Google Play Pass – the company’s answer to Apple Arcade – has made its debut in Malaysia. Play Pass will allow users access to a curated collection of mobile games free from ads and in-app purchases. Think of it like Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass for your Android phone. It currently has over a thousand games available in the catalogue on the Play Store.
Stealthily launched earlier this week in Malaysia, the Google Play Pass costs MYR10.99 per month. Your first month, however, is free. If you opt to subscribe to the Google Play Pass for a year, you’ll be getting a 25% discount with the plan renewing for MYR99 a year. The pass is shareable with up to five family members within a family group.
With the Play Pass, users gain access to games like Monument Valley 2, Stardew Valley, and more, all without ads and in-app payments.
Google’s dessert-themed Android update has become stale. Well, not really. It’s just that Google Play is officially ending support for devices running Android 4.4 KitKat. This doesn’t come out of the blue as Google has been actively retiring support for older versions of the OS to ensure that the OS platform and the Play Store remain secure.
Source: Google
Android 4.4, aka Android KitKat, has been around for nearly 10 years already. The update was one of the most significant updates for the Android operating system at the time. The update brought an overhaul and standardization to the design language of Android at the time.
According to the latest breakdown of Android versions on the market, Android KitKat stood at 0.5% of devices currently available globally. It seems like it’s enough for Google to finally end support for the version on the Google Play Store. The same report also indicated that Android 5.0 and Android 6 are at 1.8% and 2.3% respectively.
It goes without saying, if you have a device running Android KitKat you may want to update it before August 2023 if you can. Otherwise, you won’t be able to use the Play Store anymore. If there’s no official updates, many Android smartphones and tablets are well supported by the community with more updated versions of the OS based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) that you can sideload.
Google’s Gmail is the next best thing to happen to emails and online accounts since Hotmail, Friendster, and Facebook. In almost every service you have on your smartphone or on the web, you tend to rely solely on your Google account. You sign into your Netflix account with your Google email, you sign into your Facebook account with Google email, you register for services with your Google email. Why not? It is free, and super easy to use and set-up.
The thing is, because of its ease of use, people tend to take advantage of it. You sign up for multiple accounts, you use those accounts to sign up for free services all around the internet just so that you can take advantage of free use periods of certain premium services. Yes, you can do that with YouTube premium, but do not recommend you do that. You would also have to have a new Gmail account every month, a headache to manage.
Google has been cracking down on phishing scams, account hijacking, and general email security for a long time with Gmail. But there is always going to be problems, especially when an account has been idle for too long. It not only takes up space in the database, but it also becomes a security concern, especially with the rising cases of account hijacking cases of late. According to Google’s internal teams, abandoned or forgotten accounts that are ten-folds less active than regular accounts does not feature added security layers like 2-step verification, meaning that the accounts tend to be a lot more vulnerable for hacks and identity theft, phishing basically.
While Google is giving more control over their accounts to users who owns the accounts in one way or another, they are adding another policy to their already extensive guidelines to Google accounts usage. Google will be deleting accounts that have been inactive for two years and above. If you have a Google account you have not activated or logged into for the past two years and more, you will no have access to them anymore come December 2023. This deletion will be a complete deletion that even includes data from Google Workspace apps and Google Photos.
For now, the policy only affects personal Google Accounts. If you are a business relying on Google’s services, you still have full control over your own Google Accounts. They are also taking a phased approach to the deletion and will inform users comprehensively and accordingly.
Google just updated their policy just last week to ensure that users have more control over their own data on apps and account on their selected apps. This week, they are updating the app itself to add a little bit more automation on the app. While it may sound a little counter-intuitive especially with the whole initiative in giving users more control over their own smartphone and data, it is a good update for users.
Smartphones in the modern world allow you to have thousands of apps in your smartphone. In fact, you would install thousands of apps on your smartphone. All these takes up precious storage on your smartphone and when you find a new app you could use, you run out of storage space before you know it. To install the new app, you must clear up your storage by deleting things on your smartphone, uninstall apps. Thing is, you might want to keep those apps still because they could come in handy. You want to ensure that your app data is still in your smartphone in case you want to start running the app again. There is a way, thanks to Google’s latest update to Google Play.
You can now opt-in for Google Play’s new ‘auto-archive’ function. According to Google’s developer blog update, the function will help the user free up space on their smartphones without the need to manually uninstall apps from their smartphone. Google Play cleverly partially remove an app that you have not used for a long time on your smartphone to give way for newer and more functional apps. It is not really completely uninstalled though; the app’s data is still stored within the smartphone and you can re-download the app when you want to use it again as long as the app is still available on Google Play Store.
Of course, the function is not only an opt-in for the user, but also for developers. Their apps would have to have the function built into their app. They would also have to be using App Bundle to publish their apps on Google Play Store. Once their app enables the auto-archive function, the apps will be less likely to turn up on uninstall suggestions when users want to clear their smartphone’s storage.
Source: Google Blog
For users to opt-in, a prompt will trigger when a user tries to install an app on their smartphone with full storage. The prompt will appear and ask if the user would like to enable auto-archive. Once the user enables auto-archive, Google Play will cleverly do its thing to archive apps you hardly use or have not been using for a long time to free up some storage space for the new app. No, you do not have to do much, just make sure your Google Play Store is up to date to get the function.
Data privacy and security is a big topic. It is also something Apple and Google, the world’s largest tech firms, have been working on for a long time. Over time, Google and Apple have both separately introduce new measures and policies for their developers to improve on security and giving more privacy access to their users. In their latest policy update, Google might make things easier for you if you wish to opt out or finally delete an app you no longer want to use.
As of yesterday, Google has introduced a few key initiatives for their Google Play store for 2023 and beyond. In their latest blog update, they are looking to achieve a few things with their initiative an policy update. Ads is still a big thing for Google, but they are looking to soften ads served to users. You are not getting any less ads, but Google seems to limit the amount of data that you share with apps and therefore shared across ad algorithms.
Google is also introducing a new Play Integrity API that is supposed to better protect their developers and the IP that comes with the apps. Alongside the enhanced API, Google is also introducing Google Play SDK Index so that developers have better overview over their SDK uses. In all this, they also look to balance the experience for developers and users by ensuring that there are better policies in place to ensure that data collection is done as responsibly as possible. At the same time, they want to make Google Play even safer for children and families, all through the updated policy.
Source: Google
The biggest emphasis, at least according to another blog update, is allowing more data control for its users. It is not just about accessing and viewing more data than ever. While that is also a part of an improved transparency over users’ data, the policy update requires developers to allow their users to have even more control and deliberation with their own data on their selected platforms. It is also more than just allowing you to choose which data or hardware that the app gets access to.
Modern apps requires us to hold a virtual account with the provider’s platform to use. Even if you are using a Google account to sign into different apps, the platform technically creates another account for you just for their platform. If you wish to create a separate account, you can too via the apps. What most apps does not allow you to do though is to reverse that process. That is about to change.
In Google’s latest policy for developers, developers are going to be required to enable in-app account deletion or at least initiate the account deletion process via their apps. Google also requires the developer to allow the app deletion process and initiation to be done completely online too so that users do not have to reinstall an app just to delete their account. Since the account deletion process can be done completely via your app, you also do not have to access two different devices to delete your user data off their platforms.
Source: Google
With the policy as well, Google states that any account deletion must also be accompanied with a complete deletion of a user’s data from their database. In that case, users also get an option to either keep or delete their data from a developer’s database when their delete their accounts. There are going to be cases where developers might require data retention for security, fraud prevention, or regulatory compliance. In that case, the developer must clearly state that they will have hold your data for whatever reason they cite.
Google is looking to enforce their policy starting December 2023. They are allowing for extensions for developers up until May 2024. That also means that you can expect all your apps to include your account deletion feature from 2024 onward. Of course, this policy will not just affect Android users with access to Google Play. This most likely will also translate to users of other platforms since the policy does affect most developers that are on both Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Google seems to be taking its own OS for wearables seriously – FINALLY. With Samsung on the board with Wear OS, it would seem like Google finally deems it worthy of proper attention. Of course, the upcoming Pixel Watch could also be the impetus behind the company’s sudden commitment to the platform.
At the recent Samsung Unpacked event, Google was given a small segment to discuss Wear OS. Google noted that the with the release of the Galaxy Watch 4 and the latest iteration of the OS, the number of users on Wear OS has more than tripled. Of course, to-date, the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 series is one of the only smartwatches with Google’s OS. So, it’s pretty evident that Samsung’s adoption of the platform is doing it some good.
However, Google hasn’t done much in the years since it launched Android Wear back in 2014. That’s about to change with Google committing to revamp and optimise the Google Play Store. The revamp will put compatible apps front and center especially if you’re browsing the Google Play Store on your smartwatch. This will undoubtedly change the user experience on compatible devices.
In addition to the optimised Play Store, Google is also bringing offline navigation to Wear OS. The new feature of the Google Maps app will allow users to use turn by turn navigation from their smartwatch without being tethered to a smartphone. The current version of Google Maps on Wear OS is pretty much useless without a smartphone. This functionality is slated for “later this year”. It wouldn’t surprise us if Google launches this together with the upcoming Pixel Watch.
Having a projector at home makes a lot of sense. With enough surface area, you can have an entertainment display that is usually larger than regular TVs you find today. You can usually resize and change the placement of your projector at any time you want. You can stow it away too when not in use to have a much cleaner looking surface free of a blank TV screen. You can even use the projector at any flat surface you have in your home, which also means you can set up your entertainment hub anywhere in the home.
Obviously, there are some trade-offs. 4K resolution projectors are usually quite large and bulky, you hardly want to move them too much. To get the best sort of colours, you want an LED projector too, which also lasts long. Most of the LED projectors are not really made with portability in mind too though. Unless you go for BenQ’s GV30 projector, that is.
The BenQ GV30
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
The BenQ GV30 is the world’s first smart portable LED projector of its kind. It packs powerful 2.1-channel speakers as well so that you do not need to carry around a separate speaker set to get great audio anywhere you set the projector up. At the same time, the projector also offers up to 300 ANSI Lumens in projection brightness and up to 720p HD resolution at that. Colours should not be an issue too with CinematicColor and Rec. 709 colour gamut capabilities.
The LED light source is supposed to last up to 30,000 hours with minimal drop in brightness. Of course, it has multiple ports to sport all sorts of input like game consoles, smartphones, PCs, Blu-ray players, and even USB sticks. You do not need to carry a power cord with the projector as well, there is a built-in battery that allows you to use it anywhere with no fussy cables.
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
You may not even have to plug anything to the portable projector. It comes with Android TV onboard which also means that you can operate it like a TV without any other inputs. You can directly download apps from Google Play store and stream movies on your favourite streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Videos, or even Disney+. If you wish so, you can even stream contents directly from your iOS or Android devices.
Price and Availability
The BenQ GV30 will be available June 2022 onward via BenQ’s official stores on Shopee and Lazada. You can also get your hands on one via BenQ’s official retailers across the nation. It will retail for MYR 2,688. If you do pre-order your BenQ GV30 projector between the 20th of June 2022 and 4th of July 2022, you can get your hands on one at an exclusive price of MYR 2,499. For more information on the BenQ GV30 mini portable LED projector, you can visit their website.
Updating your apps is a hassle, so is finding the right app to do specific things you want for your Android or iOS machines. We live in an age where there is an app for everything, and it all started with the iPhone and then later expanded by Google’s Android ecosystem. To think that we almost do not get ecosystem with open-sourced apps is an odd one today.
Android’s foray into the app ecosystem game marks the start of a war between iOS and Android. The war of the app store, we call it. Who had better app support, who had better apps, and who had the biggest app store? We have reached a breaking point, however.
The world today, while still revolves around apps, cares more about the quality of contents each app delivers than how many apps you have on your smartphone. I, for one, want as little apps as possible on my smartphone but enough apps to perform everything I need from my smartphone. We do not need a million apps to do a million things. We want 10 apps that does 1,000 things well, and that is a problem for the app stores with millions upon millions of apps.
Source: Google
While choices are good, Google deems that not all choices may be suitable for users. Of course, apps need to comply to Google’s security guidelines that changes with every new iteration of Android. That also means that apps that are on the Play Store should be updated to match the new security standards set by Google.
The problem is, while that is something that should be, it is not how it is in the current app stores. There are millions of apps in the ecosystem that has gone silent for years. These apps do not get updated and yet they still sit in the App Store. Granted, there are plenty of apps like these that are still being used by users. Developers of the app could have either given up on the project or have closed shop for a while. They still pose security risks for Android though.
In that case, Google is taking a step up in preventing users from downloading or coming across apps that have not been updated for longer than at least one generation of Android. That also means that if the apps on Google Play Store have not been updated for Android 11 currently, they app will be taken down from the Play Store, even if the ratings for the apps are high. When we say take down, they are not completely removed from the app store, more like downranked. If the app has not been updated for more than two generations, Play Store will not allow the app to be installed on your device at all.
Source: Google
This system is completely dependent on the update cycle and age of your smartphone or tablet as well though. For example, if your device is still on Android 9, you will still be able to see apps that have been updated for Android 9, even if the said app has not been updated for Android 11 or Android 12. Once you update your device to Android 11 or 12 though, you may not see the app on the Play Store. However, if you already have the said app on your device, it will note affect your experience with the app at all. It will only affect new users to the said app.
The changes that are teased by Google is just that for now, a tease. It is expected that changes on the Play Store will start taking place on the 1st of November 2022 onward. It does give some time for developers who has not updated their apps for a year or two to prepare and update their apps before the implementation date. While it may seem odd that Google may be phasing out some of the higher rated apps just because they are old, it is also a good security measure for Android users with better compliance. It could also help new apps shine and get into the spotlight a little bit.
Remember that app you use to find out what’s playing on the radio or at the cafe? Yeah – that one! Shazam! No, no, not the superhero, the app! It’s about to get a little more interesting for the music discovery app.
Well, if you forgot about Shazam, here’s a little refresher. The Shazam app first debuted in 2002. It was first launched as an app that could help users discover music by simply clicking on the Shazam button. The app has since gained a whole load of new features including identifying TV programs and ads. Yep, you can stumble upon a new episode of an unknown show and use Shazam to find out where you can stream it.
Source: Apple
The app is bringing a new dimension to music discovery by including a new feature that will allow you to not only discover new music but also find out when and where the artist is performing near you. All you have to do is Shazam a song on the app or website and you’ll immediately get concert information and ticket pricing. The same information is also available on the Shazam Artist page.
The new feature leverages concert information from Bandsintown, an established event recommendation and artist discovery platform. The platform has access to information from over 560,000 artists, labels and booking agents which gives it one of the most complete databases of concerts available worldwide. This feature is now rolling out to Shazam’s over 225 million active users across the world. Artists can also make their concert information available through Bandsintown For Artists.
The Google Pixel series has always been a much-loved series of devices. Google’s decision to move out of the flagship hardware space and into the mid-range segment was met with a lot of glee. Not because it was a funny decision, it was a decision that gave a lot of people access to what Google deems as the standard for their smartphones.
In the four iteration of the Google Pixel smartphone range, Google has always been relying on Qualcomm to supply their processing chips. While Google may not be able to complain much in terms of power, there are a few things that even today’s most powerful System on a Chip cannot solve. Google understands that and wants to solve that with their Pixel series. It starts with the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro with what Google calls the Google Tensor System on a Chip (SoC).
We will talk about the Google Tensor chip as more information on it becomes more available, we promise. For now, we do want to focus more on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro devices. They are what you are here for, correct?
Still, if you must ask, Google Tensor is something that Google had been working on for a few years. It is nothing like the Qualcomm Snapdragons or Samsung Exynos chips that we have seen in other smartphones. It is specifically made for Google, with Google’s input, in solving real world problems that Google sees fit – linguistic programming.
Android 12
Source: Google
Of course, we have to start with Google’s latest and greatest in terms of operating system. We are not going to elaborate too much on Android 12 though because we have covered it before, and you can read all about it here. Google’s Android 12 is very much built for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, and you can tell. Material You on the Pixel 6 devices are meant to look natural and has even more functions than your average Android 12 devices. For security, the Pixel 6 series will pack Google’s own developed Titan M2 chip for best-in-class hardware level security. That also allows google to support the device for up to five years.
New Bigger, Better Camera
Source: Google
One of the biggest improvements on the Google Pixel though is in its camera. Where others have been struggling to find new ways to innovate, Google found a different path. Instead of piling on more Megapixel and more hardware power on the issue of photography, Google uses their know how of machine learning and artificial intelligence to solve the complex problems that comes with photography.
That said, it is not like Google did not improve the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro sensors. They now get a 50-Megapixel sensor that measures in at 1/1.3-inch. Its larger size also means that it can absorb 150% more light than before. Certain things just cannot be solved with software alone, and this is one of them; it simply is just a physics problem. More light also means that the photos you get comes with more detail and better colours.
Where the Pixel 6 stops at a 12-Megapixel Ultrawide camera, the Pixel 6 Pro comes with an additional 48-Megapixel telephoto camera. Both devices shoot videos at 4K 60fps of course. The Pixel 6 Pro sports an 11.1-Megapixel front camera that is also capable of shooting videos at 4K 30fps though.
Again, Google’s Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro’s camera improvements are more than just a hardware update. Thanks to Tensor, the camera on the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro is in a class of its own. One of the updates comes in the form of an improved Super Res Zoom that allows you to get up to a 20x zoom photo with little loss to detail, even if it is captured by using a 4x zoom lens.
Source: Google
Source: Google
Source: Google
Then there is Magic Eraser. It is exactly what it sounds like, an eraser for your photos, and it is magic. You no longer need to go to a single site, take a lot of photos, load those photos on to Adobe Photoshop and combine them to create a photo with no human subjects, or to erase a certain object in the photo. Instead, you simply take a photo with your Google Pixel, tap on the subjects you do not want in your photo, and voila. The only other device that is known to do that is HUAWEI’s Mate 40 series. This is possible though, thanks to Tensor.
There is also a Motion Mode for more artistic Action Pan and Long Exposure photos, but without the hassle, hardware, or even skill. You simply take a photo of your subject, be it a fast-moving car, bicycle, or even your friend against a busy street or train station. The camera app cleverly understands your environment and subject, and then creates a stylish blurred background to simulate motion which adds an artistic flair to your photos, all without needing any extra gear or time.
The most important improvement in the Google Pixel camera though is in its Real Tone. The improvement in the colour science in smartphones comes a long way. That also means that the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro can reproduce much better and more accurate skin tones, especially with coloured skins. Thanks to Machine Learning as well, the improvements of recognising various skin tones also spreads to Google Photos.
Language Barrier? Not a Problem
Source: Google
Of course, Google has not forgotten that the smartphone is mainly a communication tool. The smartphone started its life as a regular mobile phone device that is used to make calls remotely and untethered. It was a revolutionary tool that brough people closer together, without being physically close. The next step is to bridge the gap between people of different cultures and languages.
The Google Pixel 6 series’s Live Translate now encompasses everything within the smartphone. It now allows you to text in different languages without even knowing the language. For example, you could type your message on your chat apps like WhatsApp in English and have it translated to Japanese, or Italian, or French, or even German. You do not even need to jump between Google Translate app and your messaging app just to figure out the right word. All of this is done on-site too, so you are not even relying on your network data, nothing leaves your device in all these processing.
In situations where conversing with someone is key and is of the essence, the Pixel 6 series is really your best friend. The device has something called an interpreter mode and you just need to activate Google’s Assistant and say, “Be my interpreter”. It allows you to converse in up to 48 languages without knowing the language. The next time you travel, you know what to do.
Its speech recognition goes beyond that though. The Google Pixel 6 device now understands that when you say ‘send’, or ‘clear’, or ‘accept’, or ‘decline’, you are referring to commands rather than words. In that sense, you do not have to say, “Hey Google,” whenever you want to pick up your smartphone. Your message does not have to say, “Hey, shall we arrange for a night out? Clear,” or “Are you coming home for dinner? Send”. You can even ‘stop’ and ‘snooze’ your alarms without even touching your device.
Annoying Answering Machine? Not a Problem Too, just Direct My Call
Source: Google
Google’s transcribing algorithm is also now implemented throughout the Pixel 6 device. They call it Direct My Call and that allows you to make calls to businesses and not feel the pain of interacting with the answering machine the regular way. Instead, Google Assistant now transcribes your call and displays your options in real-time on your screen for you to see. You can even select your next steps on your screen instead of pressing a number on your keypad.
Nothing is more annoying than having to wait endlessly for your call to get through when you need to speak to a representative though. That is when Wait Times and Direct My Call cleverly tells you the expected waiting time for when you make calls at each hour. Wait Times also allows you to see that particular data for the rest of the week, just so that you can plan your time better when you need to make the calls to the business line. The only downside is that all these technologies is only available in the United States (U.S.) and in English for now.
Prices and Availability
The new Google Pixel 6 series starts its pre-orders today in the U.S. and wills start at US$ 599 (MYR 2,490*). The Pixel 6 Pro will set you back US$ 899 (MYR 3,737*) but it will come with an extra camera sensor, a larger display, bigger RAM, and more storage. Google is expecting the first devices to hit the shelves in the U.S. on the 28th of October 2021.
You can also get the Google Pixel 6 with Pixel Pass. For US$ 45 (MYR 187*) a month, you get a Google Pixel 6 and subscriptions to Google One, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Premium, and Google Play Pass and Preferred Care. The Pixel 6 Pro will set you back US$55 (MYR 229*) a month. Again, there are no confirmation on whether the Google Pixel 6 series will ever make it to Malaysia. We are hopeful though, but not entirely optimistic about its official Malaysian presence.
*Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.16 on xe.com as of 20/10/2021
