News on Mobile OS Releases, January 2022

Android 12 

Samsung has updated these devices to Android 12

Samsung devices confirmed to get Android 12:

• Galaxy S:

• Galaxy Note

• Galaxy Foldables

• Galaxy A

• Galaxy Tab

Full content and details (external sources): 9to5Google

‘Repainter’ gives full control over Android 12’s colors, latest update supports January patch

“Repainter” looks to give users full control over Material You’s colors in Android 12 on Pixel phones, from picking colors outside of your wallpaper down to making the colors more vivid.

Full content and details (external sources): 9to5Google

Android 13 tipped to evolve on Material You with more choices for color palettes

Four new color palette options will supposedly go live in Android 13 as an evolution of Material You. Unlike Android 12, which presents users with four choices for different combinations of the same colors, Android 13 will apparently allow users to select between four distinct choices for colors.

Full content and details (external sources): 9to5Google

Android 12L Beta 2: Lockscreen clock’s two-line style is now optional

Android 12 is a huge visual update, but some changes turned out to be frustrating for some users. With the latest Android 12L Beta update, Google is adding an option to turn off the two-line clock on the lockscreen. By default in Android 12, the lock screen clock is split into two lines if there are no notifications. When any notifications are visible on your device, the design moves back to a one-line design more similar to older versions of Android. In Android 12L Beta 2, Google adds an option to turn off the fullscreen two-line lockscreen clock.

Full content and details (external sources): 9to5Google

Apple iOS 

Apple releases first betas of iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 to developers

Following the release of iOS 15.3 to the public earlier this week, Apple is now continuing the beta testing process. The company is rolling out the first betas of iOS 15.4, iPadOS 15.4, and watchOS 8.5 to developers now. Head below for the full details and build numbers for these releases.

iOS 15.4 beta 1 is available to developers via an over-the-air update in the Settings app. As usual, if the update does not immediately appear for download, keep checking, as it sometimes takes a few minutes to roll out to all registered developers. The build number of iOS 15.4 beta 1 is 19E5209h. The obvious hope was that the new round of betas from Apple today includes support for Universal Control. 

Full content and details (external sources): 9to5Mac

Apple releases iOS 15.3 and iPadOS 15.3 to fix actively exploited bug

These two updates should already be available for devices that are still supported, and should be installed as soon as possible because they fix an actively exploited bug relating to memory corruption. 

Full content and details (external sources): GSMArena

Apple developing new iOS feature to let iPhones to accept NFC payments with tap-to-pay

Apple is developing a new feature that would allow iPhone users to accept credit card payments via contactless technology without any extra hardware, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The report explains that Apple’s system is likely to use NFC technology similar to Apple Pay. As it stands today, small businesses that wish to accept payments using an iPhone are required to use external, third-party hardware. Oftentimes, this hardware comes from the financial services company Square, which sells multiple different payment terminals for iPhone and iPad devices. Apple would be able to leapfrog Square’s hardware by integrating tap-to-pay terminal technology directly into the iPhone using its built-in NFC chip.

Full content and details (external sources): 9to5Mac

HarmonyOS 

Huawei HarmonyOS atomic services platform launched

Huawei has recently made a big change in support of releasing new HarmonyOS atomic services on its app distribution platform – AppGallery. The company has announced to separate the distribution category for both app and the services filed, which would make it easy for the app developers to make new HarmonyOS atomic services. Atomic Services are installation-free (installed automatically by the application framework in the background) and can offer one or more convenient services for users.

Full content and details (external sources): HuaweiCentral

Huawei HarmonyOS January 2022 Updates List

Huawei has released the latest January 2022 HarmonyOS security patch details for its smartphone and tablet devices. 

Full content and details (external sources): HuaweiCentral

EMUI

EMUI 12: New font weight adjustment feature

The new font adjustment feature on EMUI 12 allows you to adjust the size of the UI font from the settings manually. You can choose how much your phone’s font will be as bold or tidy as you want. 

Full content and details (external sources): HuaweiCentral

Huawei EMUI January 2022 Updates List

Throughout January 2022, Huawei delivered several EMUI software updates. New software updates always arrive with numerous changes made to the system including optimizations, security improvements, feature addition, and more. The regular EMUI update rollout enhances the overall device performance and provides better security to the device.

Full content and details (external sources): HuaweiCentral