Samsung may not discontinue the Galaxy Note series after all

We’ve seen several conflicting reports about the future of Samsung’s Galaxy Note series over the last few months. Shortly after Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note 20 series, we first saw reports about Samsung’s plans to bring S Pen support to its next-gen Galaxy S series flagship. This led to rumors about the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note series. A recent report from South Korean publication AjuNews further fueled these rumors and claimed that it had received confirmation from a Samsung official that S Pen support was making its way to the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 3.

Shortly after AjuNews published its report, sources familiar with Samsung’s plans told Reuters that the company had no plans to develop a new version of the Galaxy Note for 2021. Additionally, we saw multiple credible reports backing up the report from AjuNews that the Galaxy S21 Ultra would support the S Pen. Samsung’s plans to bring S Pen support to more devices in its lineup was confirmed earlier today, when Dr. TM Roh, Head of Mobile Communications Bussiness at Samsung Electronics, hinted that the company would “add some of [the Galaxy Note’s] most well-loved features to other devices in our lineup.”

However, a recent report from South Korean Yonhap News Agency claims that Samsung may bring S Pen support to more devices, the company might not discontinue the Galaxy Note series after all. The report quotes an unnamed Samsung Electronics official who claims that the company is indeed planning to release Galaxy Note series devices next year. The report further quotes the same official as saying that just because Samsung plans to add Galaxy Note features to other devices in their lineup doesn’t necessarily mean that the Galaxy Note line will be discontinued.

Since Samsung hasn’t officially confirmed or denied any of these reports, we can’t be sure if there’s any truth to them. It’s also quite possible that both sets of reports are correct, and there may indeed be a Galaxy Note lineup next year, but it could be the last one.

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Xiaomi launches Mi QLED TV 4K 55 with HDMI 2.1 and Android 10 in India

Xiaomi has made affordable 4G smartphones accessible for a large portion of the Indian population, especially with its sub-brand Redmi. After settling in as a successful smartphone brand in India, Xiaomi invigorated the local smart TV market. With their value-for-money smart TV, Xiaomi is now established as a major player in the smart TV ecosystem in India and is now shifting their focus from primarily affordable smart TVs. Now, Xiaomi is launching a more premium QLED TV — the Mi QLED TV 4K 55 — that comes with Android 10, HDMI 2.1,  and a lucrative price of ₹54,999.

QLED or quantum dot light-emitting diodes actually employ LCD panels backlit by an LED strip along with one of the edges. As compared to regular LED-backlit LCD displays, QLED displays use an extra layer of quantum dots and that helps in producing richer colors and better contrast. The term was popularized by Samsung but has now been adopted by a host of other brands including TCL and OnePlus. The new Mi 4K QLED TV competes with the OnePlus premium QLED TV we reviewed last year.

As its name gives away, the Mi QLED TV 4K 55 uses a 55-inch panel and it features slim bezels and a high screen-to-body of 96%. The edges of the TV are lined with sand-blasted metal with diamond-cut edges. From the front, the design looks quite similar to that of the Mi TV 5 series but with visible nuances for differentiation.

In terms of picture quality, the Mi QLED TV sports 4K resolution along with support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. Xiaomi claims that the TV’s display covers 100% of the colors in the NTSC color gamut. While the refresh rate is 60Hz, the TV supports “Reality Flow” which is Xiaomi’s marketing term for MEMC, a technology that smoothens out video content shot at 24 or 30 frames per second (fps) by interpolating with artificially generated frames. Unlike the OnePlus TV, the Mi QLED TV lacks local dimming. However, it does feature ALLM (auto low latency mode) and automatically switches to the Game Mode when it detects a console like the Xbox Series S or Sony PS5.

In terms of audio, the TV features 6 speakers, including 4 full-range drivers and 2 tweeters with a total sound output of 30 watts. The company says each of the drivers uses large 1-liter echo chambers for better resonance and louder audio output. The TV also gets support from Dolby Audio for supported content.

In terms of software, the Mi QLED TV runs on Android 10 for Android TV and is among the earliest TVs to get the latest update. In addition, the TV uses the latest version of Xiaomi’s proprietary content discovery platform — PatchWall 3.0 — as an alternative to the stock Android TV launcher.

For I/O, the TV features three HDMI 2.1 ports with eARC support, optical audio out, two USB ports, an Ethernet port, a headphone jack, an antenna port, and RCA ports for legacy multimedia devices. It comes with a Bluetooth remote that features an in-line microphone for voice commands as well as dedicated hotkeys for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Price & Availability

The Mi QLED TV 4K 55 will be available in India for ₹54,999 (~$750).

It will be available at Mi.com, Flipkart, Mi Home, Vijay sales, and other offline retail stores starting December 21st. Consumers buying with an SBI credit card can avail a 10% discount on Flipkart.

Mi QLED TV 4K 55 Specifications

Specification	Mi QLED TV 4K 55
Display	55-inch panel 3840 x 2160 pixels QLED-backlit LCD panel 16:9 aspect ratio Dolby Vision, HDR10+, MEMC
Processor	MediaTek MT9611 Mali G52 MP2 GPU
RAM	2GB
Storage	32GB
Audio	30W output 4 x full-range speakers 2 x tweeters Dolby Audio
I/O & Connectivity	3 x HDMI 2.1 ports 2 x USB Optical Audio Ethernet port 3.5mm jack IR receiver Dual-band Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5.0
Interface	PatchWall 3.0 along with Android TV UI based on Android 10

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Huawei begins its long-shot transition from Android with a Harmony OS beta for select smartphones and tablets

When we talk about mobile operating systems, there are only two major solutions around today: Android and iOS. And Apple’s tight control over iOS means that Android is the only true solution for OEMs building their own smartphones. But Android also is very much dependent on Google despite being open-source, thanks to Google’s grip with GMS and the entire ecosystem of interdependency around the GMS framework. Huawei has experienced this the hard way, with odds stacked against its favor ever since the U.S. Commerce Department put it on the Entity List, cutting off the company’s access to new GMS license agreements. The road without Google’s assistance was tough, but Huawei trudged along with its own HMS solutions. The Chinese tech giant is far from giving up on its smartphone business, though, and it now begins a long-shot transition away from a GMS-less Android onto its own first-party OS, Harmony OS.

Harmony OS was officially unveiled one and a half years ago, with the company showcasing the Honor Vision smart TV as the first device with its first-party operating system. All through 2019, Huawei reaffirmed its commitment to Android, with plans to expand Harmony OS to devices other than smartphones and tablets. New plans were announced at HDC 2020 earlier this year, but today, the company has begun recruiting developers for the first Harmony OS 2.0 beta for mobile devices.

Huawei says that Harmony OS 2.0 comes with “over 15,000 APIs” to support development across smartphones, wearables, cars, larger displays, and many more use cases. To check out the new OS, you can either try out the emulator in Huawei’s DevEco Studio IDE (version 2.0 Beta 3) from the Harmony OS official website, or you can register to receive an OTA on your supported Huawei device to migrate to the Harmony OS 2.0 beta. Once your registration is approved, you will receive an invitation from Huawei with instructions on how to install the software on your device.

The following devices are eligible to install the Harmony OS 2.0 developer beta:

• Huawei P40 (ANA-AN00)
• Huawei P40 Pro (ELS-AN00)
• Huawei Mate 30 (TAS-AL00)
• Huawei Mate 30 5G (TAS-AN00)
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (LIO-AL00)
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro 5G (LIO-AN00)
• Huawei MatePad Pro (MRX-AL19)
• Huawei MatePad Pro 5G (MRX-W09)
• Huawei MatePad Pro Wi-Fi (MRX-AN19)

As is expected of a Developer Beta, this is unstable software that is intended only for developers to begin their work on the platform. As such, you should absolutely be backing up your data before upgrading to the new OS. It is possible to roll back to official EMUI 11 based on Android, but the rollback will expectedly delete all user data.

Some developers with access to the emulator have posted sample screenshots of their apps running on Harmony OS 2.0 on the Huawei Developer Community.

At first glance, these sample screenshots showcase that Harmony OS looks pretty much like what EMUI 11 based on Android looks like on the Huawei P40. The developer documents mention that apps are coded in Java and the layouts are defined in XML files, similar to Android. We guess Huawei is hoping to make the new OS as familiar to Android app developers as possible in order to minimize obstacles in migrating to a new OS and accompanying ecosystem. Early adopters have also mentioned that (translated) “Android development ideas can be applied to Hongmeng (Harmony OS) development, greatly speeding up the development of Hongmeng“, which makes sense, though we haven’t dug into the new OS or documentation to verify how true this statement is.

Here are some helpful links if you are interested in getting started:

• Harmony OS Documentation
• Huawei DevEco Studio 2.0 Beta 3 Announcement
• Harmony OS 2.0 Beta Sign Up Page

A lot of the documentation currently is in Chinese, and the source code has not yet been released, so there is a fair bit of exploration left on this end. We’ll keep you updated.

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[Update: Confirmed] Twitter code teardown hints that it may shut down Periscope in 2021

Update 1 (12/15/2020 @ 08:26 PM ET): Twitter has confirmed that it will pull the plug on the Periscope app next year. Click here for information. The article as published on December 11, 2020, is preserved below.

Twitter video-sharing app Periscope hasn’t been on the tip of anyone’s tongue recently – apart from in the context of phone cameras. With TikTok being the flavor of 2020, and Twitter’s focus on its disappearing Tweet service Fleets, it’s clear that time has moved on. Indeed, when Twitter decided to buy the site before it even launched in 2015, it was as a spoiler to a similar app, Meerkat, and when was the last time we heard about that? (Actually, it was this year, it’s now video-call service House Party).

As time, technology, and zeitgeist move on, it’s quite common to see these “next great hope” apps fall by the wayside. Heck, that’s basically Google’s business model. So it’s not a huge surprise that we’re getting the first hints that Periscope is not long for this world. A developer by the name of Jane Machun Wong (@wongmjane) has been exploring a teardown of the latest Twitter app code and discovered an ominous thing.

Hidden in a currently orphaned line of code is a (dead) link under the string “ps_app_shutdown_learn_more_url”. It could be seen as something of a “smoking gun”, though we’ve got no further details, and nothing official from Twitter so far. That said, it does feel like Periscope has served its purpose. Twitter Live has been active in the main app since 2016, long enough that it has now seen itself used for its second US Presidential Election. Live streaming in Twitter is still referred to as being powered “by Periscope”, but these days, it is more of a nod to history than an active partnership.

Whatever happens now, it’ll seem like something of a hollow end to Periscope. Twitter killed off another acquisition, Vine, in order to focus on Periscope, a fact much maligned at the time. If Periscope is near the end too, it’ll mark a sad end to two projects that could, in the right hands, have given TikTok a run for its money.

Periscope - Live Video (Free, Google Play) →

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Update: Say Farewell to Periscope in 2021

Update written by Mishaal Rahman

In a blog post, Twitter-owned Periscope has announced that the mobile app will be discontinued by March of 2021. The app is being discontinued as it “is in an unsustainable maintenance-mode state”, has seen “declining usage”, and “the cost to support the app will only continue to go up over time.” As live video streaming has already been available in the main Twitter app since late 2016, it doesn’t make much sense for Periscope to continue to exist as a separate application. As such, the app will be removed from app stores by March of next year, and no new accounts can be created within the app starting with the next release rolling out today.

For any creators that have broadcasts that haven’t been shared to Twitter already, they will be able to download an archive before the app is removed next year. The Periscope website will be active as a read-only archive of public broadcasts. The requirements to become a “Super Broadcaster” have been relaxed, and any tips that haven’t been cashed out can be claimed until April 30th, 2021. More details can be found here regarding the transition process, including how you can go live on Twitter going forward.

To keep on going live, you can use Twitter Live and Media Studio. Learn more about switching over to Twitter and what to do with your Periscope account: https://t.co/3eVgHF5lX1 (2/2)

— Periscope (@PeriscopeCo) December 15, 2020

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Firefox 84 on Android released with grid view for tabs, plus more

Firefox on Tuesday announced the release of Firefox 84 on Android. The changelog is rather short, but that doesn’t mean the update is insignificant. Here’s what’s new.

One of the most exciting new features in Firefox 84 on Android is the ability to view your open tabs side-by-side in a grid view. The list view is still the default option for tabs, but you can easily change it to a grid by tapping the 3-dot menu and choosing your tab view. Changing to a grid view will make it a little easier to identify the tabs you have open.

It’s not the biggest change we’ve ever seen from Firefox, but it makes the mobile browser more usable, especially for tab hoarders.

Firefox 84 on Android has added a few other features, too:

• Ability to delete downloaded files within the app.
• WebRender rolls out to more of our users on Android, those on the Mali-G GPU series, bringing smoother animation and scrolling to the majority of our Android users.

Meanwhile, Mozilla said that the new update also features improved scrolling accuracy and control, and also fixes cases of unexpected scroll acceleration.

 

List view vs grid view

Last month, Firefox on Android added support for several new plugins, including FoxyProxy, Bitwarden, AdGuard AdBlocker, Tomato Clock, LeechBlock NG, Web Archives, and Ghostery.

Before today’s update, Firefox has also released a number of other important updates to keep its browser feeling fresh. Back in September, the company rolled out some new features that included a downloads page, auto-tab closing, and an “Open in app” menu option for sires with a currently installed native Android app.

Mozilla recently endured a large layoff of its workforce, but the company has kept on trucking and continues to release new features for its browser, which is a great alternative to Chrome.

You can download Firefox 84 on Android beginning today.

Firefox Browser: fast, private & safe web browser (Free, Google Play) →

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Qualcomm introduces the Snapdragon 678 for mid-range smartphones

Two years ago, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon 675 for mid-range smartphones. Now the company is back with its successor. The chip design company today announced the Snapdragon 678 for the mid-range market.

Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 678 will deliver “overall performance upgrades, high-speed connections for sophisticated photo and video capture, and immersive entertainment experiences. We are positioned to support OEMs in delivering the next generation of devices with in-demand features and performance,” said Kedar Kondap, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Snapdragon 678 brings advanced mobile capabilities for daily entertainment at lightning-fast speeds over reliable connections and long-lasting battery life for consumers worldwide.”

The Snapdragon 678 is very similar to the two-year-old Snapdragon 675. It features the same Kyro 460 CPU architecture and Adreno 612 GPU, but the CPU cores now max out at 2.2GHz. Qualcomm also said it has tweaked the Adreno 612 GPU to increase performance, but didn’t specify if changes were made to the core count or core frequencies. Both chips are also fabricated on an 11nm manufacturing process.

Where users might see the most performance gains is with photography and videography. With the Specta 250L ISP and 3rd generation Qualcomm AI Engine, device makers can add support for features like portrait mode, low-light capture, limitless 4K video capture, and more. The ISP itself supports image capture from two cameras at up to 16MP resolution with zero shutter lag, or from a single camera at up to 25MP with ZSL.

In terms of connectivity, the Snapdragon 678 comes with the Snapdragon X12 4G LTE modem that can push download speeds up to 600 Mbps and upload speeds up to 150 Mbps. It also supports features like Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), which can increase capacity by tapping into the unlicensed 5GHz spectrum. The modem does not support connecting to next-gen 5G networks nor does it support next-gen Wi-Fi or Bluetooth technologies, as support for these technologies is still limited to Qualcomm’s more premium-tier products.

With the latter half of 2019 being dominated by devices that support 5G, including Google’s latest Pixel 5, we may see fewer and fewer devices that don’t support 5G hit the market. Even still, Qualcomm saw fit to introduce the Snapdragon 678, which will likely be included in devices overseas and in the lower end of the spectrum.

You can view the full specs for the Snapdragon 678 right here.

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HMD Global announces U.S. e-commerce store for Nokia devices

If you’ve procrastinated to buy a gift for the upcoming holidays, HMD Global has you covered. The company now has an online store for Americans to purchase Nokia-branded devices and accessories, allowing consumers to do some last minute gift shopping for friends and family.

HMD Global is positioning the new e-commerce store as a way to make further inroads in the U.S. with its well-rounded lineup of devices. The timing of the store’s launch is certainly no accident. With the holidays right around the corner, HMD Global said consumers can order a Nokia device or accessory by December 18 and receive it before December 25, so you better act fast if you still need to get a Christmas gift.

Why get a Nokia-branded phone? Well, HMD Global points to a Counterpoint Research study that found Nokia devices are trusted by consumers, thanks to the company’s commitment to delivering timely security updates. The same study found that consumers are also satisfied with the quality of Nokia smartphones designs, which undergo rigorous testing before they reach consumer hands. “HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, is the only manufacturer to offer regular OS updates and security patches to entry-level open market smartphones, each of which comes with two years of OS updates and three years of security updates,” HMD Global said in a press release.

If you’re curious about what HMD Global has to offer, the company has released plenty of devices this year in the U.S. Their highest-end offering is the Nokia 8 V 5G UW (also known as the Nokia 8.3 5G). There are many other choices on Nokia’s website, including the Nokia 7.2, Nokia 6.2, and the Nokia C2 Tennen, which is only $69.

HMD Global’s lineup of devices covers just about every price range, so you should find something in your budget. As we said, the online store also offers accessories, including the truly wireless Power EarBuds, which retail for $99. You can visit the Nokia e-commerce store at Nokia.com/phones.

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