NVIDIA bypasses Apple’s App Store, launches GeForce NOW on iOS via Safari

Cloud gaming, or game streaming as some others call it, is promising to be the future of gaming, freeing up users from the constraints of physical hardware and letting them game anywhere thanks to the omnipresence of the cloud. Most big names have pitched in their own game streaming service, and while the ecosystem slowly matures, there’s still one problem towards this omnipresence: the Apple App Store. Apple has blocked both Microsoft xCloud and Google Stadia cloud gaming services from the App Store previously. And now, NVIDIA seems to have bypassed this block by choosing to launch GeForce NOW on iOS through the Safari browser.

Apple’s primary contention against allowing these cloud gaming services on its mobile platform is that they need to submit each game within the service individually for review. Such rules for review are applicable for all developers already on the App Store, and to appear on the App Store, these rules and guidelines need to be followed. As an alternate, Apple did suggest in its own statement that game streaming services could use the Safari browser or other browsers to reach all iPhone ad iPad users.

NVIDIA appears to have done just that. GeForce NOW is streaming on iOS Safari in beta from today onwards. This opens the door for existing members subscribed to this game streaming service to play their favorite games on iPhones and iPad as well, in addition to all the other hardware options such as Windows, macOS, Android, and Chromebooks.

There are a few small caveats though. For one, GeForce NOW on iOS Safari requires a gamepad. NVIDIA says that keyboard and mouse-only games aren’t available due to hardware limitations. And if you are looking to use the service to play Fortnite on your iOS device (considering how Fortnite is still banned from the App Store), a touch-friendly version of the game is being worked on and will be coming soon. But right at launch, Fortnite will be missing for practical gameplay on iOS devices.

NVIDIA also has more to share on games that are coming in the future. GeForce NOW will soon connect with GOG.com, letting users enjoy games like CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Cyberpunk 2077 is an upcoming title that has generated massive hype leading up to its launch, while Witcher 3 needs no introduction to serious gamers. It’s an exciting time to be a gamer indeed.

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NVIDIA GeForce NOW (Free, Google Play) →

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Forums are now open for the Samsung Galaxy S21 series

Samsung typically launches its Galaxy S series flagships in February each year. However, recent rumors suggest that the company will unveil the Galaxy S21 series four weeks earlier than usual. As a result, leaks about Samsung’s next-gen flagships have already started popping up online. To make it easier for our community to discuss the upcoming devices, we’ve now opened XDA Forums for the Galaxy S21 series.

In case you missed it, Samsung is expected to launch three devices as part of the Galaxy S21 series — the regular Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, and Galaxy S21 Ultra. Leaked renders of the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Ultra showcase that the devices will sport a new camera island design, which begins from the top and left edges of the back panel and engulfs the camera modules. Over on the front, the Galaxy S21 will feature a flat Infinity-O display, while the Galaxy S21 Ultra will offer a curved Infinity-O display. While we’re yet to see a similar render of the Galaxy S21 Plus, leaked press renders of the three devices have shed light on its specifications.

As per the official press renders, the Galaxy S21 will feature a 6.2-inch FHD+ LTPS AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The device will be powered by either Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 875 chip or the Exynos 2100 chip, and it will pack a 4,000mAh battery. In the camera department, it will include a 12MP primary sensor, a 12MP ultra-wide sensor, and a 64MP telephoto sensor.  Much like the regular Galaxy Note 20, the Galaxy S21 base variant will feature a plastic back panel.

The Galaxy S21 Plus, on the other hand, will sport a 6.7-inch FHD+ LTPS display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The device will feature the same processors and camera sensors, but it will include a larger 4,800mAh battery. And finally, the top-of-the-line Galaxy S21 Ultra will sport a 6.8-inch WQHD+ LTPO display with a 1-120Hz variable refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1600 nits. It will also include the same processors, but it will pack a massive 5,000mAh battery. On the camera front, the device will include a 108MP (Gen 2) primary sensor, a 12MP ultra-wide sensor, a 10MP 3x optical telephoto sensor, and a 10MP 10x optical telephoto sensor.

The Galaxy S21 series is shaping up to be a minor improvement over the Galaxy S20 series, except for the Galaxy S21 Ultra. But despite the improvements, Samsung is reportedly planning to drop the prices for the upcoming devices to offer a more competitive product. What’s your take on the Galaxy S21 series? Head over to the Galaxy S21 series forums by following the link below and share your thoughts with other Samsung fans.

Samsung Galaxy S21 series XDA Forums

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Featured image: Leaked CAD render of the Galaxy S21

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Try your luck with Amazon UK’s PlayStation 5 restock, going live in a few minutes!

Trying to get your hands on Sony’s latest console and not having much luck? You’re not the only one. It has been notoriously difficult to get a PlayStation 5 for many, but rumblings of additional stock going live in the UK have been heard. Now, at noon GMT, you should be able to order some of Amazon UK’s stock on the new console!

Now, I say should, because it’s not absolutely confirmed this stock will go live at this exact time. GamesRadar is reporting that customers are receiving e-mails mentioning that date and time, but Amazon is known to not always being the most timely with putting the stock live. There have been many occasions that they’ll say a time and then the stock won’t go live for a few minutes after. It’s a bit frustrating, but if you’re diligent, watching the page from 12PM GMT onwards should net you a chance at the elusive PlayStation 5.

GamesRadar’s report doesn’t mention if this restock is for the normal PlayStation 5, or the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. Thankfully, the Amazon UK store page has both of them in different tabs, so it shouldn’t be hard to switch to the version you want.

If you don’t see it right away, or miss out on the restock, don’t give up just yet. The PlayStation 5 is likely to drift in and out of stock throughout the day. Maybe a warehouse finds more stock, or orders are canceled for some reason or another. You never know what may happen, especially on the UK launch day. Keep hitting that F5 key!

PlayStation 5

Trying for a PlayStation 5? Amazon UK is reported to have stock at noon GMT. Check in early and hope for a hit... and for Amazon to put the listing live on time!

Check the Stock at Amazon UK

We’ll try to keep you notified of stock that promises to be live more than a few minutes on the PlayStation 5, as well as advice and tips to try to get one as retailers start to release their Black Friday stock. Keep your eyes peeled!

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 expected to come with an Under Display Camera

While several Android OEMs have showcased their under-display camera solutions over the last few years, ZTE is currently the only brand that offers a commercial smartphone featuring the technology. However, that may change soon, as Xiaomi’s third-gen under-display camera solution will go into mass production next year. But ZTE and Xiaomi won’t be the only two companies selling devices with an under-display camera sensor for long. Samsung is also working on an under-display camera solution, and it might debut next year with the Galaxy Z Fold 3.

Samsung unveiled the original Galaxy Fold early last year, and it featured a massive notch in the top right corner of the main display for the selfie cameras. The company then launched the Galaxy Z Fold 2 in September this year, and it featured a much better solution — a circular hole-punch cutout. Now, according to a recent report from ETNews, Samsung is planning to take things to the next level with the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and offer its under-display camera solution on the device.

Industry sources familiar with the matter have revealed that Samsung has finalized plans to bring its under-display camera tech to the market with the Galaxy Z Fold 3 in the third quarter of 2021. The report further reveals that Samsung’s solution will use a special display from Samsung Display, while the image sensor will be sourced from Samsung Electronics’ System LSI division. Along with the specialized hardware, the company is also working on an image correction algorithm to improve the under-display camera setup’s output.

An industry insider familiar with the display development told the publication that the display is designed so that only the part where the camera is placed is enlarged to secure an aperture and take pictures smoothly (translated). The report further notes that the Galaxy Z Fold 3 will be the first Samsung device to feature an under-display camera.

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Featured image: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2

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NewPipe 0.20.3 improves YouTube video loading speed and adds a new two-finger swipe gesture

NewPipe, the open-source YouTube client for Android, received a major update early last month. The update included the unified video player UI that we saw in a previous test release and several other improvements. Shortly after the rollout, the app received another update that patched a bug with the YouTube search. The developers behind NewPipe are now rolling out another update that brings improvements for YouTube video loading speed and a new swipe gesture.

According to a recent post on the NewPipe blog, the latest update (v. 0.20.3) introduces a new two-finger swipe down gesture that makes closing the embedded player much easier. Closing the embedded player was a two-step process on previous versions of the app. You first had to swipe down on the embedded player to switch to the mini player and then swipe down again to close it. Now, you can close the embedded player in one go with the new two-finger swipe down gesture.

The second significant improvement in the latest update is that NewPipe now loads YouTube videos much faster. As the blog post explains, “YouTube has removed obfuscation for most of its URLs, so now we can directly access them, speeding up video loading by a lot! The deobfuscation code is still cached in case it is needed.” Other noteworthy changes include:

• All the different enqueuing options have now been replaced with a unified one
• The app now has a new setting that allows users to clear the reCAPTCHA cookies
• Added a new option to turn off the colorized notification that popped up when playing streams on Android 8.0 and above. Once enabled, the notification has a static color.
• Added support for YouTube Short URLs
• Added support for shortened channel links which look like: “youtube.com/username”
• Added support for discarding the extra cruft on redirect URLs to help users open links from Google in NewPipe.

If you already have NewPipe installed on your device, the app should prompt you to update to the latest release when you open it up. In case you don’t have an older build, you can grab the latest release from NewPipe’s GitHub. To see all the other improvements/fixes in the latest release, check the changelog section below.

NewPipe 0.20.3 Changelog

• New
  • Replace specific enqueue options with only one #4425
  • Two finger to close player gesture #4476
  • Add button in settings to clear reCAPTCHA cookies #4453
  • Add option to not colorize notification #4643
• Improved
  • Do not show notification creation / update time #4410
  • Remove remember popup properties setting #4367
  • Ask for confirmation before replacing even single video queues #4463
  • Also delete stream state when deleting stream history #4413
  • Improve age restriction and yt restricted content strings #4354
• Fixed
  • Fix crash when stream was paused and fast forward / rewind buttons were clicked #4410
  • Fix PlaylistAppendDialog showing when no local playlists exist #4345
  • Don’t rearrange lists by dragging the thumbnails #4550
  • Fix opening VideoDetailFragment and more #4562
    • Fix infinite buffering
    • Better detect when to autoplay and when not to
    • Make sharing to NewPipe more consistent
  •  Fix playlist select dialog and do some refactoring #4771
  • Change YouTube subscription import instructions to Google takeout #4759
  • Correct Gigaget’s license from GPLv2 to GPLv3 #4892
• Localization
  • Add Santali language #4749
  • Add Central Atlas Tamazight localization
  • Add Korean translation of the README #4845
  • Updated translations
• Development
  • Use DisplayCutoutCompat in VideoPlayerImpl #4338
  • Use DrawableCompat. #4592
  • Use ContextCompat methods #4276
  • Use TextViewCompat.setCompoundDrawablesRelativeWithIntrinsicBounds(). #4594
  • Hide Leaks launcher icon #4436 #4450
  • Format all XML resources #4471
  • Disable Ktlint pending upstream update #4517
  • Use Core KTX functions #4547
  • Use multidex for all build types. #4557
  • Migrate AboutActivity to ViewPager2 #4553
  • Optimize and shrink app PNGs #4610
  • Convert notification actions to a custom preference #4652
  • Use Java 8 APIs #3817 #4556
  • Separate player gesture logic and UI #4587
  • Use RxJava instead of AsyncTask #4499
  • Change loop index from float to int #4784
  • More miscellaneous little fixes and improvements #4710
  • Fix NullPointerException in queue handling and improved performance #4555
• Other
  • Pull request template reworked #4317
  • Issue templates reworked #4378 #4379 #4415 #4431 #4606
  • Add info on how to use a local NewPipe Extractor version #4528
  • Add Weblate widget to README #4530

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OriginOS is Vivo’s latest software release based on Android 11

Vivo’s primary UX skin has been FunTouch OS for a few years now, and the skin was recently rebased onto Android 11 for certain phones. Surprisingly, the company had even beat Google to launching the first phone with Android 11 with the launch of the Vivo V20. The UX skin is overdue for a refresh, and it’s getting one as Vivo has now released OriginOS, its latest software release based on Android 11.

Vivo’s OriginOS succeeds Funtouch OS and has been announced at the two-day Vivo 2020 Developer Conference held in China. There are a bunch of functional and visual changes in this new UX skin. For one, the homescreen is now arranged in a tidier “Klotski Grid” format that is said to be more efficient than the predecessor.

Users now also get “Nano Alerts” which are tiny popup widgets that provide context-based alerts such as details on upcoming flights, package delivery status, and more.

What further sets Nano Alerts, apart from their compact UI, is that they can also be displayed on the Always-On Display.

The retouching of how alerts are displayed also carries over to Public Alerts such as earthquake alerts and pandemic information, and these have been integrated into the UX in a more intuitive manner.

Beyond health and emergency alerts, the new UX also brings over weather elements as a Live Wallpaper. Vivo says that the shape, size, and density of the cloud layer is simulated after they sampled through data from thousands of different regions. The weather and even the moving speed of the clouds will vary across regions.

If you want to stick to your own wallpaper, OriginOS will give you an option to integrate different effects onto the wallpaper. The wallpaper that you choose can thus change its look by varying light and shadow effects.

And if you are still looking for more live wallpapers, there’s a new live wallpaper that captures the blooming process of several flowers.

Under the hood, OriginOS also packs in several changes. “Enhanced Memory Fusion Technology 1.0” uses a three-step process (memory integration, process optimization, and application pre-loading) to make for a better and smoother experience. “Multi-Turbo 5.0” allows for optimal allocation of computing resources, application preloading 2.0, intelligent app freezing technology 2.0, and more. While all of these sound good, it remains to be seen how they translate into observable, real-life improvements.

And finally, there is also a new pull-down menu for opening a Control Center for direct IoT control.

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Vivo OriginOS Rollout Schedule

OriginOS based on Android 11 will roll out in batches for the following phones in China:

• Batch 0 (Shipping with Origin OS):
  • Next-generation X series
• Batch 1 – First Open Beta in January 2021:
  • Nex 3S
  • Vivo X50 Pro
  • Vivo X50 Pro+
  • Vivo X50
  • Vivo S7
  • iQOO 5 Pro
  • iQOO 5
  • iQOO 3
  • iQOO
  • iQOO Pro
  • iQOO Neo 3
• Batch 2 – First Open Beta in February 2021:
  • Nex 3/Nex 3 5G
  • iQOO Neo
  • Vivo X30/X30 Pro
  • iQOO Neo Snapdragon 855 Edition
• Batch 3 – First Open Beta in Q2 2021:
  • Vivo X27 Pro
  • Vivo X27
  • Vivo X27 (8+128)
  • Vivo S6
  • Vivo Z6
  • Vivo Z5i
  • Vivo S1
  • Vivo Z5x
  • Vivo Z5
  • iQOO Z1X
  • iQOO Z1
  • Nex Dual Display Edition
  • Nex S
  • Nex

Exact dates have not been provided. Vivo has also not provided any information on when these updates will be reaching devices outside of China. We hope to hear more from them soon.

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What are your thoughts on Vivo OriginOS based on Android 11? Let us know in the comments below!

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Digital Wellbeing preps “Heads Up” to stop you from using your phone while walking

Earlier today, version 1.0.342229637.beta of the Digital Wellbeing app rolled out on the Google Play Store. While the update doesn’t include any significant additions on the surface, we’ve spotted code for an upcoming feature, called Heads Up, that will stop you from using your phone while walking.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

Our Editor-in-Chief, Mishaal Rahman, has managed to enable the feature manually, and here’s what it looks like:

As you can see in the attached screenshots, the unreleased Heads Up feature shows up in the Digital Wellbeing settings within the Reduce Interruptions section. Tapping on the option opens a setup screen, with the description: “Watch your step with Heads Up…If you’re walking while using your phone, get a reminder to focus on what’s around you…Use with caution. Heads Up doesn’t replace paying attention.”

You can then tap on the Next button in the bottom right corner to start the setup process. Once the feature is successfully set up, it will bring up a reminder if you’re using your phone while walking. In case you wish to disable the reminders, you’ll have to tap on the “Heads Up” option in the Digital Wellbeing settings once again and then tap on the toggle next to the Heads Up option on the following page. This page will also show the permissions required by the feature — Physical Activity and Location (optional) — and it will also feature a feedback button at the bottom.

As mentioned earlier, the Heads Up feature is still a work in progress, and it hasn’t rolled out to users. However, the feature appears to be nearly fully functional, so it could roll out soon. We’ll update this post as soon as the feature rolls out to users on the beta channel. Along with the upcoming Heads Up feature, Google is working on bringing a work profile scheduler and a Mindful wallpaper feature to the Digital Wellbeing app. These features were spotted in APK teardowns of the app earlier this year in September.

Digital Wellbeing (Free, Google Play) →

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Thanks to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler, a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.

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