File1, 2, & 3 for bdupert:
File1:
Android phones wil get the COVID-19 tracking updates via Google Play Google has confirmed that it will use the Google Play Services infrastructure to update android phones with the upcoming COVID-19 contact tracing system it is building in collaboration with Apple. It should ensure that more Android phones will actually get the updates, and also ensure that they become available on phones running Android 6.0 Marshmallow or above. Until today, it was an open question, but one that was vital for Google to answer. That's because Google Play is the only reliable system that exists for getting software updates pushed out to Android phones in a timely manner. The other way--full operating system updates--is often fraught with delays from both carriers and manufacturers. Google says that its update system will apply to both phases of the BLuetooth contact tracing framework--the initial API rollout, which is due next month, and the next stage, which will see the APIs built into the OS. The companies will say only that the second stage will arrive "in coming months." Source: The Verge, Bohn, Dieter
File2:
The $579 RedMagic 5G is the first phone with a 144Hz display You can't claim to be a flagship phone in 2020 without having a high-refresh-rate display, and a new benchmark has now been set. RedMagic, a sub-brand of ZTE sub-brand Nubia, is putting its latest gaming phone up for global pre-order today, making the RedMagic 5G the first phone you'll be able to buy with a 144Hz screen. That's standard refresh rate for high-end PC Gaming monitors. The screen is a large 6.65-inch 1080p OLED panel, and the RedMagic 5G feels even larger than that spec suggests due to the slight bezels up top and bottom. They're pretty unobtrusive, though -- think Galaxy S8 kind of size-- and they mena the phone has no notch or hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera, which is definitely a plus for gaming. Other specs are as high-end as you'd hope for from a gaming phone: a Snapdragon 865, 5G support(obviously), up to 12GH of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of storage, Android 10 (with not-super-polished customizations) and a 4,500mAh battery that can be fast-charged at 55W-- though no wireless charging, unfortunately. NO-one's buying a gaming phone for the camera, but the RedMagic 5G has a triple-lens setup including a 64-megapixel SOny IMX686 sensor. You also get a headphone jack, and the stero speakers and haptics are pretty good. The RedMagic 5G's gaming functionality is perhaps more explicit than on some other gaming phones. As well as liquid cooling, there's a full-on turbo fan sindie with a vent on the edge of the phone that pushes out a fair bit of air. It gets pretty loud, but you can switch it off if you don't need it. Source: The Verge, Byford, Sam
File3:
What is contact tracing? During an infectious disease outbreak, one of the best tools public health experts have is old-school detective work: finding each sick person and then figuring out who they recently interacted with. The technique, called contact tracing, helps get outbreaks of diseases like COVID-19 under control. In order to lift social distancing measures like school closures and "stay home" orders, public health agencies will have to start aggressively contact tracing and at a much higher level than they were a few months ago. That will keep new cases of the virus from growing into new outbreaks. The US can only relax stay-at-home orders and social distancing policies if it's doing enough contact tracing to catch new outbreaks before they explode. Contact tracing is based on an obvious idea: people in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 are at risk of getting sick. The process isn't easy. When a person gets sick, tehy are then interviewed by public health officials and asked who has been exposed to them. Then they take that list and fan out to ask those people either to pay close attention to how they're feeling or to quarantine. If a person who was exposed is infected, their recent contacts will be tracked down, too. The process continues until everyone who's been exposed is out of circulation. That stops virus transmission. Source: The Verge, Wetsman, Nicole
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Other specified properties aren’t being scored automatically at this time so this is not necessarily good news…