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Google is finally helping developers fight back against smartphone manufacturers breaking how Android apps work
The new CTS-D and its first test could have a huge and beneficial impact on developers and customers — if Google gives it teeth
We dance around it and claim that it's less of an issue every year, but Android still has problems because of fragmentation. One of the most annoying ways fragmentation can still manifest is when smartphone manufacturers mess with how apps work and behave, breaking expected behaviors or adjusting how they work to plump out battery life. This means that, from phone to phone and manufacturer to manufacturer, apps can behave differently than customers expect, offering an inconsistent experience and a developer support nightmare.
The surprisingly good OnePlus Nord N20 5G is now available unlocked
It's available at Amazon, Best Buy, and OnePlus's storefront starting today for $300
One of my favorite phones of the year (so far) can now be bought outside carrier stores. Although the company's announcement seems to have slightly preceded actual retail availability, OnePlus tells us that the Nord N20 5G can now be purchased unlocked at its own storefront, Amazon, and Best Buy for $300.
Lawsuit alleges T-Mobile left Sprint 5G customers out in the cold
And another lawsuit claims the merger reduced competition
T-Mobile could face a class-action lawsuit for how it handled Sprint's legacy 5G network shutdown following the acquisition. As reported by Light Reading, this is just a single lawsuit from a single person, but the plaintiff is aiming to rope in other customers that purchased Sprint 5G-compatible devices without being informed of the shutdown that lost 5G access, with up to 75,000 phones potentially affected — that's a lot of potential customers that could be included if the suit continues and the class is certified.
How T-Mobile's 3G shutdown will impact Google Fi and older Pixels
In short: It's time to upgrade that old phone
The long and drawn-out death of carrier 3G services in the US is approaching its dramatic close, with T-Mobile next to flip the off switch on its legacy systems in July. Google Fi, being a T-Mobile MVNO, will also be affected when that happens, and the company has detailed exactly how subscribers will be affected.
OSOM's hotly-anticipated OV1 smartphone succumbs to crypto gimmick as Solana Saga
Good news: You can pre-order one now. Bad news: Now with 100% more crypto gimmicks, won't ship till next year.
Many of our readers have been waiting for OSOM, the company reformed from the ashes of an Andy Rubin-less Essential, to deliver the OV1 smartphone it's been teasing since 2020. In what will likely be a good news/bad news arrangement, you can now pre-order the phone, but some key details have changed. The OV1 is now the Solana Saga, a blockchain-integrated Android flagship.
Google's Nest Hub Max gets Fuchsia update in Preview Program, here's how to opt in
It shouldn't look or feel any different, but there's an update to the new OS rolling out
We've suspected the Nest Hub Max was the next in line to get Google's nascent Fuchsia operating system since last year, and the wait is almost over. An update for Fuchsia is now rolling out as part of a small test for some of those registered in the Preview Program, who have opted in to test new software releases.
Google's Word of the Day notifications eloquently extend triumvirate of loquacious convolutions
A triad of variegated elaborations
Last fall, Google rolled out a word-of-the-day feature for Search. Powered by its Knowledge Graph, the feature sent you a notification every day teaching you a new word and its definition. It isn't clear how popular the feature might be, but Google has recently adjusted how it works slightly. You can now configure the word of the day to offer three different levels of difficulty: Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert.
MediaTek squeezes a tiny bit more out of the Dimensity 9000 with new 'plus' version
Every chip deserves a 'plus' follow-up, though it would be nice to have it in a phone you can actually buy
Not to be left out of the plus-based fun its competitor is having, MediaTek has also just revealed its own new Dimensity chip with a similar upgrade scheme. The Dimensity 9000+ is the same chipset we got excited for (but can't actually buy in a smartphone in the US), plus a handful of small performance boosts.
Android 13 will make it easier for more phones and ROMs to support Material You
Google has also dropped its GMS requirements for Material You
Android's Material You dynamic theming system is beautiful, but it hasn't been adopted by many apps yet, particularly when it comes to the bigger names. That might partly be because it's a messy process right now, and Google's app-side libraries for implementing Material You outright impose an allowlist that limits compatibility to certain approved manufacturers. Fortunately, Google tells us that's going to change in Android 13. And, according to a trusted source, Google has also dropped its requirement that smartphone manufacturers implement Material You on Android 12.
Nearby Unlock might let you get into your Android phone with your Wear OS watch
Smart Lock -> Smart Unlock -> Nearby Unlock?
Earlier this year, Google showed off one of the features it planned to bring to Wear OS, allowing you to unlock devices like Chromebooks or your Android phone using just your Wear-powered smartwatch, sort of like Chrome OS's Smart Lock. A later teardown indicated the feature might be called Smart Unlock, but newer information shows Google has switched gears and could call it Nearby Unlock.
Google's next Nest Wifi router might add Wi-Fi 6 and simplify hardware
Routers and satellite points will be the same thing again, and it might even support Wi-fi 6E
We've known that Google was probably working on a Nest Wifi successor since details about it were dug up in in a teardown. But a recent report reveals a little more about the upcoming hardware, including how it might work more like the old Google Wifi than the more recent Nest Wifi, and how it should include Wi-Fi 6 — and maybe even Wi-Fi 6E.
Google faces lawsuit amid video-production unit's ties to obscure religious sect
Former employee claims he was fired for complaining about the sect's influence
According to a recent report by The New York Times, Google's defending itself against another lawsuit. That's hardly unique for the company these days, but this time it's due to the alleged influence of a "religious sect" on a business unit. One Kevin Lloyd, a former video producer for the company, claims he was fired for drawing attention to the religious sect's influence.
How Google's LaMDA AI works, and why it seems so much smarter than it is
A short history of Google's language-processing AI efforts
Fears surrounding the development of Artificial Intelligence are nothing new and have long been the basis of science fiction plots. But recently, a conversation between a researcher and a chatbot at Google has reinvigorated the discussion of what AI is and when and if something can be called “sentient.” That’s not a question I can answer (frankly, I’ve worked with honest-to-god biological human beings in the past that I’d have trouble labeling “sentient”), but I can tell you more about how Google’s LaMDA conversational AI works.
OnePlus 10 Pro gets second Android 13 Beta with bug fixes and a new 'simple mode'
This new release has lots of known issues, so be careful
OnePlus has released the second version of its Android 13 Beta for the OnePlus 10 Pro. The changelog for the new version (alternately called both a developer preview and a beta) includes a handful of fixes and optimizations and has a list of known issues, including UI and auto-brightness wonk, "abnormal response" for screen-off quick gestures, and some minor lag and potential crashes.
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Pixel 6 case meltdown: The bad decisions that doomed Google's design
Explaining how discoloration and deformation happen with the new cases, and how Google could have prevented it
First-party smartphone cases are usually premium products, commanding a higher cost than third-party equivalents. That’s offset by a certain expectation of quality; the company that made the phone can engineer a case that works with it perfectly, potentially offering better experience. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case with Google’s recent Pixel 6 cases, which are suffering issues such as yellowing and deforming more quickly than expected, and we can now tell you precisely why these problems are happening.
Qualcomm's super-expensive Snapdragon Insiders phone isn't getting its expected updates
It's on six-month-old security patches and still running Android 11
Last year, Qualcomm revealed that rather than just selling its Snapdragon chips to all the other companies that make them, it would be selling its own phone under its own brand. The "Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders" was manufactured by ASUS and offered a curious mix of specs, like a Snapdragon 888, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 1080p 144Hz OLED display at an eye-watering $1,500 price. Unfortunately for customers tempted to buy one, it's been stuck on a now-antique January 2022 security patch level since March, and it's still running 2020-era Android 11.
Android silently picks up long-awaited mDNS feature
Making it a little easier to access certain devices on your local network
Some of your smart home or other IoT gadgets can be hard to access if you don't remember their individual local IP, but a protocol called mDNS makes it easier to access them with convenient ".local" names — accessing my network's NAS with rynenas.local, for example, or accessing a local Raspberry Pi through Avahi. It's not something your average person needs to do, but it's a useful tool for managing network devices with human-readable names, rather than remembering what local IP address they were assigned (if one was reserved for them). Thankfully, Android can now resolve these ".local" names, making things a little easier on mobile and resolving a years-long feature gap for power users.
Google releases bug-fixing Android 13 Beta 3.1 update faster than expected
A whole new update just two days later, all for a single fix
Google often releases an X.1 bug-fixing increment to its Android developer preview and beta releases, but we just got a new one much faster than expected. Android 13 Beta 3.1 is now rolling out mere days after Beta 3 landed, with only a single fix included.
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One of my favorite games of all time is coming to Netflix
Cardboard Computer's Kentucky Route Zero is coming to Netflix later this year, plus a bunch of other games
If you haven't had the joy of playing it just yet, a game that's coming to Netflix might be reason enough to keep your subscription a little longer. Later this year, a mobile version of the point-and-click magical realist narrative game Kentucky Route Zero by developer Cardboard Computer is coming to Netflix exclusively, with all five amazing acts available to play right from your smartphone.
Telegram Premium is official: Pay for extra features, bigger files
Info like pricing, availability, and a complete list of benefits for the paid subscription are still unknown
A paid Telegram Premium subscription is now officially coming to the popular cross-platform messaging service. After a little over a month of beta testing, Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov has announced via his own Telegram Channel that the new Telegram Premium paid service will offer advantages like "additional features, speed and resources." That includes things like extra-large stickers and larger documents. Existing Telegram users that don't want any of the changes shouldn't need to worry, as Durov says that "all existing features remain free," with new features still planned for us freeloaders. Pricing and availability for the new subscription are still unknown.