Latest Articles
According to a report published yesterday by Bloomberg, Samsung's redesign of the Galaxy Fold has been completed. This follows a recent interview with Samsung CEO DJ Koh, in which he asked for "a bit more time." No release date is set, but according to Bloomberg, it may arrive by the upcoming holiday season.
Microsoft's been toying with the idea of mirroring your phone's notifications (and more) to Windows 10 for quite a while. The feature was previously present for beta-testing folks running the so-called "insider" builds, and yesterday the company formally announced that notification mirroring has arrived for the rest of us — though reports indicate that the rollout is happening gradually.
Google's Pixels don't precisely come with "stock" software, the company bundles in some Pixel-specific tweaks. Among those additions are the Pixel Launcher, which is most recognizable these days by its iconic "At a Glance" widget up at the top. Many third-party home screen replacements aim to mimic the clean design of the Pixel Launcher with their own version of that widget, and Lawnchair launcher just expanded the widget's functionality to work with a whole pile of new providers, with more on the way.
Read update
- Additional details which Xiaomi didn't include about the smaller Mi CC9e, like panel resolution and type, were revealed in later product listings. Our coverage has been updated with that information.
A couple weeks back, Xiaomi revealed it had yet another sub-brand up its sleeves to supplement last year's Pocophone. The new CC division's image was meant to evoke "a trendy mobile phone for global young people," by focusing on things like selfies (probably the only thing we millennials love more than avocado toast). The Mi CC9 and smaller Mi CC9e are now official as of today, sporting slightly ridiculous 32MP selfie cams those 'yutes are sure to love.
Google's Pixel C, the last first-party Android tablet released all the way back in December of 2015, may have just stopped getting monthly security patches. There has been no official announcement, and device-specific delays have happened before, but the Pixel C wasn't among those that received today's July set of updates, and the precise timing is awfully suspicious.
When the big Nest rebranding hit Google, products like the Home Hub saw their names changed to the Google Nest Hub, confusingly differentiating them as separate from the "Home" series smart speakers that they have more in common with than any "Nest" branded hardware. Initially, it seemed like all of Google's "Home" branded stuff would be changed to "Google Nest," but Google later confirmed to us that its speakers would not follow this change. Apparently, no one told the @madebygoogle Twitter account that.
It's the first Monday of the month, and that means the latest Pixel security patches are here. In addition to the general security fixes we usually anticipate — and which make Pixel ownership so great for the security-conscious — this month comes with a small pile of Pixel-specific functional patches, too, including further improvements to "OK Google" hotword detection (following last month's), fixes for issues ranging from "stuck" boot to black screens, and other tweaks.
ActionDash, the app from Chris Lacy (developer of Action Launcher), has recently reached v3.0, delivering even more Digital Wellbeing-like features to older or unsupported phones. A handful of big new features come with this major version update: Focus mode, app usage limits, and a persistent notification called Usage Assistant that provides ongoing stats. ActionDash 3.0 also brings a fully black dark theme, support for Android Q's dark theme system toggle, and non-premium users can now enjoy the dark gray theme.
Read update
Google's move from Play Music to YouTube Music is still unresolved — especially since the final transition of libraries and uploaded content between the two still hasn't happened — but the latter is picking up a new feature to help with offline playback. "Smart Downloads," as it's called, will pull down up to 500 songs that you've "liked" via that button, intelligently selecting and downloading them over Wi-Fi for later enjoyment.
A report published earlier today by Independent detailing a recent meeting with Samsung in South Korea reveals the company's self-awareness when it comes to the Galaxy Fold's rocky start. Samsung CEO DJ Koh was quoted as saying "It was embarrassing. I pushed it through before it was ready."
Today, Samsung has revealed its new Bixby Marketplace, which aims to provide "Capsules," akin to Alexa Skills, that better expand the functionality of the company's frequently lambasted voice assistant. Unfortunately for Samsung, this brave new marketplace is launching in a nearly empty state, with only a few new installable third-party Capsules at the time of writing. Most of the Capsules in the market from big names are actually old, and appear to be a repackaging of previous Bixby integrations.
Earlier this week it the FCC agreed to allow Verizon to start locking the phones it sells for 60 days following activation. As you should expect, this will only affect phones purchased from the carrier, those that bring their own phones won't be affected, and that got us to thinking: Where do our readers get their phones? In North America, carrier subsidized phones are still very much a thing, though some other markets we know of prefer outright/unlocked purchases. So how did you get your current phone?
Google has been silently working on a new operating system called "Fuchsia" for years, with details, rumors, and wild speculation swirling through the blogosphere every time some new tidbit trickles out. Yesterday Google pushed up an official documentation site at fuchsia.dev, with instructions and details that can help developers play with the early operating system and its software. It appears to be the same info that was previously available at the Fuchsia Git, but with better formatting, and at a verifiably Google-owned domain (according to ICANN's WHOIS).
All the way back on June 29th, 2009, a little company named Samsung released a phone just called Galaxy (with no "S") running Google's brand new Android operating system. The modern eye may scoff at both its dated specs and design, but the phone established a lineage second only in consumer recognition to the iPhone, kicking off ten years of Galaxy-series phones, and today is the anniversary.
The OnePlus 7 series is off to a great start when it comes to updates. The 7 Pro has seen quite a few land back to back to back, but the non-Pro OnePlus 7 isn't left out in the cold. A new update to OxygenOS 9.5.6 is now rolling out to the OnePlus , delivering owners the June 2019 security patch, automatic brightness improvements, further camera tweaks, and other fixes and optimizations.
Plenty of details about Samsung's upcoming Note10 have already leaked, but some of the particulars have changed over time, and another tweak has just been spotted. In what looks like the first set of real-life photos for the upcoming device, it seems that Galaxy Note "Pro" name may not pan out. The presumably bigger phone in the upcoming pair will go by the name "Note10+," and you can get a glimpse of the hardware that goes with it just below.
Over the last year, Google has been instituting sweeping changes when it comes to app permissions to help protect user privacy. It imposed new restrictions when it came to SMS and phone permissions, and plenty of app makers found themselves caught in the Google support machine. Now developers found in violation of recent Gmail API changes are left out in the lurch, and the list of affected apps includes SMS Backup+, Nine, and even SwiftKey.
You may remember when last year's Prime Day sale suffered a bit of a stutter to start, as the website crashed in the first few hours. In anticipation of Prime Day 2019, eBay has decided to run its own competing and overlapping sale, and it's calling out Amazon directly by titling the upcoming event a "Crash Sale."Dates for the two events precisely overlap, with Amazon's Prime Day lasting longer than its name might imply from July 15th to 16th, and eBay's Crash Day coinciding on the 15th. In addition to the overlapping main event — which eBay says will include "doorbuster" sales of up to 50% off on brands including LG, Apple, Samsung, KitchenAid, and Garmin — a further seven days of "July 4th Savings" from July 1st through 7th will provide discounts of up to 85% off some products. Following that, two weeks of "Hot Deals for Hot Days" last from the 8th through 22nd, with new deals launching every day at up to 80% off.It isn't clear how many independent sellers on eBay will be participating with these planned sales. Previous eBay promotions including its once-frequent coupons did sometimes apply to third-party seller products, though the upcoming sales may be more limited to specific sellers on the platform. Either way, come July 15th, you'll have more choice when it comes to deals.Source: eBay
Anker's recent PowerPort Atom PD 1 set a new standard when it came to wall chargers here at Android Police, so we were excited to take a look at the more powerful PowerPort Atom PD 2. Like its smaller sibling, this bigger version harnesses the magic of gallium nitride to pack more power into a smaller footprint, while also doubling both the number of Type-C outputs (2) and the maximum wattage (60W). Unfortunately, it doesn't quite live up to the smaller model's performance.
Read update
- Verizon later issued a statement thanking the FCC for the decision, praising it as a "win for consumers," as the company fights phone fraud. Further, the company states that:
Earlier this year, Verizon announced that it was going to ask the FCC for an exemption regarding the restriction placed on its purchase of the 700MHz block back in 2008, preventing it from SIM-locking phones it sold. Verizon wanted to impose a new 60-day carrier lock on its devices, claiming that it would help the carrier fight fraud. Whether you believe that argument or not doesn't matter now, as the FCC has granted Verizon its blessing.