MobileNews

Android Beam lives on through Nearby Share tap-to-send functionality

Android Beam may have been ditched in favor of Nearby Share, but the ability to tap-to-send files, websites, contacts, and more lives on as the option actually still exists with the help of NFC. Nearby Share in the basic sense allows you to open up a connection with a nearby device provided you’ve enabled the feature and have Bluetooth enabled. That means you may run into hurdles when trying…
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MobileNews

Google Fonts gets new logo as catalog adds iconography, starting with Material Icons

Given how “typography and iconography are so strongly related,” Google Fonts is adding Material icons and getting a new logo in the process. Google has long offered a catalog of free and open source fonts. It’s now adding iconography to make a one-stop discovery portal and “provide even more value to our users.” And while today’s letters and characters have evolved from abstracted…
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MobileNews

Google Duo on Android using ‘Lyra’ to offer natural-sounding voice calls on even a 2G connection

Google has unveiled Lyra, a new technology that allows Duo, and soon other apps, to offer natural-sounding voice chat with as little as 3 kilobytes per second of network bandwidth. With so many of us still unable to visit with loved ones, video calling apps have played a key role in keeping us all connected to one another, with Google Duo and Meet hosting over 1 trillion minutes of video last…
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Cleantech & EV'sNews

Rivian planning to manufacture solid-state batteries

Recent job posts on Rivian’s career page reveal the automaker is searching for manufacturing engineers to develop solid-state batteries. The five positions currently listed are all for Rivian’s Palo Alto facility in California. Solid-state batteries have been touted for…
MobileNews

Volvo C40 Recharge is the latest EV with Android Automotive

Google’s car OS today is available on the Polestar 2 and Volvo XC40 Recharge, with many more vehicles coming down the road. Volvo today announced the C40 Recharge as a follow-up that also uses Android Automotive. The C40’s center console is very similar to that of the…
NewsPhotography

Kenko Tokina forms alliance with Carl Zeiss to be its distributor for lenses and more in Japan

A Carl Zeiss Apo Sonnar 135mm F2.8 lens attached to a Sony mirrorless camera. Kenko Tokina has announced a new business alliance with Carl Zeiss that will see Kenko Tokina take over sales and repair services for Carl Zeiss products in Japan, including interchangeable photo lenses. In the announcement, made on Kenko Tokina’s website (translated), the Japanese company says the partnership will…
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