#GooglePlay #PlayStore
Play Store will show applications that works well for large screen devices soon
Android Developers Blog

You might have probably know that not every app on the Play Store are optimised for large screen devices, and Google wanted to solve this issue by making some changes to the Play Store.

Play Store will surface applications by ranking, which will check for basic compatibility requirements like supporting portrait and landscape modes, keyboard and stylus integration. This will affect what users will see on the homepage and search result.

For applications that don't met the requirement, you will see an alert popup when installing it, and Google hope this change can "help set expectations for how apps will look and function post-install.” Lastly, the ratings and reviews of the app are split by device type, so if you are on a tablet, you will only see tablets' users rating, vice versa. This has been announced back in last August.

#News #A12L
Lenovo P12 Pro received Android 12L Beta 3 build
9To5Google

Android 12L stable build is already made available for Pixel devices, but the only tablet to get Android 12L build so far is Lenovo P12 Pro, which has received Beta 1 and Beta 2 build respectively at a later date, and now Beta 3 build has arrived for the tablet too.

The Android 12L Beta 3 build comes with February security patch and several improvements. You can download the build over at Lenovo developer website, and follow the instructions that are listed to flash it on the tablet.

For now, there isn't any announcement regarding the stable release of Android 12L for the tablet, but it should be coming anytime soon.

#Android
Upcoming Switch to Android iOS app could transfer your iCloud data to Google Photos
9To5Google

Last July, teardown of the Data Restore Tool application revealed Google is working on "Switch to Android" iOS app, which will make it much easier to transfer all your data from your iPhone to your new Android phone.

Recently, an update is being issued for the Data Restore Tool app to version 1.0.430697386, and 9To5Google has managed to discover new strings which hinted toward new features that are under development.

One of them being the ability to transfer images and videos from iCloud to Google Photos. There will be support page which will guide users on how to do it, and it could take up to a week to finish transferring all the media depend on how big the total media size is.

Besides, the application would allow users to copy data by using Lightning cable. There isn't much information being revealed about this part, so it isn't confirmed whether you could use this method to transfer your data.

#ChromeOS
ChromeOS is getting rebrand without the space
9To5Google

Chrome OS, the operating system which comes preinstalled with Chromebooks, is about to get a minor rebranding to "ChromeOS."

9To5Google spotted a code change which will change over 1,000 instance of "Chrome OS" to just "ChromeOS." This will change the branding text across Chromebook users over to internal developments. It's not just Chrome OS, the open source version of the same software, Chromium OS is also getting rebranded to "ChromiumOS" without the space in the middle too.

With that said, the changes has yet to be merge and there is no official announcement on the rebranding for now.

#Wallpapers #ChromeOS
Chromebooks will get new 'Radiance' wallpapers collection
Android Police

Google periodically released new wallpapers for Pixel devices, and they also did it for Chromebooks too but less frequently. Anyway, Google seems to be preparing a new wallpaper collection for it soon.

This wallpaper collection contained eight new wallpapers designed by Daniel Medina, with a mix of natural and artificial graphics included, which just looks stunning. All these wallpapers also come with light and dark variant.

It will be available on all Chromebooks in the coming months. If you want to get access to these new wallpapers early, you could find them in Google's wallpaper staging server via enabling chrome:flags#use-wallpaper-staging-url flag. If you want to use it on your other devices, you could download the wallpaper down below or over here.

#Wallpapers #ChromeOS
ChromeOS "Radiance" Wallpapers Collection
Related post: Chromebooks will get new 'Radiance' wallpapers collection

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#Android #A13
Pixel Launcher can show Google Photos search result in Android 13
9to5Google

If you have used Pixel Launcher on Android 12, you might have noticed the new powerful search bar capability, which can search for settings, files on your phone, app shortcuts, etc. Recently, Google seems to be experimenting with showing Google Photos result in the launcher too.

So far, it can only showed up your device's Screenshots folder, other queries don't work for now. It's great that you could just search for something, Google Photos will then surface pictures that contained the things you searched for and you can open the pictures directly by tapping on the result. Also, you could just share pictures directly by long-pressing the pictures shown.

By the way, it could make its way to Android 12 in my opinion, since there isn't any major changes on Android 13, and it's also an A/B test, time will tell.

#News #Android #YouTube #PlayStore
Australian will be required to verify age with ID to use YouTube and Google Play on Android
Google Blog

Google Australia has announced that Android users will need to provide valid ID for age verification in order to continue using some of the services.

This part of the changes is due to the Australian Online Safety (Restricted Access Systems) Declaration, requiring platforms to take reasonable steps to check whether the users are older than 18 in order to access potentially inappropriate contents for users under the age of 18.

Not every content uploaded on YouTube and Play Store are suitable for kids to view, hence Google had to implement age-verification process for users in Australia.

When Google detected the user is accessing mature content and they can't verify the user's age, it will show a popup which will ask you to verify your age with your credit card or ID. All these information that are uploaded will be keep with Google's Privacy and Security Principles.

#Apps #Auto
Android Auto USB diagnostics tool could help you check your cable quality
Mishaal Rahman

USB cable quality decrease over time as you used, and Android Auto new USB diagnostics tool can help you find out whether the USB cable you are using have a good connection or not.

The tool is located at Android Auto Settings > Connection help. You can then use it to check whether the cable you're using is having any issues or not. In the support page, Google recommend to use 3 feet or shorter high-quality USB cable and don't use USB hubs or cable extensions.

The USB diagnostics tool is available directly with the Android Auto app version 7.5.121104.

Download (7.5.121104):
Play Store | APKMirror

#Pixel #PixelNotepad
Pixel Notepad production set to start around Q3 2022
TheGalox_ (Twitter)

Pixel Notepad is rumored to be the first Google's foldable, and apparently it might launched sometimes this year.

TheGalox_ mentioned that the production of the foldable is starting around Q3 2022. If that's the case, we could see Pixel Notepad launching at the same time as Pixel 7 soon. The tipster also said the foldable will be priced at $1399, which is same as what 9to5Google had told earlier.

If you're wondering how the Pixel Notepad looks like, it shared similar design with Oppo Find N. Specifications and camera setup of the foldable are also leaked earlier.

#News #StopRussianAggression
Google will match $5 million donation for Ukraine relief efforts
Google.org

Google themselves have already donate over total of $25 million to support people in the Ukraine to pass through the difficulties time, and now they hope to further aid relief efforts by opening up donation platform for people to donate.

There are three humanitarian organisations which are committed to collect donation from Google.org to fund Ukraine relief efforts, there are UNHCR, UNICEF, and World Food Programme. Google.org will be matching $5 million in donations through the end of April, and all of your donations will be directly send to these organisations.

Google is also starting to show banner in Gmail to encourage more people donate and support Ukraine relief efforts. On the Google homepage, it is also showing similar stuff under the search bar.

*If you have the abilities to do so, give some support to the people in need, good deeds will be rewarded :)

#Android #A13
Android 13 Developer Preview 2 released!
Second Developer Preview build of Android 13 is finally here!

Release date: March 17, 2022
Build version: TPP2.220218.010
Security patch level: March 2022

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#Android #A13
Android 13 Developer Preview 2 Changelog
https://developer.android.com/about/versions/13/release-notes#whats-new-dp2

#Android #A13
Android 13 Developer Preview 2 Download for Google Pixel devices:
Pixel 4: Factory Images | OTA
Pixel 4 XL: Factory Images | OTA
Pixel 4a: Factory Images | OTA
Pixel 4a 5G: Factory Images | OTA
Pixel 5: Factory Images | OTA
Pixel 5a: Factory Images | OTA
Pixel 6: Factory Images | OTA
Pixel 6 Pro: Factory Images | OTA

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#Android #A13
Android 13 can show applications running in the foreground
Introducing Foreground Services (FGS) Task Manager, now you can stop running applications from the notification panel. When pressing the "Stop" button, the entire application services just stop, including background.

When the system detected the application is running in the foreground for too long, at least 20 hours within a 24-hour window, the system will notify you about it and guide you to interact with the FGS Task Manager.

By the way, the settings & power menu panel has been shifted to the bottom right, as shown in the illustrations.

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#Android #A13
Notification is a runtime permission in Android 13
Android 13 has set notifications as a runtime permission. Applications will need to target Android 13 or later in order to get the additional control of the feature. App developers can learn more about how the feature works over here.

Follow @PixelHubUpdates

#Android #A13
Android 13 brought back "Show touches on screen" option in screen recording
Mishaal Rahman

Android 12L has already reached stable release but Google dropped a feature from the screen recording, Show touches on screen. The developers mentioned it is due to a bug with the cursor being drawn, so they had removed it. With Android 13 Developer Preview 2, they seems to have resolved the issue and it might make a comeback soon.

As shown by Mishaal Rahman, tapping on the Screen record quick settings tile bring up the option. It is nice to see Google didn't abandon the feature at least, hopefully it could successfully made its way till the final release.

#Android #A13
Text conversion API helps user type faster in Chinese & Japanese
Android 13 introduced text conversion API which will help users find what they're looking for faster and easier.

Before that, people who often typed in Japanese and Chinese languages needed to use phonetic lettering input methods, resulting in slowed down searching and features like auto- completion.

Without the help of text conversion API, here's how a Japanese user will search for something:
1, Input Hiragana as the phonetic pronunciation of their search term (such as a place or an app name)
2. Use the keyboard to convert the Hiragana characters to Kanji
3. Re-search using the Kanji characters
4. Finally get their search results

With the new text conversion API, Japanese users can type in Hiragana and immediately see Kanji search results live, skipping steps 2 and 3, giving users a quicker typing experience.

There isn't really any illustrations to demonstrate how it works for now, but if you usually typed in Chinese or Japanese, once you get your hands on with it, you will get to know how well it works, hopefully you will be able to find out the difference.

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#Android #A13
Android 13 added Privacy Control quick settings tile
Mishaal Rahman

Android 12 has added two toggles which let you completely disable your device's camera and microphone. On Android 13, they are being merged into one tile with the additional of GPS too.

Below the permission tile is a shortcut which opens the security settings. So far, the whole UI doesn't seem to be complete yet.