Databricks to Invest $350 Million in Singapore AI Expansion 
SoftBank Launches $11 Billion Bond Sale to Fund OpenAI Investment 
Apple Pay Set for India Launch With Axis Bank 
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Expected at Trump-Xi State Dinner 
Meta CEO Zuckerberg Backs Independent AI Safety Reviews Over Development Slowdown 
SpaceX Nasdaq 100 Weight to More Than Double in Rebalance 
US Northeast Airports Resume Operations After Telecom Outage Disrupts Thousands of Flights 
NASA, Boeing Discuss Expanding Starliner Missions 
Rosenblatt Starts Nokia at Buy on AI Networking Growth 
SK Hynix, Intel Discuss U.S. Memory Chip Production Deal 
OpenAI Urges US-Led Global Standards for Frontier AI 
Burnham Eyes UK Leadership Role in AI Ahead of Trump Meeting 
Trump Plans Federal AI Force and AI Czar 
France Urges Faster AI Push Despite Safety Risks 
Physicists zoom into the birth of cosmic rainstorms with new CERN study 
Qualcomm Gains on $60B Amazon AI Chip Deal 
US Federal Register Drops Alibaba Qwen AI Search Tool 
Add as a preferred source on Google
The second version of Android 12’s developer preview has been released. As expected, new features were made available giving billions of Android users more idea on what to expect once it is fully released later this year.
Android 12 developer 2 new features
While all-new functionalities are expected to launch with the Android 12, it is also anticipated to deliver significant improvements to the features introduced in earlier versions of the operating system. For one, the option to use a system-wide dark theme was added in 2019, but the upcoming update is reportedly going to add new settings to make it more customizable.
In the first version of Android 12 released for developer testing, Google introduced a new dark theme setting that makes the background color appear more dark grey than a true black tone. While this seems like not much of a change, 9To5Google reported observing a “stark difference” since Google appeared to have made the new option even lighter.
A new widget picker was also reportedly added in the Android 12 developer preview 2, which was observed through the Pixel Launcher. Per XDA Developers’ report, it does not seem like major changes were made in the way users will choose an app’s widget but it was noted how the new feature looked “more compact” and designed so Android fans can continue scrolling with more ease.
Earlier versions of Android introduced a small screen mode allowing users to navigate through the screen even with one hand. It appears that Google is adding another feature for this purpose called the one-hand mode in Android 12. Unlike the small screen mode that minimizes the entire UI to about a third of the screen’s size, the one-hand mode appears to keep the original font size but moves the content to the lower half of the screen.
Android 12 release date
Based on the timeline Google provided, a third version of the Android 12 developer preview is scheduled to go live in April before the first version of “consumer Beta” is released in May. Like in previous years, the first full version of the update is expected to become available in late 2021.
Featured photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels
