#YouTube
iOS users are saved, PiP is back on YouTube
9To5Google

Google has decided to kick back the features deadline for another month for the YouTube Premium subscribers, to March 14th.

Follow @PixelHubUpdates

#Android
Privacy Sandbox arriving on Android soon to limit data sharing with in-app advertisement
Google Blog

To better protect users privacy, Google is rolling out Privacy Sandbox to Android soon.

Google explained that, more than 90% of the apps are free on Play Store, and digital advertising is one the reason that made it possible. In order to keep the industry "healthy," Google announced several " new, more private advertising solutions" so that limited amount of data will be shared with third parties and don't use cross-app identifiers which includes advertising ID. They are also working with many developers to help improve ads privacy on Android together.

Google is experimenting with it starting from now on and will release developer previews through the year 2022. Beta release of SDK Runtime and privacy-preserving APIs will be done by the end of 2022. Google will roll out Privacy Sandbox via Mainline modules so that all Android devices will get it much quicker without needing to wait for OEMs to release a system update.

#Workspace #Gmail
Gmail will let you pause mobile notifications when you are using it on the desktop
9To5Google

If you have your Gmail opened on your desktop and your mobile is somewhere around you and also signed in to the same account, when there's a new email arrived in your inbox, you might felt a little annoyed as your phone ringed to notify you but you've already know it from your desktop. Apparently Google is acknowledge about it and they're preparing a new feature.

There's chances that you might get to see a prompt telling you that you can temporary pause receiving email notifications on your mobile. Click on Continue and you will be proceed to allow the site permission “know when you’re actively using this device." To revoke the permission, you can go to Settings > Security and Privacy > Site Settings > Additional Permissions >Your device use and remove it from the list.

The feature is rolling out to only a few users, but you can probably try manually enabling it from the site settings permission.

#Workspace #Drive
Google Drive is rolling out search chips to better filter search results
Google Workspace Updates

Earlier Google has rolled out the feature but only for those who have signed up for the beta program, and after experimenting for a few months time, the feature is now starting to widely roll out.

This is something similar to what Google has announced for Gmail. Here's some explanations on how it works. After typing the keywords you want to search for, your can use different multiple chips to refine the results. Three are the filter chips that are available: File type, People, Location, Last modified and Tasks, Shared Drive labels, File noscripts only.

The feature is available to all existing Workspace users and might take up to two weeks to appear for everyone.

#News #Pixel
LineageOS 17.1 official support come to an end, first generation Pixel devices and other devices no longer receive update
Gerrit Review

LineageOS seems to be the only ROM out there to maintain two recent Android version officially at the same time, which means it manage to extend support for over 100 Android devices out there. Google Pixel and Pixel XL are being one of the prime example, but sadly, as LineageOS is continuing to go forward, ready to ship Android 12 official build, unfortunately these two devices will no longer receive weekly update from LineageOS anymore.

It isn't just these two Google devices, other devices from various manufacturers also had been unsupported, which is sad to see. There are a total of 36 devices being dropped from the official roaster.

Anyway, LineageOS 19.0, I am personally excited to see when it's finish developed, currently the team are still experimenting with it and slowly adding back the customisations they used to offer.

Follow @PixelHubUpdates

#Fonts
Google announced new font Roboto Serif for easier reading
Material Design Blog

Roboto is being created back in 2011 and the Android OS is also using it as the default font too. After more than 10 years time, Google announced another new font: Roboto Serif.

Google explained that Roboto Serif font is “designed to make reading more comfortable at any size, in any format.” The font was created as a variable font with four axes:
• Weight: 100–900
• Width: condensed, regular, extended
• Optical size: with or without size, 8–144
• Grade: -50–100

You can try out and download the font over at the Google Fonts website. If you had like to learn more about the font, you can also give the handbook a read.

#Google
Google Search desktop homepage gain Discover-like widget cards
9To5Google

Google, the search engine company has finally added something to their search homepage so that it doesn't feel boring anymore.

There are a total of six cards being displayed on the homepage. Here's some information of what does the card display:
• Weather: Condition (with) icon + temperature. Three-day forecast on hover
• Trending: Cover image with search count
• What to Watch: Shows and movies with cover art
• Stocks/markets: Day graph on hover
• Local Events: With date
• COVID News

The cards aren't widely rolling out for now. There's also option to hide the cards if you prefer to have a cleaner homepage. Anyway, hope Google could quickly roll out this feature and probably do the same thing for Chrome's New Tab page too.

#Android
Google will let you remove Android advertising IDs entirely soon on older Android version
Mishaal Rahman (2)

Google has earlier rolled out the ability to delete advertising ID on Android 12 devices, and soon they will be doing it for older Android versions too.

The option will be available over at the Google section in your device system settings > Ads. You will then see an option to delete advertising ID, tapping on it will bring you to another page detailing all the information. Besides that, Google will also require apps to list out com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID permission to query advertising IDs on Android 12 and later. The catch here is apps targeted at mostly kids won't have the permission to do that, which means no ads-targeting for kids apps.

Both of these will go effective starting April 1st, and you can learn more about how advertising ID on Android works over at the support page.

#Updates #Pixel6
Google released an unexpected update for Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro
9To5Google

UPDATE: The new update apparently only bring in missing fixes.

Google has just released February security patch update for all supported Pixel devices over a week ago. And just today, Google released another new update only for the Pixel 6 series.

It's unclear what's changes are being made to the updated build, probably to fix the Wi-Fi issue that a few users faced earlier? No one knows for now except Google themselves. We will keep you updated about it if there's any information regarding it.

Download:
*Build ID: SQ1D.220205.004
• Pixel 6: Factory Image | OTA
• Pixel 6 Pro: Factory Image | OTA

Follow @PixelHubUpdates

#Android #GooglePlay #PlayStore
Play Store now show the required Android OS version in the app info listing
9To5Google

Earlier Play Store has just added installation progress app icon on the home screen, and recently they quietly added the required Android version to install the app in the app info listing.

Simply open any app listing and go to App info, you will see that Google added "Android OS" section. This section simply tell you what's the minimum required Android version to install the app, to be exact it's the APKs variant. This is something what the web version has offered a while but for some apps that offered multiple APK bundles, it will only show up "Varies with device."

The new changes has already widely roll out to all recent Play Store version.

#Updates #Pixel6
The new update for Pixel 6 series only added back some missing fixes
Daniel Micay | Previous post

A few hours ago, it is spotted that Google released a new update for the Pixel 6 series, but there isn't any known changes at first. Apparently someone had already investigated the build difference.

According to Daniel Micay, founder of GrapheneOS, he mentioned that the new update for Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro only "added a missing security fix in AOSP, updated Camera HAL APEX and patched Samsung RIL HAL library." There isn't a single change in APN or carrier configuration, modem firmware is also untouched.

That's pretty much the changes made in the new update. The OTA update weigh around 10.25MB. And about the Wi-Fi issues, most people said they aren't facing it at all, so it's a false alarm and safe to update after all.

Edit: The audio firmware has also been updated
flawedworld

#News
Material You Dynamic Color theming engine by Google is now open source
Material Design Blog

Soon all Android 12 devices will be getting the Material You with dynamic theming engine out of the box. Before that, Google has just release the source code for the dynamic theming system, and also explained how does it works.

Material You dynamic color is based on Google's own HCT color system. They explained the new color system "is built on existing work," defining "many perceptually accurate color spaces."

Besides, they also explained how the dynamic theme works on Android. When applying wallpaper, it will be quantized , they determined top-ranked color by algorithm, which will become the main accent color. With that, they continued using it and create 4 new palettes. bringing the total palette number to 5.

Material Color Utilities is where all the open source libraries for the dynamic theming engine are located. Soon it will be also available for iOS, CSS via SASS, and GLSL shaders.

#YouTube
YouTube will soon let creators to create image polls in their channel community section
XDA Developers

YouTube is apparently preparing to let creators create image poll and post them in their channel community section.

XDA Developers did an APK teardown and found out that there are strings which mentioned the new feature (<string name="post_creation_quickstart_image_poll_button">Image Poll</string>). So far till now, YouTube has only gave the ability to create text polls,

The new feature isn't going live yet and there isn't any other info on when this feature will start to make its appearance.

#Apps #Gboard
Gboard can check for grammar mistake on other Pixel phones now
9to5Google

A few months ago, Google rolled out grammar check feature for their Pixel 6 series, and now the feature is making its way to older Pixel phones.

The feature, as the name implies, helps you to find out grammatical errors while you are typing. For now, the feature is supporting English only. If the featured has rolled out for you, it already enabled by default, but if you don't like the feature, you can always choose to turn it off from Gboard settings > Text correction, then toggle the "Grammar check" option.

The feature seems to be live on the app version 11.4.08 beta only, and is currently exclusive for older (supported) Pixel phones.

Download (11.4.08 beta):
Play Store | APKMirror

#Pixel7
Google Pixel 7 first leak is out, teasing codename and new Tensor chip
9to5Google

First batch information of the Pixel 7 series is here, but not much about the specs for now.

9to5Google discovered new info from the Android 13 Developer Preview 1 build about it. Apparently, the new codename for the Pixel 7 family will be related to cat, respectively "cheetah" and "panther" for the Pro models.

Besides that, there are also more info about the 2nd generation Tensor chip. It's spotted that the chipset will include a new Samsung modem with the model number "g5300b," which hinted it would come with Exynos Modem 5300, but this is unconfirmed yet.

Lastly, there's another device codename being founded, named "ravenclaw." That device is believe to be an internal testing device, which use a Pixel 6 Pro body and equipped it with the GS201 Tensor chip. In case you missed it, Google had done something similar with the Pixel 5.

This will sum up the Pixel 7 leaks for now, as Google start to work more on the Pixel 7, more info will be leaked and we will keep you updated about it here.

#ChromeOS
Gaming on ChromeOS is coming with a specsheet for Steam to run.
9To5Google

Google has introduced an initial list of supported Chromebook models, along with a few extra minimum specs they’ll need to have. Your Chromebook needs to have an (11th gen) Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and a minimum of 7 GB of RAM. This eliminates almost all Chromebooks but those in the upper-mid range and high end.

Steam supported Chromebooks:

Volta – Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-1H)
Volet – Acer Chromebook 515
Voxel – Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W)
Delbin – ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5500)
Drobit – ASUS Chromebook CX9 (CX9400)
Elemi – HP Pro c640 G2 Chromebook
Lindar – Unknown/unreleased Chromebook from Lenovo

At the same time, Nvidia has been actively working on making it possible for Chromebooks to have a discrete graphics card, which is strictly used for intensive usage - like the virtual machine that will be used by Steam. Considering there aren’t any Chromebooks on the current list that offer a dGPU, surely there are more supported models to be added in the future.