Articles by Alex Dobie

Google’s Pixel series sees a major change of course.

With today’s announcement of its new phones, the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G, Google has made official what was originally speculated way back in January: These Pixels are different. The combo-breaker of the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G defies the company’s normal “regular plus XL” naming convention, while also being the first flagship Pixels to not use a Snapdragon 800-series chipset.

It’s easy to connect the dots and see this change of direction as a direct result of Google’s apparent disappointment with Pixel 4 sales. It was reported back in May that Google only shipped around two million Pixel 4s in its first two quarters of availability, and that Google hardware boss Rick Osterloh was disappointed with the phones’ performance in key areas like battery life. Nikkei Asia reports that overall Pixel sales in 2019 reached approximately 7.2 million, missing the internal target of 8-10 million despite reasonably strong sales of the Pixel 3a…

LG’s Explorer Project kicks off with a dual-screen swiveling smartphone

LG hasn’t shied away from weird form factors over the years. If you’re an Android veteran, you might remember the “self-healing” G Flex 2, or the modular LG G5 phone. More recently, the company has rediscovered its experimental streak, with dual-screeners like the Velvet and V60.

And now we have the new LG Explorer Project, designed to showcase unconventional and wacky new designs. The first of those is the just-launched LG Wing, a dual-screen phone with a secondary rotating display, built upon the hardware foundations of the Velvet.

It’s an unusual concept for sure, and LG’s recent launch event showed off plenty of unique use cases for this kind of dual-display device: everything from watching YouTube while doomscrolling through Twitter, to custom gaming setups, and even a miniature virtual trackpad.

We’ll be publishing an initial hands-on review of the LG Wing soon. But for now, we wanted to offer some firs…

The chip giant provides the magic behind the current boom of true wireless earbuds.

The past year has seen an explosion of affordable wireless earbuds from both established brands and new entrants into the space. Bluetooth earbuds have become a key product category for just about everyone in the mobile space, and a necessity for both work and play for many of us. Although it may not be immediately obvious, many of the current crop of true wireless earbuds are powered by silicon from Qualcomm, the chipmaker best known for its dominant Snapdragon mobile platforms.

Android Central sat down for a virtual chat with Qualcomm Senior Product Marketing Manager Guy Gampell to discuss the company’s wireless audio journey over the past five years, the current wireless audio boom, and what the future holds for Bluetooth buds.

Headphone guide

Getting started

How little can you spend on earbuds and still enjoy listening?
10 underrated features you need in your next pair of headphones
…

Online fanboys will inevitably take sides, but none of the parties involved in this latest app store kerfuffle are saints, nor are they your friend.

In a meticulously planned publicity stunt this week, Fortnite developer Epic Games baited both Google and Apple into booting the hugely popular title off their respective app stores, before filing legal complaints against both companies and riling up its fanbase behind the banner of #FreeFortnite. As often occurs with high-profile legal beefs in the gaming and mobile spaces, it’s easy for fans to chug heartily of whichever company’s Kool-Aid and take up highly polarized positions.

Epic’s own statement paints Apple as the villain for “blocking” Fortnite from a billion iOS devices. Apple, in its statement, slyly takes some credit for some of Fortnite’s popularity, saying it’s “glad [Epic has] built such a successful business on the App Store.” Google offers essentially a 🤷 emoji extended to paragraph form by response, stating that Epi…