Game streaming services have really picked up steam in the last year, but NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW service was one of the first on the market. The service started beta testing for Android last year and opened up for everyone in February. Last month, NVIDIA pledged to announce new games for GeForce NOW every week, and today we’re catching up on some recent releases.
Earlier this month, GeForce NOW lost a bunch of games from Warner Bros, XBOX Game Studios, Codemasters, and Klei Entertainment, but it did gain 36 Ubisoft titles. This week, the service has gained another 21 new titles alongside DLSS 2.0 support. This technology utilizes AI and RTX GPUs to enable “the next generation of performance and visuals.” It’s NVIDIA’s improved deep learning neural network that “boosts frame rates while generating beautiful, sharp images for games.”
DLSS 2.0 is supported first by Control. MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries and Deliver Us The Moon will gain support in the future. Here is the complete list of new games that have been added to GeForce NOW this week.
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The bundle also includes an AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification Guide for Beginners, plus courses on networking, Node.JS apps, and databases. These skills will serve you well in any technical career.
Earlier this year in March, Chinese OEM Huawei unveiled its newest series of flagship devices — the Huawei P40, Huawei P40 Pro, and Huawei P40 Pro+. Along with the new devices, Huawei also announced a slightly upgraded version of its custom Android 10-based skin, called EMUI 10.1, at the event. Shortly thereafter, the company shared the EMUI 10.1 update roadmap detailing the beta release timeline for older Huawei and Honor smartphones. As per the roadmap, the Huawei P30 and Mate 30 series were scheduled to receive the beta update in mid-April. The company has been on track with the beta release and has already rolled out the update for the Chinese variants of the devices. While it previously hadn’t revealed when the update will be available on the global variants, the company is now rolling out EMUI 10.1 beta for the Huawei P30 series, Mate 30 series, and Nova 5T globally.
According to a recent report from PiunikaWeb, Huawei P30, Mate 20, and Nova 5T users who had registered for the beta program are now receiving the EMUI 10.1 update on their devices. For the Huawei P30 series, the update measures in around 1.77GB in size and goes by the build number 10.1.0.119. The update brings a new high-resolution camera feature to the device, along with the Always-on Display (AOD) feature, and new fingerprint scanner animations. The company has previously rolled out a similar update for the Chinese variants of the P30 series and here is the complete changelog for the same:
User interface:
Always on Display: Clock style color updated from black and white to new gradient colors. The color of the time widget will change according to the time of the day.
Fingerprint animation: Add water ripples, 3D planet and emerald fireworks screen fingerprint animation, take you to experience tricks to unlock mobile.
Multi-screen collaboration:
Call answering: Allows you to pick up voice and video calls on your phone from your Huawei laptop.
File editing: Allows you to directly read and edit files on your phone from your Huawei laptop, and also share your phone’s network and sync notifications.
Screen sharing: Enables you to share your current screen for easier communication during video calls. You can also write and draw on the screen as if talking face to face with the other party.
For the Huawei Mate 3o series, the EMUI 10.1 beta update measures in at 4.26GB in size and goes by the build number 10.1.0.230. The update includes Android security patches for April 2020, along with a few other features. Here’s the complete changelog for the Chinese variants of the Huawei Mate 30 series:
Quality user interface:
Fingerprint animation: Adds three fingerprint unlock animation options.
Convenient multi-screen collaboration:
Call answering: Allows you to pick up voice and video calls on your phone from your Huawei laptop.
File editing: Allows you to directly read and edit files on your phone from your Huawei laptop, and also share your phone’s network and sync notifications.
Comprehensive MeeTime features:
Screen sharing: Enables you to share your current screen for easier communication during video calls. You can also write and draw on the screen, as if talking face to face with the other party.
Note: MeeTime is only available in certain countries.
Security: Integrates Android security patches released in April 2020 for improved system security.
And finally, the company has also started rolling out the EMUI 10.1 beta update for the Huawei Nova 5T, which measures in at 1.77GB in size and goes by the build number 10.1.0.215. Here’s the complete changelog for the Chinese variant of the Huawei Nova 5T:
Multi-device collaboration:
Call answering: Allows you to pick up voice and video calls on your phone from your Huawei laptop.
File editing: Allows you to directly read and edit files on your phone from your Huawei laptop, and also share your phone’s network and sync notifications.
Comprehensive MeeTime features:
Screen sharing: Enables you to share your current screen for easier communication during video calls. You can also write and draw on the screen, as if talking face to face with the other party.
Along with the aforementioned devices, Huawei is also rolling out the EMUI 10.1 beta update for the Huawei Enjoy 10S and Honor 20 Lite in China, but currently have no information from the company regarding a global release.
An APK teardown of Google Duo from late last month revealed that the company was working on bringing invite link functionality for group video and audio calls on the app. Once released, the feature will allow users to share invite links for their group calls and let other users join the call with just a single tap. In an attempt to make connecting with other users on the platform even easier, Google is now working to add a toggle to the app which will let users reach contacts using their email address.
Currently, when you sign up for Google Duo, you have to use your phone number, unless you’re signing in on the web. After signing up for Duo on mobile, you can link your Google account so that you can use the service across different devices and allow people with access to your phone number or Google account see that you use Duo. However, this is set to change soon as Google is preparing to add a toggle in Duo’s Account settings that will let people reach you using just your email address.
This new toggle in Google Duo was recently spotted by app reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane), who has shared a screenshot of the toggle in the app’s Account settings. As you’d expect, with the ‘Reachable with email address’ toggle enabled, users won’t have to know your phone number to call you on the app. While the addition of this toggle doesn’t show that Duo is preparing to add support for email-only accounts on mobile (i.e., allow you to sign up to the service without giving away your phone number at all), but it’s definitely one more step in that direction.
Xiaomi smartphones are unanimously agreed to be one of the best value purchases available in the market at any point in time. Packing some insane hardware at some very lucrative price points, especially at the lower end of the smartphone market, these phones make an offer that a lot of people just can’t refuse. Xiaomi has also been receptive to the needs of the developer community, with decisions such as allowing bootloader unlocking without sacrificing the manufacturer’s warranty — a combination that a lot of other popular OEMs discard, as well as vastly improving upon their kernel source releases. These reasons make them one of the most popular devices in our forums, and they have rightfully earned that spot of popularity.
However, recent reports from security researchers point towards a worrying privacy issue observed on Xiaomi’s web browsers. Forbes’ cybersecurity contributor and associate editor Thomas Brewster, along with cybersecurity researchers Gabi Cirlig and Andrew Tierney recently concluded in a report that Xiaomi’s various web browsers were sending data to remote servers. They allege that the data being sent included a history of all websites visited, including the URLs, all search engine queries, and all the items viewed on Xiaomi’s news feed, along with device metadata. What’s even worrying about this data collection allegation is that this data is being collected even if you seemingly browse with “incognito mode” enabled.
This data collection seemingly occurs on the pre-installed stock browser on MIUI, as well as Mi Browser Pro and Mint Browser, both of which are available for download through the Google Play Store. Together, these browsers have over 15 million downloads on the Play Store, while the stock browser is preloaded on all Xiaomi devices. The devices tested include the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8, Xiaomi Mi A1, Xiaomi Mi 10, Xiaomi Redmi K20, and the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3. There wasn’t a distinction between Xiaomi’s Android One or MIUI devices, as the collection code was found in the default browser anyway. As such, this issue does not appear to be MIUI-centric but depends on whether you use any of these three browsers on your device, irrespective of the underlying OS. Other browsers, like Google Chrome and Apple Safari collect far less data, restricting themselves to usage and crash analytics.
Xiaomi responded by seemingly confirming that the browsing data it was collecting was fully compliant with local laws and regulations on user data privacy matters. The collected information was user-consented and anonymized. However, the company denied the claims in the research.
The research claims are untrue. Privacy and security is of top concern.
This video shows the collection of anonymous browsing data, which is one of the most common solutions adopted by internet companies to improve the overall browser product experience through analyzing non-personally identifiable information.
The researchers, however, found this claim of anonymity to be dubious. The data that Xiaomi was sending was admittedly “encrypted”, but it was encoded in base64, which can easily be decoded. Since the browsing data can be decoded in a rather trivial manner, and since the collected data also contained device metadata, this browsing data could seemingly be correlated to the actions by individual users without significant effort.
Further, the researchers found that the Xiaomi browsers were pinging domains related to Sensors Analytics, a Chinese startup also known as Sensors Data, known for providing behavioral analytics services. The browsers also contained an API called SensorDataAPI. Xiaomi is also listed as a customer on the Sensors Data website.
Xiaomi has responded to the report from Forbes with denial on several aspects:
While Sensors Analytics provides a data analysis solution for Xiaomi, the collected anonymous data are stored on Xiaomi’s own servers and will not be shared with Sensors Analytics, or any other third-party companies.
The researchers responded against Xiaomi’s denial with further proof of their data collection practice.
The parameter data_list is the one I am interested in.
With the information available at hand, there does appear to be a worrying privacy issue in the way these browsers function. We’ve reached out to Xiaomi for further comment on these claims.
Rebranding is undoubtedly an effective method to cater to a large number of consumers with minimum effort. Xiaomi, for example, was able to take advantage of the hype around the “POCO” tag by presenting the 4G variant of the Redmi K30 as the POCO X2 in India. Interestingly, the 5G-capable Redmi K30 has remained exclusive to China so far. While we don’t have any knowledge of a potential global launch of the Redmi K30 5G, we now have evidence that Xiaomi may launch a cheaper version of the device called the “Redmi K30i”.
The Redmi K30 4G and Redmi K30 5G were launched together in China back in December 2019. Features like the 120Hz LCD display panel and quad cameras are present in both smartphones, but the most distinguished difference between the two is in terms of processing power and associated cellular technology. The Redmi K30 4G is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G while the 5G variant is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G. Now, evidence of the existence of a cheaper Redmi K30 5G first appeared when Xiaomi updated the TENAA listing for the Redmi K30 5G with the model name “M2001G7AC”. Most importantly, the update mentions that they changed the camera specs to include a “48MP version”.
Next, XDA’s ever-reliable Xiaomi tipster, kacskrz, spotted a new string in the latest version of the MIUI Camera app:
For those not familiar with Xiaomi’s naming convention, “picasso” is the code-name for the Redmi K30 5G. The string also explicitly states that the “Redmi K30i 5G” has an “AI quad camera” with a 48MP main sensor. The company might have replaced the 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor from the original Redmi K30 series with a 48MP Samsung/Sony module to bring the cost further down. Xiaomi, in fact, made a similar move recently as they launched the global version of the Redmi Note 9 Pro with a downgraded front camera (16MP) compared to the Indian model (32MP in the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max).
Hopefully, we will learn more about this new 5G phone from Xiaomi as it comes closer to launch. Right now, we do not have information on which markets this new phone will be arriving in.
It’s no secret that smartphone and tablet sales are on the decline due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The situation has forced fewer smartphones to be made, planned product launches to be scaled back or delayed, and fewer people to go out and buy devices. Thanks to recently released Q1 2020 sales data, we now know just how bad things are. Renowned analytics companies IDC, Strategy Analytics, Canalys, and CounterpointResearch have independently published data on smartphone and data sales in the first quarter of this year. Here’s a summary of the key findings in each report:
Note: Since each source provides slightly different figures for smartphone sales, market share, etc., we’re only citing each report where there’s unique information.
Counterpoint Research
Global smartphone market declined 13% YoY (Q1 2019 to Q1 2020). This is the first time since Q1 2014 that the smartphone market has fallen below 300 million units in a quarter. The decline is mainly driven by a 27% YoY shipment decline in China. As a result, Chinese smartphone market share in the global smartphone market declined from 26% in Q1 2019 to 22% in Q1 2020. CounterpointResearch believes that the impact of COVID-19 on the supply side of smartphones and components could leave OEMs to diversify their supply chain by moving some production to countries like India and Vietnam.
The share of 5G smartphone shipments increased from 1% in Q4 2019 to 8% in Q1 2020.
Xiaomi (7%) and Realme (157%) were the only major brands to achieve global growth YoY thanks to strong growth in India.
Huawei was the only major smartphone brand in China to grow sales, as the company saw a 6% rise to 28.7 million units, which helped the company capture 39% of total smartphone sales in the country.
The effect of COVID-19 on the smartphone market will likely be worse in Q2 2020, though mostly in countries still under lockdown. As China is recovering, brands with a larger share in China, like Huawei, will be better positioned. Furthermore, companies that were hit hard by the lockdown in China, like Lenovo, will recover as manufacturing resumes. Brands with a great online presence, like Realme, will do better than those that rely on offline sales. Sales of budget phones will be hit the hardest while sales of premium devices will be least affected.
Strategy Analytics
Global 5G smartphone shipments surged past 24 million units in Q1 2020 thanks to higher than expected demand in China. 18.7 million total 5G phones were shipped in 2019.
Samsung shipped 8.3 million 5G phones globally in Q1 2020. Huawei (including Honor) was at the second spot at 8 million 5G phones shipped globally. Vivo was third, with 2.9 million shipments of its iQOO 3 and X30 5G.
Canalys
Apple was one of the lest affected vendors thanks to strong sales of the iPhone 11 in early Q1 2020. However, they were still down 8% with 37 million shipments.
IDC
The first quarter usually sees a decline in shipments quarter over quarter (i.e. Q4 to Q1), with average sequential decline over the last three years being between -15% to -20%. But Q1 2020 has been the largest annual YoY decline ever, with smartphone shipments in China declining 20.3% YoY and shipments in the U.S and Western Europe declining 16.1% and 18.3%, respectively.
Samsung retained its top position of 21.1% market share (despite an 18.9% YoY decline) due to the success of its Galaxy A series.
Huawei maintained the second position globally, though the company’s global sales decline 17.1%. It managed to offset some of the COVID-19 impact by cutting prices early on the Mate 30, P30, Honor V30, and Honor 9X. Their diversified offline and online sales channels helped reach consumers even during the lockdown.
Tablet shipments continued to decline, down 18.2% YoY to 24.6 million units. Meanwhile, detachables grew 56.8% YoY thanks to Apple. Slate tablets saw shipments decline 36.4% YoY. Apple maintained its pole position, followed by Samsung (with a 3.9% growth YoY) and Huawei (with an 8.3% decline YoY).
Interestingly, all reports offer contradictory figures for Chinese OEM Vivo. According to CounterpointResearch, the company saw a 10% YoY decline in Q1 2020. This is in contrast to Canalys, which states that Vivo grew 3% YoY, and IDC, which states that Vivo grew 7% YoY.
