Right now when you want to send a message using the Google Messages app, you see a single bar on the bottom that says either Text message or RCS message depending on who you’re chatting with. If you plan on chatting with an iOS user, or an Android user not running a messaging app that supports RCS, it will show the former. Chat with a fellow RCS user and the text field will say the latter.
Before you tap the single text bar on the bottom of the app, you’ll see to the left of the Text message or RCR message label an emoji shortcut. Further to the right inside the bar is a shortcut for the photo gallery and the plus sign. Tapping on the plus sign reveals shortcuts for various features including the Galley, GIFs, Stickers, Files, Location, Contacts, and Schedule Send. To the right of the text bar is a shortcut for the highly praised Recorder app.
When you tap on the single text bar, a second bar that says Text message or RCS message shows up on top with the bottom bar showing the aforementioned shortcuts for emoji, photo gallery, and the plus sign. And again, outside the text bar remains the shortcut for the Recorder app.
On the left, the current version of Google Messages with the revised text bar on the right
Per 9to5 Google, a new version of Google Messages is being tested with the latest beta version (20240404_01_RC00) of the app. With this redesign, once you start typing on the text field, it remains a single bar with the emoji shortcut on the left and the photo gallery and plus icon on the right side of the field. Next to the field on the right side is a separate shortcut inside a circle for the Recorder app.
The only difference between the two versions is that the current one adds a second text bar so you can type your message on the top and have the bottom bar for shortcuts. After the update, that second bar does not appear which saves space and most users will probably agree that getting rid of that wasted space is for the better.
Motorola has confirmed an official date for the announcement of the Motorola Edge 50 series smartphones, and it’s just around the corner. The upcoming series of phones from Motorola has already officially been announced outside of Europe, with the Motorola Edge 50 Pro having been announced on April 3.
The series consists of three phones, and this includes the Edge 50 Pro that was just unveiled last week, as well as two other leaked phones. The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra and the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion. These last two phones have yet to be announced in India where the Edge 50 Pro has arrived. It’s unclear if this event will include any information about those two models, or if it will be entirely about a Europe launch.
The Motorola Edge 50 series gets an April 16 announcement date
Motorola doesn’t mention specific times just yet. It does, however, confirm the official date of the announcement to be April 16. That’s just a week away so the arrival of these phones will be close at hand. Through its official account on X, the Motorola Global account says the announcement is for the entire Edge 50 family. So it should include the unveiling of all three models.
The interesting bit is that Motorola is simply teasing the phone without showing what it actually looks like. It seems a little bit odd given that the Pro model phone was revealed already. The launch, or announcement if you will, was already confirmed to be this month. Back in the middle of March, it was reported that Motorola would have three launch events in early April. This should be one of those launches.
As pointed out by GSM Arena, the names for these phones may be different when or if they hit the US. Like past devices though, these should end up with US variants. The Edge 50 series will come in a variety of color options. Motorola also seems to be implementing a collection of AI-powered features. This is in addition to powerful cameras. As well as a 144Hz display (on the Edge 50 Pro), and potentially the recently announced Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 mobile platform from Qualcomm in the Edge 50 Ultra model.
Meta has started rolling out feature updates for the Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro, and Meta Quest 2 Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, and tagged as the v64 update it unlocks “Lying Down” mode. This is in addition to external mic support, uninterrupted casting, improved passthrough, and much more.
Meta reintroduces Lying Down mode
Meta posted a detailed blog post confirming the Meta Quest 3 VR headset will start receiving the v64 feature update. One of the most anticipated features the latest generation of the headset has received in the update is the “Lying Down” mode.
Incidentally, Meta has already activated the Lying Down mode in the Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro headsets via a previous feature update. The Lying Down mode allows Quest headset owners to relax in an inclined position.
Needless to say, the Lying Down feature would be truly useful mainly while watching a movie. However, several users have been requesting this feature as it allows them to relax and helps them take a load off their feet.
To activate the Lying Down feature, Meta Quest VR headset users should head to the Experimental tab in Settings and toggle the Use Apps While Lying Down setting. To use the feature, users will have to keep pressing the Menu button to reset their view while they are lying down with the VR headset on their head.
Every Meta Quest VR headset is way more affordable than the Apple Vision Pro. However, Apple managed to offer the Lying Down feature at the product’s launch.
Meta Quest 3 gets better passthrough, external mics, and more
In addition to the Lying Down mode, Meta claims it has improved the image quality and resolution of the Meta Quest 3. Part of the “Passthrough” feature set, these improvements will allow Quest VR headset users, to “comfortably view and interact with the physical world”.
The Passthrough video pipeline promises to make “perceived resolution” better. This means fine-grained text on a smartphone should be a little more legible. Additionally, Meta claims it has improved color, exposure, contrast, and dynamic range. This should help users get a realistic feel of real-world colors. Users should also experience a “less grainy” low-light passthrough, Meta indicated.
The Meta Quest 3 VR headset now supports an external mic. Meta has unlocked the ability to plug an external microphone directly into the headset’s USB-C port if the peripheral has USB-C connectivity. Alternatively, a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter should also work. To use an external mic, users should head to the Experimental tab in Settings and select the External Mic option.
One of the biggest improvements Meta has made to the Quest VR headset is ensuring the streaming continues irrespective of the headset’s location. Previously, the Quest headset would cut the output feed abruptly if the wearer removed the headset. Moving forward, the headset will let streamers, using the Meta Quest app, keep their streams going.
Meta is also trying to help players connect in the physical world. Also included in the update is a new experimental feature that lets users join friends directly from the People app in the universal menu. These people will need to share their location and be in a public world. Hence, moving forward, Quest headset users will have to be way morecautious with the location-sharing setting.
If you’re a music lover who leans heavily on YouTube Music for your playlist needs, you’re in for a treat. The platform is finally getting its own dedicated “Activity” feed, keeping you plugged into all the latest releases from your favorite artists.
This feature was spotted earlier this year and recently again by 9to5Google. It borrows the familiar bell icon we all know and love from the main YouTube app, however, with YT Music the bell serves a slightly different purpose. Its function is to notify you of recent drops and other activity by artists you have subscribed to. This notification bell can be found on the top left of the search button in the Home tab.
Images Credit: 9to5Google
The Activity feed itself is a simple, visually-appealing timeline. Each update boasts a picture of the artist and their release artwork, followed by a snappy line like “X released a new single X title”. Releases are neatly organized, letting you quickly jump between “This week” and “Earlier” drops.
YouTube Music aims to make following artists even easier with this feature. They’ll have a “Suggested for you” list tailored to your listening history. Plus, you can always head to the Library tab, hit the Artists filter, and select “Subscriptions” for a comprehensive view of your picks.
It should be noted that you do need to actively subscribe to artists to really make the most of this feed. Curiously enough, podcast episode alerts are not integrated into this Activity feed, which feels like a missed opportunity. Hopefully, that’s something that gets added later, especially considering Google Podcasts has now been shut down.
The good news is this update is rolling out widely, so chances are good that you’ll see it show up pretty soon. Updates are delivered server-side, but if you’re impatient, try force-stopping the YouTube Music app on Android or iOS and relaunching it. Sadly, for now, web users are left out.
If you want additional storage on Google Photos, then you’re going to have to pay. 15GB might be enough for some people, but not for shutterbugs. Google Photos has a Storage Saver function that will help you conserve storage without having to pay. Well, the Google Photos’ Storage Saver could be coming to the mobile app.
Currently, Storage Saver is only available on the web version of Google Photos. This feature will take backed-up media and compress it in order to save storage space. It’s not the preferred method, but it’s still something. If you want additional storage, it starts at $1.99/month. However, if you don’t want to be tied to a monthly subscription fee, then your only options are to either compress your media or start deleting photos.
Google Photos could bring Storage Saver to the mobile app
This news was discovered via an APK deep dive. Because of this, you’re going to want to take this news with a grain of salt. An APK deep dive is when a person digs into the code of the latest version of an app to discover potential new features in the pipeline. However, since this feature has yet to be officially announced, Google could change it or cancel it at any point.
Strings of code within the app allude to the Google Photos app eventually allowing users to use the Storage Saver feature:
<string name=”photos_cloudstorage_ui_compressiondialog_message”>Your eligible photos & videos will be permanently backed up in a reduced size. This step can’t be reversed.</string>
<string name=”photos_cloudstorage_ui_compressiondialog_success_toast_text”>Compressing your existing photos & videos. This may take a couple of days.</string>
<string name=”photos_cloudstorage_ui_compressiondialog_title”>Compressing photos & videos can’t be undone</string></code>
There’s no going back
The strings give us a little bit of insight into what the company plans to do with this feature. Firstly we see the “Yes” text that will be in a button you’ll use to confirm whether or not you want to compress your data. Next, we see the text warning you that compressing your media is permanent. So, if you compress your data, you will not be able to uncompress it and restore it to its original quality.
Depending on the media, you may or may not notice the difference in quality. However, if you’re a photographer who values the quality of the photos you take, then you may want to avoid compressing your backed-up photos.
Also, it appears that you can only compress media once a day. That’s an odd mechanic. In any case, if you are in desperate need of storage space, and there are no other options, you will at least be able to conserve a little bit of space by compression.
MediaTek’s flagship chipsets are becoming increasingly popular for their value proposition. The company even managed to outperform Qualcomm in terms of market share in Q4 2023. MediaTek seems to be currently working on a new flagship SoC for Android, termed MediaTek Dimensity 9400, and it has already started gathering the attention of the crowd. It’s been said that it might have the biggest die size for a smartphone chipset.
MediaTek Dimensity 9400 will have the biggest die size with over 30 billion transistors
MediaTek is working diligently on its upcoming chipset, and the efforts seem to be visible. According to reports, the Dimensity 9400 will have a die size measuring dimensions of 150mm², which is even bigger than NVIDIA’s GT 1030, which measures 74mm². This gives the chipset the largest die size to date on a smartphone chipset, and it’s intriguing to say that being a smartphone chipset, it is very close to a desktop chipset in terms of die size.
Increasing the chipset’s die size is expensive, but it does have its own set of advantages. For example, the chipset can accommodate more transistors, a higher cache, and a bigger neural processing unit.
The Dimensity 9400, owing to the larger die size, will have over 30 billion transistors. This is 32% higher than the total of 22.7 billion transistors found on the Dimensity 9300.
A Bigger die size may cause overheating and other issues
Well, having a bigger die size for a chipset is not all rosy for the MediaTek Dimensity 9400. It can add several additional manufacturing-related costs to the chipset, which would possibly end up giving it the title of MediaTek’s most expensive smartphone chip. On top of this, it is going to build it on a TSMC 3nm fabrication process, and therefore, expecting the chip to be cheaper would be completely pointless.
To add further, there have been reports that the Dimensity 9400 may heat up as it prioritizes the raw performance cores over ARM’s power efficiency cores. This is usually the case with almost all of the chipsets having higher-clocked CPUs. It’s likely not the die size to blame. The heating could be due to the ARM’s Cortex X5 CPU and we should not draw any final conclusion before the commercial release of the chipset.
Update: OnePlus recently pushed out a new update to the OnePlus 11, which is OxygenOS 14.0.0.64.
On Tuesday, February 7, 2023, OnePlus announced the OnePlus 11. This is the latest and greatest flagship from OnePlus, and it does bring back Hasselblad and the Alert Slider, which is a really great thing to see.
Unlike in previous years, there’s just one OnePlus 11 model. There’s no “pro” model this time around. So choosing which phone to buy is a lot easier. But here’s everything you need to know about the OnePlus 11.
OnePlus 11 specs
Here’s the specs of the OnePlus 11, and how it compares to the OnePlus 10 Pro and OnePlus 10T from last year. So you can see if it’s worth it to upgrade or not.
OnePlus 11
OnePlus 10T
OnePlus 10 Pro
Display
6.7-inch FHD+ Fluid AMOLED Adaptive 120Hz
6.7-inch FHD+ Fluid AMOLED Adaptive 120Hz
6.7-inch FHD+ LTPO Fluid2 AMOLED Adaptive 120Hz
Processor
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
RAM
8GB/16GB
8GB/16GB
8GB/12GB
Storage
128GB/256GB
128GB/256GB
128GB/256GB
Battery Capacity
5000mAh
4800mAh
5000mAh
Charging Speeds
80W fast wired charging
150W (125W in North America) fast wired charging No wireless charging
80W (65W North America) fast wired charging 50W wireless charging Reverse wireless charging
Software
Android 13, OxygenOS 13
Android 12, OxygenOS 12.1
Android 12, OxygenOS 12
Rear Cameras
50MP wide 48MP ultrawide 32MP telephoto
50MP wide 8MP ultrawide 2MP macro
50MP wide 8MP telephoto 48MP ultrawide
Front Camera
16MP
8MP
32MP
Dimensions
163.1 x 74.1 x 8.53mm
163 x 75.37 x 8.75mm
163 x 73.9 x 8.6mm
Weight
205g
203.5 grams
200.5 grams
Price
$699
$649
$799.99
Colors
Titan Black Eternal Green
Moonstone Black Jade Green
Volcanic Black Forest Emerald
Available
Pre-order on Feb 7
Yes
Yes
How much does the OnePlus 11 cost?
The OnePlus 11 is one of the more affordable flagship smartphones that will launch in 2023. And it is actually launching at a cheaper price than the OnePlus 10 Pro did last year. Starting at just $699. That’s for the 8GB/128GB model, while the 16GB/256GB model is going to be $799.
The 8GB/128GB model will only be available in Titan Black, while the upgraded model will also come in Eternal Green.
This is a pretty competitive price for OnePlus here. Considering the competitors are closer to $800 for a smaller phone, like the new Galaxy S23 that was announced recently. And it’s even undercutting the Pixel 7 Pro.
Where can I buy the OnePlus 11?
Unfortunately, the OnePlus 11 isn’t going to be available from carriers. So you will need to buy it unlocked. Which is a good thing, it means that you can take it pretty much anywhere, and put it on any carrier.
You can buy it from Amazon, Best Buy and OnePlus.com. Pre-orders opened on February 7, with the open sales starting on February 16.
What carriers support the OnePlus 11?
Since none of the carriers are selling the OnePlus 11, you might be wondering what networks will support the OnePlus 11? Well, OnePlus has provided us with that list. Here’s all the networks that the OnePlus 11 will work on:
United States:
T-Mobile 5G
AT&T 5G
Verizon Wireless 5G
Visible Lagacy 5G
Visible VZW Core 5G
Mint Mobile 5G
Google Fi 5G
Ultra Mobile 5G
Simple Wireless 5G
Assurance Wireless 5G
Metro By T-Mobile 5G
Cricket 5G
Viaero 4G only
Altice 5G
Tracfone ATT 5G
Redpocket 5G
Airvoice5G
Puretalk 5G
Republic 5G
Boost Mobile 5G
Ztar (good2go mobile) 5G
Canada:
Bell Mobility 5G
Rogers Wireless 4G only
Telus Mobility 5G
Freedom Mobile 4G only
What colors does the OnePlus 11 come in?
The OnePlus 11 is available in two colors. That’s Titan Black and Eternal Green. The Titan Black is available in both the 8GB/128GB model and the 16GB/256GB models. While the Eternal Green color is limited to just the 16GB/256GB model.
The Titan Black color is a darker black, which has a sandstone look to it. It’s a matte finish, so it doesn’t pick up fingerprints as easily. While the Eternal Green is a semi-darker green, which is also a matte finish. But it’s not as textured as the Titan Black color.
What new features did OnePlus add?
OnePlus hasn’t added a lot of software features to the OnePlus 11, instead, a lot of the features are hardware based. This is because it is launching with OxygenOS 13 the same software that launched last year. So instead, we have some cool features like UFS 4.0 storage, WiFi 7 and even more software updates.
UFS 4.0
OnePlus has always been about the latest bleeding edge technology, and that’s what we’re getting here with the OnePlus 11. It’s sporting UFS 4.0 storage. But that is only on the 256GB model. This is going to improve the power efficiency, wider bandwidth and improved read and write speeds. Which is going to make the OnePlus 11 feel even faster than it actually is.
WiFi 7
OnePlus has also added WiFi 7 to the 11 this year. It’s not the first smartphone to do this, and likely not the last. This is all about future-proofing for OnePlus, since there are very few WiFi 7 devices out there. In fact, there are no WiFi 7 routers available yet. So you won’t be able to use this feature for a bit.
4 years of software updates
OnePlus is promising four years of software updates and 4-5 years of security updates. That’s a bit longer than it had previously promised. That’s definitely good to see. However, the problem here is that OnePlus is generally pretty late with software updates for new versions of Android. So hopefully they can get that ironed out. Still, the OnePlus 11 should see Android 17, which is impressive.
What cases are available?
As usual, OnePlus has a number of first-party cases available for the OnePlus 11. There’s not a lot of third-party ones available just yet. But they will be launching soon. Here’s what OnePlus has available for the 11.
Sandstone Bumper Case
This is OnePlus’ signature case. It’s the same sandstone texture that it used on the original OnePlus One all those years ago. It’s a really good bumper case for your OnePlus 11, that does also add a good amount of grip to the phone. So it’s less likely to fall out of your hands. This case is available for $24.99.
The Aramid Fiber Bumper Case is another popular one. It’s a carbon fiber case that is surprisingly thin, and protective. This one’s a bit more expensive, it’s coming in at $39.
The OnePlus 11 is a pretty amazing smartphone, and at its starting price of $699, it’s really hard to pass it up. It has all of the latest specs, along with an incredible camera, great battery life and a great gaming experience. Of course, we’d recommend getting the 16GB/256GB model, as it is going to be a lot more future-proof. And at $799, it’s still pretty impressive.
Social media continues to evolve, with new platforms entering the fray with novel ideas. However, it is difficult to challenge the established players. The latest research by marketing measurement platform Lifesight.io has just proved that. The firm used data from SEMrush to determine the top 10 most popular social media platforms in 2024 based on total visits last year. The list contains familiar names.
YouTube is unmatched in terms of user visits
According to the report, YouTube was visited 1.35 trillion times in 2023. That’s a staggering 80.49% growth in annual visits from 263.3 billion in 2019. This helped Google’s video platform build a massive lead at the top. Facebook is the next most popular social media platform in 2024, and it had only 216.4 billion visits last year. The Meta-owned platform remained almost flat between 2019 and 2023, growing just 15.33%.
The fact that YouTube’s total visits in 2023 were almost double the next nine most popular social media platforms is a testament to its popularity. Facebook, meanwhile, isn’t under threat despite a stagnation in recent years. It is distantly followed by X (formerly Twitter) with annual visits of 112.9 billion in 2023. Meta should be wary of X’s growth rate, though. The Elon Musk-owned platform saw a 63.19% increase in visits from 41.6 billion in 2019.
Instagram, another Meta-owned platform, registered 87.3 billion visits in 2023, up 62.40% from 32.8 billion in 2019. It is predominantly used on mobile with male users constituting two-thirds (67%) of its total visits. Reddit is right on its heels, though. With a better growth rate between 2019 and 2023 (68.72%), Reddit is threatening to leapfrog Instagram soon. It had 81.0 billion visits last year, making it the fifth most popular social media platform in 2024.
What should be a more concerning stat for Instagram is how Reddit has a similarly male-dominated user base and a high percentage of mobile traffic (72.27%). TikTok, the next platform on this list, is also moble-centric. However, it is equally popular among male and female users. Debuted in 2018, the Chinese app had just 0.7 billion visits in 2019. It reached 41.8 billion in 2023. Started as a shot-form video platform, it has expanded to other areas in recent years.
Most popular social media platforms have a majority male user base
WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Twitch, and Quora made up the top 10 most visited social media platforms last year. All of these platforms registered strong growth in annual visits between 2019 and 2023, ranging between 48% and 68%. While each has its specialty—WhatsApp is used for communication, LinkedIn for building professional networks, Twitch is popular in the gaming community, and Quora is used for knowledge sharing—there is something in common. All of these apps have a majority male user base.
Considering the current social media landscape, the top ten most popular platforms should remain unchanged next year. There may be some changes in the order (unlikely in the top three) but we don’t see a new entrant on the list. The looming nationwide ban on TikTok in the US may cause some shake-ups, though. TikTok had 170 million users in the US last year.
In the past couple of weeks, we have observed an ongoing campaign targeting system administrators with fraudulent ads for popular system utilities. The malicious ads are displayed as sponsored results on Google’s search engine page and localized to North America.
Victims are tricked into downloading and running the Nitrogen malware masquerading as a PuTTY or FileZilla installer. Nitrogen is used by threat actors to gain initial access to private networks, followed by data theft and the deployment of ransomware such as BlackCat/ALPHV.
We have reported this campaign to Google but no action has been taken yet. This blog post aims to share the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) as well as indicators of compromise (IOCs) so defenders can take action.
Step 1: Luring victims in via malicious ads
The initial intrusion starts from a malicious ad displayed via Google search. We have observed several different advertiser accounts which were all reported to Google. The lures are utilities commonly used by IT admins such as PuTTY and FileZilla.
Online ads from search engine result pages are increasingly being used to deliver malware to corporate users. ThreatDown users that have DNS Filtering can enable ad blocking in their console to prevent such malvertising attacks:
Step 2: Directing users to lookalike sites
The malvertising infrastructure deployed by Nitrogen threat actors uses a cloaking page that can either redirect to a decoy site or the infamous Rick Astley video. The redirect to a decoy page can be activated if the campaign is not weaponized yet or if the malicious server detects invalid traffic (bot, crawler, etc.).
The Rick Astley redirect is mostly to mock security researchers investigating this campaign:
Actual lookalike pages are meant for potential victims. They are often good-looking copycats which could easily fool just about anyone:
ThreatDown blocks these malicious websites to prevent your users from being social-engineered into downloading malware:
Step 3: Deploying malware via a fraudulent installer
The final step in this malvertising chain consists of downloading and running the malware payload. Nitrogen uses a technique known as DLL sideloading whereby a legitimate and signed executable launches a DLL. In this case, setup.exe (from the Python Software Foundation) sideloads python311.dll (Nitrogen).
ThreatDown via its EDR engine quarantines the malicious DLL immediately. System administrators can log into their console and use the AI-assisted engine to quickly search and review the detection:
Recommendations
While there are many phishing training simulations for email threats, we aren’t aware of similar trainings for malvertising. Yet, the threat has become prevalent enough to warrant better user education.
Endpoints can be protected from malicious ads via group policies that restrict traffic coming from the main and lesser known ad networks. Click here for more information about DNS filtering via our Nebula platform.
LG decided to end its smartphone production a few years ago due to intense competition. However, the company has found a way to continue generating revenue from its past efforts – patent licensing deals.
In 2022, LG signed an agreement with Apple to license part of its mobile patent portfolio. This provided ongoing revenue even after the company exited handset manufacturing. More recently, LG sold 48 patents to Chinese technology manufacturer Oppo in another deal.
LG sells its mobile patent portfolio to Oppo
According to The Elec, LG’s sale of 48 patents to Oppo included technologies essential to modern mobile devices. Specifically, 34 of the patents are related to codecs – the software needed to compress digital video and audio into popular formats such as MP4 and AAC. The remaining 14 patents in this category are still pending with the USPTO.
LG retained a large portfolio of over 24,000 patents spanning technologies like 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi, and other core smartphone capabilities. Since the company now relies heavily on Samsung and Apple for component supply, directly challenging their patents was not a viable option. This made Oppo an attractive partner. Meanwhile, Oppo is expanding globally and it wants to strengthen its own patent portfolio.
The financial terms of the deal between Oppo and LG were not disclosed. However, it is believed that the Chinese company paid a premium for the LG patents, recognizing their strategic importance. The deal provides both immediate funds for LG during its transition away from phones. For Oppo, it strengthens its capabilities in streaming technologies.
LG Mobile suffered an operating loss from 2015 until its closure
LG Mobile just could not generate a profit during its last six years of operation. The company tried to change that for a long time, but it did not succeed in the attempt. It released quite a few interesting smartphones over the years, like the LG Wing, for example.
The company was also planning to release another futuristic phone soon, its rollable smartphone. That phone will never see the light of day, though, it seems, which is quite unfortunate.
