Mobile UX

Mobile UX

Google has pushed a new update for its Phone app, which brings native call recording for Pixel 6 and newer smartphones worldwide. The latest stable version 198+ of the Google Phone app brings native call recording to the older Pixel models running Android 14 and up. If you have an older Pixel phone and are running the latest version of the Google Phone app, you can turn on call recording by going into Phone app Settings, selecting Call Assist and toggling on Call Recording.

The Poco F8 Ultra and the Poco F8 Pro might be launching quite soon, much earlier than their predecessors' one-year anniversary in March. While the brand hasn't made an official announcement on the matter, we say this because both devices have already started doing the certifications dance across the world, and we've even seen the F8 Pro's box revealing "Sound by Bose".

The Huawei Mate 80 series is expected to launch in China soon, and leaks continue to surface ahead of the announcement. While earlier reports hinted at a redesigned rear camera module, a new rumor now sheds light on the camera specifications of the Mate 80 Pro+. In a post on Weibo, tipster DCS notes that the Mate 80 Pro+ will feature dual 50MP periscope cameras with one offering a medium focal length and the other a longer zoom.

Google is adding a new feature to its mobile app that could potentially challenge Pinterest in becoming users' first stop for inspirational imagery: a dedicated images tab. The company announced on Wednesday it is introducing a new "Images" icon at the bottom of Google's Search app for iOS and Android devices that will display images personalized to the user's interests.

A few new features are coming to the Uber app, including one that could make it simpler to pick someone up or cover their ride. The new "Send a Ride" feature allows you to pay for someone else's Uber ride directly from the app. You set the number of rides and spending limit, then send a link to whoever you want to gift the rides to.

With the November Pixel Drop, Google Messages is introducing a new Remix feature that lets users edit and recreate images directly within the app. The feature is powered by Google's Nano Banana image generation model. Next, Google is rolling out AI-powered summaries for notifications from messaging apps. This feature will generate concise summaries for lengthy conversations directly in the notification shade. Additionally, starting in December, low-priority notifications will be automatically grouped and silenced under specific categories.

The Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold is allegedly coming on December 5 The Z TriFold will boast a similar 6.5" cover display and a larger 10" inner display - that inner display will have a wide-screen aspect ratio, unlike the square-ish 8" display of the Z Fold7. The phone will have a 5,600mAh battery capacity, which will be split between three cells, one in each segment. The Z Fold7 has a 4,400mAh battery split between two cells.

The phone is built around its 6.75" LCD - it's a 900 x 1,940px panel with 317ppi pixel density. It runs at 120Hz refresh rate and can reach 1,000 nits peak brightness. There is a 16MP selfie camera punch-holed into the display, but no fingerprint reader - that is on the side instead. The nubia V80 Design measures 7.7mm thick and weighs 191g. This is with a 5,000mAh battery inside that is capable of 22.5W charging and 10W reverse charging.

The European Commission is reportedly planning to impose a ban on Huawei and ZTE mobile networking equipment across EU member states. The new report comes following comments from VP Henna Virkkunen urging all EU member states to enforce the Commission's 2020 toolbox for 5G security and "stop using high-risk vendors in mobile networks". The security of our 5G networks is crucial for our economy.

The latest update to Samsung's SmartThings app for iOS brings with it a neat addition - the ability to activate routines with Siri voice commands. This includes routines you've created in the SmartThings app. It works through compatibility with Siri Shortcuts, which is the built-in iOS feature that lets you automate multiple-step routines. You can drag and drop multiple actions from SmartThings to Siri Shortcuts, but you can also access routines you've created in the SmartThings app, and not through Siri Shortcuts.

Samsung is looking to launch a credit card in the US, reports The Wall Street Journal. The card will be a partnership between Samsung and British bank Barclays and it will use Visa as the payment network. This is clearly intended to compete with the Apple Card that rival Apple offers. That one is backed by Goldman Sachs and Mastercard (though we hear that Goldman Sachs wants out).

LOFIC stands for Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor - it's a capacitor that takes in the charge that goes over the photodiode's full well capacity. This enables things like single-exposure HDR and longer exposures. We've already seen a LOFIC sensor from OmniVision - the OV50K inside the Honor Magic6 Ultimate. But the Ultimates have always been experimental, this is about wider adoption. More recently, OmniVision unveiled the OV50X, a 1" sensor with 8K HDR video.

Mechanical Pixel's iPhone Fold concept sidesteps these issues by keeping the phone itself rigid and adding a separate foldable screen to the back. The main iPhone body stays conventional, maintaining the familiar feel and dimensions people expect. A thin, flexible display sits raised on a platform above the rear panel, almost like it was stuck there as an afterthought. When needed, that screen unfolds outward to create a larger, squarish tablet surface.

When psychologist Paul Fitts published his 1954 paper on human motor control, he likely had no idea that his insights would one day guide the design of everything from smartphones to virtual worlds. Fitts conducted his experiments using simple physical apparatuses, such as levers, styluses, and lighted targets, to measure how quickly participants could move and point to targets of varying sizes and distances. These experiments were precursors to the pointing and selection tasks that would later define human-computer interaction.

Now it's time to see the results of your efforts. Open the Messages app, and the list will be pared down to show only the texts from known and trusted people and other entities. How about the rest? To view those, tap the three-line icon in the upper right. Select Unknown Senders to see only the texts from unknown people and companies.

Open the YouTube app today, and a Short starts playing before you've even tapped anything. Your subscriptions and recommendations are pushed a layer deeper. This is the hostile takeover of your user experience. For most of its life, YouTube was a place you visited with a purpose. You searched for tutorials, watched creators you followed, or looked up something specific.