Android 13 is officially here, updates for Pixels start today
If you’ve been paying close attention to the mobile space recently, you’ll know that Google’s release track record for new Android versions has been all over the place. Last year, Android 12 debuted in early October. This year, Android 13 launches today.
The company has announced that updates should be going out to supported Pixels starting today, with devices from Samsung, Asus, HMD Global, iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, Sony, Tecno, vivo, Xiaomi, “and more” joining the party “later this year”.
From Gsmarena
iPad 10 and M2 iPad Pro set to launch in October, new leak claims
August is the calm before the storm for Apple. While Android brands such as Samsung and OnePlus announced new phones this month, Apple will undoubtedly dominate headlines in September with the launch of the iPhone 14. The next-gen smartphone will be the highlight of the year for Apple. But a new leak suggests that the company has another event planned for October where it will unveil at least two new iPad models.
According to a new post from yeux1122’s blog on the Korean website Naver, Apple will host a separate event for its tablets this fall. A source working at a Chinese manufacturer told the blog that the 10th-gen iPad will debut at the October event.
From BGR
OnePlus begins teasing its first foldable phone with images of a hinge
Rumors about a foldable phone from OnePlus in a market dominated by the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 have been doing the rounds for a while now. All the way back in 2020, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau was telling reporters that the company didn’t plan to make a foldable phone anytime soon. Two years is a lot of time for technology to mature (and plans to change), and now Lau’s sharing some images of what sure appears to be a folding phone’s intricate hinge assembly — perhaps hinting that work on a OnePlus foldable could be well underway.
Earlier this month, Xiaomi announced the Mix Fold 2 and Lenovo revealed the clamshell-style Moto Razr 2022. Although both phones are available only in China for now, they express those brands’ clear interest in a piece of the foldable smartphone pie. The BBK Group tried hopping on the bandwagon with the Oppo Find N and the Vivo X Fold, but OnePlus stayed out of the picture — until maybe now.
Lau’s tweet includes a couple of images of a complex hinge (via AndroidCentral) which sure feel like they belong to a foldable smartphone. Judging by the length of the hinge, OnePlus could be working on a taller booklet-style foldable phone, instead of a clamshell design like the Moto Razr or Z Flip 4. A close-up shot of the hinge reveals a metallic construction, two axes of rotation, several mounting posts, holes for fasteners, and six tiny springs to tension the assembly.
From Android Police
Reservations are now open for Samsung’s 55-inch Odyssey Ark display
Samsung first announced the Odyssey Ark back in January during CES 2022. The massive display offered an experience like no other, mainly due to its 55-inch size paired with a 1000R curvature. The display can now be reserved through Samsung’s website before its eventual release sometime in September.
The 55-inch 4K display has a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160, a response time of 1ms with support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and an impressive 165Hz refresh rate. The Odyssey Ark uses Samsung’s Quantum Matrix Mini LED Technology and offers support for HDR. As you might expect from a display of this caliber, the picture quality is top-end and can even take lower resolution sources, process them with AI, and upscale them to crispy 4K. To provide the best possible viewing experience, the company also leverages its Matte Display technology, which offers anti-glare and anti-reflective properties.
From XDA
Samsung is closing out DDR3 and DDR4 memory to focus on DDR5
Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away. It’s unlikely that dual-channel memory was on the mind of the poet when those words were written, but they remain true nonetheless. As the industry shifts towards newer technologies, prolific memory supplier, Samsung, is reportedly finding fewer and fewer buyers for the older DDR3 standard. So, it’s cutting production dramatically, according to industry paper DigiTimes.
With DDR3 on the way out and demand for next-gen DDR5 memory ramping up, the paper reports (via WCCFTech) that Samsung is cutting prices on DDR3 dramatically while also cutting prices for the popular 4GB DDR4 modules. This comes amidst a general market shift towards cheaper memory as demand falls from pandemic highs. The Wall Street Journal reported that in the second quarter of 2022 alone, prices for DRAM fell almost 11% across the board, a dramatic shift even in such a volatile industry.
That being the case, it makes sense for Samsung and other memory suppliers to de-emphasize older, lower-margin DDR3 chips and even scale back production of DDR4 chips as demand evens out. DDR5, while certainly higher in profit margin, has yet to become the industry standard. Using this lull in the market to seek a dominant position as DDR5 becomes more prevalent certainly makes sense, especially if you’re a megacorp with billions of dollars to throw around.
What does this mean for PC enthusiasts? In the short term, rock-bottom prices for current-gen DDR4 memory and DDR5 memory that’s perhaps more affordable than you might think for cutting-edge tech. We can see similar trends in other parts of the PC hardware market, as prices for solid state drives and graphics cards continue to fall after a period of high demand and supply chain woes.
From The PC World
Canalys: Q2 smartphone shipments in Southeast Asia decline by 7%
Smartphone shipments across Southeast Asia reached only 24.5 million units during the April-June period – a drop of 7% compared to the values in the previous quarter. Rising levels of inflation resulted in lower levels of consumer demand across the region. Indonesia is the largest market in the region with 9.1 million device shipments and 37% of the SEA market. The Philippines comes in second with 4.4 million shipments while those in Thailand numbered 4 million. Vietnam (3.1 million) and Malaysia (2.4 million) rounded out the top-five markets in Southeast Asia.
From Gsmarena
Android 13 hits AOSP — get ready for the custom ROMs to drop
Today is Android 13 day, and in addition to Pixels picking up their first stable release, Google is also pushing out Android 13 today to AOSP (the Android Open Source Project, or Android’s source code). That means all the code that constitutes Android 13 is now available for other people and companies to play with, and we’ll likely see ROMs announce their plans to release Android 13-based versions very soon.
This simultaneous release of Android 13 for Pixels and AOSP isn’t always guaranteed. Last year, Google dumped Android 12 to AOSP two weeks before Pixels got the update. But the year before, Android 11 hit Pixels and AOSP within a day of one another. Because Google’s Android 13 security bulletin indicated a September patch level, most of us were expecting that we might see an AOSP release happen this month, while an actual update for Pixels would probably be delayed until next month. Fortunately for everyone, it looks like those expectations were wrong.
If you aren’t familiar with the terminology or the impact of this news, the abridged version is that Android’s code is open source, which means that it is publicly available for anyone to play with. Now that public code has been updated to include the latest Android 13 changes. This source code, stored at the Android Open Source Project, doesn’t directly mean that your phone will be getting Android 13 now, but it does mean that more companies and projects now have the details to refer to, and this can impact a lot of things, like the development of custom ROMs based on Android 13, improved app development for the platform, and wider scrutiny of the code for bug fixing and security.
From Android Police
Google Play Games hits 5 billion downloads, as Google Meet reaches new milestone
Google’s hub for Android gamers, Google Play Games, has now been downloaded over 5 billion times from the Play Store, and Google Meet has also hit a new milestone.
Google Play Games, first launched in 2013, was intended to be a competitor to Apple’s Game Center on the iPhone, gathering your phone’s many games into one place. It also offers a few social features, introduces achievements to Android games, and offers suggestions of new titles to play.
Lately, the app is installed by default on most Android devices, a fact which no doubt contributed to Google Play Games having been installed billions of times. Over the weekend, it seems Google Play Games has hit another major milestone, with the Play Store now reporting that the app has been downloaded over 5 billion times, up from the previous estimate of over 1 billion.
In recent years, Google Play Games has begun to change the way both gamers and developers interact with it, shutting down its multiplayer server APIs. Meanwhile, last year Google unveiled a new logo for Play Games, side-by-side with the announcement of Play Games for Windows which brings Android games to Windows 10 and newer PCs.
From 9to5Google
YouTube could offer video streaming subscriptions by the end of the year
YouTube has been working on a new streaming strategy codenamed the “channel store.” According to sources, the “channel store” will be an online store for streaming services. The firm has been working on the project for at least 18 months and has contacted entertainment companies to gauge interest in participation. If everything goes to plan, the new store could launch sometime this fall.
Currently, YouTube has its Premium service and also YouTube TV. The latter offers users access to live TV channels and the ability to record shows. It also offers the ability to add on services like HBO Max, Starz, Epix, and more. How the new service would differ from YouTube TV’s current offering is that YouTube users would be able to purchase and watch services directly through the YouTube app. Naturally, this would involve revenue sharing amongst companies, but it could be a good move to gain more subscribers even though it means giving a small percentage to YouTube. While this might be a weird option for larger established services, it makes sense considering that YouTube has a massive user base, with over two billion monthly logged-in users.
Another added benefit is that YouTube could push ads, trailers, and free movies to users, and if they want to subscribe, they can pay for the service through YouTube. This strategy is nothing new, with many companies offering their services on other platforms. But the partnership can be hit or miss. For example, HBO Max made its service available on Amazon Prime. HBO Max decided to pull its service, even if it meant losing nearly five million subscribers. Despite disagreements, partnerships can be powerful.
While bundling through a competing service is one way, some companies have also started to bundle their own services. Disney is a prime example, offering Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, and Hulu as a bundle. The company recently announced plans to raise prices starting in August. Disney will also release a new ad-supported tier later this year. HBO Max and Discovery Plus announced plans to combine and form a new streaming service, which will debut next year. These kinds of joint services help to keep customers longer and make it less likely that they will leave. If YouTube can pull this off, it will become the ultimate hub for entertainment.
From XDA
NASA identified the strange tangled object found on Mars
When a spacecraft dramatically parachutes down to a distant world, debris will inevitably litter the landing site. NASA has documented the diverse debris scattered by the 2021 landing of its high-tech Perseverance rover, including a strange-looking ball of tangled, “spaghetti”-like material, which the space agency believes they’ve identified.
NASA suspects the tangled detritus — which stirred intrigue on the internet — is a piece of netting (called “Dacron netting”) that is used in thermal blankets to protect the spacecraft from extreme temperatures and conditions, like when plunging through the Martian atmosphere at some 12,000 mph.
From Mashable
