Technology - Google News

iPhone SE 3 Reportedly Entering Trial Production Phase With Launch Set for Early 2022 - MacRumors
Pixel Watch will bring next-gen Google Assistant to Wear OS, may be powered by Exynos - 9to5Google
DuckDuckGo offers a first look at its desktop web browser - Engadget

iPhone SE 3 Reportedly Entering Trial Production Phase With Launch Set for Early 2022 - MacRumors

Posted: 21 Dec 2021 04:37 AM PST

Tuesday December 21, 2021 4:37 am PST by Sami Fathi

iphonesefront
MyDrivers reports today that trial production, a stage in the supply chain ahead of when the device is mass produced, is set to start soon, according to sources in the upstream supply chain, hinting that the launch of the new iPhone is approaching. The new ‌iPhone SE‌ is reportedly on track to be released in the first quarter of 2022, towards the end of March.

The new third-generation ‌iPhone SE‌ is expected to continue with the same design featuring a physical Home button that includes Touch ID. The screen size is set to remain unchanged at 4.7-inches but will feature a faster A15 chip and improved camera capabilities.

The ‌iPhone SE‌ is a popular choice for customers looking for a smaller and more compact ‌iPhone‌. Ahead of when Apple is expected to abandon the 5.4-inch "‌iPhone‌ mini" in the 2022 ‌iPhone‌ series, the ‌iPhone SE‌ will likely play an increasingly more critical role in the ‌iPhone‌ lineup. The current ‌iPhone SE‌ starts at $399 and Apple's expected to keep the same price for the upcoming model.

'Pixel' watch

Before we dive into the potential features of Google's upcoming first-party Wear OS device, one question currently unanswered is how the company will brand the smartwatch. Fitbit has already shared separate plans to create a Wear OS device as well as for Google to create their own smartwatch with Fitbit integrations.

While the branding and marketing of Google's smartwatch are likely still far from finalized, our team has discovered indications that Google is leaning toward launching a Pixel-branded watch.

Since the second year of the Pixel lineup, Google has included an Android "feature" tag within the phones called "PIXEL_EXPERIENCE." Some of Google's apps check for this tag to know when to offer Pixel-exclusive features.

With subsequent generations of Pixel phones, Google has continued to create more features that were exclusive to the latest Pixel phones. This has led to annual feature tags like "PIXEL_EXPERIENCE_2021" for the Pixel 6 series, as well as tags like "PIXEL_EXPERIENCE_2020_MIDYEAR" for the Pixel 5a.

In a recent update to a Google app, we've found a mention of "PIXEL_EXPERIENCE_WATCH" which strongly suggests Google's first-party smartwatch will indeed carry the "Pixel" name. It also means that this Pixel smartwatch should have features that will not be immediately available on other Wear OS watches.

Next-gen Assistant for Wear OS

Since the debut of the Google Pixel 4, Pixel series phones have offered what's called the "next-generation Assistant." What sets this version of the Assistant apart is that it processes your speech directly on your device, rather than via one of Google's servers, which leads to a massive speedup.

The most important advantage of the next-gen Assistant is the ability to do things in your apps, such as filtering a gallery in Google Photos, using only your voice. Additionally, the next-gen Assistant can also do certain tasks — like tweaking your phone settings — entirely offline.

While digging into various Google apps, our team found references to "Rohan," reported by Front Page Tech and Business Insider to be a codename associated with the Pixel Watch. Through these references, we were able to directly tie "Rohan" to the addition of the next-generation Assistant to Wear OS devices. Considering the next-gen Assistant is still a Pixel exclusive, this further points to "Rohan" being a "Pixel" watch.

Additionally, the Wear OS 3 emulator — which has turned out to be quite the treasure trove of Pixel Watch tidbits, recently revealing 10 Google-developed watch faces — includes assets that may give us a hint at what the next-generation Google Assistant would look like on a smartwatch. Check it out:

Pixel Watch will bring next-gen Google Assistant to Wear OS, may be powered by Exynos

The most important aspect of this graphic is the four-color "light bar" design shown at the bottom of the screen. Since the Pixel 4, this has been the signature "look" of the next-gen Assistant on phones. It only makes sense that it would copy this design — with a delightful curve — on smartwatches.

Notably, the graphic shown also indicates a second button on the watch, something that renders of the Pixel Watch have thus far not shown. That said, this matches the design of the generic smartwatch seen in demo animations in the original Wear OS 3 announcement.

Either way, it's clear that Google intends for the Assistant to be more deeply integrated with Wear OS than it already is. While the full set of next-gen Assistant features may not be as useful on watches as they are on phones, the speed boost to speech recognition would be much appreciated, as Assistant on Wear OS has been quite slow in years past.

Possible Exynos chip

For the next-gen Assistant to work like it does on Pixel phones, it needs to be able to process speech directly on the device. This would undoubtedly require a higher-end smartwatch chip.

While digging into references of the "Rohan" codename across various places in Wear OS related code, we've seen evidence suggesting that the device may be powered by a Samsung Exynos processor. It's not clear whether this would be the same chip as found in the Galaxy Watch 4, the Exynos W920.

Though far from confirmed at this point, the use of an Exynos chip in a Pixel Watch would not be a surprise. Samsung and Google worked closely together on the development and release of Wear OS 3, with the Galaxy Watch 4 even serving to debut the new Android 11 based version of Wear OS. Between the enhancements of Wear OS 3 itself and the high-end Exynos chip, the Galaxy Watch 4 is the current pinnacle of what an Android powered smartwatch can be.

Beyond that, Google Tensor chips that power the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are, at their core, Samsung Exynos chips integrated with Google-designed components like the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU). It's possible that Google could take an Exynos chip, integrate some of their own hardware into it, and brand it as a Google Tensor chip. Or, it could simply release with an Exynos-branded chip.

Dylan Roussel contributed to this article

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DuckDuckGo offers a first look at its desktop web browser - Engadget

Posted: 21 Dec 2021 10:51 AM PST

DuckDuckGo has offered an early peek at its upcoming desktop app. In a blog post that recaps the company's year, CEO Gabriel Weinberg looked toward the future as well. He said DuckDuckGo will bring the privacy protections the company is known for to the app. You can expect the speed and simplicity of its mobile app too.

"Robust privacy protection" will be enabled by default for search, browsing, email and more. Weinberg said the app isn't a "privacy browser" per se, but rather "an everyday browsing app that respects your privacy."

As it did on mobile, DuckDuckGo is building the app using OS-provided rendering engines instead of basing it on projects like Chromium. According to Weinberg, that helped the development team to "strip away a lot of the unnecessary cruft and clutter that's accumulated over the years in major browsers."

Along with a streamlined interface and the Fire Button (which closes all tabs and wipes browsing data in a single tap), the DuckDuckGo desktop is cleaner and much more private than Chrome, Weinberg said. He also claimed it's "significantly faster" than Google's browser, based on early tests — here's hoping it's less of a memory hog than Chrome too. DuckDuckGo didn't reveal when it plans to release the desktop app.

Weinberg notes that, over the last 12 months, DuckDuckGo has bolstered its search and tracker blocking features. He said DuckDuckGo's mobile app is now the most downloaded Android browser in key markets. In July, the company announced a free email forwarding service that removes tracking pixels from messages.

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