Quick Shots-302

Oppo is allegedly working on two foldable smartphones to be launched internationally

Oppo’s first foldable device, the Find N, was very well received but unfortunately it never officially made it out of China. However, the company seems to have very different plans for this fall, if the newest rumor on the matter is to be believed.

Apparently Oppo is going to launch not one, but two foldable smartphones in the coming weeks, and both of them will be sold internationally, unlike the Find N. These may be called Find N Fold and Find N Flip, as these names have recently been trademarked with the EU Intellectual Property Office.

From Gsmarena

Pixel Watch with short battery life hinted at by Fitbit app APK teardown

In a recent APK (Android Package Kit) teardown, conducted by 9to5Google, the Fitbit app appears to support suspicions about the Pixel Watch and its estimated battery life.

If you’re familiar with Fitbit, then you may know that all of Fitbit’s gadgets have the ability to track your sleep as long as you’re wearing them. Fitbit Premium subscribers can even get personalized insights and recommendations on how to improve their sleep.

During the Pixel Watch’s reveal at Google I/O earlier this year, Google confirmed that the device will include a full suite of Fitbit features, including sleep tracking. It’s the updated data on this feature, found from the APK teardown, that allows us a window into what the smartwatch’s potential battery life may be.

In the data, 9to5Google found that the latest update includes new in-app text related to evening charge reminders for the Pixel Watch. When enabled, the watch will recommend that you charge your device to at least 30% before going to bed.

It’s important to note that an APK teardown focuses on in-progress features. As a result, there’s no guarantee that said features will actually roll out.

While there’s not enough information here to pull out some concrete numbers, the fact that a reminder would need to be there in the first place isn’t exactly reassuring, especially when Fitbit smartwatches don’t have this warning. Also, most people spend around 30% of their 24-hour day sleeping, lending credence to rumors suggesting the watch could have somewhere around a 24-hour battery life.

For a smartwatch you plan on using throughout the day, this isn’t exactly ideal. If your watch is at 10% before you go to bed and you need to charge it, how long would you have to stay up before your watch is ready? Having a fast charging feature could help definitely help in this case. And speaking of charging, will the Pixel Watch come with wireless charging, or will you need a charger by your bed at all times?

We likely won’t get the answers to these questions until we get closer to launch time. But at least it sounds like the Pixel Watch’s battery life could be longer than the 18 hours of battery life you get out of an Apple Watch Series 7.

From Android Central

vivo Y22 stops by Geekbench ahead of its official launch

Last August vivo launched the Y21 and now here we are a year later waiting for a successor. We won’t have to wait long, though, by the looks of it, as a vivo Y22 prototype (not to be confused with the Y22 from 2013) was just spotted in the Geekbench database.

This has revealed that it’s powered by MediaTek’s Helio G85 SoC, unlike the Y21 which had to make do with the Helio P35. Like its predecessor, the Y22 has 4GB of RAM. The Y22 runs Android 12 of course, and its model number is V2207, as established in the past by various certification agencies.

From Gsmarena

iQOO Z6 5G variant with 80W charging is allegedly on its way

iQOO is allegedly working on a new variant to add to its popular Z6 lineup. Rumors are still vague, but they claim that the iQOO Z6 5G will offer 80W fast charging. The iQOO Z6 5G would be joining a current trio of siblings within the Z6 line. There is the iQOO Z6 Pro with its 66W charging, the iQOO Z6 – a 4G phone with 44W charging and the iQOO Z6 5G, which was unveiled in India back in March with 18W charging.

From Gsmarena

Now You Can Pop Into Stadia Directly from Google Search

Google is working on making cloud games easier to find on its search page. The company hasn’t officially announced the feature publicly, but Ars Technica and The Verge have confirmed that the new Play Now ability showed up for them in separate instances.

Play Now essentially adds cloud gaming links to the landing page for the game you’re searching for so that you can instantly hop in from the Google Search page. Clicking the Stadia option should just boot the game up, while links for other services will take you to their own webpages. It seems the feature has just started rolling out, so don’t fret if you don’t see it pop up yet. It showed up for Gizmodo’s deputy editor of consumer tech, Michelle Ehrhardt, but only for Destiny 2. Sorry to my editor, who now has an active Stadia account.

From Gizmodo

Facebook will begin testing end-to-end encryption as default on Messenger app

Facebook announced on Thursday it will begin testing end-to-end encryption as the default option for some users of its Messenger app on Android and iOS.

The development comes as the company is facing backlash for handing over messages to a Nebraska police department that aided the department in filing charges against a teen and her mother for allegedly conducting an illegal abortion.

Facebook messenger users currently have to opt in to make their messages end-to-end encrypted (E2E), a mechanism that theoretically allows only the sender and recipient of a message to access its content.

But had all Facebook messages been encrypted by default back in June when Nebraska police issued a search warrant for Facebook user data of the mother investigated in the case, Facebook would not have messages to hand over to police in the first place.

Facebook spokesperson Alex Dziedzan said on Thursday that E2E encryption is a complex feature to implement and that the test is limited to a couple of hundred users for now so that the company can ensure the system is working properly.

From The Guardian

VLC Media Player banned in India, website and VLC download link blocked

One of the most popular media player software and streaming media server VLC media player, developed by VideoLAN project, is banned in India. As per a report by MediaNama, VLC Media Player has been banned in India, but this happened nearly 2 months ago. However, if you have the software installed on your device, it should still be working. Meanwhile, neither the company nor the Indian government revealed any details about the ban.

VLC Media Player has responded to India Today Tech saying that the ban took place in February 13.

From India Today

Watch out Nvidia – new AMD RDNA 3 GPU leak promises big things

AMD’s next-gen graphics cards are rumored to be somewhat different than previously expected spec-wise, going by a new leak – and while there’s a bit of disappointment about some assertions made in this fresh spillage, there’s really nothing to worry about. Indeed, it’s likely Nvidia that’ll be worrying over some of the info floated here…

Before we get into why that might be the case, let’s examine the leak itself, which comes from Angstronomics (via VideoCardz), a publication which covers the semiconductor industry that we’ve heard from before. (Even if it isn’t one of the more regular sources that divulge info on Twitter, we regard Angstronomics as reliable enough – plus a major YouTube leaker more or less backs up these seriously in-depth details, and we’ll come back to that).

From Techradar

This 17-Year-Old Designed a Motor That Could Potentially Transform the Electric Car Industry

Robert Sansone is a natural born engineer. From animatronic hands to high-speed running boots and a go-kart that can reach speeds of more than 70 miles per hour, the Fort Pierce, Florida-based inventor estimates he’s completed at least 60 engineering projects in his spare time. And he’s only 17 years old.

A couple years ago, Sansone came across a video about the advantages and disadvantages of electric cars. The video explained that most electric car motors require magnets made from rare-earth elements, which can be costly, both financially and environmentally, to extract. The rare-earth materials needed can cost hundreds of dollars per kilogram. In comparison, copper is worth $7.83 per kilogram.

“I have a natural interest in electric motors,” says Sansone, who had used them in different robotics projects. “With that sustainability issue, I wanted to tackle it, and try and design a different motor.”

From Smithsonian Magazine

Ground-breaking procedure revived all the organs in a dead body

A group of researchers have published a new paper detailing a ground-breaking procedure that can revive dead organs. The researchers previously saw success reviving a dead pig’s brain back in 2019. Now, though, they’ve taken it a step further and have partially revived all the organs in a pig’s body following its death.

From BGR