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Selasa, 03 Maret 2020

You can get two Google Nest Mini speakers for the price of one - The Verge

Google’s Nest Mini smart speaker usually costs $50, but Daily Steals is offering an exclusive deal to Verge readers that bundles two speakers for about the same price. Just put in the offer code VERGEGNST at checkout. You have a choice of colors, including sky blue, chalk, charcoal, or coral.

This model looks identical to the Home Mini, but it’s different in a few key ways, per The Verge’s review: it sounds better than the predecessor, it can be easily mounted to your wall, and its controls are much easier to use, thanks to LEDs illuminating the way around the speaker’s various functions.

It’s been a while since there’s been a price drop worth talking about on SanDisk’s 400GB microSD card. But there’s good reason to talk about today’s deal at Amazon on that card, as it’s down to $45 (regularly around $60). If you own a Nintendo Switch or have any other kind of tech that supports microSD for expandable storage, this is will give you a huge capacity boost without breaking the bank.

Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable AA batteries are usually a little pricey, but an eight-pack of batteries is down to $16 at Amazon (via Slickdeals). That’s a great deal for these batteries, which are highly rated on Amazon and have been good at holding a charge in my experience.

Lastly, we’ve partnered with RavPower to offer Verge readers discounts on a few capable GaN USB-C wall chargers. They’re already at their lowest price, and these offer codes further reduce the cost.

The first product is RavPower’s 45W USB-C wall charger that sits flush with your wall or at least more flush than most other models. The USB-C port is on its bottom, so it fits the bill if you want a slimline charger that doesn’t require a lot of horizontal clearance. Normally $36, it’s just $19 at Amazon with the offer code VERGE001 at checkout.

If you want more power (enough to recharge the MacBook Air or the 13-inch MacBook Pro), RavPower’s 61W GaN USB-C wall charger is the better option for you. It doesn’t have the slimline design of the 45W model, but it’s still surprisingly tiny. It’s also cheaper today: instead of paying $36, you can get it for $24 with the offer code VERGE61W used at Amazon.

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2020-03-03 16:06:25Z
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Samsung’s update policy for the Galaxy S20 and Z Flip is unchanged - SamMobile

We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately as to what firmware update schedule the Galaxy S20 series and the Galaxy Z Flip will follow. How many major Android OS updates will these devices receive, and how will Samsung treat security patches moving forward? The answer, at least so far, is that nothing will change. Both the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Z Flip will be subjected to the same update schedule as the other flagship models that came before them.

Unless Samsung decides to change the way it distributes firmware updates, the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Z Flip will remain eligible for no more than two major Android OS updates. They should both get Android 11 and 12 in the future, all the while continuing to receive regular monthly security patches for three years, and quarterly security patches throughout their fourth year on the market.

Samsung recently added the Galaxy S20 series and Galaxy Z Flip to its list of devices eligible for monthly security updates, so in other words, it is business as usual.

As for future Android OS iterations, the Galaxy Z Flip costs a pretty penny and the Galaxy S20, especially the Galaxy S20 Ultra, is as premium as it can get in today’s mobile market. With prices of over $1,000, it’s not outlandish for prospective buyers to expect these smartphones to receive more than two major Android OS updates. We understand why you might want to ask if Samsung has changed its update policy as its premium price ceiling has been constantly pushed higher in recent years, but so far, it looks like there are no plans for better software support for these new flagships.

Nevertheless, the company should really consider extending its update window, at the very least, for its most expensive Galaxy phones. It would certainly be an incentive for a lot of people to join the Galaxy ecosystem, knowing that their expensive flagships won’t stop receiving major updates two years down the line. And it would help in further justifying the premium prices commanded by Samsung for some of its handsets.

We’ll keep you up to speed in case there will be any new developments in this area, but don’t hold your breath.

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2020-03-03 13:43:29Z
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AirPods Pro vs. Galaxy Buds Plus - CNET

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2020-03-03 13:00:19Z
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Foxconn expects iPhone production to return to normal this month - CNN

But company chairman Liu Young-Way said during an earnings call with investors that there are still "plenty" of uncertainties and the company could not yet quantify the impact of the lengthy shutdown on full year earnings.

For now, Liu said there will be "significant, negative year-on-year impact for all our core business segments" for the three months ending in March. Asked if the first quarter would be profitable, Liu said: "I cannot tell you at the moment."

The coronavirus has killed more than 3,100 people so far, including 173 deaths outside of mainland China. It has sickened nearly 91,000 people, the vast majority in China.

Foxconn (HNHPF), also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, employs hundreds of thousands of people. About 75% of its production capacity in mainland China, according to brokerage firm KGI Asia.

The manufacturer said that as of Tuesday, it is producing at about 50% of capacity.

Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai, is the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer and the main iPhone and iPad assembler.

Like other manufacturers in mainland China, Foxconn has struggled to get factories up and running again. In an effort to contain the virus, millions of people across China remain under travel restrictions, and requirements to resume factory operations vary according to local governments. As a result, Foxconn's plants "are short on workers and key components," Arthur Liao, an analyst with Fubon Research, wrote in a note last month.

"We don't see the supply chain as a big problem, we see labor as still the number one issue right now," Foxconn's Liu said Tuesday.

Fubon Research and KGI Asia both predict Foxconn's first quarter sales will fall below one trillion Taiwan dollars ($33.3 billion), which would mark the company's worst quarterly performance since June 2017.

KGI Asia analyst Laura Chen estimated in a note last month that Foxconn sales will fall to 942.5 billion Taiwan dollars for the first quarter, down 10% compared to the same period a year earlier. The second quarter will also see a decline of 8% on the year, according to Chen.

Foxconn's reduced production capacity will also likely delay the launch of Apple's lower priced iPhone SE2, which was expected this month or next, according to Chen.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company warned last month that its revenue for the March quarter will take a hit because the outbreak is limiting how many devices it can make and sell in China.

Once things are back to normal, Foxconn will be clambering to make up for lost time, as its woes will likely have knock-on effects for some of the biggest brands in electronics. Aside from Apple, the company also manufactures products for companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), Dell (DELL) and Sony (SNE).

Even in a normal year, US electronics companies "are in a scramble to have their products manufactured and in place" for consumers to buy during peak periods of demand — typically June and the Christmas season, according to Dan Wang, technology analyst at research firm Gavekal Dragonomics.

"Electronics production is a highly choreographed affair that depends on getting thousands of components in the right place at the right time, so any upstream bottlenecks can easily cause delays to cascade down the supply chain," Wang wrote in a research note last month.

The disruption to Foxconn's operations has prompted questions about whether the company should ramp up manufacturing outside of mainland China. Liu said that being less reliant on one country going forward is "the way to go."

Pressed on how much of Foxconn's operations he would want to shift to other countries, Liu said how the US-China trade war develops would be a key factor in that calculation.

"It really depends on whether [US President Donald] Trump will get elected. If he's elected, I think the percentage would be higher," he said.

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2020-03-03 12:28:00Z
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Google cloned Apple’s 3D Touch for the Pixel using just software - The Verge

Yesterday, Google announced the latest “feature drop” for its Pixel line of Android phones. It’s part of an effort to get people to realize that the Pixel gets software updates ahead of other Android phones and that some of the features it receives stay exclusive to the Pixel. And yesterday’s “drop” epitomizes so many things that are good (and bad) about Google’s hardware efforts, so I wanted to dwell on it for a moment today.

First and foremost, saying that these features were “released” yesterday is only vaguely accurate. Instead, the rollout began yesterday and should theoretically be completed for all users in a couple of weeks. That’s significantly better than the last (and first) feature drop, which trickled out to Pixel owners much more slowly.

Google has very reasonable reasons for not distributing its updates to everybody on day one, but they undercut whatever excitement people may feel when they hear about them — since there’s an indeterminate wait. I covered all this in the newsletter last December with the first feature drop.

You are reading Processor, a newsletter about computers by Dieter Bohn. Dieter writes about consumer tech, software, and the most important news of the day from The Verge. This newsletter delivers about four times a week, at least a couple of which include longer columns. You can subscribe to Processor and learn more about it here. Processor is also a YouTube series with the same goal: providing smart and surprising analysis with a bit of humor. Subscribe to all of The Verge’s great videos here!

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So let’s look at what’s new in this month’s update, courtesy of this rundown from Chris Welch. There are some basic quality-of-life (to borrow a term from video games) tweaks: dark mode can be scheduled, adaptive brightness has been improved, and you can set up little actions based on which Wi-Fi networks you’re connected to. There’s a new gesture for the Pixel 4’s Motion Sense chip, new emoji, and new AR effects for Duo video chats. All fine.

But there was one line on Google’s support page for the update that caught my eye (emphasis mine): “In addition to long press, you can now firmly press to get more help from your apps more quickly.”

“Firmly press” sets off alarm bells because it sounds a lot like the iPhone’s 3D Touch, which enables different actions depending on how hard you press on the touchscreen. It was a beloved feature for some people because it gave faster access to the cursor mode on the iPhone’s keyboard (I think long-pressing the space bar works fine for that, but I get that people love it). It’s also gone on the latest versions of the iPhone — Apple has seemingly abandoned it because the hardware to support it was too expensive/thick/complex/finicky/whatever.

But now, it seems that Google has done the same thing for the touchscreen that it does with the camera: use its software algorithms to make commodity parts do something special. That is a very Googley thing to do, but not quite as Googley as the fact that there was virtually no information about this feature to be found anywhere on the internet beyond a speculative note over at XDA Developers.

After a few hours of back and forth, I finally got more details from Google. Here’s what this feature does, according to Google:

Long Press currently works in a select set of apps and system user interfaces such as the app Launcher, Photos, and Drive. This update accelerates the press to bring up more options faster. We also plan to expand its applications to more first party apps in the near future.

Essentially, this new feature lets you press harder to bring up long-press menus faster. In fact, Google’s documentation for Android’s Deep Press API explicitly says it should never do a new thing, it should only be a faster way to execute a long press. The answer to why it only works in certain apps is that a lot of Android developers aren’t using standard APIs for long press actions. Because Android.

Okay, but how does it work? It turns out my hunch was correct: Google has figured out how to use machine learning algorithms to detect a firm press, something Apple had to use hardware for.

Tap your screen right now, and think about how much of your fingertip is getting registered by the capacitive sensors. Then press hard and note how your finger smushes down on the screen — more gets registered. The machine learning comes in because Google needs to model thousands of finger sizes and shapes and it also measures how much changes over a short period of time to determine how hard you’re pressing. The rate of smush, if you will.

I have no idea if Google’s machine-learning smush detection algorithms are as precise as 3D Touch on the iPhone, but since they’re just being used for faster detection of long presses I guess it doesn’t matter too much yet. Someday, though, maybe the Pixel could start doing things that the iPhone used to be able to do.

(For the record, Apple’s GarageBand has a sort of software-based detector for how hard you are pressing, but it uses the accelerometer.)

So Google made long pressing take not so long. It also finally brought some updates to Google Pay — specifically, it finally figured out that people might want to switch between cards in Google Pay more easily, so it added a shortcut to get to them by long-pressing the power button. It’s a little catch-up to Apple Wallet.

Getting passes of all kinds into Apple Wallet is easy and common — essentially every airline gives you a button to do so. It’s so much better than Android’s method, which requires opening the app or saving a screenshot and then hoping you can find it quickly later. But integration with Google Pay has been lacking. Google announced boarding pass support a year and a half ago and virtually no airline uses it. (As an aside, I’d prefer it be called Google Wallet, but that brand was already used up so they call it Google Pay, because Google).

This annoyance has been going on for years, but now there’s finally an answer for Pixel users that is very Google. Instead of convincing partners to also add a Google Pay button, Google lets you take a screenshot of your boarding pass in your airline’s app. When the screenshot system sees a QR code, the notification gives you a button to save the boarding pass in your Google Pay wallet. It also lets the Google Assistant know you care about that flight so it will send you updates.

Both the screenshot boarding pass and the firm press detectors share a common bond: they are very clever software solutions that take unique advantage of Google’s machine learning strengths to solve problems. They are also problems that, bluntly, Apple solved via more traditional methods before Google.

Still, credit where it’s due, Google is catching up and, in some cases, innovating. The automatic car crash detection looks like it could be a literal lifesaver, for example. And in everyday things, Google is making progress on fixing Android’s little annoyances piece by piece and doing so throughout the entire year instead of in one giant operating system update. Now if it could just do a better job distributing both kinds of updates to non-Pixel owners, we’d be cooking with gas.

Verge Deal of the day

Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite is back down to its lowest price

If you’re on the hunt for the best e-reader that won’t cost you too much, your search ends with the latest Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. It usually costs $130, but it’s discounted to $85 right now at Amazon. Compared to the $60 standard Kindle, this e-reader is worth considering if you want one that’s waterproof and has a backlit display that looks as crisp as text on paper.

Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy. Prices displayed are based on the MSRP at time of posting.

Coronavirus

Cancelled conferences or conference appearances:

Big tech responses:

Other coronavirus news:

Under the best of circumstances, testing would lag anyway — because most people don’t show symptoms of COVID-19 for a few days. So positive tests are essentially snapshots of where the virus was several days ago. But by keeping the test criteria narrow, the CDC lost valuable time to prevent outbreaks like the one at Life Care. Now health officials are scrambling to catch up.

Reviews

The two big reviews (and one big video) yesterday were Nilay Patel’s look at the Mac Pro and the Apple Pro Display XDR. I think both of them fall in a kind of Pro Uncanny Valley. They’re wildly more powerful than what’s been available to Mac users before, sure. But unless you are a specific kind of user, it’s unlikely you’ll get the full value out of their price. They’re too expensive to be aspirational purchases for most semi-pro users and yet the software isn’t quite ready for full-on pro users (at least in the media creation space).

This is a situation that will either resolve itself to the relief of everybody as software catches up... or it won’t. The latter option is a bit of a worst case scenario, coming on the heels of the bad Trashcan Mac years and the years waiting for this new modular design.

I’ll just say it again: there’s a version of this Mac Pro that starts at, say, $2,500 — albeit with more consumer-grade components. Apple clearly doesn’t believe that it’s worth making that kind of tower computer anymore.

┏ Mac Pro review: power, if you can use it.

Like so many things Apple, it’s a bit of a walled garden: if you live in Apple’s pro apps, and use Apple’s preferred formats, the Mac Pro will be very fast. But step outside Apple’s ecosystem, and things revert to more familiar territory. The good news is that this Mac Pro seems likely to inspire some optimizations, but it’s hard to say how long those will take.

┏ Apple Pro Display XDR review: category of one.

So this is a puzzle: Apple has to convince all of the people who gasped at the idea of a $5,000 monitor and $1,000 stand that the upgrade to the Pro Display XDR is worth it and convince the people picky enough to spend $43,000 on a reference monitor simply for color use that this display can hit the marks. To be completely honest with you, I have no idea how that’s going to go.

┏ The Vaio SX12 offers too little for too much.

┏ 1More True Wireless ANC headphones review: great features, not-so-great fit.

More from The Verge

┏ The Verge tech survey 2020. Casey Newton will have more to say in his newsletter, The Interface. I’ll just note that I think people overestimate how beloved Apple is and underestimate how beloved Amazon and Google are.

┏ Apple agrees to $500 million settlement for throttling older iPhones.

By default, Apple will offer $25 to any current or former owner of a covered iPhone. Named class members will receive $1,500 or $3,500, and around $90 million will go toward attorneys.

┏ A Final Fantasy VII Remake demo is out now for PS4. Here are looks at what’s new in the remake from Megan Farokmanesh and Nick Statt.

┏ Imagine a world without YouTube. Incredible piece of writing by Adi Robertson. YouTube seems like a piece of the internet that’s always been there, been the way it is. But the reality is that it could have gone many other ways.

┏ AT&T TV now available nationwide with Android TV set-top box — and a two-year contract. How many ways is this ridiculous? The two-year contract. The price hikes after a year. The $120 price of a second box. The confusing name. That’s four off the top of my head. If this service is any kind of success, I think it makes the case for AT&T having too much market power. In no sane marketplace does this thing even get off the ground.

┏ Nvidia’s GeForce Now is becoming an important test for the future of cloud gaming. In earlier newsletters I’ve presented this as analogous to the channel carriage fits we see on cable TV. That’s still true, but it leaves out the fact that in gaming there are lots of smaller developers who also have concerns. Nick Statt’s evenhanded look at all of the controversy is the definitive take on the subject right now.

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2020-03-03 12:00:00Z
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Foxconn, the maker of Apple iPhones, expects production to return to normal this month - CNN

But the Taiwanese company said in an earnings statement that there are still "plenty" of uncertainties, and it could not yet quantify the impact of the lengthy shutdown on full year earnings.

The coronavirus has killed more than 3,100 people so far, including 173 deaths outside of mainland China. It has sickened nearly 91,000 people, the vast majority in China.

Foxconn (HNHPF), also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, employs hundreds of thousands of people. About 75% of its production capacity in mainland China, according to brokerage firm KGI Asia.

The manufacturer said that as of Tuesday, it is producing at about 50% of capacity.

Foxconn's reduced production capacity will also likely delay the launch of Apple's lower priced iPhone SE2, which was expected this month or next, according to Chen.

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We may finally know exactly when the OnePlus 8 series will be announced - PhoneArena

Leaked OnePlus 8 Pro render

OnePlus is seemingly preparing to unveil... something later today, but it's clearly too soon and there's way too little buzz surrounding this announcement for the company's next flagship handsets to break cover.

At the same time, rumors have been swirling for a little while of a possible change in the Chinese outfit's traditional release schedule, and a "source close to the company" tells TechRadar India that the OnePlus 8 series will indeed go official earlier than you may have expected. While noted Twitter leaker Ishan Agarwal shared some inside information calling for a "launch in late March or April" about a month ago, this hot new report further narrows down the OnePlus 8 timeline.

Mid-April global announcement?

If TechRadar's anonymous sources prove accurate, the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro will see daylight in the "second week of April." That's a little over a month away, mind you, not to mention it would only be roughly six months after the October 10 launch of the exceptionally well-reviewed OnePlus 7T Pro last year.

Leaked OnePlus 8 render

Perhaps most notably, an April 9 or so announcement event would come less than 11 months after the May 14 launch of the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro, which arrived almost exactly one year on the heels of the OnePlus 6. Going back further in time, we should probably highlight the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 5 were unveiled in June 2016 and 2017 respectively, while the OnePlus 2 broke cover in July 2015.

So, no, it's not entirely surprising to hear the company is planning to further move up its release schedule for the first half of the year, and although the mid-April tip specifically concerns India, recent history indicates a global announcement will likely follow shortly or take place at the exact same time. Also based on recent history, we can expect the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro to go on sale around the world within days of officially breaking cover, but there are a couple of things a little trickier to predict this year.

Designs, specs, Lite model, and Verizon availability

We can't be absolutely certain the company's first mid-range handset since 2015's OnePlus X will be joining the high-end OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro to the mid-April launch event, but at least for the time being, that seems like a relatively safe bet.

Meanwhile, it's pretty much etched in stone that the OnePlus 8 Lite will adopt a modern hole punch design, triple rear-facing camera system, and a flat display measuring around 6.4 inches in diagonal and most likely sporting a blazing fast 90Hz refresh rate. That doesn't sound very "lite", which is why we're not quite sure that's how the affordable device will be branded after all.

Leaked OnePlus 8 Lite render

The latter two features have headlined many wishlists of hardcore OnePlus fans for a number of years now, so it's definitely nice to see the company willing to finally adapt to industry standards and respond to user feedback.

Then again, it remains to be seen if people will also be happy with the inevitable price hike of the feature-packed OnePlus 8 Pro. By the way, there are no guarantees on that front just yet, although most predictions so far circle the $450 mark for the OnePlus 8 Lite, with the "regular" OnePlus 8 and the unapologetically high-end 8 Pro forecasted to start at around $550 and $700 respectively.

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2020-03-03 09:01:00Z
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