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Google's new wellness feature called 'Focus Mode' is now out of beta and is rolling out globally for users with Android 10 or Android Pie, allows users to take advantage of several tools that encourage them to engage in healthier habits with their mobile device.
WhatsApp has launched a new update for Android which brings support for call waiting, new privacy settings and more. The biggest feature is obviously the new call waiting feature, although the company has skipped adding call holding for this release.
Huawei has officially launched its 10.8-inch MatePad Pro, Huawei's Kirin 990 SoC, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, a 10.8-inch 2560 x 1600 LCD screen with 540-nit brightness, up to 512GB of internal storage, a 13MP f/1.8 rear camera, and a 7,250 mAh battery with fast charging.
Network
As 2019 ends, you cannot escape how much carriers have raced out their 5G network go-lives with everyone wanting to claim a 5G first from first 5G village to 5G city to 5G shopping centre. But, let’s be honest that all this techno sound and fury is a game of retaining and winning those super-nerd customers.
Google is rolling out its Ambient Mode feature for Google Assistant to more Android devices. The Ambient Mode feature for Google Assistant was announced at IFA 2019. During the launch, the feature was available only on two tablets - Lenovo Smart Tab M8 HD and Lenovo Yoga Smart Tab and a couple of handsets smartphones, including the Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 6.2.
Sony has released the list of smartphones that will be updated to Android 10, starting December 2019. Sony Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 will be the first set of devices to receive the latest iteration of Android. Meanwhile, Xperia 10 and 10 Plus, will get the update in early 2020, alongside older devices like the Xperia XZ2, XZ2 Compact, XZ2 Premium, and XZ3.
Samsung has released a new software update for the Galaxy S10e, S10, S10+ and S10 5G that introduces more Galaxy Note10 features to the flagship lineup. Now, in addition to enjoying the diverse range of Note10 features that were added in the S10’s most recent update, users will be able to access all-new smart multimedia and Wi-Fi functions that streamline connections and take content creation to the next level.
WhatsApp
Many Android users are complaining that one of the most recent WhatsApp updates is draining their phone’s battery life by up to 50 percent in a matter of hours, regardless of active use. The popular messaging app is facing a backlash from users who say their devices are seeing significant battery drain after updating to the latest version of the messaging service.
The European version of the Huawei nova 5T is now available in the UK. The nova 5T is the first Huawei phone available in the UK with a hole punch display à la Samsung’s Galaxy S10 series. The device boasts a 6.26-inch LCD display with a 1080p resolution.
Microsoft announced today their broadest Surface lineup ever – with five new products coming this holiday and two new dual-screen devices, Surface Neo and Surface Duo, coming in Holiday 2020. Microsoft launched the new Surface Laptop 3, Surface Pro 7 and Surface Pro X, all available for pre-order today in select markets. Surface Laptop 3 delivers style and speed, now with a choice of a 13.5” or 15” display and new colours and finishes. Surface Pro remains the most versatile 2:1 device you can buy – whether you choose the new and improved Surface Pro 7 or the always-connected Surface Pro X.
Huawei has released its official roadmap for the EMUI 10 update, which is based on Android 10. All of the company's two-year-old flagships will receive the update and even year-old mid-range phones like the Honor 9X are set to get their second major updates.
Huawei has officially unveiled its Mate 30 flagships running Android 10, and they don’t comes with pre-installed Google services or apps. However, there is a simple way to add Google Play Services to the Huawei Mate 30, Mate 30 Pro and any other Huawei handset lacking them, as long as they are running EMUI 9.1.1 or newer.
Nubia has announced that they will be launching their innovative dual-screen technology to users around the globe with the all-new flagship nubia Z20​. The nubia Z20 offers a curved edge-to-edge display and a selfie camera through an innovative design solution: two full-featured, back-to-back touch displays.
Apple today unveiled iPhone 11, bringing a new dual-camera system, offering an intuitive camera experience with the highest quality video and Night mode for photos. iPhone 11 is powered by the A13 Bionic chip to perform the most demanding tasks, while getting through an entire day on a single charge, and is designed to withstand the elements with improved water resistance.
Samsung Galaxy Fold
Samsung launched the Galaxy Fold in Korea earlier today and at IFA 2019, which opens its doors today (September 6), visitors will be able to have the unique opportunity to experience the Galaxy Fold for the very first time.
With the expansion of social networks, people are physically socialising less than ever. Even though this sounds weird, it’s a well known paradox. With the introduction of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp and other social networks, people don’t feel the need to catch up in person as they did in the days before the expansion of internet/smart phones.
Google Play Store
Google has officially rolled out the new Play Store design to users across all Android devices. The new design features a complete visual redesign aligning with a Material design language and introduces several user-facing updates to deliver a cleaner, more premium store that improves app discovery and accessibility for the users.
Telegram
Telegram has rolled out a new update, bringing features like Silent Messages, Slow Mode, Admin Titles, and more. Users can send messages silently. To use this feature, users need to simply hold the Send button and choose to deliver the message or media without sound and the receiver will get a notification as usual, but their phone won’t make a sound even if they are not in Do Not Disturb mode.
Telegram
Telegram has rolled out a new update on iOS, bringing features like Silent Messages, Slow Mode, Admin Titles, and more. Users can send messages silently. To use this feature, users need to simply hold the Send button and choose to deliver the message or media without sound and the receiver will get a notification as usual, but their phone won’t make a sound even if they are not in Do Not Disturb mode.
Samsung unveiled two new versions of the Galaxy Note smartphone on Wednesday with fast 5G network connection and improved camera features. Samsung says that this is is to cater for people who want the power and functions of the Note but prefer a smaller phone.
The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HmbBfDI) has opened an administrative procedure to prohibit Google from transcribing Google Assistant recordings by employees or third parties for a period of three months. This is intended to protect the privacy rights of those affected for the time being.
IMImobile
IMImobile has announced it has conditionally agreed to acquire US-based mobile engagement and RCS Business Messaging leader 3Cinteractive. The acquisition allows IMImobile to increase its footprint in North America and become the global market leader for RCS (Rich Communications Services) Business Messaging.
OPPO has expanded its F series portfolio of smartphones in the UAE with the launch of OPPO F11. The smartphone boasts of brilliant portrait photography in low light and comes with several innovative technologies.
Samsung
Samsung has announced August 7 as the launch date of the next Galaxy Note device. Samsung sent out press invites confirming the date and location. The latest Unpacked event is scheduled for August 7 at 4PM ET at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
O2 is now offering the cellular version of the Apple Watch. When Apple first launched an LTE version of its Watch (with Series 3) it exclusively partnered with EE. Vodafone connectivity was added at the end of last year and now O2 customers can get the smartphone on the company's custom plans.
Rolling out to Android phones in the United States, beginning today, Google Assistant will be fully integrated into Waze so users won’t have to tap on their screens to get things done. Many of Waze’s most popular features will be supported, such as reporting traffic jams, calling out potholes, and checking for alternate routes.
Huawei
Google has warned the Trump administration it is risking compromising US national security if it pushes ahead with sweeping export restrictions on Huawei and is reportedly asking for an exemption from the ban.
Nokia 2.2
HMD Global has launched its latest Android One smartphone in India, the Nokia 2.2. It comes with dual SIM slots and microSD card slot and houses a dedicated Google Assistant button. The phone runs on Android One 9.0 Pie OS, has a 3000 mAh battery, packed inside phone dimensions of 145.96 x 70.56 x 9.3 mm with total of 153 grams weight.
Spotify for Android has finally received the highly-requested feature of a Sleep Timer, allowing app users to easily drift off to their favourite music without worrying that their songs will constantly keep playing and will drain out their smartphone's battery.
The Sony Xperia 1 is now available in the UK. Sony’s latest vision for mobile technology, packing a host of highlight features such as the world’s first 4K OLED display in a smartphone with 21:9 CinemaWide display (6.5”), and the world’s first Eye AF in a smartphone with a triple lens camera and up to 10 fps burst shooting with AF/AE tracking for precision focus and exposure.
OnePlus today officially unveiled the new OnePlus 7 Pro. Costing from £649 the new premium OnePlus still undercuts the competition by about £250, but isn’t quite as value-oriented as previous offerings.
Smartphone shipments in North America dropped 18 percent in Q1 2019 to a five-year low of 36.4 million units.While the region’s biggest ever recorded fall in smartphone sales is being credited primarily to Apple’s lacklustre performance, the iPhone maker remained the clear leader despite suffering a regional decline of 19%.
OnePlus has announced that the display of the OnePlus 7 Pro is HDR10+ certified, a mode that provides users with a more dynamic and detailed picture quality. The company has also announced that it has partnered with YouTube and Netflix to offer content that is viewable in HDR10.
Data Breach
A hack discovered by us-based firm vpnMentor that has exposed a database of 80 million (nearly 65 percent) American households. The unprotected 24GB database, hosted on Microsoft Cloud servers, includes the number of people living in each household with their full names, their marital status, income bracket, age, and more. While some information is available freely, other data like title, gender, etc are coded.
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has vacated the ban it imposed on the TikTok app in IndiaThe interim order banning downloads of the TikTok app was given by the Madras High Court on April 3 and the app was subsequently removed from Google and Apple’s app stores in accordance with the High Court’s order.
European Parliament
The European Parliament has voted in favour of the EU’s first update of copyright rules in nearly two decades, as MEPs in Strasbourg on Tuesday voted by a margin of 348 votes to 274 to back rules that will force internet groups such as YouTube and Google to take out licences to show copyrighted content and make them liable to take down material that breaks intellectual property rules.
Data Breach
It's another day, so time for another Facebook scandal, as the company admitted Thursday that it had stored hundreds of millions of its users’ passwords internally in a readable format.  The world’s largest social network said in a blog post that during a routine review in January it had found the flaw in its internal data storage systems, adding that the company had now fixed the issue.
European Commission
The European Commission has fined Google €1.49bn following an antitrust investigation into Google's ‘anti-competitive’ behaviour in online ad market. The probe, led by the European Union’s antitrust czar Margrethe Vestager, looked into accusations that Google had spent 10 years trying to prevent websites from using the advertising services of its rivals.
IMIConnect Salesforce
IMImobile has made its enterprise cloud communications platform IMIconnect available on Salesforce AppExchange. Salesforce users will now be able to quickly launch and orchestrate two-way, trigger based customer communications across more than 10 channels including SMS, WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, In App and Push, amongst others.
Verizon
In addition to adding BlackBerry Cylance’s artificial intelligence (AI)-based endpoint security products to its managed security services portfolio, Verizon further added to its security portfolio with an acquisition of ProtectWise.
Android Security
Google has released the March 2019 Android Security Bulletin, giving carriers and device makers a fresh set of patches to install. Though Google puts out the Android security patches each month, the job of actually getting the fixes to end users falls on the telcos and/or device manufacturers themselves. Those partners vary in their ability to release the patches in a timely fashion.
Facebook has finally included a new dark mode in its Messenger app, and it’s relatively easy to enable. Dark Mode is more than just a personal preference as it can save battery life if you spend a lot of time within the app. This is thanks to the fact that your phone isn’t spending all of that energy to light your bright screen up.
Huawei has unveiled the Mate X, a luxury 5G phone with a folding screen.  the Mate X is a strikingly attractive device that will give owners three screens effectively. When folded, it has a 6.6-inch 2480 x 1148 resolution main screen, a 6.38-inch screen on the rear and when it’s unfolded the Mate X transforms into a stunningly immersive 8-inch tablet with a 2480 x 2200 resolution display. 
Samsung has officially unveiled its Galaxy S10 family of flagship phones. There are four new phones in the Galaxy S10 range: the standard Galaxy S10, the bigger Galaxy S10+, a smaller Galaxy S10E and for the first time, a 5G smartphone which will be available to buy later this year.
GalaxyBuds
Samsung today officially unveiled Galaxy Buds, cord-free earbuds for those who want a seamlessly connected experience on the go. With their truly comfortable form factor, easy controls, clear and smart sound, and compact size—they are an everyday in-ear lifestyle companion.
TomTom
TomTom and Microsoft are expanding their partnership, bringing TomTom’s maps and traffic data into a multitude of mapping scenarios across Microsoft’s cloud services. With this broadened integration, TomTom will be a leading location data provider for Microsoft Azure and Bing Maps. TomTom is also expanding its relationship with Microsoft, selecting Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud provider.
A new report highlights another shady Facebook policy that was paying people to install an app called the Facebook Research VPN. Facebook allegedly paid users to install the VPN, which allowed the company to collect all the user's phone and web activity at all times.
HMD Global has announced collaborations with three leading wireless providers in North America – Cricket Wireless and Verizon in the United States and Rogers in Canada. HMD Global is also expanding its selection of Nokia smartphones on Android with the launch of two wireless provider-specific devices coming to the United States this month and another coming to Rogers subsidiary brand, chatr, in Canada very soon.
Android Q
The most recent pre-release code of Android Q indicates that phone makers and wireless carriers will have expanded capabilities for locking down smartphones to specific networks. This will be done through the SIM card, with Android Q introducing controls to essentially create whitelists and blacklist
Samsung has announced that it will be holding its Samsung Galaxy 2019 Unpacked event on February 20. In an invitation sent out to the press, a vertically-oriented "10" is displayed, which leaves no doubt about what will be announced. The 10 also refers to the fact that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Galaxy S family.
Huawei
It happens time and time again, a smartphone maker tweets from a competitors device.  Occasionally it can be embarrassing, and a lot of the time a whole lot of fuss is made out of nothing.  However, Huawei's post to its official Twitter account on New Years Eve definitely came under the embarrassing category.
Organisations across the business services, construction and finance sectors are among the first to be fined by the ICO for not paying the data protection fee. All organisations, companies and sole traders that process personal data must pay an annual fee to the ICO unless they are exempt. Fines for not paying can be up to a maximum of £4,350.
Samsung has unveiled its flagship chipset for 2019, the Exynos 9820. The 9820 builds on the strengths of this year's 9810 — which powered the global variants of the Galaxy S9 and Note 9 — by introducing a fourth-gen CPU and an LTE modem that can hit up to 2Gbps with 8x carrier aggregation.