Google is about to roll out a redesigned Search on mobile, the company said in a blog post today, explaining the adjustments users can expect. Google describes the updated UI as a 'major visual redesign,' one that is intended to simplify things for users, bringing 'information into focus,' improving the readability of text, and more.
The folks at Vicarious Visions will soon need to switch up their digital business cards. Back in the year 2005, the developer brand and its developers were acquired by the folks at Activision. In the year 2008, Acivision merged with Blizzard, forming Acivision Blizzard. So why should you or I or anyone spend even a moment thinking about how the Activision-owned developer group Vicarious Visions was merged into Blizzard?
There's a new Pokemon GO game code teardown available today thanks to the PokeMiners crew. The latest version of Pokemon GO contains a variety of items new to the game, including a GBL Cup - Love Cup, free items from sponsored gifts, reminders for Mega Pokemon, and a Johto Rocket Collection Challenge. This update also includes Pokedex updates to both Chespin and Exeggcute, POI submission updates, and notes about a "Mareep Day" and a Roselia Community Day!
This week the folks at HONOR revealed the HONOR View40 at a live streamed event in China. This device is the first major release of the year for HONOR, and one of the most extravagant devices released by the brand thus far. The HONOR View40 works with a waterfall cured 7.72-inch OLED display with a resolution of 2676 x 1236 pixels.
There are always a number of rumors about Samsung products that refused to die. Most of those, like under-display cameras, revolve around features to be added or products to be launched. One undying rumor, however, is all about the death of one rather popular product. For years, Samsung has been believed to be retiring the Galaxy Note or at least the S Pen. We know that the latter is far from coming true yet but the launch of the Galaxy S21 Ultra has provided fodder once more to talk about the Galaxy Note 21's absence this year.
Apple is known and highly-praised for its commitment to support years-old smartphones, tablets, and computers, something that, unfortunately, hasn't caught on in the Android world. Even Apple, however, sometimes has to eventually cut off some older devices, though still not as fast or as often as even Google. Soon, that culling period might be happening again this year with the release of iOS 15 which may no longer support devices that are more than five years old by the time it rolls out.
It almost feels like a distant dream or nightmare, depending on where you stand, but it wasn't really too long ago when smartphone makers played around with designs with a singular purpose in mind, banishing the inescapable top bezel. While most have now embraced the punch-hole cutout, there was a time when phones sported eccentric mechanisms like popup cameras and sliding displays. Samsung wasn't exactly immune to that trend and it might be making bringing back the past with the Galaxy A82 5G.
Android being open source software allows it to be installed on devices and used in cases that Google may have never imagined or allowed. Those include some set-top boxes, desktops, laptops, watches, single-board computers or SBCs, and everything in between. Google, however, does have a system in place that keeps Android from spiraling out of its control completely. One such system involves keeping Google apps out of these "uncertified" devices, like what it will be doing with Google Messages and, soon, Google Duo.
There are dire predictions for the future of Huawei's mobile business this year. From restricted access to needed resources and components to the sale of its Honor brand, analysts predict that Huawei's smartphone production will nosedive this year. That makes it sound like an inopportune time for an expensive experiment but Huawei might have no qualms about launching the foldable Mate X2 next month that backtracks on the design the company insisted was the better one.
Samsung has been making good on its commitment to roll out major Android upgrades faster, and while it's still not as fast as most would wish, it's still a lot better than Samsung's old ways. That said, there would inevitably be some bumps along the way and, unfortunately, it seems that Galaxy S10 owners had the bad luck of running into them. No sooner had Samsung released Android 11 for these phones did users run into numerous and seemingly unrelated problems, forcing the company to put a halt to the rollout.
While Apple continues to push the iPads as the next generation of computers, that rhetoric really only applies to its iPad Pro line. The lines between its various iPads, however, have started to blur, especially with the addition of Apple Pencil support all the way down to the bottom. The iPad Mini, however, still remains Apple's simplest and most affordable entry point, making these details about the alleged iPad Mini 6 sound more like a wishlist.
iFixit might still have its hands full from a backlog of products to teardown but PBK Reviews, fortunately, lost no time in poking inside Samsung's latest and greatest. The Galaxy S21 proved to be a pleasant surprise in some ways, particularly for its modularity and the screen's relatively easier repairability. The YouTuber now takes the Galaxy S21 Ultra apart with some optimism that was, unfortunately, met with a bit of a disappointment.
