Curated Culture collection adds three new wallpapers by artist Morgan Harper Nichols for International Day of People with Disabilities.

• A Daydream, Unmasked
"Real freedom is to live without hiding".

• There is Room for Me Here
"There is enough room in this world for me, exactly as am".

• At Peace
"Feeling grounded and centered in the moment".

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Google Pixel 6 and newer devices will get the new "Live Bloom" wallpaper.

In the December Pixel Feature Drop, the company announced new Live Bloom wallpapers, which will be available for Pixel 6 and newer. This will most likely come with an update to the 'Pixel Live Wallpaper' app.

Upd: Google is rolling out new 'Live Bloom' wallpapers collection via Pixel Live Wallpaper app update

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Which apps will support Spatial Audio on Pixel phones with Pixel Buds Pro headphones?

Google has clarified that Spatial Audio will work with movies from Netflix, YouTube, Google TV and HBOMax that have audio tracks with 5.1 surround sound or higher.

As tips, Google recommends to use content marked as Dolby audio, 5.1, or Dolby Atmos and keep your phone steady or place it on a stable surface or stand.

In addition, it is noted that Pixel Buds Pro Settings will have a separate "Head tracking" switch.

The feature will be available in January 2023, on Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 7 & 7 Pro.

🔗 Google Support Page

Ported version of the new 'Live Bloom' wallpapers from December Pixel Feature Drop for all Android 11+ devices.

Made by @trzpro

🔗 Source

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Google Arts & Culture for Android adds new 'Artist of the day' widget.

Update to version 9.4.13 adds a new widget called 'Arts & Culture'.

The description says 'Widget showing an artwork of a famous artist born on this day'.

The widget with a minimal size of 3x2 fits perfectly into the home screen grid and can be stretched to full screen, but does not adapt to dynamic colors.

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The latest Pixel Feature Drop that rolled out earlier this week also brought Android 13 QPR1, which looks like a minor update on the surface. But if you dig deep, there's a LOT of hidden features under the surface! Here are 10+ upcoming features I discovered in QPR1:

1) A revived desktop mode: Google's finally trying to make Android's barebones "desktop mode" experience more usable. There's a rumor of a "Pro" Pixel Tablet in the works according to @nullby so who knows what this could be for 👀

2) You know that taskbar that Google introduced in Android 12L? The one that only appears on tablets (or when you set the screen width to 600dp)? Google's working on letting you use that taskbar on phones WITHOUT needing to change the density!

3) I've already talked about how Android 13 is revamping the screen saver experience, and QPR1 made further improvements. There are new "smartspace", "media entry", and "home controls" complications. This is likely how the Pixel Tablet will act as a Nest Hub when docked😄

4) Android 13 QPR1 updated the ThemePicker app to support a new "custom clock" section, which will let you customize the lock screen clock. You can't customize clocks yet since it requires a separate app providing the clock plugins, though!

5) Google's working on letting you take a "partial screen share"! The feature is partially (heh) implemented in Android 13 QPR1.

6) In prep for the Pixel Tablet (or maybe Pixel Fold?), Android 13 QPR1 adds a special button to the taskbar that can launch Google Keep's drawing mode in a floating window.

7) There's a new "advanced VPN" feature in QPR1. Advanced VPNs don't need a user's consent to appear in the list of VPNs in Settings (that doesn't mean they're always active). Likely related to augmenting the Pixel 7's free VPN by Google One down the road?

8) Android TV is getting a "splitscreen menu". I'd love to run some apps side-by-side on my SHIELD TV (...if it ever gets Android 13)!

9) Immersive mode support is coming to Android Automotive apps!

10) The handling of Pixel's Quick Tap feature is being moved to Android's Private Compute Core. Is it for improved privacy? Potentially opening it up to OEMs? IDK!

There are some other hidden changes I discovered in Android 13 QPR1 that I won't mention here, because you can read about them (and see the code changes/screenshots for yourself) in this article over on blog.esper.io.

At a glance widget on Pixels will soon prompt you to Set an alarm.

When you tap, it will open the Clock app on the Alarm page. If the alarm is already set, the widget will display the day of the week and the time it will ring.

Yes, you can already see the time of the upcoming alarm on the lock screen, but, as I think, this line is part of the lock screen, not the At a glance widget, and exists separately.

My guess is that in future builds of Android, Google will remove this line from the lock screen and only offer an option from the at a glance widget, because right now (on the lock screen) it looks like two identical lines (proof in the comments).

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Android 13 QPR2 beta test program is now open. First beta!

Following the release of 13 QPR1 a week ago, Google is opening the beta test for the second quarterly release of Android 13 QPR2, with a stable build due out in March 2023.

The build number is T2B1.221118.006.

🔗 Android Beta

🔗 Release notes

• OTA images

• Factory Images

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