Big Tech went on a murder spree in 2023. We saw the end of many once-loved products and services, all swallowed up into the great dark pit of corporate consolidation. Few companies kept their knives sheathed, and if this year taught us anything, 2024 is likely to be just as blood … | Continue reading
The recent Google Play Store ruling could be bad news for Android phone users. Meanwhile, you only have a couple more days to buy a new Apple Watch before the ban kicks in. Catch up on the biggest product news of the week in our roundup. - Jorge JimenezRead more... | Continue reading
Last week, Epic won a years-long suit against Google for anti-competitive practices within the Play Store. We were all left wondering: what would happen to Android’s app store moving forward? Today, Google laid out what’s happening in its Keyword blog, and it’s all in time for th … | Continue reading
Serving the Technologist for more than a decade. IT news, reviews, and analysis. | Continue reading
An overview of the details of a settlement reached with State Attorneys General. | Continue reading
2023 offered up another exciting year in the world of consumer electronics, delivering meaningful upgrades to some of our already-favorite gear of last year, as well as some pleasant surprises.Read more... | Continue reading
Google announced changes to the way it harvests your location data this week that will finally put a stop to its compliance with geofence warrants, a police surveillance technique that many say circumvents the Constitution.Read more... | Continue reading
Opinion: Beeper isn't just fighting Apple, it's pushing against human instincts. | Continue reading
Serving the Technologist for more than a decade. IT news, reviews, and analysis. | Continue reading
If you give me access to your location, I am the person who will check on you constantly and bring it up the next time I see you. “So,” I’ll start casually, “what were you doing in the city last week?” Then you’ll ask me how I knew you were down there. I’ll remind you that you ga … | Continue reading
We’re integrating the Spain Royal Academy of Language lexicon into Gboard and their dictionary into Search. | Continue reading
Posted by Ivan Lozano and Roger Piqueras Jover Android’s defense-in-depth strategy applies not only to the Android OS running on the Application Processor (AP) but also the firmware that runs on devices. We particularly prioritize hardening the cellular baseband given its unique … | Continue reading
Google lost its antitrust case against Epic Games on Monday night, where a San Francisco jury unanimously ruled the search giant maintains a monopoly with its Google Play app store.Read more... | Continue reading
David Pierce, of the Verge, obtained a statement from Nadine Haija at Apple acknowledging it was responsible for shutting down Beeper Mini’s reverse-engineered iMessage app: At Apple, we build our products and services with industry-leading privacy and security technologies desig … | Continue reading
Gemini, Google’s ambitious new AI for phones, will make its way to Pixel 8 Pros next week. On the Apple side, we might begin to see M3-powered iPads and MacBook Airs hitting store shelves a lot sooner than we expected. Gizmodo’s consumer tech team has all the latest news and more … | Continue reading
Beeper Mini has stopped being able to send and receive iMessages, but the cofounder of the company is teasing an update. While Apple has not confirmed whether it is responsible, I thought it was clear an unofficial reverse-engineered subscription-priced iMessage app for Android w … | Continue reading
Note: As I was getting ready to publish this piece, Beeper’s servers began faltering. TechCrunch reports that Beeper Mini had lost access to Apple’s servers, though I’m still able to send text-based messages with a bit of delay. This piece covers the experience before this breaki … | Continue reading
TfL Go is a handy app. It gives you real-time access to the timetables and delays of London's tube and bus network. That's all you can do with it. You can't buy tickets, store a photocard, or anything like that. Which was why I was annoyed when this popped up in-app one day: I em … | Continue reading
Today’s big Gemini AI announcement from Google was inevitably going to suck all the air from any other big Pixel product updates. However, amid all the talk of native AI on Pixel 8 Pros, Google is also dropping a big feature-rich Android 14 update for Pixel cameras that the compa … | Continue reading
If you’re the proud owner of a Google Pixel 8 Pro—or are soon to be one this holiday season—you’re about to be the latest guinea pig for the company’s big AI experiment. Google’s flagship Android phone is going to be held aloft in a sweeping round of new AI capabilities thanks to … | Continue reading
Android device owners downloaded malicious loan apps from the Google Play Store 12 million times since 2020, according to a report from ESET Research Tuesday. The report identified 18 fraudulent apps that market themselves as offering quick and easy high-interest loans. In actual … | Continue reading
Beeper: Now you can send and receive blue bubble texts from your phone number. As soon as you install Beeper Mini, your Android phone number will be blue instead of green when your iPhone friends text you. It’s easy to join iPhone-only group chats, since people can add your phone … | Continue reading
Android users might soon be able to turn their smartphones into a webcam for their PCs via Microsoft’s Link to Windows app, according to Android Authority. Read more... | Continue reading
Android is announcing new features rolling out now and in the coming weeks. | Continue reading
Google Messages welcomes a new era of personalized messaging with 7 new features to help your personality shine through. | Continue reading
It’s almost December, which means all the major apps and tech companies are wrapping up the year with an attempt at reflection. As tradition calls, the annual Google Play Best of App Awards have been announced for 2023. Sure, there are a few notable new titles on the list, and I’ … | Continue reading
Serving the Technologist for more than a decade. IT news, reviews, and analysis. | Continue reading
Google TV released the top movies and shows from 2023 in collections like “most-watched movies” “most-watchlisted,” and others. | Continue reading
Google’s latest on its list of merciless murders is the Assistant’s “animal of the day” feature. While it’s not likely that the individual command product will make the Killed by Google Graveyard anytime soon, once it’s officially phased out by the end of the month, it will mark … | Continue reading
As Aaliyah sang in her 2000 hit, “Try Again,” “If at first you don’t succeed, oh, then dust yourself off and try again.” Google did that. It went back to the drawing board, scrapped everything except the look of the Pixel Watch, and made a better Pixel Watch 2. This year’s model … | Continue reading
Last week was certainly exciting for the prospect of green and blue bubbles finding peace and harmony in the chat realm, though that excitement was a bit premature in Nothing’s case. Read more... | Continue reading
Serving the Technologist for more than a decade. IT news, reviews, and analysis. | Continue reading
Android provides multiple layers of protections and warnings to help protect users from installing mobile fraud apps. | Continue reading
You know about Qi charging, the open wireless charging standard that charges up your phone when you lay it on a special charge pad. But wait until you meet Qi2. It’s faster at charging your phone, and its use of magnets will allow Android phones and iPhones to live in relative ha … | Continue reading
It seems like Amazon is currently developing its own operating system for its Fire TV devices and Smart TVs that run on Android. This was reported last week in Janko Roettgers’ Lowpass newsletter and hasn’t been corroborated with an official statement from Amazon yet.Read more... | Continue reading
The mobile class divide between the iPhone blue bubble and the Android green bubble might need regulators to settle things in the future, but Nothing has another solution coming soon. Read more... | Continue reading
The world of Android looks different than when I started focusing on this platform over ten years ago. Gone are the days of Google focusing on its developer-centric devices, allowing other manufacturers to compete for the top spot. If you look around the U.S. market, Android seem … | Continue reading
Safety is a major selling point in a society that profits from fear-mongering, so I’m scratching my head about the canceled plans for Android’s version of satellite connectivity.Read more... | Continue reading
I have been collecting interesting links in various Trello boards for many years and also process some of them automatically, such as my Tiny Tools. However, the official Trello Android App has the problem eversince that, when you want to create a URL as a Trello card in the brow … | Continue reading
Serving the Technologist for more than a decade. IT news, reviews, and analysis. | Continue reading
It’s a weird time to be a Fitbit user. Google has stopped selling Fitbit devices in key markets around the world. The company quietly pulled several models of its fitness-centric wearables from store shelves in countries across several continents. Read more... | Continue reading
Posted by Nataliya Stanetsky, Android Security and Privacy Team The App Defense Alliance (ADA), an industry-leading collaboration launched by Google in 2019 dedicated to ensuring the safety of the app ecosystem, is taking a major step forward. We are proud to announce that the Ap … | Continue reading
Everyone’s talking about how creepy generative AI is, so Google Photos won’t let you edit pictures of your driver’s license, ID cards, or anything personally identifiable. If you try to use the Magic Editor with a compatible Pixel device, Photos pops up a window to let you know i … | Continue reading
Google's "solution" can't do anything for bootlooping devices. | Continue reading
Fantasies of immortality and extended life preservation are likely as old as humanity itself, but new advances in robotics and advanced artificial intelligence models are inching those transhumanist tales closer to reality at a rapid pace. AI researchers and entrepreneurs eager t … | Continue reading
In about five short months, a small team of engineers at Meta took Threads, the new text-based conversations app, from from an idea to the most successful app launch of all time, pulling in over 100M users in its first five days. But this achievement wouldn’t have been possible w … | Continue reading
On upgrading my Google Pixel 3a XL from LineageOS 19 to LineageOS 20.Possibly related posts...Installing GrapheneOS on a Google Pixel 6aFrom Murena Teracube 2e to Pixel 3a XL with LineageOSInstalling LineageOS on a 2013 Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi)Review of /e/ - An Android Alternative For Mo … | Continue reading
A new version of GSConnect, the GNOME Shell extension that integrates with KDE Connect, is now available — and it supports GNOME 45. GSConnect bridges the gap between GNOME Shell and an Android device with the KDE Connect Android app installed to streamline file transfers between … | Continue reading