6 top language and speech apps with up to 95% off this week

For those of us who enjoy traveling, 2020 has been a bad year. But with scientists making progress, next year is looking a whole lot brighter. If you would like to learn the language of your next destination, try these top language learning apps — now with huge discounts at the XDA Developers Depot.

Mondly: Lifetime Subscription 

The winner of multiple App Store and Google Play awards, Mondly combines native speaker audio and picture quizzes to help you learn 33 languages. The app even has augmented reality, helping you to memorize the words for everyday objects.

Get a Mondly lifetime subscription for $99.99 (reg. $2,199), a saving of 95%. 

LingvaNex Translator: Lifetime Subscription

 

Once you have the basics in place, LingvaNex Translator can help you decipher articles and audio in your chosen language. Formerly the #1 Product of the Week on Product Hunt, this app provides accurate translations for 112 languages.

Get a LingvaNex Translator lifetime subscription for $79.99 (reg. $399), a saving of 80%. 

Speechify Audio Reader: 1-Year Subscription

Whether you are studying a language or something else, Speechify can save you a lot of time. This intelligent app turns any text document into an audiobook, meaning you can listen on the go.

Get one year of Speechify Audio Reader for $39.99 (reg. $390), a saving of 89%. 

The Social Distancing Lifetime Subscription Bundle Ft. Rosetta Stone

This collection of three top apps includes Rosetta Stone, which was named PCMag’s Best Language-Learning Software five years in a row. The app analyzes your accent 100 times a second to provide live coaching; the bundle also includes lifetime access to 12min microbooks and VPN Unlimited.

Get the Social Distancing Lifetime Subscription Bundle for $189 (reg. $744), a saving of 74%. 

Memrise Language Learning: Lifetime Subscription

Rated at 4.8/5 stars on the App Store, Memrise teaches 22 languages through a three-step process. The lessons are personalized, and you see words in their real-world context, meaning you can start speaking with confidence.

Get a Memrise lifetime subscription for $99.99 (reg. $139), a saving of 28%. 

Babbel Language Learning: Lifetime Subscription

Offering 10,000 hours of content covering 14 different languages, Babbel is perfect for committed learners. Available on desktop and mobile, these courses use mini games and speech recognition to teach you everyday vocabulary. 

Get a Babbel lifetime subscription for $199 (reg. $399), a saving of 50%.

Prices subject to change 

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Google ‘Look to Speak’ lets users control their device with eye movements

Google has launched ‘Look to Speak’, a new accessibility service that lets users control their device with their eyes. The app lets users select from a predetermined list of characters, words, phrases or actions by moving their eyes up, down, left, or right. We live in a world where it’s still so easy to forget that less able-bodied people still have something to say. More often than not, they just don’t have the means to say it. Look to Speak wants to change all that, by offering a completely customisable means of self-expression which can be tailored to their own needs, and more importantly, their own vernacular and style of speech.

Although eye-control is nothing new in itself, Google has managed to shrink the technology down to a more portable format, meaning that users in wheelchairs, for example, can use it without carrying around a small server farm clipped to their chariot. As pointed out in a blog post today, the real beauty of this is that it will allow users to configure their turn-of-phrase, their way – something hugely empowering for those who are silenced through no fault of their own.

The project began as part of a sub-group of ‘Experiments with Google’ called ‘Start with One’, an initiative which designs a product for one specific person, before adapting and expanding it for use by others in the community with similar needs. It’s the second announcement on a more accessible internet recently, with a new version of Google Voice Access backported from Android 11 last week.

At launch, Look to Speak will let you select phrases, speak them aloud, snooze the screen and edit your phrasebook. There’s also tutorials and tips to help get the most out of the service, covering everything from ideal phone placement to getting the best results from your movements.

‘Look to Speak’ is now available on all devices running Android 9.0 and above, including Android One. To try it on the web or learn more, follow this link, or Android users can check out the app – link below.

Look to Speak (Free, Google Play) →

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Best Smart Home gifts under $100

The concept of a “smart home” is something that, ten years ago, would have been reserved for elite sportsmen and James Bond villains. These days, there are so many different products, it’s difficult to know where to start – particularly when many OEMs are trying to produce devices because they can, not always because they’re actually going to be an improvement over your old, dumb whatever-it-is. After all – why do you need a phone readout of how full your vacuum cleaner is? You can just… you know, look.  We’ve scoured the internet for some of our favorite smart gadgets for everyone from geeks to grandmas. All the devices shown below have some level of Google Home/Assistant and Amazon Alexa integration, all are in stock and prices are correct at time of compiling.

Broadlink RM4 Pro

Start your smart home right

An entire smart home for under fifty bucks? Well, yeah, kind of. Broadlink has been making universal remotes that work with your smart home for some time. The set up can be a bit time consuming as you have to “teach” the device your remote control signals by hand, but it’s capable of controlling anything with IR or RF, making it smart, at a stroke. If you’re just starting out in home automation, it’s a great way to start.

Check it out on Amazon for $44.99

Cololight Pro

Put a hex on your relatives (the nice kind)

There are myriad of smart lamps on the market, but we’re rather liking the Cololight range. Each hexagon clips to the one above it to create interesting patterns, and the choice of colors, both still and animated is huge. You can even design your own palettes and animations and submit them for other users to try. We’ve shown the starter set here, which comes with three hexagons, but you can expand your light with additional hexagons, sold separately.

Starter Kit from Amazon $49.99

Instant Pot Smart Wifi

Legalised Pot

There are myriad of smart lamps on the market, but we’re rather liking the Cololight range. Each hexagon clips to the one above it to create interesting patterns, and the choice of colors, both still and animated is huge. You can even design your own palettes and animations and submit them for other users to try. We’ve shown the starter set here, which comes with three hexagons, but you can expand your light with additional hexagons, sold separately.

Cook up a storm for $89.99

Fingbox v2

Control your home with your network

This may seem like an odd thing to include, but it’s actually one of the cornerstones of a good smart home. Fingbox is far more than a network monitor. It can warn you of any unauthorised devices on the network, open ports and so on, but more importantly, it can be used as a presence sensor, triggering routines when your phone leaves your home wifi network, and alert you if the internet is down in your area (and thus, some of your other smart devices have stopped working). It’s not the most exciting gift idea, but it definitely keeps on giving.

Hit control on Amazon $99.99

Atomi Coffee Maker

Smart coffee without the grind

The world is fuelled by coffee, and anything that makes brewing it easier is bound to go down well. This Atomi Coffee Maker’s wifi connection means that you can load it with water and ground coffee, go out, and instruct it to start brewing when you’re on the way home (your phone’s GPS sensor helps here). Alternatively, when you wake up, you can start it brewing and catch a few extra zzzzzs.

Caffeinate for $79.99 at Amazon

Keysmart Pro

No more hunting down in the sofa

Losing your keys, whether inside or outside the house is very stressful. This latest generation Keysmart device is an ideal stocking stuffer because as well as turning your jangling bunch into a kind of ‘key swiss army knife’, this one has a Tile tracker built-in. Next time you lose your keys, you can ask your smart speaker to find them, and it does the rest. Phew. Crisis averted.

Unlock sanity at Amazon for $43.50

Logrotate Moon Lamp Pro

See the tranquility

With plans to go back to The Moon by 2024, what better time to get to know our nearest neighbour better? This 3D-printed relief model is highly detailed, and when perched in its wooden frame, glows beautifully in a variety of colors and tones, all controllable from your phone. There are cheaper versions on the market without smart capabilities, but this one will really add to your automated ambience.

No crater gift idea at $43.99 from Amazon

SmartDry

Wash out, there's a gadget about

Tumble dryers are great, but it’s almost impossible to guess accurately how long to run them for. Given that their entire remit is to heat things up, they’re a massive energy drain, so what could be better than this sensor which sends you an alert when the clothes are actually dry, so you can come in and rescue them. It saves time, it saves money, it saves energy. And you can’t beat a pair of pyjamas that are fresh out of the dryer.

No crater gift idea at $43.99 from Amazon

Roku Streaming Stick+

Streams can come true

It would be far too easy to just include the latest Chromecast in the list. Instead, we’ve gone for another streamer that is particularly ideal for that first-time cord-cutter in your life. Roku fully integrates with your smart home, but keeps the more familiar format of “channels” for content, allowing you to scroll through services you’re actually interested in with the remote. It’s 4K HDR-ready and can access tens of thousands of web services from the sublime (Netflix) to the ridiculous (live footage of some goats on a farm).

See more clearly for $47.99 at Amazon

In this particular round up, we’ve opted to eschew the more obvious things like bulbs and smart sockets – after all, they’re not exactly ‘festive’ are they? We’ve really only scratched the surface – there are thousands of new smart devices being launched every month. The big question you have to ask yourself before a purchase is a simple one…. “Does this product benefit from smart functionality?”. Quite often, the answer will be “not really”. Look for the stuff that screams “YES! ” – oh, and don’t assume that everything will work with everything else. Compatibility and fragmentation are still a huge problem in the market. 2021 looks like being the year that all changes, but it’s going to take a while to settle down, so do your research first.

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MediaTek Dimensity 800U-powered smartphones are coming to India next month

In August this year, MediaTek unveiled the Dimensity 800U mid-range 5G chipset. Over the last few months, the chipset has made an appearance in quite a few mid-range 5G smartphones, including the Redmi Note 9 5G, Realme Q2, Realme Q2 Pro, Realme X7, and Realme 7 5G. However, none of these mid-range 5G capable devices have made it to the Indian market so far. But that’s set to change soon, as MediaTek has announced that Dimensity 800U powered devices will be launched in India next month.

On the second day of the ongoing India Mobile Congress 2020 event, MediaTek announced that it will collaborate with popular smartphone brands to launch Dimensity 800U powered smartphones in India. According to an official press release from the company, the upcoming smartphones “will be launched in January 2021 and will be one of the first MediaTek powered 5G smartphones available in India.”

Although MediaTek didn’t reveal exactly which Dimensity 800U-powered smartphones will be launched next month, it will most likely be one of the devices mentioned above. In case you’re not familiar with the capabilities of the MediaTek Dimensity 800U SoC, here’s a quick rundown of its specifications and features:

• The Dimenstiy 800U is fabricated on a 7nm manufacturing process (TSMC’s 7nm FinFET).
• It features an octa-core CPU with 2 ARM Cortex-A76 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.4GHz and 6 ARM Cortex A-55 CPU cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz.
• The SoC also includes ARM’s Mali-G57 GPU and an independent AI processing unit (APU).
• It supports LPDDR4x RAM (up to 2,133MHz) and UFS 2.1-class storage.
• The chipset supports display at up to FHD+ resolution with a max refresh rate of 120Hz. MediaTek also claims that it supports HDR10+ video and a custom MiraVision PQ engine with additional HDR optimizations.
• The ISP on the chip supports up to 64MP image sensors and quad-camera configurations.
• It includes support for voice on wakeup (VoW), multiple trigger words and voice assistant services, and dual-mic noise reduction technology.
• Most importantly, the Dimensity 800U features an integrated 5G modem with support for Dual Sim Dual Standby (DSDS), sub-6GHz 5G on SA and NSA networks, dual Voice over New Radio (VoNR), 5G two carrier aggregation (2CC 5G-CA), and MediaTek’s 5G UltraSave technology.

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Samsung Galaxy S21 series will come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, and possibly an upgraded ultrasonic fingerprint sensor

We’re gearing up towards the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S21 series, expected to be announced in the middle of January 2021. So far, the devices are shaping up to be pretty exciting, with a refreshed camera bump on the back giving the phones some of their own personality, though you may lose the charger in the box. There’s more in store though, as the Galaxy S21 series will also come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 in some regions, and possibly also see an upgrade in the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor.

Galaxy S21 and the Snapdragon 888

Earlier last week, Qualcomm announced the new Snapdragon 888 SoC, it’s top of the line mobile platform that will make its way across Android flagships all through 2021. The company also announced the names of 14 OEM partners that will be building a smartphone with this new SoC. Samsung’s name was missing in this list, but this wasn’t entirely unexpected. Many took this omission to mean that Samsung will not be using the Snapdragon 888 in any of its smartphones in 2021, and presumably opting only for its own Exynos flagship processor across the world.

However, this omission is not very surprising if you have been following Qualcomm’s list in the past few years. The list is not meant to be read as an all-inclusive list of partners and products. Instead, it only names partners that have agreed to be named, and the products they have agreed to be named for. There may be other partners working with the new platform, and who may have chosen to not be named on such future projects. So even at the stage of Qualcomm’s announcement, Samsung (or any other OEM) could have gone either way with the Snapdragon 888.

Now, evidence has emerged that Samsung is indeed packing in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 in the Galaxy S21 series, at least for the US region.

FCC filing for the U.S Samsung Galaxy S21 (SM-G991U) confirms it’ll have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. H/T @Cstark_27 https://t.co/aOrS4IDUvC pic.twitter.com/AjI21QSvUW

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) December 9, 2020

Samsung flagships in the USA (and some other selected regions) come with a Qualcomm SoC, while the same flagship in other regions of the world comes with an Exynos SoC. In 2021, the US model is once again expected to be a Qualcomm phone, while the word is still open on whether Samsung adopts Snapdragon for all the other regions (keeping in mind the feedback that Samsung received against its Exynos flagship chips).

Samsung Galaxy S21 Forums

Ultrasonic Fingerprint Sensor

The next set of new information comes from @UniverseIce, so treat this as a leak and not confirmed information. According to them, the Galaxy S21 will come with an upgrade to the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. Samsung has used its first generation of the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S10 series, Galaxy Note 10 series, Galaxy S20 series, and the Galaxy Note 20 series. If the leak turns out to be true, this is the first upgrade to the sensor since the Galaxy S10.

Further, according to them, the area of the Galaxy S21’s ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is 8mm x 8mm (64 sq. mm), compared to the 4mm x 9mm (36 sq. mm), marking it as a substantial increase.

While the leak does not mention what exactly has Samsung opted for as the new sensor, but we presume that it could be the Qualcomm 3D Sonic Max sensor announced last year. This is the second-gen sensor from Qualcomm, and will mark a significant upgrade for Samsung from the first-gen that it has used so far.

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What are your thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy S21? Let us know in the comments below!

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Redmi Y3, Redmi 7, Redmi 6A, and Redmi 6 will not be updated to MIUI 12

Xiaomi first unveiled MIUI 12 in China earlier this year in April. Following the reveal, the company shared a list of devices that would receive the latest Android skin. While the MIUI 12 update has already rolled out to several of these devices in the last few months, Xiaomi has now announced that four devices from the list won’t be updated to MIUI 12. These include the Redmi Y3, Redmi 7, Redmi 6A, and Redmi 6.

The company recently posted a message in the Mi Fans Home channel on Telegram, which states:

“Please note that the following device models originally included in MIUI 12 release schedule won’t be updated to MIUI 12 due to compatibility and performance issues. Redmi Y3, Redmi 7, Redmi 6A, Redmi 6.”

As a result, these devices will be stuck on MIUI 11 based on Android 9 for now. While this isn’t as bad for Redmi 6 (codename: cereus) and 6A (codename: cactus) users, it’s definitely a bummer for Redmi 7 (codename: onclite) and Redmi Y3 (codename: onc) users. That’s because the Redmi 6 and 6A were launched over two years ago and have received one major Android upgrade and two MIUI upgrades. The Redmi 7 and Redmi Y3, on the other hand, were launched early last year, and they have received just one MIUI upgrade and no Android upgrades.

Considering the fact that the MIUI version dictates the feature set on Xiaomi devices, Xiaomi’s decision to cancel the MIUI 12 update for these devices means that users will miss out on several features that were introduced in the latest update. This includes features like the new animations, improved navigation gestures, a flatter UI design, new live wallpapers, enhanced privacy protection features, multi-window support, and much more. It goes without saying that these devices won’t be getting Android 10 or 11 either, so users will also miss out on the features included in those releases.

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No, OnePlus hasn’t switched from a bi-monthly to a quarterly update schedule

OnePlus was recently in the news due to incorrect support pages that suggested that the company was switching from a bi-monthly to a quarterly Android security update cycle for its devices. However, it seems like it was all a misunderstanding, as the company has now clarified that there hasn’t been any change in its security update schedule. In case you’ve been out of the loop, here’s what happened.

Several users on Reddit and the OnePlus Community forums recently spotted a OnePlus security update page that claimed that the OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro, and OnePlus Nord would receive security updates once every quarter. This, to many, seemed like a downgrade from the bi-monthly security update schedule that OnePlus announced back in 2018.

We reached out to OnePlus for a comment on the matter and received the following statement:

“We want to clarify that there are no changes to our security update schedule. We have removed the incorrect information from our website and apologize for any confusion.”

As it turns out, the aforementioned security update page is limited to OnePlus devices in the Android Enterprise Recommended (AER) program. It was recently set up after the first OnePlus devices received AER certification since Google now requires that OEMs with devices in the AER program be transparent about how long they are supported. This includes setting up a page detailing how long AER certified devices will receive security updates and how frequently they will receive updates.

Unfortunately for OnePlus, the company put up incorrect information on the page, and users on social media didn’t recognize that the page was limited to AER devices. The page has since been updated with the correct information, and it now clearly specifies that the information is only relevant to OnePlus’ AER certified devices, and also gets rid of the “Quarterly updates” and “Monthly updates” headers.

While this clears up the confusion about OnePlus’ update policy, there are still some valid concerns to be had. As our friends over at AndroidPolice have noted, OnePlus has been slacking when it comes to delivering updates to its older phones, like the OnePlus 7 and 7T Pro. There’s work to be done on the update front for the company, but that is its own issue.

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