Apple iPhone 13 expected to feature Always-On Display, along with 120Hz refresh rate

We are just about a month and a half into 2021, enjoying our iPhone 12, and we are already being greeted by some promising leaks for the next generation of iPhone, the iPhone 13, or the iPhone 12S, whatever it ends up being called. A bunch of information has recently popped up from various sources giving us an insight as to what all can we expect from Apple this year. Like most leaks and speculated information, these may or may not end up in the final product(s), so take this with a pinch of salt.

The ‘exclusive’ information has been shared by Max Weinbach in a video by EverythingApplePro, known for its fairly accurate leaks around Apple products. In terms of design, the new iPhone 13 Pro models are going to retain most of the design elements from the iPhone 12 series, but with a more refined matte finish at the back, which could feel soft just like the Google Pixel. The iPhone 13/12S Pro models are also confirmed to feature 120Hz LTPO displays, something which was expected to arrive on the iPhone 12 series, but for some reason didn’t materialize. The new iPhones are also expected to come with a new Always-On Display feature which would be similar to the Apple Watch Series 5 and 6. It is expected to offer very minimal customizations with the clock and battery status remaining visible at all times. For incoming notifications, only a small part of the screen would light up rather than the entire display.

“Always-On Display will have minimal customizability. The current design basically looks like a toned-down lockscreen. Clock and battery charge is always visible. Notifications seem to be displayed using a bar and icons. Upon receiving, the notification will pop up normally except that the screen will not entirely light up. Instead, it will display it just like you’re used to right now, except dimmed down and only temporarily.”

Max Weinbach

The new iPhone 13 series is also expected to include stronger magnets for MagSafe, which should make compatible chargers and other accessories attach to the phone much more securely. The new iPhones could also be slightly thicker, although there is no discernible reason so far. Also, the notch might be shorter this year but could have the same width as the current-gen iPhones. There won’t be an in-display fingerprint scanner this year as well — so if you’re still waiting on Touch ID to compensate for the inefficacy of Face ID in this COVID-induced mask-dominated reality, you shouldn’t be holding your breath for this year.

A very interesting feature that Apple is said to be working on is a new night mode for the camera which would be similar to the Pixel’s Astrophotography mode. Once the camera is pointed at the night sky, the iPhone would scan for certain artifacts like the stars or the moon, and take a decision on enabling this mode automatically. Also, expect options for long exposure times.

There is also a possibility that Apple will offer similar telephoto cameras on the new iPhone Pro and Pro Max, which is not the case on the iPhone 12 series. So, expect 65mm lenses with an f/2.2 aperture. We can also expect Portrait Video on the upcoming iPhone series where it will be a single-mode and will offer the ability to change the depth of field in post-processing. The entire iPhone 13 lineup is also expected to include a new ultra-wide camera with an improved sensor and a 6P lens. It won’t be as good as the other cameras in terms of quality, but Apple is expected to reduce the overall gap. The same has been confirmed by popular Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo as well as two analysts from Barclays, so there is a great deal of confidence behind this rumor.

Another piece of information coming from Kuo is that the new iPhone will make use of a vapor cooling chamber system to hopefully offer better cooling on the inside. There is also a rumor that Apple might finally offer the ability to use your iPhone to unlock your Tesla car using the inbuilt U1 chip. We first saw this chip on the iPhone 11 in 2019. Oh and lastly, Jon Prosser who also a well-known tipster suggests that the iPhone 13 could in fact be called iPhone 12s, which is odd since we didn’t see the iPhone 11s.

Check out all the information shared by EverythingApplePro in the video below:

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Android 12 may add Smarter Autorotation, a Gaming Mode, and a Reduce Bright Colors feature

As we approach the release of the first Android 12 Developer Preview, new information keeps trickling in about the upcoming OS release. Earlier today, we reported that Google is working on a one-handed mode, a stashing feature for picture-in-picture windows, and many UI changes, but we’ve also learned that Google is developing several minor features that may or may not make their way into the Android 12 stable release. These features include a smarter autorotate feature, gaming mode, and a reduced brightness Quick Setting tile.

“Smart Autorotate”

We all know how frustrating it is to have your phone’s screen rotate when you don’t want it to. Android’s autorotation feature relies on your phone’s gyroscope and accelerometer. It’s not a particularly sophisticated feature, and when it doesn’t work properly, it can be really annoying. For that reason, many people use third-party apps or disable autorotate entirely, instead relying on Android’s manual rotation suggestion button.

Fortunately, it looks like autorotate could be next in line to receive a taste of Google’s AI. We’ve learned that Google is working on a “smart autorotate” feature in Android 12. While we don’t have many details on this feature, 9to5Google reported earlier today that it may use your phone’s front-facing camera to detect the position of your head before changing the orientation.

Game Mode

We’ve also learned that Google is working on a new “GameManager service” in Android 12. This is distinct from the existing GameManagerClient that’s part of Google Play Services and is used for managing Google Cast gaming sessions. GameManager service is described as a “service to manage game related features.” For example, the service can “manage the game mode and persist the data” across reboot[s]. We don’t have any details on what this feature will do, but we suspect it’ll be an API for games to trigger a basic “gaming mode” on devices. This “gaming mode” could manage some basic settings like automatic brightness, autorotation, Do Not Disturb mode, and more.

Separately, we’ve also learned that Google is merging a new Bluetooth API that will let games detect the battery level of connected Bluetooth controllers. This will let the game inform you when your controller is about to die, giving you time to find a place to pause and then recharge your controller.

Reduce Brightness QS Tile

Lastly, we’ve learned that Google is developing a new feature called “Reduce Brightness.” This feature, originally called “Reduce Bright Colors” during development, is intended as an accessibility feature to aid those with visual impairments. We don’t have a before and after screenshot to showcase the feature, but it’s said to be part of the default set of Quick Settings tiles for new users of Android 12.

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That’s all we can share about Android 12 for now. Keep an eye out on our hero page for Android 12 as we’ll constantly update it with any new features we find. With the first Developer Preview right around the corner, there’s bound to be a ton of features for us to cover.

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Google is preparing many UI changes in Android 12 and possibly “Material NEXT” design

Last week, we published images that depicted major UI changes in Google’s next Android OS release, Android 12. These images originated from a document that Google shared with its OEM partners and were likely mockups designed to showcase Android 12’s enhanced theming capabilities. In the few images that we obtained, we only caught glimpses of the notification panel UI, home screen, Privacy settings, and Google Camera app. While we assumed that any UI changes were a result of the new theming system, it seems there may be more UI changes in the works.

Early design mockups showcasing parts of Android 12’s UI.

For starters, we have learned that Google has internally dubbed some of its notification UI changes as the start of the “road to Material NEXT.” Google’s Material Design guidelines have evolved significantly since their initial introduction. Most recently, the guidelines evolved to encourage companies to adopt their own identities on top of Material Design. For example, Google’s apps generally follow the company’s “Material Theme” design. While we do not know exactly what changes to the design Material “NEXT” will bring, they could be major considering what we saw in last week’s Android 12 leak. We doubt that Material “NEXT” will be the actual name of the new design guidelines; after all, Google never referred to its Material Theme changes as “Material Design 2.0” externally even though we know that is how they referred to it internally. We also do not know if the Material NEXT changes will encompass more than just notifications. However, we do know that Google has more UI changes in store for Android 12.

For example, Google is preparing to adjust the layout of the Always on Display and Lock Screen in Android 12. A few of the in-development changes include shifting the notification icons for the Always on Display so they are no longer centered in the new layout, shifting the clock view and smart space to be aligned to the top, moving the bottom logout button and owner information at the bottom of the lock screen rather than in the keyguard view, and adding the Pixel’s Now Playing text to the rotating text on the lock screen. There may also be new AOD/lock screen transitions, but we do not know what they will look like. However, these layout and transition changes will likely not be present in the Android 12 Developer Preview builds as Google is preparing to hide these changes using a “GX” (Google Experience?) overlay.

There are several other lock screen UI changes in-development for Android 12. Google is said to be finally tweaking the UI of the pattern lock used for the lock screen. They are also working to integrate Android’s Device Controls feature into a dialog on the lock screen, accessible from an “affordance” on the keyguard’s bottom area.

Left: Android’s lock pattern UI. Right: Android’s Device Controls UI.

Google may also finally enable additional lock screen clock options in Android 12, a feature that has been in development since Android 10. One of the most prominent changes to the in-development feature is the addition of a gradient color for the TypeClock face that is adjusted based on hardcoded times.

Text lock screen clock

As we saw in the leaked images of Android 12 last week, major changes are in the works for the notification panel. The most prominent changes stem from the new wallpaper-based theming system, code-named “monet.” The specific theme shown off in the leaked images may be called “Silk”, and it could serve as Google’s representation for Android 12’s enhanced theming system. References to a “Silky Home” appear in multiple places internally, and it appears the theme is part of the “SilkFX” app. The new “Silk” style will also be compatible with Android for TVs (ie. Google TV/Android TV), though we don’t know what it’ll look like on TVs. We have learned that Google is also testing UI changes such as a thicker brightness slider in the notification panel; reduced horizontal margins, padding, and divider height; and possibly a two-column notification shade. We do not yet have images showing off any of these changes.

Google is also testing a change to the Quick Settings panel that might prove controversial. In Android 12, Google is preparing to shift the QS tile labels to the side. Prototyping for this feature began in late December, but it seems the feature became ready earlier this month. When enabled, QS tiles are displayed in only two columns. We aren’t exactly sure how this will look, but Android 11’s changes to the Quick Settings density was already controversial – any further reduction in the number of Quick Settings tiles shown on a single page will undoubtedly be even more so.

Android 11 introduced a media player in the notification shade, reducing how many QS tiles are shown in the expanded state.

Next, we are seeing mentions of a “letterbox” feature that Google is experimenting with. These “letterboxes” seem to be a new way to put apps into a frame/window, and they will have adjustable rounded corners and configurable background color. We are not entirely sure what this will be used for, though.

For third-party applications that don’t have their own splash screens, Android 12 may generate a default splash screen window that is either light or dark based on the current DayNight theme setting. This may be part of a broader effort to improve the app launch experience.

Lastly, in order to improve Android’s system-level theming capabilities, Android’s Runtime Resource Overlay (RRO) feature is getting a major upgrade. RROs have traditionally been APK packages that need to be installed on the device before they can be activated, but Android 12 can now generate non-APK RROs on-the-fly. It’ll be interesting to see how this is used, but we’re guessing that this will open up the ability to generate lots of custom themes that don’t need to be installed as system-level apps. Currently, most theme packages that use the RRO/OMS API are installed as static packages in read-only partitions. Generating RRO packages on-the-fly could be what makes Android 12’s new “monet” theming system a possibility.

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Android 12 may add a “stashing” feature to Picture-in-Picture mode

Multitasking is one of Android’s biggest strengths over iOS as a mobile OS. With features such as split-screen view, picture-in-picture mode, and bubbles, Android offers many ways to interact with apps while using other apps. In Android 12, picture-in-picture mode is set to get a lot of new functionality, while bubbles may get subtle animation tweaks.

Picture-in-Picture mode on Android 12

Picture-in-picture mode was first introduced for phones in Android Oreo, but it has seen relatively few functional updates since then. In Android 11, Google quietly added the ability to resize PiP windows. Expanding/shrinking a PiP window involves dragging your finger inward or outward starting from right outside one of the corners. In my experience, the gesture is a bit inconsistent and can be improved.

Resizing picture-in-picture windows on Android 11

Fortunately, Google is working on new ways to resize PiP windows in Android 12. You’ll be able to pinch to resize as well as double tap to automatically resize the window to its max size (or return to its last resized state). A nice crossfade animation will be used when resizing, making it appear seamless.

Resizing adjustments aren’t all that’s new for picture-in-picture mode in Android 12. Google is also preparing to add a “stashing” feature to PiP windows. This feature will let users temporarily hide most of the PiP window by dragging it to the left/right edge until about a third of the PiP window is off-screen. Users can also fling the PiP window to stash it from one edge to the other. PiP windows can be unstashed by simply tapping on them.

New Bubble Animations

Android’s Bubbles feature was born out of a desire to replace the OS’s broad System_Alert_Window API with a more focused API that exists to give all messaging apps Facebook’s chat heads feature. It graduated from a beta feature in Android 10 to a public feature in Android 11, and in Android 12, it’s set to get a few UI tweaks. First, Google is working on new animations for bubbles. There will be a fading/scaling down animation when dragging out an expanded bubble, softer expand/collapse animations, and a softer transition between bubbles. In landscape mode, bubbles will be shown vertically on the left/right side rather than horizontally at the top. Google is also enabling flexible bubble sizing and enabling fixed positioning, two features said to be designed for Chrome OS and its ARC++ container.

A video showing Android 11’s Bubbles features in Facebook Messenger.

App Pairs

Apart from changes to PiP windows and bubbles, Google is also preparing to upgrade Android’s split-screen multitasking system with the addition of App Pairs. App Pairs will let you launch set up pairs of apps to launch in split-screen view, a feature that first appeared in software from other OEMs and from third-party developers. 9to5Google first revealed this feature’s existence, and we can now corroborate that it is present in Android 12.

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We do not know what these changes will look like in Android 12, but we likely won’t have to wait long to find out. These features may not be active in the first Android 12 Developer Preview, and if so, we will try to enable them so we can demonstrate these changes.

Featured image: Picture-in-picture mode in Android 11

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Android 12’s dessert name could be Snow Cone

Another year, another Android release. As you might expect, this year’s release will be called Android 12 since Google ditched its dessert naming scheme for Android 2 years ago. Even if Android 12 won’t officially have a tasty dessert tie-in, that doesn’t mean that Google has entirely given up on giving its OS releases a dessert name. While last year’s Android 11 (Android “R”) release was internally called “Red Velvet Cake”, this year’s Android 12 (Android “S”) release seems to be called “Snow Cone”.

While Google hasn’t officially confirmed its internally-decided dessert theme for Android 12, we learned this little tidbit thanks to a bit of digging. When Google publishes Android 12’s source code later this year, you might notice that a lot of the development branches are prefaced with “sc”. That’s short for Snow Cone, by the way, much like how Android 11’s development branches were prefaced with “rvc” for “Red Velvet Cake.” (What’s that, you say? “sc” could just as easily be shortcake? That’s what we thought too, but checks notes it’s not.)

Last year, Google published a fun AR statue that had a hidden recipe for how to make an Android 11-themed Red Velvet Cake. Perhaps we’ll get some fun tie-ins and Easter eggs based on Android 12’s dessert name later this year?

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Google is working on a “One-Handed Mode” for Android 12

Over the years, smartphone makers have made taller and taller devices. While that has made media consumption more enjoyable on mobile, it has resulted in making many phones impossible to use one-handed. To compensate, several phone makers have developed software solutions to improve one-handed usability: most notably Apple with its Reachability feature. Now, Google is set to bring its own version of one-handed mode in Android 12.

XDA has now learned that Google has been developing a one-handed mode feature for inclusion into AOSP, the open-source version of Android. That means the feature will be accessible to any smartphone maker using AOSP. More importantly, it means that OEMs that have not developed their own one-handed mode feature will be able to utilize Google’s version of the software. However, we do not know if Google plans to mandate the inclusion of its version of one-handed mode on all Android 12 devices.

While we aren’t exactly sure how Android 12’s one-handed mode will be designed, we think it’ll be like the many OEM implementations that shrink the entire screen down to a corner (eg. like the ASUS implementation shown in the featured image). We do know that Google’s current implementation in Android 12 involves shrinking the screen size down to 40% of its max size. We also know that there will be a way to trigger one-handed mode using the traditional 3-button mode as well as the newer gestural navigation mode. Currently, it’s planned for one-handed mode to be added to Settings > System > Gesture > One-Handed, which makes sense since it’s triggered using a gesture (likely swiping left/right on the navigation bar).

The addition of a one-handed mode in Android 12 comes long after many OEMs have already made their own versions of the feature. At one point, Chinese smartphone maker Huawei even attempted to submit its version of the feature to AOSP, but Google rejected its addition. We don’t know exactly why Google rejected that version, but it’s not unusual for Google to take its time to implement key features already present in its partners’ Android devices.

For example, Google is also finally introducing a scrolling screenshot feature in Android 12, years after it was implemented by OEMs. In an Ask Me Anything thread on Reddit last year, Google said that it did not want to implement scrolling screenshots in a half-baked way; the company pointed to how several OEM implementations fail to work on certain pages or fail to stitch images when scrolling through certain views. Similarly, Google may be putting a similar level of diligence into its work on one-handed mode. Besides shrinking and repositioning all system UI elements, Google also has to consider how one-handed mode affects third-party applications since its implementation will affect the entire Android ecosystem rather than just a subset of devices.

Since we do not have images of Android 12’s one-handed mode, we sadly can’t demonstrate exactly what it will look like. However, we expect the first Android 12 Developer Preview to land sometime later this month, so we may not have to wait long to see the feature in action. However, we don’t know for sure if Google will include the feature in the Developer Preview or even at all in a future Beta or Stable release. If Google decides the feature is still not ready for release, then we may not see the feature until next year’s Android version if at all.

Featured image: ASUS’ one-handed mode on a ZenFone 7 Pro running Android 11

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5 Top-Rated Password Managers on Sale This President’s Day

Pretty much every authority on cybersecurity recommends using a password manager. Why? Because unlike your brain, these apps can save thousands of unique passwords. 

If you would like to upgrade your online security, here are five top password managers — now with an extra 15% off for President’s Day at the XDA Developers Depot.

Password Boss Premium: Lifetime Subscription

Rated at 4 stars by PC Mag, this powerful app provides secure storage for unlimited passwords. You can access your data on all your devices, with auto-fill login, secure password sharing, and 2FA (two-factor authentication).

Get a Password Boss Premium lifetime subscription for $29.74 (reg. $499) with promo code PREZ2021. 

Sticky Password Premium: Lifetime Subscription

In the words of PC Mag, “Sticky Password Premium does everything you’d expect from a password manager and more.” Available on all major platforms, the app lets you generate secure passwords and lock your account using biometric authentication.

Get a Sticky Password Premium lifetime subscription for $25.49 (reg. $199) with promo code PREZ2021.  

NordPass Password Manager: 1-Yr Subscription

It would be fair to say NordPass takes security seriously. This password manager uses the XChaCha20 standard, zero-knowledge architecture, and 2FA. The service also offers auto-login, neat sharing options, and 24/7 customer support.

Get one year with Nordpass for $25.49 (reg. $59) with promo code PREZ2021. 

Cyclonis Password Manager: Lifetime Subscription

Covering all your devices, Cyclonis provides impressive cloud sync with end-to-end AES-256 encryption. Along with passwords, it can save payment details for quicker shopping and even store secure notes.

Get a Cyclonis Password Manager lifetime subscription for $24.65 (reg. $180) with promo code PREZ2021. 

Enpass Password Manager

Rated at 4.6 stars on G2, Enpass gives you total control. You can choose to sync your passwords via your favorite platform, or just store them offline if you prefer. Along with login data, this app can handle credit cards, social security numbers, and more.

Get two years of Enpass Password Manager for $12.74 (reg. $36) with promo code PREZ2021. 

Prices subject to change 

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