voices for Google Assistant and a special John Legend melodic tones to the Assistant which will be available later this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YQJOHqkhgM Up until now, continued conversations were possible but with limited situations, however, soon you’ll be able to have natural back-and-forth conversations without the need for repeating “Hey Google” for every follow up queries. Google Assistant will understand the context and will respond accordingly. This feature will be coming out in the next few weeks. it is also rolling out Multiple Actions using which Google Assistant will be able to understand more complex queries and respond. In order to increase polite conversations with families and kids, later this year Google will be introducing Pretty Please. Google rolled out Assistant ...

Google News now uses AI to organize news, replaces Google Play Newsstand, Google News & Weather apps

Google at the I/O 2018 developer conference today announced new Google News, which uses artificial intelligence to find and organize news into storylines by analyzing it in real time. "Google News now understands the people, places and things involved in a story as it evolves, and connects how they relate to one another," says Google. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wArETCVkS4g This lets Google synthesize information and put it together in a way that helps users make sense of what’s happening, and what the impact or reaction has been. "For You" makes it easy to stay up to date on everything you care about all in one place. It offers briefing of five stories that Google News has organized that includes most important headlines, local news and the latest developments on the topics you’re interested in. It learns and gets better as you use.  It also has easy-to-use and easy-to-access controls so you can decide if you want to see more or less of a topic or publisher. "Full Coverage" feature provides a complete picture of how that story is reported from a variety of sources. There is also Newsstand tab makes it easy to find and follow the sources, as well as browse and discover new ones. This will ...

Google Photos to get AI-powered One-tap actions, color pop and more

Google CEO Sundar Pichai at the Google I/O 2018 delivering the keynote announced new features for Google Photos app that includes suggested actions powered by machine learning, color pop and an option for developers to integrate Google Photos with their apps. The suggested actions feature offers you option to share a photo with a friend, brighten a dark picture, rotate or archive a picture, for relevant photos so that you can just tap the suggestions to complete the action. Color pop is a new feature that uses AI to detect the subject of the photo and leave them in color, including their clothing and whatever they're holding, while the background is set to black and white. These new AI-powered creations will be available in the Assistant tab of Google Photos and will roll out starting today. It will also get an option to change black-and-white shots into color in just a tap. Google is also introducing new Google Photos partner program that gives developers the tools and APIs to build photo and video experiences in their products so that they can Easily find photos, based on what's in the photo when it was taken attributes like description and media format Upload directly to their photo library Organize ...

Gmail Smart Compose uses AI to quickly draft e-mails

Google revamped Gmail for web a while ago and today at the I/O 2018, the company announced that Gmail will soon get Smart Compose feature. This is powered by artificial intelligence and will help you draft emails from a lot faster.  The Gmail Smart Compose feature will suggest users in completing the sentences in your emails so that you can finish the draft with ease. Since A.I works in the background, you can write an email like you normally would, and Smart Compose will offer suggestions as you type. When you see a suggestion that you like, click the “tab” button to use it. This not only saves time but also reduces the chance of spelling and grammatical errors. The Gmail Smart Compose will be rolling out over the next few weeks, this will only appear in the new Gmail for consumers, and will be made available for G Suite customers in the workplace in the coming months. Users can enable the revamped Gmail from Settings > "Try the new Gmail." Next, go to the general tab in your settings, scroll down and enable “experimental access.” Source

Nokia 6 (2018) 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version teased in India

HMD Global announced the new Nokia 6 Android One smartphone at the MWC, which was launched in India last month for Rs. 16,999. Today the company teased a new phone with more storage is coming soon, which hints at 4GB RAM and 64GB storage version of the phone, compared to 3GB RAM with 32GB storage version. [HTML1] To remind you, the phone packs a 5.5-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, is powered by Snapdragon 630 Mobile platform, runs on Android 8.1 (Oreo), has a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, dual-tone LED flash, ZEISS optics and a 8-megapixel front-facing camera. It has a unibody metal design made of 6000 series aluminium and has Nokia’s Dual Sight / Bothie feature and will get face unlock through OTA update in Q2. It packs a 3000mAh battery with support for fast charging that can charge the phone up to 50% in 30 minutes. Nokia 6 (2018) specifications 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) 2.5D curved glass display with 450 nits brightness, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection 2.2 GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 630 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 508 GPU 3GB RAM with 32GB storage, 4GB RAM with 64GB storage, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD Android 8.0 (Oreo) ...

SHARP AQUOS R2 with 6-inch QHD+ 19:9 display, Snapdragon 845, dedicated ultra wide angle lens video camera announced

SHARP has announced AQUOS R2, the company's latest flagship smartphone and the successor of last year's  AQUOS R smartphone in Japan. It has a 6-inch WQHD+ IGZO LCD display with 19:9 aspect ratio 100 Hz refresh rate and support for Dolby Vision. It is powered by Snapdragon 845 with 4GB RAM and runs Android 8.0 (Oreo). It has a 22.6-megapixel primary camera along with a 16.3-megapixel secondary rear camera with 135-degree ultra wide-angle lens to shoot videos in 4K 2K (3840 × 2,160 pixels) resolution. The AI live shutter support will take pictures automatically during movie shooting. It addition to Dolby Vision, it also has Dolby Atmos and also supports Dolby AC-4 for an immersive audio experience, making it the world's first smartphone to support both these Dolby features. It also supports playback of HDR content such as HDR 10 and VP9. It is also water and dust resistant  with IPX 5 – IPX8 / IP6X ratings, similar to the predecessor. SHARP AQUOS R2 specifications 6-inch Quad HD+ (3040 × 1440 pixels) 19:9 IGZO LCD 2.5D curved glass display, 100 Hz refresh rate 2.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 845 64-bit 10nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 630 GPU 4GB LPDDR4X RAM, 64GB storage (UFS), expandable memory up to 400GB with microSD Android 8.0 (Oreo) 22.6MP ...

Google Play Award Winners for 2018 announced – Flipkart, Khan Academy, Cricbuzz and more

Google for the past three years has been following the tradition of announcing Play Award Winners every year. Following the legacy, it announced the awards this year as well ahead of the I/O event. Google Play Awards is the best way for fresh apps to make a name for themselves. This year award includes some familiar names like Flipkart, Cricbuzz, Khan Academy. Khan Academy scored itself Best Social Impact app, Simple Habit gets Standout Well-Being App, and Flipkart (Standout Build for Billions Experience). Other noteworthy apps in the awards include puzzle/adventure title Old Man’s Journey (Standout Indie), BBC Earth: Life in the best AR or VR Experience, and Be My Eyes scored as the best Accessibility Experience app. The best Breakthrough Hit app goes to Empires and Puzzles which is free to download. Google has combined AR and VR categories into one, but surprisingly categories like Android Wear, Android TV, Best Multiplayer Game, and Best App for Kids are found missing this year. as for games, the best breakthrough hit apps list includes PUBG, Final Fantasy XV POCKET EDITION, and Cooking Craze - A Fast & Fun Restaurant Chef Game. Best building games on the list are Pokemon Go, Clash Royale, PUBG, EPISODES. Source 1, 2