Articles by Michael Allison

Google’s Pixel 4a 5G is the unnoticed middle child.

Google’s Pixels are some of the most anticipated releases of the smartphone market year after year. Even if they do not move the needle in terms of market share, they have helped drive the smartphone conversation, and do somewhat distinguish themselves from other smartphones with interesting design decisions and spec choices. Whether that is good or bad is another matter entirely. I’ve been using one of Google’s latest Pixels — the Pixel 4a 5G — since early December, picking it up as a Christmas present to myself, and I’ve used it for a couple of months after coming off a Pixel 3a XL and Pixel 4a as primary phones. Today, I’ll be highlighting the things I most enjoy about this phone, and the one thing that still bugs me.

The Pixel 4a 5G has a nice big screen

With all previous generations of Pixels up to the 3a, Google also had an XL model to go with it. I had just moved from a Pixel 2 XL to a Pixel 3a XL for a year, so the…

Amazon’s Music app hadn’t seen an update in two years prior to this release.

What you need to know

Amazon Music is now available on the Google TV platform.
The company’s TV app had gone without updates for more than two years.
Alongside this update, Amazon is adding support for Canada, Brazil, Mexico, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, India, Japan, and Australia.

Amazon is rolling out a new app to the Google TV and Android TV platforms from today. It’s an update to the Amazon Music app, the first one it has received in years. Today’s update, as per The Verge, brings support for the new Google TV interface. It also expands regional availability to non-U.S. regions. It’s not clear what other changes will be accompanying this release.

When this app rolls out, it’ll be another music option for Google’s plaform, joining expected offerings like YouTube Music and third-party ones like Spotify and Tidal.

The app will offer the same subscription options as other Amazon Music apps. You…

If you’re wary about the foldables form factor, this offer lets you dip your toes in the water.

What you need to know

Samsung today announced a new 100-day Buy and Try program for foldables.
Buyers will have up to 100 days to use a Galaxy Z Flip or Z Fold 2 and see if it’s right for them.
The program runs through April 1st.

Samsung is making its foldables a more attractive purchase in a way that goes beyond simple price cuts. Now, it’s extending the return window for the Galaxy Z Flip 5G and Galaxy Z Fold 2. Where it was a standard 15 days, it’ll now be returnable for 100 days. Dubbed the Buy and Try program, users would have up to three months to really get their head around using a foldable and adapt to the new form factor before deciding if they wanted to go in for the long haul or return it.

Speaking to The Verge on Tuesday, a Samsung spokesperson said:

This new initiative will help consumers try and see if a foldable device is right for them, as part of Samsung’s commi…

Facebook announced Shops for the U.S. earlier in May.

Update, February 23 (06:40 pm ET): Facebook has brought its new Shop tab to the UK and Canada.

What you need to know

Facebook is launching Shops worldwide.
It’s also launching a new Facebook Shop tab in the U.S. to enable customers to buy and sell directly from the app.
Facebook will also make Instagram Checkout available to all U.S. based businesses.

Facebook today announced Facebook Shop, a new experience for retailers and businesses on its mobile app. It will be adding a tab within the main Facebook app that will let users buy products directly from the app. This is distinct from Facebook Marketplace, a service that exists to facilitate peer to peer purchases.

Facebook is also bringing Facebook Shops (distinct from both) to a global market. Earlier this year, Facebook launched Shops in the U.S., saying:

Right now many small businesses are struggling, and with stores closing, more are looking to bring their business o…

Spotify’s also launching a new Hi-Fi plan for audiophiles.

What you need to know

Spotify today announced it would be bringing its service to more countries.
It’s doubling its supported market with the addition of 80 more.
The rollout is beginning in the coming days.

Spotify today announced the release of its streaming service to 80 additional markets over the coming days. At the moment, Spotify currently supports 93 countries after having recently just launched in Korea. With the addition of today’s 80, this takes the number of markets Spotify supports to 173.

As for the markets that’ll be getting Spotify access soon, these include countries across the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America — bringing access to over a billion potential customers. The rollout includes Bangladesh, Cameroon, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and many more.

Market access has been one of the few things that competitors like Apple Music and YouTube Premium he…

Smart downloads are getting much smarter.

What you need to know

Netflix today announced Downloads For You, an evolution of its smart downloads feature.
Once enabled, it automatically downloads movies or TV shows from Netflix’s recommendations to your phone or tablet.
Downloads For You is coming first to Android and iOS later.

Netflix today announced Downloads For You, an evolution of its smart download features which were first rolled out a couple of years ago.

It works a lot like automatic downloads do on music streaming services like Spotify and YouTube Music. Whereas Netflix’s previous automatic download feature would grab the next episodes of a show you were already watching, Downloads for You automatically peeks into your suggestions and grabs shows or movies that you were most likely to watch, and then pulls them down for you.

Again, as is common with music streaming services that offer this same functionality, you can allocate how much storage you want this feature to t…

Android became an important part of Chrome OS a few years ago, and that importance has only grown.

What you need to know

Google is testing Android 12 for Chromebooks.
Updates were spotted being made to the Chromium Gerrit over the past week.
Google made similar changes to the codebase when it started testing Android 10 and 11 without delivering a corresponding update to Chromebooks.

Android 12’s first developer preview is already here for phones, but that’s not all it’ll end up on. It’ll come to Android tablets, Android TVs, and maybe even Chromebooks. A new report from Android Police says that Google is already working on Android 12 for Chrome OS. You can read their post for the full technical details, but in summary, references to Android 12 in the Chromium Gerrit indicate that Google has already started testing Android 12 on their internal Chrome OS VMs.

From earlier Android 12 feature leaks, the update to Chrome OS is likely going to help with multitasking and Android app …

The Android app didn’t have this especially useful feature till now

What you need to know

Google has rolled out an update to the YouTube app that brings more resolution options.
The app now supports up to 4K HDR on mobile.
A similar update came to iPhone 11 devices back in 2019.

Currently, when playing back YouTube videos on Android, users have the option of streaming up to 1080p, or Full HD content. This works for most phones as, barring a minority, 1080p is essentially the new standard resolution on all the best smartphones. Streaming 2160p, or 4K, will end up downloading larger file sizes and burning through your data needlessly if your phone can’t natively display it. Now, users will have the freedom to choose it anyway.

Spotted this week by the folks over at XDA Developers, Google is bringing new streaming options to YouTube on Android phones and tablets. The company has enabled, via a server-side update, extended resolution options when playing videos on mobile. This mea…

Facebook pulls the plug on news in Australia.

What you need to know

Facebook will no longer show news content in Australia following a clash over the company’s News Media Bargaining Code.
Google adopted the same position at first but relented and signed a deal with News Corp.
Australian PM Scott Morrison called Facebook’s move arrogant and hailed Google’s.

Facebook this week took a drastic step against the Australian government, restricting the sharing of news and viewing of news content in the country. The move comes after a debate over Australia’s Media Bargaining Code, a law that would compel social media companies to pay news publishers for links shared on their platform drew fierce criticism from Facebook and Google.

William Easton, Managing Director, Facebook Australia & New Zealand said;

We were prepared to launch Facebook News in Australia and significantly increase our investments with local publishers, however, we were only prepared to do this with the right r…

Google is offering this phone for free with Fi bill credit for eligible customers

What you need to know

Google has brought Motorola’s newest cheap phones to its Google Fi service.
These include the Moto G Play, Moto G Power, and Motorola One Ace.
All three are free for a limited time.

Google today brought over three of Motorola’s newest phones, the Moto G Play, Moto G Power, and Motorola One Ace over to its Google Fi service. It’s offering them to customers from as low as $4.12 a month or $99 outright and even as low as free with Fi bill credits) for eligible buyers.

Motorola’s 2021 budget phones came on the scene just a month ago, and while they didn’t manage to impress as a cohort, they are competent phones. The One Ace 5G is a really competent phone, coming with a Snapdragon 750G processor, 6GB of RAM, a 6.7-inch Full HD+ display, a triple camera setup, and NFC support.

The G Power and G Play are a bit less compelling, with 720p resolutions at display sizes of 6.5 and 6.6-…