Author Archives: admin 5

We've become more dependent these days on the Internet to search for information, especially about places or businesses whose hours and policies may have changed in the past months. Unfortunately, those very same businesses may be experiencing difficulties in keeping up-to-date from lack of manpower or for being unable to even go to the office. The need for quick access to information begets the need to quickly update that information and, thankfully, Google is rolling out easier tools to help Business Profile owners keep on top of things.

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We call them smartphones but one of the least frequent things most of us actually do with them is making or even receiving calls. Our devices are loaded with tons of apps but the app that makes the smartphone a phone doesn't actually get much attention, perhaps except from Google. Google does have a Phone app worth noting and being jealous of and it is finally expanding outside of the small world of Pixel phones. That said, it's not exactly a dream come true just yet.

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Some may think that innovation in the smartphone market has almost plateaued but there are still a few dreams that have yet to be fulfilled that don't involve foldable or rollable screens. One such dream is having a camera that hides underneath the screen, unseen until it is needed. Many manufacturers, including Samsung and Apple, have reportedly been trying to achieve it but ZTE might be the first one to actually come out with an under-screen camera in this Axon A20 5G.

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In just a few hours, the mobile app and gaming market exploded into a flurry of news, removals, and two lawsuits, all revolving around a single game: Fortnite. Epic Games, who has spoken out and moved against the status quo in the game and app store markets, made a daring move to implement its own direct payment system to bypass Google's and Apple's revenue split system. It isn't surprising that both Apple and Google have quickly removed Fortnite from their respective app stores but it's rather curious that Epic Games quickly sued both afterward.

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Android Wear, now Wear OS by Google, should have taken the wearable market by storm. For one reason or another, however, Android's wearable incarnation didn't take off as well as its mobile original, and Wear OS lagged behind Apple's watchOS and Samsung's Tizen-based OS in more ways than one. With Android 11 just around the corner, Google is reassuring the remaining Wear OS faithful that all is not lost and that the major update will finally bring much-needed performance improvements across the board.

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We already know much about how the Galaxy Z Fold 2 looks like, thanks to Samsung's own teaser, but that doesn't exactly give us an idea of how the phone will actually look like in real life. Samsung did put out an official teaser starring BTS but it was so brief and staged that it was hard to get a true feel for the phone. Thankfully, T-Mobile's Desmond "Des" Smith was kind enough to spend more than just a few minutes on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 to give us mere mortals a closer look at Samsung's next-gen foldable.

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Given their size, it's almost too easy to take Truly Wireless Stereo or TWS earbuds for granted, that is until you remember how much a pair cost you. Still, considering how relatively cheaper these tiny accessories are compared to the smartphones they're paired with, some people probably see all but the most expensive buds almost like disposable products. Of course, that doesn't mean they can't be repaired and Galaxy Buds Live, a.k.a. "Galaxy Beans", owners will be happy to know theirs is one of the easiest to repair in the market.

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Jobs that bosses insisted couldn't be done at home are now being done at home, as are jobs that normally done at home. The sudden rise in remote working setups has naturally resulted in a rise in the use of collaboration software and services, from video conferencing apps like Zoom to cloud storage services like Dropbox. The latter has recently announced new features that offer to keep your personal and work digital lives from descending into chaos and those tools can now be yours if you can pay the literal price.

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iPhone owners might just be waiting for iOS 14 to roll out one of the biggest changes to Apple's mobile platform in a long while. That, however, doesn't mean there's no longer any room for smaller releases, nor does it mean there is no need for those either. In fact, Apple has just released iOS 13.6.1 as a small yet important bugfix update that addresses an issue that could severely impact the efficacy of its new Exposure Notification framework for COVID-19 contact tracing.

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That Apple's 2020 iPhones won't be coming on time like most iPhones before it is pretty much accepted fact by now. That the company will be adopting a staggered announcement and launch strategy, however, is definitely unusual and speaks of the unusual times we find ourselves in. While devices aren't being pushed back to 2021, fortunately, some iPhones are coming later than usual, with the Pro models potentially launching in November at the earliest.

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Although it hasn't given the formal word yet, it's highly unlikely that IFA 2020 will take place in September as an in-person event, at least not in the capacity as all IFA events since 1924. That, unfortunately, means that companies that were planning on making a big splash in Berlin this year have to make do with their own separate and potentially online-only alternatives. Case in point, Motorola has apparently scheduled something for September 9 and it's probably no mystery what it will reveal then.

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Many high-end phones these days boast having 120Hz screens or even just 90Hz but there's one thing that they don't say and that users take for granted. These phones can only switch between two to three refresh rates ranging from the usual 60Hz to the fastest 120Hz. Samsung, however, believes it can do better and has developed a new Adaptive Frequency screen that can go a lot lower, helping the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G and future 5G phones more battery in the long run.

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