The Pixel's December 2023 Feature Drop is rolling out today, and it brings a new feature I previously detailed called Repair Mode.

What is it and how does it work? Here's a first look at Repair Mode and an explanation of how it works under-the-hood.

This is a big moment for Google and Android. Google just announced Gemini 1.0, its latest LLM that takes on OpenAI's GPT4.

There are three different model sizes: Ultra, Pro, and Nano. Gemini Nano is optimized to run generative AI tasks on-device and is rolling out first to the Pixel 8 Pro. Gemini Nano powers the new Summarize in Recorder and Smart Reply in Gboard (which automatically suggests replies in WhatsApp) features, and will also power Assistant with Bard and other features in the future.

The Gemini Nano model is made available to the Pixel 8 Pro via an update to the AICore app I talked about before. AICore is a new system app in Android 14 that handles model updates, runtimes, safety features, and more.

AICore and Gemini Nano will be coming to more devices in the coming months. It takes advantage of ML hardware in silicon from Qualcomm, SLSI, and MediaTek.

If you want to build apps using Gemini Nano and AICore, Google is asking developers to sign up for their Early Access Program.

The December 2023 Pixel Feature Drop update rolls out with Android 14 QPR1, bringing the USB webcam feature, Repair Mode, major GPU driver updates for Tensor Pixels that improve performance, plenty of bug fixes, and lots of other new features in Google apps as shown above.

The build ID is UQ1A.231205.01X and is available for the Pixel 5a and later.

This Google Form says that Google is offering early access to "experimental Android APIs for running open source models on-device via new runtimes developed by Google."

That's in addition to the new Android APIs for running Google's Gemini Nano model on-device.

If you want to try the new Gboard Smart Reply feature on the Pixel 8 Pro, you need to go to Settings > Developer Options > AiCore Settings and toggle "Enable Aicore Persistent".

Then, open a WhatsApp conversation to see LLM-powered Smart Reply suggestions in Gboard's suggestion strip.

These suggestions are powered by Google's Gemini Nano model, which is rolling out to Pixel 8 Pro devices via an update to the AICore app, so if you don't see the new Smart Reply behavior yet, you may need to wait for the model to be downloaded in the background.

Google says this feature is currently available as a limited preview for US English in WhatsApp but that support for more apps is coming next year.

The December 2023 Feature Drop update brings a much newer Arm Mali GPU kernel driver to Tensor Pixels, which users report significantly improves performance in games like Genshin Impact and Fortnite!

The GPU kernel driver has been upgraded from r38p1 released on August 18, 2022 to r44p1, which was released on October 11, 2023 (H/T @mile_freak07). (The GPU kernel driver version in the current Android 14 QPR2 beta is still r44p1.)

If you have a Tensor Pixel, try out some games/GPU benchmarks and see if the performance has improved significantly for you.

Alex Mullis noticed a major performance improvement in Genshin Impact a few weeks back after the game's version 4.2 update. The game ran quite poorly on the Pixel 8's Android 14 stable release, but ran much better on the QPR beta.

User TechDroider did a performance comparison between stable Android 14 and Android 14 QPR2 Beta 1 in Fortnite.

Google has corrected its chart to reflect which devices Repair Mode is available on.

The new chart shows that Repair Mode is indeed available on the Pixel 6a, but also the Pixel 5a as well. This means Repair Mode is available on all currently supported Pixel phones.

Also, the new chart shows that contextual replies in Call Screen is NOT available on the Pixel 5a or the Pixel Tablet. The Pixel Tablet doesn't even have telephony, so it didn't make sense for it to support that.

TechCrunch is reporting that it's likely Apple has cut off Beeper Mini's access to iMessage.

"However, Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky responded to TechCrunch’s inquiry about Beeper Mini’s status by pointing us to the X post acknowledging the outage, and providing more detail. Asked if possibly Apple found a way to cut off Beeper Mini’s ability to function, he replied, 'Yes, all data indicates that.'"

Beeper Mini is back for now. The app is being made free to use but currently phone number registration does not work.

Android 14 QPR2 (March) Beta 2 is out!

List of fixes:
• Fixed an issue where battery usage information that was reported in system settings was sometimes incorrect.
• Fixed an issue where the fingerprint icon on the lock screen would sometimes display before other information had loaded in always-on display mode.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused the biometric prompt to crash, causing it to be dismissed before a user could interact with it.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused the Internet Quick Settings tile to indicate that there was no Wi-Fi connection, even when the device was connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Known issues:
• Sometimes when a user unlocks the device using their fingerprint, there is no haptic feedback.
• For Pixel Fold devices, sometimes after a user unlocks the device while it's folded, the inner display doesn't turn on after unfolding the device.
• The Assistant At a Glance widget sometimes displays weather information for the wrong location.

Build number: AP11.231020.016 → AP11.231117.006
Security Patch: December 2023

🔗 Android Beta

• OTA images

• Factory Images

Google News | En

Sweet: Android may soon make it even easier to switch Bluetooth devices. Once this rolls out, you won't have to dive into the full Bluetooth settings page just to change the actively connected device anymore!

This has the potential to completely upend how Google licenses GMS and distributes Android, but we'll have to wait and see exactly what remedies the judge in this case decides to levy.

From The Verge: "Epic win: Jury decides Google has illegal monopoly in app store fight"

According to Sean Hollister, who has been directly reporting on the case for the last few weeks, the jury "unanimously answered yes to every question put before them". Wow. Google will no doubt appeal the ruling, but that's rough.

Ironically, if Android were a more closed ecosystem, Epic might not have won this case. But because Android is distributed the way it is, Google feels the need to maintain control through things like RSA, MADA, etc, which made them look really bad in this case.

But if they didn't do such things, how much more fragmented would Android be, and how much could Google justify to continue pouring money into developing Android the way it currently does?

What would an Android that's developed/run by a foundation look like? Would it be anywhere near as successful as what it is today? We could discuss this for hours.

But back to the case, I do think it's a bit silly that Google could've won if they were more restrictive in distributing Android at all from the getgo.