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Social networks come and go all the time, but few of them debut with backing from a company as big as Google. Google+ first launched in 2011, with the company seeking to leverage its status as the world's most visited website to position itself as competition to social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Google did everything it could to tie as many of its services as possible to Google+ in a desperate bid to get people to use it, but ultimately, it didn't catch on, and it ended up being discontinued for consumers in 2019. A retooled version of the social network was kept around for business users, now named Google Currents. But even that's going away, too — meaning the last remaining crumbs of Google+ will be officially gone in a matter of months.
Winamp is coming to Android, but it's not what you think
Legendary music player turned niche streaming service
There are few brands in software with as rich of a history as Winamp. The program was first launched all the way back in 1997 with a no-frills, yet highly customizable interface — it was definitely one of the best music players around. It supported a variety of formats and notably offered a vast range of skins, visualizers, and even plug-ins that did as little as adding extra customization or went as far as bringing support for more file formats. Now, the popular music player is making it to Android as a result of a huge revamp, but it's probably not what you were expecting.
Android 13 is now running on over 12% of Android phones
Adoption more than doubled over the last three months
Android fragmentation is a big issue that despite Google's best efforts hasn't been fixed. It has gotten better, but it's far from sorted. Apple frequently flaunts how most of its iPhones are running the latest version of iOS, and Google, understandably tired of being dunked on, just made these market share graphs harder to access. They can still be accessed through Android Studio, but they're quarterly rather than monthly. The latest numbers, though, are showing promising growth for Google's latest OS, Android 13, with numbers doubling over a quarter.
T-Mobile calls on Congress to let it keep building 5G
The FCC can't auction spectrum anymore, and that could be a problem
T-Mobile has spent several years and lots of resources in building out its 5G network, to be used by the best phones around. And for the most part, it has been smooth sailing, at least on the regulatory part. The carrier actively participates in spectrum auctions held by the FCC in order to get the rights to transmit signals over specific bands. The FCC has held over a hundred such auctions since 1994, shaping out the wireless landscape in the US. Recently, though, the FCC's authority to auction these licenses, first granted by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 and extended several times over the course of the past 30 years, expired, and Congress has yet to renew it. Now, T-Mobile is pushing Congress to act.
Magisk 26 is leaving Android Lollipop in the rearview
Yet another reminder that you should stop using this 9-year-old Android version
We get a new Android version every year, but in order for the ecosystem to advance, older versions will, eventually, need to be abandoned by developers. Android 4.x is a relic of the past by this point, with almost all developers dropping support for these ancient versions. The same thing is happening to Android 5.0 and 5.1, better known by their iconic dessert name Lollipop. This Android version had many flaws, but it was a massive step forward in many regards, most notably being the very first release using Google's then-new Material Design user experience. The legendary Magisk modding interface is just the latest to drop Lollipop support.
Qualcomm's next Snapdragon chip has just surfaced, but it's not for your phone
The next big step up in ARM laptops might be close
Qualcomm's smartphone chips are great, but the company is also leading the charge with ARM laptop silicon as well, powering some of the best Chromebooks and laptops. Yet, some of its offerings have been due for an upgrade. The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, one of Qualcomm's higher-end chips for laptops, was released in late 2021. We're due for a successor already — rumors about the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4 have been floating for months. An engineering sample might have just been tested out in the wild, potentially letting us in on some key details about the upcoming chip, as well as on some (maybe) disappointing news.
Motorola ventured into foldable phones for the first time in 2019, with the launch of the Motorola Razr. It was a phone that not only rode on its futuristic screen, but also on nostalgia — it was designed to evoke comparisons to the legendary RAZR flip phone launched in 2004. Down the road, though, Motorola realized nostalgia wasn't enough, with Samsung's clamshell foldables (the Galaxy Z Flip series) being largely considered a superior product. They were among the best Motorola phones, but clearly changes were needed. Motorola shifted its strategy with last year's Razr entry, and now, 2023's new Razr is coming with a lot of changes once again — including a minor branding tweak.
Smartwatches aren't the only kind of wearable device you can get these days. It's still a relatively new concept, but if you're not fond of wrist-based trackers, smart rings can provide you with similar health insights in a subtler footprint. The Oura ring is one of the best in this category, and with its newest update, it's getting even better.
There are very few games that have achieved the level of success Minecraft has. It's one of the best games out there, without a doubt. Minecraft has stayed relevant for two decades now, since the initial release of its full version in 2011, but it was already gaining traction even before that. Currently, you can play Minecraft on many different kinds of devices, including, but not limited to, computers, game consoles, and even your smartphone. However, there's one class of extra-popular laptops that has been excluded until now — Chromebooks. That's changing today, as Microsoft is releasing Minecraft for Chromebooks as a preview version to everyone.
Google is killing a product for good that sparked controversy 10 years ago
Google Glass has only been available for enterprises for years, but now it's really dead
Remember Google Glass? It may be a distant memory by now, but ten years ago, Google put out one of its first large-scale AR experiments. These AR glasses had a big, life-enhancing prospect — a head-mounted device with a head-up display that you could interact with using your voice. After sparking initial interest among tech enthusiasts, the general public was offended by the idea of people walking around with a camera constantly pointed at others, with the term "glassholes" soon coined. Google was forced to abondon its plans, and the product was only left alive for enterprise uses with the Google Glass Enterprise Edition, which saw a revision in 2019 with the Enterprise Edition 2. Now, though, it's dead-dead. Like, dead for good.
T-Mobile operates an MVNO called Metro by T-Mobile that lets you buy prepaid smartphones and plans while giving you access to T-Mobile's network for as low as $25 a month. As of today, though, your choices are expanding. T-Mobile has just unveiled plans to acquire of a duo of MVNOs — Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile — which are now officially joining the magenta family.
Google introduces free, near-instantaneous game translation service for devs
This might be great for developers who can't afford the existing paid translation service Google already offers
The most popular games on the Google Play Store are available in multiple languages. If you really want your game to grow, you can't have dialogs and menu items in just one language. But if you're a small developer, you might not be able to afford translation services, and unless you know multiple languages, your hands are pretty much tied. That's exactly where Google's latest developer tool comes in. Google has announced an addition to the Google Play Console that hooks into Google Translate, helping translate in-app text in your games into more languages, near instantaneously and free.
Google gives its ARCore seal of approval to the Asus Zenfone 9 and 16 more phones
Most of the additions are budget phones
With smartphones being an integral part of our lives now, augmented reality seems like a natural evolution of our interactions with them. The term is often intertwined with virtual reality, but while they can co-exist, they're different things. Most use cases of AR have been silly features like camera filters, but some implementations are more useful, such as Live View on Google Maps. Of course, for you to take advantage of those features, your phone needs to support them. That's why Google is welcoming 17 more devices to the ARCore club, including the latest flagship phones from Asus.
Samsung gave the Moon a beauty filter because that's what users actually want
If your Moon pics are fake, then so is nearly every other picture taken by your phone
The Galaxy S23 Ultra is one of the very best Android phones your money can buy right now. If you have one, the very first thing you probably did with it, right after unboxing and getting set up, was trying out that fancy new 200MP camera. But maybe the phone's coolest trick involves its telephoto camera. The ability of these phones to combine that lens with additional digital zoom to grab some surprisingly decent pictures of the Moon (famously going up to 100X) went viral last year with the arrival of the Galaxy S22 Ultra — and Samsung's latest phone is just as capable of this. However, a minor scandal has broken out around claims that these Moon shots are artificially enhanced with an excessive dose of AI. If you ask me, though, this whole thing is being blown way out of proportion. In fact, it's not a bad thing at all.
Google stops accepting new Pixel Superfans in the UK shortly after launch
All four UK countries could briefly join the club
There's a lot to love about Pixel phones. Maybe it's the software, or the cameras, or the unique design and feel, but there's something about the Pixels that just draws people in. Google might not sell as many phones as Samsung or Apple, but they're among the best smartphones your money can buy, and they attract a very loyal kind of user. Because of that, Google made the Pixel Superfans program — a club that the most loyal Pixelheads can join to get swag as well as invitations to events and meet-ups, and referral codes to earn them an extra buck or two. The caveat is that the program was only available in the US for the longest time. That changed on the weekend, as the Pixel Superfans program silently extended to the UK — only for Google to close it down again.
The Google Pixel Watch is actually selling pretty well
Its faults don't seem to be dealbreakers after all
Throughout its history with hardware, Google launched smartphones, laptops, and smart home products, but for the longest time, it didn't offer a smartwatch. That changed with the Pixel Watch last year. Aside from a bunch of first-timer mistakes, it was a solid product and one of the best smartwatches your money can buy, and a decent reflection of Google's vision of Wear OS. Despite its reviews criticizing things like poor battery life and a high price tag, it seems to be selling pretty well — contributing enough sales to keep Google in the second spot in wearable sales globally.
Data thieves expose millions of AT&T customers' names and phone numbers
The telco says attackers targeted a third-party vendor
Data breaches and hacks seem to be a normal part of our online lives by this point. If it's tied to a server storing the personal info of millions of users, malicious actors can (and will) get past its defenses and harvest all that data. We've seen news about these breaches against carriers, social networks, and everything in between. And while the fallout is rarely that bad, there's always some cleaning up to do on our part. Now, we're hearing about a new data breach that is affecting millions of wireless subscribers.
Google could've beaten Bing AI to the punch, for better or worse
Let's just say things didn't work out
Generative AI tech like ChatGPT and Bing AI is all the rage these days, but before they blew up, corporations poured years of reseach and development into making them happen. Google got into the trend with its own LaMDA-powered Bard AI as a continuation of its many years of work in the field. But it looks like Google has been toying with the idea of conversational AIs for a long time now — more specifically, since 2020, way before people were familiar with ChatGPT.
Dashlane is the latest password manager to dash toward a password-less future
Passkeys are the future and we need to embrace it
Read update
Let's talk about passwords. I hate them, you hate them, everyone hates them. They can be annoying to type, especially if it's a super-secure one, and while the best password managers make that a little more bearable, it can still be a pain, especially if it's one you can't just manage away. And frankly, they're not even that secure on their own. Unless you have two-factor authentication on, whoever gets access to your password can get into your stuff — and with security breaches being common these days, a malicious actor getting a hold on your password isn't completely unheard of. Passkeys are one alternative that are set to bring simplicity and security in a better package. Password managers left and right have adopted them. Now, Dashlane is the latest password manager to join into the fun.
The Galaxy S23's best gaming feature has arrived on older Samsung phones
You can optionally bypass battery charging during your tethered gaming sessions
Samsung's Galaxy S23 lineup is out, lead by the excellent but familiar Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. The new phones don't only come with the latest and greatest hardware, but also with several new software capabilities. Among them is a feature straight from gaming phones that allows you to plug in your phone and have the charger power its processor directly without charging the battery. This improves gaming performance and your battery's lifespan. Now, this feature is making it to even more Samsung devices.