Apple AirPower patent application hints at privacy feature and support for different wireless charging standards

Though Apple is yet to announce the AirPower wireless charging mat, a recently published patent application from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office offers some details on a security feature of the accessory. The patent describes that a unique ID will be used to protect data transmitted between AirPower and the devices it is charging. The patent figure describes that AirPower will be able to recognize the device with the largest display and show charging statuses. Meaning, the iPhone placed on the mat will show the charging statuses of other accessories, including Apple Watch and AirPower. Essentially, your iPhone will show an overview of its charging status, as well as your Apple Watch, AirPods, and AirPods case, all on the iPhone lock screen. Apple's AirPod wireless charging mat “can implement” a range of charging technologies, including Qi charging, Power Matters Alliance technology, and more. AirPower can assign each device, such as your iPhone or Apple Watch, a unique ID for use when such information is transferred. However, this is a patent application and not a full patent, so it makes it harder for a potential release date.  Sometime back, Apple analyst predicted that AirPower, along with AirPods 2 might release in early 2019. Source

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite with side-mounted fingerprint sensor, dual-rear cameras surface

Samsung is known to be working on Galaxy S10 flagships which are due February 2019 at the MWC event. The Galaxy S10 is confirmed to come in three variants; the regular S10, S10 Plus, and a beyond X high-end model. However, a new variant; dubbed the Galaxy S10 Lite. It will come with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and dual-rear cameras.  However, not much is known in terms of other details like display size, chipset, and camera optics. The render that surfaced online reveals several important design elements, including a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, dual rear camera setup, and more. 2019 is quite an important year to Samsung as the company will launch its 10th anniversary S-series flagships as it did for the last nine years. There are dual-rear cameras on the back, but the exact specifications of the camera sensors aren’t known yet. It is quite likely that Samsung could include a large lens with a variable aperture. The fingerprint sensor is present on the right side of the Galaxy S10 Lite and the placement certainly appears ergonomic. As per other rumors, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite could also ship with Samsung’s Infinity-O display just like other S10 phones. We should know more details as we ...

Google Pixel 3 Lite and Pixel 3 Lite XL with Snapdragon 670, 3.5mm audio jack renders surface

Over the past few weeks, the rumor mill is full of Google Pixel 3 Lite with more details flowing in each day. However, there seems to be a surprise waiting in store. Google is said to be working on a larger version of the Pixel 3 Lite dubbed Pixel 3 Lite XL. The Google Pixel 3 Lite and Lite XL will share similar design aesthetics with the Pixel 3 and 3 XL.  The Lite versions will also come with 18:9 bezel-less designs (without the notch) as well as a dual-tone finish on the rear. However, unlike the original Pixel 3, the Lite versions come with noticeable bezels on the left and right sides and aren't truly edge-to-edge. There's only one speaker, unlike the dual on Pixel 3 series and instead of dual selfie cameras, the Pixel 3 Lite and Pixel 3 XL features a single selfie snapper. Surprisingly, there's the 3.5mm audio jack on the top, the SIM tray is available on the left,  the USB Type-C port can be found on the bottom, between the speaker grilles. Both the Pixel 3 Lite and 3 Lite XL will carry the same single camera sensor on the back along with a fingerprint reader. Another major difference ...

Nokia 9 PureView penta camera smartphone is delayed due to camera issues confirms HMD Global

HMD Global for some time is known to be working on the flagship Nokia 9 smartphone with PureView camera. In the latest developments, Britta Gerbracht, German marketing head at the Nokia 8.1 launch admitted that there had been some delays. The company explains that the quality of the camera has not yet reached the necessary level, which is why HMD Global has refrained from a market launch. In a way, Gerbracht indirectly confirmed reports of Nokia 9's complex camera unit and production challenges Foxconn is having. This also rules out the possibility of Nokia 9 launch this year. The five cameras on the Nokia 9, which are arranged in a circle with a lightning flash. The phone is said to be powered by Snapdragon 845 SoC and run Android 9.0 (Pie) out of the box. Gerbracht also admitted with previously launched high-end models, especially the Nokia 8 Sirocco edition have not brought in the hoped-for sales figures. The company in 2019 wants to get back into the high-end smartphones game with possible innovations. With HMD Global still being a very young company, the market dominance is a far sight at the moment. Source

Google Chrome for macOS might soon get native dark mode [Update: Coming in early 2019]

Update - December, 10, 2018: A Google developer recently submitted a code change that implements system-level Dark Mode in Chromium. This hints that it might arrive to Chome sometime in Q1 2019 with Chrome 73. Earlier: Google's YouTube, Android Messages have recently picked up 'Dark Mode' in a recent update and it now looks like Google Chrome might also get a dark mode, but it might launch first on macOS. There's also a chance that the dark mode might be exclusive to macOS. Apple with its macOS 10.14 added a feature where it would allow users to choose a system-wide light or dark theme. Switching the system to dark mode will flip all compatible apps to a dark color palette. Though Chrome for MacOS doesn't support this feature yet, it might be in pipeline. According to a recent commit for Chrome on macOS is titled “Add command line switch to force dark mode.” According to the bug report, it’s too late to add this feature to Chrome 70, but it might be included in 71. The Chrome 71 stable will release on December 4th and it needs to be seen how Google handles dark mode would basically look in Incognito mode. Being able to swap all apps to dark ...

Microsoft and new AI report details the need for facial recognition regulation to protect public privacy

A new report from the AI Now Institute which is an influential research institute based in New York has just identified facial recognition as a key challenge for society and policymakers. The report calls out for the US government to take general steps to improve the regulation of technology over the privacy implications. The report further states that the implementation of AI systems is expanding rapidly, without adequate governance, oversight, or accountability. It identifies the strong need for consumer protections against misleading claims regarding AI and urges companies to waive trade-secret claims when the accountability of AI systems is at stake. It asks that they govern themselves more responsibly when it comes to the use of AI. The report suggests that public should be notified when facial-recognition systems are being used to track them and that they should have the right to reject the use of such technology.  Though the technology is not completely exploited, it still comes with issues, for example, some facial-recognition systems have been shown to encode bias. "It’s time to regulate facial recognition and affect recognition. Claiming to ‘see’ into people’s interior states is neither scientific nor ethical," said Kate Crawford, co-founder of AINow and one of the lead authors of the report. Microsoft too opined that ...

Google Messages V3.9 update hints at Spam protection, Sharing support for calendar events and more

Google is pushing out a new update to the Message app with nothing noteworthy on the surface. But it brings changes to the message attachments. The update also hints details about the upcoming spam protection and support for new file types in the share dialog.  It brings a subtle change in the conversation view when you are interacting with a file attachment. On v3.8, long-press and selecting attachment would show share button, but as of V3.9, the button is now replaced with a classic floppy disc icon, which when tapped will immediately save the file to the Downloads folder. The share button is still retained, though. Now moving to the part that's lying underneath, for now, Google has been working on Spam protection for a while and we have seen references to the same in the past, hinting that it should be arriving soon. A new text and settings layouts have been added with this update that will be used for advertising and managing the feature when it goes live. It is just a toggle to enable or disable spam protection. It is unclear if Google would have access to the context of the message to detect spam or not. So, we need ...

Google removes two apps from PlayStore over app install attribution abuse

Back in 2017, Google introduced Google Play Install Referrer API which allows ad attribution providers, publishers, and advertisers to determine which referrer was responsible for sending the user to Google Play for a given app install. Owing to the reports of questionable activity, Google began its own independent investigation on apps on Google Play that are accused of conducting app install attribution abuse by falsely claiming credit for newly installed apps to collect the download bounty from that app’s developer. Google now has an update on the investigation and has removed two apps; CM File Manager, Kika Keyboard from the Play Store because it discovered evidence of app install attribution abuse. It also discovered evidence of app install attribution abuse in 3 ad network SDKs. I also asked the impacted developers to remove those SDKs from their apps. Google Ads SDKs were not utilized for any of the abusive behaviors mentioned above. Google's investigation is ongoing and additional reviews of other third-party SDKs are still underway and assured that it will take action if it finds any evidence of additional policy violations. Source

Huawei Nova 4 with in-display camera to be announced on December 17 [Update: New teaser]

Update - December 8, 2018: Huawei has posted a new teaser video for the smartphone that shows the new in-display camera with a space near the top left. 易烊千玺摘下nova星给你 这世界上有一颗星，如星眸般璀璨。12月17日，和易烊千玺一起期待华为nova4自拍极点全面屏。 Earlier: After teasers, Huawei has confirmed that it will introduced its top-end Nova 4 smartphone in China on December 17th. This will be the first company to introduce launch a phone with a small hole in the display to accommodate the front camera, and get rid of the notch, head of  Galaxy A8s that is also expected to go official later this month.   The camera hole is said to be just 4.5mm and it is expected to come with a feature a Full HD+ screen with a screen-to-body ratio of over 92%. As the teaser image shows, the phone still has a small chin. The phone is rumored to be powered by Kirin 980 processor with 6GB RAM, and feature 16MP + 24MP + 16MP triple rear cameras and rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. We should know the specifications once the phone gets certified in coming days. Source 1, 2

Samsung Galaxy A8s with 6.39-inch Infinity-O FHD+ display, triple rear cameras gets certified ahead of December 10 announcement

After FCC certification last month, Samsung Galaxy A8s (SM-G8870) has passed through the TENAA ahead of the announcement on December 10th. This confirms the phone's dimensions, battery capacity, 6.39-inch screen, triple rear cameras, rear mounted fingerprint sensor, glass back with a gradient design and a metal frame. Samsung Galaxy A8s rumored specifications 6.3-inch (2340 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 19:5:9 2.5D curved glass display Octa Core Snapdragon 710 10nm Mobile Platform (Dual 2.2GHz Kryo 360 + Hexa 1.7GHz Kryo 360 CPUs) with Adreno 616 GPU 6GB RAM, 128 GB Storage, expandable up to 512GB via micro SD card Android 8.0 (Oreo) Dual SIM 24MP rear camera with LED flash, f/1.7 aperture, 10MP 120° Ultra Wide camera, 5MP f/2.2 depth camera 24MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture Fingerprint sensor Dimension: 158.4×74.9×7.4mm 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2.4/5GHz), VHT80, Bluetooth v5, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C, NFC 3400mAh (typical) / 3300mAh (minimum) battery with adaptive fast charging We should know the price of the Samsung Galaxy A8s when it goes official on Monday. Source 1, 2