Late last year in November, we spotted a couple of commits in the Chromium Gerrit regarding a new feature called “Quick Answers.” The code indicated that the upcoming feature would work much like Android’s contextual shortcuts, allowing users to highlight text and get relevant suggestions using Google’s Knowledge Graph Search API. Now, the feature has finally made its way to the Chrome OS Canary channel, giving us a clearer look at its functionality.
As per a recent report from Chrome Unboxed, the #enable-quick-answers flag, which adds this new feature to Chrome OS, has now been enabled in the Canary channel. Once you enable the flag, highlighting any text on a website on Chrome OS adds a new option to the context menu which displays relevant information based on the highlighted text. The feature works a lot like the “Look Up” function on macOS and offers suggestions like definitions, conversions, and translations for the highlighted words.
In case the feature isn’t able to find any suggestion, the feature gives you the option to retrieve results directly from the Google Assistant, much like you would on your Android device. As long as the Assistant is enabled on your Chromebook, clicking the “See results in Assistant” button will bring up the Assistant from the bottom of the screen and show the top results, related queries, search options and more.
It’s worth noting that the feature is only available in Chrome OS Canary version 81 and it’s disabled by default. This suggests that it wouldn’t be released in the stable version for another few months and Google might make some significant changes before it’s released.
Market intelligence firm IDC recently shared some data regarding the Indian smartphone market in Q4, 2019. As per the data, both Xiaomi and Samsung saw significant growth in market share in the quarter, while Realme’s share declined. Additionally, the data also revealed that Chinese OEM Vivo also managed to revive its overall market share in November, bringing it up to 16.92% from 14.31% in September 2019. Now, a separate report from Counterpoint Research claims that Vivo overtook Samsung to become the second-largest OEM, in terms of market share, in Q4 2019.
As per Counterpoint’s Q4 2019 Market Monitor report, Vivo saw a 76% YoY growth in 2019 and 132% YoY in just Q4 2019. The company’s growth was a direct result of the success of its budget lineup of devices, the aggressive positioning of the Vivo S series, and its increasing presence online. Due to these factors, Vivo captured the second pot in India’s smartphone market for the first time ever.
India Smartphone Market Share in 2019
Along with Vivo’s tremendous growth, the Indian market itself saw an overall growth of 7% YoY thanks to the expansion of Chinese brands and their aggressive pricing strategies. The growth resulted in the Indian smartphone market surpassing the USA for the first time on an annual level, becoming the second-largest smartphone market globally with 158 million shipments in 2019.
India Smartphone Market Share in Q4 2019
Xiaomi also grew 7% YoY in Q4 2019 and 5% YoY in 2019, with its growth primarily driven by its aggressive offline expansion strategy. On the contrary, Korean giant Samsung’s shipments remained almost flat in Q4 2019, while the company posted a 5% decline in 2019 as a whole. Vivo’s sister company OPPO also saw significant growth, with shipments almost doubled YoY in Q4 2019. While Vivo’s growth is definitely impressive, OPPO’s former sub-brand Realme easily overshadows the company posting a 255% growth in 2019.
Over a year and a half after the launch of the POCO F1, Xiaomi’s former sub-brand POCO, is finally bringing its second smartphone to the market — the POCO X2. Xiaomi India recently established POCO as an independent brand and shortly thereafter, the newly formed company announced that it will be launching its next smartphone in February. Now, according to a recent tweet from the company, the upcoming POCO X2 will be launched on 4th Feb at an event in New Delhi.
An Xperience that will make you go, “Bruh, it’s #SmoothAF“. #POCOX2 is arriving on Feb 4th 2020.
POCO has already gone ahead and set up a website announcing the launch, which reveals a few key details about the upcoming smartphone. As per the website, the POCO X2 will feature a high refresh rate display, liquid cooling, and, most likely, a Sony IMX 686 primary sensor (as suggested in the image below).
The liquid cooling render (see image below) on the website initially led us to believe that the device would have a dual-camera setup with a physical fingerprint scanner right underneath. However, the headphone jack in the top left corner suggests that it might actually be a recycled render of the POCO F1 which features a headphone jack in the same location.
Additionally, the charging render on the website shows another headphone jack at the bottom, which confirms that the first render might just be an attempt to keep the POCO X2’s design under the wraps. Unless POCO plans to double down on bringing back the headphone jack, quite literally.
We already have reason to believe that the POCO X2 is nothing but a rebranded Redmi K30 4G, which was launched in China late last year. And the image of the bottom edge adds more fuel to the fire, as it looks exactly like that of the Redmi K30 4G (see below).
If our speculation stands true, the upcoming POCO X2 will be powered by a Snapdragon 730G SoC, coupled with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The device will feature a 120Hz high refresh rate display, which is also quite evident from the following image, and a 4,500mAh battery with support for 27-watt fast charging. As of now, POCO has neither confirmed nor denied these claims.
What’s your take on the upcoming POCO X2? Do you think the device will be able to live up to the legacy of its predecessor? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
The HONOR MagicWatch 2 improves on many of the features from the original MagicWach. It’s a polished and simple smartwatch with a clear goal- to be the best fitness companion for its users. So many of its features are designed specifically to enhance your workout routine and be a digital personal trainer. This is not your standard smartwatch and it does just about everything a little bit better than the competition.
15 Goal-Based Fitness Modes
Some of the features included in the HONOR MagicWatch 2 are 15 different goal-based fitness modes. These modes cover a huge selection of outdoor and indoor activities, with unique monitoring systems for each one.
The included workout modes are:
Outdoor run
Indoor run
Outdoor walk
Indoor walk
Outdoor cycle
Indoor cycle
Pool swim
Open water
Climb
Hike
Trail run
Triathlon
Elliptical
Rower
Other
Any of the workouts that include moving around outside, take advantage of the dual GPS connectivity integrated into the watch. This results in accurately tracked workouts when your running or biking. The HUAWEI Health app keeps track of all of your outdoor workout GPS data so you can go back and review your activities in Google Maps. The inclusion of dual-GPS also improves the tracking of your speed and altitude. A single GPS can have trouble accurately tracking these data points, which makes the HONOR MagicWatch 2 a better solution for tracking your workouts.
Since the watch is water resistant up to 50 meters, you can track your various swimming workouts as well. There are workout modes for both pool and open water swimming. HUAWEI has developed “TruSeen 3.5” which is a feature that helps you better understand your swim performance. This is done by accurately measuring your heart rate including SWOLF, distance, calories, and speed. For swimming activities, the HONOR MagicWatch 2 is a fantastic companion.
13 Running Courses
To make your runs more interesting, HONOR has included 13 different running courses in the MagicWatch 2. These different courses will help train you to improve your endurance, distance, speed ect. This is done by monitoring and adjusting your running based on the course you’ve chosen. Not only does it help you improve your fitness, but it just makes your workout a lot more fun.
Honor MagicWatch 2 paired with the Honor 20 Pro
These are just some of the features that make the HONOR MagicWatch 2 one of the best companions for your workout. Learn more about the smartwatch using the link below.
We thank HONOR for sponsoring this post. Our sponsors help us pay for the many costs associated with running XDA, including server costs, full time developers, news writers, and much more. While you might see sponsored content (which will always be labeled as such) alongside Portal content, the Portal team is in no way responsible for these posts. Sponsored content, advertising and XDA Depot are managed by a separate team entirely. XDA will never compromise its journalistic integrity by accepting money to write favorably about a company, or alter our opinions or views in any way. Our opinion cannot be bought.
Once a driving force in the Android smartphone space, Motorola’s market share has steadily declined over the past couple of years in both the mid-range and premium smartphone segments. The Lenovo-owned company so far has failed to thwart the rise of Chinese smartphone makers such as Huawei and Xiaomi on a global scale. One thing that hasn’t changed over all these years, though, is Motorola’s creative flair, with the company always ready to explore unique designs and experiment with existing hardware to create new use cases. Last year, Motorola was one of the first OEMs to bring the 21:9 aspect ratio to the mid-range segment with its Moto One Vision smartphone. While on the Moto One Action and Moto G8 Plus we saw the company fitting the Go Pro-style action camera, allowing users to shoot landscape videos while comfortably holding the device vertically in one hand. Now as per a new leak, Motorola will continue to experiment with new concepts – at least for them – in 2020 as well.
Well-known leaker Evan Blass (aka @evleaks) has shared a render of a new Motorola phone which shows that an upcoming device from the brand may come equipped with a stylus. Not much is known about his mysterious device yet including its name, specifications, or release date, but looking at the render, we can form some general idea as to what to expect from this upcoming phone. As you can see in the render below, the device in question will allegedly feature a hole-punch display with very narrow side bezels and a small bottom chin.
Unknown Motorola phone with a stylus. Image credits: Evan Blass/@evleaks
Above the display, we can see the earpiece while the power and volume rocker buttons are on the left side. Looking at the stylus itself, the curved head indicates that this could slot into the phone. Unfortunately, we can’t see all the sides so we can’t tell if there’s an insertion point for the stylus. From the overall design profile, though, it’s safe to assume this new Moto device will most likely be a mid-range smartphone.
Consumers looking for a smartphone with stylus functionality have only two choices at the moment: the Samsung Galaxy Note lineup and LG’s Stylo series. But if this leak is to be believed, the new Moto phone may emerge as a third viable option.
A near-stock Android phone with a stylus indeed sounds like an exciting proposition, but with the key details of the phone unknown at this stage, it would be too early to pass any judgment. With MWC 2020 kicking off next month, hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long to learn more about this new device.
Google Assistant-powered smart displays are starting to break out in the market, as more and more devices launch with support for the Google Assistant’s ambient mode. Smart Displays provide an easy-to-use interface to control all of the smart devices in your home, whilst simultaneously offering instant access to all of the Google Assistant’s features as well. Weather updates, to-do lists, calendars, music controls… smart displays can do a whole lot. Google is rolling out a new “Media View” for Nest Hub smart displays, a simple view to make it easier than ever to control whatever is playing on the smart devices on your network.
With the new Nest Hub media view, you can easily control playing music across a whole speaker group or on an individual device. If you’d rather just see what’s playing, you can view information about the following:
Which devices or groups the media is playing
The room the device is in
The content provider (e.g. Spotify, YouTube)
Song/show title
Artist name
The notification will also include the cover art, basic information, and basic controls to pause, skip, or go back. You can also control the following on each individually playing device from your Nest Hub:
Play media
Pause media
Audio – Tap next track or previous track
Video – Tap forward 30 seconds or back 10 seconds
Controlling volume is also easier than ever, and you can even set “volume thresholds” on individual devices so that the sound doesn’t get too loud.
The update is beginning to roll out now for Nest Hub devices, though it is likely via staged rollout and may take time to reach your device.
After a soft-launch in South Korea and a few other regions, Black Desert Mobile is now finally available to download globally. Black Desert Mobile is an MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online role-playing game) built by the Korean developer, Pearl Abyss. The PC counterpart continues to attract over 100,000 concurrent users since its launch in 2015. Black Desert Mobile is completely based on the PC version and there’s also a fresh Xbox and PlayStation 4 version as well. However, cross-platform play is not available yet.
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at Black Desert Mobile, attempting to give you a deeper look at the game, beyond what the Play Store listing brings about.
Black Desert Mobile looks like a serious attempt at competing with the best MMORPGs in the market for Android/iOS. It’s also quite big as it requires 3.24GB of in-game download post Play Store install before one can even start playing it. We took the mobile version for a spin and here are our first impressions on the gameplay, visual UI, and performance aspect of the game.
Visual UI
Black Desert Mobile has pretty incredible and polished visuals. From the different landscapes to characters and beasts, everything looks good and vivid that will keep you immersed in the game.
However, do note that it isn’t as stunning as the PC version. The characters, especially, are downsized and hence look rough around the edges and not-so-smooth when zoomed out. Pearl Abyss has worked hard to deliver a smooth and visually immersive experience to players and this does not disappoint. Graphics can be changed to Max settings, but my Redmi K20 Pro could only go up to High, which I found to be good enough.
The in-game HUD looks very cluttered though, especially for new MMO players, which can be very confusing. Although, to be honest, the game with its vastness has many facets that require those tabs and controls. It still would be nice to at least render some elements semi-transparent or completely turn them off.
Customizations
Right off the bat, Black Desert Mobile offers tons and tons of customization features with the story character. At first boot, users will be directed to choose from five player types – Warrior, Mage, Valkyrie, Giant, and Ranger.
Once you’ve chosen that, you’ll be able to change everything from their skin tones to their clothes. The options are limitless. If you’re one of those players that care about the looks of your character, this will interest you.
Gameplay
Like the character options, the mobile version also adopts a quest and combat system similar to the PC version albeit more simplified and streamlined for a smartphone screen.
For the beginning few quests, you’ll be led by the Black Spirit across the seashore and town where you woke up without your memories to meet the townsfolk and start your adventure. The early quests are simple and the character is supposed to help the townsfolk in their day-to-day tasks. This is part of the tutorial as a new player gets used to the interface. You’ll run around the town and get to meet the chieftain, the healer, and a few more people who will hand you small tasks to complete.
The character control and combat are very intuitive and standard, pretty much in the same way you find on most MMO games. You need to button mash your way through enemies, as combos rely on repeated contact hits instead of skillful combinations or timed reactions. You unlock special attack buttons as you progress, which changes according to the character. You can fall back and dodge incoming attacks but there is no specialized blocking per se, so you have to be wary of your positioning during combat. As for weapons, you acquire them along the way when you complete quests and there are some that you can also purchase from NPCs.
I did not have any trouble navigating through the new terrain in the game. There’s auto-pathing which allows the character to move automatically towards objectives, people and quests. You can turn it off if you prefer to play your game yourself.
Monetization and Free-to-Play Elements
Black Desert Mobile is a pay-to-win game with free-to-play features. Now, this doesn’t mean you won’t be able to progress through different levels at all. You’ll still be able to have fun, but you won’t be as competitive as those spending money. At the early levels, there won’t be much of an advantage for spenders. The in-game currency is called Pearls. There are Black Pearls as well which can be exchanged for Pearls, and there’s Silver that can be earned or traded on the market with other players in exchange for all sorts of items. Pearls can be purchased starting as low as ₹85 (roughly $1.2) and can go all the way up to ₹4,250 ($50) or even more, though pricing can differ across regions.
You can purchase pets, special costumes, weapons, crystals, and skills, some of which can give you an edge over free-to-play (F2P) players especially at the max levels. That’s why those who spend on these in-game perks will have an advantage over F2P players. There are, of course, events and quests that will help you to earn freebies without having to shell out money, but that will still slow down your progress compared to spenders, as you will have to grind your way to the end.
There are a variety of packages that can be bought from starter packs that increase your basic statistics, to resource packages, to pet chests, and much more. You’ll be able to access the store by tapping on the “C” button on the top left corner. As you enter, there will be a number of tabs as is visible in the screenshot. This store is accessible from inside the game anytime.
Performance
The performance wasn’t lacking on my Redmi K20 Pro, and this is mostly a subjective thing that will depend on the smartphone you use. Mine was running at 30FPS with High graphics. Pearl Abyss recommends at least 2GB of RAM and Android 6.0 at least to be playable. Also, it should be playable on mid-tier phones too, with optimizations done by Pearl Abyss.
Final Thoughts
Pearl Abyss has done a commendable job to port many important elements of the PC version of the game to mobile. The visuals are great, the gameplay is engaging, and the depth in the story can keep players glued for hours. There are many modes such as PvP (unlocks at level 18), PvE boss raids (unlocks at level 50), guilds, and others that can keep players immersed for weeks.
So, to answer the question, is Black Desert Mobile really worth playing? While Black Desert Mobile borrows many elements from the MMO genre which make it somewhat predictable, the incredible depth in the content of the game is what sets it apart from most other similar games. There’s also a healthy user base that indicates the game will live long.
