Android 11 delivered a truly great feature to the power menu with a list of smart home controls at the ready, but Android 12 completely removes it. That feature, though, will live on in another sense with a dedicated shortcut on the Android 12 lockscreen for smart home quick controls.
In earlier Android 12 Beta releases, “Device controls” lived under a quick settings tile which, frankly, was…
Google Calculator 8.0 brings Material You redesign [Gallery]
September 10, 2021
Material You is in full swing as we approach the stable release of Android 12, and in Beta 5 today Google has rolled out a few big Material You updates including the teased revamp of Calculator.
The new Google Calculator update in Android 12 finally went live in Beta 5…
Android 12 Beta 5: Pixel phones will notify users that charging is limited when overheating
September 10, 2021
Google recently added a new feature to Pixel smartphones that is designed to retain battery health by limiting charging in certain circumstances. Now, in Android 12, Google is expanding this limit so your Pixel will limit charging when the phone is overheating.
As it…
Android 12 Beta 5: Nearby Share adds ‘Everyone’ device visibility, simultaneous sharing
September 10, 2021
Besides a slew of Material You additions and other enhancements, Android 12 Beta 5 today expands — as we’ve been expecting — Nearby Share with an “Everyone” visibility option, redesigned QS pane, and multi-device sharing.
When you tap the Nearby Share tile in Quick Settings on Android 12 Beta 5, you now get a shorter panel dedicated to controlling “Device visibility.” You also get…
Today, in the midst of the latest Android 12 Beta release, Google dropped its first new image of the Pixel 6 since showing off the phone in August alongside a celebration of the Material You design that will make its proper debut on that phone.
A post to Instagram on the…
Android 12 Beta 5 hands-on: Top new features [Video]
September 10, 2021
The long road to a stable Android 12 release is punctuated by the preview phase and the very latest is Beta 5. An already stacked OS is getting yet more tweaks and refinements before it’s ready for the public, and so we’ve been delving into Android 12 Beta 5 to find all…
Google Pay for Wear OS is now available in 10 more countries for grand total of 37
September 10, 2021
With the launch of Wear OS 3 on Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4, Google announced a wearable redesign of Pay as well as expanded international availability. Google Pay on Wear OS is now coming to 10 more countries.
For the longest time, Google’s wearable payment system was only available in 11 countries. That limitation was particularly odd given that the contactless mechanism on Android phones had…
Google may release Android 12.1 as its first mid-cycle launch in years
September 10, 2021
Breaking from the recent yearly release cadence, the next version of Android to release might be a mid-cycle bump — an “Android 12.1,” if you will — rather than Android 13.
By all measures, Android 12 is a significant release for Google’s phones, among other…
TCL is putting Google TV on a super-thin 85-inch mini-LED 8K TV w/ built-in camera
September 10, 2021
TCL just unveiled its first batch of televisions with Google TV built in last month, but now the collection is expanding. Today, TCL is introducing the X9, a huge 85-inch TV with Google TV, mini-LED, and more for a whopping $9,999.
TCL X9 is a flagship television by almost…
WhatsApp working on chat transfer from Android to iOS
September 10, 2021
After finally adding the ability to migrate your WhatsApp chats from iOS to Android, the Facebook-owned firm looks like it will soon add the ability to transfer chats in the other direction — from Android to iOS.
Switching device and, therefore, mobile OS is far less frustrating than in the past, but “lock-in” is still a very big problem when migrating between smartphones. The ability to…
