Google wants to make it easier to sync Bluetooth headphone pairing across your devices

With headphone jacks slowly making their way out of smartphones, we’re forced to either use USB-C earbuds or rely on Bluetooth-powered headphones to listen to music on our mobile devices. In hopes of easing the pain of syncing your Bluetooth headphones and speakers, Google accounts can now remember Fast Pair-compatible headphones you have used and transfer this connection to other devices you’re signed in. It’s also coming to Chromebooks in 2019. Fast Pair, which originally launched in October 2017, hasn’t been adopted as quickly as Google would like. JayBirds already has a few Fast Pair headsets but this time brands like Bose and Anker are also going to support the feature.

To register a compatible Fast Pair device, you just need to turn it on and an Android 6.0+ phone will generate a pop-up to speed up the pairing process. The latest update will allow your Google account to remember the headphones you’ve paired it to and carry that information to other devices you sign into.

Source: The Verge

LG’s newest patent introduces 16-lens smartphone camera

What’s one, two, or three camera setups in a phone when you can have 16? LG is looking to set itself apart from the competition with its newest camera patent. The company might eventually plan to release a smartphone with a 16-camera array in a 4 x 4 matrix. The goal here is that these multiple cameras will be able to offer different angles of a scene with the help of these different lenses. And the different datasets these lenses provide could potentially cut out things from an image—say changing the background a bit, fixing a blink or the like. The lenses could also be made on a flat surface or approached with a concave curve. The latter could possibly give 3D information about a scene, producing some interesting photos.

Aside from that there’s also the possibility of creating mini films, which The Verge describes as something like “superpowered version” of Apple’s Live Photos or Lytro’s adjustable light field images. But at the moment, we need to remember that this is a patent and doesn’t necessarily mean it could happen. Although at the rate smartphone innovation is going, we wouldn’t be surprised if we see an LG device sporting this camera setup.

Source: ExtremeTech

OnePlus announces McLaren partnership, teases special smartphone release

OnePlus and McLaren Automotive and McLaren Racing have just announced a partnership that the two brands will launch on December 11. What this new team-up could mean is we get a special edition version of the OnePlus 6T, bearing design elements inspired by the automotive company. With the timing of the announcement and event, and that the original landing page for the partnership having the phrase mclaren-6t in its URL, we’re expecting the said limited edition device to come out. What we’ve seen from the other tech and car company collaborations are that these devices are going to have maxed out specs with rather exorbitant price tags.

This is the first partnership OnePlus has done, it’s partnered with the likes of Parisian retailer Colette for the 3T x Colette 20^th Anniversary Edition, designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac for the OnePlus 5 x JCC+ Limited Edition, Lucasfilm for the OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition, and Marvel Studios for the OnePlus 6 x Marvel Avengers Limited Edition. The wait isn’t going to be that long to find out what OnePlus and McLaren have up its sleeves. The current version of the OnePlus 6T has a 6.41-inch full-HD+ Optic AMOLED display with 1,080 x 2,340 pixels and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB/8GB of RAM, 128GB/256GB internal storage, and has a dual camera setup in the back with a 16-megapixel primary sensor and 20-megapixel secondary shooter.

Source: Gadgets NDTV

Debut trailer for ‘The Lion King’ breaks streaming records

Looks like lots of people felt the love, or nostalgia at the very least. The debut trailer for the upcoming The Lion King remake broke streaming records with the video garnering 224.6 million views across multiple platforms in the first 24 hours of its release. It could’ve been the most viewed Disney movie in general but that honour goes to Avengers: Infinity War with one of its promotional videos garnering 238 million within an identical time period.  

The Lion King is set to come out on July 19, 2019. It’s directed by Jon Favreau and stars the likes of Donald Glover, Beyonce, James Earl Jones, Seth Rogen, and Billy Eichner. We’re linking the trailer again above in case you haven’t seen it yet (or just want to watch it again like us).  

Source: Alt Press