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Google has 113 totally serious reasons for you to switch to Pixel
Especially if you're still rocking an old LG phone
Google has a slate of new phones ready for launch later this week, and in case you haven't heard, we're pretty excited about them. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro might represent the best devices the company has ever launched and a great time for anyone to upgrade from an older model. If you haven't been convinced to switch from Samsung or Apple, maybe Google's exhaustively long list of selling points will be enough to convince you.
We know what red flags are. Everyone's been making spicy memes out of them. But when some brands do it, well, that should put up a special red flag to let everyone know that this meme is done.
What the heck is going on with the chip powering the latest TicWatch?
Store listings indicate a silent upgrade, but nothing is lining up
Before the launch of Samsung's Galaxy Watch4, Mobvoi's TicWatches were truly the only wearables worth recommending for Android users. Equipped with a Snapdragon Wear 4100, the TicWatch Pro 3 and E3 are two of the only devices you can find with that specific processor, even more than a year out from the former's launch. At least, that's the chip both watches were initially marketed with, but if you try to buy one today, you might be surprised to see an unannounced performance upgrade listed in the specs sheet.According to listings on Mobvoi's official website and Amazon, both of the company's current watches are powered by a Snapdragon Wear 4100+ — not the original 4100 chip as originally marketed (via 9to5Google). This change is rather curious, considering there's been no announcement about a potential upgrade for either watch. While the Pro 3 is well over a year old now, the TicWatch E3 only went up for sale in June. It'd be an odd move to upgrade the processor of a watch that's just three months old.
Google's Nexus Twitter account rises from the dead to hype the Pixel 6 on iPhone day
Its last tweet was nearly 4 years ago
Google's current social media strategy for its hardware division mainly revolves around the @madebygoogle handle. Someone should tell that to the person who just tweeted from the @googlenexus account.
Google Photos gives the Mars rover a trip down Memories lane
We're far from Yonkers OR Delmonico's at this point
It's been 6 months since NASA's selfie-capable Perseverance rover hit the iron oxide floor of Mars. "Percy," as some affectionately call the bot, has been exceptionally useful in that short span despite only trekking just under one-and-a-quarter miles of surface. It's also taken more than 125,000 captivating pictures during its stay. Some of them made the creative folks at Google wonder "what if Perseverance had a Google Photos account?"
Galaxy S21 series leaks yet again in official marketing imagery
The unveiling is in two days, but the leaks are still streaming in
With all of the rumors and leaks we've heard about the Galaxy S21 family, there's little left to the imagination at this point. That said, if you wanted to see what Samsung thinks are the most highlight-worthy features of its new flagships, you're in luck; Roland Quandt of WinFuture has posted a few of Samsung's marketing images for your perusal.
C by GE gets a (badly needed) new name, expands from smart bulbs to other home products
Security cameras, outdoor outlets, and a fan switch join all those bulbs
The clunkiest-sounding brand in smart home lighting is turning the page on the calendar and taking a new name. General Electric's lighting division was sold off to Savant Systems in July. With a change in ownership comes the demise of C by GE and the rise of Cync — yes, like "synchronization" — along with an expanded product catalogue for 2021.
LG wants you to believe people will still be using the Wing in three years
It's on billboards in the trailer for pandemic thriller "Songbird" and we couldn't think of a worse product placement strategy
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We didn't ask for a film exploring the idea of a society split apart by their immunity (or lack thereof) to a disease undergoing pandemic spread, but hey, we're getting one from Adam Mason and Michael Bay next year called "Songbird." It imagines a Los Angeles of the near future with mass quarantine camps, the privileged few with immunity bracelets, and a mutated SARS-CoV-2 dominating the storyline. It also has quite a bit of product placement for the very old (at least by that point) LG Wing.
Pixel the pug is back, helping Google show off more of what its phones can do
You've never seen phone ads this cute
Google debuted a series of delightfully dog-filled ads in September featuring a pug named Pixel being compared to Pixel the phone. They're a refreshing break from the typical big tech promo videos, complete with soft pastels and a relaxing voiceover. Now the company has released seven new videos highlighting some of Pixel's unique and exclusive software features.
OnePlus World throws down minigame gauntlet for the chance to win a OnePlus 8T
Watch for references to Neopets, Newgrounds, and Second Life in this story
OnePlus is set to announce its 8T phone on October 14 and has confirmed that it will do so with a gamified experience. Whereas in years past the company has sent fans on tours of a virtual spaceship and its corporate headquarters filled with cheeky purchase codes, this experience will be an entire so-called OnePlus World.
Cute Pixel videos pit Google's phone against an adorable pug
Google would very much like the phone to win the duel... as if
Google has thought it smart to pit its latest Pixel 4a against an adorable pug. According to the company's marketing material, which spans eight short videos, the phone comes out winning each and every time. This is how they lie to you, people. Everyone knows who the fair winner should be.
Video shows how the pivot 'wing' in the LG Wing works
We've got the 'how' but we're still waiting on the 'why'
The LG Wing is the latest consumer handheld device to test the limits of people's wills to not go click-clack back and forth while flipping — or, in this case, swiveling — it open. With two screens, a pop-up camera, and a lot of screen real estate to go around, some will have questions about its durability and the company is trying to address them with performative CGI in a new video.
If you have a Windows PC, you're probably familiar with Microsoft's aggressive marketing tactics when it comes to its browser. The company automatically adds Edge to your taskbar after some updates, and it even sends you popups when you still won't use its Internet Explorer successor. It looks like Google is considering to introduce a similarly aggravating "feature" to Chrome for Android, as 9to5Google found out. It's working on push notifications that encourage you to use its browser when you haven't opened it in a while.
OnePlus's March 18 branding reveal spoiled by Chinese trademark office
Expect a bolder font, a bit more curb-iage
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Corporate branding usually isn't anyone's jam, but it's part of how a company tries to convince consumers that buy its products that supposedly suited to their lifestyles. It is with this notion in mind that we report the brand makeover OnePlus will undertake on Wednesday.
Samsung's making an 'optimized OLED display for 5G smartphones'
Probably leverages some AI, blockchains, and the cloud, too
5G is a new technology that could eventually change the way we use our phones, but right now, it's also a buzzword, and it's one that companies are all too happy to abuse. Whether it's Verizon announcing it's bringing mmWave 5G to four street corners in a random town, or AT&T straight-up lying with its glorified LTE "5GE," the 5G abuse never seems to stop, and now Samsung's announcing a new OLED screen "optimized" for — you guessed it — 5G.
Google has telegraphed far in advance of the Pixel 4's launch that it will come with a featured called Motion Sense — a radar technique developed under the name Project Soli using high-frequency radios to detect in-air gestures for user interfaces. But if you live in one country, you shouldn't expect to take advantage of this feature.
Samsung began calling its flagship Galaxy phones "water-proof" or "water-resistant" with the Galaxy S7 series, which received an IP68 rating, meaning it should be okay to submerge it into up to five feet deep water for a maximum of 30 minutes. That hasn't stopped the company from aggressively marketing its phones as great devices to use at the pool or on the beach ever since, without actually covering any water damage under warranty. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) disapproves of these "misleading advertisements" and is taking the Korean company to court over them.
When the big Nest rebranding hit Google, products like the Home Hub saw their names changed to the Google Nest Hub, confusingly differentiating them as separate from the "Home" series smart speakers that they have more in common with than any "Nest" branded hardware. Initially, it seemed like all of Google's "Home" branded stuff would be changed to "Google Nest," but Google later confirmed to us that its speakers would not follow this change. Apparently, no one told the @madebygoogle Twitter account that.
As the wireless industry likes to say, "5G is here" — from manufacturers with 5G capable phones, carriers with 5G networks, and the users who want to feel like they're on the bleeding edge because they're enjoying super-fast speeds. But that little "5G" icon in the status bars on their shiny new phones may not represent all the progress they've been promised.
OnePlus is in a spending mood as it gears up to debut its OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro on May 14. Sure, talk might be cheap: executives and online media have been doing a lot of it about the Pro's unique display in recent days. But the company may have put forth its largest advertising commitment yet in telling the world that the OnePlus 7 Pro will not have a notch in its display.