Category: Article

A widely-covered report out of France this week said that the blue light in LED lighting can damage the eyes. Dell, seeing the writing on the wall, isn’t taking any chances.

Blue light can damage the retina and disturb natural sleep rhythms, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) said in a statement, according to a report* from France24.

“Exposure to an intense and powerful [LED] light is ‘photo-toxic’ and can lead to irreversible loss of retinal cells and diminished sharpness of vision,” the agency said. LEDs are often used for home lighting and in offices.

Importantly, the agency “distinguished between high-intensity LED light, and ‘chronic exposure’ to lower intensity sources,” according to the report.

LEDs on cellphones, tablets and laptop screens “do not pose a risk of eye damage because their luminosity is very low compared to other types of lighting,” an ophthalmologist and head of the expert group that conducted the review, told reporters, according to France24.

(The French agency also called into question the effectiveness of some “anti-blue light” filters and sunglasses.)

Dell isn’t taking any chances

There is still a concern, however, about prolonged chronic exposure to device screens.

“We want to reduce the risk of blue light damage. The science is still being put together,” Frank Azor , VP and General Manager, Alienware, Gaming & XPS at Dell, told me in an interview this past week.

Dell is doing this “on several of our products and rolling out more into our portfolio in the future,” he said. “As we continue to invest in higher quality, brighter displays with better color gamuts, the unintended consequence is that blue light emissions have been increasing over time.”

“A lot of research is going on in this area. There are already solutions that reduce the light but they’re software based solutions,” he said. “That often compromises the color gamut of the screen in order to reduce the blue light,” Azor said.

Software-based solutions on smartphones and PCs typically give a yellow tint to the display.

“We’ve made a considerable investment in bringing up a hardware solution that allows you to reduce blue light to unharmful levels and it does it without any compromise to the display quality and the color gamut,” he said.

Azor said Dell has partnered with Eyesafe, which is helping Dell design the solution and certify it.

The OPPO K3 just received an official launch date today. The budget mid-ranger that will spearhead OPPO’s attack on aggressively priced products like Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 7 is due for a debut on May 23. There’s much we know about the handset but all that is mostly restricted to specifications. Now, OPPO’s newest teaser posted today on Weibo sheds light on a key aspect of the design that was suspected earlier. The new OPPO K3 was recently unearthed from China Telecom’s website with its complete specifications which we will mention below.

As for the new teaser, it clearly shows a pop-up camera clearing all doubts about the frontal facia of the handset. The rear is rumoured to look like the recently announced OPPO Reno series. A bunch of other features have also been confirmed including a Snapdragon 710 SoC, a 6.5-inch AMOLED display, and an on-screen fingerprint reader. Storage type will be UFS 2.1 and the handset will be loaded with some of the latest software features like Game Boost 2.0, Link Boost, and Frame Boost.

As for other specifications, we expect 16MP primary shooters on the rear and the front. Moreover, VOOC 3.0 is also being rumoured while battery size is not yet known. There’s a 6GB version as well as an 8GB version too and pricing is believed to be in the 1,000 Yuan to 2,200 Yuan bracket.

A short video reveals more details about the rumored phone.

It’s no secret that Motorola is working on a foldable phone. According to Sina Tech, Lenovo shared a video with media today that shows the new, RAZR-like phone in action — Engadget has since learned the video was an edited fan render Lenovo was using for a press demo. The video offers a glimpse of the device folding in half and opening flat.

Last month, we saw the first leaked images, and while you could see a hinge, the phone was displayed open. Now, in addition to demonstrating the phone’s foldability, this video does a close up on the hinge and teases the black, red and blue color options. Unfolded, the phone matches the photos leaked last month, and the video aligns with Motorola’s patent designs for a foldable phone. But, the clip is only 33 seconds long, so it leaves plenty of room for questions.

We don’t know when the device will launch, or how much it’ll cost, but according to The Wall Street Journal, it could be in the range of $1,500. That’s almost $500 less than the Galaxy Fold. If Motorola can avoid major design flaws and tap into nostalgia for the original RAZR, it might have a few advantages over its competitors.

Smartphone launch season is in full force in May 2019 as we’ve been literally having a launch every day for three days straight. And it’s not going to stop any time soon. A new improved variant of the OPPO A9 was spotted on OPPO’s official store in China which essentially laid bare everything about the handset. It’s called the OPPO A9X and it will be going on sale in China on May 20th at a price of RMB 1,999 (around Rs 20,300). OPPO is also announcing the OPPO K3 on May 23.

Now, the listing which has been taken down as of this writing mentioned that the OPPO A9x would be equipped with a 6.53-inch IPS LCD full HD+ display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The handset has a waterdrop design on the front and a centrally placed dual camera setup on the back beneath which is a capacitive fingerprint reader, as depicted by the images. A MediaTek Helio P70 will be at the heart of the OPPO A9X. It will be assisted by 6GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage.

There’s a 48MP shooter on the rear of the phone accompanied by a 5 MP depth sensor while the front has a 16MP selfie taker. The OPPO A9X will be selling for RMB 1,999 and will be fueled by a 4,020mAh battery equipped with the latest VOOC 3.0 20W fast charge. There should be at least two colours according to the listing – Meteorite Black and Jade White colours.

Huawei is getting ready to launch its latest generation of flagship smartphones in the P30 family. Today, we’re getting new official-looking press renders of both the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro, as well as rumors of Samsung providing the display component.

Courtesy of the folks at MySmartPrice, we’ve got a fresh look at both of Huawei’s upcoming devices in high-quality press renders that hide no details. As detailed in past leaks, we can see the difference between these two devices coming down to the rear camera arrays, including the zoom sensor on the Huawei P30 Pro.

Further, the Pro has slimmer bezels with curved glass at the edges where as the Huawei P30 opts for thicker bezels and flat glass. Both have sizeable displays and small, centered notches as well.

Both of these displays are also reportedly AMOLED panels, and according to a source out of China (via GSMArena), Samsung will be providing them. This is a welcome change from the Mate 20 Pro, which sourced displays from LG. Huawei encountered many issues with those panels, so this is likely a change for the best.

Smartphones are spectacular for snapping photos, scanning the news, and sending messages, but they can also be literal lifesavers if you take the time to set them up before the need arises.

Both Android and iOS have easy-to-use systems for sharing your location with a friend, family member, or other trusted contact in an emergency. You can even create connections that’ll allow you to check up on loved ones to see if their phone has detected movement lately and then request an automated location update if you’re unable to reach them.

The key to all of this is to configure your emergency system ahead of time so it’ll be available in case an actual emergency occurs. Take two minutes now, and then rest easy knowing your phone’s ready.

THE SIMPLE OPTION FOR IOS

If you’ve got an iPhone, Apple offers a built-in Emergency SOS system that gives you a quick way to call 911 (or the equivalent emergency service provider) and then alert a group of predefined emergency contacts — all in one fell swoop.

To start, you need to tell your phone who your emergency contacts are:

Open the Health app.

Tap the “Medical ID” tab.

Tap “Edit.” (If you haven’t yet created a medical ID, you’ll need to do that first.)

Find the “Add emergency contact” option, and add however many people you want.

Now, if you’re ever in an emergency situation with an iPhone 8 or later:

Press and hold the power button along with either volume button, and you’ll see an “Emergency SOS” countdown appear on your screen.

Keep holding both buttons until the countdown ends.

Your iPhone will automatically call 911, and as soon as the call disconnects, the phone will text your emergency contacts with your current location.

If you have an iPhone 7 or earlier, press the power button five times fast, then drag your finger across the Emergency SOS slider that appears on the screen to initiate that same process.

THE SIMPLE OPTION FOR ANDROID

Android doesn’t have a similar all-in-one function, though it does provide a way to offer emergency services information about a preassigned emergency contact from the lock screen. While the setup may differ somewhat depending on what phone you have and which version of Android it runs, the basics should be the same.

Go to your phone’s lock screen. (You don’t have a screen lock set? Why not?)

Look for the word “Emergency” at the bottom of the lock screen. Tap on that.

Tap on “Emergency information” and then on the pencil symbol (or, depending on your phone, on “Add”). You’ll be asked to put in your PIN or lock pattern.

This will bring you to your Emergency information screen where you can add personal information (such as blood type or any existing medical conditions) and any contacts you want to be notified.

THE ADVANCED OPTION FOR ANDROID OR IOS

For a more robust setup in which you can share and request locations with trusted contacts — without needing to make a 911 call — download Google’s Trusted Contacts app for Android or iOS. Once you’ve signed in, create your list of connections.

Tap the “Add Contacts” box on the app’s main screen.

Find and tap the name of anyone you want to add.

Once that person has approved your request (and installed the app onto their phone as well), you’ll always be able to see if they’ve been active recently and also if their phone’s battery is critically low.

Then, if you ever want to send a location alert:

On the app’s main screen, select the person with whom you want to share your location.

Tap “Send location alert now.”

Your location will be shared for 24 hours or until you hit the “Stop” button.

And to request someone else’slocation:

Tap the person’s name on the app’s main screen.

Tap “Ask for [person’s] location.”

The app will alert the person to your request, and if they don’t respond within a set period of time, it’ll automatically share their location with you.

By default, Google’s Trusted Contacts app will share a requested location after five minutes without a response.

It’s the type of thing you hope you’ll never need, but with loved ones, in particular, it can bring valuable peace of mind to have it standing by just in case.

The Chinese smartphone maker ZTE’s upcoming smartphone has a selfie camera that sticks out from the main body of the phone.

It’s a novel design solution to avoid using the divisive notch that was popularized by Apple’s iPhone X and adopted by numerous other Android phone makers.

Moving the selfie camera outside the main body of the phone has a few benefits, such as allowing more space for a larger battery and allowing for a full-screen display without interruptions from a notch.

It does, however, look unusual.

The Chinese smartphone maker ZTE is putting the selfie camera on its upcoming Axon V smartphone where no smartphone maker has put one before: outside the main body of the phone.

The ZTE Axon V hasn’t been announced yet, but its unique design was posted on the website for iF Design World Guide, an organization that presents awards for design. It’s unclear whether iF Design World Guide is giving ZTE an award. Business Insider has asked the organization for confirmation but hasn’t heard back.

According to iF Design World Guide, the ZTE Axon V’s protruding selfie camera allows for a full display without interruptions from the notch-style solution used by Apple and numerous other Android phone makers, or the hole-punch design now used by Samsung. The organization also said the design has other advantages, such as leaving more space for a bigger battery.

The iPhone XS has the notch, the Galaxy S10 has the hole-punch display, but we’re still not sure what to call the protruding selfie camera on the ZTE Axon V. So far, the Business Insider tech desk has come up with the “tag” and the “fin.”

Either way, ZTE’s protruding camera design is the latest in the lineup of novel ideas to avoid the divisive notch that was popularized by the iPhone X.

ZTE apparently has another smartphone design in the works that avoids the divisive notch: the Axon S. In that design, the phone slides horizontally to reveal the selfie cam and main rear cameras. That phone was also featured on the iF Design World Guide website.

Apple today seeded the sixth beta of an upcoming iOS 12.2 update to developers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the fifth beta of iOS 12.2 and two months after the release of iOS 12.1.4.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 12.2 beta from Apple’s Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

iOS 12.2 will see the launch of a new subscription service within Apple News, which Apple is planning to unveil at an upcoming March 25 event. Apple plans to offer unlimited access to magazines and paywalled news services for a single monthly fee, with all of the content available through the News app.

iOS 12.2 expands Apple News to Canada for the first time, with Canadian iPhone and iPadusers able to read news stories in English, French, or both. Apple says that during the beta, content will be more limited than it will be when the update is released.

There are four new Animoji included the iOS 12.2 beta, including a boar, a shark, a giraffe, and an owl. Animoji can be used within the Messages and FaceTime apps.

The software introduces initial support for AirPlay 2 and HomeKit on third-party TVs in light of recent AirPlay 2 announcements, with a new option for limiting TV access joining the speaker access option in the Home app. There’s also a redesigned TV remote in Control Center, and when paired with tvOS 12.2, you can ask Siri to play specific TV shows, movies, and music on your HomeKit devices like the Apple TV.

For some AT&T users, there’s a new “5G E” icon for the cellular signal, replacing the standard LTE icon. This is a bit misleading of AT&T, because the iPhone does not support 5G, nor is the network AT&T calls 5G E actual 5G. Instead, it’s an upgraded version of LTE, with more info available here.

The Wallet app’s interface has been streamlined and tweaked because Apple is planning to introduce support for an Apple credit card that will be made available through a partnership with Goldman Sachs. The credit card could have unique features like rewards tracking, access to balance management tools, notifications about spending habits, and options to set spending limits.

The Downtime feature in Screen Time can be customized by day in iOS 12.2, Apple has made minor changes to some icons (including Apple News, AirPlay, and Remote in Control Center), audio messages are now better quality, and there are new Safari features, with a full list of changes introduced throughout the beta testing period available in our iOS 12.2 tidbits post.

Apple is improving Safari’s privacy in iOS 12.2 through a new Motion & Orientation toggle located under Settings > Safari > Privacy >Security, which is disabled by default. The setting needs to be enabled on to allow websites to display content that relies on motion data from the accelerometer and gyroscope in the iPhone and iPad.

iOS 12.2 confirms that Apple is planning to release second-generation AirPods with “Hey Siri” support, thanks to a hidden “Hey Siri” AirPods setup screen in the beta. The inclusion of the AirPods setup option in the beta indicates that Apple could perhaps be planning to release new AirPods when iOS 12.2 is released. There have also been hints of additional work on AirPower, suggesting that product is still coming.

Apple plans to introduce the Apple News service at an event that will take place on March 25, and it’s likely the company plans to release iOS 12.2 shortly afterwards to provide iOS users with access to the new subscription options.

While Google is letting users test out the upcoming Android Q through a public beta program, it’s not going to be for everyone. If you updated to the Android Q beta build and find your device has slowed down, that the battery isn’t as efficient, or that certain apps don’t run the way they’re supposed to (or at all), you’re not alone and chances are that you need to roll back to Android 9.

Performance issues and bugs like these are part of the tradeoff for getting early access to new software and features. Betas are meant to help developers find and solve problems, and to Google’s credit, the company is forthcoming about the potential shortcomings of opting into any of its beta programs.

The good news is that restoring your device to a stable version of Android 9 is actually quite easy. All it requires is a few button presses, then downloading and installing the update, and you’re done. The catch is that rolling back your device’s OS requires it to be reset to factory settings during the process, which wipes all your data and settings from the device. This is the opposite of upgrading to a new version of an OS, which keeps your files, apps, and other data largely intact. Luckily, Google makes it easy to create a backup of your data, then port it back to your phone after the rollback is finished.

If you want to leave the Android Q beta and go back to Android 9, here’s how to safely and properly back up your data and rollback your Android OS.

Creating a backup of your device’s data

The key to a smooth rollback is having a proper backup of your data. Android devices feature a built-in, Google Drive-based backup process that saves the following files and data:

Google Contacts data

Google Calendar events and settings

Wi-Fi networks and passwords

Wallpapers

Gmail settings

Apps downloaded from Play Store

Display settings

Language and input settings

Date and time

Some settings and data for apps not made by Google (varies by app)

This backup can then be imported automatically when setting up your device to restore most of your saved files, apps, and more. Ideally, you would have created a backup prior to installing the Android Q beta, but don’t sweat if you didn’t—we can still backup your data in Android Q beta before rolling back to Android 9. However, if you did make a backup prior to the beta, and are comfortable using that as your restore point, you can skip this section and jump to the rollback section below.

Before backing up, make sure the backup settings are enabled.

Open the settings app

Go to System > Advanced > Back up

Turn on the backup service

With the backup service turned on, it’s time to manually back up your device.

In the settings app, go to System > Advanced > Backup > Back up now

Tap “Continue”

Wait for the process to finish

You can find backups you’ve created by opening Google Drive on your device or PC and selecting the “Backups” tab from the menu on the left. Select the most recent backup from the list to see a general overview of what it contains.

It’s worth noting here that while the Backup setting saves most of your data, if you use apps downloaded from non-Google Play stores such as Amazon or have contacts on your device that aren’t connected to your Google account, you may need to manually back these files up as well before rolling back your phone.

To manually backup your Contacts:

Open the Contacts app.

Tap More > Settings > Export.

Choose which contacts to export.

Tap “Export to .VCF file.”

Upload this to your Google Drive or an external storage device (detailed below)

As for saving files from apps not associated with your Google account or that you downloaded from other app stores, the process can usually be done in the apps themselves but the steps will be app-specific. Consult the app’s store pages or official websites if you run into trouble. You can also manually upload files and folders to Google Drive.

Open Google Drive on your Android device.

In Google Drive, tap “Add” then “Upload”

Tap each of the files/folders you wish to backup

The other way is to connect the device to a PC via USB cable, opening the device’s storage location on your computer, then transferring the files to a storage location—whether that be an external storage device, cloud storage, or the PC itself.

Regardless of how you back up this data, you will also need to manually re-download these apps and import your contacts after you’ve completed the rollback update and restored your other device data.

How to opt out and rollback your device

Open the Android Q Beta page

Click or tap “View your eligible devices” (if you don’t see your device, make sure you are signed into the Google account linked to device(s) you wish to rollback).

Tap “Opt-out” on the devices listed you wish to remove from the beta program (Note: If you sideloaded the Android Q beta rather than installed it via OTA, the button may say “Opt-in” rather than Opt Out. You can still restore your device using the OTA method by tapping or clicking “Opt-in.” Wait a few minutes, refresh the page, and the option should now say “Opt-Out.”)

Your device will receive a new update within about 24 hours, though ours was almost immediate. Go to System > Advanced > System Update > Check for Update to see if the update is available. Otherwise, you will get a notification once it’s arrived.

Run the update once it’s ready.

During the installation, your device will be reset to factory settings and you’ll have to go through the initial setup process as you would for a device you just purchased. At one point in the setup, you will be asked to import your data. Select the option to import the backup file from Google Drive, then follow the on-screen instructions.

After the setup is complete, your data will slowly be restored and your old apps reinstalled.

If you manually backed up any data that needs to be imported, or need to re-download apps from other app stores, you can do so now.

Perhaps the initial biggest issue with the Google Pixel Slate was the terrible animation performance when switching apps in tablet mode. I’d say that the second biggest was offering the Slate with an under-powered processor for the base model, but that’s a different issue else entirely.

Google did plan to address the tablet app animation issues with some fixes, but its work isn’t done yet: According to a related bug report, more optimizations are coming in Chrome OS 73… and beyond.

The open bug is actually for a lower-end Chromebook based on the Coral board, of which there are more than a half dozen. However, it relates to choppy transitions and dropped framerates in overview mode for app switching. One workaround that helped was to disable a Chrome OS flag that causes the background to blur in overmode, but that’s not a long term solution.

This recent comment from the Chromium developer team suggests that not all of the visual transition fixes made their way into Chrome OS 72:

According to the Chromium release calendar, Chrome OS 73 should hit the Stable Channel this Tuesday, March 19, following last week’s push of the same version to enterprises, which enabled Linux app support. So any of the newer optimizations should be seen soon for testing.

Even better — to me, anyway — is that the team is continuing to gather telemetry metrics and logs to continue improving overview mode and app switching when devices are used as tablets.

When I use my Pixel Slate, I actually never use overview mode so the animations are a non-issue for me personally. Yes, this is a real issue and it’s really inexcusable, but I never see it: I don’t run numerous apps at the same time and even when I’m multitasking, that’s typically because I’m creating content and have the Pixel Slate Keyboard attached, pressing Alt+Tab to quickly move around between apps.

I also suspect that the more you spend on a Pixel Slate, the less of an impact there is. Meaning, the higher-powered processors combined with more memory manage the app transitions far better than the base model. Here’s a look at the transitions on both the Core m3 and Core i5 Pixel Slate, which perform noticably better than the Celeron edition.