Articles by Muhammad Jarir Kanji

That’s a nearly $90 worth of free stuff!

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To entice you to buy its newest smartphone, Google is offering some sweet new deals to go with them.
Those in the U.S. can get three free months of Stadia Pro, YouTube Premium, Play Pass, and 100GB of Google One storage.
Those who pre-order the phone in the U.K., the Republic of Ireland, France, and Germany can also get a free pair of headphones from Bose.

If the new Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G’s excellent new cameras, awesome new software features, and blazing fast 5G speeds have you thinking about picking up one of the phones, Google is running a range of promotions to tip you over and splurge on its latest creations.

Those in the U.S. can get three months of premium subscriptions to a whole range of Google’s services. This includes its new game streaming service, Stadia Pro, YouTube Premium, Google Play Pass, and an upgrade to 100GB of storage on your Google account via Google One.

In total, that’s a little less tha…

Google says its technicians are working to resolve the issues.

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The Google-owned ISP is having major outages in several locations across Texas.
Users from Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin are all reporting technical issues.
The company has acknowledged the problems and says it’s working to fix them.

Google Fiber customers in various cities across Texas are reporting issues with their internet access. DownDetector’s map of Google Fiber complaints shows Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio as some of the areas most severely affected by the outages.

Google, for its part, has acknowledged the disruptions, and the Google Fiber Help account on Twitter reassured users that its technicians were working to fix the issues:

Hi Tracey, we have a field team out running new lines as we speak and will continue to work to get everyone back online ASAP. -Tom— Google Fiber Help (@googlefiberhelp) September 11, 2020

A previous tweet had an estimated ETA of o…

The shared stories will only be visible on your Instagram followers’ Facebook accounts.

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Facebook is testing further integration between Instagram and the Facebook app.
It’s now allowing some users to automatically send their Instagram Stories to Facebook.
The company has also begun integrating Instagram DMs and Facebook Messenger.

Facebook has long envisioned exploiting its control of the three largest social networks — Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — by creating greater synergies between the three. It recently began the work of integrating Instagram and Facebook messaging as part of that effort. Now, it’s also improving the crossposting experience for Stories between the two social media platforms.

As confirmed by a Facebook Communications Manager to @MattNavarra, the tech giant now allows some users to crosspost all their Instagram stories to their Facebook account automatically. While the option to share Instagram Stories to Facebook already exi…

Motorola began rolling out the update in other countries months ago.

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The Verizon variants of the Moto G7 Power and G7 Play are now receiving Android 10.
This comes months after Motorola made it available in parts of Latin America.
The update brings with it improved gesture navigation, better volume controls, and more.

Moto G7 Power and G7 Play users on Verizon will be pleased to know that the carrier has finally begun rolling out Android 10 to their phones — and probably more than a little frustrated that this comes just a few weeks before Android 11 is scheduled to release (via Android Police).

Latin American users of the Moto G7 Power and G7 Play, meanwhile, have had the update available since May and June, respectively. It’s also been nearly eight months since Android 10 was made available on the Moto G7 Plus, which is a shame for both Verizon and Motorola.

It’s being pegged as System Update 8 (software version QCO30.85-18) for the Moto G7 Power and …

Your eyes will thank you — and Google.

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Gboard users are set to get a new theming option.
Google is currently rolling out a new ‘System Auto’ theme that will mirror your phone’s system-wide dark mode settings.
It’s currently only available to beta users.

While Google’s Gboard will likely never be as colorful and customizable as something like the Chrooma Keyboard app, the company is now rolling out a new theming option that many of you will no doubt appreciate.

The new Gboard beta (version 9.7) now includes a ‘System Auto’ theme that automatically detects and mimics your system-wide dark mode settings (via 9to5Google). This switches the keyboard’s background color to white when you’re in light mode and a dark grey when you’re in dark mode.

For that convenience, however, you do lose out on some customizability, as you cannot, say, choose to have a neon green background when in light mode, something custom skins do offer. You do get the option to enable/di…

The feature is currently only available for Android.

Update, August 20 (04:10 pm ET): You can now save these transcripts for later use

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Real-time transcription is now available for Google Translate.
The feature lets you convert long-form audio content into translate text in another language on the fly.
It does require an active internet connection to function, however.

Having shown off the feature all the way back in January, Google is finally rolling out real-time transcriptions to Google Translate. What this means is that you can take audio in one language and have the app translate it to text in another language on the fly — and without any delays.

The app’s voice input option already allowed you to speak into the phone and have the speech be translated. However, as a Google spokesperson points out to The Verge, the app previously only worked for shorter content and was not “well suited to listen to a longer translated discussion at a conference, a cl…

Older phones that were spared from the ongoing ban on Huawei may no longer be exempted.

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Google may no longer be able to provide Android or app updates to Huawei.
While new Huawei phones were already barred from Google services, older phones had till now been eligible to receive updates.
The expiration of a reprieve given to Huawei is behind this latest development.

Older Huawei phones sold before May 16, 2019, when the ban on Huawei went into effect, had thus far been exempt from the ban on Google Mobile Services (GMS) on Huawei phones. This meant that while newer Huawei phones could no longer run GMS, these older phones could still receive updates to Android and Google apps. That may no longer be true.

As a Google document from February stated, which is quoted by the The Washington Post, this special consideration was the result of the Temporary General License (TGL) granted to Huawei. That license has now expired, which could potentially leave the owners…

Samsung’s current ToF technology is inferior to Apple’s, and it’s said to be developing a new sensor to match its rival.

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Much like the Note 20 series, the Galaxy S30 will likely not feature a ToF sensor.
The ToF sensor found in the S20 is inferior to Apple’s and maybe be part of why the company has opted to abandon the tech.
Samsung has not given up on the technology, however, and is said to be working on developing its own ToF sensor.

A new report from Korean publication The Elec suggests that the Galaxy S30 series, much like the recently-released Note 20, will eschew the 3D time-of-flight (ToF) sensor found in the Galaxy S20+ and S20 Ultra.

The publication cites the inferior performance of Samsung’s sensor compared to Apple’s offering in the iPad Pro and the upcoming iPhone 12 as the reason behind the move. Samsung also believes that there is no ‘killer content’ using the sensor for AR or VR applications at the moment.

On the technical side, the dispari…

Yet another gaffe from Google.

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Google is experiencing yet another logistics blunder with its Pixel line.
The company is asking Canadians Pixel 4a buyers to send it their trade-in devices a week before their new phone will be shipped, leaving them phone-less for a week.
Not doing so will decrease the trade-in value of the old device.

Canadian buyers of the Pixel 4a are in line to be the victims of a teenager’s worst nightmare: a week without a smartphone. As numerous reports from the Great White North show, Google has already shipped out trade-in kits for some would-be buyers of its latest smartphone, the Pixel 4a.

The only problem is, some of the kits arrived as early as August 3, and they expire in 30 days, which in this Redditor’s case (via Android Police) means the trade-in device must be sent to Google by September 3. Yet, their new phone won’t actually be shipped by Google until at least September 10, meaning that in order to abide by Google’s terms, …

It’ll likely feature a 6.2-inch main display, much like the first RAZR.

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Motorola today teased its launch event for the RAZR 2.
The company’s next flagship is slated for a reveal on September 9.
It plans to “flip the smartphone experience again.”

In line with a previous estimate by an exec from parent company Lenovo, Motorola today teased the upcoming launch of the RAZR 2 on September 9.

The tease doesn’t reveal much more than that, except for a slight glimpse at the phone’s silhouette. The company captioned the gif with a promise to “flip the smartphone experience again,” which suggests it may have some surprises in store for us, though the chatter about the RAZR 2 thus far suggests it’ll be mostly similar to the original RAZR, albeit with updated internals.

A leaked image of the phone shows it has a very similar design to the original, likely with an identical 6.2-inch main display. In terms of specs, the phone is pegged to be an upper-midrange affair,…