Credit: Robert Triggs / Android Authority
The OnePlus Nord is coming this month, and the company has already revealed that it will be a sub-$500 smartphone at the very least. We also know the phone will largely be missing North America, and we now know all the launch countries too.
The manufacturer and serial tipster Ishan Agarwal both noted the list this week, saying these countries will be eligible for pre-orders. It’s also interesting to note that all these OnePlus Nord launch countries are restricted to Europe. You can check out the list below.
It’s worth noting that while India isn’t on this particular list of OnePlus Nord launch/pre-order countries, Indian users can pre-order the phone via Amazon India. In any event, the European and Indian availability lines up with the firm’s previous statements.
North American users at large won’t be able to buy the phone, but OnePlus confirmed yesterday that a “select number” of users on the continent would be able to participate in a limited beta program after launch.
This latest news comes shortly after Qualcomm confirmed that the OnePlus Nord will pack one of its 5G chipsets. The phone is rumored to offer a Snapdragon 765 series processor, so this seems like the most likely option.
Google has launched many social networking services that have never caught on with the general public. That includes Google Plus, which started out in 2011 with a lot of hype, but finally closed in 2019. In June 2020, the company quietly revealed it was working on a more modest social networking project, Google Keen.
So what is Google Keen? That’s what we are going to reveal right now.
Google Keen was first revealed in a Medium.com post by company team member Cj Adams. In his post, he said that the idea for the service came about when his wife wanted to share information, links, and more about her birding hobby with her husband. Adams, along with three other Google team members, decided they wanted to create a service that made sharing info and resources about hobbies easier.
The four members worked on Keen as part of Google’s Area 120 experimental project division. They also collaborated with the company’s People and AI Research (PAIR) team, which is developing machine learning-based systems to help people out.
The service is currently available as a web app at Staykeen.com. It’s also available as an Android mobile app, via a web wrapper.
The service is free to use, although you will need to access it via a free Google account.
In the end, Google Keen both looks and operates a bit like the popular Pinterest service. When you sign up with your free Google account, all you have to do is type in a title. For example, you may be interested in the original Star Trek TV show. On both the Keen web site or via the web mobile app, just type in Star Trek The Original Series, and then tap or click on the Next box in the bottom right corner
You will then see a series of Google Search-related web links based on your title. Click or tap on the links that are closest to your interest. Finally, click or tap on the Create box, again in the bottom right corner.
You should see your newly created Keen page. Click on it and you will be taken to your main page. There are three tabs on your Keen page. The one that’s displayed first is Explore, where you can see the articles that are shown on your subject via a Google Search. There’s another tab called Gems, and each entry in the Explore page has a gem icon on it. Tap or click on the gems to save the articles you most want to access on your page. Finally, there’s a Searches tab, which allows you to add more search topics to your Keen page.
You can manually add new photos, links, or even texts on your Keen page via the Add button on top. You can also use the button to add more via search or you can add new sections to your Keen page. There’s also the Edit button, which allows you to add more collaborators to your page. Finally, there’s the Share button, which lets you send a link to your Keen page to anyone, or invite someone to access and add to the page.
One interesting think about this service is that it uses machine learning to offer up suggestions for new links and content for your page on a regular basis.
Google Keen is designed as an experiment, and it’s currently in its infancy. Many of the company’s Area 120 projects end up shutting down, although features from these projects sometimes show up in other products. It will be interesting to see if Keen will end up in its own stand-alone service, or if it will also be shut down.
Have you signed up for Keen, and if so what has your experience been like with the service?
It seems like the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is approaching fast. The firmware for the new smartwatch has now popped up online and serial tipster Max Weinbach has dissected it to reveal some new features.
To start with, Weinbach reports that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 will be getting a bunch of new watch faces. Some of these watch faces will also display activity, heart-rate, and other information on the edges. The tipster says that these outside lines are called “Informative Digital Edge” and are customizable in terms of color and the information that they present. You can scroll through Weinbach’s tweet thread below to check out all the watch faces for the Galaxy Watch 3.
I really like this one https://t.co/RoWsuuKBQk pic.twitter.com/vvx9AtxQyS
— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) June 30, 2020
Moving on, the Galaxy Watch 3 is also reportedly getting a revamped weather app. The app will now display backgrounds that match the weather that it’s showing. For instance, if it’s cloudy or raining, the app’s background will change accordingly to reflect the weather conditions outside. Here’s how that’ll look.
Next up is a new health-tracking feature for women. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 firmware shows that it’ll add support for menstruation tracking. Besides this, there’s also a new weekly preview feature in the calendar app that’ll make it easy for users to glance through the week’s events.
Samsung is adding cycle tracking pic.twitter.com/Jt6RPz2jUr
— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) June 30, 2020
Other additions to the Galaxy Watch 3 include rich notification icons, new app icons, a new music widget, and the Outlook email app instead of Samsung Email. Weinbach also confirms that there’s 8GB internal storage on the watch, 5.3GB of which is available to users. He adds that Spotify will come preinstalled on the Galaxy Watch 3 in the US.
You can see a summary of all the new Galaxy Watch 3 features discovered from the firmware in the tweet below.
To sum up what I found in the GW3 firmware:
Rich notification icons
New watch faces
New weather app
Outlook replaces Samsung Email (further going with my theory Samsung email will be replaced by Outlook)
New Music widget
Information edges in watch faces
More customizable faces— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) June 30, 2020
Head to our dedicated Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 rumor hub to know more about the upcoming smartwatch.
Credit:
Xiaomi/Lazada Malaysia
We’ve known about the Redmi 9A and Redmi 9C for a couple of weeks now, and Xiaomi Malaysia teased the launch earlier this week. Now, the regional division has launched the budget-focused phones in the market, and you’re looking at two very cheap devices.
Xiaomi Malaysia confirmed on Facebook that the Redmi 9A starts at 359 Malaysian Ringgit (~$84), making it a very affordable purchase. However, the phone will have a flash sale price of 319 Malaysian Ringgit (~$75) when it goes on sale on July 7. For the price, you’re getting a 6.53-inch HD+ screen, MediaTek Helio G25 chipset, 2GB RAM, 32GB expandable storage, a 5,000mAh battery, and a single 13MP rear camera (plus a 5MP selfie shooter).
Meanwhile, the Xiaomi Redmi 9C has a recommended price of 429 Malaysian Ringgit (~$100), and you’re getting a couple of extras for the price. More specifically, you’re getting a slightly better Helio G35 SoC, a rear fingerprint scanner, and a 13MP triple camera setup. Otherwise, you’ve still got the same screen, battery size, and selfie camera.
This also marks the first time we see MediaTek’s Helio G25 and G35 processors, and the Taiwanese firm has been marketing them as gaming-focused SoCs. But truth be told, these chips look like the previously announced Helio P22 and Helio P35 processors.
We’ve got the same octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU (albeit at 2Ghz and 2.3Ghz respectively), a budget-focused PowerVR GE8320 GPU, and a 12nm manufacturing process. However, the firm says these chips are equipped with the HyperEngine suite of technologies, allowing for more efficient resource management, and faster switching between Wi-Fi and LTE.
Nevertheless, we wouldn’t recommend buying phones with these processors specifically for gaming, but these new devices still look like great entry-level phones for the price. We’ve contacted Xiaomi for more details on wider availability and will update the article accordingly.
Hulu is one of the most popular streaming services in the US. However, some users with ISP bandwidth caps or limited data on their wireless plan may have a big question to answer: How much data does Hulu use?
It’s definitely a concern, but the good news is that we can give you the information on Hulu data usage. That way, if you are faced with a bandwidth cap or limited data plan, you can prepare in advance. You can sign up for Hulu right now at the link below with a 30-day free trial.
When streaming from Hulu’s on-demand library of movies and TV shows in SD or HD quality, the minimal amount needed is 1.5 Mbps. The recommended download speed for Hulu data usage is 3 Mbps. If you are streaming any of the service’s 4K content, the bandwidth needed is much higher, at 16 Mbps.
Keep in mind that Hulu data usage at home on your network connection might need even more bandwidth if there’s is more than one device streaming Hulu video, or if devices are using your connection for other matters, like video conferencing and gaming.
If you are accessing the Live TV section of Hulu, you will need a minimum of 8 Mbps to stream its content on your home network or via a cellular connection.
If you stream at the minimal amount, you will be using 0.65 GB of data an hour. In terms of how much data does Hulu use per hour on the recommended setting, that goes up to 1.3 GB. If you want to know how much data does Hulu use per hour on 4K video content, it’s much higher at 7 GB. When streaming Hulu Plus Live TV content, the amount goes to 3.5 GB.
Netflix claims that streaming its SD videos will use 1 GB of data per hour, and it will use about 3 GB of data an hour for streaming HD video. Based on those number, it appears that Hulu does not use more data than Netflix, although it’s not by much.
You have some control over the amount of data the services uses. Here’s how to change the data settings.
If you are on a limited cellular connection on your smartphone or tablet, you might want to consider downloading Hulu movies and TV shows for offline viewing while you are on your home internet network. You can learn how to do that in our dedicated article.
That’s our look at how much data does Hulu use. Will you be signing up for the service?
Read: Best movies on Hulu | Best TV shows on Hulu
Credit: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
A Redmi 9 series leak earlier this month noted that three phones in the family were coming. More specifically, the leak pointed to the Redmi 9, Redmi 9A, and the Redmi 9C.
The Redmi 9 has already launched in China and Europe, which just leaves the Redmi 9A and Redmi 9C. Fortunately, Xiaomi Malaysia has now confirmed that these two phones do indeed exist, and they’re coming soon.
Xiaomi’s Malaysian arm took to Facebook to tease the phones, noting that they’ll offer big screens and big batteries. The division also revealed that the devices will launch tomorrow (June 30). Hopefully this means a wider launch isn’t far behind.
We already have a good idea of what to expect from these Xiaomi phones thanks to the prior leak from Twitter tipster Sudhanshu. The leaker was mostly correct about the Redmi 9’s specs, save for the chipset being slightly different. So it stands to reason that the other specs are on the right track too.
The tipster notes that the two upcoming phones will share a 6.53-inch HD+ screen, 5,000mAh battery, 5MP selfie camera, 3GB of RAM, 3.5mm port, a fingerprint scanner, IR blaster, and USB-C.
Otherwise, the Redmi 9C looks like the more expensive option, apparently touting an unannounced Helio G35 SoC, 64GB of storage, and a triple rear camera (13MP+5MP+2MP). Meanwhile, the Redmi 9A is said to have a Helio G25 SoC, 32GB of storage, and a solitary 13MP rear camera. This particular model will presumably replace the Redmi 8A as one of the cheapest phones in Xiaomi’s family.
We’ll need to wait until tomorrow to see whether these rumored specs line up with the real deal. But hopefully these phones are well-priced, much like earlier Redmi offerings.
Imagine you’re listening to your favorite track on Spotify on full blast and browsing Facebook at the same time. Suddenly, you spot a dog video you want to play out, and a shrill barking sound bursts through your ear canal as you frantically press the volume down button to adjust it to acceptable levels. On Windows PCs, you have the ability to customize the volume output for specific apps to avoid something like this from happening. Soon, you’ll also have a similar feature on your Xiaomi phone.
A future MIUI feature will let you adjust the volume levels for different apps such as YouTube, Facebook, Spotify, and more. It’s called “Sound Assistant” and will soon be accessible on all phones that have the updated MIUI 12 skin.
You’ll be able to trigger the Sound Assistant on your Xiaomi phone by simply pressing the volume up/down keys while playing videos or listening to music. But first, you’ll need to enable the feature through the settings app.
Follow the steps below to activate Sound Assistant on your MIUI 12 phone. Once you’ve turned it on in settings, you’ll be able to customize the volume on each app on your phone.
It’s really cool of Xiaomi to add this customizable audio feature on MIUI. However, the company notes that the feature is only available on the MIUI 12 China Beta ROM right now and will be released globally at a later date.
Wondering if you can do this on your stock Android phones? The answer is no. Stock Android doesn’t have the ability to adjust individual app sound levels. However, you can download third-party apps like App Volume Control Pro on your Android phones to set different volumes for different apps.
Want to know more about MIUI 12 and when your phone will get the latest software? Then check out our MIUI 12 hub.
