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Samsung's delayed Galaxy Fold and the Galaxy S10 5G were set to be the first phones to ship with UFS 3.0 storage, but OnePlus may end up beating them to the punch — at least, in most markets. CEO Pete Lau tweeted out confirmation earlier today that the company's upcoming 7 series of phones will feature super-fast UFS 3.0 storage.
We're just a few days out from Google's upcoming I/O developer conference, where Google is expected to announce and formally reveal a whole pile of things, from the Pixel 3a to new Android TV hardware. If history is any indicator, the company will also discuss some of its long- and short-term plans for a little operating system called Android — ever heard of it?
Among Android root and ROM enthusiasts, the name John Wu is well known, being attached to the developer responsible for Magisk. Wu's systemless root solution has had a blistering development pace, repeatedly beating Google when it comes to the cat and mouse game imposed by SafetyNet and other system changes. But today the 23-year-old developer has announced a surprising career move: He's going to be an intern at Apple for the next four months.
Google's Pixel series of phones have been Verizon exclusives since they launched all the way back in 2016. For years, customers of other US carriers have had to purchase the phones directly unlocked from Google, and that lack of widespread retail presence has likely had a negative impact. However, today we've spotted indications that Sprint will join T-Mobile in selling Google's Pixels.
For years, OnePlus has refused to IP rate its phones, even as its prices creep up. The company has attributed this to a cost-saving measure, telling us that a real IP rating would add $30 to the cost of each handset, even though they are already ostensibly water resistant. In a preemptive move, the company is letting us know that its next device also won't have an IP rating. Instead, OnePlus made a video spiking a phone into a bucket of water — because, of course, marketing is better than a real IP rating.
There are a lot of things a software platform needs to succeed, and developer interest is one of the most integral pieces of the puzzle. To help Google's plans for Android Automotive — which brings a full Android OS to cars — the company is gearing up to help interested developers get started at this year's I/O conference.
Brandon Lee over at This is Tech Today was able to snag a couple of packaging photos of the long-awaited (and long-leaked) Pixel 3a. Together with some snapshots of the stereotypical white cardboard box, we also get some additional confirmation for a few specs, as well as potential US price points — and they're a whole lot lower than previous estimates based on leaked European pricing.
The worldwide smartphone market hasn't just slowed, it's been in decline for the last year or so. Whatever you attribute that to — rising prices, longer-lasting devices, fewer necessary improvements — many major OEMs including Samsung and Apple have seen sales weaken. In comparison, though, Huawei continues to see explosive growth, especially in China.
Many, including us here at Android Police, have felt that Android TV is languishing as a platform, especially considering some of its best standalone hardware is coming up on four years old — admittedly, it has aged gracefully. According to a recent interview from TechHive, Google's commitment to the platform is only increasing, though, and both big changes and new hardware are planned.
According to a report today by Variety, Google has just made a deal with Major League Baseball to offer 13 games from the 2nd half of the 2019 season on YouTube. The games will even be exclusives to YouTube in the US/Puerto Rico and Canada. Fret not sports fans, they'll be aired for free via the MLB YouTube account, as well as a dedicated channel via YouTube TV.
Some of you may remember as far back as 2016, when a little project called the Superbook hit Kickstarter, aiming to turn our smartphones into laptops for a mere $100. It was a tremendously ambitious dream that didn't really work out in practice, and sadly Sentio, the company behind the Superbook, has recently announced that it ran out of money after shipping only 75% of pre-orders.
Based on a handful of recent reports, Google appears to be testing some Material tweaks to Gboard's settings pane. Changes include new outline-style icons and the usual blinding white background.
While OnePlus fans eagerly await the upcoming announcement for the company's next flagship, early takes continue to trickle out. On the heels of DisplayMate's "A+" grade for the 7 Pro's display, Wired was able to take a look at a pre-production unit's camera performance, revealing a 3x zoom camera. The publication tested the OnePlus 7 Pro's camera at a recent Baku F1 race in Azerbaijan, pulling a handful of (compressed and downscaled) samples. Let's take a look.
Smartphone marketing can be hard, just ask Huawei or OnePlus circa 2014. Today it's Xiaomi that is pushing cringe onto potential customers, tweeting out a video so bad that the company deleted it. Just in case you missed it, here it is:
A new type of potential phishing attack has been discovered by developer James Fisher. Called the "inception bar" by its creator. The attack allows for a site to spoof a URL in the mobile version of Chrome when scrolling, subsequently locking them into a false UI. In fact, the site detailing this newly-discovered flaw makes use of it, appearing to show an HSBC URL.
There are plenty of different reasons why you might use a VPN these days. They can be a boon to security and privacy in an era where it seems we have less and less, protecting you in quite a few important ways. But it's more likely that most of our readers are using them for the more simple purpose of bypassing regional restrictions for streaming content. They're also pretty cheap now, with most working out to less than $5 a month. So, do you use one on your phone?
Most of us have seen the ridiculous, pseudoscientific paranoia being spread about 5G, with charlatans alternately claiming it will cook you from the inside out, that it kills birds, that it's all means to control the weather, or that it's all a part of an elaborate, "deep state" conspiracy for... faster data? Well, it turns out, there may be at least one unanticipated, unintuitive side effect that mmWave 5G can have: it could mess up the accuracy of weather forecasts.
After years of dancing around one another, the monumental legal fight between Apple and Qualcomm final came to a head on Monday as the trial itself began. The culmination of over three years of planning and potentially billions of dollars of damages, this courtroom showdown was set to be the drama of the year, but before it's even really started, it's already over. Apple and Qualcomm have reached a settlement, dropping all ongoing litigation.
Earlier this year, YouTube TV finally hit every US market, making the online TV service much more widely accessible compared to the previous market-by-market rollout. Sadly, a substantial 20% price bump followed this development, and unlike last time, old subscribers won't be grandfathered in. More of our readers than I expected seemed upset at the news, so I'm curious to know if you have decided to unsubscribe.
Batteries, by design, shouldn't be an exciting subject. When we're talking about the brick you connect to a thousand-dollar smartphone which holds tremendous quantities of literally explosive chemical power, "exciting" isn't usually a word you want to hear. So I won't call Zendure's new SuperTank battery exciting, even though it can spit a massive 100W of power over USB Type-C, with almost perfect device compatibility, exceptional performance, and all at a very reasonable price.This is the best battery we've ever reviewed at Android Police — and if I'm being honest, that's a little bit exciting.