About two months ago, Lenovo dropped their brand-new Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2. The new gaming smartphone replaces their old Lenovo Legion Phone Duel. It also came with a whole slew of updates that makes it one of the most compelling gaming smartphones in the current market.
There was no solid release date for the smartphone in Malaysia though, until today that is. The Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 is finally released in Malaysia. It is available now and it will set you back MYR 3,299 for the lesser 12GB + 256GB variant and MYR 3,899 for the 16GB + 512GB variant. It also comes to Malaysia with a Maxis and Hotlink special deal at that. A little more on that later.
Source: Lenovo
The Legion Phone Duel 2 is built to be the ultimate gaming phone in the market with its horizontal first orientation approach. Even its pop-up selfie camera pop’s up from the side if you are holding the device like you normally would. When you game, it is a more natural position too. At the same time, a pop-up camera allows for a fuller display real estate for a more immersive experience.
It also packs the most powerful processor the Android market has seen so far, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G System on a Chip (SoC). With up to 16GB of RAM, the spec sheet looks more like a powerful gaming laptop than a gaming smartphone. To keep the device running as optimally as possible, the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 packs a very innovative cooling solution to keep things running as comfortably as possible.
To keep the powerful internals running for the entire day, there are two batteries inside the device that adds up to 5,500 mAh capacity. Two batteries also means that the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 charges faster and safer at 90W. The approach allows the device to be properly optimised for a comfortable horizontal use of the device too. To ensure that you really conquer your games, there is the touch-sensitive trigger buttons.
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
The internals are encased in mix of glass and aluminium, fronted by a 6.92-iunch AMOLED Full HD+ display that refreshes at 144Hz and 720Hz Sampling rate for a near instant touch response time. The pop-up camera is also a very powerful 44-Megapixel sensor with ultra-wide angle lens that ensures that you look good in that mobile gaming stream.
The Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 is now available in Malaysia from any Lenovo Exclusive Stores nationwide and online official stores on Lazada and Shopee. You can get the Legion Phone Duel 2 in two colour options – black or white. There are also two variants of the smartphone, a 12GB + 256GB variant and a 16GB + 512GB variant, to choose from. The device will set you back MYR 3,299 onward and if you are a Maxis and Hotlink user, you are entitled to claim a complementary Lenovo 500 Bluetooth headphones worth MYR 189 between 28th June to 31st July, 2021.
The Honor namesake has been tied to HUAWEI for the longest time. That should not be a surprise though, Honor started out life as HUAWEI’s sister brand. For the longest time as well, they have lived under the shadows of the giant that is HUAWEI. When HUAWEI’s trade band with U.S. companies fell Honor, as a part of HUAWEI, was heavily impacted as well.
There is some light at the end of the tunnel though. Honor is no longer part of HUAWEI group as of 2021. In 2021 also, Honor confirms that their devices will run on Android with Google Play in tow.
A few weeks after they mentioned that they launched their first ever smartphone for 2021. They launched their new Honor 50 series smartphones. Instead of just one smartphone then, they released three – the Honor 50 SE, Honor 50, and Honor 50 Pro.
HONOR 50 SE
Source: GSM Arena
The HONOR 50 SE was not technically highlighted too much in the launch. It is still a part of the HONOR 50 family, however. It is the most budget friendly of the bunch, but also a little different.
Instead of the usual Qualcomm Snapdragon System on A Chip (SoC) that you expect from the new HONOR line-up, you get a MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC. Admit it, for a moment you were expecting the name HiSilicon to come up. Despite being made to fit smaller budgets, the Dimensity 900 chip is still no slouch with 5G connectivity. The octa-core SoC can clock at up to 2.4Ghz when you need the power for MagicUI 4.2 on Android 11 and its apps.
Because the Dimensity 900 can support UFS 2.1 memory, you get exactly that in 128GB flavour for storage on the Honor 50 SE. There is also 8GB in RAM to pair with the device. All of these are given life by the 4,000 mAh battery that should last you all day. If you run out of juice, 66W fast charging should have you covered.
The brand, like HUAWEI, has always been watched for its camera technology though. Out the back is a 108-Megapixel main camera alongside two more supporting cameras. One is an 8-Megapixel ultrawide sensor and the other is a 2-Megapixel macro sensor. Out the front you will find a single 16-Megapixel shooter perched in the middle of the forehead of the 6.78-inch 120Hz Full HD+ LCD display.
HONOR 50
HONOR 50
The main stars of the show are naturally the vanilla variant and the overkill Pro variant of the HONOR 50. The two devices should also be the most popular devices in its range in terms of sales. At the same time, if you have seen the HONOR 50 SE, it is quite difficult to tell the devices apart if you do not pay attention. That is to say that they sport nearly similar designs, apart from camera placements and size.
The HONOR 50 is fronted by 6.57-inch Full HD+ display with 120Hz in refresh rate to give you a consistently smooth UI experience. For that snappy feel too, the panel supports 300Hz sampling rate for an almost immediate response from every single touch. Of course, these speeds do contribute to great gaming experience on the device too.
The HONOR 50 shares the same rear camera array and platform as the more premium and powerful HONOR 50 Pro. It does not share the selfie camera though. The HONOR 50 only has a single lens 32-Megapixel camera parked in a hole at the top of the display.
Like its more premium brother, the Honor 50’s MagicUI 4.2 on Android 11 is powered by a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G SoC with 5G capabilities. It is supposedly less powerful than the outgoing Snapdragon 780G platform, but not by much. You get up to 8GB of RAM to go alongside up to 256GB of storage. Everything runs of the 4,300mAh battery that can fast-charge at 66W.
HONOR 50 Pro
Source: GSM Arena
The HONOR 50 Pro, as its name suggest, is the most premium device of the HONOR 50 range. It may not pack more power than the HONOR 50 with the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G SoC in tow. It does have more RAM with up to 12GB in RAM size alongside up to 256GB in storage.
It does not have the best rear camera set up too, the same as HONOR 50, as we mentioned. There is the 108-Megapixel main shooter. The 108-Megapixel shooter is supported by three other cameras that are parked in the other halo of cameras and flash collection. You get one 8-Megapixel ultrawide shooter, a 2-Megapixel Macro shooter, and another 2-Megapixel depth sensor out the back. Out the front though is a dual-lens combination of a 32-Megapixel sensor and a 12-Megapixel wide-angle lens. As expected from HONOR as well, the HONOR 50 Pro and HONOR 50 camera app comes with a bunch of multi-camera modes and all kinds of enhancements including Super Night Mode that is also available to the front camera.
It has the largest and best display among the three in the series too. The HONOR 50 Pro also has a 120Hz refresh rate display at Full HD+ resolution. The display expands to 6.72-inch though, instead of the 6.57-inch of the regular device. The display also boasts DCI-P3 100% colour gamut for the best and most accurate colour reproduction you can find on a smartphone display. Alongside 300Hz sampling rate, MagicUI 4.2 on Android 11 looks better than ever.
The only thing that is less in the HONOR 50 Pro compared to the vanilla HONOR 50 though is its battery. At 4,000mAh, you are not going to complain that it is too small, because it is still a significant size. Instead of 66W though, it charges even faster at 100W allowing the device to charge from flat to 100% in less than an hour, theoretically.
Price and Availability
The HONOR 50 series are coming to Malaysia, as confirmed by HONOR. Currently though, there are no confirmation on when that is going to happen just yet. We can also confirm that the HONOR 50 and HONOR 50 Pro will be part of the HONO 50 family that is available in Malaysia – no word on HONOR 50 SE’s availability.
The devices are already available for pre-order in China. The HONOR 50 series will be available in 4 colour options; you get to choose from Frost Crystal (special finish), Amber Red, Emerald Green, and Midnight Black colour options. The HONOR 50 and HONOR 50 Pro are selling for CN¥ 2,699 (MYR 1,736*) and CN¥ 3,699 (MYR 2,380*) respectively, while the HONOR 50 SE will be available for CN¥ 2,399 (MYR 1,543*). More information on the HONOR 50 series can be found on their website.
*Approximately based on exchange rate of CN¥ 10 = MYR 6.43 on xe.com as of 17/06/2021
Android 12 is undoubtedly the most anticipated Android operating system (OS) to date. It is not too difficult to see why it gained its popularity. Despite all the excitement though, it will be a few months before we see Android 12 coming to Android smartphones in full force, especially smartphones that comes with manufacturer skins like Samsung.
If you cannot wait to try out the new interface though, you can always go ahead and work with the Beta version of Android 12. If you have a device that supports Android 12 Beta as well, you are in luck because Android 12 Beta 2 has just been released. On Android 12 Beta 2, you are also one step closer to working with the full Android 12 that is supposed to come in August 2021 or so. But what is new on the second Beta version of Android 12?
Privacy Dashboard
Source: Google
Google talked about the Privacy Dashboard in their Google I/O 2021 keynote. Privacy is more important than ever in today’s world. Manufacturers and developers alike are putting more emphasis on privacy as well than ever. They are also giving more control and power ever to their users.
This Privacy Dashboard is one of them. It gives you more control and visibility over what hardware are being used by different apps and what access different apps have on your device. The dashboard can also help you understand the way and why apps need access to certain things on your device.
Mic and Camera Indicators
Smartphones are terrible at telling you that certain things on your smartphone is being used for something. While the Privacy Dashboard does add a little more control and transparency, it is also important to know when something is being accessed or used. It is especially true when it is your mic or camera that are being used. With the new indicators, users can easily and quickly find out which apps are accessing either the camera, or the microphone, or both in real-time. You can also easily and quickly bar the access of mic and camera in that case.
Mic and Camera Toggles
To completely block off any access to your Microphones and Cameras was virtually impossible on a modern smartphone before this. With Android 12, you now can. That feature is now available to play with in Android 12 Beta. You do have to go through some checks to see if your device supports the function or not. Once you turn off access to the mic and camera though, no apps can access both functions at all.
Clipboard Read Notification
Clipboards is naturally something we put out of our mind. It is the list or a collection of texts or things we copied from websites, notes, documents, and anything as such. Android 12 Beta now notifies you if the clipboard is being used in a particular app. A toast will appear at the bottom of the screen each time a clipboard item on another app is being accessed or read by the app you are currently using.
Simpler Connectivity Options
Source: Google
The networking page and access has been completely redesigned on Android 12. One of the primary focus on Android 12 is its intuitiveness. They completely overhauled the network connection screen to do just that. You can now switch between their network providers and WiFi easily and quickly. The new Internet Panel also allow users to quickly troubleshoot network connectivity issues.
Android 12
Android 12 was announced, and its first Beta launched at Google I/O 2021. The new platform is expected to fully release by August 2021 onward and partnering manufacturers will release their own versions of Android 12 soon after. Google’s Android 12 also features one of the platform’s largest visual overhaul in its history. The platform now features something they call Material You in their design language. The UI is designed around more personalisation and more intuitiveness than ever. Find out more about Android 12 on our release write-up here, or you can also visit their website for more information on Android 12 Beta 2. At the same time, you can visit the Android 12 Beta devices page to find out if you have a compatible device.
It’s been quite a while since Malaysia saw a Zenfone. The last Zenfone officially launched in Malaysia was the Zenfone 5 – which, to be honest, was a stellar device. However, since then, ASUS hasn’t brought any of their smartphones – aside from the ROG Phone – to Malaysia. This year, it seems like ASUS will be kicking into gear bringing in not one but both of their Zenfone 8 offerings to Malaysia.
The Zenfone 8 series launched internationally earlier this month. The series brings two new Zenfones into ASUS’s portfolio – the Zenfone 8 and the Zenfone 8 Flip. The Zenfone 8 marks a new approach for ASUS when it comes to smartphones. The company is committing to creating smaller, palmable devices with killer specifications. Of course, to do this, they leave behind some of the defining features of the Zenfone including the flipping camera. That’s where the Zenfone 8 Flip comes in. With a larger body, it brings along the now signature flip camera of the Zenfone series.
Palmable Performance with the Zenfone 8
The Zenfone 8 still carries the honour of being the ASUS flagship. ASUS is packing a top of the line Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor into the smartphone with the Adreno 660 GPU. IT’s coming with up to 16GB of RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage. The Zenfone 8 also packs a 5.9-inch, Samsung AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution and a 120HZ refresh rate.
Of course, being equipped with a flagship processor, it comes with support for WiFi 6 connectivity and Tri-band WiFi support on 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz. It also supports Bluetooth 5.2 and Qualcomm’s aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive and NFC. It is also 5G ready.
On the camera front, the smartphone comes with a 64-megapixel Sony IMX686 sensor with 1/1.7-inch sensor size and 0.8μm pixel size equipped with Quad Bayer technology. The sensor has an f/1.8 aperture, with a 78.3° field of view and a 26.6mm focal length. This sensor is complemented by a Sony IMX363 12-megapixel ultra-wide, dual pixel sensor. It comes with 1/2.55-inch sensor size and 1.4 μm pixel size and f/2.2 aperture. This sensor supports dual phase detection autofocus and has real-time distortion correction. It also supports 4cm macro shots. On the front is a Sony IMX663 12-megapixel sensor with a 1/2.93-inch sensor with 1.22μm pixel size and 76.5° field of view. It supports Dual Phase Detection autofocus.
The smartphone also comes with an under-display fingerprint sensor. It runs on Android 11 with ZenUI 8. All of this runs on the Zenfone 8’s 4,000 mAh battery which is charged via a USB-C port. The hallmark is that all of these specifications and features are housed within a compact body measuring only 148mm x 68.5mm x8.9mm.
Zenfone 8 Flip – Flipping Bigger than its Flagship
The Zenfone 8 Flip shares most of the same specifications as its flagship brother. However, it comes with a larger 6.67-inch FHD+, AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. It comes with only 8GB of RAM and only 256GB of internal storage. It’s also powered by a larger 5,000mAh battery.
The biggest difference comes in the form of the flipping camera. ASUS has imbued the Flip with a triple camera setup which functions as both the main and selfie cameras. The setup comes with the same sensors as the back camera on the Zenfone 8 but is further complemented by an 8-megapixel telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom and 12x hybrid zoom.
Pricing & Availability
The Zenfone 8 will be available starting from 28th May 2021 at all authorized dealers and ASUS Digital Stores. It will come in two configurations; one with 8GB RAM and 128GB onboard memory which retails for MYR2,699 and a 16GB RAM with 256GB onboard memory retailing for MYR3,299. The latter will be available exclusively on Shopee. It comes in Obsidian Black or Horizon Silver.
The Zenfone 8 Flip will retail for MYR2,999 for the 8GB and 256GB version in Malaysia. It will be available in Galactic Black and Glacier Silver.
Purchases made on ASUS’s Shopee Mall front will be entitled to early bird promos from 28 May to 11 June 2021. Purchases made within this period will be entitled to a SolidSuit Case. ASUS is also offering a trade-in deal where customers are able to trade in their old Zenfones for an MYR200 rebate on the Zenfone 8 series. However, this trade-in offer is only available at physical retail stores from 28 May until 25 June 2021.
Google I/O happened last week and there was a lot to take in and dissect even from the two-hour long keynote to kick the Google’s 2021 developers conference off. We highlighted our favourite moments and things that we learned from Google I/O 2021. What caught our attention this year was their WearOS partnership with Samsung announcement. Android 12 is getting a huge visual revamp too this year. At the end of the show, something else caught our attention, and that was the Project Starline.
Google’s Wear OS is about to get a revamp and overhaul thanks to their new formed partnership with Samsung. This also means that Samsung will be ditching their Tizen OS development and focus on developing Wear OS with Google. Funnily enough Fitbit is not really getting involved. While they spent a very small amount of time making the announcement, there is more to Wear OS and Samsung’s involvement than Google made it out to be though. Fitbit is also not entirely out of the picture at this point.
We also saw the new Android 12 with Material You design language. The UI is cleaner, more intuitive, and even more customisable now. It is technically more YOU, more personal. You can change your theme colours to fit YOU. You can tune certain UI features to YOU. It is even more personal too with a Privacy Dashboard. You can even turn off your camera and mic completely if you want to; even your camera app will not be able to access both functions.
Project Starline was amazing. In brought to life a concept that we though will never see the light of day until way later. The whole pandemic situation has isolated us even more, and with conditions expected to take a turn for the worse in the coming year, physical connection to other human beings is sorely missed. Project Starline is as close as you can get to a physical touch and interaction to others at this point of time. To be fair, the technology is still in its early development stage and brings 3D and holographic telecommunications to life. It was encouraging and exciting to see, but we wonder how practical it would be if you want to bring that kind of technology to your homes or offices.
It’s been quite a journey for Honor in its recent emancipation from Huawei. However, it looks like the emancipation is coming with significant benefits. If you need a little refresher, Honor started off as a subsidiary brand of Huawei to address the growing Millennial and Gen-Z segment who were looking for affordable, power-packed devices. Honor had a big European debut with one of their first ambassadors being Brooklyn Beckham, son of Football Star, David Beckham and Spice Girl, Victoria Beckham. However, with the sanctions from the U.S. on Huawei, the brand began to ship their devices without Google Play Services and with Huawei’s AppGallery.
Earlier this year, the brand was spun off into its own company and it looks like that has been a boon to it. In a tweet from the Official Honor Germany account the brand confirmed that their latest flagship, the Honor 50 will be coming with Google Play Services. (The tweets have since been deleted.) This is a big win for the brand as we’re beginning to see Huawei slip from the top of the list of smartphone vendors. Most recently, the company noted a 41% year on year decline in smartphone shipments.
Source: Android Authority
Source: Android Authority
That said, with the sale of Honor to a Chinese consortium of companies, Honor is seeing positive momentum. In fact, the company has confirmed that their upcoming Honor 50 will be coming with the recently announced, Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G. The partnership wasn’t possible under Huawei due to the U.S. sanctions. In addition to this, the company has also revealed that an upcoming Honor Magic device will be coming with the “most premium Qualcomm chipset”. The current SoC which fits that description is the Snapdragon 888 unless Qualcomm has another chipset up its sleeves.
The last Honor Magic device was released way back in 2018. The line up is being reintroduced as part of the new portfolio. Previously, the Magic line up was Honor’s most premium line up with power-packed specifications and top of the line features. It looks like that isn’t changing with the company touting the upcoming device as a “premium flagship product featuring superb imaging quality”.
Android is currently the most popular mobile operating system (OS) in the world. At least 72% of the entire smartphone market in 2021 runs on Android. That is also mostly because there are so many Android offerings out in the market that fits almost all sorts of budget.
There is also another good reason why Android becomes the OS of choice for plenty of enthusiasts. The fact that no two Android devices looks and feels the same is one of them. You could put a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra beside another similar device with similar colour option but when you pick them up, they could feel completely different in terms of its interactions and layout. If you are its owner, you know which one of the smartphones is which the moment you pick it up. Of course, there is the fact that you cannot unlock the other smartphone.
Android 12 is not the largest update in terms of added feature on the user interface (UI), technically. It is the largest though in terms of visuals. The concept for the 12th major iteration of Android, as Google puts it, centers around You.
They call the new design language Material You. That also means that the design language is not entirely different from before. It is technically an evolution of the older Material design language. Thing is, it is not like the old Material design felt dated in 2021. Its simplistic and minimalistic language still does well enough in 2021, and we think beyond.
Still, Android 12 is coming and here are the major changes we think you might like; at least we like the changes.
More Personalisation
Source: Google
Colours turn out to be everything in our lives, and that includes our smartphones. We all wanted dark mode at some point in the past two years. Admittedly, Dark Mode looks sick and made our smartphones look extra sleek. But it does get a little boring when everyone starts doing the same things.
Adding some colours is a way to go to make your device even more unique to you other than having different home screen layouts. That is what Android 12 is, colours for your life. The UI can cleverly extract dominant colours and determine complementing colours from your wallpaper and turn your whole theme around that chosen colour. That extends even to the new widgets Material You is introducing. Of course, you can change those colours as well in the settings, if you want to have a different colour scheme for your theme. You technically can decide how thick you want your on-screen volume control knob to be too.
Better, Faster, More Sensible Animations
Source: Google
The UI is designed to be more intuitive and allow certain things to come up front and center for you. For example, picking up the device can turn your screen on, but the fluid animations can flash up according to how you pick up your device. The display might come to life from the bottom of the device up, or vice versa. It responds to touch and gestures too, apparently.
The most visible change on Android 12 in terms of animations though is on your lock screen. On Any Android device, you can view your notifications via your lock screen. You can close the notifications from your lock screen too. Once you cleared out your notifications though, Android 12 brings out your clock front and center to let you know that you are all caught up and tell you the time, obviously.
With Material You as well, Google have supposedly improved animation load times and speed by up to 22%. The development team somehow found a way to cut back on CPU loads for animations which both sped up the animations and extend battery life in the process. On top of that, the cut back in CPU reliance also means that older and lower-end devices can benefit the full animations of Android 12.
Bigger Means Better
Source: Google
A part of system designs in Material design is making things more compact, cleaner, simpler, and more minimalistic. A lof of quick access spaces and buttons are made smaller, more rounded, and take up so little space you could cram a million of them on your large 6-inch display. They sort of rolled back on that for the sack of intuitiveness and better-looking spaces though.
In Material You the notification is a much cleaner space to look at. Gone re the clutter that you might see in the current iteration of Material design. The notification page is much easier on the eyes to navigate and work with as well with a slightly larger interaction space.
You see the biggest change in Quick Settings though. Instead of little round balls that you are used to, they are now bigger buttons to work with. This not only prevents clutter, but also wrong presses when you use your device one-handed. The have added Google Pay and Home Controls button too for you to quickly access your ewallet payment gateway and even quickly control your Home IoT devices just through a couple of taps.
Privacy Dashboard
Source: Google
Transparency over data collection and sharing has been one of the most important features we look for in our smartphones today. Apple’s iOS now allows you to track each app and what they do with your data. For Android, it is a little different.
Instead of implementing app specific algorithm to identify what data is being used by each app and how, Android 12 gives you a one stop shop to understand what apps are using what and when. The dashboard allows to check also the kinds of permissions you give each app. You even can revoke access of the apps too from one Privacy Dashboard.
At the same time, Android 12 tells you when an app is using your camera or microphone. In some ways, Android 12 can help you track which apps use the two items when it does not need to as well. You can either revoke camera or mic privileges from apps via Privacy Dashboard in that sense.
There is more to that, however. You can revoke the entire systems access to both microphone and camera. All you have to do is pull down the notification bar, and then pull down again to quick access and turn off camera, or microphone access, or both. In that case, even if you launch your camera app, you are not going to see anything.
Regarding location, sometimes apps do not need to know where you are precisely. In that case, Android 12 allows you to set “approximate location” sharing with some of the apps that you feel might not need your precise location. An example of that kind of app is the weather app, to tell you what the weather is like in your general area.
And More…
Source: Google
There are more subtle changes in Android 12. To be really honest, we have not had our hands-on with the Android 12 Beta just yet, because we do not own devices that supports Android 12 Beta at this time. We are hoping that the list might expand a little more soon though. If you want to get your hands on Android 12 Beta, you can check if your devices are supported at the Android 12 Beta page.
Google I/O 2021 is happening right now. The three-day conference kicked off with a bang though. To put it bluntly, Google I/O 2021 kicked off with a two-hour keynote highlighting everything coming from Google in 2021. While two hours do sound like a lot of drag, the announcements do sound mighty interesting though.
Google Workspace for Everyone
Source: Google
They kick off with something that everyone is concerned about in the period of pandemic, working from home. For that Google has something called Google Workspace. Google Workspace has been one of the most popular and thriving services since the world has gone into isolation with the looming pandemic situation. In 2021, the suite is updated with something called Smart Canvas.
Smart Canvas is a collaborative workspace within Google Workspace built for project management and keeping track of a project with your team members. It is kind of like a private chat or conversation within the larger organisation, but much cleaner. You can create and share Google Docs, Sheets, and even Slides within the group and work on the files together in real time.
Workspace is also now integrated with Google Meet, Google Doc, Google Sheet, and Google Slides. That also means that you can have a meeting on Google Meet within Google Workspace, share your files across the chat, and even edit the files together with your team in the Meets room. It is all about making remote collaborative work as seamless and organised as possible. Google also said Google Workspace will be available for free later in the year.
More in Google Search
Source: Google
Google search can also bring contents or search results that comes from other parts of the world in different languages with the integration of Google Translate algorithm and Google Lens as well. On top of that, Google is improving their language understanding and processing algorithm that should benefit more than just Google Translate, Google Lens, and regular Google Search.
They developed something called Wavenet, to make Google Assistant sound more natural and more contextual. They put that together with something they call Multitask Unified Model (MUM). All these makes Google Search and Google Lens the most powerful search and item identification tool ever.
The technologies that got mashed together means that Google search is not just single words anymore. It could be a sentence, a photo, and even both. The results can turn to be more than just web suggestions too. The result can turn out to be top suggestions, a place, and even connect you to merchants to buy what you need. If you set up your Google wallet correctly with all your merchant memberships as well, Google can connect you directly to deals that might be tied to your memberships too. There is a bit more to that too with Google Chrome, where you can track back your shopping carts on various sites even after you close the page.
Cleverer Google Maps
Source: Google
Google Maps is technically the most popular navigation app in the world. But that does not mean the app is flawless. There is always room for improvements.
Eco and Safe Driving
For example, Google introduces an ‘Eco Mode’ into the app. That basically means Google will take you through the most fuel efficient and economical route to get you to where you want and need to be. It may not be necessarily the fastest though, just keep that in mind.
They also introduced ‘safer driving’ routes for Google Maps. Obviously, that is what we call it, not what Google calls it. The idea is to navigate you to routes that might avoid traffic with sudden braking points and overall a smoother, clearer ride. All these are obviously done with Google’s navigation algorithm, traffic analysis, and GPS data such as speed or acceleration that Google Maps itself can see and work with in real-time.
Better Live View
Source: Google
They have expanded on Live View too in this case. Google Maps Live View does not just include navigation data in Augmented Reality anymore. It now shows you street names so that you can navigate better. It also now includes points of interest, landmarks, and you can pull up information regarding a place including its reviews directly from Maps app itself. Google Maps is also introducing Live View indoors now. It starts with the major train stations and airport in Zurich for now. The feature will be introduced to Tokyo also next month.
More Details
If you are getting yourself around by driving though, Google Maps is also a lot more detailed. Major intersections with road crossings and traffic lights will now show on maps so that you are better prepared. With Google’s understanding on your behaviour, your routine, and your usual routes, Google can also highlight relevant information, landmarks, or points of interest for you. A breakfast takeaway for example, on a Monday morning drive to work.
On top of all of that, Google Maps can now be a tool to help you plan your day not just on the road. Google Maps can track or predict how busy and packed an area will be at certain times just so you do not have to squeeze into the area at that time. You could plan to go another day for example, or just not go at all if it is not important. This is important in this day and age where social distancing is a recommended practice.
LaMDA
Source: Google
LaMDA is meant to be a conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI). Google says they have been using and testing it internally and it is powered by everything great about Google’s search engine and linguistic programming. In its demo, it sounds like an amazing piece of tech that could keep you having conversations with it from day to night.
It is programmed to know everything there is to know about our current world and situation. But it is not built to answer you with data necessarily. It is built to have natural conversations about the weather in general terms like “you might want to bring an umbrella in the afternoon”, rather than “there is a 78% chance of a light rain at 2.00 p.m.”.
While the answers that we saw from the demo does sound a little metallic and robotic at times, we cannot wait for LaMDA to be introduced into things like Workspace, YouTube, or even Google Maps. It is like having your own version of Iron Man’s JARVIS in your smartphone, or PC, or whatever you fancy.
More Organised Google Photos
Source: Google
Google Photos is a little bit more than just your photo gallery now though. It is now something you can use to create photo collages, to understand yourself better, and sort of your memory bank. Google’s image recognition recognises your photo patterns and puts all of them together to tell you that you tend to take photos of a certain context or a certain look. It tells you that you might be attracted to a certain sort of colour for example.
With Machine Learning (ML) as well, Google Photos can stitch multiple similar photos taken in succession to create a moving photo or video for you, even if there are gaps. Organisation and searching for your photos are even more intuitive too when you can find photos associated to certain celebrations for example.
Android 12 and Wear OS
Source: Google
Trust us when we say Android 12 is a huge overhaul of the Android OS. There is nearly no difference in terms of function, to be fair. Most of the changes are in the way things look and gets organised, and even customised. They call all this Material You design.
In terms of looks, things are a lot more intuitive, most organised, bigger, and a lot less cluttered. You get more control in how your User Interface (UI) looks in total as well. There are supposedly about 22% faster animation, they say.
You get more control over your own security and even privacy, and they are easier to access and understand with Privacy Dashboard. With the new UI as well, IoT controls are more front and center than before. There is a new improved remote app for your Android TV too.
Wear OS is getting a fresh lease of life too, thankfully. They want to make Wear OS a major smartwatch platform competitor to Apple’s WatchOS. To do that they managed to strike a partnership with their long-time partner, Samsung to bring Tizen and Wear OS together to make a more robust wearable operating system (OS) for everyone to use. Fitbit will also be introducing their own Wear OS later in the year and lend their expertise and know how in health and fitness into the upcoming Wear OS.
Your Safety, Privacy, and Protection Matters
Source: Google
Google has also improved their Google Password Manager. While the app still functions the same as before, you can now transfer password information from older devices. That also means that your passwords can be stored on-device instead of on-cloud. With Android’s on-device encryption nature, saving your managed passwords on your device could be a more secure option. With compromise alerts, you know when your accounts are accessed, and you can easily change passwords for whatever you have quickly via Password Manager.
Privacy Core
Google also introduced something called their Privacy Core. It is Google’s effort in giving control over information shared with Google back to its users. Supposedly as well, thanks to Privacy Core, you Live Caption sessions or translations will not be shared back to Google.
But security and privacy are more than that as well. It spreads to your search history, and even browsing history. Google is including an option now to delete ‘recent history’ on your Google Chrome.
Even in Google Maps, you can tell the app to not track your location history just so that the app does not collect your location data. You can allow Google Maps to track you accurately, or just give Google access to your approximate location now, in different apps. Not allowing Maps to track your data and build a history data also means that you are not going to get recommendations or suggestions from Google though. A worthy trade off, we think, for more privacy.
Better Health, Better Quality of Life
Source: Google
Since Google’s expansion and changing their own corporate name to Alphabet, they have been hugely involved in medical research. One of the places they have been pushing on is in the field of Mammograms. Google’s AI push into the platform means that screening for breast cancer is more accurate than ever. Their AI also helps doctors in understanding Mammograms and the severity in the diagnosis helping the health institutes prioritise different cases.
That is not all though. Dermatology is one huge field that could be expanded even using your own devices. Because this field has more to do with skin conditions, Google Lens can be an early diagnosis tool. You can take a photo of your skin conditions and Google can possibly identify what you have to a certain degree. Of course, nothing replaces a doctor in matters of treatments and full diagnosis, so Google can direct you towards a dermatologist near you via your browser. This feature will be available in the EU region by the end of the year 2021.
Project Starline
Source: Google
Speaking of health, we cannot ignore the current pandemic situation. We are all recommended to stay at home as much as possible and avoid as much human interaction as possible. The COVID-19 pandemic, while has brought humanity together more than ever, ironically has isolated us even more too.
Project Starline is a video chat tool that uses multiple cameras to create a 3D image model and project that 3D image to another part of the world. While that means that the file packages from that implementation are so bug that our regular internet speeds will not be able to cope, Google is working to compress the image files to a more sensible package size so that the images can be transferred using our regular internet connection.
The function of that is to implement a 3D video chat experience. While regular video chat today has progressed further than before, nothing replaces a physical presence and interaction. The idea with 3D projection calls looks to bridge that gap a little. Although you cannot touch the person still, having a 3D representation of a person is as close as you can get in having a physical presence in today’s world.
Google I/O 2021
Source: Google
To wrap up, Google announced that they are committing to shift their entire operation to carbon free energy sources by 2030. While Google has been proud of operating entirely on renewable energy, they are taking the first steps in relying on clean energy that does not leave any footprints. The commitment has led them to invest into Geothermal energy currently.
As promised by Google, the Google I/O 2021 is the largest ever. It is not just based on attendance though. It is also about the number of things that Google is introducing for 2021. It is also about Google’s commitments for the future, and we are excited, especially for Wear OS. For more information on what happened in Google I/O, you can check out Google’s Blog.
OPPO is getting really busy with more and more devices coming into the Malaysian market. Just a few weeks back, the company launched their most affordable 5G smartphone, the OPPO A74 5G. The 4G variant of the OPPO A74 is now set to make its debut on May 20, 2021. It will be coming as an exclusive to LAZADA. It will be retailing for MYR899 and will be available with freebies for its first sale.
Source: OPPO Malaysia
The OPPO A74 comes packed with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor complemented with 6GB of RAM. It will also have 128GB of UFS 2.1 memory and support for up to 512GB of extra memory via a microSD card. It supports 33W fast charging through a USB-C port. On the camera front, it has a triple sensor setup with a 48-megapixel main camera sensor with an f/1.7 aperture, a 2-megapixel macro sensor with f/2.4 aperture and a 2-megapixel depth sensor with an f/2.4 aperture. The OPPO A74 supports 4K video recording at 30 fps. The front camera is a 16-megapixel sensor with an f/2.1 aperture. The phone is powered by a 5,000mAh battery.
The affordable option from OPPO also comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack and an under-screen fingerprint sensor. To complete the media experience, the smartphone comes with a 6.43-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen with a 1080×2400 pixel resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. It will be running ColorOS 11 atop Android 11.
Source: OPPO Malaysia
Together with the new smartphone, OPPO is also repricing the OPPO Reno5 5G. The mid-range offering will now be priced at MYR1,699, MYR200 cheaper than its launch price. The new pricing makes the smartphone one of the more affordable 5G devices available on the market now. It also comes with OPPO’s VOOC Charge 2.0 and a camera setup that brings all of OPPO’s signature camera features.
There was a debate that raged on a bit in a certain new and upcoming social media app. The app was valued at US$ 4 Billion (MYR*) at its most recent fundraiser too. That social media platform is Clubhouse, and the debate was whether or not Clubhouse should remain an iOS exclusive platform.
For over a year, Clubhouse has remained exclusive to iOS. That is not without good reason though. Developing on iOS is a little more straightforward because there is not a tonne of scaling to work with, everything is based on roughly the same hardware architecture. You do not have to take different versions of iOS and iPhone devices into account either, the SDK will do its job and standardise experience across all iPhone devices. Obviously, with the amount of Android devices out there for different market segments, things become a little more complex when you want to develop on Android. This was the case of WhatsApp on iOS and Android all over again.
Still, the voice based social network app has been one of the most popular apps since the pandemic broke out and everyone in the world is expected to stay at home and lock themselves up. It gave people another way to stay connected with the rest of the world. It gave way to Elon Musk to connect with other people from other parts of the world without physically meeting them. Elon Musk could be one of the reasons why Clubhouse blew up too.
Still, because Clubhouse was a thing, Android users are now asking for the feature on their devices. Clubhouse also have been reportedly working on its Android app for some time now. Earlier in the year Clubhouse finally announced that they are going to put Clubhouse in Google’s Play Store. This week, they came through in the United States of America (U.S.A.).
Source: Clubhouse
The Clubhouse app is now in open Beta state in Google Play Store. While that means you get access to the most basic functions of Clubhouse like joining a chat room and moderate a chat for example, there are still some things that users on Android will not get access to for the time being. For one, Android users will not be able to report someone else for now. That feature will come soon though according to Clubhouse.
Translation and localisation will not yet be available as well on the Android version. Understandably, Clubhouse on Android is still limited to the U.S. and will be rolling out to other English-speaking regions within these few weeks. You cannot create club or manage any clubs at the moment too with the Beta version of Clubhouse on Android. You can read the full list of missing features on Clubhouse’s FAQ page.
The team behind Clubhouse is also noting that they will be collecting feedback from the community on the app. In the coming weeks, the team will be fixing all kinds of bugs and add more features before finally releasing the app properly on Google Play Store as a full app. The only thing that they have not changed their stance on is the invite-only system. You have to be invited into the app to sign up for an account. Signing up for the app is free though.
The Clubhouse app will be available in Beta in the U.S. region for now. As Mentioned the app will roll out in other English-speaking regions soon after. If you are keen to get on the platform with existing invites at hand, you can head over to Google Play Store to register as an interested user and be the first Android user when it becomes available in your region.
