Android

Let's face it. We're stuck with current battery technologies in smartphones, at least in the foreseeable future. Because of that, manufacturers are pretty much forced to push the limits of charging technologies instead, performing the delicate balancing act between speed and safety. Among smartphone manufacturers, Chinese companies are the brave ones that try to go beyond boundaries with some rather insane, and OPPO might just have the most insane charging speed to show off in just a few days.

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Two smartphones will be competing for attention on Samsung's stage next month, even if only one of them will be immediately available. That said, earlier leaks suggested that Samsung will be adopting a rather novel schedule that will see a new smartphone launched for each month in the next three months. It seems, however, that the timeline might have been too optimistic and there is now word that Samsung's next foldable phone might be missing its September launch target by a whole month at the earliest.

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There are many operating systems available today, from Windows to macOS to Linux to Android to iOS, a bit far too many for developers, especially lone ones, to support equally. There is also no shortage of frameworks and tools, like Qt or Google's Flutter, designed to make that a little less painful but the one platform for that truly permeates all of these is the Web. That is basically the appeal of the new generation of web apps, called Progressive Web Apps, and two of the world's larger software vendors are working together to make PWAs more like first-class citizens of the Google Play Store.

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Google suggested this week that they are in the process of "accelerating Android updates." It's possible they're set to move the future of Android updates to a more speedy place with deployment across all devices - but their wording remains vague enough that they'll find plausible deniability should a major smartphone ever appear in the news for its lack of movement in the Android OS updates ecosystem.

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Overnight a series of new Pokemon were added to Pokemon GO, many of them Galarian Pokemon, and many of those Galarian Pokemon delivered with Shiny editions. The latest update also added a new icon and new imagery of the new Pokemon mentioned in said code. This new wave of Pokemon will likely appear before the big Pokemon GO Fest 2020 event at the end of the month - but we shall see!

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Code from the latest iteration of the Google Search app showed a couple of clues for the future of the Pixel smartphone lineup. In said code, a line of Google Pixel devices can be seen, from Pixel 4 all the way to Pixel 5. In the list is also the device called Pixel 4 XL, as well as the midrange (not quite public just yet) Pixel 4a. Then there's another Pixel 4a, this time with 5G attached to the nomenclature.

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Samsung has quite a lot packed for its Unpacked event next month and it won't just be about phones. The Galaxy Tab S7 and Galaxy Tab S7+ are poised to be more than just your regular annual Samsung tablet. Based on earlier leaked specs, this year's Android slates are poised to go head to head with Apple's iPad Pros not just in specs but especially in size. What those specs don't mention, however, are also important and at least one of the unspoken details might not be that reassuring.

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We've stopped covering Android's distribution numbers every month for one simple reason. Last year, Google has stopped publishing those monthly figures, a change that some say was its way of hiding how poor Android adoption really is compared with iOS. Android updates have always been a sore point even for the most steadfast Android believer but it's not for the lack of trying. Google has recently disclosed how it plans to improve that situation but has also revealed how Android 10 may have been best-adopted release ever.

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Every year at WWDC, Apple indirectly puts the Android world to shame when it reveals adoption numbers for its supported iOS versions. While things have certainly improved in the last two or three years, there is still much left to be desired. Part of the problem lies in the dynamics between Google as Android maker and manufacturers as Android implementers. The latter, of course, has the final word on when they would push out Android updates, big and small, but Android 11 will more or less force OEMs to fall in line with Google's push for more seamless and faster updates.

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Google spoke up today about their future in Android and/or Chrome OS tablets. Only very briefly, of course, and not in a way that definitely guaranteed they'd be making any sort of new hardware any time soon. But still, it has been acknowledged that Google is, indeed, "working on the tablet experience, both for users and for developers" according to a representative of the Android Engagement Team.

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The POCO F2 Pro, or Pocophone F2 Pro, is a highly decent smartphone. It was released in May of 2020 running Android 10 with MIUI 11 inside. This device has a 6.67-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen up front with no camera to interrupt its rounded-corner rectangle face. This is one of the few smartphones to have ever been released with a mechanically operated pop-up front-facing camera module - and it comes in several colors, both wild and decent.

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OnePlus scoring Verizon as an official carrier partner was a big deal back in April, but sales aren't living up to expectations according to a new report. The news that Verizon would offer the OnePlus 8 in-store was seen as evidence that the fan-favorite had hit critical traction for US sales success, but instead we may have had another reminder that the American cellphone market is a tough nut to crack.

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