Category: Android

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How well does flagship hardware age in the long-run?

Just as the case with the past years, and despite the calamitous threat of the deadly Coronavirus causing GSMA to call off this year’s MWC, many of the tech companies have unveiled their latest addition to the lineups of their flagship smartphones. But as we drool over the rapid advancements in network speeds and processing power introduced to us every year, it still remains a tough task to guess whether these new smartphones will stand the test of time and prove to be a reliable option a year or two down the road. With the news of my Essential PH-1 will no longer receive official support, I thought it might be the best time to conduct a little experiment to deduce how well do older flagship smartphones stand the test of time.

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Opinion: Android 10’s new gestural navigation is far from ideal

Back in 2017, Apple kickstarted a new trend of UI navigation on our phones via dedicated navigation gestures instead of using on-screen buttons (or a dedicated button tucked in the bottom bezel in the case of the iPhones). There’s no denying the fact that there was a somewhat steep learning curve to go through before getting used to the new navigation gestures on the iPhone X. But ultimately, this became the new trend going forwards that all OEMs sought to join. Google had a go at it the following year, though Android Pie’s navigation gestures looked like a hasty attempt to announce Android as a native supporter of gestural navigation. This year though, Google went back to the drawing board and gave it a more serious thought.

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Redditor details how to enable RCS messaging on any carrier and device with Google Messages

RCS (Rich Communication Services) deployment over the last 3 years seems to have been progressing at a snails pace. Just recently, the big four US carriers announced the formation of the “Cross-Carrier Messaging Initiative” (CCMI) with the goal of bringing RCS to Android by 2020. Most frustratingly, there are plans for a new app and the carriers don’t seem to be collaborating with Google at all.

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Google is working on “Fast Share” to share files with nearby devices

According to a report from 9to5Google, Google appears to be working on a new and simple way to share files between a variety of devices including Chromebooks, Android devices, smartwatches, and even iPhones. Google’s calling this “Fast Share” and it’s similar to Apple’s AirDrop for iOS and Mac.

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Google is officially done making tablets, focused on building new laptops now

In a new report published by Computerworld, Google is officially done making first-party tablets. The company reportedly had two more tablets in the works—both smaller than the current Pixel Slate; however, development on them have since been suspended and employees working on them have been reassigned to various other areas, with most being moved to the laptops division. Google still has plans for more laptops it seems.

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