Samsung&#039;s Galaxy A10 was the top-selling Android phone in Q3 2019 &#8211; Android Central

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Counterpoint Research’s latest Market Pulse report has revealed that the best-selling Android smartphone during the third quarter of the year was the Samsung Galaxy A10. The entry-level A series smartphone managed to capture 2.6% of the global market share during the July-September period.

Samsung actually had two more Galaxy A series phones in the top 10 list: Galaxy A50 and Galaxy A20. The mid-range Galaxy A50 was actually the second most popular Android smartphone during Q3 2019, with 1.9% market share. Surprisingly, however, no flagship Galaxy smartphone made it to the top 10 list.

Chinese smartphone maker OPPO, like Samsung, had three A series devices in the top 10 list – OPPO A9, OPPO A5, and OPPO A5s. While Xiaomi’s Redmi 7A was the ninth most popular smartphone during the quarter, Huawei’s flagship P30 Pro grabbed the tenth spot. Since Huawei’s latest phones do not come with Google Mobile Services, it looks unlikely that any phone from the company will figure in the top ten list during the fourth quarter.

However, the top-selling smartphone globally wasn’t an Android smartphone. Unsurprisingly, Apple’s iPhone XR held on to its title of the best-selling phone globally even in Q3 2019, with a market share of 3%. In fact, Counterpoint Research claims the iPhone XR contributed to over one-quarter of the Cupertino-based company’s total sales during the quarter.

Tech

BMW Design Chief Defends New 4-Series’ Grille, Says It’ll Shape The Brand – CarScoops

Published

42 mins ago

June 3, 2020

The new BMW 4-Series Coupe was officially presented on Tuesday and one of the main topics of conversation was the polarizing vertical kidney grille. Like it or not, this feature is here to stay, and it’s part of the company’s strategic move to make each and every model stand out.

Defending the massive kidney grille was design chief Domagoj Dukec, who strongly believes that the automaker has taken the right decision to go ahead with this design, despite receiving a lot of negative input ever since they presented the Concept 4 last year.

“It should be in the core of BMW to have a product which makes a strong statement. It’s unmistakably BMW, unmistakably 4-Series. It’s not just logical, it has a very strong character that’s unique to our brand”, Dukec told Autocar. “The twin-kidney grille is the most prominent design icon we have. It’s the biggest difference we have from any other car out there. We’ve used the kidney in a variety of ways to give our cars a certain presence: the 3-Series has a very horizontal one because it’s a more rational, serious car. A coupe like the 4-Series should express the exotic part of BMW.”

Dukec explained that in this business, it’s important to know which voices to listen to. “You can’t listen to social media reactions. It won’t help you. Design is something that is so emotional, and everybody has an opinion and different states. There’s no right or wrong. When you do something like this, 50 percent of people might love it and 50 percent will hate it, and that won’t change. Anything you do, there will be people who like it and people who don’t – but this is not the criteria.”

So, what are the criteria for design? According to the BMW official, it is “to create something, unique, daring, to make a statement”. “Although it’s polarizing in the beginning, it’s at the heart of BMW and a brand-shaper for us.”

Leading the new 4-Series pack is the Coupe, which will go on sale globally in October, with the Convertible and four-door Gran Coupe to follow. All of them are based on the brand’s CLAR architecture, which translates into a bigger footprint and a more spacious interior.

Until the new M4 arrives, likely within the next six months, the M440i xDrive will sit at the top of the range, with a 369 HP 3.0-liter turbo-six, for a 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) time of 4.7 seconds and a top speed limited to 155 mph (250 km/h). U.S. customers will be able to order it for $59,495, while the 430i and 430i xDrive, which pack a 258 HP 2.0-liter four-pot, will launch from $46,595 and $48,595 respectively.

In Europe, the new-gen 4-Series will become available in 420i and 420d specs as well, with their 2.0-liter petrol and diesel engine making 184 and 190 HP respectively, plus the 286 HP 3.0-liter 430d and M440d xDrive 340 HP diesels, which will launch next spring.

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Tech

Google sued for secretly amassing vast trove of user data – Financial Post

Published

3 hours ago

June 3, 2020

Google surreptitiously amasses billions of bits of information — every day — about internet users even if they opt out of sharing their information, three consumers alleged in a proposed class action lawsuit.

“Google tracks and collects consumer browsing history and other web activity data no matter what safeguards consumers undertake to protect their data privacy,” according to the complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in San Jose, California.

The lawsuit argues that while Google lets users turn off data collection when using its Chrome web browser, other Google tools used by websites themselves scoop up their data anyways. The suit includes claims for invasion of privacy and violations of federal wiretapping law.

Google is up front with consumers that whenever they opt for private browsing, other websites may still collect information, spokesman Jose Castaneda said.

“We strongly dispute these claims and we will defend ourselves vigorously against them,” Castaneda said in an email.

The case was filed by Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, a high-profile litigation firm that previously defended Uber Technologies Inc. when the ride-hailing firm was accused three years ago by Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving unit of stealing trade secrets.

According to the suit, the company collects information, including IP addresses and browsing histories, whenever users visit web pages or use an app tied to common Google services, such as Google Analytics and Google Ad Manager. This has helped Google amass a nearly unending trove of data that could be stolen or hacked by governments and criminals, the consumers allege.

A consumer suit accusing Google of illegally tracking and storing geolocation data with its mobile apps and operating system was thrown out by a California federal judge in December. Arizona’s attorney general filed a similar complaint last month. Google disputed the claim and said it’s looking forward to setting the record straight.

Tuesday’s case is Brown v. Google LLC, 20-3664, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).

Bloomberg.com

Tech

$5 Billion Lawsuit Accuses Google of Tracking Chrome Users in Incognito Mode – MacRumors

Published

4 hours ago

June 3, 2020

A proposed class action lawsuit in the U.S. has accused Google of violating federal wiretap laws by tracking the online activities of users when in Incognito mode.

According to Reuters, the class action argues that by surreptitiously collecting information about what people view online and where they browse when they use Chrome’s private browsing mode, Google has been intentionally deceiving customers into believing that they have control over the information they share with the company.

According to the complaint filed in the federal court in San Jose, California, Google gathers data through Google Analytics, Google Ad Manager and other applications and website plug-ins, including smartphone apps, regardless of whether users click on Google-supported ads.
This helps Google learn about users’ friends, hobbies, favorite foods, shopping habits, and even the “most intimate and potentially embarrassing things” they search for online, the complaint said.
Google “cannot continue to engage in the covert and unauthorized data collection from virtually every American with a computer or phone,” the complaint said.

Google has said it will defend itself “vigorously’ against the claims.

“Incognito mode in Chrome gives you the choice to browse the internet without your activity being saved to your browser or device,” said Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda. “As we clearly state each time you open a new incognito tab, websites might be able to collect information about your browsing activity.”

The three plaintiffs argue that the lawsuit likely covers “millions” of Google users who since June 1, 2016 browsed the internet using Incognito mode. The proposed class action therefore seeks $5,000 in damages per user for violations of federal wiretapping and California privacy laws, amounting to at least $5 billion.