Google launches the next Android 11 developer preview

Google today announced the second developer preview of Android 11. Like the first preview, this one, too, is only meant for developers and isn’t available as an over the air update. Instead, developers have to manually download and flash their supported devices, which are currently limited to the Pixel 2, 3, 3a or 4.

Unsurprisingly, this second release doesn’t feature any groundbreaking new features and mostly continues the work done with Preview 1. For the most part, these are new APIs and other developer features. You can expect to hear more about user-facing updates in some of the next releases.

“It’s still an early build, but you can start to see how the OS is enabling new experiences in this release, from seamless 5G connectivity to wrapping your UI around the latest screens, to a smarter keyboard and faster messaging experience,” writes Dave Burke, Google’s VP of Engineering, in today’s announcement.

New features in the second preview include a 5G state API to see if a user is currently on a 5G network, so that developers can then activate experiences that necessitate a 5G network, for example. There is also now better support for foldable devices with a new API that can read data from a hinge angle sensor so that apps can, as the name implies, adapt to the angle of the hinge.  There are also new APIs for screening robocalls and support for variable refresh rates and more. For developers who use neural networks in their apps, Android 11 will include a new “hard swish-op” function that will enable faster and more accurate training for on-device models.

While most of these updates focus on developers, one feature users will likely notice is ‘resume on boot.’ When an Android 11 device reboots after an overnight over-the-air update, it can now immediately access Credential Encrypted storage and start receiving messages right away. In current versions, the phone would mostly lie dormant until you logged in with your credentials.

 

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Google’s Advanced Protection program for high-risk users now includes malware protection

Google is expanding the feature set for its Advanced Protection Program, a security offering that helps safeguard Google Accounts of those at risk for targeted attacks — like politicians, journalists, activists, business leaders, and others. The program already provides an increased level of protection for these accounts by limiting access to data, blocking fraudulent account access, supporting the use of physical security keys, and more. Today, Google is adding new malware protections to the program, as well.

For starters, those enrolled in the Advanced Protection Program will have Google Play Protect automatically enabled. This is Google’s built-in malware protection for Android that’s currently used to scan and verify 100 billion apps per day, Google notes. The system uses machine learning to automatically scan users’ device and apps to check for harmful behavior and potential security issues. Now, this will be enabled for Advanced Protection Program members and will not be able to be shut off.

The program will also now limit users’ ability to install apps from outside the Play Store, where apps are now scanned for malware before approval. Those from outside the store can present a greater risk. Google will now prevent the download of non-Play Store apps on any devices enrolled in the Advanced Protection Program, with a few exceptions. Users will be able to install non-Play Store apps through other third-party app stores that may have shipped on your device from the device manufacturer. Others can be installed through the developer tool Android Debug Bridge. However, Google says non-Play Store apps that have already been installed won’t be removed and can continue to be updated.

Google launched its Advanced Protection Program in fall 2017, as an opt-in option for those who believe they’re at increased risk of online attacks. The program focuses on defending against phishing, locking down malicious apps, and fending off hackers. The trade-off is reduced convenience as there are additional steps to take during authentication and more limitations on what can be done. But the result is a safer, and free, way to increase the security of your account and device.

The new added protections will roll out gradually to accounts enrolled in Advanced Program on Android devices, to be later this year be followed by new malware protections for Chrome, Google says. However, G Suite users won’t get these new protections now — instead, they’re offered through endpoint management which helps secure devices belonging to mobile workforces.

 

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iPads become more laptop-like with the arrival of full mouse and trackpad support

Apple just dumped a bunch of hardware news online via press release. That’s just the world we live in right now. We’ll probably be seeing a whole lot of this in the coming weeks and months, as companies adjust to the new online reality. Along with with a new MacBook Air and update to the Mac Mini, the company’s creative pro-focused iPad Pro got a couple of key new features.

A number of the additions, including the $299/$349 (depending on model) Magic Keyboard are aimed at the company’s longtime desire to push the iPad beyond a tablet, into something more akin to a super portable productivity device.

Apple announces new iPad Pro

At the center of the latest push is the forthcoming iPadOS 13.4, which brings with it  laptop-style cursor and mouse support. The update will be available on the new Pro, for use with the trackpad on the keyboard case. Some good news, too, for those not willing to shell out the money for a new models: it’s also coming to most iPads released in the last few years.

But iPadOS, for better and worse, is not MacOS. As such, the company’s taken a different approach to the familiar desktop cursor model. Per the press release,

Rather than copying the experience from macOS, trackpad support has been completely reimagined for iPad. As users move their finger across the trackpad, the pointer elegantly transforms to highlight user interface elements. Multi-Touch gestures on the trackpad make it fast and easy to navigate the entire system without users ever lifting their hand.

Clearly these sorts of updates were a big motivator behind forking iOS and iPadOS, as the iPad increasingly seeks to blaze its own path in the nebulous territory between mobile and desktop. We may not yet have a touchscreen Mac, but for users who are considering turning to the tablet as a primary computing device, Apple’s certainly eases that transition.

The new iPro is available for purchase today, and the Magic Keyboard arrives in May. iPadOS is set to arrive somewhere between the two, on March 24. The update will make the system compatible with the latest version of Apple’s Magic Mouse and Trackpad, along with some third-party bluetooth mice.

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Apple announces new iPad Pro

Apple has announced new iPad Pro models in a press release. In addition to better specifications, Apple is also releasing a new Magic Keyboard with backlit keys, a trackpad and a hinge that allows you to move the iPad freely.

The iPad Pro looks more or less like the existing iPad Pro. You can choose between an 11-inch display and a 12.9-inch display. It features an eight-core A12Z Bionic system on a chip — the previous version came with an A12X Bionic system on a chip.

The new iPad Pro features a 10MP ultra-wide camera sensor as well as a LiDAR sensor on the back of the device — LiDAR sensors can be useful for augmented-reality apps for instance. There’s a standard 12MP camera sensor as well. The microphones have been improved and Apple promises “studio-quality” sound.

Wi-Fi and LTE should be slightly faster, like on the iPhone 11 Pro. On the display front, the iPad Pro supports a refresh rate of 120 Hz and True Tone like previous models as well as a wide range of colors thanks to P3 support.

Apple also says that the thermal architecture has been improved, which should let you run demanding apps at peak performance for a longer time.

But let’s talk about the trackpad. 9to5mac previously noticed references to full mouse cursor support in iOS 14. It turns out that Apple will release that feature before iOS 14 this fall.

By default, Apple shows a rounded cursor. But the cursor changes depending on what you’re hovering over. If you’re moving a text cursor for instance, it becomes a vertical bar. If you’re resizing a text zone in a Pages document, it becomes two arrows. In other words, it works pretty much like a cursor on a desktop computer.

The new trackpad will support gestures that let you switch between apps, open the app switcher, activate the Dock or Control Center. Third-party apps already support the trackpad without any change. But developers can release updates to improve support thanks to new APIs.

The keyboard of the Magic Keyboard now looks more like a traditional keyboard with separate keys. There’s a USB-C port, which recharges both the keyboard and the iPad attached to it. This way, you can recharge your device and plug another accessory to the iPad Pro itself.

The new keyboard accessory will be available in May and will cost $299 or $349 depending on the size of your iPad Pro. Yep, that’s an expensive keyboard.

The iPad Pro will be available next week — orders start today. There are two finishes — silver and space gray. The 11-inch iPad Pro with 256GB of storage costs $799. The 12.9-inch model with 256GB of storage costs $999. You can add cellular support for an additional $150. There are also more expensive options with more storage (512GB and 1TB).

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Apple updates Mac Mini with more storage options

Apple today announced the Mac Mini will ship with more standard storage space. Starting at $799, the base model Mac Mini now ships with a 256GB SSD, up from 128GB previously. The CPU, GPU and system memory remains the same from the previous model.

This refresh is a slight but welcomed bump to Apple’s least expensive Mac. With the updated specs, the Mac Mini offers a bit more bang for the buck but the specs still lags sorely behind similarly priced pre-packaged Windows PCs.

The $799 Mac Mini runs an Intel Core i3 CPU with a clock-speed of 3.6Ghz. It also sports an Intel HD Graphics 630 GPU and 8 GB of RAM. The $1,099 package ups the specs to a 3.0GHz Intel Core i5 CPU and a 512GB SSD hard drive.

Both of the new models ship on March 20. Apple Store pickup is currently unavailable as Apple closed all its stores outside of mainland China in response to the coronavirus.

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The MacBook Air gets an updated keyboard and souped-up specs, starting at $999

Apple just offered up a new version of the the MacBook Air with some souped up internals, including a 10th-generation Intel processor and double the storage. Honestly, the big news here for many is probably the updated keyboard, doing away with a couple of generations of misfires on that front.

Starting at $999 (or $899 for education users), the latest version of Apple’s perennial favorite thin and light promises up to double the performance, from Apple’s numbers, courtesy of the new silicon, configurable to up to a 1.2GHz quad-core Core i7 with Turbo boost up to 3.8GHz (the default configuration is a 1.1GHz dual-core Intel Core i3).

That’s bolstered by Intel Iris Plus Graphics, which the company says are up to 80 percent faster than their predecessor. The systems start at 256GB of storage — double the previous model. That’s configurable to up to a 2TB SSD. Both configurations sport 8GB of RAM. 

Perhaps the update, however, is that the the Air is getting the same Magic Keyboard mechanism that was introduced with the 16-inch MacBook Pro last year. The new scissor mechanisms offer more travel than earlier, maligned MacBook keyboard and should hold up much better. Per the released the system is made from 100% recycled aluminum and is available in gold (pictured), silver and space gray. It sports a 13.3-inch Retina display and can support an external 6K monitor via the two Thunderbolt 3 ports, making it the first Air to do so.

There are two base models: $999 and $1,299. The later can be configured up to a $2,249 price point, if you really want to go wild. They’re available now through Apple’s site.

 

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U.S. government reportedly in talks with tech companies on how to use location data in COVID-19 fight

U.S. government officials are currently in discussion with a number of tech companies, including Facebook and Google, around how data from cell phones might provide methods for combatting the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to a new Washington Post report. The talks also include health experts tracking the pandemic and its transmission, and one possible way in which said data could be useful is through aggregated, anonymized location data, per the report’s sources.

Location data taken from the smartphones of Americans could help public health experts track and map the general spread of the infection, the group has theorized, though of course the prospect of any kind of location tracking is bound to leave people uncomfortable, especially when it’s done at scale and involves not only private companies with which they have a business relationship, but also the government.

These efforts, however, would be strictly aimed at helping organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) get an overview of patterns, decoupled from any individual user identity. The Post’s sources stress that this would not involve the generation of any kind of government database, and would instead focus on anodized, aggregated data to inform modelling of the COVID-19 transmission and spread.

Already, we’ve seen unprecedented collaboration among some of the largest tech companies in the world on matters related to the coronavirus pandemic. Virtually every large tech company that operates a product involved in information dissemination came together on Monday to issue a statement about working closely together in order to fight the spread of fraud and disinformation about the virus.

The White House has also been consulting with tech companies around the virus and the U.S. response, including via a meeting last week that included Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been in regular contact with the current administration as his company is increasingly playing a central and important role in how people are dealing with essentially global guidelines of isolation, social distancing, quarantine and even shelter-in-place orders.

Earlier this week, an open letter co-signed by a lengthy list of epidemiologists, excecutives, physicians and academics also sought to outline what tech companies could contribute to the ongoing effort to stem the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of the measures suggested (directed at mobile OS providers Apple and Google specifically) is an “opt-in, privacy preserving OS feature to support contact tracing” for individuals who might have been exposed to someone with the virus.

Of course, regardless of assurances to the contrary, it’s natural to be suspicious of any widespread effort to collect personal data. Especially when it’s historically been the case that in times of extreme duress, people have made trade-offs about personal freedoms and protections that have subsequently backfired. The New York Times also reported this week on an initiative to track the location data of people who have contracted the virus using an existing, previously undisclosed database of cellphone data from Israeli cellphone selfie providers and their customers.

Still, there’s good reason not to instantly dismiss the idea of trying to find some kind of privacy-protecting way of harnessing the information available to tech companies, since it does seem like a way to potentially provide a lot of benefit – particularly when it comes to measuring the impact of social distancing measures currently in place.

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