On Pixel devices, there’s a service called Wallpaper & Style that gives you a lot of personalization control. Along with the usual smattering of default Android wallpapers, Google will sometimes load in Pixel-exclusive wallpapers that are only around for a short period of time. Today, we saw two new sets of Pixel wallpapers landing, both related to football teams (aka soccer) in the United Kingdom.

The Liverpool and Arsenal football clubs are represented here with eight wallpapers each, for a total of 16 new wallpapers. You can see all of them below. However, please don’t download the wallpapers from these galleries, as they have been heavily compressed and won’t look great on your phone. Instead, scroll down to the bottom of the article and find a button to download all of them in full quality.

Arsenal FC Pixel wallpapers

Liverpool FC Pixel wallpapers

Download these wallpapers for yourself

Don’t own a Pixel or haven’t seen the update yet? You can simply download these wallpapers for yourself and use them on any device you like. Click the button below to get them all in their high-resolution form.

At Android Authority, we are huge fans of Android phones. However, since we cover the entire mobile landscape, you might be surprised to learn that some of the people who work here don’t use Android phones as their daily drivers. Yes, we have a few traitors iPhone users in our midst, and they help us get a broader look at the Android versus iOS competition.

You might be surprised, though, to learn that many of our readers also use iPhones. In fact, after Android, iOS is the operating system most used to visit our site, even more so than Windows! Don’t believe me? Check out the chart below, which represents a typical month of Android Authority visits:

With all this in mind, it would make sense that some of our iOS-based readers used to be Android fans but have since made the switch to the iPhone but are still keeping an eye on Google’s mobile adventures. That got us curious, and in an effort to dig deeper, we ran a poll asking if people had jumped ship from Android to iOS and why.

We ran this poll here at Android Authority but also on our X and YouTube profiles. Below, we’ve compiled some of the most interesting answers. We think this is a really cool and interesting look into what might need some work within Android. After all, if Google and/or Android OEMs addressed some of these complaints, maybe these people would still be Android users.

Let’s dive in!

Why our readers made the switch to the iPhone

Overall, there were a few recurring themes for the answers we saw. We’re going to organize the comments by those themes and give you some examples. Let’s start with one of the most significant differentiators between Android and iOS: privacy.

Privacy

On X, user Shafty023 summarized their reason for switching very succinctly:

Privacy is a huge one. Done with having Google see and know everything about me via my phone.

It is true that iPhones approach data privacy a bit differently than Android phones. The main difference is money: Although both companies are collecting user data, Apple’s revenue doesn’t rely on that data, while Google’s primary source of income is selling that data. That being said, Android phones have come a long way for privacy, and there are ways to “de-Google” an Android phone, such as by flashing Graphene OS. But it’s still true that if privacy is your main area of concern, you’re probably going to be happier on an iPhone.

Another X user, DarkLordWaffles, agrees:

Google is primarily an ad agency. They approach all business decisions from that perspective. Apple primarily a hardware company. Different design philosophies

And BaritoneGuy even claims to have read the fine print:

Privacy. Plain and simple. I actually spent the time to read all the squinty print before I switched. I went from Blackberry to Windows phone to Samsung and then Apple. If I could get an Android phone without the Google stuff I would like that, but if you want the phone to be functional then that is not possible.

iMessage and apps in general

In the United States, one of the most significant aspects of the iPhone keeping users from switching is iMessage. For reasons I won’t get into here, people in the US have not adopted platform-agnostic chat apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.) nearly as much as the rest of the world has. This leaves iPhone users dependent on iMessage. It’s only logical that this allure would tempt Android users to make the switch to an iPhone.

On YouTube, here’s what Nathan1Sixteen had to say on that:

Because I got tired of my friends complaining about my text message bubble color

This references so-called “green bubble hate,” a US phenomenon in which people get angry at Android users for “ruining” group chats within iMessage. Considering we primarily use our phones as communication machines, can you really blame someone for using the operating system that is best for communicating with friends and family?

X user ERosener had similar sentiments:

I love android. But until RCS is widely available on iOS I have had to move back to my iPhone to be more compatible with family and friends. Pathetic, I know.

This user is referencing Rich Communications Services (RCS), which is how many US-based Android users communicate with one another. It’s essentially iMessage, but for Android. Thankfully, Apple is going to incorporate RCS into iOS 18 this year, which will allow iPhone users to better communicate with Android users. However, those green bubbles aren’t going anywhere, and iPhone-to-iPhone communication will still be superior to iPhone-to-Android communication.

On a related note, another X user, ArtoriasAkai, doesn’t mention iMessage but does talk about how apps on iOS tend to be better and more polished:

I switched because of the apps. Standard and downloaded apps are just better on iOS. Both in polish and function. I got tired of hunting for the good apps on Android. Often the better/best apps cost money on Android.

This is because app development for iOS is more streamlined than for Android. For example, developers only need to worry about one hardware company instead of dozens and also only need to work with a fairly limited set of screen sizes and hardware specs, at least when compared to the thousands of Android phones out there.

Broader ecosystem

Since Apple tightly controls its hardware, it shouldn’t be surprising that its broader ecosystem consists of devices that all work very well with one another. While most of the integrations Apple offers can be replicated with Android phones, Windows laptops, Chromebooks, etc., Apple’s “it just works” ethos is undeniably alluring.

X user DigiDynamo000 elaborates on this:

The reason was more towards the ecosystem itself and how it worked well with my workflow. Though I recognize that on a 1:1 comparison, Android is the superior of the platforms.

Apple also dominates certain categories, such as tablets and smartwatches. Simply put, the Android tablet industry is dwarfed by the iPad and very few Android-compatible smartwatches can truly meet the level of the Apple Watch. X user ThatTim5 is keenly aware of that last point:

The Apple Watch. All the other smartwatches wasn’t [sic] that good.

While Google’s Wear OS (which is based on Android) has made big strides in the past few years, the company wasted too much time before taking smartwatches seriously. Because of this, Google is the David in a traditional David vs Goliath story when it comes to the Apple Watch — and if you want an Apple Watch, you must own an iPhone.

Hardware

The aesthetic appeal of a smartphone is subjective, for sure, but some differences are objectively more useful. One example is ease of use: a phone that is really big is going to be difficult for a person with smaller hands to use. This has been a significant problem in the Android world because buying a compact Android phone has generally forced you to make significant compromises on performance and features. Meanwhile, the sizing of iPhones allows you to get big and small phones without losing out on many features.

Android Authority reader Phil Scadden sums it up like this:

It is possible to buy a quality phone that still fits in your pocket with iOS. Hard to buy an android less than 6.4 inches

Obviously, there are plenty of Android phones out there with sub-6.4-inch displays. But how many of them are just as good as their 6.8-inch counterparts? Not many. Hopefully, the Pixel 9 series will help fix this problem in the Android world since the Pixel 9 Pro is poised to be smaller but still offer all the same features as the Pixel 9 Pro XL.

Outside of sizing, the physical features of a phone can also come into play. Android Authority reader Warden mentioned the Action Button on iPhones, a feature that doesn’t have much representation in the Android world:

Action button has been very convenient.

Granted, there are phones out there with buttons similar to the Action Button, but they are not as widespread, nor are they as easily customizable.

Convenience

Speaking of the convenience of the Action Button, it turns out that that word — convenience — came up quite a bit in some of these comments. For some people, it wasn’t a question of wanting to leave Android as much as a need to do so.

X user Kozjegyzo is a good example of this:

Because everything is Apple first with our company. Both hardware and software. So I had to. It’s not as bad as I thought but I kinda wanna go back to Android as a daily driver…

X user Danield011 has similar sentiments:

Just conveniences as all my family has iPhones

Finally, on YouTube, TechnoLawyer is in the same boat:

Because of my kids having iPhones. So mainly for iMessage, FaceTime, Apple Cash, and my oldest daughter’s use of Apple Notes to make lists and the sharing of said notes. If it weren’t for my kids, I think I’d have a Nothing Phone.

Keep this all in mind next time you wonder why someone would ever use an iPhone over Android. It might be that they simply have no choice.

Those are a lot of the reasons why some Android Authority fans have jumped ship to the iPhone. What do you think? What should Android do to address some of these concerns? Let us know in the comments below!

Update: August 2, 2024 (2:00 AM ET): We have updated our Google Pixel 9 rumor hub with newly leaked information about the Pixel 9 line’s release date and more renders.

The Google Pixel 8 series is Google’s best flagship series to date, topping the charts for some of the best Android phones you can buy. But we’re mere weeks away from the launch of the Pixel 9 series, and four of them are expected this time around. What is new with the upcoming generation, and are they exciting upgrades? Let’s jump right in and discuss everything we know about the Google Pixel 9 series!

At Android Authority, we are huge fans of Android phones. However, since we cover the entire mobile landscape, you might be surprised to learn that some of the people who work here don’t use Android phones as their daily drivers. Yes, we have a few traitors iPhone users in our midst, and they help us get a broader look at the Android versus iOS competition.

You might be surprised, though, to learn that many of our readers also use iPhones. In fact, after Android, iOS is the operating system most used to visit our site, even more so than Windows! Don’t believe me? Check out the chart below, which represents a typical month of Android Authority visits:

With all this in mind, it would make sense that some of our iOS-based readers used to be Android fans but have since made the switch to the iPhone but are still keeping an eye on Google’s mobile adventures. That got us curious, and in an effort to dig deeper, we ran a poll asking if people had jumped ship from Android to iOS and why.

We ran this poll here at Android Authority but also on our X and YouTube profiles. Below, we’ve compiled some of the most interesting answers. We think this is a really cool and interesting look into what might need some work within Android. After all, if Google and/or Android OEMs addressed some of these complaints, maybe these people would still be Android users.

Let’s dive in!

Why our readers made the switch to the iPhone

Overall, there were a few recurring themes for the answers we saw. We’re going to organize the comments by those themes and give you some examples. Let’s start with one of the most significant differentiators between Android and iOS: privacy.

Privacy

On X, user Shafty023 summarized their reason for switching very succinctly:

Privacy is a huge one. Done with having Google see and know everything about me via my phone.

It is true that iPhones approach data privacy a bit differently than Android phones. The main difference is money: Although both companies are collecting user data, Apple’s revenue doesn’t rely on that data, while Google’s primary source of income is selling that data. That being said, Android phones have come a long way for privacy, and there are ways to “de-Google” an Android phone, such as by flashing Graphene OS. But it’s still true that if privacy is your main area of concern, you’re probably going to be happier on an iPhone.

Another X user, DarkLordWaffles, agrees:

Google is primarily an ad agency. They approach all business decisions from that perspective. Apple primarily a hardware company. Different design philosophies

And BaritoneGuy even claims to have read the fine print:

Privacy. Plain and simple. I actually spent the time to read all the squinty print before I switched. I went from Blackberry to Windows phone to Samsung and then Apple. If I could get an Android phone without the Google stuff I would like that, but if you want the phone to be functional then that is not possible.

iMessage and apps in general

In the United States, one of the most significant aspects of the iPhone keeping users from switching is iMessage. For reasons I won’t get into here, people in the US have not adopted platform-agnostic chat apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.) nearly as much as the rest of the world has. This leaves iPhone users dependent on iMessage. It’s only logical that this allure would tempt Android users to make the switch to an iPhone.

On YouTube, here’s what Nathan1Sixteen had to say on that:

Because I got tired of my friends complaining about my text message bubble color

This references so-called “green bubble hate,” a US phenomenon in which people get angry at Android users for “ruining” group chats within iMessage. Considering we primarily use our phones as communication machines, can you really blame someone for using the operating system that is best for communicating with friends and family?

X user ERosener had similar sentiments:

I love android. But until RCS is widely available on iOS I have had to move back to my iPhone to be more compatible with family and friends. Pathetic, I know.

This user is referencing Rich Communications Services (RCS), which is how many US-based Android users communicate with one another. It’s essentially iMessage, but for Android. Thankfully, Apple is going to incorporate RCS into iOS 18 this year, which will allow iPhone users to better communicate with Android users. However, those green bubbles aren’t going anywhere, and iPhone-to-iPhone communication will still be superior to iPhone-to-Android communication.

On a related note, another X user, ArtoriasAkai, doesn’t mention iMessage but does talk about how apps on iOS tend to be better and more polished:

I switched because of the apps. Standard and downloaded apps are just better on iOS. Both in polish and function. I got tired of hunting for the good apps on Android. Often the better/best apps cost money on Android.

This is because app development for iOS is more streamlined than for Android. For example, developers only need to worry about one hardware company instead of dozens and also only need to work with a fairly limited set of screen sizes and hardware specs, at least when compared to the thousands of Android phones out there.

Broader ecosystem

Since Apple tightly controls its hardware, it shouldn’t be surprising that its broader ecosystem consists of devices that all work very well with one another. While most of the integrations Apple offers can be replicated with Android phones, Windows laptops, Chromebooks, etc., Apple’s “it just works” ethos is undeniably alluring.

X user DigiDynamo000 elaborates on this:

The reason was more towards the ecosystem itself and how it worked well with my workflow. Though I recognize that on a 1:1 comparison, Android is the superior of the platforms.

Apple also dominates certain categories, such as tablets and smartwatches. Simply put, the Android tablet industry is dwarfed by the iPad and very few Android-compatible smartwatches can truly meet the level of the Apple Watch. X user ThatTim5 is keenly aware of that last point:

The Apple Watch. All the other smartwatches wasn’t [sic] that good.

While Google’s Wear OS (which is based on Android) has made big strides in the past few years, the company wasted too much time before taking smartwatches seriously. Because of this, Google is the David in a traditional David vs Goliath story when it comes to the Apple Watch — and if you want an Apple Watch, you must own an iPhone.

Hardware

The aesthetic appeal of a smartphone is subjective, for sure, but some differences are objectively more useful. One example is ease of use: a phone that is really big is going to be difficult for a person with smaller hands to use. This has been a significant problem in the Android world because buying a compact Android phone has generally forced you to make significant compromises on performance and features. Meanwhile, the sizing of iPhones allows you to get big and small phones without losing out on many features.

Android Authority reader Phil Scadden sums it up like this:

It is possible to buy a quality phone that still fits in your pocket with iOS. Hard to buy an android less than 6.4 inches

Obviously, there are plenty of Android phones out there with sub-6.4-inch displays. But how many of them are just as good as their 6.8-inch counterparts? Not many. Hopefully, the Pixel 9 series will help fix this problem in the Android world since the Pixel 9 Pro is poised to be smaller but still offer all the same features as the Pixel 9 Pro XL.

Outside of sizing, the physical features of a phone can also come into play. Android Authority reader Warden mentioned the Action Button on iPhones, a feature that doesn’t have much representation in the Android world:

Action button has been very convenient.

Granted, there are phones out there with buttons similar to the Action Button, but they are not as widespread, nor are they as easily customizable.

Convenience

Speaking of the convenience of the Action Button, it turns out that that word — convenience — came up quite a bit in some of these comments. For some people, it wasn’t a question of wanting to leave Android as much as a need to do so.

X user Kozjegyzo is a good example of this:

Because everything is Apple first with our company. Both hardware and software. So I had to. It’s not as bad as I thought but I kinda wanna go back to Android as a daily driver…

X user Danield011 has similar sentiments:

Just conveniences as all my family has iPhones

Finally, on YouTube, TechnoLawyer is in the same boat:

Because of my kids having iPhones. So mainly for iMessage, FaceTime, Apple Cash, and my oldest daughter’s use of Apple Notes to make lists and the sharing of said notes. If it weren’t for my kids, I think I’d have a Nothing Phone.

Keep this all in mind next time you wonder why someone would ever use an iPhone over Android. It might be that they simply have no choice.

Those are a lot of the reasons why some Android Authority fans have jumped ship to the iPhone. What do you think? What should Android do to address some of these concerns? Let us know in the comments below!

Update: August 2, 2024 (2:00 AM ET): We have updated our Google Pixel 9 rumor hub with newly leaked information about the Pixel 9 line’s release date and more renders.

The Google Pixel 8 series is Google’s best flagship series to date, topping the charts for some of the best Android phones you can buy. But we’re mere weeks away from the launch of the Pixel 9 series, and four of them are expected this time around. What is new with the upcoming generation, and are they exciting upgrades? Let’s jump right in and discuss everything we know about the Google Pixel 9 series!

We’re officially in August, which means we’re less than two weeks away from the huge Made by Google event coming up on August 13. We expect to see the Pixel 9 series of phones there, including the follow-up to the Google Pixel Fold, which will get a slight name change to the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Today, thanks to Steve Hemmerstoffer and 91Mobiles, we have a leaked set of promotional images that give away a ton of details about the upcoming foldable. Hemmerstoffer — a reliable leaker — also has some supposed pricing for us.

Let’s start with that. According to Hemmerstoffer, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold could start at $1,799 for the 256GB model. This is the same price as the original Pixel Fold, which is good news. In addition to this, there could also be a 512GB version for $1,919, which also matches the original Fold.

In other words, it doesn’t appear Google is asking for more cash for the updated model, which is nice. Obviously, it would have been great to see a price reduction, but a stable price is always welcome, too.

As for the promotional imagery, you can see them below.

Leaked Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold images

Most of the stuff listed in these images we already knew, but here’s a quick bullet list of what they reveal, just in case you need catching up:

• It will be the thinnest foldable available (in the US, huge caveat)
• The inner display is 8 inches, while the cover display is 6.3 inches
• The cover display has a selfie camera cutout in the top center, while, for the first time, the inner display has a selfie camera cutout in the upper right
• Overall, the design is different, with less of the “passport” style of the previous model and no full-body camera bar
• It comes in two colors: Porcelain (off-white) and Obsidian (black)

From other leaks, we are almost certain we’ll see the Tensor G4 under the hood. We are also relatively sure the phone could come with a similar camera setup as the last model, with primary, ultrawide, and telephoto lenses.

Although this gives a lot away, who knows if Google will have surprises for us on August 13. Stay tuned!

Earlier this month, Apple held its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). There, it launched Apple Intelligence, the umbrella term that will be the home of generative AI tools for iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. The company spent approximately 50% of its keynote event solely focused on these new technologies and how they will make using its products better.

Unfortunately, it looks like nearly half a billion people won’t be able to experience Apple Intelligence features, at least not anytime soon. Today, via Bloomberg, we learned that Apple will not launch Apple Intelligence in the European Union for the time being. The reason behind this is the Digital Markets Act (DMA).  This is the main reason Apple has been pushed to change many of its policies, such as moving the iPhone to USB-C, allowing third-party app stores, and allowing developers to use third-party payment systems to bypass Apple’s previously mandatory 30% cut of all profits.

Apparently, Apple anticipates the DMA will mess with its Apple Intelligence plans, so it’s just not going to launch it there right now. “We are concerned that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security,” the company said in a statement.

In a seemingly separate statement to Financial Times, Apple said this would not be a permanent policy:

Due to the regulatory uncertainties brought about by the Digital Markets Act, we do not believe that we will be able to roll out three of these [new] features […] to our EU users this year.

Apple Intelligence is almost certainly going to be another way for it to push users to stay locked within its ecosystem. It’s possible Apple has concerns that, in order to abide by the DMA, it would need to open Apple Intelligence to other ecosystems, such as Android. Given how much Apple Intelligence is likely to cost the company (at least some of the features announced so far will require using a remote Apple data center to function), the return on investment in offering those features to EU citizens might not be worth it if the company can’t also lock those users into the broader Apple ecosystem.

Unfortunately, this limit in the EU won’t just apply to generative AI features under the Apple Intelligence umbrella. Two other features launched at WWDC — iPhone Mirroring and SharePlay Screen Sharing — will also apparently not land in the EU. It is unclear what about these features could be negatively impacted by the DMA.

What does this mean for Apple users in the EU?

This news will almost certainly be a significant problem for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users in the EU. Remember: the second half of Apple’s entire WWDC keynote was devoted to Apple Intelligence. It’s clear the company has a lot riding on this, and it will be a significant focus of the company’s current and future strategies.

For EU citizens to be left out of that will almost certainly push some to adopt other platforms, including Android and Windows, both of which are not yet limiting AI features by region. This won’t happen overnight, but if Apple launches a new version of iOS in the EU that only has a handful of new non-AI features, the eventual glut of development will certainly cause a user exodus.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming months and years. Will EU-based Apple users abandon the brand, or will they begrudgingly hang on while they watch Apple users in the United States and other countries enjoy shiny new AI features? Also, the DMA has been hugely influential on US policies. Will the US adopt more of the DMA’s principles and force Apple to simply alter Apple Intelligence everywhere? Time will tell.

This year, we’ve seen digital assistants get serious AI facelifts. Google is by far the most prominent, with its Gemini platform already poised to take over for Google Assistant. Meanwhile, at WWDC24, Apple showed off what a generative AI-powered version of Siri will be able to do later this year.

So far, the major digital assistant platform left out of this conversation is Amazon’s Alexa. Alexa hasn’t had a good couple of years. Amazon considers the platform unprofitable because not enough people use it for what Amazon wants them to use it for, which is buying products on Amazon, naturally. Alexa also doesn’t have the advantage of being baked into your smartphone since the one time Amazon tried to launch a phone was a crash-and-burn failure. This has all culminated with Amazon shrinking the Alexa team and focusing less on it.

But Alexa’s not about to be left behind in the generative AI race. According to a new report from Reuters, Amazon is working hard to bring generative AI-powered Alexa to the masses. Codenamed “Banyan” — a reference to a species of sprawling ficus trees — the “new” Alexa would offer two tiers of service, with the lower tier remaining free and the top tier costing users a monthly fee.

Internally, Amazon is referring to this upgrade as “Remarkable Alexa,” although that is unlikely to be its commercial name. Allegedly, access to “Remarkable Alexa” might cost between $5 and $10 each month. There is not going to be a tie-in with Prime membership, so you won’t get access to the premium tier just by paying for Prime.

According to three current and former Amazon employees speaking anonymously with Reuters, the company has given the Alexa team a hard deadline of August 2024 for the rollout of the “Banyan” project. This would put it nearly a year behind Google’s Gemini announcement and months behind Apple’s Siri announcement. However, if Amazon can actually roll out the new Alexa in August, it might beat Siri’s actual rollout, which likely won’t be completed until early 2025.

Regardless, Amazon’s top brass are calling this a “must-win” situation for the unprofitable Alexa. The team hopes that conversational AI will finally bring Alexa to a profit by allowing users to converse with it about products before making a purchase. However, the people speaking with Reuters admitted that people are too used to using Alexa for free, so paying a monthly fee for it — no matter how useful it might be — isn’t likely to work.

At the beginning of this month, Spotify increased the price of its Premium plan by $1.00, going from $10.99 monthly to $11.99 monthly. The main reason for this price jump was the recent introduction of audiobook support on the platform. With the “new” Premium plan, you get 15 hours of audiobook listening time per month.

The problem is that users who don’t care about audiobooks suddenly are paying more for a service they don’t use. Well, Spotify is now offering a solution in the United States with its new Spotify Basic plan. The Basic plan costs $10.99 each month and only includes music and podcasts.

Wait a minute — that’s just the old Premium plan with the same old price!

We’re not really sure why Spotify chose to do things this way. Why didn’t it launch a new plan that included audiobooks with a slight upcharge and then give people the option of switching? Instead, it forced everyone on Premium to pay more, and now they need to manually switch down to Basic if they don’t want audiobooks. Oh, wait — I just answered my own question.

Regardless of Spotify’s sneaky moves here, it is nice to see that people who were upset about the price increase have an option to get things back to normal with this new Basic plan.

This probably isn’t the only new Spotify plan we’ll see this year. A years-in-the-making tier is probably coming in 2024 that will provide users access to lossless audio, which will be of higher quality than the compressed tracks Spotify Basic and Premium subscribers get. However, Spotify might be too late to the game by the time this so-called “Hi-Fi” tier launches, considering Apple Music’s entire catalog is lossless and doesn’t require more money to access it.

Today, the United States government under the Biden administration announced an upcoming sweeping ban of Kaspersky software. Kaspersky is most well-known for its antivirus programs that protect Windows machines, but it also has several other types of programs and a robust library of Android apps. Its most popular Android app, VPN & Antivirus by Kaspersky, has over 100 million installs.

Reuters reports that the ban will come in two waves. First, new sales of Kaspersky products will need to cease in the US within 30 days of the ban’s official announcement, which is likely to land in the coming days. That means that by the end of July, Kaspersky software and licenses will no longer be sold in the US. The second wave will begin 100 days after the official announcement of the ban, which will likely be the end of September. At this point, all usage of Kaspersky software, licenses, and white-label products with Kaspersky technology underneath must end. The 100-day window is to give businesses time to invest in alternatives to Kaspersky’s offerings.

The Biden administration does not mince words about why it is instituting this ban. According to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, it is due to Kaspersky’s ties to Moscow and the possible security threat that that represents.

“Russia has shown it has the capacity and […] the intent to exploit Russian companies like Kaspersky to collect and weaponize the personal information of Americans, and that is why we are compelled to take the action that we are taking today,” Raimondo said on a call with reporters Thursday.

Per comments heard by WIRED, Raimondo had this to say to anyone who is currently using Kaspersky software:

You have done nothing wrong, and you are not subject to any criminal or civil penalties. However, I would encourage you, in as strong as possible terms, to immediately stop using that software and switch to an alternative in order to protect yourself and your data and your family.

To be clear, there will not likely be any criminal penalties for continuing to use Kaspersky software on personal computers and devices.

This ban is now the second time the Biden administration has pushed for a product to be removed from the US due to its ties to a foreign government. Previously, President Biden announced a ban of TikTok in the US should the owner ByteDance — based in China — not divest from the brand. ByteDance is fighting the ban in court on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.

However, unlike with Kaspersky, Biden is giving far more leeway to ByteDance with no ban taking effect until 2025, at the earliest. Kaspersky, though, has such a short window of time that it is unlikely it will be able to fight back effectively. In other words, you should plan for Kaspersky’s ban now, as it is practically inevitable.

An election-year move using a tool from his opponent

President Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election. His opponent is expected to be former President Donald Trump, making it a repeat of the 2020 election. In 2016, Trump’s presidential win was revealed to have been heavily influenced by Russia, with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in particular, possibly helping him to clinch the win.

This is likely at least part of the reason why Biden is acting swiftly now against Kaspersky. Judging by the timeline, Kaspersky will be absent from the United States by the time the election reaches a fever pitch.

Interestingly, the tool President Biden is using to ban Kaspersky is one enacted by Trump. It is similar to the “Entity List” tool Trump used to enact the HUAWEI ban in 2019.

At Google I/O 2024, the company rolled out the public version of its AI-based search functionality in Google Search. Previously known as Search Generative Experience (SGE) and now known as AI Overviews, it was immediately clear at the event that Google thought this was the future of Search, by far its most important (and most lucrative) product.

However, soon after AI Overviews went live, people started to notice some truly bizarre — and, in some cases, dangerous — AI Overview results. Putting glue on pizza to prevent toppings from sliding off, eating a few small rocks a day, and drinking your own urine were just some of these results.

Interestingly, some of the wacky responses were almost certainly caused by the AI Overviews system pulling information from Reddit posts. The pizza glue one comes from an 11-year-old Reddit post, for example.

After these ridiculous responses went viral, Google apologized and promised to refine the system further. Today, we have some data that suggests one of the biggest changes Google might have made is to simply rely less on Reddit.

According to search engine optimization (SEO) platform SERanking (via Search Engine Land), Reddit is no longer a top-ten source for AI Overviews information. In an analysis of 100,000 keywords, SERanking found the top five sources for results were Runners World, Healthline, LinkedIn, RunRepeat, and Wikipedia. It isn’t clear where Reddit now falls in the ranking, but SERanking affirms it was in the top ten at some point in the past.

It also isn’t clear where other dubious sources for information now fall on the list. The suggestion to eat a few small rocks a day almost certainly comes from The Onion, probably the world’s most famous satirical news site. The fact that AI Overviews was even pulling information from this “source” at all is a good indicator of just how trustworthy one should find the results it gives.

This whole situation has seemingly resulted in Google pushing AI Overviews at a far slower rate than it did immediately after I/O. Similar SEO firm SEOClarity says that AI Overview results popped up only in 7.6% of its tested searches, down from 17.4% observed between May 14 (Google I/O) and May 30.

The Sunbird story just keeps getting stranger. The app — which promises to bring iMessage features to Android by bridging the two ecosystems through a macOS device — came back recently after taking a hiatus last year when it was revealed to be an absolute nightmare for privacy and security. Although we still haven’t seen anyone actually gain access to the “new” Sunbird, we have seen some new information related to it.

Thanks to Reddit posts first spotted by 9to5Google, some users are reporting receiving an email that says Sunbird will soon have a monthly fee. At $1.99 each month, Sunbird isn’t asking for much. However, the app has always been free, and the company’s early promotional material touted this as a major aspect of its appeal. At some point recently, though, Sunbird quietly altered this, with one 9to5Google reader pointing out that the company’s FAQ on its website now says this:

Sunbird will not remain a free product for unlimited messaging. Over the coming months we will test subscription types and payment options.

As recently as March this year, though, Sunbird’s site said this in response to the same FAQ:

Sunbird will be free for the foreseeable future, that’s the bottom line. We don’t have any reason to turn on paid subscriptions right now based on our current goal. Right now we have one goal in mind to give iMessage on Android to millions of users. Let’s connect the world first!

So, clearly, something has changed at Sunbird as far as its financial goals are concerned.

Regardless, it seems quite bizarre for the company to double down like this. First, it has a massive amount of ill will and doubt to overcome after the Nothing Chats debacle last year. Second, Sunbird still hasn’t adequately proven that it’s solved all (or even some) of the privacy and security problems we’ve seen from it. Third, at no point has Sunbird proven that the app actually works well enough to use as a daily messaging service, let alone one that is worth paying for. Fourth, even in this most recent email to users, Sunbird openly admits that there are significant problems with the app, including that “new Apple IDs may have a brief 30-60 minute warming up period,” “all playable audio formats cause the app to crash,” and “outgoing attachments may be duplicated on the receiver’s end sporadically,” to name a few. Fifth, and most importantly, iPhones will receive RCS support very soon, which will not solve the “green bubble” issue Android users face when communicating with iPhone users but will make any app that does what Sunbird does immediately less enticing. In other words, for the company to already be planning a subscription model, it is very much putting the cart before the horse.

As we’ve said before, multiple members of the Android Authority team are on the Sunbird waitlist. Once we gain access to the “new” app, we’ll report back to you.

We’re a good seven months away from the expected launch of the Samsung Galaxy S25 series. However, that doesn’t mean the rumor mill isn’t already in overdrive, dishing out supposed specs and upgrades for the upcoming flagships. Today, we have some new info related to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s camera, specifically.

According to Sperandio4Tech on X (formerly Twitter), there could be two notable sensor upgrades for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. First, the ultrawide sensor could get “a new version of the 1/2.76-inch JN1 sensor.” Currently, the Galaxy S24 Ultra has a 1/2.55-inch sensor, making this rumored upgrade a slightly smaller model. As previously leaked, though, the resolution could get a huge bump from the 12MP on the Galaxy S24 Ultra to a solid 50MP.

Galaxy S25 Ultra – New Sensors Revealed

Although we still don’t know the names of the sensors at this stage, the Ultrawide will have a new version of the 1/2.76″ JN1 sensor, which is slightly smaller than the one in the S24 Ultra and has a higher resolution of 50MP, as we’ve… pic.twitter.com/LOyU9QJ9MT

— Sperandio4Tech (@ISAQUES81) June 20, 2024

Meanwhile, the 3x telephoto lens could also get a new sensor. The leaker says this could be “a new 1/3-inch Isocell sensor.” This would be slightly larger than the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 1/3.52-inch sensor for its 3x telephoto. Once again, previous rumors suggested this would get a resolution upgrade from 10MP to 50MP.

Unfortunately, all signs point to no upgrades for the main 200MP sensor. It also appears that the 10x periscope telephoto lens will also be carried over from the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

It’s worth noting, however, that Sperandio4Tech has a mixed track record as far as Samsung leaks go. The X user claimed last month that the S25 Ultra would drop the 3x camera altogether in favor of a variable telephoto lens. More established leakers Ice Universe and Revegnus contradicted these claims at the time, with Ice Universe alleging that 50MP 3x and ultrawide cameras were coming. So while this latest claim is in line with more reliable leakers, you should still take Sperandio4Tech’s claims with a bag of salt in general.

It’s early days yet, though, so who knows what could change between now and 2025, which is when we expect the Galaxy S25 series to launch.

When it comes to budget-friendly Android phones in Europe and other parts of the world, realme is usually a part of the conversation. At the end of May, the company launched the realme GT 6T, the first phone to hit Indian stores with the Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3 chipset. Interestingly, the company launched that phone before fully revealing the GT 6, on which it is based. Today, though, the company finally took the wraps off the new flagship realme GT 6!

As one would expect, the GT 6 looks a lot like the GT 6T, right down to the two color choices of Fluid Silver and Razor Green. The dual-tone mirrored back also ports over, with most of the phone having a frosted look, but the area surrounding the rear camera module retains the polished look you would expect from a mirror. While this looks cool, it’s also functional: using the mirrored back, you can easily line up a selfie using the rear camera lens, giving you much better results than the tiny front-facing camera.

One of the most notable aspects of the phone, though, is its processor. Inside the realme GT 6 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, making it one of the first commercial smartphones to land with this chipset (the Xiaomi 14 Civi is another). It’s essentially a slightly weaker version of the mainline Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Since it’s not as powerful, it’s also not as expensive, allowing the phone to stay a bit cheaper than you would expect for the features it offers.

Elsewhere, the phone has the brightest display of any commercial smartphone, hitting a stunning 6,000 nits. Of course, you’ll never see that in day-to-day usage, with the usual peak being a much more reasonable 1,600 nits. If you wanted to, though, you could turn on the Peak Brightness Test in Android’s Developer Options and watch as the phone hits a blinding 6,000 nits.

For cameras, you have a 50MP primary lens flanked by an 8MP ultrawide and a 50MP telephoto. The front-facing selfie camera is a 32MP shooter, housed in a centered display cutout.

Rounding out the phone’s specs, you’ll find 120W wired charging, a 5,500mAh battery, Wi-Fi 6 support, Android 14 skinned over with realme UI 5.0, up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. Unfortunately, you won’t get wireless charging.

realme GT 6: Price and availability

The realme GT 6 will be available in Europe and India. The starting price for the model with 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage is €600 (~$645)/Rs. 40,999, while the 12GB/256GB variant costs €700 (~$750)/Rs. 42,999, and the 16GB/512GB variant costs €800 (~$858)/Rs. 44,999.

The phone is available to preorder immediately in Europe and India from Realme’s website and other retail channels.

Premium Android smartphones have only been getting more expensive recently. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is $100 more than the same model was in 2023, pushing it to a whopping $1,299 at the low end. Even the Google Pixel 8 Pro, compared to the Pixel 7 Pro, jumped by $100 to $999. These ultra-premium phones continuing to rise in price does have a silver lining, though, which is that there are now gaps in the $600-$900 range that other companies can fill. In that vein, enter a new contender: the realme GT 6.

Poised as a “flagship killer,” the realme GT 6 attempts to deliver most of the premium features you would want from an expensive flagship but with a lower price tag. I had some hands-on time with the GT 6 and have some thoughts on it, so let’s get into it.

Design

The first thing I said to myself when I took the realme GT 6 out of the box was, “Huh, I haven’t seen this before.” The phone has a two-tone mirrored back. Most of the back is frosted — i.e., slightly reflective — while the portion surrounding the large rear camera module is polished, giving you a pure mirror. It’s a unique look that might be a “love it or hate it” kind of thing, but I quite like it.

While the back makes the phone look cool, it also has a purpose. Using the reflective back, you can more easily line up a selfie shot using the rear cameras. Doing so will produce better results than using the front-facing camera, making the mirrored back a sort of lo-fi alternative to just spinning your phone around, hitting the shutter, and hoping for the best. Check the photos below to see me lining up a shot of myself.

Notably, this was a method used a long, long time ago with phones that didn’t yet have front-facing cameras. I remember the LG Prada — the first phone with a capacitive touch screen, beating the original iPhone to market by a few months — had a small mirror on the back for this very reason. So really, realme has just taken an old idea and modernized it, but it’s still great to see here.

Speaking of the back of the phone, the GT 6 comes in two colors: Fluid Silver and Razor Green, the latter of which is the version I got my hands on. Both colors are nice, but the Razor Green model isn’t nearly as reflective as Fluid Silver. If you envision yourself using that selfie trick I just described a lot, you’ll probably have an easier time with Fluid Silver since it looks basically just like a real mirror.

Of course, all this mirrored glass makes the GT 6 a fingerprint magnet. Seriously, I couldn’t even gently touch the phone without leaving fingerprints behind. Also, if you plan on dropping the whole thing into a protective case, the finish doesn’t really mean anything, so keep that in mind if this is a phone you’re interested in buying.

Outside of the back and the colors, the phone follows recent premium smartphone design trends. It has a huge 6.78-inch display with some steep curves on the sides. The display has a nice resolution of 2,780 x 1,264 with a 120Hz refresh rate and can also get very bright, but I’ll touch more on that in the next section.

Finally, at 199g, the phone isn’t super heavy but still feels premium. As far as big phones with curvy screens go, I found it relatively comfortable to use with one hand, and it never felt like I was using a mid-ranger.

Hardware and features

The three most notable hardware aspects of the realme GT 6 are the processor, the display, and the battery. Let’s start with the processor.

Under the hood, you’ll find a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. Launched in March 2024, this is essentially a slightly weaker version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is the processor you’ll find in the OnePlus 12 and the Galaxy S24 series (in certain locations). Despite its launch a few months ago, we haven’t seen many phones actually include it, making the realme GT 6 one of the first to market with the chipset.

For day-to-day usage, the processor will deliver everything you need. It even will be more than capable for high-performance tasks, such as gaming. For example, it supports PUBG Mobile gameplay at 120fps and plays Genshin Impact at a silky smooth 1.5K resolution. There’s even a feature, awkwardly called Geek Power Tuning (seriously, realme, re-think the name of this), that allows you to customize CPU/GPU performance to your needs. Obviously, all the tweaking in the world won’t make it quite as good as a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 phone, but the 8s Gen 3 is cheaper, which will prevent the realme GT 6 from hitting those aforementioned ultra-premium prices.

The realme GT 6 has a processor that we haven't seen in many phones to date.'

The display is the second notable hardware feature of this phone. In its marketing, realme is making a big deal of calling this “the brightest smartphone display ever,” which is technically true. By that, I mean, technically speaking, the phone is capable of hitting an absolutely bonkers 6,000 nits — nearly three times the peak brightness of the Google Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24 Ultra. However, you will never, ever see that brightness during normal usage. In fact, the normal peak brightness of the GT 6 is only 1,600 nits, which is much lower than the peaks for the Galaxy S24 Ultra (2,600 nits) and Pixel 8 Pro (2,400 nits). To hit the 6,000 nits mark, you’ll need to manually force it using Android’s Developer Options, which makes it a silly parlor trick, essentially.

Parlor tricks aside, the display is still very nice. But don’t believe the jargon — the GT 6’s display is brighter than most, but not as bright as some in real-world scenarios.

The third notable aspect of this phone is its battery and how fast it can charge. The GT 6 has an enormous 5,500mAh cell, which is 500mAh bigger than what you’ll find in the S24 Ultra and the Pixel 8 Pro. You can also charge that battery much, much faster than either of those two other phones, thanks to SUPERVOOC technology bringing 120W wired charging speeds to the GT 6. Thankfully, the phone comes with the charger needed to meet that speed, which promises a battery topped off from zero to full in just around 28 minutes.

You'll also get a massive battery and ludicrously fast wired charging speeds, but wireless charging is missing, unfortunately.

Unfortunately, the trade-off here is that the GT 6 doesn’t support wireless charging at all. Still, when you can go from 0% to 50% in around 10 minutes with a wire, wireless charging might seem like the weaker alternative.

Moving on, the camera system on the realme GT 6 is pretty good. You’ve got a solid 50MP primary shooter with a Sony LYT-808 sensor and optical image stabilization (OIS). That’s paired with a Sony IMX355 ultrawide with an 8MP resolution and a 50MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom on top of a Samsung JN5 sensor. The front-facing sensor has a resolution of 32MP. All in all, this is a solid setup. However, there are some notable deficiencies, such as the lack of 8K video support in any mode, which is thanks to the processor not supporting it.

Finally, the GT 6 comes with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. Maxing those specs out should give you all the power and space you could need.

Specs

The specs of the realme GT 6 are pretty awesome, especially considering that they either meet or exceed most of the core specs of ultra-premium flagships from other brands.

realme GT 6 hands-on verdict: The price will be the deciding factor

As of writing this, I still don’t know how much this phone costs (Update: Check out the price info here). When asked, realme told me it will be “under $850,” which would make it at least $150 cheaper than the list price of a Pixel 8 Pro ( ) and at least $450 cheaper than the lowest list price of a Galaxy S24 Ultra ( ). Those are some significant savings, though considering the phone is unlikely to be officially released in the US, we’ll also need to see how that converts to local currencies in Europe and other regions.

Assuming the final price sticks to realme’s promise, I can absolutely imagine recommending this to someone who wants a beautiful and powerful Android phone but doesn’t want to spend more than $900 on it. After all, the only major caveats here are the lack of wireless charging, the camera hardware not being as good as a Pixel 8 Pro or Galaxy S24 Ultra, and realme’s weak software support history, which is usually locked to just two years. Outside of those things, the GT 6 has everything the average person could want and then some.

Until I know that price, I can’t really say whether or not you should grab a realme GT 6. For now, though, I can confidently say the realme GT 6 is a very pretty phone that cuts the right corners to keep the price significantly lower than the competition, which is always good to see.

Stay tuned for the final price reveal from realme coming soon. In the meantime, let me know what you think of the GT 6 in the poll above and the comments below.

FAQ

Today, Apple officially launched iOS 18, the latest software version powering iPhones. iOS 18 is now rolling out in beta form to supported iPhones (pretty much everything after the 2018 iPhone XS is supported). If you’re brave enough to download it, you’ll get treated to two new iOS 18 wallpapers, among all the new features Apple announced today.

However, installing the beta is risky business. We are already hearing reports of lots of problems, including overheating, disappearing icons, and more.

At WWDC24 today, Apple took the wraps off Apple Intelligence, the company’s new umbrella name for the various generative AI tools that will soon come to iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. To make at least some of these AI features a reality, Apple is relying on a partnership with OpenAI, creators of ChatGPT.

However, weeks before the WWDC24 keynote, we heard rumors that Apple was also in talks with Google about bringing that company’s Gemini to iPhones. That didn’t appear to pan out, but that doesn’t mean the deal is off the table.

Today, at WWDC 2024, Apple finally took a big step into the world of artificial intelligence, or AI. The company announced a slew of new iPhone, iPad, and Mac features under the umbrella of “Apple Intelligence.” This is similar to how Samsung puts all its AI features under Galaxy AI, and Google does the same under Gemini.

Unfortunately, not every iPhone owner will be able to access Apple Intelligence. Due to hardware limitations, only two existing iPhones will support it: the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Thanks to the A17 Pro chipset inside these phones, they are the only ones capable of supporting the on-device AI features launched with Apple Intelligence.

Today, Apple will finally take the wraps off iOS 18 at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). This latest version of iOS — the software powering iPhones — promises some big changes. You might be wondering, though, which iPhones will actually get it? Well, we have good news and bad news about that.

Let’s start with the good news. The good news is that very old iPhones will almost certainly get iOS 18. According to a trusted source witnessed by MacRumors, iPhones from as far back as six years ago will still get iOS 18. Check out the complete list below:

Tomorrow, Apple will unveil iOS 18, the next major version of the operating system powering the company’s most important product, the iPhone. We’ve already seen a ton of leaks for this, so we know we should expect many AI-powered features, more customization tools, and redesigns of Control Center and Settings, which haven’t seen refreshes in years.

Today, though, we have two last-minute leaks of iOS 18 information. Thanks to MacRumors in both cases, we hear that a new app locking system and dark home screen icon tool could be announced tomorrow.

When the iPhone 15 series launched, there were a lot of complaints from buyers about excessive heat. Apple, of course, downplayed the problem but eventually said it would improve thermals through software updates. However, there are still plenty of complaints online from people who feel their iPhone 15 gets a little too toasty.

Thankfully, it appears Apple has taken this problem seriously and is determined not to have a repeat with the iPhone 16 series, due to land this fall. According to a new leak from Majin Bu on X (formerly Twitter), we see what could possibly be the iPhone 16 battery.

Samsung might be a South Korean company, but it has manufacturing facilities, office buildings, and more infrastructure all over the world. One place where it has developed a sizable presence is Texas. In the Lone Star State, Samsung has invested over $40 billion in creating a manufacturing plant — the largest-ever foreign investment in Texas’ history.

On June 7, Samsung, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officially opened “Samsung Highway,” a stretch of road that connects the manufacturing buildings with the surrounding areas (h/t SamMobile). This will better allow employees, contractors, and officials to get to and from Samsung’s buildings daily.

We’ve heard plenty of rumors about Apple’s alleged plans to super-power its digital assistant Siri at the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Today, via Apple Insider, we have the most comprehensive leak yet. Sourced from “people familiar with Apple’s AI initiative,” the leak contains pretty much everything Siri will be able to do across over a dozen first-party iPhone apps.

The full leak is worth a look, especially if you’re an iPhone user. However, we’ll give you the general gist of Apple’s goals with the “new” Siri and share some highlights that we think will most affect iPhone users’ day-to-day lives.

At the end of May, in an Android Feature Drop, Google announced a new tool called Instant Hotspot. The company described it as a way to instantly connect to a different device’s internet connection through one notification tap. This is possible thanks to the new cross-device services feature coming to Android soon.

Unfortunately, that’s about all we knew about Instant Hotspot — until now. At some point in the past 24 hours or so, Google published the official support page for Instant Hotspot, which gives a lot more details about the feature.

For the past few weeks, the tech world has been discussing a controversial new Windows feature called Recall. This feature — which is not out yet but has been previewed by the press and select researchers — takes a snapshot of your Windows system every few seconds. These screenshots can then be searched using AI so you can copy text, download images, or simply look at what you were doing at a specific time so you can recreate that particular situation.

Now, due to public backlash to what appears to be an invasive and insecure product, Microsoft has announced a response to this controversy. In a lengthy blog post, the company lays out three core changes it is making to Recall:

In May, Microsoft took the wraps off a new program called Copilot Plus PC. This is a new identifier for laptops that meet certain criteria that allow them to support special on-device AI features. Among these criteria are a minimum of 16GB of RAM, 256GB of onboard storage, and a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS).

Out of the gate, Microsoft’s own Surface Laptop (7th-gen) and Surface Pro (11th-gen) will be Copilot Plus PCs. These machines run on the Snapdragon X Elite processor, a new Windows on Arm SoC designed to be powerful, battery-efficient, and AI-first. Along with the two Surface machines, there are many more laptops running Qualcomm silicon from half a dozen other OEMs.

Recently, certain states in the US have passed age verification laws. Intended to curb children’s access to pornographic materials as well as protect children from accessing sites without their parents’ permission, the laws are popping up at a fast pace in mostly Republican states across the nation. There are also bills in various stages of development in other states.

Now, it looks like Meta is getting WhatsApp ready to comply with these laws. According to WABetaInfo, the latest beta version of WhatsApp for Android (v.2.24.12.25) includes code that presents certain users with a prompt asking for birth year information. The prompt warns you that you cannot change the information later and that you are required to provide it to continue using WhatsApp.

Nanoleaf is no stranger to RGB lighting in unique form factors. Its line of light panels basically defined the category, and it has since expanded to everything from traditional lightbulbs to ceiling-mounted skylights, making it a go-to brand for smart home goods. While Nanoleaf has made lightstrips in the past, its newest strip offers a slew of new features that Nanoleaf — and most of its competitors — has never offered before. I’ve been using it in my home for about a week and, I gotta say, I’m in love with it.

Unfortunately, this new lightstrip has a doozy of a name: the Nanoleaf Essentials Matter Smart Multicolor HD Lightstrip. For the sake of convenience, I’ll be trimming that down to just HD Lightstrip throughout most of this review!

Google is all-in on AI, as evidenced by the Google I/O keynote this year. Microsoft is also all-in on AI, as evidenced by the recent launches of Surface machines and Copilot Plus. Meanwhile, Apple is…well, no one really knows what Apple’s doing with AI yet.

However, reliable leaker Mark Gurman (via Bloomberg) has shed a little light on what we can expect. Apparently, Apple has conducted a “revamp of Siri’s underlying software using large language models.” This restructuring of Apple’s digital assistant will give it a new AI-based power: the ability to manipulate apps using voice commands.

Quarterly, Google brings the Android world a Feature Drop. This allows the company to launch new features for phones, tablets, watches, and Chromebooks in one big push. Today, the latest Feature Drop is here, and it brings a slew of new tools.

Some of these will launch today, such as the Google Messages one. Others, like the hotspot sharing feature, will come “soon,” so that could be any time this year. There are also some that require you to be a part of an early testing program, such as the Google Home widget one. Be sure to make note of these limitations so you’re not looking for a feature that isn’t actually available to you!

Today, Google is pushing out the latest Android Feature Drop. This is a quarterly collection of new features for Android-based devices. While there are some cool things on the list this quarter, one stands head and shoulders above the others: the ability to edit messages in the Google Messages app!

This is a staple feature of many other messaging platforms, so the fact that Messages is finally getting it is a big deal. In fact, we’ve been hearing this was in the works since last year, so it’s been a long time coming. Check out how it works in the GIF below:

Update: May 30, 2024 (12:13 AM ET): Samsung has informed its users through the official forums that Google has issued an update for the Google Meet app. This updated Google Meet app will stop your Samsung Messages app from crashing continuously. You can look for the update for Google Meet in the Google Play Store. Let us know if this fixes the crashing issues for you!

Original article: May 29, 2024 (10:08 AM ET): Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones come with a pre-installed messaging app called Messages. This is different from the Google Messages app that also comes installed on most Galaxy phones (confusing, we know). Although it’s likely the majority of Galaxy phone owners use Google’s app, there are still a lot of folks who prefer Samsung’s. Unfortunately, those folks have been facing a serious problem over the past 12 hours or so.

On Reddit and Samsung’s official forums, users are complaining about constant crashes for the Samsung Messages app. Folks are saying they can open the app and see their list of conversations, but as soon as they try and enter a conversation, the app crashes. Force-closing the app, clearing the cache, restarting the phone, and even entering the phone in Safe Mode doesn’t fix the issue.

Thankfully, the root of the problem has been deduced, and there is a workaround to stop the crash. Apparently, a recent update to the Google Meet app is somehow conflicting with Samsung’s Messages app. We’re not sure why, but uninstalling or disabling Meet will stop Messages from crashing.

A moderator in Samsung’s forums confirms this temporary workaround and also says, “Samsung is aware of the concern and is working towards resolving the matter.” We assume this means working with Google to fix the conflict within the Meet app, fixing Samsung Messages to not conflict with the new Meet update, or possibly both.

Either way, uninstalling Meet is the best way forward for now. Just set a reminder to re-install in a few days and it will hopefully be fixed by then.

There are many versions of Google’s Gemini. Only one of them actually works using the hardware built into smartphones, though, which is Gemini Nano. So far, Nano support only exists on a handful of phones. Notably, this includes just one Pixel: the Google Pixel 8 Pro. When Google confirmed that Nano support wouldn’t come to the Pixel 8, there was a slight uproar — so much so that Google backtracked and agreed to bring Nano support to the Pixel 8 and, even better, the Pixel 8a, too.

The caveat, though, is that Google is going to force users to manually enable Nano support on the Pixel 8 and 8a through a toggle in developer options, while Pixel 8 Pro users already have the features automatically enabled. This means that the vast majority of Pixel 8/8a users won’t use Gemini Nano features because so few of them will know it’s even an option. Now, thanks to an APK teardown of the recent AICore app from Google, we can see the supposed toggle for this feature, suggesting an imminent launch. Interestingly, it might also mean more control of the feature for Pixel 8 Pro users, too.

First, let’s show you what we found. In the screenshot below, you can see the two toggles we expect to appear in Settings > Developer Options > AICore Settings on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a. The first toggle gives permission for AICore to use as many resources as possible (which you will almost certainly want to leave activated), and the second actually turns on Nano.

We can’t say anything for certain until Google actually announces this, but we assume both of these toggles will be “off” by default. That’s how Google described it, so that’s what we’re going with for now.

In other words, this is the order things should go:

• Google announces a Feature Drop that brings Nano support to the Pixel 8 and 8a
• Pixel 8 and 8a users will need to activate Developer Options
• In Developer Options, you’ll need to activate the second toggle in the screenshot above and, optionally, the first one

Theoretically, once you do those steps, you should be able to use Gemini Nano features on your Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a.

The very fact that the AICore app has this means we should expect Google to announce Nano support for the Pixel 8/8a very soon, possibly in just weeks or even days.

What about the Pixel 8 Pro?

One of the interesting side-effects of this toggle’s upcoming existence on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a is that it might also come to the Pixel 8 Pro. This would, in theory, allow Pixel 8 Pro users to disable Gemini Nano — something that’s currently not possible. As mentioned earlier, Nano support is enabled by default on the Pixel 8 Pro already, and without a toggle like this, there’s no way to turn it off.

Obviously, most people wouldn’t feel the need to disable Nano support, but it is possible that this toggle could give those folks the option. Just like with Pixel 8 and 8a users turning the feature on, Pixel 8 Pro users could follow the same steps to turn it off.

Samsung already allows users to disable/enable specific AI features through its Galaxy AI interface, which is built right into Android settings. Unfortunately, this toggle buried in Developer Options on Pixels wouldn’t be nearly as convenient, but at least it would give users more control, which is almost always a good thing.

Welcome to Wallpaper Wednesday! In this weekly roundup, we’ll give you a handful of Android wallpapers you can download and use on your phone, tablet, or even your laptop/PC. The images will come from folks here at Android Authority as well as our readers. All are free to use and come without watermarks. File formats are JPG and PNG, and we’ll provide images in both landscape and portrait modes, so they’ll be optimized for various screens.

For the newest walls as well as all the ones from previous weeks, check out this Drive link. Want to submit your own? Head to the bottom of this article.

Wallpaper Wednesday: May 29, 2024

Another week, another set of awesome Android wallpapers for you to share! Remember that we are always looking for submissions from our readers. Head to the bottom of this article to find out how you could have one of your images featured in an upcoming Wallpaper Wednesday!

We’ve got three awesome images from our readers that would look great on your phone, tablet, or PC. As usual, we also have some images from the Android Authority team.

First, we have a super fun pic of a child in enormous sunglasses covered in Holi colors. That shot comes from Antaryami Das, who captured it with a Poco X4 Pro! Next, we have a great shot of Calangute Beach in Goa from reader Krishnadas, who shot it with a Redmi K20 Pro! Finally, we have an amazing photo of a lightbulb in front of a mirror from reader Jay Arnol. Jay shot that with a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and made some light edits using OLEDBuddy to get pure blacks. Thanks so much for your submissions, all!

From the Android Authority team, we have a shot of the Velasca Tower in Italy from Dhruv Bhutani. Next, we have some green plant stems from Rita El Khoury. Finally, we have a nice perspective shot of some building patios from Hadlee Simons.

Be sure to download these photos in their high resolutions from this Drive link!

How to submit your own Android wallpapers

We are very excited to see your own contributions to our Wallpaper Wednesdays project. Before submitting, here are the rules:

• Your submissions should be your own creation. That means photos you took, digital art you created, etc. Please don’t submit other people’s work — that’s just not cool. Also, please avoid sending images purely created with AI. Images you created and then augmented with AI tools are OK.
• You must agree to let Android Authority share your Android wallpapers for free with anyone who wants them.
• We will not accept watermarked images. You will, however, get a credit and a link in the article itself. We can link to your social media account only.

Ready to submit? Fill out the form below. You’ll need to include the highest-resolution version of the image you can provide, your name, and a brief description of what the image is. If you want us to link to a social media page you own in your credit, please provide that, too, but that’s optional.

Over the past few weeks, the rumor mill has been churning, suggesting that OpenAI — the company responsible for ChatGPT — could soon launch an AI-powered search engine, which would be a direct threat to Google’s core business. Given how prominent ChatGPT has become in such a short time, this would represent the first real threat to Google Search in decades.

However, it’s looking less likely that OpenAI has a search engine on the way (via The Information). Instead, new rumors suggest that OpenAI’s scheduled event on Monday could see the company announcing a multimodal digital assistant. While not a traditional search engine, it would still allow people to search for things using the power of AI, so it would still be a significant threat to Google.

It’s a well-known fact that the majority of smartphone owners use a protective case of some kind. While some cases offer added functionality — such as a kickstand, a place to store credit cards, or magnetic charging — the number one reason people use cases is that phones are made of glass and break easily.

In a new interview with Inverse, Google Pixel design lead Claude Zellweger discussed how the company approaches phone design, specifically regarding case usage. Interestingly, Zellweger admits that, starting with the Pixel 8 series, Google has started designing phones with case usage in mind from the beginning.

Over the past six months, Google has been hitting Gemini hard. It seems Gemini is now in everything Google does, including the Android operating system, the most popular mobile OS in the world. Meanwhile, Apple hasn’t done that much at all with generative AI and large language models (LLM). All signs point to that changing very soon — just not through Apple itself.

Over the past few months, we’ve learned that Apple has been in discussions with both Google and OpenAI (which owns ChatGPT) about using their respective LLMs to power future features coming to iOS. Now, according to industry analyst Mark Gurman, Apple’s deal with OpenAI might be close to finalized.

Original article: Even if you love it and still use it daily, there’s no denying that the Nintendo Switch is getting old. Launched in 2017, the hybrid console celebrated its seventh birthday in March, which means it’s getting close to retirement. With this in mind, one can’t help but wonder: where is the sequel, presumably called the Nintendo Switch 2?

Thankfully, Nintendo has confirmed that a successor is coming soon. There have also been some rumors and leaks surrounding the sequel to Nintendo’s best-selling home console. We’ve rounded up the most trustworthy of them here. Towards the end of the article, we also have a few wishlist items — things we hope to see but don’t have any evidence for quite yet.

For the newest walls as well as all the ones from previous weeks, check out this Drive link. Want to submit your own? Head to the bottom of this article.

Wallpaper Wednesday: May 8, 2024

Another week, another set of awesome Android wallpapers for you to share! Remember that we are always looking for submissions from our readers. Head to the bottom of this article to find out how you could have one of your images featured in an upcoming Wallpaper Wednesday!

Over the past few weeks, the rumor mill has been churning, suggesting that OpenAI — the company responsible for ChatGPT — could soon launch an AI-powered search engine, which would be a direct threat to Google’s core business. Given how prominent ChatGPT has become in such a short time, this would represent the first real threat to Google Search in decades.

However, it’s looking less likely that OpenAI has a search engine on the way (via The Information). Instead, new rumors suggest that OpenAI’s scheduled event on Monday could see the company announcing a multimodal digital assistant. While not a traditional search engine, it would still allow people to search for things using the power of AI, so it would still be a significant threat to Google.

It’s a well-known fact that the majority of smartphone owners use a protective case of some kind. While some cases offer added functionality — such as a kickstand, a place to store credit cards, or magnetic charging — the number one reason people use cases is that phones are made of glass and break easily.

In a new interview with Inverse, Google Pixel design lead Claude Zellweger discussed how the company approaches phone design, specifically regarding case usage. Interestingly, Zellweger admits that, starting with the Pixel 8 series, Google has started designing phones with case usage in mind from the beginning.

Over the past six months, Google has been hitting Gemini hard. It seems Gemini is now in everything Google does, including the Android operating system, the most popular mobile OS in the world. Meanwhile, Apple hasn’t done that much at all with generative AI and large language models (LLM). All signs point to that changing very soon — just not through Apple itself.

Over the past few months, we’ve learned that Apple has been in discussions with both Google and OpenAI (which owns ChatGPT) about using their respective LLMs to power future features coming to iOS. Now, according to industry analyst Mark Gurman, Apple’s deal with OpenAI might be close to finalized.

Original article: Even if you love it and still use it daily, there’s no denying that the Nintendo Switch is getting old. Launched in 2017, the hybrid console celebrated its seventh birthday in March, which means it’s getting close to retirement. With this in mind, one can’t help but wonder: where is the sequel, presumably called the Nintendo Switch 2?

Thankfully, Nintendo has confirmed that a successor is coming soon. There have also been some rumors and leaks surrounding the sequel to Nintendo’s best-selling home console. We’ve rounded up the most trustworthy of them here. Towards the end of the article, we also have a few wishlist items — things we hope to see but don’t have any evidence for quite yet.

For the newest walls as well as all the ones from previous weeks, check out this Drive link. Want to submit your own? Head to the bottom of this article.

Wallpaper Wednesday: May 8, 2024

Another week, another set of awesome Android wallpapers for you to share! Remember that we are always looking for submissions from our readers. Head to the bottom of this article to find out how you could have one of your images featured in an upcoming Wallpaper Wednesday!

It’s a well-known fact that the majority of smartphone owners use a protective case of some kind. While some cases offer added functionality — such as a kickstand, a place to store credit cards, or magnetic charging — the number one reason people use cases is that phones are made of glass and break easily.

In a new interview with Inverse, Google Pixel design lead Claude Zellweger discussed how the company approaches phone design, specifically regarding case usage. Interestingly, Zellweger admits that, starting with the Pixel 8 series, Google has started designing phones with case usage in mind from the beginning.

Over the past six months, Google has been hitting Gemini hard. It seems Gemini is now in everything Google does, including the Android operating system, the most popular mobile OS in the world. Meanwhile, Apple hasn’t done that much at all with generative AI and large language models (LLM). All signs point to that changing very soon — just not through Apple itself.

Over the past few months, we’ve learned that Apple has been in discussions with both Google and OpenAI (which owns ChatGPT) about using their respective LLMs to power future features coming to iOS. Now, according to industry analyst Mark Gurman, Apple’s deal with OpenAI might be close to finalized.

Original article: Even if you love it and still use it daily, there’s no denying that the Nintendo Switch is getting old. Launched in 2017, the hybrid console celebrated its seventh birthday in March, which means it’s getting close to retirement. With this in mind, one can’t help but wonder: where is the sequel, presumably called the Nintendo Switch 2?

Thankfully, Nintendo has confirmed that a successor is coming soon. There have also been some rumors and leaks surrounding the sequel to Nintendo’s best-selling home console. We’ve rounded up the most trustworthy of them here. Towards the end of the article, we also have a few wishlist items — things we hope to see but don’t have any evidence for quite yet.

For the newest walls as well as all the ones from previous weeks, check out this Drive link. Want to submit your own? Head to the bottom of this article.

Wallpaper Wednesday: May 8, 2024

Another week, another set of awesome Android wallpapers for you to share! Remember that we are always looking for submissions from our readers. Head to the bottom of this article to find out how you could have one of your images featured in an upcoming Wallpaper Wednesday!

Keeping your Android apps up to date is important. Not only do updates bring new features, but they also sometimes incorporate new security protocols to keep you and your device safe. However, it looks like Google is now going to take updates very seriously — so seriously that it might just be a huge annoyance.

Let’s take Google Messages updates, for example. For a long time now, if there’s been an update for Messages, you would get a notification about it when you open the app. The notification would take up about half the screen and could be easily closed. Once you close it, that’s it — you wouldn’t get notified about it again until there’s another update.

Late last year, a young company called Helium Mobile stepped out of early access and into nationwide coverage. The company is a decentralized mobile network, meaning it is designed to work on individually owned and operated nodes rather than traditional cell towers. As a fallback solution, users connect with T-Mobile towers when Wi-Fi and the decentralized network aren’t available.

Helium’s entry to the scene was exciting, but it lacked a core tenet of mobile service: group plans. Today, the company is rectifying that by rolling out group plan support for up to eight lines.