Technology - Google News

New standard Switch model will improve battery life about 40 percent - Ars Technica
Samsung One UI 2.0 details leak, reportedly coming with Android Q update - PhoneDog
Apple offers a look at new emoji coming to iPhone this fall - Apple Newsroom

New standard Switch model will improve battery life about 40 percent - Ars Technica

Posted: 17 Jul 2019 07:30 AM PDT

Last week, we broke down the evidence that Nintendo was working on a new model of the standard Switch to go alongside the recently announced, portable-only Switch Lite. Today, Nintendo confirmed the existence of that new model via product page listings that promise improved battery life over the existing Switch.

Switch model HAC-001-01 will last approximately 4.5 to 9 hours on a single charge, depending on the game being played, according to Nintendo. That's a 38 to 44 percent increase from the 2.5 to 6.5 hours of the original model HAC-001. For The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo promises an increase from approximately three hours of single-charge play on the old model to approximately 5.5 hours on the new model. For comparison, the Switch Lite will get three to seven hours on a single charge, and it can last four hours on Breath of the Wild, according to Nintendo.

The new model should be available in the US in mid-August and in Japan in late August, according to Nintendo. Eurogamer reports that Nintendo expects it in the UK "starting from early September." Besides the model numbers, consumers will be able to tell the new extended-battery Switch units from the old ones by looking for a serial number starting with "XKW."

The new model doesn't otherwise have any new branding (a la the "New Nintendo 3DS" line) or differ from the original in any significant listed specs or price. That would seem to cut off the previously speculated possibility for new software that could make use of the higher maximum clock speed offered by the redesigned Tegra X1 "Mariko" chip. But Switch hackers may still be able to take advantage of this internal redesign for various homebrew software—if they can hack this new hardware configuration, that is.

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Samsung One UI 2.0 details leak, reportedly coming with Android Q update - PhoneDog

Posted: 16 Jul 2019 10:06 AM PDT

Last year, Samsung launched its new One UI with major improvements to its custom Android user interface. The update has since been released to several Samsung flagship phones with Android Pie, and now details on the next major version of One UI have begun trickling out.

One UI 2.0 will be released alongside the Android Q updates for Samsung phones. Info on new One UI 2.0 features are still light, but SamMobile claims that the update will include the Digital Wellbeing improvements announced by Google earlier this year. Those include Focus Mode, which lets you specify apps that could be distracting and then silence them for a period of time.

Looking even further ahead, One UI 2.1 is expected to launch alongside the Samsung Galaxy S11. If recent Galaxy S flagship announcements are any indication, the Galaxy S11 will be revealed by Samsung in late February 2020.

Samsung's One UI has been praised as an improvement over the company's previous custom user interfaces. Not only did it bring popular features like a dark mode, it also made one-handed phone use easier, which is welcome in an age when smartphone screens seem to be getting bigger and bigger. Because of all that, it's not a huge surprise to learn that One UI 2.0 and One UI 2.1 updates are coming soon, but it's still good to hear that Samsung is continuing to improve its custom Android overlay.

Have you tried One UI? If so, what do you think of it?

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Apple offers a look at new emoji coming to iPhone this fall - Apple Newsroom

Posted: 16 Jul 2019 02:02 PM PDT

To celebrate World Emoji Day, Apple is previewing a selection of new emoji coming this fall, revealing the newest designs that bring even more diversity to the keyboard, alongside fun and exciting additions to popular categories of food, animals, activities and smiley faces.

In a major update to the Holding Hands emoji typically used to represent couples and relationships, users will now be able to select any combination of skin tone, in addition to gender, to personalize the people holding hands, opening up more than 75 possible combinations.

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