In this week’s top stories: Google Wifi makes a comeback at a more affordable price point, Gmail Go briefly becomes available to all Android devices, the OnePlus 8T’s design is shown in detail, and more.
While Google showed off most of their hardware at last week’s Launch Night In event, it seems the company held back a few surprises. This week, they relaunched the Google Wifi mesh router system, originally released in 2016, with an affordable $99 retail price.
It’s noticeably cheaper than the $169 Nest Wifi router announced last year, which has more powerful internals and provides 2,200 sq ft of coverage with one unit. Meanwhile, this new Google Wifi does not double as an Assistant smart speaker, unlike the Nest Wifi point.
As low-end Android phones have become more popular in recent years, Google has been working to create simplified “Go” versions of their core apps, which typically starts as only available to Android Go phones. For a brief period this week, Gmail Go was available in the Google Play Store for non Android Go phones, but was later pulled. The incident revealed a surprising level of demand for a simplified Gmail app, one that doesn’t bundle various Google Workspace apps.
It [would have matched] how other Go apps are also available to all users: Google Go, Gallery Go, Google Maps Go, and Navigation for Google Maps Go. Assistant Go and YouTube Go [would have been] the sole apps to not support all devices.
In a busy week of OnePlus news, the biggest story is that the company shared a video showcasing the design of the upcoming OnePlus 8T. The most obvious design detail on display is the use of a tweaked green color titled “Ultramarine Green.”
In other OnePlus news, owners of last year’s OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro received the update to OxygenOS 10.0.13, which includes the September 2020 security patch. Interestingly, the update comes a full week after an almost identical OxygenOS update for the older OnePlus 7 series.
OxygenOS 10.0.13 and 10.3.5 were confirmed in an official post over on the OnePlus Forums. As we have already mentioned, this changelog is actually identical to the OnePlus 7 series update seen late last week. If you do have a OnePlus 7T or OnePlus 7T Pro handset, then you should be able to get your hands on the update very soon — if not already.
Lastly, we were given a taste of the camera prowess of the OnePlus 8T. The company took to Twitter this week to share an official camera sample, demonstrating the low-light photography capabilities of the OnePlus 8T.
Beyond a new camera sensor, OnePlus 8T is confirmed to deliver a 120Hz display without curves, a faster 65W charging system, and much more. Stay tuned for our full coverage when the phone launches on October 14th.
The rest of this week’s top stories follow:
- October security patch rolling out to Google Pixel, factory images & OTAs live
- Everything you need to know about the new Google Wifi and where to buy it
- Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G unboxing videos offer first impressions of Google’s latest phones
- Nest and Google Wifi update adds new device alerts to Home app, more
- Last Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL update coming in December
- Here are potential new Pixel 5 ‘Captured on Pixel’ and ‘Art & Culture’ wallpapers [Download]
- Pixel 4a October update fixes auto brightness, touchscreen sensitivity, and more
- 10 of the most underrated Android 11 features [Video]
- [Update: USA] Samsung kicks off OneUI 3.0 public beta w/ Android 11 for the Galaxy S20 series
- [Update: Full A42 specs] Samsung unveils Galaxy Tab A7 tablet, Galaxy A42 5G, Fit2 fitness band, more
- Samsung Galaxy Note 8 drops from monthly to quarterly updates
- Google Home app starts rolling out Home & Away Routines, presence sensing
- Google Camera Go gains a dedicated Night Mode for low-light photography
- [Update: Now available] Google Photos rolling out redesigned editor on Android
- YouTube TV is now ‘YT TV’ on Android homescreens as icon tweaked on Google TV
- Blloc’s minimal Ratio launcher leaves beta, now available on Play Store
- Android Auto readying custom shortcuts for Google Assistant actions and contacts
- Google Assistant Driving Mode is getting closer to launch [Gallery]
- Google makes big push to integrate and let you control Android apps with Assistant
- Google Assistant adds Snapshot settings to control which cards appear in your feed
- Google Nest Hub Max is getting a dark theme, sticky notes alongside UI refresh [Video]
- Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Meet getting new icons as part of Google Workspace
- G Suite’s unlimited Google Drive storage will be discontinued with Workspace
- G Suite is now ‘Google Workspace’ and geared for the office-less future of work
- OnePlus Buds Z: Official images pop up showing silicone-tipped design, case
- OnePlus 8T: Check out the new wallpapers ahead of launch [Download]
- OnePlus 8T rumors: Everything we know about the next ‘flagship killer’ [Video]
- ‘What is Stadia?’ Google finally offers the clear explanation the service has always needed [Video]
- Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available in early access on Google Stadia
Author: Kyle Bradshaw
Source: 9TO5Google
