Update (11/05/19 @ 6:25 AM ET): The Samsung PlayGalaxy Link app is now available for the Galaxy S10 series too. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on September 11, 2019, is preserved as below.
During the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 launch, there was one feature that flew under the radar because of how packed the event was: PlayGalaxy Link. This feature lets you stream games from your computer to your phone. It’s a really great service, especially as we head into the era of 5G connectivity when apps need a lot of bandwidth and low latency.
PlayGalaxy Link is based off a service called Parsec. Samsung worked with Parsec to brand their technology into a Samsung exclusive. PlayGalaxy Link will connect to your Samsung account on both the phone and computer. It will find all the games installed on your computer and list them. You can then select which game you want to play on your phone using the PlayGalaxy Link app. The games will run over 4G, 5G, or Wi-Fi connectivity. This is different than Steam Link which requires you to be on the same wireless network.
Samsung PlayGalaxy Link is only available on the Galaxy Note 10 series of phones right now, but it will likely be released for older devices in the coming months. If you want to use what is essentially the same app but on any smartphone, you can try Parsec instead. Back in November of last year, I made a video on this service. In the video, I showed you how to set it up with your gaming PC and stream to any phone. You can even rent out a cloud PC from one of a few providers if you don’t have a gaming PC to stream from.
Both of these services are actually really great for gamers. You can play PC quality games while you’re on your phone. They’re not hard to use either; they’re essentially plug-and-play.
Update: PlayGalaxy Link available for the Samsung Galaxy S10 series
PlayGalaxy Link has been updated v1.0.5 Beta with support for all the phones in the Samsung Galaxy S10 series, namely the Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+, Galaxy S10e, and Galaxy S10 5G.
The Android 10 beta 2 released earlier this year revealed that Google was planning to limit the way apps can access your phone’s internal storage. For this purpose, Google introduced something called Scoped Storage. However, due to backlash from several developers, the company had to backtrack on its implementation. The company allowed apps that don’t yet target Android 10 to work as they used to and gave developers time until November 1st, 2020 to update their apps to target Android 10.
Apps that already target Android 10 by default can only see files in their app-specific directory. In order to access files that other apps have created, such as photos, images, videos, and audio, the apps still have to request the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission, but getting this permission now no longer gives access to the entire /data/media partition. Instead, they only see files in the well-defined locations provided by the MediaStore API. While this implementation works for apps that require access to media files, it doesn’t work for file manager apps.
File managers need broad access to the external storage in order to work and if they target Android 10, the only way to get broad file access is to use the Storage Access Framework (SAF) API. Even though SAF has been around since Android 5.0 Lollipop, developers tend to not use it, as it has a difficult and poorly documented API, a poor user experience, poor performance, and poor reliability. Now, Google aims to address these issues with Android 11.
According to a recent talk titled “Preparing for Scoped Storage” presented by Googlers Roxanna Aliabadi, Zimuzo Ezeozue, and Yacine Rezgui, Google is planning on granting “special app access for select use cases.” As part of the talk, they mention that this “special app access” is only given to apps that prove a “clear need” for full access to shared storage, “submit a declaration form” to Google, and don’t access “external app directories”.
This means that file managers will have to ask Google for permission to access the external storage, much like how apps requesting SMS/Call Log permissions have to ask Google. Thus, there could be arbitrary enforcement issues, much like we’ve seen in the past with Google Play decision. Lastly, another potential issue is the fact that file managers will no longer have access to external app directories. Therefore, things like mods for games won’t work anymore.
Xiaomi has been well-known for its fitness products, especially the Mi Band lineup. In the past, Xiaomi has depended on another Chinese company Huami – the maker of Amazfit smartwatches – for these Mi Bands. Today, alongside the launch of the Mi CC9 Pro and the Mi TV 5 Series, Xiaomi announced its first true smartwatch called the Mi Watch, which comes with LTE connectivity and looks like an unapologetic copy of early generations of the Apple Watch from the front. It also comes with a custom UI called MIUI for Watch based on Google’sWear OS.
The Mi Watch features a 44mm square dial with a 1.78-inch AMOLED display. The display has a resolution of 410 x 410 pixels with a pixel density of 326dpi. The display is curved along all four edges and this should facilitate swiping inwards for navigation, though do note that the curved part is not touch-sensitive. The display is being claimed to have anti-glare properties.
The watch features a crown on the right side – the exact same position as the Apple Watch – alongside a button right below it and there’s a mic between the two. On the left, there’s a speaker chamber with another mic below it. The matte frame of the Mi Watch is made of an aluminum alloy and Xiaomi claims the surface makes it scratch resistant.
The Mi Watch comes with eSIM connectivity, allowing you to use LTE for music streaming and voice calls, even when you’re not carrying the smartphone with you. It is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 3100 platform for smart wearables. Besides LTE, the Mi Watch supports Wi-Fi for connectivity and NFC for tap-to-pay. Meanwhile, there’s Bluetooth for connecting headsets and GPS for using Maps.
The MIUI for Watch interface is based on Google’s Wear OS platform and is perhaps, the only instance of a skin on top of Wear OS. It designed to support the stripped-down version of common apps like Tasks, Notes, recorder, Mi Home, Maps, etc. We couldn’t interpret the details about developer support for the ecosystem due to the language barrier, though our best guess is that MIUI for Watch is an app launcher on top of Wear OS
The Mi Watch will support more than 100 different watch faces along with support for custom always-on-displays. The smartwatch has dedicated applets to control Mi Home appliances and other products like table lamps and air purifiers. Aside from this, the watch currently supports 40 popular apps like QQ Messenger, QQ Music, Keep for fitness tracking, flight information app Umetrip, and many others.
Xiaomi’s Mi Watch can detect up to ten different forms of physical activities like walking, running, swimming, up-hill running, treadmill, general workout with wights, etc. Besides continuous heart rate measuring, the watch can also display VO2 max. The watch comes with a 570mAh battery which has been promised to last 36 hours with continuous LTE connectivity. Xiaomi claims the watch supports FIRSTBEAT, an algorithm certified by more than 1,000 European sports organizations for accurate and in-depth health data. Besides measuring fitness-related stats, the watch is also capable of detecting when you might have an elevated heart rate despite any physical activity and could be stressed out.
Xiaomi Mi Watch: Pricing
The Mi Watch from Xiaomi looks like the Apple Watch but costs way less. The regular version is priced at CNY 1,299 (~$185/₹13,110). It will be available starting November 11, 2019, for the Singles’ Day sale in China.
The Mi Watch also has an “Exclusive” variant that comes with a Saphhire Glass top, stainless steel bezels, and stainless steel chain strap. This will be available as a limited edition and will be priced at CNY 1,999 (~$285/₹20,170). The Exclusive edition will be available in mid-December in China.
We do not know if the Mi Watch will be making its way to India or other markets. Seeing how well Xiaomi’s Mi Band has done in India, we are banking on seeing the Mi Watch in India in 2020.
Xiaomi is recognized as a smartphone brand in markets outside of Asia, but it has also helped users in markets like China and India reap the best value from general living room electronics and connected devices. Xiaomi’s line-up of LED TVs is incredibly popular in these markets for the high-value conversion they bear, and today, at the launch of the Mi CC9 Pro smartphone, they have also revealed six models for the new lineup of the new generation of Mi TVs, namely the Mi TV 5 and the Mi TV 5 Pro, including 55″, 65″, and 75″ models with 4K resolution.
Xiaomi’s new Mi TV 5 and the Mi TV 5 Pro variants score high on style quotient because of their ultra-slim profile and super small bezels. Evidently, the Pro series is relatively more powerful, attractive, and is even priced higher. The smallest of the Pro models i.e. the 55″ model has a thickness of only 5.9mm, which is even thinner than most premium smartphones. The 65″ and the 75″ models have 6.0mm and 9.9mm of thickness, respectively. The Pro models use a screwless frame carved out of a single sheet of aluminum. Likewise, the bezels on the 55″ model have been narrowed down to just 1.8mm (0.07″), which is negligible compared to the massive display.
The Mi TV 5 and the Mi TV 5 Pro are utilizing 4K LED-backlit panels with Quantum Dot technology, but the ones used on the Pro variant have superior color and dynamic range. The Mi TV 5 Pro’s 4K panel is certified for HDR10+ playback and support 108% of the NTSC color gamut. The standard ones only get support for 85% of the NTSC gamut and lack HDR10+ playback compatibility. The Mi TVs in both of these ranges can play 8K content over USB but just like the Redmi TV, they downscale the content to 4K by software decoding and support maximum playback of 24fps.
Xiaomi has deployed a 12nm Amlogic T972 chipset on the TVs. The previous generations of Mi TVs also use Amlogic chips with quad-core CPUs. While the Pro gets 4GB RAM and 64GB of inbuilt eMMC storage, the non-Pro gets 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. In terms of audio, both TVs support Dolby Audio and are tuned for DTS-HD lossless sound output.
The Mi TV 5 and the Mi TV 5 Pro come with four far-field microphones so that you can interact with Xiaomi’s XiaoAI voice assistant and control the ecosystem of Xiaomi’s IoT products like water or air purifiers from the TV itself. In terms of software, both the TV come with PatchWall UI. This should be replaced with Android TV software if and when Xiaomi launches this in other markets such as India.
Price and Availability
The Mi TV 5 and the Mi TV 5 Pro come in three sizes each i.e. 55″, 65″, and 75″. The prices for these models in China are:
Mi TV 5
55″ – CNY 2,999 ($428/₹30,260)
65″ – CNY 3,999 ($570/₹40,340)
75″ – CNY 7,999 ($1,140/₹80,700)
Mi TV 5 Pro
55″ – CNY 3,699 ($527/₹37,320)
65″ – CNY 4,999 ($713/₹50,430)
75″ – CNY 9,999 ($1,426/₹1,00,880)
Keep in mind that these are pricing for the Chinese region. It is currently unknown if Xiaomi will bring the TV over to other regions like India. Seeing how popular Xiaomi’s Mi TV 4 series has been in India, we wouldn’t be surprised if they do plan to bring it to India.
Back in July this year, Xiaomi announced a new camera-centric lineup for the Chinese market. The first products in this lineup were the Xiaomi Mi CC9 and the Xiaomi Mi CC9e. While the Mi CC lineup remained restricted to China, the phones got rebranded and made their way to international markets. The Mi CC9 made its way to Europe as the Mi 9 Lite, while the Mi CC9e made its way to Europe and India as the rather underwhelming Mi A3. Now, the Chinese company is moving on to the next product in this lineup, launching the Mi CC9 Pro in China.
The primary focus of the Mi CC9 Pro is obviously its camera setup, as this is the most ambitious and versatile camera setup that Xiaomi has bestowed upon any of its devices.
The biggest advantage that the 108MP sensor brings along is the physically large 1/1.33″ sensor, which will allow the camera to absorb more light in low-light scenarios. As expected, you can either choose to adopt pixel binning to combine four pixels into one and get a 27MP shot (default) or get full resolution 108MP shots. The regular Mi CC9 Pro comes with a 7P lens setup, while the Mi CC9 Pro Premium Edition (which is just the higher storage and RAM variant) comes with an 8P lens setup. The camera also features OIS for this camera, so your shot will remain unaffected by hand movements.
The second highlight camera on the Mi CC9 Pro is the 5MP telephoto camera which features 5x optical zoom along with OIS. This camera is capable of 10x hybrid zoom and 50x digital zoom, so you can capture shots that are very far away. Digital zoom is akin to zooming in after clicking the picture, but you do get noticeable improvements through optical and hybrid zooms.
The rest of the camera setup consists of a dedicated 20MP wide angle camera, a dedicated 12MP camera for portraits, and a dedicated macro sensor. The phone also comes with quad-LED flash, which should help illuminating subjects in the dark. On the front is a 32MP selfie camera housed within the waterdrop notch.
Moving on to the design, the Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro comes with a 6.43″ OLED that is curved on the edges, though the curve is not as dramatic as the waterfall display on the Mate 30 Pro or the absolutely crazy surround display on the Mi Mix Alpha.
On the inside, the Mi CC9 Pro comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G. While this is not Qualcomm’s current flagship SoC (Snapdragon 855 Plus), it is a powerful SoC by itself, intended for use within the upper mid-tier segments. The phone is complemented by RAM and storage options of 6GB + 128GB, 8GB + 128GB and 8GB + 256GB. Xiaomi is calling the highest variant as the Premium Edition, though other than the additional lens in the main camera, we were unable to discern other differentiating features.
The Mi CC9 Pro also comes with a chunky 5,260 mAh battery that supports fast-charging up to 30W. Xiaomi claims that this fast charging technology is quicker than 40W fast charging as it does not have the steep drop in speeds once the phone reaches higher charging percentages. Half an hour of charging gets you 58% of battery, while a full charge takes just 65 minutes. The capacity of the battery makes these figures even more impressive. The phone also manages to retain several additional features, such as NFC, IR Blaster, and even the 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro comes in three color variants: Black, Green, and White.
The Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro costs CNY 2,799 (~$399/₹28,000/€359) for the 6GB + 128GB variant, CNY 3,099 (~$442/₹31,000/€397) for the 8GB + 128GB variant, and CNY 3,499 (~$499/₹35,000/€448)for the 8GB + 256GB variant. Keep in mind that these are pricing for the Chinese market only; the phone will launch in Europe shortly as the Mi Note 10, and we can expect to see slightly higher pricing for the region. It is currently unknown if the phone will make its way to India — our educated guess is that it will not be coming to India.
What are your thoughts on the Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro? Is it the complete smartphone package in your opinion? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Google Photos is arguably one of the best Google apps out there, thanks to its great sharing and cloud storage capabilities. Along with the regular gallery features, Google also makes use of Photos as a platform to showcase its machine learning and AI prowess. As such, the app gets cool new features with each successive update. Most recently, Google Photos received support for a new document cropping extension. This new extension allows you to easily digitize documents without requiring a third-party app. Now, with the latest update, Google is adding a new sorting feature to the Albums tab in the app.
As reported by 9to5Google, a server-side update for the app has enabled a new sorting feature in the Albums tab. By default, albums in Google Photos are sorted based on the last photo you took. But with the update, you’ll now be able to sort albums by “Last Modified” or “Album title”. Compared to some other features released for the app, this one seems a bit too basic. However, it’s definitely a welcome addition for those of you who like to keep your photo albums sorted in a certain way.
Since this is a server-side update, the new feature can be found on devices running version 4.28 and 4.29 of the app. At the time of writing, the feature was not available on my phone, but we expect it to reach more devices in the following weeks. It’s also worth noting that this feature is currently not available on the iOS or web version of the app.
Additionally, a separate report from 9to5Google reveals that Google Photos is getting another new feature exclusively on the Pixel 4 duo. This new feature will essentially let you grab high-resolution still from any video shot on the Pixel 4. The app has a new “Edit” UI with the timeline at the bottom of the display. The “Stabilize” and “Rotate” options have now been turned into icons and there’s a new “Export frame” button. Tapping on the button after selecting a point in the video will save that frame to your gallery in 1920×1080 or 2160×3840 resolution. While the quality isn’t as good as an actual still captured by the device, the new feature is definitely quite handy.
On top of that, if you capture video from the main Camera UI using the press and hold feature, the Pixel 4 will save up to 10 shots in HDR quality. When you open the captured video in Google Photos, you’ll be greeted with a new UI with a dedicated “Export HDR shot” button and swiping up for the info sheet will reveal a new “Shots in this video” timeline. As of now, these features are exclusive to the Pixel 4 duo running version 4.28 (or higher) of Google Photos, with no information from the company regarding a wider rollout.
Late last month, we learned that the Pixel 4’s display automatically switches between 90Hz and 60Hz refresh rates based on the brightness of the display. Our Editor-in-Chief, Mishaal Rahman, confirmed that the Pixel 4’s 90Hz Smooth Display automatically turned down to 60Hz when the brightness was below 77%. While we did find a way to force the 90Hz refresh rate from within the Developer Options, it wasn’t the most ideal solution as it took a toll on battery life. Shortly after the revelation, Google released a statement claiming that it was already working on updates to enable the 90Hz refresh rate in more brightness conditions. These updates are now making their way to the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL alongside the November 2019 security patches.
Following the update, the displays on the two devices will stick to the 90Hz refresh rate under more circumstances. However, the two devices will exhibit different behavior. The Pixel 4 will switch to 90Hz whenever the display brightness is above 42% and the ambient brightness level will have no effect on the refresh rate. On the other hand, the Pixel 4 XL will stick to 90Hz irrespective of the display or ambient brightness. This difference in behavior can likely be boiled down to Google wanting to save battery life on the smaller Pixel 4. However, you can still enable the “force 90Hz” mode in Developer Options to get around the display brightness trigger.
It’s worth noting that these changes have led to another issue with the Pixel 4 XL. Since the device will now run at 90Hz in more situations, the display gamma bug is now more noticeable on it. Due to this, when you turn off and on the display, it applies the wrong gamma table and the display looks very contrasty and shifted towards a magenta hue.
“Only on the Pixel 4 XL when it’s running at 90Hz and you turn off and on the display, it applies the wrong gamma table and the display looks ridiculously contrasty and very magenta-shifted.” – Dylan Raga
