About Manuel Vonau
Manuel Vonau is Android Police's Google Editor, with expertise in Android, Chrome, and other Google products — the very core of Android Police’s content. He has been covering tech news and reviewing devices since joining Android Police as a news writer in 2019. He lives in Berlin, Germany.
Manuel studied Media and Culture studies in Düsseldorf, finishing his university career with a master's thesis titled "The Aesthetics of Tech YouTube Channels: Production of Proximity and Authenticity." His background gives him a unique perspective on the ever-evolving world of technology and its implications on society. He isn't shy to dig into technical backgrounds and the nitty-gritty developer details, either.
Manuel's first steps into the Android world were plagued by issues. After his HTC One S refused to connect to mobile internet despite three warranty repairs, he quickly switched to a Nexus 4, which he considers his true first Android phone. Since then, he has mostly been faithful to the Google phone lineup, though these days, he is also carrying an iPhone in addition to his Pixel phone. This helps him gain perspective on the mobile industry at large and gives him multiple points of reference in his coverage.
Outside of work, Manuel enjoys a good film or TV show, loves to travel, and you will find him roaming one of Berlin's many museums, cafés, cinemas, and restaurants occasionally.
Latest Articles
Spotify and Google team up to supercharge the Android 13 media player
You wiill soon be able to use Spotify Connect right from your notifications
Las Vegas’s CES 2023 is in full swing, and Google is ready to join the party. In addition to the much delayed Android Auto redesign, the company teamed up with Spotify to make it much easier to move between your audio devices when you listen to music. Spotify Connect will be integrated right in the Android 13 media player.
Android 14 may finally fix your phone's awful share menu
Google might make the share menu updateable through Play Services
As mature as Android has become, there is one thing Google still hasn’t managed to nail 100%: The system share sheet. While its basic functionality is good enough for seamlessly transferring content or files from one app to another, its intelligent features and its rigid structure make for an unintuitive experience all too often. Google has long been working on improving the share sheet, but since it can only be updated with a new Android version, progress is rather slow. It looks like the company is considering unbundling the share menu from system updates, with Android 14 the earliest candidate for such a change.
Google Play app changelogs have disappeared without a trace on the web
It’s either a mistake or a move to get rid of changelogs altogether
App updates have become boring. In the past, new releases would almost always bring new features to your favorite Android phone, but these days, they mostly offer bug fixes and changes in the background only. Bigger features are instead released in server-side rollouts and as part of a/b tests. A lot of people still appreciate knowing what an app update brings, if developers care to fill in helpful details. Those days might be counted, as Google was spotted removing changelogs from the Play Store on the web altogether.
Google's Matter Early Access Program yields results with Govee's newest light strip
Google and Govee team up to show off the Light Strip M1 at CES 2023
Matter will likely be the topic for smart homes in 2023, and CES is already preparing us for a flood of new and excellent smart home devices with support for the interoperability standard. Govee is ready to jump on the bandwagon, and the company has teamed up with Google to announce and showcase the LED Light Strip M1, its first Matter-enabled lighting product created as part of Google’s Matter Early Access Program.
This wireless 55-inch TV is basically a giant phone that runs on batteries for up to a month
It's a neat concept, but the company behind it needs to deliver
We’re taking all those great smartphones for granted these days, but if you think about it, they’re incredibly powerful computers condensed into a small pocketable form factor that can last up to two days or so on a single charge. The same is true for laptops and tablets, which are also as powerful as desktop computers of old, but portable. 2022 newcomer company Displace wants to bring this paradigm to TVs and has introduced a 55-inch wireless TV at CES 2023 with proprietary batteries that can last up to a month on a single charge.
This fully cuffless blood pressure monitor connects to your Android phone
The monitor looks a lot like a classic SpO2 meter for your finger
You may not have heard of Valencell before, but it’s the company behind many health sensors in all kinds of Android smartwatches and fitness trackers, helping you measure your heart rate and more while working out. During CES 2023, the company decided to leap out of the business-to-business market and introduce a product for consumers with its own branding. The company revealed a new health device that can connect to your phone and measure your blood pressure on your fingertip, all without requiring a bulky and uncomfortable cuff.
Android wants to support a promising open-source CPU architecture
Breaking up with Qualcomm and Intel?
Mobile phones, including the best Android phones out there, are almost all running on Arm chip architecture—even Apple’s custom silicon is based on Arm reference designs. However, Arm has proven to be a less reliable partner in recent years, with its owner Softbank seriously considering selling it. Google is apparently seeing these risks as dire enough to invest into supporting a completely different chip technology, namely the open-source RISC-V architecture.
SwitchBot’s new Hub 2 brings more than just Matter to its Bluetooth devices
The SwitchBot Hub 2 doubles as a temperature and humidity sensor
SwitchBot started out with a simple premise. Instead of creating devices with smarts built-in and thus competing with all the greatest smart home products out there, the company focused on making appliances and buttons that already exist in your house smart, with its button-pressing robot lending the company its name. SwitchBot has since expanded into other categories and offers a whole ecosystem. During CES 2023, the company announced the new SwitchBot Hub 2, which adds another dimension to its products: Matter support.
Google is rolling out the January security patch to supported Pixel phones
Getting back on track after the holidays
Read update
Google may not have published its security patch at its usual date — the first Monday of the month — due to that day being New Year’s Day observed, but the company is right back on track just a short time after. As such, the company has released the January 2023 security patch, which is starting to roll out to the latest Pixel phones as we speak, including the Google Pixel 7 Pro and its smaller sibling.
Google Home speakers were vulnerable to eavesdropping hackers
A security researcher disclosed the issue to Google, and it's now fixed
No matter which great smart speaker you pick for your home, the premise is always the same: You need to trust the company behind it with your voice recordings and other peripheral sounds of your home. But whenever computers are involved, vulnerabilities exist and can be exploited. This is the case for Google Home smart speakers, too. A researcher spotted a way to eavesdrop on Google smart speakers in proximity.
Here's what Google killed in 2022
No, Stadia is not on this list—it dies in January 2023
Google is infamous for killing beloved projects. It has Google Reader to thank for this reputation, which was many people’s preferred RSS feed reader all these years ago until the company killed it out of nowhere. Google went on with discontinuing other beloved projects, like its innovative Gmail client Inbox or its social network Google Plus, which garnered a small but loyal following over the years. In 2022, the company kept at it, killing a bunch of famous and a few not so well-known services, just like last year.
Report suggests Google looked into buying a CPU startup now owned by Qualcomm
Google could have strengthened its Tensor chips
Google recently switched to making its own in-house Tensor chips for the phone lineup, starting with the Google Pixel 6 and continuing the trend with the Google Pixel 7. In contrast to Apple’s much more customized silicon, Google’s chips rely on more standard components, and are composed of Arm blueprints and Exynos modems. While the company makes some impressive strides in the TPU department, it looks like it also wanted to buy in some more specialized CPU knowledge—but failed.
Heads up: Your LastPass vault is not safe anymore
Passwords in it are still encrypted, but access could be brute-forced
Password managers are something like the holy grail for hackers. Once they gain access to a service like that, they get a free pass to their target’s full online life. This nightmare scenario was confirmed to have occurred at LastPass, with hackers having obtained encrypted copies of password vaults following an attack in August. Only users’ master passwords remain as the last line of defense.
Choosing your preferred password manager and using it to create and store your login credentials is the most important step you can take to secure your online life. Still, passwords can leak, and credential phishing is a big problem. That's why you should rely on a second factor other than your password to authenticate yourself. That's where two-factor authentication (2FA) comes in.
The Google Pixel 6a is our top budget phone of 2022 - here's why
Google knows how to strike the right balance
The Google Pixel 6a is officially our top budget phone of 2022. It’s the third iteration of Google’s budget series, with the first one being the Google Pixel 3a. The company has once again struck the right balance between features, price, and hardware design. At its starting price of $450, it may be one of the more expensive budget phones, but when you pick it, you’re sure to be good for up to five years without needing an upgrade.
Android 14 could prevent your phone from losing internet access as it ages
Root certificates might become a mainline module, updateable without system updates
Picture this: You unlock your (admittedly very old) phone one fine day to look something up on the internet, but you realize that most, if not all, websites just refuse to connect, throwing up security warnings instead. This very situation almost arose for phones running Android 7 or older in 2021, when a so-called root certificate expired. The problem could be averted thanks to a quirky way that Android handles such expired certificates, but Google is looking for a more permanent solution. It could be introduced in Android 14.
Advanced AI chatbot ChatGPT has Google worried about its search engine's future
Google’s search-based ad business could come tumbling down
Google is the place to go when you have questions about anything. The process is a little involved, but after digging through a few search results and using a search operator or two, you will usually find what you need. A new AI chatbot, ChatGPT, is upending this proposition, though. Instead of having to dig through results yourself, this new technology gives you natural-sounding, easy-to-understand answers in a chat interface. ChatGPT still has a lot of issues and isn’t always correct, but its potential has Google scared. According to a New York Times report, ChatGPT has caused Google to declare a “code red” internally, with fears that this technology could upend its search business.
Google won an antitrust investigation in the EU for once
The German Cartel Office has determined that News Showcases don't stifle competition
Google is one of the big tech companies that’s synonymous with the internet for many people, and as such, regulators around the world are watching it carefully, making sure it’s not abusing its position of power. The European Union is particularly strict, and for good reason—regulators in the region have often found the company using its position to harm competitors. That doesn't always seem to be the case, though. When German regulators took a closer look at a recent Google News feature, they determined that it didn’t come with any antitrust issues.
Google’s mobile weather forecast just got its first redesign in 7 years
More details in a more modern look
Google offers a prominent way to check the weather on its Pixel phones like the Google Pixel 7 Pro. A small widget shows the current weather on the home screen and lock screen, and when you tap it, you get a detailed forecast complete with a cute weather frog mascot.
Amazon Alexa gets Matter support, joining Google Home and Android
Great if you already have Matter-enabled smart home devices, that is
A week after Google announced that it finished the Matter rollout to Android and Google Home, Amazon is following suite. If you're not familiar, Matter is a new interconnectivity standard that promises to make smart homes less complicated. Rather than having to check if devices you buy are compatible with your smart home ecosystem of choice, you only have to make sure that your smart speaker or phone supports Matter. And now, both Google and Amazon offer initial support for these devices.