Dispatch, a new launcher for Android and Google TV devices, has rolled out and is ready for public use. Initially announced on Reddit over a year ago, Dispatch recently closed its beta testing phase, and the launcher is now available for download on the Google Play Store.

This announcement was made by Paul Dhaliwal, the developer of Dispatch, via a Reddit post. A noteworthy highlight of the launcher is that it is completely ad-free, giving users access to a far cleaner interface than what is found on most other launchers today. Additionally, Dispatch also integrates with Plex, which is great for users who prefer tailored watchlists that are based on their existing media libraries.

Another standout feature of Dispatch is its extensive customization options, including the ability to hide content that doesn’t interest you as well as the option to toggle on or off any row of content you see on Dispatch’s homepage. So, for instance, if you’re not subscribed to Prime Video, you can hide that particular row so it doesn’t appear on your homepage and clog up your feed.

The launcher includes other user-focused features as well, which can either be enabled or disabled. This level of customization ensures you’re able to consume your preferred content in an environment that’s free of distractions and in line with your exact preferences.

If you’re interested in signing up for Dispatch, you can currently take advantage of the free 14-day trial and explore all the features of this launcher. After the trial period, you can purchase a lifetime license for $9.99 or a monthly license for $0.99.

Qualcomm is expected to unveil its latest chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, during its annual Snapdragon Summit in October. However, the company hasn’t exactly been able to keep the lid on its upcoming Snapdragon processor. For instance, an earlier leak indicated that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 might be more expensive to make and could potentially drive phone prices up, and now a datasheet has surfaced, shedding more light on what this new chip has to offer.

The leak in question comes from the folks over at Smartprix and points to Qualcomm prioritizing efficiency over CPU performance and continuing its focus on AI advancements. According to the leak, the chip is likely to come in two variants: standard (SM8750) and performance (SM8750P). Snapdragon is also expected to stick to its current naming convention with this chip and is unlikely to try anything new. The standard chip will reportedly power flagship phones from brands like Xiaomi, OnePlus, HONOR, and ASUS, to name a few, while the performance chip is likely to be reserved for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip is also rumored to be built using TSMC’s 3nm process, which will help reduce power consumption while still maintaining solid performance. This will hopefully help extend smartphone battery life. Additionally, the chip is also expected to feature Qualcomm’s custom Oryon CPU cores, which were first introduced in the company’s laptop processors.

Also, as seen from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Qualcomm is continuing its push into AI with its latest chip, which will allegedly feature a Low-Power Artificial Intelligence subsystem and the Qualcomm Sensing Hub, which is designed to enhance on-device gen AI capabilities. The subsystem might also include an advanced eNPU, which will enable always-on audio and sensor features.

The reporting outlet notes that the chip is likely to have a 2+6 core configuration, with two high-performance cores running at 4.0GHz and six efficiency cores at 2.8GHz. A few other noteworthy components that might make an appearance are the Adreno 830 GPU, Qualcomm Spectra ISP for better camera performance, and the Qualcomm FastConnect 7900 modem.

We’re expecting this chip to make its way into a number of smartphones, but the Xiaomi 15 series might just be the first to include it.

Sonos has had a rather tough year. In May, the company rolled out a redesigned mobile app that fell short of expectations, to say the least. What should have otherwise been a time of celebration at the Sonos headquarters, thanks to the launch of the company’s first-ever headphones, the Sonos Ace, has turned into a period of intense crisis management and even layoffs (more on that later).

The redesigned mobile app has received overwhelmingly negative feedback from users. The app lacked basic features and included numerous bugs, so it’s no surprise that customers were frustrated with the redesign. The Verge has now reported that Sonos is considering re-releasing the previous version of its mobile app as somewhat of a temporary fix. The reporting outlet notes, “There have been discussions high up within Sonos about bringing back the prior version of the app, known as S2.”

Since the launch of the app, Sonos has worked steadily to rectify issues within the new app. Still, bugs remain, and users’ frustrations persist. Given this, the older version of the app might help buy time for Sonos, while the company continues working on the new app and restoring its users’ confidence in its offerings.

During a recent earnings call, CEO Patrick Spence said:

While the redesign of the app was and remains the right thing to do, our execution — my execution — fell short of the mark. The app situation has become a headwind to existing product sales, and we believe our focus needs to be addressing the app ahead of everything else. This means delaying the two major new product releases we had planned for Q4 until our app experience meets the level of quality that we, our customers and our partners expect from Sonos.

Currently, Sonos is rolling out app improvements every two weeks, and Spence indicated that will continue till fall. The re-release of the old app is unlikely to change this since Sonos will need to have a near-perfect app ready before launching it a second time. That said, restoring the old app presents its own set of challenges, given that the company’s new software includes a lot of cloud-based functionality that might not be compatible with the previous version of the app. Still, it will likely offer users a more stable and familiar UI.

In related news, Sonos has laid off something to the tune of 100 employees. The layoffs happened across divisions, including product and engineering, marketing, software quality, and platform and infrastructure. The company previously laid off 7% of its employees in June 2023.

Age of Empires Mobile, a spin-off of the iconic real-time strategy video game series, Age of Empires, is gearing up for a global release. The highly anticipated mobile game is coming to both Android and iOS on October 17. Developed by the TiMi Studio Group in collaboration with World’s Edge, the game promises to deliver a fresh yet familiar experience to fans, offering core elements of the legendary game in a new, mobile-friendly format.

The announcement was made on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), and a cinematic trailer accompanied the post.

Age of Empires Mobile, the immersive medieval war strategy mobile game, is set to go global on October 17th!
Pre-register in the App Store or Google Play Store and journey toward conquest right away!https://t.co/Cy1gnsNrzp

Age of Empires Mobile seamlessly blends classic… pic.twitter.com/v4R9eud7PZ

— Age of Empires Mobile Official (@AOE_Mobile) August 15, 2024

The game, which features multiple single-player modes, will allow users to build their empire in a medieval-world setting that includes historical sites and figures, complex battlefields, and realistic weapons. Starting with nothing more than a single outpost, your strategic decisions and alliances are what will pave the way for you to transform your humble empire into a mighty civilization.

But that’s not all. One of the key highlights of the game is that users will have the ability to lead their armies using legendary historical heroes, from Darius the Great to Joan of Arc. Each of these characters will feature a unique set of skills and talents that users can leverage to gain a strategic advantage on the battlefield.

Excited to experience Age of Empires Mobile’s immersive battles on your mobile device? You won’t have to wait too long; pre-register right now and prepare to lead your army and build an empire.

When OpenAI launched ChatGPT towards the end of 2022, educators expressed concerns that students would use the platform to cheat on assignments and tests. To prevent this, numerous companies have rolled out AI detection tools, but they haven’t been the best at producing reliable results.

OpenAI has now revealed that it has developed a method to detect when someone uses ChatGPT to write (via The Washington Post). The technology is said to be 99.9% effective and essentially uses a system capable of predicting what word or phrase (called “token”) would come next in a sentence. The AI-detection tool slightly alters the tokens, which then leaves a watermark. This watermark is undetectable to the human eye but can be spotted by the tool in question.

Google might soon introduce drag-and-drop functionality in the Chrome for Android browser. This feature is already present on the desktop version and certainly saves time for the average user. Given this, launching it for Android is a logical next step that could help improve one’s browsing experience and productivity on the platform.

According to MSPoweruser, this functionality will debut in Chrome for Android’s Dev channel (version 129). Once it’s launched, you’ll be able to move files from one location to another within your browser, as well as from your browser to other apps. The outlet spotted the commit “Enable DragDropFiles for M129” on Chromium, which is why it’s reasonable to expect that this feature will be available for testing shortly.

Furthermore, per the code in the screenshot below, we expect it to be enabled by default in the upcoming release.

In related news, the outlet also spotted a change to the Recent Searches feature in the same Dev channel update. The commit “Enable requesting related searches” suggests that you’ll be able to see related searches as you type. While there’s no guarantee that this feature will be rolled out broadly in the stable channel, the Mountain View tech giant might just do so if user feedback is promising and it significantly improves the user experience.

If you’ve been streaming the latest shows or movies on Prime, you’ve likely noticed that ads are now part of your streaming experience. This change, introduced earlier in the year, is part of a broader strategy to boost Amazon’s advertising revenue. However, the retailer’s effort has yet to pay off, with the actual gains from its ad segment falling short of analysts’ expectations.

In the second quarter of the fiscal year, Amazon’s ad business grew by only 20% — this has been the slowest growth rate for the company’s ad segment in years (via The Information). As expected from such an announcement, the company’s share price dropped at market open. But what’s surprising is that the second quarter — April to June — was the first complete period to include revenue from video ads.

For a few months now, users have been seeing ads by default when streaming on Prime — that is, unless they agree to pay more for the ad-free plan. During a recent call with reporters, Brian Olsavsky, the Chief Financial Officer of Amazon, emphasized that, as of now, sponsored product ads, which refer to merchant-sponsored ads that appear on the top of your Amazon search page, will continue to be the core focus of Amazon’s ad businesses.

Amazon has taken a more gradual approach to introducing ads in its video platform, which we can only assume is to avoid alienating customers who had gotten used to an ad-free experience on Prime Video. That said, the company now has plenty of new streaming content in the works, which might just help in the success of its ad-supported model, as well as attracting new customers.

Although Amazon’s video ads business has made some pretty significant strides and is coming up strong against competitors like YouTube, its overall ad business is still fairly reliant on traditional merchant-sponsored ads on the Amazon app.

Google might soon introduce drag-and-drop functionality in the Chrome for Android browser. This feature is already present on the desktop version and certainly saves time for the average user. Given this, launching it for Android is a logical next step that could help improve one’s browsing experience and productivity on the platform.

According to MSPoweruser, this functionality will debut in Chrome for Android’s Dev channel (version 129). Once it’s launched, you’ll be able to move files from one location to another within your browser, as well as from your browser to other apps. The outlet spotted the commit “Enable DragDropFiles for M129” on Chromium, which is why it’s reasonable to expect that this feature will be available for testing shortly.

Furthermore, per the code in the screenshot below, we expect it to be enabled by default in the upcoming release.

In related news, the outlet also spotted a change to the Recent Searches feature in the same Dev channel update. The commit “Enable requesting related searches” suggests that you’ll be able to see related searches as you type. While there’s no guarantee that this feature will be rolled out broadly in the stable channel, the Mountain View tech giant might just do so if user feedback is promising and it significantly improves the user experience.

If you’ve been streaming the latest shows or movies on Prime, you’ve likely noticed that ads are now part of your streaming experience. This change, introduced earlier in the year, is part of a broader strategy to boost Amazon’s advertising revenue. However, the retailer’s effort has yet to pay off, with the actual gains from its ad segment falling short of analysts’ expectations.

In the second quarter of the fiscal year, Amazon’s ad business grew by only 20% — this has been the slowest growth rate for the company’s ad segment in years (via The Information). As expected from such an announcement, the company’s share price dropped at market open. But what’s surprising is that the second quarter — April to June — was the first complete period to include revenue from video ads.

For a few months now, users have been seeing ads by default when streaming on Prime — that is, unless they agree to pay more for the ad-free plan. During a recent call with reporters, Brian Olsavsky, the Chief Financial Officer of Amazon, emphasized that, as of now, sponsored product ads, which refer to merchant-sponsored ads that appear on the top of your Amazon search page, will continue to be the core focus of Amazon’s ad businesses.

Amazon has taken a more gradual approach to introducing ads in its video platform, which we can only assume is to avoid alienating customers who had gotten used to an ad-free experience on Prime Video. That said, the company now has plenty of new streaming content in the works, which might just help in the success of its ad-supported model, as well as attracting new customers.

Although Amazon’s video ads business has made some pretty significant strides and is coming up strong against competitors like YouTube, its overall ad business is still fairly reliant on traditional merchant-sponsored ads on the Amazon app.

A number of companies, from Amazon to Google, offer smart glasses or have them in the works. But the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are still one of the top options in this competitive market.