Google is getting rid of all plastic from packaging by 2025

In August last year, Google shared a new set of hardware and sustainability commitments to reduce its impact on the environment. As part of its sustainability goals, the company planned on using recycled materials in all Made by Google products by 2022. With the launch of the new Pixel and Nest devices earlier this year, Google has achieved this goal two years ahead of schedule. In a blog post on the matter, the company claims that all new Pixel and Nest products launched this year are designed with recycled materials.

Elaborating on the use of recycled materials in this year’s Made by Google hardware, the company notes that the back housing of the Pixel 5 is made with 100% recycled aluminum, the new Nest Audio contains 70 percent recycled plastics, and the trim plate of the Nest Thermostat is made of 75 percent post-consumer recycled plastic. Since Google has already achieved last year’s sustainability goal ahead of schedule, it has now updated its original commitment.

As per the blog post, Google now plans to use recycled or renewable material in at least 50 percent of all plastic used across all its hardware products by 2025. To achieve this new goal, the company plans to prioritize recycled plastics wherever possible. Additionally, the company plans to achieve UL 2799 Zero Waste to Landfill certification at all final assembly manufacturing sites by 2022. This certification will ensure that a majority of waste from those manufacturing sites is recycled.

Furthermore, the company plans to make all of its product packaging plastic-free and recyclable by 2025. Google has been working towards this goal since 2016, but its product packaging still uses a fair amount of plastics. The company now plans to look for recyclable alternatives to help it reach its sustainability goals while still protecting the products in transit. It’s worth noting that while Google claims that all of its new Pixel and Nest products make use of recyclable materials, the company hasn’t shed any light on the materials used on the Chromecast with Google TV dongle.

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Source: The Keyword blog

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Google prepares to bring Gmail’s Search Chips feature to mobile

Google introduced a new feature in Gmail called “Search Chips” earlier this year in February. The feature added clickable search suggestions in Gmail for G Suite users, making search filters a whole lot easier to use. A couple of months after the initial release, Google rolled out Search Chips in Gmail for consumers. And now, the company is preparing to add the feature in the mobile version of Gmail.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

A teardown of the Gmail app for Android (v. 2020.10.04) has unearthed new strings of code that hint at the upcoming Search Chips integration on mobile. As with the desktop version, entering any keyword in the Search bar will bring up related Search Chips right underneath the Search bar. Tapping on the Search Chips will instantly apply a filter and display all related emails underneath.

<string name="search_filtering_attachment_chip_title_with_count">Attachment+%d</string>
<string name="search_filtering_author_chip_title">From</string>
<string name="search_filtering_author_chip_title_with_name">From %s</string>
<string name="search_filtering_author_chip_title_with_name_and_count">From %1$s+%2$d</string>
<string name="search_filtering_dialog_attachment_icon_content_description">Attachment icon</string>
<string name="search_filtering_documents_chip_title">Documents</string>
<string name="search_filtering_documents_chip_title_with_count">Documents+%d</string>
<string name="search_filtering_images_chip_title">Images</string>
<string name="search_filtering_images_chip_title_with_count">Images+%d</string>
<string name="search_filtering_pdf_chip_title">PDFs</string>
<string name="search_filtering_pdf_chip_title_with_count">PDF+%d</string>
<string name="search_filtering_people_suggestion_header_title">Suggested</string>
<string name="search_filtering_sheets_chip_title">Sheets</string>
<string name="search_filtering_sheets_chip_title_with_count">Sheets+%d</string>
<string name="search_filtering_slides_chip_title">Slides</string>
<string name="search_filtering_slides_chip_title_with_count">Slides+%d</string>
<string name="search_filtering_video_chip_title">Videos</string>
<string name="search_filtering_video_chip_title_with_count">Video+%d</string>

As you can see in the attached screenshot, typing the keyword ‘calibrate’ brings up a couple of filter suggestions, including Exclude charts, Any time, Has attachment, and To me. Clicking on these suggestions will narrow down your search, which is a significantly easier process than typing out Gmail’s old filters.

As of now, we have no information from Google regarding Search Chips integration in Gmail for mobile. We’ll update this post as soon as the feature goes live in a future version of Gmail for Android.

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Thanks to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler, a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.

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Netflix prepares to add an audio-only mode for background listening

Netflix’s Android app has been steadily adding and testing new features over the past few months, including the addition of a screen lock button, playback speed controls, letting users watch partially downloaded TV shows and movies, and more. In an attempt to attract new subscribers, the streaming giant even started offering a few of its original shows and movies for free and will be hosting an event called StreamFest next month to let Indian users try out the service for free for 2 days. Now, Netflix for Android is preparing to add another nifty feature: background audio playback.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

In the Netflix app version 7.79.1, we have found evidence the app might soon let you listen to your favorite shows.

We have found the following strings in Netflix version 7.79.1:

<string name="audio_mode_intro_tooltip_message">Save your data by turning off the video and listening to your favorite shows.</string>
<string name="audio_mode_tooltip_title">New</string>
<string name="audio_mode_video_off_tooltip_message">The video is off, but you can continue listening to your show while you are busy doing other things.</string>

The background audio feature can come in handy when you can’t afford to stare at your screen but also don’t want to tune out of the interesting storyline. The feature essentially lets you listen to your Netflix shows like you would listen to podcasts, allowing you to attend to other important tasks, which require your complete attention. Another possible use case of the background audio feature is when you’re on limited mobile data. One of the strings we found mentions that users will be able to turn off the video feed and listen to just the audio, thereby saving the precious mobile data as well as battery life.

As is usually the case with in-development features, it’s unclear when, if ever, Netflix plans to roll out this background audio functionality to all users.

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Xiaomi’s MIUI Launcher is getting a horizontal recent apps screen

Xiaomi’s MIUI is one of the most popular custom UX present on Android devices, riding atop the sheer volume of sales of the company’s smartphones across varied price points. MIUI 10 brought along a new Launcher that further brought along a 2×2 app list to the Recents panel, scrolling vertically. Now, MIUI Launcher on MIUI 12 is getting an option that enables a horizontal recent apps screen.

Telegram channel @Xiaomiui shared a new version of the MIUI Launcher that brings along the new horizontal recent apps screen. MIUI Launcher Alpha v4.21.0.2425-10261728 comes with the following changelog:

1. Added new Horizontal Recents option
2. Fix the bug that some models reported incorrect points
3. Adjust the Gaussian blur scheme
4. Fix the bug that the icon disappears when dragging the folder icon
5. Optimize the problem of unloading application freeze
6. Adjust the animation in and out of the recent task

Telegram user @Deiki has managed to capture screenshots, showing the new horizontal recent apps UI in action:

As seen above, the Home Screen now gets an “Arrange Items in Recents” option, and you can choose to have either the 2×2 vertical scrolling option or the horizontal scrolling option. The horizontal scrolling option is reminiscent of what we see across other custom UX, such as OnePlus’ OxygenOS and Google’s Pixel Android UX. It’s fairly simple in usage, with a simple scroll sideways giving you access to recently opened apps. You can swipe up the app to close it and remove it from memory, and you can long-press to lock it in memory or access settings. While the 2×2 vertical scrolling Recents pane offered a lot more information at a glance, the horizontal scrolling Recents pane offers familiarity for users as this is much more widely adopted across the Android ecosystem.

While you can sideload the APK on your Xiaomi MIUI 12 device to get the feature toggle surfaced, note that it may not actually work. If everything goes well, you can expect to see the feature reach your device on a stable MIUI 12 update.

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Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant gets a big redesign

Although Samsung is dropping support for some of Bixby’s augmented reality features this month, the company doesn’t plan on giving up on its virtual assistant just yet. On the contrary, Samsung is now pushing an update for the voice assistant that introduces an updated icon and a complete visual refresh. The new Bixby redesign has already started rolling out to users, and it looks like a cross between the minimal Google Assistant UI that was introduced last year and Siri on iOS 14.

As you can see in the video shared by u/MehdiMa0507 on Reddit (linked below), the updated Bixby interface no longer takes up the entire page. Instead, the Bixby UI now only appears in a small section at the bottom of the page with a faded background like the Google Assistant. The old Bixby icon has also been replaced with a flatter alternative that switches to a horizontal bar when the voice assistant is listening for your command.

The Bixby page has also been updated with a bottom navigation bar that houses three icons — a keyboard icon to issue text-based commands, a microphone icon to issue voice commands, and a new home icon. The color scheme for the page has also been updated from different shades of blue to black/gray. The updated Bixby interface is likely part of the Bixby Voice 3.0 update, which is currently rolling out to users running both One UI 2.1 and One UI 2.5. However, the update doesn’t seem to be available for all users just yet. Sideloading the updated APK from APKMirror also doesn’t work on my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra running One UI 2.5 and Mishaal’s Galaxy S20 running One UI 3.0 beta.

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Via: Reddit

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The OPPO Find X2’s new ColorOS 11 beta update adds FlexDrop for multitasking

After releasing the first Android 11 beta build with ColorOS 7.2 for the Find X2 series in June this year, OPPO unveiled ColorOS 11 based on Android 11 last month. Our Editor-in-Chief, Mishaal Rahman, reviewed the beta update shortly after its release and went through all of the new features packed in OPPO’s latest Android skin. However, at the time, OPPO hadn’t released all new features planned for ColorOS 11. Mishaal had briefly talked about these features in his review of ColorOS 11, and now OPPO has finally started rolling out one of the new features in the latest ColorOS 11 beta update for the Find X2 series.

A spokesperson for OPPO has confirmed that the latest ColorOS 11 beta based on Android 11 is now rolling out for the global and Chinese Find X2 series. The update contains the new FlexDrop feature, which Mishaal had outlined in his review. FlexDrop is a new multitasking feature that’s activated by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. It lets you quickly launch any app into a floating window and move it anywhere on the screen by dragging the handlebar. XDA TV’s TK Bay recently received the update on his Find X2 Pro, and you can see the feature in action in the video attached below:

Excited for the new @colorosoppo #coloros11 #findx2pro feature called #flexdrop to make any app a floating application, check it out on @android #android11 #sabaho #صباحو pic.twitter.com/6bau0FxkZn

— TK Bay – طارق باي (@tkdsl8655) October 27, 2020

OPPO plans on rolling out a stable version of ColorOS 11 for the Find X2 series in 2 weeks. And the new FlexDrop feature should be available in the stable release when it reaches consumers. OPPO is scheduled to roll out a ColorOS 11 beta update for the Reno 4 Pro 5G later this month, with other Reno 4 series devices to follow next month. You can check out the full ColorOS 11 beta update release timeline by following this link.

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The Samsung Galaxy Note 20’s One UI 3.0 beta update is starting to roll out

After rolling out One UI 3.0 public beta builds for the Galaxy S20 series, Samsung started recruiting beta testers for the Galaxy Note 20’s One UI 3.0 beta update earlier this month. The company has now started rolling out the One UI 3.0 beta update for Galaxy Note 20 devices in the US. As per a recent tweet from @SamsungGaryB82, Galaxy Note 20 users in the US can now register for the One UI 3.0 public beta through the Samsung Members app, and the open beta is available for T-Mobile, Sprint, and unlocked Galaxy Note 20 devices.

Just letting everyone know if your on Tmobile and Sprint or have a Unlocked Samsung Note 20 you can now register for the android 11 beta @SamsungMobileUS @SamsungMobile @xdadevelopers #Note20Ultra #beta #android11 pic.twitter.com/1ephoZU65n

— Matt (@SamsungGaryB82) October 27, 2020

In case you have an eligible device, you can register for the One UI 3.0 open beta update by heading over to the Samsung Members app and tapping on the One UI beta banner. On the following screen, tap on the enroll button and then wait a few minutes for the app to process your enrollment. After that, head over to the Software update page on your device and tap on check for updates to download the open beta release.

Samsung has also set up a Galaxy Note 20/Note 20 Ultra One UI 3.0 (Android 11) update mega thread that you can visit to leave your feedback on the open beta release. The mega thread announcement post further reveals that some banking apps may not work on the beta update, and apps that rely on Safety Net will not be supported via the Google Play Store. While Samsung hasn’t revealed any information about the beta release, we expect that the build won’t be too different from the one released for the Galaxy S20 series.

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