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49

Foldable phones don't seem ready yet, and they're definitely not worth $2000

David Ruddock

"It's the first generation." I heard it over and over during Mobile World Congress whenever the topic of foldable smartphones inevitably arose. Everyone is talking about foldables (which yes, that's not a word, except now it is), and everyone has a take. They're the game-changing future our ever-expanding screens require. They're going to be huge with [insert demographic/region/niche here]. They're expensive now, but they won't always be. They're not going to be very good now, either, but just wait - this is only the first generation.

But it isn't - not exactly. Take a closer look at that image at the top of the post - do you recognize that foldable phone?

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374

Moto Mods: How a modular hardware platform locked Motorola into a cycle of failure

Ryan Whitwam

We all wish our phones could do more from time to time, but you can't just add new features without buying a new device, right? Oh, you're forgetting about Moto Mods. You can add new hardware capabilities to your phone like a speaker, a zoom camera, or projector. It changed everything... actually, that's wrong. Smartphones are largely the same as they were in 2016, but Motorola is still at least going through the motions to pretend Mods are a good idea. The evidence is unavoidable at this point: they're not.

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161

Very bad news site says Pixel 4 "could be" modular because you'll click on it

David Ruddock

It's early, but my least favorite news story of 2019 so far is this awful garbage from T3, a tech news site from the UK, about the Pixel 4 potentially being "modular." I won't link to it (nice try, T3!), but I will give you the title and a synopsis.

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168

Five improvements we want from the Google Home 2

Corbin Davenport

The original Google Home speaker launched all the way back in late 2016. A lot has changed since then — Assistant has become more powerful and multi-lingual, the Home Mini has been a wild success, the Home Max became a great option for audiophiles, and dozens of third-party Assistant speakers have hit the market.

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254

Rant: The obnoxious screen notch/punch-hole debate needs to end

David Ruddock

In 2019, the most talked-about feature of any new smartphones is not the camera, processor, modem, or software. It is the shape and size of the area reserved for the sensors and cameras on the front - and it is time to just stop it.

Notches, punch holes, screen cutouts - whatever the hell you want to call them - are part of phones for the time being. They’re part of phones because the companies making the phones are desperate to find ways to excite us with new visual elements that keep our historically low attention spans long enough to sell us thousand dollar glass and aluminum bricks.

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116

Ready or not, 5G will probably be the death of these 3 smartphone companies

David Ruddock

5G is either the biggest change to our wireless world in decades or the most overhyped marketing spin from carriers in as long - and it all depends on just who you’re asking. Cynical tech journalists like me have real reason to downplay the technology’s importance and relevance to ordinary consumers, but we needn’t get into all that here. Carrier and phone manufacturers, meanwhile, believe it will usher in a new age of devices and use cases we can’t yet fully imagine. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle - closer to the cynical end, I’d argue! - but I think regardless of how 5G plays out, it means very bad things for struggling phone manufacturers.

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104

Opinion: An Ode to the Chromecast Audio

Florence Ion

It's time to bid farewell to Google's audio streaming dongle, the Chromecast Audio. After a significant price drop late last year, its stock has since been depleted in the Google store and at Best Buy and other retail locations, and there are already eBay listings up asking for twice what the device was worth in its heyday.

The Chromecast Audio served as an incredible tool for those who merely wanted to sync their existing audio setups with the rest of their Cast-enabled devices. But it will soon become another relic of the past, leaving both novices and experienced audiophiles alike with fewer options for this kind of turn-key connectivity.

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117

Google hardware year in review: What worked, what didn't, and what we want in 2019

David Ruddock

Google’s hardware division is a rare success story inside a remarkably successful company - and one that has taken the better part of a decade to meet that definition. Its ambitions in the physical product space have grown from a geeky internet sideshow into a full-scale retail assault, and 2018 saw that ascendance continue. For all the naysayers it’s had - and there have been many - Google continues to position its hardware portfolio exactly where it needs to be: in stores. Chromecasts and Home Minis litter hundreds of Walmarts, Targets, and Best Buys, and Pixel smartphones are in Verizon locations across the country.

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The Best Of AP

124
[Update: Shutting down this summer] Google is preparing to shut down the Trips app [APK Teardown]
139
First Galaxy Note 10 Pro render shows four rear cameras and 6.75" screen
150
[Update: Old UI is back] Google rolls out new Material Play Store interface with bottom navigation bar
31
Gmail’s dynamic emails roll out to all users on July 2
229

Opinion: Chrome OS is buggier and more poorly designed than ever

Corbin Davenport

I've used Chromebooks off and on for years. I used the first Dell Chromebook 11 for much of high school, then I purchased an ASUS C302 last year. The C302 is still one of the best laptops I've ever used, and that's mostly thanks to how Chrome OS has evolved over the past few years. It's no longer a browser-only thin client — it can run Android apps, Linux programs, and powerful web applications.

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71

Shady smartphone maker Saygus is back - begging investors for money

David Ruddock

While it wasn't pointed out to us until a couple of weeks ago, apparently smartphone non-maker Saygus published a blog post back in November of 2018, begging investors for cash. It's exactly the sort of desperation we'd expect of a company that announced a smartphone three years ago then never shipped it to anyone. And yet, Saygus came back again, and again, and again with excuses, telling would-be customers that their phone was only getting better, just a little delayed, and would be out shortly. It never launched.

The blog post on the company's website, presumably authored by Saygus founder and CEO Chad Sayers, says that the Saygus phone's launch is still "anticipated," which is probably the vaguest promise issued yet about whether or not the phone will actually ship.

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