Google Maps for Android lets you save maps to an SD card
After testing it in a limited rollout, Google has officially unveiled “WiFi only” mode for Maps on Android. When enabled, it will keep the app in offline mode, blocking it from using expensive or spotty cellular data. At the same time, messaging and other apps can still connect to mobile networks. That will help travelers cut down on roaming charges, as navigation is often the only reason you need data on a trip. It will also be a big help to folks with limited data plans.
Trying to use Maps without a data connection doesn’t work unless you downloaded the region ahead of time, but that’s now a lot easier too. If you’re tight on internal storage space, you can load maps directly to an SD card if you have one. As Google points out, “entry-level smartphones come with internal storage as low as 4GB … [so] you’ll never have to choose between snapping more food photos or the ability to navigate offline.” It’s is a bit late to this, though, as Here and other services have supported offline and SD storage for a while.
The new features will not just benefit travelers, but mobile users in emerging markets where data is often pricey and sparse. It’s also helping ride-hailing users in those regions as along with Uber, it now supports Go-Jek in Indonesia and Grab in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. In Europe and other parts, it works with Gett, Hail, and MyTaxi in Ireland, Poland, Italy, Austria, Russia and Israel.
Via: Techcrunch
Source: Google
Fender is working on guitar apps for beginners and pros alike
Mobile apps that help you keep your guitar in tune are nothing new, but now a big name in the instrument game is getting in on the action. Today Fender announced its Tune app for iOS, offering yet another option for tuning your guitar or bass with your trusty handset. The software is part of the iconic guitar maker’s quest to provide tools to players at all skill levels through its Fender Digital subsidiary. The tuner app is the first product to launch from the effort.
Fender Tune is available for iOS devices free of charge, and like other options that are already available, it provides guitarists of all levels a way to keep an instrument in tune without having to carry a separate piece of gear. The company says that unlike those other apps, Tune helps beginners learn the importance of tone, from basic strumming to setting up an amplifier. There are both automatic and manual tuning tools, with the former being the feature where the app “listens” as the player hits a string and guides them to the proper note. Manual mode plays an audible tone so more advanced users can tune by ear.
There’s also a chromatic tuner for getting a string to a specific spot on the scale and step-by-step guidance for those who are picking up a guitar for the very first time. In addition to Open G and 20 other preset tunings, the app also lets you store any custom configurations for easy access. This means that if you’re trying to learn some Deftones riffs, you can have the app direct you to Drop C# with ease during a practice session. If you’re looking to try it out for yourself, Fender Tune is available now in Apple’s App Store.
Source: Fender
Everyone will be able to create Twitter Moments in a few months
Today Twitter announced that it was was opening Moments creation to more brands, media outlets, partners and individuals like activist DeRay Mckesson. That’s great and all, but the real news is that in the “coming months” everyone will be able to create their own Moments on the social network.
Twitter Moments have mostly been created by a curation team within the company and a few select partners. The collection of tweets usually highlight trending news topics. While the idea of brands sending out multi-tweet commercials sounds about as thrilling as sitting through a video pre-roll ad, but giving influencers like Mckesson access is exciting.
“Moments allows us to collect and curate Tweets to tell stories in new ways. It’s a powerful Twitter feature, continuing to help build community as we engage specific topics and events,” Mckesson said.
As for the rest of us, “coming months” is a pretty vague statement. While we were aware that Moments was going to eventually be opened up to everyone, it’s nice to see that soon we will all be able to curate stories based on tweets.
Source: Twitter
‘Stranger Things’ Poster Began as Sketch Created With iPad Pro and Apple Pencil
In a recent interview with Mashable, an artist based in the United Kingdom, Kyle Lambert, divulged his process of creating the memorable poster art for Netflix’s science fiction series Stranger Things. Netflix asked the artist to keep with the 80’s theme of the show, and provided him with a vague plot outline, rough cuts of only the first few episodes, and some still shots “to communicate the story in a single image.”
Ultimately, Lambert said he decided on the iPad Pro for the project because the tablet lets him “sketch in a very natural way,” especially when used in conjunction with the Apple Pencil. He used the Apple device in the sketching process of the main poster art that has gained fame online in the weeks since Stranger Things launched in July, but Lambert has also been known to create impressive art on iPads over the years, particularly in a photorealistic representation of Morgan Freeman he created on an iPad Air in 2013.
“This was a very exciting project for me, as an artist that trained with oil paints, I really enjoyed the challenge of reproducing this traditional painting style using digital tools,” Lambert told Mashable.
“I used the iPad Pro to do the preliminary composition ideas and the sketch that became the final Stranger Things poster. I chose to use the iPad Pro for the drawing stage of the poster because I find that I am able to sketch in a very natural way on the device using the Apple Pencil. The device in general is nice to hold for long periods of time, it is really portable and Procreate, the app that I used, has some really great Pencil brushes for drawing with.”
Specifically, on the iPad Pro Lambert used the iOS app Procreate to assist in his drawing process, and then he transitioned to Photoshop on the Mac to upscale the image to a higher resolution so he could “paint small elements at the best possible resolution.” During the coloring process, the artist used an Intuos Wacom tablet — which connects to a Mac to act as a sketch pad — so he could “focus on as much of the image” as he needed, without his hand obscuring a piece of the artwork like it does when using the iPad Pro/Apple Pencil combo.
The original sketch that eventually became the final Stranger Things poster
The process wasn’t particularly straightforward, however, as Lambert describes moving back to the iPad Pro to “add layers of detail to areas” that he thought needed “a more fluid sketch style” that the desktop didn’t grant. He went back and forth between the two devices and applications several times to ultimately give the Stranger Things poster its finished, recognizable look. Lambert was also commissioned to work on several character portraits to serve as gifts for actors, specifically those of Sheriff Hopper, Eleven and Dr. Brenner, and various still shots from iconic moments in the 8-episode series.
Ever since early adopters began getting their hands on the iPad Pro and its companion stylus, the Apple Pencil, talented artists have shared what they can do with the technology in MacRumors’ own discussion forums. Apple has remained adamant that the Apple Pencil is a drawing-enhancement tool, and “will absolutely not replace the finger as a point of interface” on the tablet, so it’s interesting to see how much the technology has grown and been used, and on such a highly professional level, in under a year of its availability.
Related Roundup: iPad Pro
Tag: Apple Pencil
Buyer’s Guide: 12.9″ iPad Pro (Neutral)
Discuss this article in our forums
Apple Working on New Health-Tracking Hardware for 2017
Apple is developing at least one new health-tracking product that could debut alongside the tenth-anniversary iPhone in 2017, according to Economic Daily News (via Mac Otakara).
Exact details are hard to discern from the translated Chinese-language report, but Apple is said to have invested two years of R&D into the new product in it health laboratories overseen by Apple’s health and fitness director Jay Blahnik.
While entirely new hardware is possible, the product could realistically be a next-generation Apple Watch. The product is said to have an array of health-related apps that collect data such as heart rate, pulse, and blood sugar changes.
Health and fitness has been a focus for Apple in recent years with ResearchKit, HealthKit, and the Apple Watch. In a recent interview, when asked what he believes the “next frontiers” will be when it comes to product development, Apple CEO Tim Cook highlighted health as “the biggest one of all.”
Tags: udn.com, health and fitness
Discuss this article in our forums
How to factory reset your Android Wear watch
Resetting your Android Wear watch is as simple as a swipe and a tap.
The time has finally come to factory reset your Android Wear watch. Whether you’ve picked up a new phone that you need to pair your watch with, or you’ve decided to wipe your data before selling, you’ll have to do a factory reset. Thankfully this process is extremely easy, and we’re here to walk you right through it.
How to reset your Android Wear device
Swipe down from the top of the watch face screen.
Tap on the Settings icon (little gear symbol).
Scroll down. Tap Unpair with phone.
Tap the check mark to confirm.
The phone will now factory reset itself over the next few minutes and be ready to pair with another watch!
That’s all that you need to do in order to factory reset your Android Wear watch. It actually is as simple as a swipe and a few short taps.
Be the very best with these custom Pokémon Go themes for Android
‘I wanna theme the very best, like no one ever was…’
It’s likely you care more about catching that Dratini the next street over than giving your home screen some team pride, but that’s OK! I have scoured the internet to come up with wonderful themes for each of the teams in Pokémon Go, so that you can show your pride each time you unlock your phone to check if your gym is still standing.
Note: While these music widgets are already configured for your convenience, if you like them you should really consider downloading Material Music Komponent, the component on which they’re based. It’s free, and it’s awesome.
Team Instinct
Instinct is a resilient little team that has an awesome leader and some spunky members. If you’re ready to show your friends and family that “there is no shelter from the storm!”, we have a nice angular theme for you! And here’s what it needs:
- KWGT Pro ($3.50)
- 1Weather (Free)
- Golden Icons (Free)
- Team Instinct Wallpaper by malexer Note: if you like this theme but root for another team, here are the Team Valor and Team Mystic wallpapers. Simply use Whicons instead of Golden Icons.
- Team Instinct-tinted Material Music Komponent Preset
- File manager app such as Solid Explorer to move KWGT presets to Kustom/KWGT folder in device storage.
- A home screen launcher that supports icon packs, individual custom icons, and a 8×6 home screen grid. The ability to re-color folders and drawers is a bonus, but not required. These instruction were written for Nova Launcher but the theme could easily be enacted on Action Launcher, Apex Launcher or dozens of other capable launchers out there.
Download the Team Instinct Wallpaper by malexer by clicking the download button on the page, long-pressing the image, and selecting Save as….
Long-press on your home screen and set a new Wallpaper.
Tap Set image and navigate to your saved Team Instinct wallpaper.
Make sure the image is centered and Set wallpaper.
In Nova Settings, open Look & feel,
Set Golden Icons as your Icon theme.
Return to the main Nova Settings menu and open Folders.
Set Background to a custom color by selecting the three dot option in the fifth row fifth column of the color picker. Set the color to #c4183038.
Go back to the main Nova Settings menu and open Desktop.
Set the Page indicator color to Gold (fifth row, first column).
Go back to the main Nova Settings menu and open App & widget drawer.
Set Background to a custom color by selecting the three dot option in the fifth row fourth column of the color picker. Set the color to #c4183038.
Return to home screen and long-press a blank space on the home screen.
Select Widgets.
Scroll to 1Weather.
Press and drag the 1Weather Compact Widget 4×1 to the bottom row of the home screen.
In the widget configuration screen, change Background to Dark; the Background opacity to 0%; Accent to Gold (fifth row, second column)
Confirm the configuration by selecting Done in the top-left corner.
Long-press and Resize the configured widget to fit the entire bottom row of your screen.
Download Team Instinct-tinted Material Music Komponent Preset and copy them into Kustom/widgets in your file manager. (Note: If you don’t see the Kustom folder in your internal storage, it’ll show up once you install KWGT and open the program once.)
Return to home screen and long-press a blank space on the home screen. Select Widgets.
Scroll to KWGT. Press and drag a 2×2 KWGT widget to the top of your home screen.
Long-press and Resize the widget to fit the entire top two rows of your screen.
Tap the widget to configure it. Swipe over to the Exported preset section and select Instinct-music-widget.
Save the widget. If the widget doesn’t quite reach the side edges of the widget, tap the Layer tab and increase the scale until the komponent fits the widget as desired. 100% is the scaling that normally works best for me.
Save the widget again and return to the home screen.
Long-press your app drawer icon and Edit it.
Tap the icon to edit it and select Golden Icons as the source of your new icon.
Scroll down to P for Pokémon and select the Pikachu icon (should be right next to the Pokémon Go icon).
Confirm your new icon by selecting Done.
Team Valor
Valor is an intense team that believes in a Pokémon’s strength and enhancing it through training and battle. But Valor is also a team that has faith in its Pokémon and even mentions their warm-heartedness in its mission statement.
- Team Valor Wallpaper by ClairaAkami Note: If you like this theme but root for another team, here are the Team Instinct and Team Mystic wallpapers.
- Team Valor-tinted Material Music Komponent
- KWGT Pro ($3.50)
- 1Weather (Free)
- Whicons (Free)
- File manager app such as Solid Explorer to move KWGT presets to Kustom/KWGT folder in device storage
- A home screen launcher that supports icon packs, individual custom icons, and re-sizeable home screen grids.
Download the Team Valor Wallpaper by ClairaAkami by clicking the version for phones link in the description, long-pressing the image, and selecting Save as….
Long-press on your home screen and set a new Wallpaper.
Tap Set image and navigate to your saved Team Valor wallpaper.
Make sure the image is centered and Set wallpaper.
In Nova Settings, open Look & feel, the set Whicons as your Icon theme.
Go back to the main Nova Settings menu and open Folders.
Set Background to a custom color by selecting the three dot option in the fifth row fourth column of the color picker. Set the color to #c4920000.
Go back to the main Nova Settings menu and open Desktop.
Set the Page indicator color to the first Red in Recent (a solid version of the color we just used in Folders).
Go back to the main Nova Settings menu and open App & widget drawer
Set Background to a custom color by selecting the three dot option in the fifth row fifth column of the color picker. Set the color to #c4920000.
Return to home screen and long-press a blank space on the home screen. Select Widgets.
Scroll to 1Weather. Press and drag the 1Weather Compact Widget 4×1 to the top row of the home screen.
In the widget configuration screen that pops up, change the Background to Dark the Background opacity to 0%, and the Accent to White.
Confirm the configuration by selecting Done in the top-left corner. Long-press and Resize the configured widget to fit the entire top row of your screen.
Download Team Valor-tinted Material Music Komponent and copy them into Kustom/widgets in your file manager. (Note: if you don’t see the Kustom folder in your internal storage, it’ll show up once you install KWGT and open the program once.)
Return to home screen and long-press a blank space on the home screen. Select Widgets.
Scroll to KWGT. Press and drag a 2×2 KWGT widget to the bottom of your home screen. Long-press* and Resize the widget to fit the bottom row of your screen.
Tap the widget to configure it. Swipe over to the Exported preset section and select Valor-music-widget.
Save the widget. If the widget doesn’t quite reach the side edges of the widget, tap the Layer tab and increase the scale until the komponent fits the widget as desired. 100% is the scaling that normally works best for me.
Save the widget again and return to the home screen.
Long-press your app drawer icon and Edit it.
Tap the icon to edit it and select Whicons as the source of your new icon.
Scroll down to P for Pokémon and select the Pokéball icon.
Confirm your new icon by selecting Done.
Team Mystic
Mystic is the team that believes in wisdom over passion and that cooler heads will prevail.
- Team Mystic Wallpaper by Dynamicz34 Note: if you like this theme but root for another team, here are the Team Instinct and Team Valor wallpapers.
- Team Mystic-tinted Material Music Komponent Preset
- KWGT Pro ($3.50)
- 1Weather (Free)
- Whicons (Free)
- File manager app such as Solid Explorer to move KWGT presets to Kustom/KWGT folder in device storage
- A home screen launcher that supports icon packs, individual custom icons, and re-sizeable home screen grids.
Download the Team Mystic Wallpaper by Dynamicz34 by clicking the download button on the page, long-pressing the image, and selecting Save as….
Long-press on your home screen and set a new Wallpaper.
Tap Set image and navigate to your saved Team Mystic wallpaper.
Zoom in slightly, keeping the logo centered while moving it down slightly to make more space for our music widget, and Set wallpaper.
In Nova Settings, open Look & feel, the set Whicons as your Icon theme.
Go back to the main Nova Settings menu and open Folders.
Set Background to Bright Blue (third row, fourth column).
Go back to the main Nova Settings menu and open Desktop.
Set the Page indicator color to Bright Blue (third row, fourth column)
Go back to the main Nova Settings menu and open App & widget drawer
Set Background to Bright Blue (third row, fourth column).
Return to home screen and long-press a blank space on the home screen. Select Widgets.
Scroll to 1Weather. Press and drag the 1Weather Compact Widget 4×1 to the bottom row of the home screen.
In the widget configuration screen that pops up, change the Background to Dark the Background opacity to 0%, and the Accent to White.
Confirm the configuration by selecting Done in the top-left corner. Long-press and Resize the configured widget to fit the entire bottom row of your screen.
Download Team Mystic-tinted Material Music Komponent Preset and copy them into Kustom/widgets in your file manager. Note: if you don’t see the Kustom folder in your internal storage, it’ll show up once you install KWGT and open the program once.
Return to home screen and long-press a blank space on the home screen. Select Widgets.
Scroll to KWGT. Press and drag a 2×2 KWGT widget to the top of your home screen. Long-press and Resize the widget to fit the top two rows of your screen.
Tap the widget to configure it. Swipe over to the Exported preset section and select Mystic-music-widget.
Save the widget. If the widget doesn’t quite reach the side edges of the widget, tap the Layer tab and increase the scale until the komponent fits the widget as desired. 100% is the scaling that normally works best for me.
Save the widget again and return to the home screen.
Long-press your app drawer icon and Edit it.
Tap the icon to edit it and select Whicons as the source of your new icon.
Scroll down to S and select the Snowflake icon.
Confirm your new icon by selecting Done.
Team Harmony/The Lugia Alliance
Out of the intense fighting amongst some existing Pokémon members a fourth team arose — not aiming for gym domination but rather unity and peace. They take their emblem and one of their names from the Legendary Pokémon who helped bring balance when Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres clashed on the Orange Islands: Lugia.
Here is a theme to honor these peaceful trainers and their mission of unity.
- Team Harmony wallpaper by Katlyon
- Team Harmony emblem icon
- Team Harmony-tinted Material Music Komponent-based KWGT preset
- KWGT Pro ($3.50)
- 1Weather (Free)
- Whicons (Free)
- File manager app such as Solid Explorer to move KWGT presets to Kustom/KWGT folder in device storage
- A home screen launcher that supports icon packs, individual custom icons, and re-sizeable home screen grids.
Download the Team Harmony wallpaper by Katlyon by long-pressing the image and selecting Save as….
Long-press on your home screen and set a new Wallpaper.
Tap Set image and navigate to your saved Team Harmony wallpaper.
Zoom in slightly, keeping the logo centered while moving it down slightly to make more space for our music widget, and Set wallpaper.
In Nova Settings, open Look & feel, the set Whicons as your Icon theme.
Go back to the main Nova Settings menu and open Folders.
Set Background to Royal Purple (second row, fourth column)
Go back to the main Nova Settings menu and open Desktop.
Set the Page indicator color to Royal Purple (second row, fourth column).
Go back to the main Nova Settings menu and open App & widget drawer
Set Background to Royal Purple (second row, fourth column).
Return to home screen and long-press a blank space on the home screen. Select Widgets.
Scroll to 1Weather. Press and drag the 1Weather Compact Widget 4×1 to the top row of the home screen.
In the widget configuration screen that pops up, change the Background to Dark the Background opacity to 0%, and the Accent to Light Blue (third row, first column)
Confirm the configuration by selecting Done in the top-left corner. Long-press and Resize the configured widget to fit the entire top row of your screen.
Download Team Harmony-tinted Material Music Komponent-based KWGT Preset and copy them into Kustom/widgets in your file manager. Note: if you don’t see the Kustom folder in your internal storage, it’ll show up once you install KWGT and open the program once.
Return to home screen and long-press a blank space on the home screen. Select Widgets.
Scroll to KWGT. Press and drag a 2×2 KWGT widget to the bottom of your home screen. Long-press and Resize the widget to fit the bottom row of your screen.
Tap the widget to configure it. Swipe over to the Exported preset section and select Harmony-music-widget.
Save the widget. If the widget doesn’t quite reach the side edges of the widget, tap the Layer tab and increase the scale until the komponent fits the widget as desired. 100% is the scaling that normally works best for me.
Save the widget again and return to the home screen.
Download the Team Harmony emblem icon.
Long-press your app drawer icon and Edit it.
Tap the icon to edit it and select Documents as your source.
Navigate to your saved Team Harmony icon. Make sure the con preview box covers the entire icon before confirming it by tapping Done
Confirm your changes by tapping Done again.
So, are you as Mystic as Blanche? As Instinctive as Spark? As fiery as Candela? Or do you prefer the peace of the Lugia Alliance? Sing out in the comments, and tell us what Pokémon home screen you’re rocking while you’re out looking for good places to hunt!
No flat bezel Samsung Galaxy S8 for 2017, tipped to have Edge screen only
Samsung could well ditch flat bezel phones for its premium line-up in future. A report suggests that the Samsung Galaxy S8 will come with an Edge variant only, with a flat sceen version no longer deemed necessary.
The Korea Herald claims that the curved screen previously had issues with production yields, prompting higher prices for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S7 Edge models and therefore needing standard, flat-screen variants for those on a slightly tighter budget.
However, Samsung is now said to have cracked the issue and production yields of its curbed AMOLED screens are higher. That means it can price a Samsung Galaxy S8 with an Edge display more competitively, therefore reducing the need for another model.
Evidence of this can be seen with the launch of the Galaxy Note 7, which has an Edge display. Last year, the Note 5 had a flat-screen, while the firm also released a similar-sized Galaxy S7 Edge+ device for those wanting curves.
- Samsung Galaxy S8 leaks: Dual cameras and 4K screen incoming
- Samsung Galaxy S8: What we want to see and what’s the story so far?
- This is the Samsung Smart Glow ring you could see on Galaxy S8
In addition, the Note 7 has the technology but without the name, suggesting the same for the Samsung Galaxy S8.
When Pocket-lint met with Samsung UK’s senior VP of mobile, Conor Pierce, at the launch of the Note 7, he met our suggestion of an Edge-only next generation device with “no comment”.
Of course, it is early days. The Samsung Galaxy S7 was released in March this year and there is no indication that its replacement will come any sooner than spring 2017. Especially with the Note 7 being so critically acclaimed in very recent times.
50 different planets from No Man’s Sky revealed, only 18 quintillion yet to go
No Man’s Sky is one of the most hyped games in console history was finally hit game stores in the US today, 9 August. It will also be released in the UK tomorrow and we expect PS4 and PC gamers will be shut in a darkened room for the best part of the next fortnight in order to savour some of its talents.
However, even before you start you can see some of the delights. Hello Games claims that there are a possible 18 quintillion planets scattered throughout its vast playing field, and because they are procedurally generated, each is totally unique. What’s more, you can visit each and every one of them – if you have 585 billion actual years to spare, that is.
To save you some of the time, Eurogamer has posted a video of 50 of them. It gives you an idea of how visually diverse they can be and the graphical nuances the game’s colour palette affords.
The game site has been clever in how it has put together the compilation too. It would probably take many, many hours of play in order to visit 50 distinctly different locations. But when the game starts it plonks the player on a brand new planet each time, so Eurogamer has literally started a new game for each clip. It’s a clever way of showing variety without the leg work.
So sit back and enjoy visiting 50 of the games’ planets. After all, you are statistically highly unlikely to see any of them for real.
Nexus Sailfish vs Nexus 5X: What’s the rumoured difference?
Google is set to launch a couple of Nexus devices before the end of 2016, both of which are reported to be made by HTC and both of which will be the poster boys for Android Nougat.
The two devices have been codenamed Sailfish and Marlin and they have already seen several leaks regarding their specs grace the internet.
This is how the Nexus Sailfish compares to the Nexus 5X, based on the speculation.
Nexus Sailfish vs Nexus 5X: Design
The Nexus 5X is a small and compact device that has a polycarbonate rear available in three colour options. It measures 147 x 72.6 x 7.9mm and weighs just 136g. There is a fingerprint sensor on the rear, USB Type-C for charging and it is made by LG.
There haven’t been a great deal of rumours surrounding the Nexus Sailfish’s design as yet, though it has been claimed it will be the smaller of the two reported devices and made by HTC.
We’d also expect it to be the less premium of the two devices if last year is anything to go by, but a fingerprint sensor and USB Type-C are both likely again.
If Marlin, the larger rumoured handset, features an all metal build like the HTC 10, we’d wouldn’t be surprised to see the Sailfish adopt cheaper materials, perhaps following in the path of the HTC Desire range.
Nexus Sailfish vs Nexus 5X: Display
The Nexus 5X has a 5.2-inch display that features a Full HD resolution for a pixel density of 423ppi. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
The Nexus Sailfish is rumoured to be coming with a slightly smaller 5-inch display that is also said to offer a 1920 x 1080 resolution for a pixel density of 440ppi.
If this is the case, the Sailfish should offer a sharper image thanks to the increase in pixels per inch, though the difference won’t be noticeable to the human eye. We’d expect Gorilla Glass 3 again, if not perhaps Gorilla Glass 4.
Nexus Sailfish vs Nexus 5X: Camera
The Nexus 5X has a 12.3-megapixel rear camera, coupled with a 5-megapixel front camera. Both have an aperture of f/2.0 and the rear camera comes with IR laser-assisted auto-focus, along with a dual flash.
Unlike the Nexus Marlin, the spec leak for the Nexus Sailfish didn’t reveal what camera could be on board the new device. That said, last year, the Nexus 6P and the Nexus 5X had the same camera capabilities on the rear so perhaps the same will be the case for the Sailfish and Marlin.
The Marlin is rumoured to come with a 12-megapixel rear camera and 8-megapixel front camera, which is the same as the Nexus 6P in terms of resolution. Whether the Sailfish will see an increase from 5-megapixels is unclear, but a 12-megapixel rear camera feels like a good bet at the moment.
Nexus Sailfish vs Nexus 5X: Hardware
The Nexus 5X has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, supported by 2GB of RAM and either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. There is a 2700mAh battery running the show, charged via USB Type-C as we mentioned previously.
The Nexus Sailfish is thought to be coming with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. It has been claimed the battery will increase to 2770mAh and USB Type-C will once again be on board.
Nexus doesn’t do microSD support within its devices so don’t expect that to change for the Sailfish.
Nexus Sailfish vs Nexus 5X: Software
The Nexus 5X launched on Android Marshmallow, while the Nexus Sailfish will arrive on Android Nougat.
Nexus devices offer a vanilla Android experience meaning there is no bloatware and are updated to the latest software almost immediately after its release.
We know quite a bit about Android Nougat already thanks to the public betas, although here have been a couple of other rumours surrounding Sailfish and Marlin’s software. Reports suggest we might see a new launcher and a new gesture for opening notifications with the fingerprint sensor.
Either way though, the Nexus 5X and Nexus Sailfish will no doubt offer a very similar software experience, if not identical.
Nexus Sailfish vs Nexus 5X: Conclusion
Based on the speculation, it looks like the Nexus Sailfish will be a little smaller than the Nexus 5X, but improve on its hardware and performance, including a faster processor and larger battery.
We know the Nexus Sailfish will launch with Android Nougat and it will arrive before the end of the year but everything else is still up in the air.
We will continue to update this features as more leaks and information appears so keep your eye out.
AIVAnet 