SkyTube is an open source third-party YouTube application for Android that users may install and use instead of the official YouTube application. SkyTube offers a view-only experience, which means that it does not support signing-in with a Google or YouTube account; this does not mean that it does not support the essentials. You may subscribe to channels and bookmark your favorite videos, read comments, and use the built-in search.

SkyTube supports features that Google's own YouTube app does not support, including the ability to block channels, block all ads on the site, including in-vidoe ads, and the option to download videos for offline viewing.

You can download the app either from its website or from F-Droid. The F-Droid version is fully open source and free software, but app updates take longer to appear, and it does not support the official YouTube player.

Tip: check out this guide to find out how to play YouTube videos on your Fire TV without ads.

SkyTube displays videos of the featured category by default. You may switch to a language-specific tab to display trending videos, a chronological feed of videos by subscribed channels, bookmarked videos, or downloaded videos.

The system language is used by default, but you may change it in the settings under video player.

There is a search at the top to search all of YouTube, and a menu with settings and the option to paste a video URL directly. The second icon at the top opens the video blocker preferences. It may be used to block channels, but comes with additional filter options that users may find useful.

Users may set a preferred region and language to filter videos in the "Worldwide (ALL)" category. Other options include filtering low views videos or videos with a high dislike count.

The menu that is displayed underneath each video displays several options, including options to download the video, bookmark it for later viewing, block the channel, or mark the video watched.

You cannot subscribed to channels from that menu, and need to tap on the channel to display it and the subscribe option.

Videos play directly once you have selected one in the app. The navigational controls are hidden by default but appear when you interact with the screen.

The app supports gestures that you may use to display comments, or change the volume or brightness. These gestures can be disabled in the preferences.

The video player supports the usual options, such as seeking, using the position slider to jump to a position, changing playback speed, or setting videos to repeat. An option to change the video quality appears to be missing.

The player remembers the last position of videos and prompts you to resume the video from that position; this can be disabled as well.

Closing Words

SkyTube is a well-designed third-party YouTube app for Android. It blocks ads and does not depend on Google Apps. The app is open source and supports video downloading, subscriptions, and channel/video blocking. The only thing that is missing is the ability to change the playback quality manually.

An alternative are YouTube Vanced.

Now You: do you use YouTube's official app, or third-party apps?

Source

More people are buying wearables than ever before—and Apple is in the lead

But the fastest-growing categories are ones Apple hasn't even touched yet.

The wearables category of consumer devices—which includes smartwatches, fitness trackers, and augmented reality glasses—shipped more than 100 million units in the first quarter for the first time, according to research firm IDC. Q2 2021 saw a 34.4 percent increase in sales over the same quarter in 2020.

 

To be clear: wearables have sold that many (and more) units in a quarter before, but never in the first quarter, which tends to be a slow period following a spree of holiday-related buying in Q4.

 

For the past several years, wearables like the Fitbit Versa have made up one of the fastest-growing categories of personal electronics, but the devices still lag far behind smartphones in terms of total units moved each quarter or year.

 

According to IDC's data, Apple leads the market by a significant margin, presumably thanks to the Apple Watch. In Q1 2021, Apple had a market share of 28.8 percent. Samsung sat in a distant second at 11.3 percent, followed by Xiaomi at 9.7 percent and Huawei at 8.2. From there, it's a steep drop to the smaller players—like BoAt, which has a market share of just 2.9 percent.

 

 

 This table shows shipments by different companies in the wearables space as of Q1 2021.                   

 

 

And here's a visualization of market share.                   

 

However, analysts say upstarts or smaller companies like BoAt are driving the significant year-over-year growth for wearables. Here's the word from IDC's research director for wearables, Ramon T. Llamas:

Larger companies have certainly drawn attention to the worldwide wearables market, yet it is the smaller companies fueling growth. Rather than compete head-to-head with products similar to the market leaders, these smaller companies have instead focused on specific markets and thrived with different solutions. For example, BoAt, the number five company on our list, has succeeded by concentrating only on the Indian market and was rewarded with triple-digit growth. Another example comes from Oura, whose fitness-tracking ring caught the attention of major sports teams and consumers. These and many other companies contributed to the Others category, which posted 55.5% year-over-year growth.

IDC's report says that the fastest growth comes from form factors besides smartwatches, such as digitally connected rings, audio glasses, and wearable patches. This grab-bag subcategory within wearables, which the IDC simply classifies as "other," actually grew 55 percent year-over-year.

Big tech companies like Samsung and Apple have repeatedly told investors in their quarterly earnings calls that wearables are among the fastest-growing sources of revenue and new users, and the companies have said the category will be a major focus moving forward. Currently, the wearables space is mostly dominated by wrist fitness trackers, but as the data shows, there are some signs that additional wearable types may break through. Analysts expect growth to continue for these in the future.

The result may be a personal computing landscape where users depend on a variety of specialized devices for specific circumstances rather than purely relying on a cell phone, tablet, or laptop as the one-stop hub. That said, if the way devices from Apple, Samsung, and Google work is any indication, many wearables are likely to treat the smartphone as a mobile nerve center for a plethora of connected devices.

More people are buying wearables than ever before—and Apple is in the lead

nubia launched its latest gaming smartphone, called Red Magic 6R. It not a huge upgrade over the Red Magic 6 and Red Magic 6 Pro, but comes with a much slimmer body and more universally appealing design, dropping some of the gaming aesthetics.

The nubia Red Magic 6R is powered by a Snapdragon 888 chipset, coupled with either 8GB or 12GB RAM. The display is a 6.67” AMOLED with a 144Hz refresh rate and a single punch hole in the center.

There are shoulder triggers that are touch sensors (and not physical keys like in the Redmi K40 Gaming) that offer 400Hz touch sampling rate.

ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R

The Red Magic 6R matches the 64MP main and 8MP ultrawide cameras of the 6 and 6 Pro, but upgrades the macro camera to a 5MP sensor and adds a 2MP depth snapper.

The selfie camera is also boosted to 16MP compared to 8MP on the outgoing models.

One of the biggest downgrades in the nubia Red Magic 6R the 4,200 mAh battery that charges at up to 55W in China and 30W on the global model. While those are solid numbers, they are markedly down on the 5,050mAh battery of the Red Magic 6 that did 66W everywhere, not to mention the Pro that went up to 120W in China.

ZTE nubia Red Magic 6R

The nubia Red Magic 6R is initially launching in China in three colors and one limited edition variant in yellow developed jointly with Tencent Games.

The phone costs between CNY2,999 ($470/€385) and CNY3,999 ($627/€515), depending on the storage and RAM, but those who preorder before the first flash on June 1 will get a CNY300 ($47/€39) discount.

Source (in Chinese)

Source: nubia introduces Red Magic 6R with Snapdragon 888 and four cameras

Mobile devices will be scored across five categories related to sustainability, combined to give an overall score out of 100

Just how sustainable is your mobile phone?

Today, a new joint initiative from Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, Telia Company, and Vodafone intends to make the answer to this question very clear with the introduction of Eco Rating labels for mobile devices. 

The labels will be based on five categories related to sustainability: durability, repairability, resource efficiency, recyclability, and climate efficiency. These categories will form part of a more detailed assessment of each mobile device, resulting in an overall Eco Rating out of 100.

Based on information from the operators, the various categories will take into consideration the entire life-cycle of the mobile phone where appropriate, providing consistent, accurate information at retail on the environmental impact of producing, using, transporting and disposing of smartphones.

The rating methodology was created by IHOBE, a publicly-owned agency specialized in Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, building upon the latest standards from various industry bodies, including the European Union,  ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The Eco Rating scheme will be rolled out across 24 European countries from June and will initially cover mobile phones from 12 vendors, including Huawei, Samsung, and Xiaomi devices. More devices are expected to follow as the scheme matures.

“Building a more sustainable future is our joint responsibility, so we believe the time is right to drive a harmonised, industry-wide Eco Rating Scheme that will improve transparency and help raise awareness of the environmental impact of the phones that our customers choose,” said the operators in a joint statement. 

“We look forward to welcoming more manufacturers and telecoms operators to the Eco Rating initiative in the future, and we hope it will inspire the whole industry to accelerate its transition towards a more circular model for mobile phones.”

With demand for mobile devices climbing, hopefully this Eco Rating scheme will push device makers and operators to compete with one another to make their supply chains more sustainable, as well as helping to educate consumers about the environmental costs of the devices they purchase.

Source: Smarphones to receive Eco Rating label from major European operators

Google launches its third major operating system, Fuchsia

The Google Nest Hub is the world's first commercial Fuchsia device.

Google is officially rolling out a new operating system, called Fuchsia, to consumers. The release is a bit hard to believe at this point, but Google confirmed the news to 9to5Google, and several members of the Fuchsia team have confirmed it on Twitter. The official launch date was apparently yesterday. Fuchsia is certainly getting a quiet, anti-climactic release, as it's only being made available to one device, the Google Home Hub, aka the first-generation Nest Hub. There are no expected changes to the UI or functionality of the Home Hub, but Fuchsia is out there. Apparently, Google simply wants to prove out the OS in a consumer environment.

 

Fuchsia's one launch device was originally called the Google Home Hub and is a 7-inch smart display that responds to Google Assistant commands. It came out in 2018. The device was renamed the "Nest Hub" in 2019, and it's only this first-generation device, not the second-generation Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max, that is getting Fuchsia. The Home Hub's OS has always been an odd duck. When the device was released, Google was pitching a smart display hardware ecosystem to partners based on Android Things, a now-defunct Internet-of-things/kiosk OS. Instead of following the recommendations it gave to hardware partners, Google loaded the Home Hub with its in-house Google Cast Platform instead—and then undercut all its partners on price.

 

Fuchsia has long been a secretive project. We first saw the OS as a pre-alpha smartphone UI that was ported to Android in 2017. In 2018, we got the OS running natively on a Pixelbook. After that, the Fuchsia team stopped doing its work in the open and stripped all UI work out of the public repository.

 

There's no blog post or any fanfare at all to mark Fuchsia's launch. Google's I/O  conference happened last week, and the company didn't make a peep about Fuchsia there, either. Really, this ultra-quiet, invisible release is the most "Fuchsia" launch possible.

 

Fuchsia is something very rare in the world of tech: it's a built-from-scratch operating system that isn't based on Linux. Fuchsia uses a microkernel called "Zircon" that Google developed in house. Creating an operating system entirely from scratch and bringing it all the way to production sounds like a difficult task, but Google managed to do exactly that over the past six years. Fuchsia's primary app-development language is Flutter, a cross-platform UI toolkit from Google. Flutter runs on Android, iOS, and the web, so writing Flutter apps today for existing platforms means you're also writing Fuchsia apps for tomorrow.

 

The Nest Hub's switch to Fuchsia is kind of interesting because of how invisible it should be. It will be the first test of this Fuchsia's future-facing Flutter app support—the Google smart display interface is written in Flutter, so Google can take the existing interface, rip out all the Google Cast guts underneath, and plop the exact same interface code down on top of Fuchsia. Google watchers have long speculated that this was the plan all along. Rather than having a disruptive OS switch, Google could just get coders to write in Flutter and then it could seamlessly swap out the operating system.

 

So, unless we get lucky, don't expect a dramatic hands-on post of Fuchsia running on the Nest Hub. It's likely that there isn't currently much to see or do with the new operating system, and that's exactly how Google wants it. Fuchsia is more than just a smart-display operating system, though. An old Bloomberg report from 2018 has absolutely nailed the timing of Fuchsia so far, saying that Google wanted to first ship the OS on connected home devices "within three years"—the report turns three years old in July. The report also laid out the next steps for Fuchsia, including an ambitious expansion to smartphones and laptops by 2023.

 

Taking over the Nest Hub is one thing—no other team at Google really has a vested interest in the Google Cast OS (you could actually argue that the Cast OS is on the way out, as the latest Chromecast is switching to Android). Moving the OS onto smartphones and laptops is an entirely different thing, though, since the Fuchsia team would crash into the Android and Chrome OS divisions. Now you're getting into politics.

Google launches its third major operating system, Fuchsia

May security patch incoming for the OnePlus 6, 6T, and Nord N100

A hot potato: Apple and Telegram's checkered history has seen the messaging app get booted off (and return) to the App Store. Telegram, like several other third parties, deems Apple's policies and approach to be heavy-handed, which also resulted in an EU antitrust complaint last year. In his latest criticism, Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated on his public Telegram channel that Cupertino's business model was based on selling overpriced, obsolete hardware, and that iPhone users were "digital slaves of Apple." His strong-worded commentary comes in response to an NYT investigative report on Apple's relationship with China.

A detailed report from The New York Times on Apple-China relations prompted a response from Telegram's Pavel Durov, in which he criticized Apple and its iOS platform. On his public Telegram channel, the CEO noted that Apple was very efficient at pursuing its business model, which was based on selling "overpriced, obsolete hardware to customers locked in their ecosystem."

Some Apple users might agree on the pricing part, but Cupertino's custom silicon regularly makes waves in the industry, further complementing the user experience with under-the-hood optimizations, so they're unlikely to agree with the obsolete part.

Pavel also took shots at iOS and the iPhone and said that testing his app on Apple's platform felt like he'd been thrown back into the Middle Ages. While iOS is widely known to have better quality, more polished apps than Android, Pavel specifically called out 120Hz displays on modern Android phones (vs. 60Hz on the latest iPhones) that enable much smoother animations. Perhaps the upcoming iPhone 13 with its rumored 120Hz display would change his opinion.

What's harder to change, however, is Cupertino's strict stance and control over its App Store, which is also at center stage of the ongoing Epic vs. Apple antitrust trial. "Owning an iPhone makes you a digital slave of Apple," says Pavel, noting that users have no other choice but to download apps from the App Store, with Apple's iCloud being the only option for natively backing up data.

He also said that it was Apple's "totalitarian" approach that the Chinese Communist Party appreciated, and which has now enabled the Chinese government to take complete control of apps and data of all its citizens using iPhones.

Source

The 2nd generation iPad, introduced by Steve Jobs in March of 2011, has officially been marked as an obsolete product worldwide. Released less than a year after the launch of the original ‌‌iPad‌‌, the second-generation ‌‌iPad‌‌ marked a breakthrough for the product line and set the groundwork for years to come.

Apple added the ‌iPad‌ 2 to its "vintage and obsolete" product list in May of 2019, which marked the ‌iPad‌ as obsolete in all countries except the United States and Turkey, where local law required Apple to continue to consider it a vintage product. Yesterday, however, Apple updated its list to add the new ‌iPad‌ to its official obsolete list, deeming it obsolete worldwide.

The second-generation ‌iPad‌ included an updated design that was 33% thinner than the original ‌iPad‌. The new ‌iPad‌ also sported new capabilities, including a front-facing camera for FaceTime calls, a gyroscope, and an updated dual-core A5 processor, twice as fast as the original ‌iPad‌ and up to nine times faster in graphics. The ‌iPad‌ was also offered in both white and black models.

Apple classifies products that have been discontinued for at least seven years as "obsolete," meaning that they are unable to receive any hardware service from Apple or its service providers.

Source: iPad 2 Now Considered Obsolete Worldwide

One of the new features introduced with iOS 14 last year was the ability to see Air Quality in the Weather app, but this is restricted to only a few regions. However, with the first beta of iOS 14.7, the company is finally expanding this feature to more countries.

As reported by multiple users on Reddit and Twitter, iOS 14.7 beta 1 brings the Air Quality feature in the iPhone Weather app to more regions. This includes cities in the Netherlands, France, Italy, and Spain. Other comments also mention that the feature is working in Canada as well.

In the United States, the measurement of air quality is based on an Air Quality Index (AQI) that ranges from 0 to 500, where lower numbers represent better air quality and higher numbers are considered unhealthy. This information is displayed in a colored bar within the Weather app on the iPhone, and is also shown on Apple Maps.

iOS 14.7 isn’t exactly a major update, but it does bring a great new feature for HomePod users, who can now set and stop timers using the Home app on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It’s unclear, however, when this update will become available to the public.

Something that’s new in iOS 14.7 for Canada Air quality index in weather apps pic.twitter.com/D4FG8oM7oz

— John Ee (@heyJohnEe) May 19, 2021

Source: Apple expanding ‘Air Quality’ Weather app feature to more countries with iOS 14.7

The new Honor Magic will also focus on image quality, according to the company.

Microsoft has begun rolling out dark mode for the unified Office app on Android. The theming option for the app was spotted earlier this year and is now being made available to all users, bringing to the app a feature that the Redmond firm says was “highly requested”. Interestingly, there is no word on whether the update with the theming option is heading to the other productivity apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

When Opera Software launched its new Opera GX web browser last year, it did so only for desktop operating systems and not mobile operating systems.

Opera GX turned out to be quite the success for Opera Software, and the company released several updates since the initial release that extended the browser's functionality. Updates introduced a network limiter, Discord support, background music playback, and more.

The main idea behind Opera GX was to create a browser for gamers. Distinguishing factors are the colorful interface of the browser and the integration of game news and information.

Today, Opera Software announced the beta launch of Opera GX Mobile for Android and iOS. Interested users can download the browser for their devices directly from the announcement blog post on the Opera website.

The announcement highlights the following features:

Looking beyond the bold, gaming-inspired design and different color themes, Opera GX Mobile comes with some truely unique features. First off, you get custom navigation with the Fast Action Button (FAB) and haptic feedback (vibrations).

On top of this, you can easily sync your mobile and desktop browsers with the Flow feature – it lets you share files, notes, videos and gaming content like walkthroughs, tutorials and character builds between your devices. Plus there’s instant access to GX Corner – a one-tap space for gaming news, deals and a game release calendar.

Opera GX Mobile displays a handful of important options on first start. You may enable ad-blocking and the blocking of cookie dialogs next to the blocking of cryptomining scripts, switch to another theme, and choose between standard navigation and what Opera Software calls Fast Action Button. All of these options can be changed in the settings later on.

Tip: consider disabling the "extended usage statistics" option while you are in the settings, as it is enabled by default.

Fast Action Button adds a button to the browser that enables users to control various features using it with a single activation of the button. Just long-tap on it to display its menu and search, open or close tabs, or switch to tabs quickly using it. Everything is in reach of the user's thumb. Vibrations are used when you activate the button.

Opera GX Mobile displays game release information, news and other game related information on its new tab page just like the desktop version of the browser.

The browser supports Opera Flow, a synchronization feature to sync data between different mobile and desktop versions.

Here is a release video in case you are interested

Closing Words

Opera GX users who use the desktop version already may be inclined to switch to the mobile version of the browser as well. Maybe not right away, since it is a beta version, but eventually when the first final version is released.

Source: Opera GX Mobile Beta for Android and iOS released

It isn’t Google Reader, but it could be the start of something

Google is testing a new feature for its Chrome browser on Android that lets users “follow” sites to create an updating list of new content they publish. The feature is based on RSS, an open web standard that’s been the backbone of many popular web aggregation tools in the past. That includes Google’s own, much beloved (and now defunct) Google Reader.

The test is small-scale: following sites will only be an option for some US users of Chrome Canary (the bleeding-edge version of Chrome that lets enthusiasts access beta features). Users will be able to follow sites from the browser menu, and updates will be aggregated in a card-based feed that’s shown when users open a new tab. It’s not clear whether this feed is wholly dependent on sites providing RSS support, or if Google will fill in the gaps itself.

Although this is just an early test, it’s nonetheless exciting for a certain sort of web user who misses the glory-days of RSS (and, by extension, a mode of internet discovery and distribution that faded years ago). At its core, RSS allows users to maintain a personalized feed of new content from favorite sites, blogs, and podcasts. And although tools that utilized these feeds were briefly very popular, they were eclipsed for numerous reasons.

Exactly why RSS fell from prominence is complicated. (Here’s a story from Vice and one from TechCrunch that help explain.) But whatever the ultimate cause, many see its demise as a turning point for the web: the moment when decentralized, chronological feeds were replaced by the engagement-driven algorithms of social media giants.

The halcyon days of 2013: the year of Google Reader’s death. 

Image: The Verge

Earlier in March, Qualcomm refreshed the Snapdragon 7 series lineup with the launch of the Snapdragon 780G. While the new chip has only found its way to a single commercial device (the Mi 11 Lite 5G), the San Diego-based chipmaker is adding one more 7 series chip to its portfolio. Meet the Snapdragon 778G: the successor to last year’s Snapdragon 768G.

The Snapdragon 778G retains many of the key aspects of the Snapdragon 780G but settles for a slightly lowered binned GPU and less powerful ISP. At the same time, the chip also boasts a faster CPU, better modem with support for mmWave 5G, and support for faster memory. Just like other Snapdragon 7 series chipsets, the goal with the Snapdragon 778G is to deliver some of the premium features from the top-tier Snapdragon 8 series portfolio in a more affordable package.

In terms of technical details, the Snapdragon 778G isn’t overall that different from the Snapdragon 780G. It has a similar CPU architecture, with an octa-core CPU clocked at up to 2.4GHz with a claimed 40% performance boost over Snapdragon 768G. On the GPU side, the Snapdragon 778G comes with the Adreno 642L, which Qualcomm claims offers up to 40% faster graphics rendering than its predecessor. Qualcomm isn’t detailing the clock speed of the GPU, but it’s most probably clocked at a slightly slower frequency than the Adreno 642 in the 780G.

As for gaming, the chip supports select Snapdragon Elite Gaming features such as Variable Rate Shading (VRS) that helps game developers offer higher visual fidelity while reducing the GPU workload, and Qualcomm Game Quick Touch, which offers up to 30% faster touch response rate in games.

The Snapdragon 778G comes with the Spectra 570L Image Signal Processor. The triple 14-bit ISP can capture concurrent video or image feeds from a primary, ultra-wide, and telephoto sensor. OEMs can configure up to three 22MP triple cameras with Zero Shutter Lag (ZSL), up to 36MP+22MP sensors with ZSL in a dual-camera setup, or up to a single 64MP sensor with ZSL. The Spectra 570L also supports Staggered HDR image sensors for computational HDR video capture, HDR10+ video capture, and burst capture at up to 120fps.

Although the Snapdragon 778G offers similar performance when compared to the Snapdragon 780G, there’s one area where it’s actually superior to its more powerful sibling: memory. The Snapdragon 778G supports LPDDR5 memory chips with a capacity of up to 16GB. In comparison, the Snapdragon 780G only supports LPDDR4 memory chips.

The Snapdragon 778G is also fabricated on TSMC’s 6nm process while the Snapdragon 780G is fabricated on Samsung’s 6nm process. Due to the ongoing global chip shortage affecting many different vendors, including Qualcomm, it seems that Qualcomm is upping the production of its upper mid-tier products to meet demand from smartphone manufacturers.

On the connectivity front, the Snapdragon 778G supports the FastConnect 6700 system, which enables support for WiFi 6/6E, 8×8 MU-MIMO, Bluetooth 5.2, and Snapdragon Sound suite. As usual, OEMs are free to utilize alternative WiFi/Bluetooth chips, so these features aren’t guaranteed to be supported on any given device. On the other hand, mobile data connectivity is handled by the integrated Snapdragon X53 5G modem with peak download speeds of up to 3.7Gbps, 5G mmWave and Sub-6GHz support, Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, 5G SA and NSA, and more. The mmWave 5G part is interesting as the Snapdragon 780G doesn’t support the higher-speed 5G technology.

Availability

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G is expected to arrive in smartphones launching in Q2 2021. Motorola, Realme, iQOO, Xiaomi, Honor, and OPPO are among the list of OEMs who have confirmed to launch a phone with Snapdragon 778G.

In a statement, Motorola says its Snapdragon 778G-powered device will feature the company’s “Ready For” platform. “Ready For” is Motorola’s desktop mode-like feature that debuted with the Android 11 update for the Edge+. While Motorola, Xiaomi, iQOO, and OPPO have not confirmed specific device models, Honor and Realme have commented on which upcoming smartphone models will be powered by the new chipset. Honor has said that its upcoming Honor 50 series will feature the new chipset, while Realme says the “new realme X series” device will feature it. Given that the last Realme X series was the Realme X3, we suspect that the Realme device(s) in question with the chipset will be part of the Realme X4 series.

Source: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 778G 5G will power a new generation of mid-range 5G phones

That’s a lot of smartphones

There are over 3 billion active Android devices in the wild now. Sameer Samat, VP of product management at Google, announced the news at Google I/O 2021, which is live, but totally online, this year.

Google added over 500 million active Android devices since its last developer’s conference in 2019 and 1 billion devices since 2017. (That was when it hit the 2 billion mark.) The number is taken from the Google Play Store, which doesn’t take into account devices based on Android but that use alternative stores, including Amazon Fire devices and the myriad of Chinese Android-based devices that avoid using Google’s apps altogether. That means the number of active Android devices is likely much higher than what Samat announced on the live stream.

The news feels like a flex against Apple, too. Apple announced over 1 billion active iPhones in the wild earlier this year — a mere third of the number of Android devices. It’s a bold reminder that Apple’s smartphone and tablet dominance is largely limited to the United States and a few other regions. For everywhere else, it’s Android.

Source: There are over 3 billion active Android devices

Google shocked everyone and announced a partnership with Samsung as the companies are joining forces to work on the new ‘Wear’ wearable operating system. The plan is to bring the best things from Google’s Wear OS and Samsung’s Tizen OS, along with some Fitbit sprinkled in. Samsung even went so far as to confirm that its next smartwatch will be powered by Wear, and not Tizen OS.

But what does that mean for Samsung’s existing smartwatches, including the likes of the Galaxy Watch 3 or Galaxy Watch Active 2? Well, Samsung isn’t ready to just leave its customers in the dark, at least, not yet.

Samsung has confirmed that it will continue to support Tizen Galaxy Watches for up to three years, ensuring that your investment doesn’t end up as a paperweight. Truthfully, it wouldn’t be a good look for Samsung or Google if the $400 Galaxy Watch 3 was just thrown to the way-side and never saw another update again, despite not even being a year old yet.

At Samsung, we always put customers at the heart of everything we do. That’s why we are committed to bringing them the best possible smartwatch experiences. For customers who already own the Tizen OS based Galaxy smartwatches, we are continuing to provide at least three years of software support after the product launch.

Thankfully, that’s not the case as the Watch 3 will see updates at least until August 2023. Unfortunately, we don’t have a specific timeline for Samsung’s currently available smartwatches, which also includes the Samsung Galaxy Watch which is a couple of years old at this point.

We’re not exactly sure as to when Samsung and Google will launch the first Wear-powered device, but it’s safe to assume that it would be the Galaxy Watch 4. With Samsung being rumored to launch the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 in August, it would make sense for a new smartwatch to accompany these smartphones.

Source: Despite Wear partnership with Google, Samsung's not giving up on Tizen yet

Google today announced new updates for Google Maps at its ongoing I/O developer conference. The first of the improvements is mainly aimed at reducing hard-braking incidents while driving. Google Maps will use AI to find routes that are less likely to include areas where hard-braking can occur thereby reducing chances of an accident. Google says this update has the potential to eliminate 100 million hard-braking events in routes driven with Google Maps each year.

Next up are enhancements to Live View. The feature is now available directly inside the Maps app and provides important information about establishments around a user, such as how busy they are, recent reviews, and relevant photos. It also includes "helpful street signs" for complex intersections that point users to their places of interest.

The detailed street maps feature introduced last year uses AI to display where sidewalks, crosswalks, and pedestrian islands are, along with the shape and width of a road to scale. This is especially useful when navigating on foot or for those with accessibility needs. The company today announced that the feature will be rolling out to 50 new cities by the end of this year, including Berlin, São Paulo, Seattle, and Singapore.

Live busyness information - a feature that helps users ascertain if a select place of interest is busy or crowded - now shows the relative "busyness" of an entire area by selectively highlighting a neighborhood or part of town. The firm adds that this information will help users gauge how busy an area is, allowing them to save time or stay socially distanced during the pandemic.

Lastly, Google Maps will now tailor its information based on your usage patterns and history, and show only the most relevant places based on time of the day and whether or not you’re traveling. For example, if you regularly open the app early in the morning, it will show you restaurants serving breakfast at that hour, rather than all available places around you.

All of these features will roll out gradually to Android and iOS devices globally.

Source: Google Maps gets a bunch of new features and improvements