We have been tracking the development and release of Android 14 since its first developer preview. Today, the second Developer Preview of Android 14 gets released, building on the work of the first developer preview of Android 14 from last month with additional enhancements to privacy, security, performance, developer productivity, and user customization while continuing to refine the large-screen device experience on tablets, foldables, and more.

Android 14 – Upside Down Cake (unofficially named as Google has now moved away from naming Android based on confectionaries) is the next major release of Android. Android delivers enhancements and new features year-round and the reviews and feedback shared as part of the developer previews and Quarterly Platform Relase (QPR) Beta Programs get deliberated upon and integrated into the upcoming releases.

Support for all form factors

The biggest part of Android 14 is going to remain support for tablets and foldable form factors. With smartphone manufacturers going all in to see foldables as the next novel offering in the market, Android having built in support for the same only makes most sense.

Privacy and security

Privacy and security have always been a core part of Android’s mission. The new features included as part of Android 14 are Selected photos access, Credential manager and Safer implicit intents

Improved App Store Experiences

Android 14 introduces several new PackageInstaller APIs which allow app stores to improve their user experience, including the requestUserPreapproval() method that allows the download of APKs to be deferred until after the installation has been approved, the setRequestUpdateOwnership() method that allows an installer to indicate that it is responsible for future updates to an app it is installing, and the setDontKillApp() method that can seamlessly install optional features of an app through split APKs while the app is in use.

Personalization

Regional preferences enable users to personalize temperature units, the first day of the week, and numbering systems. A European living in the United States might prefer temperature units to be in Celsius rather than Fahrenheit and for apps to treat Monday as the beginning of the week instead of the US default of Sunday.

App compatibility

As with every major OS release, there would be some new features while there would also be some features/APIs that get deprecated. In Android 14 you now have a choice to opt-in to give you more time to make any necessary app changes.

The final developer preview or the most stable release for developers would now be expected sometime in June 2023.

Nokia’s love for pure(ity) seems to never go away, since the days of the Nokia PureView to the current Nokia Pure UI.

Nokia had announced its new logo as part of MWC 2023 with the spirit of keeping the future more digital. Today with Nokia Pure UI, they have taken one more step towards the digital future, which seems to be more trending to being more minimalistic.

The new Nokia Pure UI introduces new visual concepts to the Finnish brand’s digital products.

According to Nokia, the new design system was developed towards creating digital products which will be future-proof, using various elements and guidelines which are focused on giving users a minimal and “fresh” new style, in-line with the logo reveal from a month ago.

Nokia laid out several details in designing the new UI. The icons as well as typefaces have been thoughtfully redesigned, with a focus on flexible strokes that can adapt to different hardware platform sizes. This design language extends to the onboard illustrations, as well as infographics and screens which display visualized data feeds and infographics. The Nokia team has also prepared standard elements that designers can use to quickly build consistent-looking screens.

Nokia Pure UI has powerful components that can be used to build complex web-based dashboards, for example. The interface is designed to scale from tiny wrist-worn displays to large wall-mounted panels. Looking forward to see the UI integrated across Nokia products, including its own website and maybe wearables in the future.

Nokia will reportedly be launching 4G internet on the moon on a SpaceX rocket in the coming months and it will be powered by an antenna-equipped base station which will be stored in a Nova-C lunar lander. It will also be accompanied by a solar-powered rover. The LTE connection will be set up between the lander and the rover. The latest 4G network will be used during Nasa’s upcoming Artemis 1 mission, which will send human astronauts to walk on the moon after a long time since 1972.

At MWC 2023, Nokia had already confirmed its plans to launch a lunar network.

Nokia says the technology is designed to withstand the extreme conditions of space. The aim is to show that terrestrial networks can meet the communications needs for future space missions, Nokia said, adding that its network will allow astronauts to communicate with each other and with mission control, as well as to control the rover remotely and stream real-time video and telemetry data back to Earth.

After the extravagent event that ended last week, here are all the 2023 MWC Barcelona Highlights targeted to the consumer market, for those who couldn’t attend!

MWC Barcelona 20203 edition attracted over 88,500 visitors from 202 countries, including decision-makers and top executives.

MWC live telecast

Like the previous couple of years, MWC Barcelona 2023 was also broadcasted live. All the recorded videos including the keynote sessions, interviews, and highlights from the showfloor, covering the biggest stories from the event are now available at Mobile World Live broadcast site.

Nokia New Logo

Nokia announced an update of their logo almost 60 years after their last branding activity! With the announcement of the new brand identity and logo, Nokia plans to accelerate their enterprise business towards selling telecom equipments and helping telecom operators setup their 5G networks globally.

GSMA Open Gateway, a framework of universal network APIs

GSMA announced the Open Gateway – A framework of universal network Application Programmable Interfaces (APIs), designed to provide universal access to operator networks for developers.

GSMA Open Gateway will enable single points of access to ultra-broadband networks and provide a catalyst for immersive technologies and Web3 – giving them the ability to fulfill their potential and reach critical mass. By applying the concept of interconnection for operators to the API economy developers can utilise technology once, for services such as identity, cybersecurity or billing, but with the potential to be integrated with every operator worldwide.

Google announced new features to Keep notes, Meet and WearOS

Google announced 9 new features across their products including Google Keep, Google Meet and their smart watch OS WearOS. Google has been working on leveraging their ecosystem of multiple devices and as a step forward, they have now enabled Keep notes on their WearOS based watches! Along with that, many more features on Google Meet and PDF annotations and others.

Xiaomi demoed their 300W charger

With Xiaomi demoing their 300W charger, its now possible to charge your smartphone from 0 to full in less than 5 minutes!

Huawei Showcases Petal Maps

After the all so famous exit of Huawei from the American market, they’ve been dedicatedly working on getting their own eco system built for and AOSP based OS for Huawei range of smartphone devices. One of the biggest announcement this year from Huawei, as part of this new ecosystem, comes the Huawei Petal Maps – The Google Maps rival.

At MWC Barcelona 2023, they demoed the full-screen lane-level guidance, real-time traffic monitoring, diverse map layers, life services, and watch collaborative navigation. These functions mean Petal Maps can provide global users with reliable navigation and map services that are supported by a co-created ecosystem.

Currently, Petal Maps covers more than 160 countries and regions, boasting over 40 million MAUs, and can display map data in over 70 languages. Thanks to its extensive suite of functions, Petal Maps has been well received by users around the world, and serves as an always-on co-pilot that is ready to support users as they explore the world.

2023 GLOMO Awards

“Apple iPhone 14 Pro” gets the award for the best smartphone with their “Emergency SOS via Satellite” receiving the award for the best disruptive device innovation amongst the devices in the consumer markets. You can get the details of all the other winners of 2023 GLOMO awards here.

The GSMA has honoured Martin Cooper, as the first recipient of the GLOMO Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognises Marty’s innovative and pioneering leadership in the technology industry. Martin placed the first public call from a handheld portable cell phone at Motorola, on 3rd April 1973. Now cited as the ‘father of the cell phone’, within ten years, Martin had led the team that brought the first handheld cellular mobile phone to market in 1983.

The GLOMO Awards are the most prestigious accolade in the mobile industry, judged by over 150 independent judges worldwide.

It was an eventful MWC Barcelona 2023 with a lot more announcements on the enterprise side, which we’ll soon be summarizing. However at the above is more or less the summary of some of the most important and note worthy highlights of the consumer mobile industry.

MWC 2023 is full of exciting announcements and Xiaomi is not a company to stay quite. Xiaomi has announced a whooping 300W charger which will fully charge your phone within 5 minutes!

The 300W demo featured a Redmi Note 12 Pro+ modified with a 4,100mAh battery, which is a little smaller than the 4,300mAh in the 210W Redmi Note 12 Discovery Edition (and the Realme has a far more generous 4,600mAh). As you can see in the video, the phone reached 20 percent in just a little over one minute, followed by the 50 percent mark in 2 minutes 12 seconds, and then 100 percent in just a little under 5 minutes. The power meter indicated a peak input of a little over 290W for the charger, and it also managed to sustain 280W and above for around two minutes at one point.

The new 300W charger of Redmi uses the fourth-generation GaN integration solution, allowing high power output in small size and higher efficiency. The charger adopts a full-link self-developed 300W fast-charging architecture, using a customised 6:2 charge pump chip with a maximum conversion efficiency of 98%.

Redmi’s 300W charger is based on a dual-string battery design, requiring an ultra-high charging rate of 15C. To comply with this, Xiaomi has introduced a new type of hard carbon material in smartphone batteries, reducing the thickness of the electrodes by 35%. The charger has a sandwich structure and a double-layer design for space utilisation and heat dissipation.

MWC 2023 is under way and every company in the mobile market, be it the mobile equipment providers, smartphone manufacturers, wearables manufacturers as well as tech giants supporting them are all present on the floor announcing their newest features. As part of the summit, Google has now announced 9 new exciting features for Android and WearOS.

Google Keep single note widget

For those of you who love the checklist/to-do feature of Keep, can now pin notes, check off to-do lists, view reminders and customize the colors and images from your Home screen—all from the new Google Keep widget on Android phones and tablets.

Google Keep notes on your smart watch

If you are one of the smart watch users running WearOS, you can now browse or create notes on Google Keep using your voice with two new shortcuts for your Wear OS watch face.

Annotate PDFs in the Google Drive app for Android

Use a stylus or simply touch the screen to annotate PDFs in the Google Drive app for Android. You can also try different ink strokes to provide notes or feedback freehand, or use the highlighter tool to save important text neatly on your tablet or phone. Then hide, undo, delete or save a new copy of your annotated documents.

Google Meet noise cancellation

Google Meet now has built in noise cancellation feature, available to all Android devices. You can now be better prepared for your next meeting!

Fast Pair on Chromebook

Soon, Fast Pair will be able to connect new Bluetooth headphones to your Chromebook with just one tap. And if you’ve already set up headphones with your Android phone, your Chromebook will automatically connect to them as well.

New Emojis

Google seems to keeping adding to the collection of its emoji library and this time its not missed either. New emoji combinations are now available on Emoji Kitchen for you to mash up, remix and share as stickers via Gboard. Use them to make some noise for your favorite basketball team (just in time for March Madness ) or express your spring colors with friends.

Google Wallet Tap to Pay Animations

Fun new tap to pay animations on Google Wallet to help confirm your in-store transactions, so keep an eye out for some cheerful penguins, plus many others.

Google Chrome Zoom upto 300% while still preserving page layout

You can now easily increase the size of content on Chrome — including text, images, video and interactive controls — by up to 300% to suit your vision preferences while still preserving the page layout. This includes the ability to set your preferred content size as a default so you don’t have to change it every time you open up Chrome.

Improvements in smart watch accessibility

With Wear OS 3+, we’ll now have Mono-audio to help limit disorientation caused by split-audio and while color-correction and grayscale modes give you more choice for your watch display.

GSMA today kicked off the MWC2023 with the announcement of an industry-wide initiative – Open Gateway. A framework of universal network Application Programmable Interfaces (APIs), designed to provide universal access to operator networks for developers. With the support of 21 plus global telecom operators including America Movil, AT&T, Axiata, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, e& Group, KDDI, KT, Liberty Global, MTN, Orange, Singtel, Swisscom, STC, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, TIM, Verizon and Vodafone, the move represents a paradigm shift in the way the telecoms industry designs and delivers services in an API economy world.

Traditionally the telecom industry has had mostly proprietary interfaces, leading to a developer having to consume APIs of each vendor individually, leading to delays in time to market, as well as the telecom operators having to lock themselves down to a telecom equipment vendor in order to save costs and avoid conflicts due to problems in interoperability of APIs.

GSMA Open Gateway will enable single points of access to ultra-broadband networks and provide a catalyst for immersive technologies and Web3 – giving them the ability to fulfill their potential and reach critical mass. By applying the concept of interconnection for operators to the API economy developers can utilise technology once, for services such as identity, cybersecurity or billing, but with the potential to be integrated with every operator worldwide. This is a profound change in the way we design and deliver services. GSMA Open Gateway will help developers and cloud providers enhance and deploy services more quickly via single points of access to operator networks. This is achieved via common, northbound service APIs that simply expose mobile operators’ network capabilities within a consistent, interoperable and federated framework.

The GSMA Open Gateway initiative launches with eight universal network APIs, including SIM Swap, QoD, Device Status (Connected or Roaming Status), Number Verify, Edge Site Selection and Routing, Number Verification (SMS 2FA), Carrier Billing – Check Out and Device Location (Verify Location). The initiative plans to launch further APIs throughout 2023.

GSMA Open Gateway APIs are defined, developed and published in CAMARA, the open source project for developers to access enhanced network capabilities, driven by the Linux Foundation in collaboration with the GSMA. Working in CAMARA, APIs between telcos and developers can be delivered quickly, using developer-friendly tools and software code.

Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure were named as the first two big cloud providers working with carriers to provide access to APIs to developers.

Over the next 12 months the initiative will support engagement via Early Adopter Programmes for developers and it will promote GSMA Open Gateway APIs via significant developer channels, including Microsoft events such as Ignite and Build; and AWS’ re:Invent.

Nokia announces its new logo, more modern and and more digital.

The new visual identity captures Nokia as they are today, with renewed energy and commitment as pioneers of digital transformation. The brand was launched today at MWC Barcelona and it is now being rolled out across our sites and assets. The website has a new look and feel already – as you can see – and Nokia sites will begin transforming soon.

“In most people’s minds, we are still a successful mobile phone brand, but this is not what Nokia is about. We want to launch a new brand that is focusing very much on the networks and industrial digitalization, which is a completely different thing from the legacy mobile phones.” Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark told Bloomberg.

With the announcement of the new brand identity and logo, Nokia plans to accelerate their enterprise business towards selling telecom equipments and helping telecom operators setup their 5G networks globally.

MWC – Mobile World Congress – the world’s largest and most influential connectivity event is back in its 2023 editioin!

MWC is a show filled with smartphone launches. Names like Apple, Xiaomi, Honor, OnePlus, Huawei, and HMD’s Nokia are expected to make big announcements at the show, although key players like Samsung and Sony don’t appear to be preparing any major announcements for the event.

Things to look out for

• Innovations in 5G
• Technologies moving towards the future of 6G
• Internet of Things
• AI in smart phones
• Web 3.0
• Metaverse
• And a lot more!

Stay tuned while we get you all the latest updates from the Telecom industry launches and announcements from companies across the world during this edition of MWC 2023.

Mobile World Live has been covering MWC live since a few years now and continue to do so with this year’s edition as well. Mobile World Live’s broadcast of MWC Barcelona 2023 will include keynote sessions, interviews, and highlights from the showfloor, covering the biggest stories from the event.

Google Photos is coming up with one of the best editing features that was earlier being offered exclusively to its Pixel users – Magic Eraser.

The Magic Eraser tool of Google Photos uses AI to remove unwanted content from your images. Magic Eraser detects distractions in your photos, like photobombers or power lines, so you can remove them in just a few taps. You can also circle or brush other things you want to erase and Magic Eraser will make them disappear.

These features are starting to roll out today in Google Photos for Google One members on all plans and all Pixel users. This is applicable to the iOS Google One members as well!

Now you can stop cursing the photobombers and simply kick them off your pics!