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mercredi 2 septembre 2020

OPPO launches the F17 series of mid-range smartphones and Enco W51 TWS ANC earbuds in India

OPPO has seen a high degree of success in 2020. With the continuation of its mid-range Reno lineup (in the form of the Reno3 and the Reno4) and Find series (in the OPPO Find X2 and X2 Pro), OPPO is cementing its status as a top contender in the upper mid-tier and high-tier segments. But it’s actually the company’s lower-end smartphone offerings that are the most popular in Asian countries. Today, the has unveiled the OPPO F17 and F17 Pro in India alongside the OPPO Enco W51 TWS earbuds.

OPPO F17 series

Looking at these smartphones head-on, their design deviates a bit from other OPPO smartphones. The back has a dual matte-glossy finish that intersects at the camera (think of what the Pixel smartphones used to look like but aligned vertically rather than horizontally), and there are also a couple of vegan leather finishes if you found that exciting about the Find X2. The rear cameras are housed in a square camera bump similar to what you’ll find on the newer iPhones, except we have four cameras instead of two or three.

The OPPO F17 is the lower-end of the two, and it has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC which was announced earlier this year. It’s an 11nm chip with an octa-core CPU and Qualcomm’s Adreno 610 GPU. This SoC also powers the Motorola Moto G9 that was recently launched, but we haven’t really seen it on other smartphones so far. The OPPO F17 Pro, on the other hand, features a MediaTek Helio P95, which is the same SoC found in the Indian version of the OPPO Reno3 Pro. The F17 Pro comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage by default while the F17 starts at 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.

Both devices look identical from the rear but turn them around and you’ll find differences. While the F17 Pro has dual front-facing cameras in a left-aligned hole-punch cutout, the regular F17 has a more traditional teardrop notch with a 16MP camera; the F17 Pro also has a 16MP front-facing camera, but it’s paired with a secondary 2MP depth sensor. The rear cameras are also different: The F17 Pro has a 48MP main sensor with a size of 1/2” and f/1.8 lens, while the F17 has a 16MP 1/3.06” sensor and f/2.2 lens. This is where the differences end, though.

Both phones have 6.4″ AMOLED displays at 2400×1080 resolution and 60Hz refresh rate, an optical under-display fingerprint scanner, OPPO’s 30W VOOC 4.0 fast-charging technology through a USB 2.0 Type-C port, 4,000mAh batteries, 3.5mm audio jacks, a microSD card slot, and Android 10 out of the box with ColorOS 7.2 on top. They both have the same auxiliary cameras on the back, including a secondary 8MP ultra-wide angle sensor with f/2.2 lens, 1/4.0″ size, and 119˚ FoV, a tertiary 2MP macro camera, and a quaternary 2MP depth sensor.

OPPO Enco W51

The company also announced its latest truly wireless earbuds that are also the first OPPO earbuds to support active noise cancellation (ANC): the OPPO Enco W51. These actually have several noise-reduction features built-in, including what OPPO calls a “‘2+2’ noise reduction solution”, combining a dual-core noise reduction chip with dual ANC technology.  The earbuds support wireless charging, and the case can top up your earbuds for up to 24 hours of total playtime on a single charge.

OPPO Enco W51

OPPO Enco W51 True Wireless Earphones Specs

Model ETI21
Product colours Floral White / Starry Blue
Model (charging case) ETI22
Driver 7mm dynamic driver
Driver sensitivity 103dB @1KHz
Frequency response range 20Hz ~ 20kHz
Microphone sensitivity -38 dBV/Pa
Bluetooth version BT 5.0
Wireless range 10 m
Battery type Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Battery capacity 25 mAh (headphones) /
480 mAh (charging case)
Music play time (50% volume) ANC on: 3.5h (single charge) / 20h (with charging case)
ANC off:4h (single charge) / 24h (with charging case)
Wired Charging time 80min (with charging case)
Wireless charging time 2.5h (with charging case)
Charging port USB Type-C
Dust and water resistance (headphones) IP54
Weight (Entire device) 55.5g

Pricing

The OPPO F17 Pro will retail in India in both offline stores and online for ₹22,990 and will be available in a single 8GB RAM + 128GB storage configuration. The device will be available in Magic Blue, Matte Black, and Metallic White color options. As for the OPPO F17, we have no pricing yet, but we’re expecting it to be quite a bit cheaper than the Pro variant.

The OPPO Enco W51 wireless earbuds will retail for ₹4,999 which is a great price for truly wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation. In regards to availability, though, we’re also in the dark for now, but it shouldn’t be long before these phones go on sale.

Are you planning on getting any of the products announced today?

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Google Maps now lets you pay for parking with Google Pay, starting in Austin

The next time you use metered parking in a major city, Google doesn’t want you to have to physically pay at the meter. Google Maps is working to let users pay for street parking from inside the app. Drivers in Austin, Texas, in the United States, can test the feature starting today when driving to a location with participating parking nearby.

Back in early 2017, Google started to show parking availability in Maps. Later that year, Google added a “find parking” feature to Maps to allow people to find parking spots near their destination. Now, drivers approaching their destination in Austin, Texas, will have the option to pay for parking in the Google Maps app.

Google said it partnered with Passport (via 9to5Google) to integrate the latter’s payment technology into Google Maps. Passport is a software company that specializes in developing phone-based payment technology to simplify parking management. Actual payments are handled through Google Pay, however.

Users can take advantage of the new integration in Google Maps on Android, iOS, and the web. Once you hit “Start new session,” you’ll be prompted to enter the Parking Zone Number, which may be found on a nearby sign or meter, and the parking space number, if applicable. Once you’ve entered the necessary information, you’ll be presented with the option to save your vehicle, where you’re required to enter your license plate number. Once you pay for a meter through Google Pay, you can see “Active sessions” in the navigation drawer. To extend your parking time, you’ll have to go to the web UI and follow the instructions. For more details on how this works, visit Google’s support page.

Google Maps pay for parking Google Maps pay for parking Google Maps pay for parking

This feature not only makes things more convenient for drivers, but it also reduces the need to physically interact with parking meters and ticketing machines. Right now, the functionality is live in Austin, Texas, though Google likely plans to expand support to other cities in the U.S. in the future.

Maps - Navigate & Explore (Free, Google Play) →

Google Pay: Pay with your phone and send cash (Free, Google Play) →

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You can now test your app on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 with Samsung’s Remote Test Lab

Yesterday, Samsung unveiled more details about the Galaxy Z Fold 2, which goes on sale in the U.S. starting September 18th but is available for pre-order right now. Our first impressions of the device are overwhelmingly positive, but at a price of $1,999, not everyone will be able to afford it. For developers interested in optimizing their apps for the foldable form factor, that can be problematic since it’s always preferable to test apps on live hardware. Thankfully, Samsung has a solution to this problem in the Remote Test Lab.

Samsung published a short blog post on Wednesday with some general details on how to develop for the innovative foldable. The company reminds developers of the device’s Flex mode and App Continuity features. Flex mode is triggered when the foldable is partially folded, letting apps take advantage of the expanded usability afforded by the split UI. Planning for what happens to your app once the device enters Flex mode? Check out Jetpack’s WindowManager library. App Continuity, on the other hand, refers to the ability of an app to seamlessly restore its state when the configuration is changed between folded and unfolded, or vice versa. Apps should save their UI state and support configuration changes gracefully so the current task continues seamlessly after a transition.

Now that the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is available in Samsung’s Remote Test Lab, any developer can test their app’s behavior with Flex mode and App Continuity, not just those who are lucky enough to spend $2,000. Samsung’s Remote Test Lab works by connecting Samsung smartphones to the cloud, which developers can control remotely. The system is helpful because it allows developers to test their apps on the latest hardware, even if they can’t physically access these devices. Developers can also remotely install APK files, make screen captures and recordings, and test automation scripts. Unfortunately, Remote Test Lab doesn’t support audio, additional peripherals, multi-touch, and camera. But despite its limitations, it goes a long way to making development more accessible.

 

 

Samsung previously added the Galaxy Note 20 to its Remote Test Lab, along with the Galaxy S20 series and Galaxy Z Flip earlier this year.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 Forums ||| Remote Test Lab

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Samsung Internet 13.0 beta adds “One UI 3.0 enhancements”, new extension APIs, and more

Samsung on Wednesday detailed new features hitting its mobile web browser, called Samsung Internet, in the beta channel right now.

First up, Samsung Internet 13.0 is preparing for the upcoming release of Samsung’s Android 11-based One UI 3.0 software. The company says the latest browser release includes immersive scrolling for improved one-handed usability. Going forward, non-scrollable elements such as the status and navigation bars will be hidden when scrolling, which Samsung says will allow users to focus on the content they’re manipulating. Samsung Internet 13.0 will also bring an expandable app bar into bookmarks, saved pages, history, downloads, ad blocker, add-ins, and settings, which will provide useful information at the tap of a button. Samsung also plans to place the “more menu” button in the lower bar, so you can reach the button more easily in sections like tab manager and downloads.

Samsung is tweaking the permission request UI in the latest beta to display a warning if a website you’re visiting looks malicious. Samsung claims the warning will make it harder for users to be tricked or forced into allowing notifications.

Samsung also detailed an expansion of the browser’s extension APIs. The new API modules available, according to Samsung, are: WebRequest, Proxy, Cookies, Types, History, Alarms, Privacy, Notifications, Permissions, Idle, and Management. Interested developers can learn how to contact Samsung for approval to develop a third-party extension by following this link.

Other changes in Samsung Internet 13.0 include easier editing of your bookmarks right from the toast notification you get once you press the bookmark icon, double-tap to play/pause videos while in video assistant fullscreen, a better description of what Secret Mode does, the removal of the news feed in the Quick Access homepage, the ability to hide or show the status bar while visiting websites, the ability to use High Contrast mode when Dark mode is on, a new tab design with a rounded tab shape, the ability to see detailed history for the apps that can call the browser, and lastly, a rebase on top of Chromium M83.

There are many other changes coming to Samsung Internet 13.0, which you can browse in the announcement post. Users have a lot to look forward to, and with many of these features already being tested in beta, hopefully we’ll see a stable release sooner rather than later.

Samsung Internet Browser Beta (Free, Google Play) →

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T-Mobile brings faster mid-band 5G coverage to 81 new U.S. cities

If you own a 5G smartphone (with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 modem) and you subscribe to T-Mobile, we have good news for you: The carrier on Wednesday announced a broader rollout of its 2.5GHz mid-band 5G coverage, enabling support for 81 new cities and towns across the U.S.

Each site of 2.5GHz mid-band 5G is capable of providing users with a much better 5G experience. According to T-Mobile, the upgraded network can cover tens of thousands of times the area that one mmWave site can cover. It can also penetrate through walls and natural barriers. Today’s news is part of T-Mobile’s three-pronged 5G strategy, which the company describes as a “layer cake” approach that consists of low-band 5G at the bottom, mid-band 5G in the middle, and mmWave 5G at the top. While mmWave 5G offers the most speed, it has poor range and penetration compared to low-band and mid-band 5G.

“This is our strategy in action,” T-Mobile said. “Mid-band is the 5G spectrum, and T-Mobile has more of it than anyone. We have nearly twice as much low and mid-band spectrum as AT&T and nearly triple that of Verizon.” T-Mobile said mid-band 5G is already averaging around 300 Mbps in “many places,” with some speeds hitting 1 Gbps. “T-Mobile has the competition in the rear-view mirror on 5G, and they’re only getting farther behind,” T-Mobile said. “While the other guys are playing catch-up [based on data from Ookla CoverageRight], we’ve had nationwide 5G since last year, and we’re now adding faster speeds across the country with mid-band 5G.”

T-Mobile acquired a bunch of mid-band spectrum following its merger with Sprint last year. Now, it looks like T-Mobile has refarmed that spectrum and is rolling it out as part of its nationwide 5G coverage. The carrier said it’s on track to bring mid-band 5G to thousands of cities and towns across the U.S. by the end of the year.

You can see the full list of 90 U.S. cities and towns that T-Mobile’s mid-band 5G now covers:

Mid-band 5G cities and towns. Tap/click to expand list.

California

  • Citrus
  • La Puente
  • Los Angeles
  • Paramount
  • San Fernando
  • Willowbrook

District of Columbia

  • Washington D.C.

Florida  

  • Azalea Park
  • Holiday
  • Progress Village
  • Westchase

Georgia  

  • Atlanta
  • Gainesville
  • Mableton
  • North Atlanta
  • Winder

Illinois  

  • Bellwood
  • Calumet City
  • Chicago
  • Chicago Heights
  • Glendale Heights
  • Hanover Park
  • Ingalls Park
  • Northlake

Indiana  

  • Merrillville

Maryland 

  • Towson

Massachusetts  

  • Holbrook
  • Waltham

Michigan  

  • Bangor
  • Decatur

Minnesota  

  • Maplewood

Missouri  

  • Jennings

New Jersey  

  • Camden
  • Cliffside Park
  • Fort Lee
  • Hasbrouck Heights
  • North Arlington
  • Palisades Park
  • Paterson
  • Roselle
  • Totowa

New York  

  • Copiague
  • East Williston
  • Freeport
  • Garden City
  • Garden City Park
  • Harbor Isle
  • Hempstead
  • Island Park
  • Lindenhurst
  • Long Beach
  • Malverne Park Oaks
  • Middle Island
  • Mineola
  • New York
  • Plainview
  • West Hempstead
  • Williston Park

North Carolina  

  • Clemmons
  • Kernersville
  • Pineville
  • Stallings
  • Statesville
  • Winston-Salem

Oregon  

  • Aloha
  • Newberg
  • Sherwood

Pennsylvania  

  • Braddock
  • Colwyn
  • Darby
  • East Lansdowne
  • Kerrtown
  • Meadville
  • Philadelphia
  • Rankin
  • Yeadon

Texas 

  • Dallas
  • Houston
  • Nassau Bay

Virginia  

  • Bailey’s Crossroads
  • Bull Run
  • Highland Springs
  • Lake Barcroft
  • Newport News
  • Sudley
  • Tysons Corner

Washington   

  • Geneva
  • Oak Harbor
  • Snohomish

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Today’s Top Tech Deals: $200+ off 1TB microSD, $400 gaming monitor & more!

We’re already halfway through the week! If you’re looking to be on the bleeding edge of tablet technology, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus pre-orders are live and ramping up for a September 18th release. Make sure to lock in your pre-orders for that and the Galaxy Z Fold 2! Speaking of, have you had a chance to read our Galaxy Z Fold 2 hands-on? It seems like a very promising device.

As for today’s top deals, we have a great deal on a Lenovo gaming monitor, a price cut on the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, and more!

SanDisk 1TB Extreme microSDXC for $234

Everyone knows nothing can be more frustrating than running out of space on your phone or Nintendo Switch. Everyone also knows that it’s even worse if you buy a poor-quality Micro SD card and it loses all the data you needed to have saved. On Amazon, the SanDisk Extreme 1TB Micro SD is $234, which is a huge $216 off the MSRP. SanDisk is a well-known, reliable brand, and with 160 MB/s read speeds, you’ll have no issues accessing whatever you may have saved to the card. Purchase one now and Amazon Prime members will get two-day shipping when the item is back in stock on the 12th.

    SanDisk 1TB Extreme microSDXC
    Tired of searching for the perfect Micro SD card? Your search is over. With 1TB of space and 160 MB/s read speeds, the SanDisk 1TB Extreme microSDXC is the one of the best cards you can get for your phone or Switch.

Lenovo G34w-10 34 Inch Ultra-Wide Curved Gaming Monitor for $400

Why play games with a boring, standard monitor set-up when you can upgrade to a breath-taking ultra wide, curved monitor? Lenovo is offering a very nice discount on their G34w-10 monitor. While the store page says you can grab this curved monitor for $420, a decent deal on its own, you can use the code EXTRAFIVE at checkout to bring the grand total to $400. It may seem expensive still, but consider this–how much are two of the other, normal 16:9 monitors that you were thinking of grabbing? I bet it is more than $400!

    Lenovo G34w-10 34 Inch WLED Ultra-Wide Curved Gaming Monitor
    You deserve to join the ultra-wide monitor life. The Lenovo G34w-10 has a 144Hz refresh rate, WLED, and low blue light certification. By using code EXTRAFIVE, you can grab this beauty for just $400, so why delay?

Crucial MX500 500GB Internal SSD for $60

Sometimes you just need a little extra space on your computer, and you don’t want to pay a lot for it. Crucial’s MX500 500GB Internal SSD is on sale at Amazon for $60, which is $10 off the normal listed price. I think this is a great secondary SSD, with 560 MB/s read and 510 MB/s write speeds. The solid state drive also offers AES 256 data encryption and some a fail-safe if power is suddenly cut from your tower. Not bad at all!

    Crucial MX500 500GB 3D Internal SSD
    If you're looking to expand your computer's memory, the Crucial 500GB SSD will get that job done easily. 500GB will hold anything you need it to (except maybe huge media collections), and the data encryption will keep it safe from hackers. For only $60 this is an affordable upgrade.

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1 15.6″ Touch-Screen Laptop for $1,050 at Best Buy

It’s time to head back to class, but there is one key difference this year–a lot of classes will be online, taking place solely in a virtual setting. You might find that your laptop or desktop at home isn’t quite up to the task, which means it’s time for an upgrade! Dell’s Inspiron 15 7000 is $100 off at Best Buy, and this is some of the cream of the productivity crop. This is a 2-in-1 laptop that you can fold to use like a tablet, perfect for note-taking. Also, 16GB of RAM standard will make sure you can run a Zoom meeting while having a note-taking app open.

    Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1 15.6 inch Touch-Screen Laptop
    If you need something that'll survive the school year, Dell's Inspirion 15 7000 will do it. The 2-in-1 laptop can also be used as a tablet, and its specs will make sure you can do everything you need it to. If you need more space, you can upgrade the storage before you even add the laptop to the cart.

Samsung 64 GB Galaxy Tab S6 Lite for $280

With the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus already in our hands and available to pre-order, it’s time for Samsung to clear out older models. If you’re looking for a nice discount on the Galaxy Tab S6, now is your chance. The Tab S6 Lite is down to $280 at Samsung, and while it may not have all the features of the Pro version, it’s a perfect tablet for those looking for something a little more basic. The S Pen makes drawing and other precision driven tasks a cinch, and the S6 Lite can last 13 hours on a single charge. Treat yourself!

    Galaxy Tab S6 Lite
    With the awesome S pen and a 13-hour charge, the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite is a great, simple tablet that won't break the bank. This Wi-Fi model doesn't require a carrier plan, either!

Don’t forget to join us tomorrow for more tech deals!

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Google Assistant is rolling out limited, Siri-like Shortcut support

Google is finally starting to roll out Shortcuts functionality in Assistant once again after axing a similar feature a few years back.

In 2017, Google toyed around with a shortcuts feature that made it easy for users to “create faster, easier ways to do your favorite things.” You could send a text to a friend with a pre-defined message, for example, or start your favorite playlist on your streaming service of choice. Google Assistant shortcuts eventually made way for Routines, but now shortcuts are making a quiet, but limited, comeback. Android Police recently spotted the feature going live for some users in Google Assistant, and it seems to work on both the old and new versions of Assistant. The new Assistant, if you’ll recall, is currently limited to the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4a.

Once rolled out, the new Shortcuts menu can be accessed by going to the Assistant’s settings. There, you’ll see a list of example shortcuts, like starting a new Twitter message, sharing your location, or sending an email. Assistant offers up a lot of helpful shortcut suggestions, but tap “view all” and you can see all shortcuts available to you from apps such as including Maps, Gmail, Google Keep, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube. Once you’ve created a shortcut, you’ll see them in a list under the “Your shortcuts” tab, where you can edit the default voice commands or remove them. To execute a shortcut, simply say, “Hey Google,” and then name the shortcut you want to run. For example, say “Hey Google, new Twitter message,” to create a new tweet—or for brevity, “Hey Google, new tweet” after editing the voice command in the “Your shortcuts” tab.

Interestingly, Shortcuts also appear in the Google Assistant routines section, where you can also delete or edit them. Google likely placed them here to improve the discoverability of the new feature.

If you’ve ever used Apple’s Siri Shortcuts or Samsung’s Bixby Routines, you’ll know how helpful shortcuts can be. Unfortunately, Google Assistant’s shortcuts feature is pretty bare-bones right now, as AndroidPolice notes. Developers will need to implement shortcuts into their apps for them to be recognized by Assistant, so your choices may be limited. The feature also appears to only perform one action; you can’t string multiple actions together in the same app or several apps. Lastly, shortcuts don’t seem to actually do anything beyond launching specific screens within apps—telling Assistant to send a tweet, for example, just opens the tweet composer in Twitter.

As limited as Google Assistant shortcuts is right now, the feature may still be helpful for quickly getting basic actions done, and we’re excited to see how the feature evolves over the coming months. If you want more powerful Assistant shortcut functionality, we recommend trying out Tasker and its AutoVoice plugin.

Google Assistant - Get things done, hands-free (Free, Google Play) →

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