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Android loses its emulator edge as Apple trims the hedge on its walled garden in this week's news
This week in Android: Big Tech goes on a killing spree, and the grass IS greener on the other side of the pond
With some of the biggest companies in the world constantly competing for market- and mindshare, there's never a dull week in Android news. This week, a few big names outside the usual Google-Samsung two-step came to dance, as EU regulators and corporate lawyers alike laid down the litigation. Of course, Google itself still made headlines, but not all of them were good. If you haven't been following the space as closely as you'd like, we've got you covered with a rundown of this week's top five headlines below.
The Pixel Launcher ships as the default launcher on all Google Pixel phones. For all the functionality it packs, Google's stock launcher offers limited customization options. And that's a shame, especially since it has been over 5 years since Google broke navigation gestures in custom launchers, making it difficult to pick up an alternative. Either So, you use the stock launcher with limited features or a custom launcher with buggy gestures.
Why won't Google increase its 15GB free storage?
Google thinks 15GB is enough for most people, and it might not be wrong
Google surprised everyone when it upped the storage in Gmail from 1GB to 2GB in 2005, and the company was one of the few services that offered such a large amount of storage for storing emails. As the years went by and the industry kept evolving, the software giant settled for 15GB of storage, shared across the entire Google account.
Google and Samsung steal the limelight from MWC in this week's biggest news
This week in Android: Samsung's cooking up hardware and software while Google's in the kitchen with Wear OS
This week started off with the world's largest mobile show in Barcelona, as MWC 2024 brought the most prominent names in tech under one roof to showcase their latest concepts and prototypes. But even with all that hubbub, the two biggest companies in the Android space dominated headlines as usual, with rumors and releases on the hardware and software fronts from Samsung and Google hogging the limelight. If you missed out on any of the biggest headlines this week in Android amid all the commotion, we certainly don't blame you — in fact, we'll get you caught up in no time with the five biggest stories from the past seven days after the jump.
Your favorite tech company might be lying to you – and getting away with it
Should there be larger repercussions when companies get caught falsely advertising?
False advertising goes beyond being just an annoyance -- it's a sign of a rotten company with no integrity. It has real-world repercussions, and tech companies often seem to be among the worst false advertisers. Is it time to move beyond a slap on the wrist and start to consider serious legal ramifications when companies clearly break the law?
Lights, camera, controversy: How YouTube has evolved since its launch in 2005
Let's explore all the ups and downs of YouTube over the past 19 years
Remember grainy videos of cats chasing laser pointers or kids twirling staffs Jedi-style? I 'member. We've come a long way. From its birth in a garage back in 2005, when it was a quirky website for sharing home videos with friends, to the global dominance it enjoys today, YouTube's journey has been filled with successes and failures. Let's rewind and follow the growth of this modern-day behemoth and determine if it has ultimately risen to glory... or completely lost its way.
5 things we'd love to change about Android
Dive into our whimsical wishlist for a smarter, sleeker, and more user-friendly Android
Welcome to our wishful thinking for Android, where we dream big and gripe fairly, where we imagine what Android could be if only a few things were improved. A world where updates arrive on all Android phones across the board at the same time and where you can get friendly and helpful support for your software issues. A world where kids think Android is cool. A fantasy world, indeed, but as long as we are dreaming, here are the five things we'd love to change about Android.
HTC made some of the coolest Android phones, and I miss them
Can you believe it has been six years since Google bought HTC?
Google bought HTC six years ago, and I am still reminiscing about the good old days. The HTC One M8 was the second Android phone I ever owned, and I loved that thing. Those front-firing speakers and that all-metal chassis were a delight in hand. I even enjoyed the Taiwanese company's take on Android, which they dubbed HTC Sense.
Google Gemini is promising, but it can't replace Assistant just yet
I tried the 'experimental AI assistant,' and my impressions are mixed
We've been hearing for a while that Google's been gearing up for a rebrand of its AI chatbot, formerly known as Bard. The company surprised us all today by rolling out that change in force: Bard is now Gemini, named after the LLM that powers the experience. There's also a new Gemini app available, and you can set it as your Android phone's default voice assistant, which will see Gemini pop up where the Google Assistant would have before. I've been playing with the new AI assistant for a few hours, and it's occasionally kind of incredible. I don't think it's necessarily a good drop-in Assistant replacement, though — at least not yet.
There's no reason Google's AI features should launch on Samsung phones before older Pixels
Several more hardware-agnostic software bits haven't trickled down either
Every year, we see a new crop of the best Android phones from the big brands like Samsung, Google, Asus, Xiaomi, and OnePlus, all trying to be the best Android phones for consumers. Incremental improvements in hardware and new software features play equally important roles in making new phones feel “new.” However, when features aren’t hardware-dependent, we are constantly disappointed that brands like Google don’t pass new features down to older models, especially after they’ve exhausted their novelty value.
Google's ridiculous war against ad blockers is confusing everyone
Google's image is in tatters thanks to its insane war on ad blockers
YouTube made waves on the interwebs recently when it appeared to slow to a crawl for millions of users. It turns out the cause was a bug for users with ad blockers. Whether intentional or not, Google remains tight-lipped about the incident and shows no sign of stopping its losing war on ad blockers.
Fossil Wear OS watches are dead, and it's Google's fault
Google is continuing to water down the Wear OS platform
When news broke over the weekend that Fossil was throwing in the towel on Wear OS smartwatches, I instantly began to hear the iconic Queen song, "Another One Bites the Dust." However, instead of feeling sad that yet another brand is getting out of the Android smartwatch game, I felt frustration and disappointment. As I've said many times, I'm a fan of smartwatches. For better or worse, I keep one on my wrist at all times, which is, more often than not, a Wear OS device. This is for a few different reasons, but one of the main ones is that I like variety.
I tested NotebookLM and saw the promise of something great
NotebookLM has a lot of issues, but the idea behind it has potential
AI has the potential to fully upend the way we work. More than any emerging technology before it, like AR/VR and the blockchain, generative language models like Google Bard have already become vital parts of many people’s work lives throughout dozens of industries. Google wants a piece of that cake, and it's aiming at classrooms and researchers with its NotebookLM experiment.
MagSafe on iPad could spell trouble for Google's tablet strategy
Once more tablets have wireless charging docks, the Pixel Tablet won't be so unique
In the months since its release, I've been more or less lukewarm on the Pixel Tablet, mostly because I think both the tablet itself and its dock cost too much at retail. But I have to give Google its due: the company's said that part of the reason for the tablet's bundled charging dock is that tablets tend to sit unused for days at a time, and that can lead to dead batteries when we do reach for them. The Pixel Tablet's dock has indeed solved that problem for me entirely. Per a rumor from a couple of weeks ago, though, Apple may be gearing up to add MagSafe charging to its future iPad tablets — a move that could undermine the Pixel Tablet's currently unique two-in-one form factor.
Google Authenticator has become a mess, and I dread using it
It was annoying before its last big update, but now it's almost unusable
We all know that the first step to securing our digital lives is to have good, strong passwords, all while avoiding using just one that you rely on for every device or account you log into. To help with that, there are plenty of excellent password managers out there to keep all of your passwords locked up and safe from prying eyes, even helping to create passwords for you while keeping them organized and searchable. The next step in keeping your online presence under lock and key is to use two-factor authentication (2FA) on top of a good password.
At this point, Google is infamous for quickly and prematurely killing beloved projects and products. The highest profile loss right at the beginning of the year was certainly Stadia, the company’s game streaming service that launched just in 2019. After not gaining as much momentum as the company likely hoped it would, it quickly decided to reduce spending and ultimately shut it down. But Stadia is not the only product killed in 2023, and with Google Podcasts officially on the way out, we already know what’s coming in 2024. There are more than a dozen products big and small, and we’ve got a collection of all of them right here for you.
Google's issue with excessive advertisements is only growing worse
Google's obnoxious commercials are getting out of hand
Almost every aspect of the internet is viable for advertisements, whether presented through static images, video messages, or sponsored content. Ads can be an engagement-driven source of revenue for free apps and services, and they're great for amateur developers looking to get risky projects off the ground, which can be pretty challenging for obscure ideas.
Google started out as a humble search engine all the way back in 1998. 25 long years later into its existence, many of the company's achievements have been nothing short of remarkable. In this time, Google branched out into many different areas, and many of us probably can't imagine a world without it now that it brings us some of the best phones out there. However, as any successful billion-dollar corporation would tell you, success is hardly possible without a few mistakes along the way.
Smartspacer is the At a Glance widget I wish Google would make
Hands-on with all the possibilities of Smartspacer, no root required
Google’s range of Pixel phones is always counted among the best Android phones, even though they have their fair share of hardware-related concerns, like overheating and poor modem connectivity. That’s largely because of the unparalleled stock Android experience on Pixel phones. The At a Glance widget baked into the Pixel Launcher is an undeniably important part of the user experience. However, it has a few shortcomings which a new app called Smartspacer hopes to address.
Top Experiments with Google you need to try
Play, learn, and redefine the possibilities of technology as you journey through Google's creative universe
Experiments with Google is a cool website where people create fascinating projects using artificial intelligence and machine learning. These projects push the boundaries of technology, ranging from mini-games that can be played on budget Android phones to more robust Chrome browser experiences. Thousands of these experiments are on the website, with new ones added weekly. We curated our top favorites we think you should try out.