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5G rollout date, compatible phones, and more. | Komando.com - Komando
Samsung Galaxy S10 With Supported Crypto Wallet for Ethereum Gets Hacked: Report - The Daily Hodl
Android Q Beta 2, a deep dive - Ars Technica

5G rollout date, compatible phones, and more. | Komando.com - Komando

Posted: 06 Apr 2019 05:04 PM PDT

Pop the champagne corks, because the next generation 5G mobile network is finally here! Well, kind of. It's in a few cities. And it only works if you have this one phone.

No, the floodgates haven't been magically opened for super-fast speeds on your mobile devices. While it seems to be moving at a snail's pace, dates have been set and the rollout is truly underway.

At long last, the 5G switch is being flipped and compatible smartphones are just about ready to go. Read on to find out the latest on 5G including what's already here, what's on the way and what's going to take longer than expected.

5G then and now

There were promises that 5G would be so fast that it would blow 4G LTE out of the water, with a projected average speed of about 1GBps. Not only that, but it's a network that'll be able to handle the continuing evolution of the Internet of Things and the seemingly endless potential of device connectivity. Your phone is only a small part of the potential. Think smart cities, homes and cars along with major advancements in virtual and augmented reality.

HOW FAST IS 5G? UNDERSTANDING WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU

Work on the 5G network has actually been going on for more than a decade, but didn't start garnering real attention until the last five years or so. In 2013, Samsung announced it had created a 5G network. Verizon started testing 5G in 2016, as other companies quietly worked on building out the infrastructure for the new network.

Time went on and the initial buzz waned, then news about 5G really started picking up steam again in 2018. In October, Verizon announced that it mobile network would be launched in 30 U.S. cities before the end of 2019. The company didn't say which ones - at first.

Not to be one-upped, AT&T did more than set a date and in December flipped the switch on 5G in 12 cities:

Atlanta
Charlotte
Dallas
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Louisville
New Orleans
Oklahoma City
Raleigh
San Antonio
Waco

AT&T then announced another list of cities that would launch on 5G during 2019:

Chicago
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Minneapolis
Nashville
Orlando
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose

Sprint is also working on its own plans, initially working to activate 5G this May in the following cities:

Atlanta
Chicago
Dallas
Kansas City

Then Sprint plans to add these cities later in the year:

Houston
Los Angeles
New York City
Phoenix
Washington, D.C.

Let's not forget about T-Mobile, which is also planning a 30-city launch at some point in 2019, possibly the second half of year, beginning with these cities:

Dallas
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
New York City

That's great, but what's a 5G network if no devices can connect to it?

First of all, if you have a smartphone on the AT&T network you might already see 5G E in the top corner. This is not real 5G. All phones currently on the market only support 4G LTE, and their phones are no different. It's just their strange way to market what they're calling a faster version of 4G, even though some tests show their misleading 5G E is actually slower than Verizon and T-Mobile's 4G LTE. Another test says otherwise, that AT&T now has the fastest.

IS THERE A 5G NETWORK NEAR YOU? FIND OUT

So let's move on to phones that actually has 5G radio capabilities built-in. Samsung unveiled its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S10 along with a 5G version during an event back in February. Its 5G phone will at first launch exclusively with Verizon and rumor has it it might be made available for pre-order in the U.S. in mid-April and released around mid-May.

LG also has a 5G phone on the way, the V50 ThinQ. It's supposed to launch exclusively with Sprint at first within the next few months.

Verizon's 5G is online and they have a phone to prove it

Now we'll come back around to Verizon. A few days ago, it launched its 5G service early in Chicago and Minneapolis. But that wasn't the company's only announcement.

Flipping the switch in those two cities was one thing, but the big news was that Verizon had a phone that works on the 5G network. But it's not a new phone. It's the existing Moto z3 that can now access the 5G network - you'll just have to buy the just-released $200 Moto Mod attachment to add the capability. And pay an extra $10 a month for 5G service.

Now Verizon has seemingly taken the lead in the race to 5G. Even though coverage is sparse, it's is actually demonstrating that 5G is real and it's here.

The next steps in the 5G rollout

As you read through this report, you might have noticed there was no mention of Apple and a 5G-capable iPhone. That was no accident. Apple hasn't exactly been quick to adopt new tech or standards over the past few years and it doesn't seem to be treating 5G any differently. Don't expect to see an iPhone that can access the new network until at the earliest, 2020.

It might even be worse than that. One analyst told 9to5Mac that legal disputes over 5G modems might delay the release even further. He believes a 5G iPhone might not see the light of day until 2021.

In the grand scheme of things, however, the big carriers will continue to debut 5G service in different cities throughout the year. The problem is, coverage will initially be patchy and there will only be a few phones that'll even be able to use it by the end of year.

Yes, we'll eventually get more of a nationwide rollout of 5G, but you won't start seeing mass coverage until 2020 at the earliest. The 5G network might be incredibly fast, but the rollout certainly isn't.

Dozens of security flaws found in LTE can put your cellphone at risk

Although 5G is already making it's debut, most of us will still be on the 4G LTE network for the foreseeable future. And it has its problems.

Tap or click here to learn about the security flaws researchers have unearthed. You won't believe how many there are.

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Samsung Galaxy S10 With Supported Crypto Wallet for Ethereum Gets Hacked: Report - The Daily Hodl

Posted: 07 Apr 2019 06:01 AM PDT

Samsung Galaxy S10 With Supported Crypto Wallet for Ethereum Gets Hacked: Report | The Daily Hodl

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Android Q Beta 2, a deep dive - Ars Technica

Posted: 07 Apr 2019 05:45 AM PDT

Android Q Beta 2 is out! Despite the plethora of bug warnings from Google, I flashed it on my daily driver and am back to report on some things. Beta 2 gives us a whole new feature to play with called "Bubbles," lots of little changes, and frustratingly slow development on Android's gesture navigation system.

Of course everything is a work in progress, and there are plenty of bugs and weird design quirks. We're still going to bring attention to them now, though, in the hope that they get cleaned up before release. Let's dive in!

Bubbles—Messaging-app feature or crazy notification-panel replacement?

Google's bubble sample app lets you talk to animals.

Ron Amadeo
Press the bubble button and you will spawn a bubble.

Ron Amadeo
Bubbles get scoped behind a permission.

Ron Amadeo

The headline feature of Android Q Beta 2 is "Bubbles," which is a multitasking UI that bears a striking resemblance to the old Facebook "Chat Heads" feature. Apps pop up in floating windows and can be minimized into a little floating circle. Android supports this at the OS level, so any app can be a bubble. Google suggests using this for messaging apps, note apps, directions, and anything else you might want to keep at hand while you move around your phone.

Bubble support isn't applied to apps automatically—each individual app would need to be updated by the developer specifically to support bubbles. Since Android Q Beta 2 just came out, right now zero apps support bubbles. Scratch that—one app supports bubbles: Google's Bubble sample app. It was mentioned briefly in Google's blog post, but you get it here on GitHub, compile it in Android Studio, and send it to your Android Q phone. The result is the above messaging app that lets you talk to animals.

The Dog says "woof," the Cat says "meow," and overall, Bubbles is a standard messaging app. The magic comes in from the button in the top-right corner of the app, which lets you spawn a bubble. Just like the old Chat Heads feature, here the bubble holds a tiny version of a messaging app. You can drag the bubble around the screen, and tap on it open or minimize the tiny applet. To close a bubble, just drag it to the bottom of the screen.

Google's sample app will auto-reply to your messages after five seconds, with the idea being you can send a message from the full screen UI, go to the home screen, and in five seconds, the app will spawn a new bubble all its own. This could get annoying if abused by apps, so bubble usage is locked behind a permission. The first time an app creates a bubble, you get an "allow" or "deny" permission attached to the pop-up UI, and in the app settings you can change the bubble setting on-demand. For the most part, bubbled apps stay out of your notification panel. The first time a bubble pops up, you'll get a duplicate notification in the panel, but if you interact with the bubble, the notification goes away.

Android Q is a beta, and there are some bugs. First, by default, bubbles appear at the bottom of the pop-up UI, toward the bottom of the screen. This is good for reachability, but when you open the keyboard, the bubbles and the UI don't move upward to make room for the keyboard like every other app does, so the keyboard covers them. For now, you can use a workaround developer command that forces bubbles to open at the top of the screen and leaves room to type. Second, bubbles are supposed to show contact pictures, but that feature doesn't work in this Beta yet. Google's blog post specifically notes that icons are "disabled in Beta 2" for whatever reason.

The third problem I've noticed is that the open bubble UI renders below the notification panel but will capture touch interaction above the notification panel. So you have to close a bubble if you want to use the notification panel.

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