#GooglePlayServices

Google has started working on the aliro standard

The latest beta version of Google Play Service added a service named com.google.android.gms.aliro.service.AliroNfcApduService . It's currently disabled and it's just starting of the work on this standard. Just like Matter protocol, aliro will also be a part of Google Play Services.

What's aliro?
Apple, Google, and Samsung have teamed up with lock makers and chip makers, including Allegion (Schlage), Assa Abloy (Yale), Qualcomm, and NXP, to build an open standard for smart locks and digital keys, using devices like your smartphone or smartwatch. Launching Thursday, the effort is called Aliro, and if you’ve ever enjoyed using Apple’s Home Key technology on your watch or phone to unlock your door, you’ll be excited about this new standard.

Read full article on TheVerge about it - https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/9/23952637/csa-aliro-new-standard-smart-locks-digital-access

@GappsLeaks

Apple Vision Pro scratches at Level 3 with deeper grooves at Level 4!

In the JerryRig durability test and teardown video, Apple Vision Pro scratches at just level 3 only
Typically, plastic scratches at level 3 and your smartphone's glass scratches at level 6 with deeper grooves at level 7

Apple advertises that Vision Pro's front protective cover is laminated glass. This has a plastic interlayer to make it more resistant and less susceptible to shattering.

However, the Vision Pro’s laminated glass has a plastic layer placed on top of it.

This makes the Vision Pro’s external display extremely easy to scratch
In other words, this means that even dust can leave permanent scratches on the glass, and Apple charges 800$ to repair the front glass of the Vision Pro

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iPhone 16 Renders
Source

iPhone 16 will have a pill-shaped camera bump that features two separate camera rings for the Wide and Ultrawide cameras, adopting some of the stylistic cues from earlier prototype designs.
Inspired by iPhone X design

A vertical camera arrangement has remained consistent throughout the prototyping process, and Apple has not changed the position of the flash or the camera lenses with this latest update.

Apple might bring Spatial Video recording along with the Action Button and a new Capture Button too

There will be NO iPhone 16 Plus this time
However, the iPhone 16 Ultra will debut

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iPhone 16 series will feature a new Capture Button
Source

Apple has been toying with the size and design of the Action button for the ‌iPhone 16 Pro‌, but in the latest "Proto2" development stage, the company is sticking with a tried and true design.

Apple planned to include a capacitive Action button and Capture button, both of which were flush with the frame and featured force sensor technology.

The extra Capture Button will be located on the same side (right) as the Power button, thus shifting the mm-wave antenna to the left side

Capture button will respond to pressure and touch in photography.
iPhone users will be able to zoom in and out by swiping left and right on the button, focus with a light press, and activate a recording with a more forceful press.

The Capture Button will be available on ALL four iPhone 16 models including the base iPhone 16

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WhatsApp is working on its own version of Android's Nearby Share feature
Source

Google recently rebranded Nearby Share to “Quick Share” to better align with Samsung’s P2P file-sharing service of the same name and bring “the best of [their] sharing solutions together into a singular cross-Android solution under the Quick Share name”.

Now, WhatsApp is working on a new file-sharing feature — akin to Android Quick Share (previously Nearby Share) and Apple’s AirDrop.
It is currently under development and not ready for beta testing

WhatsApp users will be able to search for other users nearby by entering the new “People nearby” option.
Both the sender and receiver will need to have the option open on WhatsApp to initiate the transfer process.

Users will also be able to open WhatsApp and shake their device to view share requests.

WhatsApp's own nearby share feature will also keep information end-to-end encrypted.
User phone numbers will also be hidden for added privacy

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Google will no longer back up the Internet: Cached webpages are dead

Cached’ would let you see webpages as Google sees them, which was useful in a range of different situations like if a site is blocked in your region, Google’s cache can work as a great alternative to a VPN.

Google Search's "cached" links have long been an alternative way to load a website that was down or had changed.

But now, Google has removed links to page caches from its search results page
Also, the “cache:” search operator will also be going away “in the near future.”

So, Google Search will NO longer make site backups while crawling the web.

The death of cached sites will mean the Internet Archive (which works on donation) has a larger burden of archiving and tracking changes on the world's web pages.

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Google Pixel Fold 2 Live EVT stage images Leaked!
Source

Pixel Fold 2 codenamed 'Comet' will have a narrower cover screen compared to the 1st Gen Pixel fold, but the inner screen’s aspect ratio is closer to a square, indicating similar form factor like the OnePlus Open

Google’s form factor on Pixel Fold 2 is extremely rounded around the corners, while OnePlus & Samsung both focused on more squared-off designs.

The Pixel Fold 2 camera module will consists of four sensors
ts unclear (considering the image is blurry) if the fourth sensor is a thermometer sensor or if it’s a different sensor entirely, like a spectral/flicker or ToF sensor

NOTE: The Pixel Fold 2 is still in the EVT stage (Engineering Validation Test)
So, this is NOT the final design at all

The Pixel Fold 2 will be powered by Google Tensor G4 chip (skipping the Tensor G3).

So, the Pixel Fold 2 will launch alongside the Pixel 9 series in October

It will also come with LPDDR5X 16GB RAM with faster UFS 4.0 storage even

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iQOO Neo 9 Pro Indian pricing leaked!
Source

iQOO Neo 9 pro will launch on 23rd February in India and is now available for pre-ordering on Amazon India

Pre-order offers:
2 years Warranty
Extra Rs.1,000 OFF

Specifications:
• 6.78" 1.5K resolution 8T circuit Visionox LTPO OLED display
• 1~144Hz Variable refresh rate
• iQOO Q1 display chip
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC
• 6K VC liquid-cooling chamber
• 50MP main (IMX 920 VCS Bionic, OIS)
• 5160mAh battery with 120W fast charging
Click HERE for Full details

Leaked Prices:
8GB + 256GB = Rs.38,000 (~450$)
Bank Offers: Rs.3,000
Effective price: Rs.35,000

In China, Neo 9 Pro is available with 12GB RAM in the base model at just 320$

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Honor Protection Plan for Honor X9b announced

Honor x9b will launched in India on 15th February alongside Honor Pad 9 and Honor Choice X5 earbuds.
Honor Choice Watch will launch as well

Protection Plan:
• FREE mobile protection plan worth Rs 2,999 (powered by Onsite Go) 🤡
• One-time screen replacement, valid within 6 months of purchase 🤡
• Total 18 months warranty & door-to-door assistance
• Assured buyback with up to 90% value on X9b within 30 days 🤡

Main Specifications:
• 6.78-inch (1200x2652 px) 1.5K resolution Curved AMOLED Display
• Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC
• 108MP main (NO OIS) + 5MP UltraWide + 2MP useless triple rear camera
• 5800mAh battery with 35W fast charging

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Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 Variants

Here's a list of all Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 variants, including lower binned, under-clocked ones, etc

• 8+ Gen 1
• 8+ Gen 1 (SM8475p)
• 8+ Gen 1 + X65M
• 8+ Gen 1 UC
• 8+ Gen 1 UC + X65M
• 8+ Gen 1 + X24
• 8+ Gen 1 UC + X24
• 8+ Gen 1 ES + X62 (sb0/y0 -> 7+ Gen 2)

Under-clocked Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 was used in smartphones like Nothing Phone 2 or OnePlus 11R

8 Plus Gen 1 with X24 modem (4G/LTE) was used in devices from Huawei
8+ Gen 1 + X24 = Huawei P60/Pro|Mate X3
8+ Gen 1 UC + X24 = Huawei Mate 50/Pro

8+ Gen 1 ES + X62 (sb0/y0 -> 7+ Gen 2)
ES stands for engineering sample and sb0/y0 means they are "lowest binned" variant of Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 but capable for production
Basically the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 used in POCO F5/realme GT Neo 5 SE

8+ Gen 1 (SM8475p)
This is an overclocked tablet-specific variant & it is NOT any AC/AB variant
Used by Samsung and Lenovo in their tablets

In short, Qualcomm's cost-savings at its peak
Credits: @theVakhovskeIsTaken

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Google Bard is now Gemini

Google is rebranding Bard to Gemini and introducing a new Gemini Android app

Google Bard was based on Google Palm 2 LLM (Large Language model) which Google announced almost one year ago.

Then Google announced Gemini at its I/O event in May 2023 as its new LLM to replace Palm 2.
At that point, Bard transitioned from PaLM 2 to Gemini Pro.

Now, Google is rebranding Bard to Gemini which is based on Gemini Pro model
bard.google.com will also now redirect to gemini.google.com

Google has launched Gemini Advanced as well for solving highly complex tasks.
It is Google's MOST powerful AI model yet and is based on Gemini Ultra 1.0 model

Google has also announced Google One AI Premium plan costing $19.99 for US, €21.99 for EU & Rs.1950 in India per month

This plan provides access to Gemini Advanced with the Ultra 1.0 model, 2TB storage & Google VPN too
Google is also offering a 2-month FREE trial on this plan

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Here's a quick demo of Google Gemini on Android! Let me know how Gemini fares with your queries.

This is just a simple query, but there are "Extensions" you can enable that let you pull data from Google Flights, Google Hotels, Google Maps, Workspace, and YouTube.

Also, I didn't show it in the video, but Gemini can also be invoked by saying "Hey Google" or long-pressing the power button, as it replaces Google Assistant as the default Android assistant service.

Here's the Play Store link for Google Gemini, and attached to this post is the APK. The Gemini app isn't really standalone; it just acts as a shortcut to the Gemini entrypoint in the Google App, much like the Assistant and Lens "apps" on Google Play.

Note that you may need to be in the U.S. to access Gemini on Android right now.

#Gemini

Finally the shit worked for me (I live in India), but you definitely gonna need a US location account for it and spoof your device as Pixel 8 Pro ....☠️ So root is needed.

@GappsLeaks

#Gemini

Gemini is coming next week (Monday) for some other countries (!) as well including india.

https://twitter.com/JackK/status/1755648044518043944?s=19

So people, just chill.

@GappsLeaks

Samsung Galaxy A55 Official Renders Leaked
Source

Specifications:
• Samsung Exynos 1480 chipset
• 50MP main camera with OIS
• 5000mAh battery
• 25W fast charging
• Metal Frame
• IP68 water & dust protection

Exynos 1480 CPU:
4x Cortex cores @ 2.75GHz
4x Cortex cores @ 2.05GHz

It's over 30% faster than the Exynos 1380 & 5% faster than the latest Snapdragon 7 Gen 3

Surprisingly, Exynos 1480 would also support AV1 video codec in mid-rangers which ONLY flagship chips support with Snapdragon

GPU: Samsung Xclipse 530
Its based on AMD RDNA 2 Graphics instead of ARM Mali

Xclipse 530 is clocked at 1306MHz & has 1WGP and 2CU

Launching next month globally

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