smartphone

Android 15 gets satellite messaging, starts foldable cover app support

andorid 15, Google, smartphone, Tech / Blake Jones / March 21, 2024

Only four more betas to go! —

Google still isn’t letting Play Store apps use RCS, though.

Ron Amadeo – Mar 21, 2024 6: 34 pm UTC

Enlarge / The Android 15 logo. This is “Android V,” if you can’t tell from the logo.

Google

Android 15 continues its march toward release with the Android 15 Developer Preview 2. Android 15 won’t be out until around October, but the first preview shipped a month ago. It’s time for another one!

Android’s satellite messaging support has been in the works for about a year now, and it sounds like Android 15 is going to launch the feature for apps. The new OS is including notifications and better status bar indicators for when you’re connected to space. A “NonTerrestrialNetwork” API will let apps know when they’re limited to barely there satellite connectivity. Google says Android 15 will let third-party SMS and MMS applications tap into the satellite connectivity APIs, but enhanced messaging with RCS support will be limited to “preloaded” applications only. It seems incredible that Google doesn’t have public APIs for third-party RCS apps, but here’s your confirmation that Android 15 will continue locking out Play Store apps from RCS.

Android 15’s new satellite messaging UI.

Google
The new PDF reader.

Google

Android’s PDF support can be all over the place depending on what device you have, so Android 15 is including making some big improvements to the built-in PDF render. First it’s going to end up as a module so it can be updated via the Play Store. Google says this Android 15 version is getting “advanced features such as rendering password-protected files, annotations, form editing, searching, and selection with copy.”

Flip phone-style foldables are upending the Android app ecosystem with tiny little screens that are too small to work with normal Android apps, and Google is trying to do something about them with Android 15. Today devices like the Motorola Razr and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, with ~3-inch-square front screens, are mostly limited to the packed-in apps.

For now it looks like Google is only standardizing the opt-in flag, with a “cover screen support” property. Google says: “These screens are too small to be considered as compatible targets for Android apps to run on, but your app can opt-in to supporting them, making your app available in more places.” As for how exactly a developer is supposed to support a bunch of proprietary, ultra-tiny screens, it sounds like Google isn’t ready to help with that yet. At some point, Android needs framework, IDE, and Play Store app listing support for cover screens.

The second developer preview is available today for the Pixel 6, 7, 8, Fold, and Pixel Tablet. There’s no beta program yet, so you’ll need to grab a cable and flash it yourself if you’re on the stable Android version. As always, these early releases are just low-level developer-facing additions (we skipped a lot of font and SQL changes). The exciting new features—if there are any—should be announced on May 14 at Google I/O.

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The New Doogee S98 With Dual Screen And Night Vision Set to Launch On March 28th

android, doogee, Highlights, Phone Tech, s98, smartphone / Ryan Harris / March 18, 2022

March 18, 2022• byJeremy Pearl

The new S98 rugged phone was announced last month by DOOGEE. The company will launch the dual-screen rugged phone on March 28th on AliExpress and Doogemall (the company’s official shopping platform).

Doogee S98 sports a unique dual-screen design. The display on the back is round like the one on the Huawei P50 pocket but comes with a bezel to complete the smartwatch look. The 1.1-inch display allows great freedom of customization to achieve a more personalized style. For e.g, you can set a special picture as the background picture and use colors in the picture to customize a theme for the display. It is convenient for music control, checking the time, battery levels, and notifications without having to flip the phone over.

Watch Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHBAVysmS8A

[The rear display borrows from the classic round shape of the wristwatch. Doogee S98 combines the 2 awesome worlds of smartphones and smartwatches into one]

On the back of the phone, there is also a triple camera setup, a 64MP main camera, an 8MP wide-angle camera, and the most interesting of the set, a 20MP night vision camera. The night vision camera allows you to capture and record videos in pitch-black environments. Thanks to the 2 infrared lights on the side, a clear picture is almost always guaranteed.

Under the hood, MediaTek helio G96 runs the show. The octa-core processor is designed for gaming which means faster performance. Paired with 8GB RAM and 256GB memory, expect smooth performance without lags.

The battery on this beast is a 6000mAh battery capable of carrying you 2-3 days of active use. It comes with a 33W fast charger and supports a 15W wireless charger.

The main screen is a 6.3” FHD+ corning gorilla glass-protected display. It will run Android 12 out of the box which brings a host of advantages on the security and optimization front. It also comes with a fingerprint scanner and a custom button on either side of the phone. The features are completed with NFC, 4 navigational satellite support, toolkit, custom button, side-mounted fingerprint scanner, and many more.

Passing both IP68 and IP69K certifications with flying colors, S98 is waterproof from a depth of 1.5m and drop-proof from a height of 1.5m. It also breezed past the MIL-STD-810G tests, which means it can be used in the most extreme weather conditions.

Doogee S98’s global launch has been booked for March 28. Between March 28th and April 1st, it will be sold at a discounted price of $239 on AliExpress. After which, it will return to its original price of $339. But, if you want a free S98, Doogee is giving away 4 of them. To throw your hat in the ring, check the official S98 page for more details on the giveaway.

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android doogee s98 smartphone

Last modified: March 18, 2022

About the Author: Jeremy Pearl

Jeremy is the Consumer Tech Reporter at TheCESBible.com

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Create Silky Smooth Hollywood-Quality Gimbal Shots with the ZHIYUN SMOOTH 5

ces2022, gimbal, Highlights, Office Tech, Phone Tech, smartphone, smooth2, smooth5, zhiyun / Ryan Harris / December 17, 2021

December 17, 2021• byEric LaZare

The world’s leading tech company of professional camera stabilization systems is proud to announce the release of the ZHIYUN SMOOTH 5 and SMOOTH X2 which put a Hollywood quality gimbal in the hands of mobile filmmakers.

A follow-up to the award-winning SMOOTH 4, which won the prestigious Good Design Award in 2018, and the SMOOTH X, the SMOOTH 5, and SMOOTH X2 allow smartphone content creators to film like a pro and shine in every way so they can create their best work yet. Compatible with both Android and iOS, the SMOOTH 5 and the SMOOTH X2 have new, revolutionary features that bring the quality of Hollywood to everyone’s mobile devices.

The SMOOTH 5 has dimensions of 311*108*52mm while the SMOOTH X2 has dimensions of 71*56*160mm.

“The quality of smartphone cameras is beginning to rival their Hollywood counterparts and mobile filmmakers are demanding more,” said ZHIYUN’s product director. With the SMOOTH 5, anyone can now film like a pro while the SMOOTH X2 allows mobile filmmakers to shine in every way.”

SMOOTH 5 Feature Highlights

1. Design – Upgraded motor performance and algorithm

• The SMOOTH 5 has a smaller size than its predecessor but much stronger performance thanks to an upgraded motor performance and algorithm. The industry-standard 3-axis design allows movements in all angles to be amazingly smooth, even in extreme angles.

• This makes it easy to shoot in all angles switching seamlessly from portrait to landscape mode, and it mounts easily on the phones favored by mobile filmmakers like the iPhone 13 Pro MAX, Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold, Huawei Mate X2, and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra thanks to its smart lock design.

2. Easy to use control panel – Point, click, and shoot

• Users will feel at ease thanks to the all-in-one control panel that allows them to adjust many features with only one hand without the trouble of using an app. There’s also a multifunctional control wheel that gives users perfect control over zooming and focusing.

3. Creative Functions – Next-generation tools for the mobile creative genius

• With the SMOOTH 5, mobile filmmakers can reach their creative peak. Some of the creative features included in the SMOOTH 5 are Magical Pano, allowing for a magnificent view in your smartphone with 180° panorama, Timelapse, where you can watch the time go by at a quicker pace to experience scenes that are used to take a longer time., and Live Stream Master, which allows for face tracking for the perfect live stream experience. Other features include SmartFollow, which automatically tracks a designated person or object, Dolly Zoom, which mimicks a Hollywood style dolly shot without the expensive equipment, and MagicClone which allows you to clone yourself and to appear in multiple parts of a scene.

4. Fill light – Light up every scene with Hollywood quality lumens

• The SMOOTH 5 comes with a magnetic fill light that shines at 580 lumens, allowing for any scene to be perfectly lit thanks to the stepless dimming control. It also comes with color filters and can be attached to either side of the smartphone.

5. Smart Editor- Make Hollywood Magic with a few clicks

• During the editing process the raw footage becomes the masterwork. The SMOOTH 5 has an entire smart editing suite that allows for mobile filmmakers to do their best work yet. The ZY Cami Editor means you can wow your viewers with your work of art thanks to the ability to reverse the clip and edit it while adding filters, stickers, subtitles and background music.

With the SMART Mode, filmmakers can pre-program the gimbal and achieve creative perfection thanks to dozens of video templates including amazing special effects and music.