After some anticipation, Google has released the source code for Android 13. Although the release came a bit later than expected, the company has started uploading the source code to Android Open Source Project (AOSP) Git repositories. This can often take some time, often requiring hours for the update to be fully populated. As a result, be patient if you don’t see it. This source code release also comes alongside the full release of Android 13.
Before the release, Google updated its Android 13 Security Release Notes which contained details about security vulnerabilities that were present in Android. The update showed security vulnerabilities that have been fixed in Android 13. Devices running Android 13 with a security patch level of 2022-09-01 or later will be protected from these issues. If you’d like to check what version of Android you’re running and the security patch level, most manufacturers have it listed under the About Phone section under Settings.
The release of Android 13’s source code is important, not only for those that want to tinker with the OS but also for communities that build custom ROMs and aftermarket distributions of Android like LineageOS. Major manufacturers must also rely on this repository for their own Android releases. You can have a look at the Android 13 source code by heading over to Google Git.
For developers, this is an important time as it is time to release compatible versions of their apps and build out more features with APIs. Google is releasing the Android 13 source code under the Apache License version 2.0. Apache 2.0 is a permissive rather than copyleft license, meaning developers can modify and distribute the code freely without being required to open-source their modifications. This licensing system is what allows smartphone makers to develop their own closed-source forks of Android.
If you’re interested in analyzing the Android 13 source code, you can head over to the Android Git repositories and look for the new Android 13 branches and tags. Specifically, look for the “android-13.0.0_r#” tags. It takes a while for the entirety of Google’s internal codebase to be pushed to the public AOSP repositories, so expect to wait a few hours before you can sync everything. Google also uploads the commit history for each release, which provides a lot of insight into the Android team’s thought process when adding or removing features.
Today, Google is releasing Android 13 for Google Pixel smartphones, following months of developer previews and beta releases. It’s an update that polishes a lot of the changes that Android 12 brought to the table, while also introducing a ton of small, helpful features across the board that aims to improve privacy, security, and usability. Alongside the update, the company has also announced that Android 13’s source code is now available in AOSP.
What’s new in Android 13?
Android 13 has a ton of new stuff, though a lot of them are smaller, incremental improvements. There are a lot of smaller improvements across the board that pertain to different elements of the Android system, so here are some of our favorites!
App notification requests
Apps can no longer just send you notifications without asking, and they’ll need to request the notification permission. You can then deny access to an app if you don’t want it to give you notifications, reducing the chance of unwanted spam. Be careful what apps you deny notification permissions to though!
App language preferences
For those who may be multilingual, app language preferences might just be the best addition in Android 13 for your uses. You can choose a specific language just for some particular apps. For example, let’s say your native language is German, and your phone is in German. However, maybe an application’s translations into German are weird or are incorrect, it might just be easier to set the language of the app to another language that you understand, and may be more likely to have correct translations.
Copy and paste images, text, videos, and URLs and paste on your tablet
You can now copy content including images, text, video, and URLs, and paste it onto your tablet. This can be used for photo creation purposes, or even just transferring a URL quickly and easily from one device to another.
New media controls
Android 13 has a few key updates for your media controls. These media controls are still located between the quick settings menu and the notification panel, but the widget itself is a lot bigger now. It also has a squiggly progress bar now. Cool!
More granular permissions for media file access
Currently, all the applications on your Android device can access the files on your phone’s storage with the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission. This permission, however, will allow the apps to access all kinds of media files on the storage. For instance, an audio-playing app will have access to your photos with this permission, which is quite unnecessary. But Google is changing this by introducing three new permissions with Android 13:
READ_MEDIA_IMAGES (for images and photos)
READ_MEDIA_VIDEO (for videos)
READ_MEDIA_AUDIO (for audio files)
If a particular application requests access to more than one media file type, then you’ll see a single dialog for granting both permissions like this:
More Material You color options
Android 13 adds several new colors and theming options to the Wallpaper & style app on Pixel devices. You can now choose from four pages of wallpaper colors and basic colors, taking the total number of both wallpaper colors and basic colors to 16. In contrast, the Wallpaper & style app previously only offered four colors each.
Photo Picker API
The new Photo Picker API is an extension of Google’s already-existing document picker. It works by leveraging the Android system to select documents on the device that are then selectively shared with the app in use, rather than the app having wider storage access to the files on the device itself. This way, an app can access photos or videos on your phone while also not having wider access to the rest of your phone. Photo Picker is also rolling out to older Android devices through a Google Play services update.
Which Google Pixel phones are getting upgraded to Android 13?
Google Pixel 4/4 XL
Google Pixel 4a/4a 5G
Google Pixel 5/5a 5G
Google Pixel 6/6 Pro/6a
If, for whatever reason, you don’t receive the update once it starts rolling out, or you don’t want to wait for Google’s rollout of the update, then you can manually install it. If you’ve unlocked the bootloader of your device, you can manually install the device OTA image or factory image, or use Google’s web-based Android Flash Tool to automate the process. In any case, download the Android 13 image for your device, and then you can install it too.
When will other phones get the Android 13 update?
Since Google’s major OEM partners have already had pre-release access to the source code, their engineers have already begun the process of forking the OS to add custom features and UI tweaks. Smaller OEMs, independent developers, and other entities without pre-release access can today take a look at the Android 13 source code to analyze or rebase their work on top of the new release. Unfortunately, we can’t offer a definitive timeline for when every OEM will release an Android 13 update for their devices, but we can list some of the devices we suspect will get the update soon based on whether or not a beta update has already been made available.
Here are the devices that have received an Android 13 developer preview or public beta release and thus are expected to get the stable update soon:
Samsung Galaxy S22/S22 Plus/S22 Ultra
OnePlus 10 Pro
Asus Zenfone 8
Lenovo Tab P12 Pro
Nokia X20
OPPO Find X5/Find X5 Pro/Find N
Realme GT 2 Pro
Sharp Aquos Sense6
Tecno Camon 19 Pro 5G
Vivo X80 series
Xiaomi 12/12 Pro/Pad 5
ZTE Axon 40 Ultra
Of course, we don’t know exactly how close each OEM is to releasing a stable update for these devices, but we know some are very close.
Samsung, as always, is doing its own thing. The company announced its One UI 5 beta a while back, but then randomly dropped the beta in select countries without any warning. The first One UI 5 beta has a ton of cool changes that we outlined in our hands-on.
In Google’s announcement post, the company confirms that devices from “Samsung Galaxy, Asus, HMD (Nokia phones), iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, Sony, Tecno, Vivo, Xiaomi and more” will be receiving the update “later this year”, though it’s unclear if that refers to a stable update or a beta release.
Looking to Android 14 and beyond
With this release, Google will now set sights on Android 14 — and beyond. We don’t know what to expect really, aside from the fact that its codename appears to be “Upside Down Cake“. It’s not clear yet if the company will be working on an interim release à la Android 12L, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Samsung first announced the Odyssey Ark back in January during CES 2022. The massive display offered an experience like no other, mainly due to its 55-inch size paired with a 1000R curvature. The display can now be reserved through Samsung’s website before its eventual release sometime in September.
The 55-inch 4K display has a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160, a response time of 1ms with support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and an impressive 165Hz refresh rate. The Odyssey Ark uses Samsung’s Quantum Matrix Mini LED Technology and offers support for HDR. As you might expect from a display of this caliber, the picture quality is top-end and can even take lower resolution sources, process them with AI, and upscale them to crispy 4K. To provide the best possible viewing experience, the company also leverages its Matte Display technology, which offers anti-glare and anti-reflective properties.
The display also packs great sound, thanks to Samsung’s Sound Dome Tech featuring AI Sound Booster and Dolby Atmos. The sound is pumped through four speakers, one located at each corner, providing good separation and can also provide deep bass with its two central woofers. The new 55-inch display is a monster but is also quite nimble thanks to its ability to go into “Cockpit Mode.” The screen can rotate vertically and horizontally with its height adjustable stand and can even tilt and pivot for the best viewing experience.
Of course, the Odyssey Ark also supports Samsung Gaming Hub, giving users access to multiple game streaming services. Samsung Gaming Hub has partnered with several services, including Xbox, Nvidia, Google, Utomik, and more recently, Amazon Luna. The Odyssey Ark also comes with a controller, giving users the best way to customize their experience. The Ark Dial is a solar-powered remote that will never have to be charged. The remote offers easy access to a variety of settings.
As you might expect, this technology doesn’t come cheap, with the Samsung Odyssey Ark coming in at $3,499.99. Those that reserve the display can receive a $100 discount, with pre-orders getting an additional $200 0ff, for a total of $300 off when it is released. If interested, take advantage of the early discount by reserving using the link.
Intel’s long-awaited Arc GPUs are finally here but along with it some news for fans of older games. It looks like Intel will no longer be natively supporting DirectX 9 (DX9) on Arc and Xe dedicated GPUs and integrated graphics on 12th Gen processors.
As reported by The Verge, Intel has quietly announced that it’s switching from hardware support for DX9 on Arc and Xe to emulation courtesy of DirectX 12 (DX12).
12th generation Intel processor’s integrated GPU and Arc discrete GPU no longer support D3D9 natively. Applications and games based on DirectX 9 can still work through Microsoft* D3D9On12 interface.
What does that actually mean? In theory, nothing, at least for the moment. What it does is immediately shift responsibility for DX9 support from Intel over to Microsoft, and as such, any support issues. D3D9On12 is listed on GitHub for those who want to find out more about it. There won’t be dedicated driver support for the remaining popular DX9 games, of which there are quite a few, though not a huge number that relies entirely on DX9. But Intel doesn’t currently envisage any issues for folks to play those titles using Arc or Xe graphics.
It’s important to also point out this only affects the Arc line of GPUs and 12th Gen processors with Xe integrated graphics. 11th Gen Intel chips have native support for DX9 and that isn’t going away. Intel does point out, though, that when paired with an Arc GPU, you will lose that support unless you tell your system to use the integrated graphics instead.
The integrated GPU on 11th generation and older Intel processors supports DX9 natively, but they can be combined with Arc graphics cards. If so, rendering is likely to be handled by the card and not the iGPU (unless the card is disabled). Thus, the system will be using DX9On12 instead of DX9.
All fingers crossed that things continue to operate as planned.
Apple is famous for the high-end products it sells. The company offers premium hardware that it pairs with optimized software. Whether you buy a new iPhone, versatile iPad, or great Mac — these devices usually remain supported and last for many years. This makes what the Cupertino firm sells stand out in the tech industry. Though, typically, when users spend hundreds of dollars on a product, they expect to see ads minimally. After all, a comfortable experience should accompany high price tags. For the longest time, Apple has refrained from aggressively pushing ads on its users. Unfortunately for all of us, though, it appears that this is bound to change.
According to a Bloomberg report, Apple could start showing its users more ads across its apps. The company currently shows prominent advertisements in the News, Stocks, and App Store apps. That’s not to mention that it recently started adding more advertising slots across different App Store sections.
Inside the ads group, Teresi has talked up expanding the business significantly. It’s generating about $4 billion in revenue annually, and he wants to increase that to the double digits. That means Apple needs to crank up its efforts.
The report indicates that Apple ads could expand to Maps, Books, Podcasts, and other built-in apps that the company provides. This would give companies and creators the opportunity to surface their offerings in more places for users to see. Apple allows users to turn off Personalized Ads in privacy settings. However, this toggle only affects the relevance of the advertisements — not their quantity. It’s yet to be seen whether these potential ad changes will impact future iPhone sales or not.
Would you still buy Apple products if the company starts showing more ads across its systems? Let us know in the comments section below.
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro launch could be less than a month away! We’re expecting Apple to reveal these high-end smartphones — along with the Apple Watch Series 8 and other products — during an event in September. While it has been a long wait, rumors have been sharing what we might see in a few weeks. For starters, we’re confident that the regular and Pro iPhone 14 models will have their own distinctive characteristics. The cheaper variants could stick to the current design and chipset of the iPhone 13 series. On the other hand, the Pro and Pro Max editions might ditch the notch, get an upgraded camera system, and support the always on display (AOD) feature. In a fresh leak, LeaksApplePro has shared even more details on Twitter. They highlight some of the potential iPhone 14 Pro specifications.
A source has had hands-on time with iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.
(Thread)
-The new pill+hole doesn’t add anything new. It looks different, but it pretty much works like the notch. Once you get used to it it’s “gone”.
-It’s thick. The Pro Max feels like a brick (as usual).
The pill and hole design might not offer any UI-related advantages.
Under good lighting conditions, the upgraded (and massive) 48MP camera sensor could result in excellent output. However, the company is seemingly facing quality challenges when it comes to low-light photography.
The battery life might increase by a few hours.
In the speakers department, we’re hearing about more base and a clearer overall audio quality.
The display resolution could be similar to that of the iPhone 13 lineup.
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro launch could potentially be less than a month away. Despite that, there’s always room for last-minute rumors and leaks. At this point, though, we already have a pretty clear idea regarding the possible designs and internals of these upcoming phones.
Do you plan on buying an iPhone this fall? If so, which model? Let us know in the comments section below.
Unique color-changing design, superb camera, and powerful performance – here is all you need to know about the stylish vivo V25 series ahead of its global launch.
The new vivo V25 series is slated for global release this month, debuting the V25 and V25 Pro models. These devices will bring upgrades across the board, improving on an already impressive reputation that the V series has earned. Expect new unique color-changing designs, incredible photography capabilities, and top-tier performance. With a superb rear and front camera setup and innovative features inside and out, the V25 and V25 Pro are crafted to encourage users to create, have fun, and explore. Here is everything that you need to know about these phones, ahead of their global launch.
With enhanced autofocus capabilities, the V25 and V25 Pro keep your selfies clear even when you’re in motion.
Creative Imaging Tools for Stunning Results
vivo has always used the V series to create an excellent camera experience for varioustypesof photography scenarios. Both the V25 and V25 Pro continue to bring that experience to a new level, allowing people to showcase their creativity and individuality. People can take advantage of the robust hardware and software built into the devices to showcase their creativity in a way that yields flagship-level results. With the benefit of vivo’s proven expertise in imaging R&D to reproduce natural colors, you can easily capture pure, high-quality images and videos and then use a host of creative tools to edit and publish your content.
The rear camera setup is one of the main attractions, boasting a 64MP ultra-sensing camera with upgraded OIS and EIS capabilities. For wide shots, the 8MP super wide-angle camera is able to capture stunning photos and stable video. When ready for your selfie, the V25 and V25 Pro treat you to a superb experience, offering 50MP and 32MP front-facing cameras, respectively. The front-facing cameras on both models have integrated skin enhancement software functions and autofocus that will keep your selfies clear even when you’re in motion.
Shot on V25 Pro using Real-Time Extreme Night Vision.
Currently, vivo is getting a lot of recognition for its strong night photography solutions, with its top phones setting the bar very high. These night photography capabilities make their way into the V25 series, enabling ultra-sensing night portraits, night photo and video modes, and more. A collection of features will help to accurately restore colors and brightness in low-light conditions.
As a way of ensuring that users can effortlessly capture and publish creative video content, vivo has added a Vlog Movie function to the V series. This feature offers preset video templates that will teach you how to enhance the video experience. You’ll be able to create videos that document your day-to-day life, a special vacation, or just a holiday family reunion, and produce content that is ready to publish to your social media.
Express your Style with New Designs
The vivo V25 series continues to carry the signature V series colorful design that exudes fun and expressive aesthetics. The iconic looks of the V25 and V25 Pro come from the new bright eye-catching colorways. The light and slim devices are encased in the revolutionary color-changing Fluorite AG glass that allows the back panel of the devices to shift color when exposed to UV light.
Aiming to inspire creativity, the vivo V25 series comes in a variety of colors ranging from shades of blue to gold, and there is a classic black option for those who enjoy minimalist designs.
Upgraded Performance for Smooth Experience
The hardware was designed to provide and support consistent and robust performance in every aspect. New features are included with a specific focus on enhancing your gaming experience, along with media consumption, web browsing, and app performance.
The vivo V25 will include the MediaTek Dimensity 900 with 8GB/12GB RAM + 8GB Extended RAM. The vivo V25 Pro is equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity 1300 which is paired with 8GB/12GB RAM + 8GB Extended RAM. Both models also come with 5G capabilities to ensure the fastest connection speeds.
Both phones have a fast-charging battery, a large AMOLED screen, a reliable cooling system, and the Funtouch OS 12 software based on Android 12. We will learn more details about these features during the global launch.
A Phone for Self-Expression
Everything that we know about the vivo V25 series points to a lineup that embraces the idea of using your phone to express yourself. The bright color-changing designs that interact with your environment let you pick a phone that matches your aesthetic, while the powerful photo and video capabilities allow you to capture life in your own style.
Stay tuned for the official launch of these two exciting new phones, where you’ll learn more about the specs, pricing, and availability.
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