Articles by Muhammad Jarir Kanji

Google is already starting to require Android TV devices to ship with support for AV1 decoding.

What you need to know

A new report suggests future content from both YouTube and Netflix will require AV1 decoding support.
Google is reportedly already asking Android TV device makers to start adding support for AV1 on their gadgets launching later this year.
AV1 is a royalty-free video coding format that also boasts significantly better compression than its competitors.

AV1 has been the subject of much interest in recent years — at least as far as interest in obscurely technical topics like video encoding goes. And it’s also gaining support from many of the most prominent players in the tech space, with YouTube and Netflix both adding at least partial support on their platforms.

The two biggest players in the video streaming space may soon also require devices to feature built-in hardware-accelerated decoding for AV1, at least according to a new press release by Synaptics. In an …

The rollout is starting in Germany first.

Update, January 18): One UI 3.0 for the Galaxy Z Fold 2 hits the US starting with Verizon units.

What you need to know

Samsung has finally started updating the Galaxy Z Fold 2 to One UI 3.0.
The update brings with it the January 2021 security patch.
German users will be the first to see the update, though it’ll likely roll out in other countries soon.

More than a month after Samsung began the global rollout of its Android 11-based One UI 3.0 update with the Galaxy S20 series, the company has finally turned its attention to its most expensive offering: the Galaxy Z Fold 2.

As discovered by the folks at AllAboutSamsung, owners of the $2,000 foldable in Germany have now started receiving the update. Alongside all the Android 11 goodness you’d expect, One UI 3.0 also brings with it a number of Samsung’s own contraptions, such as a Pro video mode, a new design, improvements to Samsung DeX, and more.

If you’re one of the lucky folks in Germ…

The update silently went live earlier this week.

What you need to know

You can now control your Google Nest devices with Samsung’s SmartThings app.
Reddit reports suggest the update was rolled out at the start of the week.
Google and Samsung had promised the feature back in December.

During its launch yesterday of the Galaxy S21 series — arguably the best Android phones around — Samsung promised stronger integration between its own smart home platform and Google’s Nest ecosystem. But the company conveniently forgot to give an ETA for when the update would actually roll out.

As it turns out, the feature has already been live since the start of the week, with the folks at XDA Developers uncovering a Reddit thread discussing the integration between the SmartThings app and Nest devices on Tuesday. That’s just in line with the promise Samsung made back in December.

It’s still far from perfect, however. At the moment, you can only control Nest-branded cameras, thermostats, and …

Your interactions with Google Assistant will not be saved when Guest Mode is turned on.

What you need to know

Google Assistant is getting a new Guest Mode for privacy-conscious users.
When it’s turned on, the virtual assistant will not save any of its interactions with you.
Turning it on and off is as simple as a single voice command.

Google this week announced a new Guest Mode for its virtual assistant that’s designed with privacy-conscious folks in mind. A simple “Hey Google, turn on Guest Mode” will ensure that none of your interactions with Google Assistant are collected by the company and nor will they be used to ‘personalize your experience’ — often an indirect way of referring to targeted ads.

When it’s on, the Assistant will play a special chime to let you know. Smart displays with Assistant will also show a guest icon on the screen. And you can always check for yourself by saying, “Hey Google, is Guest Mode on?”

Even with Guest Mode on, you can still do most of the …

What you need to know

Ring today announced the launch of end-to-end encryption for its cameras.
The feature will first launch as a technical preview on eight Ring products.
The company first promised the feature back in September.

Amazon-owned home security firm Ring is making good on its promise from September last year and finally rolling out a technical preview for end-to-end encryption on its security cameras.

The company has been mired in controversy over the years. Its employees were, in a 2019 report, found to have unfettered access to users’ video streams for years, with the company’s execs justifying the lack of encryption because “encryption would make the company less valuable.”

In the same year, Ring’s Neighbors platform was found to be secretly sharing GPS coordinates, which could be a serious privacy hazard.

End-to-end encryption should, therefore, be a welcome addition for privacy-conscious users, as it will prevent Ring from having the ability to tune into your…

The company claims it may have lost up to $2 billion in potential revenue because of Google’s alleged unfair practices.

What you need to know

Google is being sued by video sharing platform Rumble.
The company claims the search giant is taking advantage of its dominance in search to prioritize YouTube over competitors like Rumble.
Google is also embroiled in several other legal cases involving alleged unfair practices and anticompetitive behavior.

Big Tech has become the subject of increasing scrutiny by governments across the world in recent years, perhaps none more so than Google, which thanks to its dominance of the search business and its control of Android, the most popular mobile operating system, exerts a stupendous degree of control over the products and information we consume.

That influence has often resulted in the company fielding allegations of anti-competitive practices, with the latest of these being a lawsuit by YouTube rival Rumble, which claims that Google is “…

The app will explicitly inform all parties that the call is being recorded.

What you need to know

The Google Phone app is seemingly slated to get automatic call recording for unknown numbers soon.
Evidence of the feature was recently found in a teardown of the Google Phone app.
An audio warning will notify all parties that the call is being recorded.

Making calls may be one of the least common things you do with your smartphone these days, but that doesn’t mean Google won’t be trying to make the experience even ‘smarter.’ In recent months, the company has been working hard on upgrading the experience of its Phone app, making it compatible with more than just the Pixel line, automatically blocking robocalls, and even figuring out why a business is calling you.

Early last year, the company started rolling out call recording for the Google Phone app in select regions and now it’s working on making it even better with the option to automatically record all calls from numbers that a…

The movies will only be free to watch for a week.

What you need to know

Universal Pictures is making seven of its classic horror movies available for free later this month.
The list of titles includes The Mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula, and more.
The movies will only be available for a week, however.

If the last year hasn’t been scary enough for you, Universal Pictures wants to amp up the fear by offering seven of its most beloved classic horror movies for free on YouTube later this month (via NME).

The list of titles and the date when they’ll become available are shown below:

Dracula (1931) — January 15
The Mummy (1932) — January 15,
Frankenstein (1931) — January 16
Bride Of Frankenstein (1935) — January 16
Invisible Man (1933) — January 17
The Wolf Man (1941) — January 17
Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) — January 17

The moves will be found on the Fear: The Home of Horror channel channel but will unfortunately only be free to watch for a week fro…

The Galaxy S21 Ultra will be Samsung’s first phone to offer that combination.

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Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra will be sporting a QHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate, after all.
A leaked screenshot of the phone’s interface is our first definitive proof of the previously rumored feature.
Samsung will launch the Galaxy S21 series on January 14.

When Samsung first introduced the Galaxy S20 series last year, it gave their screens a serious upgrade with the inclusion of a 120Hz refresh rate. While the high refresh rate made for some buttery smooth animations, the overall solution was somewhat hobbled as users had to choose between the 120Hz refresh rate and the screen’s full QHD+ resolution.

With the Galaxy S21 Ultra, which is quickly shaping up to be one of the best Android phones, Samsung is fixing that with the ability to enable both the QHD resolution and the 120Hz refresh rate simultaneously. Prolific Samsung leaker @UniverseIce, who previously also reported …

The new OS will include Samsung’s answers to Apple’s Continuity feature.

What you need to know

A new leak has revealed some of the new features that will be included in the Galaxy S21 series’ One UI 3.1.
These include the ability to transfer app state from one device to another, background videos for incoming calls, and more.
Samsung will launch One UI 3.1 alongside the Galaxy S21 series on January 14.

It’s not a Samsung flagship release if literally every new feature hasn’t already been leaked weeks in advance. With that in mind, the barrage of Galaxy S21 leaks continues. While we already have a good idea of what the phones’ design, specs, and cameras bring to the table, the new software features Samsung has been baking into One UI 3.1 have largely flown under the radar thus far. Well, thanks to YouTuber Jimmy is Promo, that is no longer the case.

In a recently uploaded video, the YouTuber goes over many of the new features that’ll launch alongside what will likely be the best…