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Whether you're preparing for a trip across the world or just getting together a few essentials for a hike, it can be difficult to find space for everything that will come with you. If something is too big, it's staying at home. That's where most smartphone gimbals tend to fail the test: long handles and awkward shapes make them terrible to pack and annoying to carry. Zhiyun, a company highly regarded for its DSLR and smartphone gimbals, is preparing to release a new model called the Smooth-Q2 that's more compact than any smartphone gimbal on the market. Aside from a few basic sacrifices, it's a great little tool to really improve the quality of your videos.
Back in the not-quite-dark-ages of Android, new services and APIs were launching seemingly every other week as Google and Apple engaged in an aggressive land grab to acquire users and tempt developers. Gaming became a popular battleground, and Google was investing in new features for Play Games like an API that gave developers the infrastructure to run real-time and turn-based multiplayer games for free. However, like many other older Play Games APIs, Google will be shutting this one down in about six months and it may render some older games unplayable.
Every week, I examine somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred app updates while looking for changes. The most interesting things turn into APK Teardowns or Download posts. Many of the remaining updates are unremarkable, amounting to a few bug fixes, routine updates to libraries, or even just pixel-level adjustments to layouts and images. However, there are usually a few updates that land somewhere in between. I don't want to spam readers with dozens of short posts, but I hate to ignore things that people might want to know about, so I'm going to wrap up the leftovers for a little weekend reading and call it Update Notes.
While many people are enjoying — or lamenting — the upgrade to Android 10, there are some out there that are just as interested in the final source code. With each major release of Android, a huge code drop is made to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) with everything a developer needs to build the latest version of the OS. As of this morning, the code is now fully available and ready for consumption.
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The Play Store has often been compared to the wild west; which may be good or bad, depending on your perspective. Unlike Apple's App Store and the Amazon AppStore, developers have long been free to publish their apps without going through a lengthy curation stage, and only those that contained malware or used restricted APIs were blocked. However, it appears Google may have quietly instigated a more involved review process that impacts every app and update.
Video players might be a dime a dozen on Android, but MX Player stood as one of the best in the early days, and it remains one of the most popular today. Even after Times Internet, a major Indian media company, acquired MX Player to give its own streaming services more visibility, it didn't prevent new features from being developed for local media. To that end, it's notable that you can now cast locally stored videos to Chromecast devices.
Moment continues to build out the selection of accessories designed for smartphone photographers and videographers. Last year brought the launch of a special filter mount designed to adapt 62mm filters, but it only fit on top of Moment's lenses. But for those times when you want the original perspective provided by your smartphone camera, or maybe you don't want to travel with a huge filter on the front of your phone, Moment is now launching a new mount and a line of smaller 37mm filters that attach directly to their Photo Cases.
Smartphone cameras have come a long way in the last decade, and for many people, they've completely replaced dedicated cameras. They're smaller and lighter, easier to travel with, and you don't have to offload the photos before doing something with them. But that doesn't mean we don't miss a few things from DSLRs or point and shoots, like a comfortable hand grip or a physical shutter button. Plenty of companies have released smartphone camera grips, but Adonit has updated its original version with a new design and packed in wireless charging so you can get more pictures without worrying about your phone dying mid-trip.
Gboard's latest update is out, but the changes are pretty sparse. Outside of a few wording changes and surely some bug fixes, there's not much for users to see. In fact, most of these updates include a plethora of new languages, keyboards for specific geographic regions, or other similar customizations, but even those aren't to be found in this update. However, a teardown does turn up one upcoming addition in the form of a new keyboard dedicated to useful symbols.
The Google Home got an update today with no immediately discernible changes to the UI. But as usual, there are some other interesting changes that speak to what we'll see happening in the future. Google is preparing the interface for users to migrate their Nest accounts to Google for improved security, there will be support for Internet radio, and it looks like a lightweight bottom navigation bar is in development.
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For travelers that loved the Google Trips app for its travel planning and helpful discovery features, it's probably going to come as disappointing news that the search giant is making preparations to discontinue the app. The latest version update to Trips includes messaging that will inform users that the app is scheduled to be shut down and encourages users to seek out the features in other Google products.
Adobe Premiere Rush for Android was launched just two months ago, giving people an instantly popular option for editing video without lugging along a laptop. However, as you would expect from most apps when they first launch, Rush lacked some of the desirable features found in some mobile editors and most desktop editors. Today's update will fill in one of the most requested features: Speed adjustments.
The YouTube Gaming app was officially shuttered at the end of May, and with it... well, not too much was lost. The app itself was basically a heavily skinned alternative to the regular YouTube app, but with a strict focus that limited video suggestions to game-oriented content. While most things were moved to the main YouTube app a while ago, one core feature didn't make it over before YouTube pulled the plug: Screencasting. That oversight has been corrected in the latest update to the YouTube app, so you can livestream your gaming sessions (or whatever else) like before.
A new version of Google Pay is rolling out, but outside of minor tweaks here and there, you're probably not going to spot any big changes. The big news this time is that we're probably going to see an Incognito mode added to Pay in the future, making it a bit easier to make purchases in private without tipping off anybody with your transaction history.
Google's efforts to bring RCS to the world haven't been as inspiring as many of us had hoped, largely due to slow adoption by carriers and some self-serving behavior on the part of certain OEMs (cough). However, some of this can also be attributed to limits in Android itself. To use RCS today, you have no choice in app selection — you're stuck using apps provided by your phone's OEM, be it Google, Samsung, LG, or another partner. Earlier this year, it looked like Google had added code to Android Q that would enable third party apps to support RCS, but that was disputed shortly after. While we won't see apps rolling out for Android's next major release, a new code drop to AOSP appears to put an official API in place.
Google never stops tweaking the user experience throughout Android. One of the goals that has cropped up over time has been making certain interactions between apps and the OS feel seamless, usually by eliminating context switches between apps. One area where that many people recognize as a huge improvement was a new flow for in-app purchases that put the interface directly into the app where the purchase was made. Now it looks like the Google Play Store might be extending similar treatment to the ratings and reviews interface.
Powerful. Ambitious. Extravagant. These were some of the words RED would have wanted people to think of when describing the Hydrogen One. Instead, most people were left calling the phone and its launch schedule overpriced, underwhelming, and tumultuous. Our review was certainly less than favorable. In a new post by the founder, Jim Jannard, most of the shortcomings of the Hydrogen One can be attributed to problems with their ODM (original design manufacturer). However, they have a new ODM and work has begun on the Hydrogen Two, along with the long-awaited 8K add-on camera module.
The latest release of the Gboard app doesn't seem to be reshaping much of the landscape for many users, that is unless they were serious fans of the GIF Camera, but it does bring hints about some potentially significant additions in the future. A teardown brings hints that Google Assistant will be able to offer up even more value in messaging apps soon, plus there's a reason to suspect you'll begin getting auto-complete suggestions from other apps installed on your phone.
The latest version of Google Voice is available and it's bringing both cosmetic changes and making preparations for new features. For those that use Voice with multiple accounts, the account switcher has been repositioned to a more convenient location. A teardown also shows upcoming support for vCard attachments and Android's Car Mode, which will make it easier for users to make calls with Google Voice while driving.
Google's history with social networking has been tumultuous, to say the least. The most successful attempt has been Google+, which gave competitors Facebook and Twitter reason to be concerned, but ultimately went into disrepair and finally shut down back in April. Few will remember another long lost attempt that went by the name Schemer, a hyperlocal social network designed to help people discover and plan things to do in their area. Things also went poorly for Schemer and it was retired after just 2 years. Now it looks like Google's experimental Area 120 group is taking a run at resurrecting this style of app with a new service called Shoelace.