Category: Cell Phone

Motorola’s foldable display RAZR leaks in first official-looking images

Perennial leaker Evan Blass has shared what looks like our first offical look at Motorola’s upcoming foldable display RAZR phone. In contrast to the fan render Motorola used to tease the phone back May, the image Blass shared appears to be an official marketing image. Unsurprisingly, the device looks a lot like the original RAZR, complete with a thick bottom lip. Thanks to the flip phone factor of the device, it looks like the front-facing camera will allow you to take both selfies and regular shots by folding out the display. There’s also what appears to be a front-facing fingerprint sensor on the chin.

Moments after Blass shared his photo of the RAZR, Dutch website Mobielkopen posted additional images of the phone, as well as specs. The phone will reportedly feature a Snapdragon 710 processor alongside either 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage or 6GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The website says the phone also includes a modest 2,730mAh battery.

While it’s best to treat any spec leak skeptically, you may want to be even more skeptical of this one. Qualcomm’s 700-series chips have mostly been seen in the Chinese market, and to our knowledge no US carrier has sold a phone with the Snapdragon 710. For a phone that’s reportedly supposed to be a Verizon exclusive, it would be a strange choice. There is always a chance that a European model may ship with a different processor to Verizon’s unit, just as Samsung’s flagship phones often do.

Motorola will likely officially announce the new RAZR on November 13th when the company hosts a press event in Los Angeles. The company hasn’t exactly hid the fact that it plans to bring back the RAZR. When it sent invites to the event, Moto said it would feature the “highly-anticipated unveiling of a reinvented icon.”

The New Pixel 4 Real-Time Transcription App Is Amazing—What to Use If You Can’t Get It

Among the new features onboard the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL phones is a Recorder app that can transcribe spoken audio in real-time—a tool that could prove hugely useful in lectures, interviews, and more besides. It works offline too, but it’s not your only option for converting speech into text.

If you have bought a Pixel 4 or Pixel 4 XL, you’ll find the Recorder app preinstalled (or you can download it here). The app can be sideloaded via an APK on other Android phones, but the real-time voice transcription won’t work—this is one of those features (like Motion Sense) that Google is hoping will get you to buy one of its new flagship phones.

Once loaded up, the app has a simple but tasteful design: You hit the big red record button and recording starts, as you would expect. The recording opens the Audio tab, which shows a sound wave representation of what’s being heard, but you can switch back and forth between that and the Transcript screen, where speech is transcribed in real-time.

Recorder recognizes the difference between speech and music, and will show this on screen as part of the Audio tab. Transcription only works with speech, however, or at least it does with the songs we tried (if you want to try and decipher a particularly difficult to understand set of lyrics, you’ll need to look elsewhere).

Tap the pause button at the bottom and you can give your recording a title and a location if you want to (if the Recorder app has noticed certain words being repeated, it’ll suggest these as keywords for your title). You then have the option to Resume the recording or to Save it to your phone.

Does it work? Based on our experience, it works impressively well, but it’s far from perfect—the app doesn’t get every word yet, though with clear speech and little background noise we’d say it’s in the high 90s in terms of percentage. We did notice occasional gaps in the transcription, almost as if the Pixel’s AI processing algorithms were being overwhelmed and had to take a breather.

When there’s more going on in the background—recording from talk radio, say—the accuracy starts to drop, though to be fair to the Recorder app we were testing it on UK voices and accents. The app only officially supports US English for now, with more languages appearing further down the line.

Unfortunately there’s no option yet to edit the transcription. Though you can search through the text of your recordings, so it’s easy to find mentions of particular words. Even better, you can search for specific sounds, like whistling, applause, or music, and Recorder pulls up a list of matches for you.

As with just about everything Google does, machine learning is key to how this all works: It’s managed to shrink its language processing model down to a small enough size for it to fit on the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, and the Pixel 4 phones use similar techniques to power Google Lens and the Now Playing song recognition on device.

The transcription alternatives

Pick up a Pixel 4, and the Recorder app comes free with it. As for the competition, the closest alternative to what Recorder does is Otter—developed by ex-Googlers, as it happens—which again uses the power of artificial intelligence to identify spoken words as they’re said, either live or from a recording.

That ability to process recordings sets Otter apart from Google’s Recorder app, and Otter is also able to identify different speakers in a conversation, something Recorder hasn’t stretched to yet. Transcription search is included too. For the live transcription, you need the apps for Android or iOS, and you get a generous 600 minutes of free transcription time per month.

Beyond that, you’ll need to pay $10 a month or $100 a year, and that gets you extra features, including custom vocabulary support, integration with Dropbox, the ability to skip silences, and more. If you don’t own a Pixel 4 (or maybe if you do), it’s well worth a look, and in our tests was about on a par with the Recorder app.

You’ll find a number of competing Otter-like services out there, leveraging AI to do the transcription work, though none of the others have graduated to real-time transcription as yet. Temi promises 5-minute turnarounds for audio uploaded to the site (or recorded via the Android or iOS apps), and you can edit the transcripts online if needed.

We found Temi matched its quick turnaround claim and impressed with its accuracy, based on our limited testing of it. You get one trial transcript (up to 45 minutes) for free, and then processing costs $0.10 per minute (you might prefer that pay-as-you-go flexibility to Otter’s flat rate, depending on how much transcribing you need).

Trint is another option for those looking for AI-powered speech transcription, though it only has an iOS app (nothing for Android yet), and the real-time processing component is only available to enterprise users.

It’s on the expensive side though, compared to Otter and Temi—after your 7-day free trial, you need to stump up $15 per hour of recordings, or $40 a month. The latter gets you three hours of free transcription (working out at $13.33 per hour). It does come stacked with features, including a comprehensive online editor.

Of course, you can still get your transcribing done by an old-fashioned human, if you want to—it’ll take longer to get back to you, but the accuracy should be better than anything powered by artificial intelligence… at least for the time being.

Samsung unveils new foldable flip phone concept

Samsung has teased a new foldable phone concept onstage at the company’s developer conference today. The new concept, which Samsung didn’t name, looks more like a traditional flip phone thanks to a foldable display that allows the device to fold in half.

“This brand-new form factor that we’re now exploring will not only easily fit in your pocket, but it also changes the way you use your phone,” explained Hyesoon Jeong, head of Samsung’s framework R&D group, onstage at Samsung’s Developer Conference. The idea behind the concept is to take Samsung’s foldable smartphone technology and push it to “become more compact,” and extend to new device form factors.

Samsung didn’t spend much time detailing the device, nor when the company plans to make this available. There was no mention of the hardware involved, and whether Samsung has improved its foldable display technology from last year.

The company did use this mysterious device as a bridge to discuss an upcoming update to its One UI efforts with Android. “As a pioneer in the foldable category, we understand that every innovative form factor requires an equally innovative user experience,” explained Jeong.

Samsung has been working on improving its Android user interface since it debuted the Galaxy Fold device earlier this year, and the company is now working on One UI 2. which looks like a more refined version of the changes the company introduced with the S10 and Note 10 this year.

One UI 2 includes more glanceable information, better reachability for one-handed use, and “more vibrant hues” throughout the OS. Animated icons will be available too, and a full dark mode. Overall, it looks like minor but useful changes to the customization Samsung offers today with its Android handsets.

Software aside, this new clamshell / flip phone foldable hardware looks like the future of devices like Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. While the Fold started off life with a lot of screen issues, it’s clear Samsung isn’t ready to give up on foldable display technology. Samsung didn’t provide solid details today, but the company is teasing that the future of foldable phones might look like the popular Motorola Razr of the past.

Latest iPhone 12 Leak Reveals Stunning New Screen

With the rest of the smartphone world adopting 90Hz screens on their flagships, and specialist gaming phones already at 120Hz, Apple is preparing not just to catch up with the competition but overtake it with next year’s iPhone 12. But will it be too late?

The latest leak on the iPhone 12 comes from Digitimes, which notes the increasing number of fast refresh panels coming to smartphones form 2020. It also highlights that Apple is likely to join that trend and bring the 120Hz ‘ProMotion’ technology from the iPad Pro over to the presumptively named iPhone 12. Benjamin Mayo reports:

Apple first introduced 120Hz screens to iOS in 2017 with the 10.5-inch iPad Pro and 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The refresh rate doubling dramatically improves the responsiveness of the user experience with user gestures more quickly being translated into on-screen motion.

This means scrolling and swiping feels significantly more fluid. 120Hz also allows the screen to accurately depict 24 FPS, 48 FPS and 60 FPS video content.

Although a 120Hz screen will overtake the 90Hz screens on the current OnePlus handsets and Google’s Pixel 4, it won’t be a first to this speed. Razer’s first Android-powered smartphone, the eponymous Razer Phone, launched in 2017 with a 120Hz screen that was synced to the graphics co-processor.

One key difference though… the Razer Phone screen was an LCD screen, and Digitimes’ report suggests that Apple (after adopting the technology long after it became a standard choice for flagships) will be using an OLED based screen similar to those found on the iPhone 11 portfolio.

As it stands today, Apple is taking a lead in screen technology, but of course the 120Hz screen is not expected to arrive until September 2020, just over ten months from now. Between now and that presumptive launch, the smartphone calendar has countless launch events from manufacturers such as Samsung, Huawei, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and others that can be expected to adopt this technology in their flagship handsets. You also have major events such as Mobile World Congress Barcelona in February and Berlin’s IFA that will see major launches.

It’s unlikely that all of these manufacturers will skip over 120Hz screens. With 90Hz now established as the benchmark, everyone will be going ‘Top Trumps’ to have a bigger number during 2020.

When Apple joins the speedy screen scramble, it might already be over

Samsung phones will get the iPhone 11’s cheesiest feature in new update

Samsung’s recently announced One UI 2 beta program has given us a glimpse into its future version of Android 10. Because of this, we know Digital Wellbeing will support Focus Mode on devices like the Galaxy Note 10, and we can expect more apps to support dark mode. But Samsung will also deliver one feature we didn’t expect to see: Samsung’s version of the iPhone 11’s new Slofie (slow-motion selfie videos) functionality.

Apple’s latest selfie camera gimmick is not exactly something customers have been begging for. Yet, because of Apple’s market presence, we expect many Android OEMs will include this feature moving forward.

According to SamMobile, users won’t get any pre-shot customization options with the new slow-motion selfie videos, just like on the rear shooters. But after recording, users will be able to edit the shots for even slower playback speed.

The performance and quality don’t seem to be on par with Apple’s offering quite yet. As of right now, Samsung’s slow-motion selfies have a slight jitter, but we hope it will sort that out before its official Android 10 release.

It also looks like this will only support standard slow-mo video recording and not super slow-mo. This is not too big of a deal since super slow-mo video is finicky anyway.

We aren’t sure if Samsung will have a fancy name for its slow-motion selfie feature when it launches. What we do know is Samsung won’t call it Slofie since Apple is trying to trademark that name.

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 2 Can Beat Motorola Razr V4 With Two Features

There are still a lot of questions about whether or not Motorola’s upcoming Razr V4 can compete in important areas like camera ability, but on form-factor alone the rumoured foldable phone will be popular. 

The flip-up shape is familiar, reduces the phone’s overall size and makes the most ergonomic sense for a foldable device. If you’re trying to convince a not-so-tech savvy public to adopt new tech, housing it in a familiar shape does a lot of the work for you. The V4 could do that much better than the Galaxy Fold. 

But with reports that Samsung is working on multiple new Galaxy Folds, what does the next iteration have to do to fight off competition from Motorola? 

No longer a proof of concept

A Wall Street Journal story earlier this year reported that the V4 could be priced around $1500. There’s no getting away from the fact that it’s expensive, especially when up against current generation smartphones, which – for the best on the market – cost roughly two thirds of that. Up against other foldable phones though, it’d be cheaper than the Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X – both of which cost in or around $2000. 

New technology is always pricey. But I hope that as the next Fold comes out, alongside Microsoft’s Surface Duo and other Android foldable phones, we’re looking at the beginnings of a price war. If so, Samsung should be leading the way. 

The Korean company is competitive with its pricing for its flagship tech and it’s a big player during the Black Friday sales period. It has experimented with eye-catching promotions in the past to lure customers away from Apple, too. 

A second foldable phone means moving the nascent Galaxy Fold line away from being proof of concept to being a cemented part of Samsung’s product range. That means Samsung will have to start pricing it competitively and perhaps rehashing old promotions like Test Drive to (again) lure potential customers away from genuinely threatening rival devices.

A new form factor

There are probably a lot of reasons why Samsung chose to go with a clam-shell shape for the Fold, including manufacturing cost, complexity, marketing and ergonomics. But, using whatever data it has collected from the first device, I hope Samsung starts to be more creative with future Fold designs. 

There are a lot of shapes for Samsung to play with, most of which have come directly from the Korean company over the last seven years via leaks and patent applications. Of all of the proposed designs such as flip-up and reverse clam shell, the rollable concept is the most intriguing to me.

First seen in Samsung’s 2013 CES advert, when the technology was then known as ‘Youm’, the cylindrical-shaped phone houses a flexible display that rolls out like a medieval scroll. It was, of course, fantasy in 2013 and it might still be in 2019. But it’s also the most exciting form a foldable phone could take for one simple reason: it saves space. 

This is a large part of why I think the V4 will be popular: it folds down into a smaller, more pocketable phone. It pretty much condenses into a device half of its unfurled size.

A rollable Samsung phone goes several steps further by reducing the handset to the size of a packet of Mentos. Again, the technical complexity of cramming a large enough battery – and other rigid components – into a long, thin cylinder may be beyond 2019’s minds. But a larger, clunkier device that could fit everything in and still embodied the rollable concept could very well be popular. 

An honorable mention to what’s under the hood…

As I said earlier the Motorola V4 remains largely an unknown. Some of the specs have leaked, and they suggest a mid-range phone, but how good the camera is, how sturdy the flexible display is, how long the battery lasts and how smooth the overall performance is still unknown. After 10 years of broadly good devices we know to expect a reasonably high standard of smartphone from Samsung that ticks all of the above boxes, that’s less the case with Motorola. 

An usual new phone can only beguile people for so long. If the V4 doesn’t deliver on every other metric that we use to measure how good a smartphone is, it will fail and make the Galaxy Fold 2’s life much, much easier. 

OnePlus 7T Pro Review: Three Key Wins Define This Successful Smartphone

OnePlus has launched its fourth major handset of 2019 with the OnePlus 7T Pro. What’s changed in six months since the OnePlus 7 Pro was launched? How does this fit with the Shenzhen-based company’s strategy? And is it a premium smartphone you should consider?

Remember that over the last few years OnePlus has a frantic release schedule of hardware, with the flagship handset updating every six months. This year saw the introduction of a ‘Pro’ model alongside the regular release in May, and both lines are maintaining the six month cycle.

Which means that, unless you are a collector or a serious OnePlus fan, if you already have the OnePlus 7 Pro there’s not a huge amount of difference in the hardware here to justify a purchase – a very slightly larger battery and a macro lens standing out. The software will be back-ported to your handset so all of the digital benefits will be with you through an over the air update.

But if you are looking for an upgrade, there are three areas of the OnePlus 7T Pro that stand out… the screen, the battery charging, and the Oxygen OS software that ties everything together.

OnePlus managed to leapfrog much of the competition with the 90Hz refresh on the OnePlus 7 Pro screen when it launched in the summer. Since then a number of other smartphones have matched the the manufacturer, but the OnePlus 7T Pro screen is still a fantastic screen. OnePlus also has more feedback and experience from its install base that allows the screen to be much more user friendly compared to say the brand new Pixel 4.

In use the screen is a delight to behold. The faster refresh rate makes scrolling look smoother, allows games to feel more fluid with HD gaming supported, and the HDR10+ compatibility brings a better experience for streaming apps such as Netflix.

It’s also notchless, on account of the pop-up selfie camera mounted along the top edge of the smartphone. The bezels are reduced to such a small extent at the top and bottom that this feels as close to a full screen display without being impractical (because you still need to grip the device and your finger will sneak into the front of the display.

The OnePlus 7T Pro also has the curved edges seen on the OnePlus 7 Pro and other competing handsets. It’s not a huge amount of curvature away from the main plane of the screen but it is noticeable in some circumstances. Navigating timelines and information based apps and the curve is essentially the scroll bar or the selvedge edge of the display, but when you go fullscreen video (say in YouTube) the same problems of light reflection that many will be familiar with are present. The 7T Pro doesn’t do this any better or worse than others, but this style of screen may be a dealbreaker for some

OnePlus has bumped up the battery capacity very slightly – from 4000mAh on the 7 Pro to 4085 mAh on the 7T Pro. Practically it is hard to see the difference here. What is noticeably different is the rapid charging system. Now going by the name Warp Charge 30T, OnePlus suggests that the charging rate is 23 percent faster than the summer’s charger.

I found that topping up 25 percent in fifteen minutes was a good rule of thumb, so an hour from empty to almost full is pretty impressive going. A quick sip of power for confidence is all well and good, but the OnePlus 7T Pro gets through a working day and into the next day if needed with ease.

Do note that OnePlus has offloaded part of the quick charging system to the AC adaptor, so you won’t always get the full benefit of this charging system – something that I found awkwardly painful when I was left to charge the phone via my laptop’s USB port on a recent trip. That’s when you realise the invisible benefit of quick charging.

I still have a personal preference for wireless charging, mostly because I am at a desk most days so slow sips are more in keeping with my lifestyle than sprints between power pitstops, but it looks like OnePLus are investigating both forms of charging so there’s hope for me in 2020!

Much as Warp Charge is a benefit that is not noticed until you don’t have it, the same goes for Oxygen OS. Rather than work on a pure implementation of Google’s flavor of Android, OnePlus has worked on a clean implementation of the platform. There’s very little cruft or excess in the system, it receives timely updates, and you’re looking at two years of full software support and maintenance patches beyond that for security.

You get the same additions to the OS as you saw in the OnePlus 7T, and o course these will show up on the OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro in short order. It’s worth highlighting OnePlus’ support for dark mode in Android. Naturally OnePlus’s own ‘Zen Mode’ to limit your phone to core functionality so you can take time out is here as well, with some tweaks to the length of time that it can be active added in following user feedback.

The OnePlus 7T Pro pushes itself as a flagship handset, polishing the edges of the OnePlus 7 Pro to reach even higher. It’s an improvement on the 7 Pro, but as noted earlier it’s only a marginal improvement. If you are coming from the OnePlus 6 family it’s probably good value, and if you are upgrading from the OnePlus 5 or earlier then this is a good choice to make.

It’s complicated slightly by the OnePlus 7T offering a very similar feature set (notably the 90Hz screen, and the camera’s macro mode), and I still would like to see OnePlus go through the procedures for an IP certification to quantify the waterproofing on the device, but this is certainly a premium device with the absolute latest chip specifications and in demand features in this class.

Microsoft Surface Duo: Here’s What It Needs

It’s hard to categorise Microsoft’s Surface Duo. Is it a phone? A phablet? A miniature Surface laptop with cellular connectivity? Microsoft itself simply calls it a ‘dual-screen device’, which isn’t particularly descriptive. 

Perhaps Microsoft has invented a new product category (it certainly thinks it has). But with Samsung’s Galaxy Fold out and Motorola’s foldable V4 on the horizon, I’m not sure that would be true either.

How the device is defined – and how successful it is – will may come down to how it adapts Android to suit its hybrid ambitions. But it also needs some show-stealing features outside of the unusual design. Here’s what I’d like to see from Microsoft’s definitely-not-a-phone, smartphone.

One of the standout features of this year’s Pixel 4 is how Google has moved some of Assistant’s features away from needing the ‘hey Google’ wake word. In particular the baked in features like live transcription of videos when sound is toggled off. Or the searchable, automatically transcribed text from recorded voice notes. It’s here that Google has made Assistant genuinely useful instead of gimmicky. Microsoft should follow suit. 

It’s not exactly clear what’s happening with Microsoft’s competitor to Assistant (if you can call it that), Cortana, but I’m not sure if it will be capable of handling the tasks above with the same aplomb that Assistant does.

There is a potential workaround, though. Considering Duo is going to run Android, then it’s possible the Windows-maker could work out a deal to port some of those Pixel specific features to the Duo. It’s not out of the realms of possibility considering that Google wants Assistant – and its best features – on as many devices as possible. Also something likeautomatic, searchable, voice transcription would be perfect for a productivity-focused phone. 

Shoulder buttons

With Microsoft’s cloud gaming platform Project xCloud on the way (not to mention Google’s Stadia) I’d like to see Microsoft lean into this and make the best possible use of the Duo’s dual-screen display for gaming. The LG G8X uses the second screen as a game controller with buttons that can be custom mapped, which greatly improves the touch-screen gaming experience.

But one thing it lacks is shoulder buttons. Obviously it’d be silly and unnecessary to build these into a phone, but a connected phone case could have them. A thin, sleek, Surface branded smartphone with full gaming capabilities and a full controller (without actually having a full controller) playing the latest AAA titles via a streaming service? Yes please. 

Serious battery life

If the Duo is going to be pushed as a powerful productivity phone then it needs to have serious lasting power, especially with two power-draining displays. I’m interested to see what Microsoft does here because it has to finely balance making a two-display device dainty enough to fit comfortably in your pocket, but also fit a big enough battery in there without making it heavy and cumbersome. 

The design for the Duo is apparently locked, so it will come down to how it has crammed a battery – or two – under either or both of those displays. But, if Microsoft is indeed pitching the Duo to be the ultimate productivity phone, lasting power will be a must. 

Can Microsoft price it reasonably?

If there’s one takeaway from first generation foldable phones, it’s that they’re prohibitively expensive. Huawei, Samsung and the upcoming Motorola V4 are all (or rumoured to be, at least) priced around the $2000 mark. This is partially understandable because they’re using a new type of technology that’s presumably awkward and expensive to manufacture. 

That’s less the case for the Duo, which is essentially two phone screens connected by a hinge – so you’d assume Microsoft could launch the Duo at a more reasonable price than the true foldable devices. 

LG’s similar concept, the dual-screen LG G8X, costs $699. It’s not exactly the same, because the two displays are held together by a case and one is removable. But, because it’s not truly foldable, the Duo may fall closer to a premium smartphone price rather than an astronomical Galaxy Fold Price. At least, you’d hope so. 

Samsung Patents Reveal Radical New Galaxy Smartphones

Samsung’s Galaxy S11 has already been heavily leaked, but the company has now revealed it is working on far more radical Galaxy smartphones. 

In newly published patents picked up by the ever-alert PatentlyApple, Samsung has revealed an astonishing array of foldable smartphone designs for its fast-tracked successor to the “Embarrassing” Galaxy Fold. 

Most notable by far is Figure 133 (below) which shows the front-facing foldable design adopted by Huawei and which many feel was the format Samsung should’ve adopted with the original Galaxy Fold. That said, the company has also thrown in some truly eccentric designs, including rollable and tabbed designs. 

The latter, in particular, is ingenious because the tabs are detachable and can be used to add supplemental storage, battery capacity or even physical hardware buttons to the device. I’ve never seen anything like it. 

That said, it is Samsung’s other recent patent which really gets the blood pumping. The company’s plans to integrate front-facing cameras under its display in 2020 have already been leaked by one top insider and the ‘New Infinity’ display tech which will enable it has been described as “just around the corner” by Samsung product marketing director Hassan Anjum. 

Despite this, I suspect it will be the Galaxy S11 which still makes the biggest splash next year. We already know it packs a groundbreaking camera, upgraded design, major performance increases, next-gen memory, a supersized fingerprint sensor and AI-focused image processing while Samsung is also readying some revolutionary new battery tech. 

Samsung has reportedly fixed the Galaxy S10 fingerprint recognition issue

Samsung has released a patch for the Galaxy S10 and Note 10’s fingerprint reader, fixing a problem discovered by The Sun that could allow anyone’s fingerprints to be used to unlock an S10 with certain types of screen protectors attached (via Reuters).

According to Android Central, the update is only available for S10 and Note 10 devices in South Korea for now, although it should be rolling out to additional countries in the near future.

The company previously warned users that unsanctioned screen protectors could cause issues. Samsung’s official support site already notes that “unofficial, scratched or dirty screen protectors may cause the fingerprint sensor to malfunction.” But there’s a big difference between “malfunction” and “allow anyone to get into your phone,” which likely explains the speed at which Samsung is getting this update out.

Samsung previously explained the problem by noting that the ultrasonic fingerprint was mistakenly “recognizing 3-dimensional patterns appearing on certain silicone screen protecting cases as users’ fingerprints.” As a temporary solution, Samsung recommends that users either remove the problematic screen protectors in question and reregister their prints or use a different authentication method (like a regular password) until the patch is released.