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Pixel’s new satellite feature could show people where you are on Google Maps
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Recent leaks claim Google is working on further integrating satellite connectivity to their Pixel phones and could introduce support for the tech in Google Maps. This information comes from two industry insiders: AssembleDebug who shared his findings with PiunikaWeb and Nail Sadykov over on Telegram. Beginning with the former, users will apparently be able to share their location with others via satellite connection.

Hints of the location-sharing tool were found in the strings of code on the latest Google Maps beta. It’s unknown exactly how it’ll work. The report doesn’t go into detail. They do, however, say people “will be able to update their location” in the app every 15 minutes to maintain accuracy. But there’s a catch – you can only refresh your whereabouts “up to five times a day.” It makes sense why Google would implement some sort of restrictions. 

This is supposed to be an emergency, potentially life-saving feature akin to Emergency SOS on the iPhone and Google may not want people messing around with it.

Setting up a satellite connection

As for the other update, Nail Sadykov states he found evidence of something called the Android Satellite Pointing UI.

It appears to be a help guide for Pixel that’ll teach people how to connect their smartphone to an orbiting satellite. A video posted to the unofficial Google News channel on Telegram shows how the process could work. 

Users will have to hold their phone in front of them and physically move it around to find a satellite. Once found, you’ll need to keep moving the device until a blue satellite icon reaches the middle of an on-screen circle and stays there for several seconds. Holding the icon in place allows the device to establish connection. If you don’t connect, you’ll receive an on-screen message telling you the session failed. 

Pixel's new satellite connectivity guide

(Image credit: Nail Sadykov)

Sadykov goes on to say the guide will be a part of the Pixel’s “Adaptive Connectivity Service (ACS) app”. It’s unclear if he meant the currently available feature or if there will be a new app solely for ACS. 

He says it’ll be possible to minimize the window into a floating widget on the home page so you can continue texting while trying to establish a connection. When it’s all done, Pixel owners can see Satellite SOS running by swiping down on Quick Settings. You’ll also receive a short message in the menu telling you to avoid buildings, trees, and mountains to ensure a clear view of the sky and not interrupt service.

Potential arrival date

An arrival date for everything you see here is unknown, although both sources believe their respective features will launch on the Pixel 9. The two groups mention a third leak from April 15 about the Pixel 9 series possibly receiving the Samsung Modem 5400 to enable satellite connectivity. The same satellite icon (albeit red) and guide animations from Sadykov’s post were found in the earlier report. PiunikaWeb also mentions seeing the same symbol.

So what we’re seeing today could be the fruits of this new labor – at least potentially. Things could always change at the last minute. Be sure to take all this info with a grain of salt.

While we have you, check out TechRadar's roundup of the best Pixel phones for 2024.

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OpenAI’s impressive new Sora videos show it has serious sci-fi potential
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OpenAI's Sora, its equivalent of image creation but for videos, made huge shockwaves in the swiftly advancing world of AI last month, and we’ve just caught a few new videos which are even more jaw-slackening than what we have already been treated to.

In case you somehow missed it, Sora is a text-to-video AI meaning you can write a simple request and it’ll compose a video (just as image generation previously worked, but obviously a much more complex endeavor).

An eye with the iris being a globe

(Image credit: OpenAI)

Now OpenAI’s Sora research lead Tim Brooks has released some new content generated by Sora on X (formerly Twitter). 

This is Sora’s crack at fulfilling the following request: “Fly through tour of a museum with many paintings and sculptures and beautiful works of art in all styles.”

Pretty impressive to say the least. On top of that, Bill Peebles, also a Sora research lead, showed us a clip generated from the following prompt: “An alien blending in naturally with new york city, paranoia thriller style, 35mm film.”

An alien character walking through a street

(Image credit: OpenAI)

Content creator Blaine Brown then stepped in to embellish the above clip, cutting it to repeat the footage and make it longer, while having the alien rapping, complete with lip-syncing. The music is generated by Suno AI by the way (with the lyrics written by Brown, mind), and lip-syncing is done with Pika Labs AI.

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Analysis: Still early days for Sora

Two people having dinner

(Image credit: OpenAI)

It’s worth underlining how fast things seem to be progressing with the capabilities of AI. Image creation powers were one thing – and extremely impressive in themselves – but this is entirely another. Especially when you remember that Sora is still just in testing at OpenAI, with a limited set of ‘red teamers’ (testers hunting out bugs and smoothing over those wrinkles).

The camera work in the museum fly-through flows realistically and feels nicely imaginative in the way it swoops around (albeit with the occasional judder). And the last tweet shows how you can take a base clip and flesh it out with content including AI-generated music.

Of course, AI can write a script as well, and so it begs the question: how long will it be before a blue alien is starring in an AI-generated post-apocalyptic drama. Or an (unintentional) comedy perhaps?

You get the idea, and we’re getting carried away, of course, but still – what AI could be capable of in just a few years is potentially mind-blowing, frankly.

Naturally, we’ll be seeing the cream of the crop of what Sora is capable of in these teasers, and there have been some buggy and weird efforts aired too. (Just as when ChatGPT and other AI chatbots first rolled onto the scene, we saw AI hallucinations and general unhinged behavior and replies).

Perhaps the broader worry with Sora, though, is how this might eventually displace, rather than assist, content creators. But that’s a fear to chew over on another day – not forgetting the potential for misuse with AI-created videos which we recently discussed in more depth here.

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The Apple Vision Pro’s new 3D IMAX movies show it could succeed where 3D TVs failed
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The Apple Vision Pro’s home 3D movie revival continues with the IMAX streaming app now offering stereoscopic videos for you to rent and enjoy with immersive visuals.

Currently, the selection is just three documentaries – Superpower Dogs, Pandas, and A Beautiful Planet – which you can rent for $ 5 a piece (around £4 / AU$ 7.70). But it’s another sign that 3D movies might be making another comeback outside of the cinema.

They join over 200 other 3D titles available through the Disney Plus and Apple TV apps on the Vision Pro, as well as all the spatial videos you record using your headset or your iPhone 15 Pro if you have one.

It’s yet another sign that VR headsets could pick up the job started by 3D TVs over a decade ago and finally make the 3D home theatre experience mainstream.

Apple Vision Pro on a red blanket

(Image credit: Future)

Can VR headsets succeed where 3D TVs couldn’t? 

Following the 3D film craze brought about by the wildly successful 2009 film Avatar, it seemed like the next big TV trend would be 3D as well. For a time, this certainly seemed the case.

The first batch of at-home 3D TVs were unveiled at CES 2010, and by 2012 just over a quarter of global TV sales were 3D-capable. Despite predictions that this line would continue to the moon, it instead plateaued before nose-diving in 2015.

Instead, 4K screens became the hot new trend – with 4K QLED, OLED and now QD-OLED displays following after – with a big driving force being the much more widespread availability of 4K content compared to 3D. 

Rather than being able to watch the odd 3D film, and having to contend with flat HD-quality visuals for most content, you could enjoy a larger range of movies and shows with crisp 4K visuals – and without the hassle and eye-strain that can come from slipping on a pair of 3D glasses. 

This was aided by the arrival of 4K digital content via the then-fledgling best streaming services (ah, the good ol’ days before price hikes and when you only needed one or two subscriptions rather than 20).

We go into more details in our article about how 4K TVs should have saved 3D instead of killing it. But by understanding where 3D TVs went wrong, we can see how VR headsets might succeed.

Magnetic 3D screen technology

This 2023 3D TV almost made us believe they could make a comeback (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Firstly, there’s a much wider pool of accessible 3D content. As we mentioned already, Apple TV lets you buy and rent 3D films on your headset, and Disney Plus on the Apple Vision Pro includes a library of 3D films for free with your subscription.

Then there are the better visuals. For the first time, 3D films are available at home in 4K with Dolby Vision and frame rates up to 48fps. This improved visual fidelity means there's less of a tradeoff when deciding between 3D and 2D flicks.

Thanks to this wider content availability and better video quality – especially in the frame rate department – people are able to expose themselves to more 3D and VR content to get over the disorientation and nausea that can affect first-time and infrequent users.

Lastly, while VR headsets are pricey – especially the $ 3,500 (around £2,770 / AU$ 5,400) Vision Pro – they have the advantage of not just being a display. They’re also a computer, console, exercise tool, and more. This makes them feel like a lot better bang for your buck than an expensive 3D TV.

That said, we’ve been here before. Just like the original 3D TV trend, there’s a chance that 3D films in VR will also drop off. 

But with Apple and its partners continuing to launch 3D videos on its Vision pro Platform, and now LG and Meta announcing a partnership that could bring more TV (hopefully also 3D) content to Quest, we could be at the beginning of a new at-home 3D renaissance.

We’ll just have to wait and see if the trend can take off properly this time.

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Nvidia’s GeForce Now’s free tier will soon show you up to two minutes of ads while you wait to play – proving nowhere is safe from commercials
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Nvidia’s free tier of GeForce Now, its cloud gaming service, will soon run up to two minutes of ads before you play, according to Nvidia spokesperson Stephanie Ngo.

GeForce Now is a service offered by Nvidia that allows you to connect to digital PC game stores and stream games you already own across a multitude of different devices – including Macs, Windows laptops, iPhones and iPads, Android phones, and more.

It offers three membership tiers, with the free membership offering a queue system with an hour-long gaming session length that will then bring you back to the start of the queue once your time is up. It’s in this waiting time that the ads will be shown, so while it could be a little annoying, your actual gameplay time won’t be interrupted. 

The ads will help pay for the free tier service and keep it free, with Ngo adding that the change is also expected to reduce wait times for free users in the long run – though it’s not entirely clear at this point how that’s going to work. Perhaps Nvidia is expecting the arrival of ads to push users to pay for the premium tiers or simply drive some users away from the platform entirely – either would, in theory, help reduce queues for the free tier.  GeForce Now users should expect an email on 27 Feb to let them know about the changes. 

 Major inconvenience or just … meh?  

I’m not a user of Nvidia’s game-streaming service myself, but I reached out to GeForce Now Members within the TechRadar team and learned that wait times currently fluctuate between five to fifteen minutes – and scrolling through the GeForce Now subreddit proves that wait times can go on even longer. 

Most people who use the free tier of GeForce Now go in aware that they will be spending a not-insignificant amount of time in a queue, so in reality, two minutes of ads when you know you’re likely going to be waiting for longer anyway isn’t much of an inconvenience – it might even help kill some time. Many users are likely to simply do something else while queuing for their free hour timeslot anyway, so why shouldn’t Nvidia get some extra ad revenue from it?

That being said, it is a gloomy example of the inescapable modern torture of being advertised at non-stop. Almost every facet of the internet is packed with ads at this point (this article included – sorry about that, but we’ve got to eat!) and while a lot of platforms offer ad-free paid tiers, it seems like that isn’t enough anymore. 

Amazon Prime has received a lot of (well-deserved) flak for slapping ads onto paid memberships, and Netflix’s ad-supported free tier wasn’t very well-received either. While Nvidia’s latest move seems fairly innocuous right now, who’s to say the ‘up to two minutes’ won’t extend further in the future, until you’re sat watching a full ten minutes of commercials to play an hour-long session of your current favorite game? Do you just give in and buy a paid membership? I just might, personally – but I wouldn’t be happy about it.

Via The Verge 

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Your Fitbit app can now show stats from other wearables and services
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As part of a recent Android feature drop, the Fitbit app will now show data from third-party sources to provide users with a “more complete picture of [their] health”.

Google stated in a recent announcement it’s effectively expanding Health Connect’s reach, allowing it to grab stats “from your favorite wearables and apps”. These sources include AllTrials, the Oura Ring, plus nutritional data from MyFitnessPal. Over in the Today tab on the Fitbit app, you will see a new section called Records where you will see all the Health Connect info listed out in detail. 

Looking at the demo video, there are entries for calories burned in a day, distance traveled, floors climbed, and body measurements among other things. Tapping an entry will take you to a stat readout. For example, going to “Steps” will show you how many steps you’ve taken in a day, week, month, and year with a daily average number on the side. 

Data coming from a third-party source will have the service’s logo right next to it. The aforementioned Steps section has a symbol of an Oura Ring next to it while Elevation Gained has the AllTrials icon alongside it. It’s important to mention that there may be a discrepancy in the information shown. 9To5Google explains in its coverage “data in Health Connect may not match the metrics you see on your Fitbit devices.”

Android feature drop

The update is currently rolling out alongside the eight other features. Just to briefly go over them, you have WearOS smartwatches receiving public transit directions via Google Maps plus support for Google Wallet passes. Google Messages will soon host the company’s Gemini chatbot so you can have direct conversations with the AI. And the Android home screen will gain an output switcher for Spotify giving subscribers the ability to change where their media is playing. You’ll be able to seamlessly hop between a smartphone, a pair of headphones, or a smart TV. 

We reached out to Google asking if the only third-party sources Health Connect has access to are All Trials, an Oura Ring, and MyFitnessPal or if there are more. This story will be updated at a later time.

In the meantime, check out TechRadar's list of the best Fitbit trackers for 2024.

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Assistant with Bard video may show how it’ll work and when it could land on your Pixel
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New footage has leaked for Google’s Assistant with Bard demonstrating how the digital AI helper could work at launch.

Nail Sadykov posted the video on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) after discovering the feature on the Pixel Tips app. Apparently, Google accidentally spilled the beans on its tech, so it’s probably safe to say this is legitimate. It looks like something you would see in one of the company’s Keyword posts explaining the feature in detail except there’s no audio.

There will, based on the clip, be two ways to activate Assistant with Bard: either by tapping the Bard app and saying “Hey Google” or pressing and holding the power button. A multimodular input box rises from the bottom where you can type in a text prompt, upload photos, or speak a verbal command. The demo proceeds to only show the second method by having someone take a picture of a wilting plant and then verbally ask for advice on how to save it. 

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A few seconds later, Assistant with Bard manages to correctly identify the plant in the image (it’s a spider plant, by the way) and generates a wall of text explaining what can be done to revitalize it. It even links to several YouTube videos at the end.

Assistant with Bard has something of a badly kept secret. It was originally announced back in October 2023 but has since seen multiple leaks. The biggest info dump by far occurred in early January revealing much of the user experience as well as “various in-development features.” What’s been missing up to this point is news on whether or not Assistant with Bard will have any sort of limitations. As it turns out, there may be a few restrictions.

Assistant Limitations

Mishaal Rahman, another industry insider, dove into Pixel Tips searching for more information on the update. He claims Assistant with Bard will only appear on single-screen Pixel smartphones powered by a Tensor chip. This includes the Pixel 6, Pixel 7, and Pixel 8 lines. Older models will not receive the upgrade and neither will the Pixel Tablet, Pixel Fold, or the “rumored Pixel Fold 2”.

Additionally, mobile devices must be running the Android 14 QPR2 beta “or the upcoming stable QPR2 release” although it’s most likely going to be the latter. Rahman states he found a publication date in the Pixels Tip app hinting at a March 2024 release. It’s important to point out that March is also the expected launch window for Android 14 QPR2 and the next Feature Drop for Pixel phones.

No word on whether or not other Android devices will receive Assistant with Bard. It seems it’ll be exclusive to Pixel for the moment. We could see the update elsewhere, however considering that key brands, like Samsung, prefer having their own AI, an Assistant with Bard expansion seems unlikely. But we could be wrong.

Until we learn more, check out TechRadar's list of the best Pixel phones for 2024.

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Google Contacts on your Android can now show your friends’ real-time location
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Google has quietly added a new module to its Contacts app on Android allowing users to see the location of friends and family in real-time.

It’s worth mentioning this function has been in the works for some time now – since late May when it was leaked by industry insider Nail Sadykov on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter). It took a little while, but now you can get this feature by installing Google Contacts version 4.22.37.586680692.

According to Android Police who initially discovered this, the location-sharing banner will be powered by Google Maps, sitting between the contact options and the Contact Info section. Tapping it instantly “opens their location in [Maps]” where you can then get directions to them. Conversely, if a friend is heading towards you, you can set up notification alerts letting you know when they’ve arrived at your location.

You need to meet a couple of requirements to make this update work. First, you must have the other person’s Gmail address saved onto your copy of the app. Second, they must be actively sharing their location on Google Maps. If those two criteria are met, the banner will appear on the contact card. 

Setting up Location Sharing

Setting up the feature is easy. If you tap the profile picture on Google Maps, you will see the Location Sharing option in the menu. Select it, then hit the Share Location button on the following screen. After that, decide which of your contacts you want to share your real-time data with. Often, people will elect to temporarily show their location by picking out a time limit, but we recommend selecting “Until you turn this off” if you want people to find you. 

Google Maps' Location Sharing

(Image credit: Future)

Keep an eye out for the patch when it arrives as it may be rolling out in waves. We updated Google Contacts on our Android device, however, we didn’t see any changes. It could still be making its way to all users or we were just unlucky. 

Be sure to check out TechRadar's roundup of the 10 best Androids app of 2023 – according to Google.

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Finally, Android 13 will ask your permission to show notifications
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As another developer preview of Android 13 is released, Google has announced that it's finally introducing a way to manage new notifications, with a prompt.

According to a blog post, whenever you open a new app for the first time, a message box will appear, asking you to approve or deny any future notifications from the app.

This is a feature that's appeared in Apple's devices since 2010 with iOS 4, so it's good to see Android catch up on a feature that's been requested for over a decade, though it's baffling that Google took this long.

Analysis: Lucky 13 for notifications

Android 13 prompt

(Image credit: Google)

Google likes to take its time when it comes to Android, and a notification prompt is the latest in a long line of features that users have been wishing for.

For years, users had been wanting the company to offer official themes, and a way to change their color scheme across Android while having them adapt to the apps that they would use each day.

While Android 12 brought this out with Material You, there's plenty of room for refinements, as buttons and menus seem bigger than necessary.

So when it comes to how notifications look with these new themes, they look huge and not easy on the eye, especially if you pick the lime green theme.

But thanks to Android 13, it looks like more improvements to the themes are coming. Combine this with the new option to hide notifications from new apps at the start, and it could be a release that could satisfy old and new users who have been holding off from updating their phones.

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Finally, Android 13 will ask your permission to show notifications
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As another developer preview of Android 13 is released, Google has announced that it's finally introducing a way to manage new notifications, with a prompt.

According to a blog post, whenever you open a new app for the first time, a message box will appear, asking you to approve or deny any future notifications from the app.

This is a feature that's appeared in Apple's devices since 2010 with iOS 4, so it's good to see Android catch up on a feature that's been requested for over a decade, though it's baffling that Google took this long.

Analysis: Lucky 13 for notifications

Android 13 prompt

(Image credit: Google)

Google likes to take its time when it comes to Android, and a notification prompt is the latest in a long line of features that users have been wishing for.

For years, users had been wanting the company to offer official themes, and a way to change their color scheme across Android while having them adapt to the apps that they would use each day.

While Android 12 brought this out with Material You, there's plenty of room for refinements, as buttons and menus seem bigger than necessary.

So when it comes to how notifications look with these new themes, they look huge and not easy on the eye, especially if you pick the lime green theme.

But thanks to Android 13, it looks like more improvements to the themes are coming. Combine this with the new option to hide notifications from new apps at the start, and it could be a release that could satisfy old and new users who have been holding off from updating their phones.

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Google IO 2022 dates, registration, and what to expect from Google’s online show
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Google announced its IO 2022 keynote conference for May 11, concluding on May 12, which will mainly be an online event.

While we don't have confirmation yet of what's appearing, it's likely that we'll see Android 13 appear as a preview, similar to last year's Android 12 launch at Google IO 2021.

Like last year, much of Google IO 2022 will be held online, but you can register to attend, according to its FAQ.

After Google canceled its 2020 event due to the pandemic, Google IO 2021 was online only. But with this year's event seemingly hosting an online and offline audience, we may see more demos this year of what Google's been working on.

We suspect Sundar Pichai will kick off the main keynote on May 10, which we expect will be free to stream as before.

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We won't know officially until the May 11 keynote what Google intends to show off, but we can already extrapolate based on the rumors and leaks coming from Google's camp. Below, we'll predict Google's hardware and software lineup for Google IO 2022, as well as explain how the virtual event will work.

LATEST NEWS

Google IO 2022 is announced as a mostly-online event, but you can register to attend.

Cut to the chase

  • What is it? Google’s yearly developer conference
  • When is it? May 11-May 12, 2022
  • How can I register / how much does it cost? On the Google event page for free; all you need is a Google account

Google IO 2022 Registration

(Image credit: Google)

What are the Google IO 2022 dates?

Google revealed that its developer conference would take place from Wednesday, May 11 through Thursday, May 12. Google regularly schedules its annual three-day conference for mid-May, making these dates on-brand for the company.

The traditional keynote hasn't been confirmed as yet, but we expect it to be held on the first day of IO 2022, May 11.

Google IO 2022 Logo

(Image credit: Google)

Is Google IO online-only?

Google canceled the May 2020 event in early March 2020, right at the advent of the pandemic when everyone had begun to shelter in place and live events felt increasingly unsafe.

Google normally holds the Google IO keynote and subsequent developer sessions in physical gatherings at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, where COVID-19 restrictions on large events are slowly being lifted across the country. 

But with Google IO 2021 repeating the same plan as 2020, many had assumed that IO 2022 would follow. This has turned out to be partly true, as you can register to attend, but the company has said that invites will be hard to attain.

How Google IO 2022 will work

Most casual Google users associate Google IO with the keynote address, which streams online where anyone can watch it. But in previous years you could also buy a pass to attend Google developer sessions, new product demos, labs to learn about new code, and other events for professionals or hobbyists. 

This year, most of those events look to be virtual and free, with Google announcing more details as the event gets closer.

Some Google IO 2022 events will be free to all and rewatchable on-demand, as in previous years. But there will be other events that will require you to reserve a slot due to its popularity.

Google IO stage

(Image credit: Future)

What to expect at Google IO 2022

Based on Google's annual product and software calendar, plus all the leaks and rumors we've heard about, we have a general idea of what Sundar Pichai and the Google execs will discuss during the Google IO 2022 keynote. Here are the highlights:

Android Logo

(Image credit: Google)

Android 13

The latest Android OS is already in the developer beta stage on Pixel 6 phones and lower, but we're certain that Google will spend time outlining Android 13's undisclosed tricks on stage. 

With Apple almost certainly introducing iOS 16 at WWDC in June, Google will want to jump ahead of that and show off its newest innovations first. It could even announce the launch of the Android 13 public beta, though that isn't confirmed.

While the preview shows few hints towards Android 13, it does look as though privacy will be another focus for Google in this release, alongside more refined theme options.

With Android 12L focusing on tablets more than ever, there's a chance that we may see an Android 13L that's primarily tailored for tablets and foldable devices.

The back of a Google Pixel 6 Pro in yellow

(Image credit: Google)

Less likely: Pixel 7 and Pixel Tablet

Google is actively developing the Pixel 7 and a Pixel foldable phone, alongside a rumored Pixel Tablet, potentially for a simultaneous October 2022 release. That's far enough out that Google may not want to show off their specs or hardware until it's closer to Fall.

But Google IO has primarily been software-focused, with the only hardware being shown in previous years, being a Chromecast or Google Home products.

However, with IO 2022 allowing some attendees, there's always a chance that hands-on demos is something that the company will want to take advantage of.

wearOS Google

(Image credit: Google)

New Fitbit hardware or Wear OS updates

Ever since Google bought Fitbit despite antitrust concerns, we've been curious how Google will put its personal spin on the best Fitbits of the future. 

Since Google IO 2021, we've seen a bigger focus from the company on how Wear OS 'fits' in its product line, but we've yet to see another Google-branded smartwatch return.

This may be the year that we see a section dedicated to Fitbit, Wear OS, and more. Google is aware that the Apple Watch rules over all others in the category, and 2022 may be the year that we see some more major improvements.

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