Items tagged with Google
As many await the arrival of their new Pixel 6 phone, they need to be aware of one big thing. That being a day one software update from Google for the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro devices. While your new phone will ship with Android 12, Google announced that those who pre-ordered a Pixel 6 or 6 Pro may need to do a day one update once they receive them. So, once you get your hands on that new sparkling toy, jump on in and see if you are one those who needs to update.. Once you get your hands on your new Pixel 6 you will need to check which build number your phone is currently running. To find your device's build number head to Settings-> About phone-> Build number. If your current build number...
Read more...
Last week we gave you an early hands-on look at Google's oft leaked Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Even Google has teased these new Android flagships a time or two, leaning into the engineering the company has done on the semi-custom design of its Tensor mobile platform processor. Tensor is rumored to be based on Samsung's Exynos 2100 SoC with an amped-up neural processing engine, or TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) for improved machine learning performance, and a few other tweaks as well. Regardless of whether the rumblings of Tensor's silicon lineage are true, the new chip is manufactured by Samsung on its 5nm process node and looks well-equipped to deliver solid performance. However, silicon engine...
Read more...
Some older PC users may have noticed a hit to their computer's performance recently. The cause may not be because they upgraded to Windows 11 (if you are fortunate enough for your PC to meet the requirements), but on legacy Windows 10 installations and due to older solid state drives in combination with a recent Google Chrome update. In a recent diagnosis due to sluggish performance on a legacy ASUS laptop, HotHardware discovered a major hit on an Intel X25-M SSD while using Google's Chrome browser. During testing it was found that Chrome was pegging the SSD at 100 percent utilization. Yikes! All the typical culprits were addressed by first doing a disk clean-up and temporary file deletion,...
Read more...
Chances are if you were one of the people who ordered a new Pixel 6, you were scrambling to get your order secured. Some have realized since then that they forgot to add the free Pixel Buds Google that Google offered for pre-ordering. Do'h! Not to worry though, Google has your back. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro went on sale on October 19th following Google's launch event. As it was announced, people began pre-ordering the new flagship phones on the Google Store website. In the hurried moment it seems some may have overlooked that they could receive a free pair of Google's latest pair of earbuds, its Pixel Buds A-series. This left many wondering if they had lost out on getting the free pair of earbuds....
Read more...
Pixel users have taken to Twitter in recent days to report some serious issues they have encountered since Android 12 rolled out. This news comes as Google is set to begin shipping its flagship Pixel 6 and 6 Pro on October 28th. Pixel owners took to social media and Google Support forums to find out if other owners were experiencing issues as well. The issues reported ranged from touch haptics no longer working and animations running slower, to apps randomly crashing. Pixel problems were not limited to a specific model. Google did begin responding to some Twitter posts with a fix for the touch haptics issue for one owner. Made By Google directed the owner of a Pixel 4a to try a soft reboot by...
Read more...
Google today launched its newest flagship Pixel phones, and we've already posted a Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro guided tour with a handful of photos, a hands-on video, and loads of specifications and features to digest. During today's event, Google also shared some more details about Tensor, and what it aims to achieve. Benchmark wins are not necessarily one of the goals, though this is still an interesting chunk of silicon. For its first-ever mobile chip designed in-house, Google is hanging its hat on machine learning/AI capabilities. Enabling new experiences was purportedly the main reason why Google embarked down this road, rather than tapping a third-party, as it has always done in the past. "We...
Read more...
We have been eagerly anticipating the launch of Google's newest flagship smartphones, the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 6, and the big day has finally arrived. Ahead of the launch event, we managed to get our hands on both models to give you a first look at Google's latest handsets. Analysis and benchmarks will come at a later date. For now, we are able to share a handful of shots from our photo shoot, as well as a video tour, and list out the full specifications of both devices. Let's get rolling. Google says it "completely reimagined" the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 6, both inside and out. As you can see in rear shot above, both models sport similar industrial designs, with prominent camera bumps on the...
Read more...
Google’s flagship Pixel 6 and 6 Pro may be more affordable than previously reported, according to a recent post on Twitter. This should come as amazing news to Pixel fans awaiting the release of the 6 and 6 Pro with Google’s new Tensor chip, it's first home-brewed SoC for mobile phones. Google is set to reveal all the remaining details of its upcoming Pixel 6 and 6 Pro tomorrow, October 19, during as scheduled event. Earlier reports had hinted that the phones' pricing was going to be more in line with other competitor’s flagship smartphones. The rumored pricing had the Pixel 6 starting at $749 and the Pixel 6 Pro at $1,049. However, a leak on Twitter tells a slightly different...
Read more...
The Google Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are scheduled to launch on October 19 and more leaks are emerging on its flagship Tensor chip performance. For now, it seems Tensor trails its rivals (Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and Samsung’s Exynos) by a good bit in multi-threaded performance, while being a bit more competitive in single-threaded performance, according to a fresh set of leaked benchmarks. A recent Geekbench 5 run for the Google Pixel 6 with a Tensor chip has emerged. The version of the phone that was listed on Geekbench had 8GB of RAM and included a Mali G78 GPU. Benchmark scores shared showed a single-core score of 1,037 and a multi-core score of 2,862. Have a look... Click to Enlarge (Source:...
Read more...
Android users, specifically Google Pixel users, may soon have a way to purchase a Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro in a manner much like Apple One. In a new retail leak, the existence of a so-called Pixel Pass service has emerged. Unlike Apple One, though, this bundle will presumably include a Pixel 6 phone, in addition to various subscriptions services. The services that may be included in the Pixel Pass are Google One, Play Pass, YouTube Premium or YouTube Music, and Google Fi connectivity. These are all purportedly going to be bundled with either a Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro handset. Pricing is still a mystery but is most likely going to be a US offering for now. Google Fi needs to be activated in the US,...
Read more...
All of the posts, advertisements, and suggestions presented to users on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram are not happy little accidents. The Facebook platform uses complex algorithms and AI that analyze usage and engagement patterns, which then infer the type of content that the user is most-likely to engage with. It is that curated content that is presented to users – interspersed with the social media platform’s preferred bias du jour, of course. The specific content presented to users is at the crux of the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s disclosures last week. Haugen, a former data scientist and product manager at Facebook, contends that Facebook knowingly...
Read more...
Google is set to launch the Pixel 6 and it has a focus on delivering perhaps the biggest camera overhaul the lineup has seen to date. Google has been a leader in terms of cell phone camera innovation, and now they are once again pushing the envelope with a new feature called the "Magic Eraser," which may even leave Apple iPhone users a bit envious. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are both going to include a 50MP primary sensor that Google says can capture 150 percent more light compared to what was in the Pixel 5. The new sensor is indeed larger than its predecessor and a bigger sensor leads to better low light pictures and natural bokeh (background blur). The Pixel 6 Pro will also have a 12MP ultrawide...
Read more...
Passwords have become part of our everyday life. It seems everything requires one and we are often left scratching our head trying to remember if it was “password123” or “123password”. Having a strong password, however, is the first line of defense for our digital lives. Google is sharing how it is making your sign-ins safer during Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Google checks 1 billion passwords daily to protect accounts from being hacked. Chrome, Android and the Google App have Google’s Password Manager built directly into them with the latest technology to keep your passwords safe. Password Manager also helps to keep us from having to scratch our heads as it makes...
Read more...
We now have an official launch date for Google's flagship Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro Android 12 smartphones. In a tweet this afternoon, Google revealed that the new devices would debut at an online event on October 19th at 1 pm ET. Google first announced the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro in early August, and the October 19th launch has been rumored since early September. We'd imagine this date will also closely align with the public availability of Android 12 for existing Pixel smartphones. The Pixel 6 Family Will Debut Google's New Tensor SoC The centerpiece of the new Pixel 6 family will be Google's new custom Tensor SoC, which Samsung manufactures. According to numerous benchmark and specs leaks, Tensor...
Read more...
Google announced this week that Android 12 has been released to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). This announcement comes after Google championed that over 225,000 people participated during the developer/beta phase to submit nearly 50,000 bug reports to help polish the mobile operating system before release. Although Android 12 has is now available under the AOSP, it will officially roll out to Google Pixel phones in the next few weeks. Samsung Galaxy, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Tecno, Vivo, and Xiaomi devices will receive the update later this year. Android 12 comes with an updated UI, and users can expect to see refreshed app widgets that make them more useful, beautiful,...
Read more...
The upcoming Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will inevitably introduce an upgraded camera arrangement, and as always, we are interested in how the photo taking capabilities will shake out. Pixel phones have generally been very good in that regard. If some leaked photos supposedly taken with a Pixel 6 Pro are indicative of what's to come, Google's next-gen handsets will be a worthy successor in that department. Google has yet to reveal the full specifications of its Pixel 6 series, which marks the company's return to the flagship phone space. The highlight of the upcoming launch is the inclusion of Google's in-house Tensor system-on-chip that will power both models. If going by recent leaks, it will consist...
Read more...
Google has added a mini-player on the web that will now allow you to quickly “Continue watching” YouTube videos originally started from your phone and other devices. With the new feature you can quickly get back to the video you were watching when mom called to see how you were doing. All you need to do is open YouTube on the web and the previous video will display in the bottom-right corner. It will be cued to a second or so before you paused and will display “Continue watching” instead of the video title. If you tap on the play button the video will automatically start in the shrunken down view. If you want to go to the full page view it is just a click away. This feature...
Read more...
In mid-September, Google patched some actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities discovered in Google Chrome. Now, the web search giant has done it again with several new security fixes in the 11th hour of September, and you should patch right now. Published on Thursday, the stable channel update for Google Chrome, denoted by version number 94.0.4606.71, has quite a few fixes or changes. However, the four security fixes are front and center, the first of which being CVE-2021-37974 reported by Weipeng Jiang from the Codesafe Team of Legendsec at Qi'anxin Group. This vulnerability is a "use after free" issue, meaning problems stem from using dynamic memory allocation and deallocation that does...
Read more...
Google's bet on a custom processor for its upcoming Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro flagship smartphones is probably the most interesting phone news for a while, especially considering how the iPhone 13 went. Official details on the so-called "Tensor" system-on-a-chip (SoC) are basically non-existent, but leaks abound. Supposedly, the Tensor will include two ARM Cortex-X1 cores, two Cortex-A76 cores, and then four low-power Cortex-A55 cores. In theory, having two big X1 cores could give it a considerable performance advantage over competitors like the Snapdragon 888, which has a single Cortex-X1, three Cortex-A78s, and four Cortex-A55s. Theory doesn't necessarily align with reality, unfortunately. The...
Read more...
Now the Apple iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro hype train has slowed down, all attention in the smartphone realm is shifting towards Google's Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. The two smartphones mark Google's triumphant return to the flagship Android smartphone space after playing it safe in the mid-range market with the Pixel 5 in 2020. We now have some newly leaked information surrounding the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro regarding pricing and a potential launch date. When it comes to pricing, Google hardware chief Rick Osterloh said in early August, "We've definitively not been in the flagship tier for the past couple years; this will be different. It will certainly be a premium-priced product." M. Brandon Lee...
Read more...
If you've ever done any livestreaming on Twitch, YouTube, or similar services, you're probably already familiar with Open Broadcaster Software (better known as "OBS"). The application has more-or-less conquered the streaming software space, likely in large part because it is both free and open-source. The facts that it's easy to set up and it works like a charm don't hurt, either. OBS has had Twitch integration since early in 2019, allowing users to sign into Twitch through the application and manage their stream that way, instead of having to have a separate window open just to manage stream settings. Folks who stream to YouTube have been stuck doing it the old way —until today, that is....
Read more...
Misery loves company, right? Just ask Google—the company is seething over a massive fine over Android abuses that was imposed by the European Union three years ago, and has lashed out at the group for essentially turning a blind eye to the "real competitive dynamic" that exists between it and rival Apple. The EU has so far not been swayed. Back in 2018, the EU fined Google 4.34 billion euros, which converts to more than $5 billion in US currency. The EU's ruling took issue with some of Google's requirements for device makers who want to sell Android phones and tablets. It was not on board with Google making it mandatory that Chrome and its on Search be included if allowing access to the...
Read more...
