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How to get rid of spam notifications and rogue ads on your Android phone or tablet
We show you how to figure out the source of nefarious ads and stop them coming back
Advertisements are an unavoidable facet of modern life, but thankfully, most of the ones we're subjected to on a daily basis are subject to certain rules. Unfortunately, anyone with a mobile phone knows that some rogue ads still find a way to bend those rules, but there are ways to mitigate against the threat of malicious apps and websites serving us content they're not supposed to.
Bixby's big new update might actually make it nicer to use
No killer new features, but some welcome quality of life changes
Samsung's much-mocked personal assistant Bixby keeps on trucking no matter what people think about it. The last meaningful update introduced some Google Assistant-inspired design changes, one of which meant it wouldn't open in full-screen whenever launched. With this latest update, some results will also be confined to the lower portion of the screen for a much less obtrusive look.
The OnePlus Nord 2 will be introduced on July 22, but not for the US
Pete Lau confirms the phone is coming to Europe and India
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Until now, the OnePlus Nord 2 has only been the subjection of leaks and speculation, unless you count this accidental mention on the company's website. We had heard that it might be the first OnePlus phone to feature a MediaTek processor, and it turns out that's spot on. Today, OnePlus officially acknowledged the existence of the upcoming Nord successor and confirmed that it'll use an exclusive version of the Dimensity 1200 chipset.
The Google TV recommendations bug has been squashed so we can all sleep easy now
It was fixed in record time, too
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Great excitement accompanied the launch of Chromecast with Google TV, much of it around the new interface and what looked to be a much more robust recommendations system. The watchlist syncs with your Google account and, in theory, the For you screen should show you closely-matched content based on your search history, likes, and past viewing. There's even a screen where you can train it to know your taste better, but it's completely borked right now.
YouTube for Android is getting better link sharing
Link to specific points in a video, so long as it has timestamped chapters
It hasn't been possible to easily share timestamped video links from the YouTube Android app, which is a bit of a pain if you're used to doing so from the desktop site. This is now something you can do, although there are some significant caveats — the video must include chapters, and you can only share timestamps corresponding to the start of each chapter, for now.
You should unplug your WD My Book Live immediately if you don't want to lose all your data
Malicious actors are causing factory resets with complete data wipes
A nightmare scenario for personal cloud storage users is playing out right now thanks to malicious actors attacking certain Western Digital connected hard drives. The situation is so desperate that WD support is telling customers to unplug their My Book Live hardware from the internet as soon as possible in order to avert disaster.
I should clarify right from the off: the OnePlus Nord CE is not a bad phone. Far from it, in fact — it’s the best Nord phone since the original, especially after the other budget offerings came with too many compromises to be worth recommending in the face of stiff competition. The Nord CE is a solid performer in most areas.
26 of the best Prime Day Deals on Amazon UK
We're into the final stretch now, so get in on these discounts before they're gone
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You know the drill — it's Amazon Prime Day, and that means two days of deals on many popular products. We're into the second day now so there's not long left to snap up a good bargain (or several).
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The launch of the original Nord brought back some of the same excitement that accompanied early OnePlus phones. Gone are the days when you could get practically top-of-the-line specs for next to nothing, but Nord wasn't too far off from the flagship killers of old. Since then, we've seen a few more budget phones under the same sub-brand, but now OnePlus is back with the closet thing yet to a proper successor in the form of the Nord CE 5G. Starting today, you can purchase it on the OnePlus site and at other resellers.
The TicWatch E3 could be the Wear 4100 smartwatch you've been waiting for
All the essentials from the TicWatch Pro 3 for less moolah
Mobvoi has been in many ways responsible for keeping the Wear OS platform even vaguely relevant in recent years. Its TicWatches continue to represent the best of a bad bunch in terms of Google-powered smartwatches. The TicWatch Pro 3 was the first to launch with Qualcomm's improved Wear 4100 chipset, but now that's being followed up by a sleek new model, the TicWatch E3.
Google backtracks on Android 12's new ripple effect after users confuse it for a bug
It's intended behavior, but not everyone is happy about it
Wide-ranging visual changes are arriving with Android 12, all part of Google's brand-new Material You design system. Reactions to this have, on the whole, been pretty positive, but there are some aspects of it that aren't quite so popular. Animations are getting a lot of attention, since they've remained unchanged for so long, and the new ripple effect, in particular, isn't going down so well.
Android 12 will spell the end of third-party share sheet replacements
Google's latest attempt to hinder the sharing experience on Android
It's no secret that Google has struggled to implement a satisfactory share sheet in Android — you could say it's been one of the platform's weakest features. Even now, when I attempt to share something with a friend, I'm greeted by direct share targets of no use whatsoever. Either that or you get an app's custom sharing menu instead, with varying degrees of usefulness. Because of this inconsistent experience, many users like to replace the default share sheet using a third-party app like Sharedr. Unfortunately, as of Android 12, that's no longer going to be possible.
Gboard's rounded Material You redesign is starting to roll out more widely
You probably need to be on the beta to see it
Google has been testing different Gboard redesigns for quite some time, but it seems some of these changes are now coming to more people. No sign yet of the updated typeface — Google Sans Text looks like it will be replacing Roboto eventually — but rounded buttons are being spotted that align with the big Material You update coming with Android 12.
Honor phones are getting the apps they need to matter in 2021
Good news for competition in the mid-range market
Huawei's unfortunate US sanctions cut the company down in its prime, and we missed out on some of the best Android camera phones ever made because of it. Its sub-brand Honor was putting out products almost as good for a fraction of the price, too. Thankfully, it looks like Honor's next flagship smartphone is going to mark the return of Google apps and services.
Your chance to apply for Twitter verification is finally arriving
The answer's 'no,' obviously, but at least let yourself pretend you've got a chance
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After announcing an overhaul of the verification process late last year, Twitter is nearly ready to start accepting submissions. The company's spent the past few months gathering feedback from the public to make sure its new approach doesn't present any glaring issues, and this week announced that the option to apply for verification is finally starting to appear.
Apple forced Google to re-think widgets for Android 12
A revamped Widgets API will hopefully encourage developers to up their game
When Apple announced that it was bringing widgets to iOS, it was hard not to be a little bit jealous as an Android user. Yes, we've had widgets since the beginning, but they've been so badly neglected for so long that most of them look awful — even Google's own — and there's no consistency in the way work. iPhone widgets are much more rigid and they look a lot better for it. Thankfully, Google is finally giving widgets the attention they've long needed.
If you were hoping for a small Pixel flagship, we've got some bad news for you
The Pixel 6 won't be as big as the 6 Pro, but it's still pretty massive
We got our best look yet at the upcoming Pixel 6 Pro yesterday — gone is the XL suffix, apparently — and now it's time to get a feel for the regular Pixel 6. Predictably, it's a smaller version (although not by much) of the Pro model with the same centered punch-hole selfie cam and the same intriguing horizontal rear camera module. Unfortunately, there's one less lens compared to the bigger phone.
Everything you need to know about Android 12's big Material You redesign
The biggest shakeup to Google's design language in years
Google unveiled Material Design at I/O back in 2014. An overarching design system was much-needed — it brought consistency to Google's digital products and allowed developers to easily build apps that looked at home on Android and the web. It has evolved a great deal over the years, but the next major iteration is upon us and it's going to be the biggest overhaul since it launched. Material You, as the name suggests, is all about personalization, and it's coming first to Google Pixels with Android 12 later this year.
Google's AR objects in search results have been hugely popular, especially the many animals you can get up close and personal with. During today's Google I/O keynote, the company announced that it's bringing world-class athletes to life in AR next.
Even more images of Sony's upcoming ANC true wireless earbuds have leaked
Hi-res press shots leave little the imagination
Sony's personal audio products have set a very high bar in recent years, with the over-ear WH-1000XM4 being rightly labeled as the best around (read our review to see why we love them so much). When they came out in 2019, the true wireless WF-1000XM3 were also fantastic, but the true wireless earbud space is far more competitive so it's about time Sony updated them. The upcoming successor has now been leaked in great detail.