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61

The march toward the $2000 smartphone isn't sustainable

David Ruddock

Whether it folds or it's just the size of a microhome, high-end smartphones are hitting an all-time high many of us aren't exactly loving: price. Now, this isn't a post about singling out Samsung in particular—they're merely on the cutting edge of what is a larger and growing trend. When Apple launches its first 5G iPhones later this year, you can bet your AirPods they'll come with an appropriately next-generation price hike. But at what point is enough finally enough for the mass market?

One thing I think we can all agree on is that technology, and microprocessors in particular, have resulted in a tremendous and demonstrable trickle down effect in the marketplace, driven by both commoditization and innovation.

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219

The Galaxy S20 spells the end of the headphone jack for Android

Ryne Hager

Announced just earlier today, Samsung's Galaxy S20 series of phones don't have a headphone jack. This isn't the first flagship device from Samsung to skip out on the trusty, universal 3.5mm connector — the Galaxy Note10 holds that honor — but this is a much bigger deal. The Note series may be breaking sales records, but the "base" Galaxy S is the Samsung phone. For many customers, it's Android's official ambassador in the mobile world, representing the default experience, and the fact that it just lost the dependable headphone jack probably spells the eventual end of the connector for all Android phones everywhere, forever.

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12

Android's Twitter account reminds us of the feature divide between Nest Hubs and third-party Assistant smart displays

Corbin Davenport

Google isn't the best at explaining its own products. Yet another example of this happened only a few days ago, as the official Android Twitter account posted about a Google Assistant feature that seemed to be new at first glance. However, it ended up being a reminder that not only is Google bad at explaining what its products do, but also that the feature divide between the Nest Hub and third-party Assistant smart displays is alive and well.

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62

Seven features we want to see OnePlus add to OxygenOS

Android Police Team

The lightly tweaked version of Android that OnePlus phones use, called OxygenOS, has some pretty big advantages going for it. There are even things about it that we'd like to see make their way to stock Android. But there's always room for improvement, and we've got a (slightly larger) wishlist of changes that we think could make it even better.

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28
Gmail will be adding travel and purchases labels to the sidebar (APK Teardown)
19
Buy the Essential phone dock that was never released on eBay (Update: Not for sale)
2
Little Misfortune is a beautiful adventure game that's finally made its way from PC to Android
16
Facebook is rolling out dark mode to its Lite app
209

Opinion: Samsung is fast becoming the Android update king

Rita El Khoury

Until recently, the words "Samsung" and "timely updates" were never uttered in the same sentence, unless you were emphasizing the contradiction between them. The Korean behemoth had a reliable, albeit very leisurely update schedule, pushing Android users who valued prompt access to security patches and new features away. With Android 10, things changed drastically, and Samsung has been impressing us more and more, with both major OTA rollouts and monthly security patches. Whether it's due to a different strategy, new team or leadership, Android's Project Treble, or some magical potion, Samsung is quickly becoming the OEM to beat for Android updates and we can't help but applaud its recent efforts.

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307

Android's notification shade is slowly ruining face ID on my Pixel 4

David Ruddock

Let me preface this post by saying that I love Android's notification shade. I love the toggles for things like airplane mode and dark theme, I love the platform's increasingly rich and smart notification quick actions, notification bundling, and just how Android handles notifications in general. But after three months of using the Pixel 4 XL, I've come to an increasingly annoying realization: the notification shade is having absolutely ruinous effects on the phone's facial recognition performance, something I've never experienced on the iPhone. And the simple reason is fingerprints.

Sensors that have to see things don't like fingerprints, for obvious reasons.

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73

Google needs to fix its notoriously bad bilingual speech recognition on Assistant and Gboard (Updated)

Manuel Vonau

Google collects vast amounts of speech data across all of its products, and while it hasn't been too transparent about the practice, we as users profit from it for the most part. Speech recognition has consistently gotten better over the years, which has allowed impressive sci-fi tech like smart speakers to enter our homes. There's one department where Google needs to step up its game, though: multilingual speakers are having a hard time using more than one language on any Google product.

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124

It's time for Google to build a video editor for Chromebooks and Android

Corbin Davenport

It takes a lot of applications to build an ecosystem. Google has all the essentials down — email, calendar, contacts, productivity applications, and so on — but the company has always struggled with creative tools. Most notably, Google is still lacking a proper video editor for its own operating systems, which is becoming even more of an issue as high-end Chromebooks gain momentum.

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69

Why you shouldn't be afraid to get a smart door lock, and what to consider before purchasing one

Rita El Khoury

Smart home gadgets are raising a lot of questions about privacy, security, and data mining these days. Speakers that could spy on what you're saying, cameras that could upload your videos to unprotected servers, products from no-name companies that could track your usage or location, and worse yet, devices from lazy providers that could introduce a vulnerability to your network, we've seen it all. In that scary context, it's hard to entrust a connected gadget with your front door lock, the very thing that makes you feel safe inside your own home. Every time I've mentioned smart locks online and in real life, I've gotten the same visceral reaction: No, just no.

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234

The Pixel 4a is putting Google in an unwinnable war — with itself

Ryne Hager

I don't think it meant to, but Google has backed itself into a corner with the anticipated Pixel 4a. The previous Pixel 3a was a smash-hit of a phone, doubling the company's phone sales amid some serious troubles. The 3a was so great it even earned our 2019 Smartphone of the Year accolade over the company's "flagship" Pixel 4 series. But based on what we've heard so far, I think the upcoming Pixel 4a could be a disaster for Google.

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