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Google brings Lens text translations to KaiOS phones in India
Google is bringing Assistant's Lens camera translation functionality to feature phones in India.
WhatsApp lets you add new contacts with QR codes
WhatsApp rolls out new features like the ability to add contacts with a QR code.
Watch the 'Android' Nokia phone that never had a chance to exist
Earlier this year, snippets of code discovered within Chrome by 9 to 5 Google suggested Google was working on a touchless version of its web browser that would work on feature phones. The company was reportedly developing a feature phone in collaboration with Nokia. In September, Google removed any references to the project from Chrome's codebase, suggesting it had abandoned the idea of creating an Android-based feature phone. Now a new video has surfaced online that shows what a feature phone with Android would have looked like had Google continued to work on the project.
WhatsApp comes to millions of basic cellphones running KaiOS
WhatsApp has only had limited availability on basic cellphones until now, but Facebook is about to throw the gates wide open. The messaging app is now available on the KaiStore, making it available to "millions" of low-cost KaiOS cellphones with at least 256MB of RAM. "Most" KaiOS phones will come preloaded with WhatsApp in the third quarter of the year, and that's no small number when over 100 million of the phones have shipped to date.
How KaiOS claimed the third-place mobile crown
In December 2015, Mozilla announced it would be abandoning Firefox OS as a smartphone platform. Many assumed the company's withdrawal would kill any hope of a mobile operating system built around the open web, rather than a combination of native apps and tightly-controlled storefronts. In the last few years, plenty of "alternative" smartphone platforms, including Ubuntu Touch and Windows 10 Mobile, have faded into obscurity, too. Jolla has struggled on with Sailfish OS, but it's never felt like a true challenger to the Android and iOS duopoly. Three years later, a surprising competitor has emerged: KaiOS. The relative newcomer, which makes feature phones smarter, is already running on more than 80 million devices worldwide. How did it grow so big, so quickly? With a little help from Firefox OS.
Google is making the Assistant smarter on feature phones
Google is doubling down on KaiOS, the "light" operating system that makes low-cost feature phones feel a little smarter. Today, the company announced that the Google Assistant will be upgraded with Voice Typing "over the coming months," allowing KaiOS users to dictate text messages, web searches and basically anything else that uses a text box. KaiOS and the Assistant can also be set to different languages, according to Google. That means you could read the phone's menus, icons and settings in English and then talk, text and search through the Assistant in Spanish.
The Nokia 8110 4G is smarter than your average dumb phone
HMD Global did something special at last year's Mobile World Congress, stealing the show with... a feature phone. By making ingenious use of the Nokia name, having snapped that up the previous year, it 'relaunched' the Nokia 3310. The internet swelled with a nostalgia-driven fervor as HMD put on a masterclass in brand awareness. As expected, the company returned to the mobile show this year with another retro handset in tow, and for some reason waited six months to put it on sale. But the Nokia 8110 4G, aka the "banana phone," is now here, and it's not just another marketing exercise. Thanks to a jump in software, it's not your typical feature phone. But it's not quite a smartphone, either. Instead, it's something in between.
Google invests in OS that will put its Assistant on feature phones
Google has just invested $22 million in KaiOS, the company that built an app-packed operating system for feature phones. The move, which gives Google access to previously-untapped markets, will see KaiOS integrate Google services such as maps, Assistant, YouTube and search into devices, which are considered mid-point phones between basic phones and smartphones.
