Articles by Michael Allison

Samsung is preparing to launch its first Bluetooth tracker.

What you need to know

Samsung is reportedly launching its own Bluetooth trackers this month.
They’re branded the Galaxy Smart Tags, and are said to launch alongside the S21 and Galaxy Buds Pro next week.
Reports place the pricing of these upcoming tags as just under $20.

On January 14, Samsung will debut the Galaxy S21 at its first Unpacked event for 2021. It is also predicted to launch a new pair of earbuds, dubbed the Galaxy Buds Pro. However, new leaks indicate that it may launch an extra accessory accompanying both devices, the Samsung Galaxy Smart Tag.

The Galaxy Smart Tag will be a Tile tracker competitor, allowing you to keep track of your property so long as you’ve tagged it. Images and details have come out via the folks over at 91Mobiles, and we can see what the upcoming device would look like.

The Smart Tag looks like a small rounded object, somewhat reminiscent of a key-ring. Users will be able to clip …

Samsung will be launching its flagship earlier than usual this year.

What you need to know

Samsung has announced its first Unpacked event for 2021.
As reported earlier, it is to be a virtual event set to take place on January 14.
The company is expected to launch the S21 then.

Samsung today announced an upcoming Unpacked event, scheduled for early January. Like the previous one where it launched the Galaxy Note 20, it’ll be a virtual one for our new remote world. At the moment, Samsung’s ‘Galaxy Unpacked: Welcome to the Everyday Epic’ will happen on Thursday, January 14, at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Android Central independently confirmed the January launch date prior to this announcement, and we expect Samsung will be unveiling the full slate of Galaxy S21 devices. it may also launch the Galaxy Buds Pro at that time.

Samsung will have a lot to prove with its new S21 line. As the economic ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to affect people around the world, the company wi…

POCO launched the F2 Pro in 2020, now it may launch a lower-priced sequel.

What you need to know

POCO is preparing to launch a POCO F1 successor in 2021.
The company not-so-subtly teased the upcoming phone in a tweet sent out on New Year’s Eve.
While the POCO F2 Pro exists, POCO had always promised the subsequent launch of a regular F2.

POCO is getting ready to launch the POCO F2, a successor to the well-received POCO F1. The company teased the upcoming phone in a tweet, showing off the phones it had launched in 2020 alongside what it expected to debut in 2021.

The stage is set! The fun has begun! Let us get ready to take it to the next level!Excited? You should be, coz the next year is going to be even crazier.While we enjoy, let us look back at everything we’ve achieved together! Thank you ❤️ pic.twitter.com/K0432jSj8B— POCO India (@IndiaPOCO) December 31, 2020

POCO had technically already launched a successor to the F1 in the F2 Pro. That phone was a critical succe…

Android on the big screen needs to get a lot better in 2021.

If you buy a Samsung phone, thinking about which apps run or not is barely an afterthought. After all, your phone is powered by Android and backed by the nigh-ubiquitous Google Play Store. Your banking app would be there. Your Snapchat and Instagram? There. That little bodega down the road that probably doesn’t need an app? You can find it as well. Yet, if you were to pick a Samsung device with a larger screen — say, the Galaxy Chromebook or the Galaxy Tab S7, you’ll find many of the same apps there, true. But you won’t enjoy the experience as much. For the most part, Android apps are built for phones, and that’s holding them back.

To be clear, Android apps, or Google Play apps as a recent editorial by the folks over at Chrome Unboxed suggest they be referred to, run on a variety of devices. As I noted above, they can run on classic phones and tablets, but they can also run on laptops running Chrome OS; they power folda…

Telegram’s making voice messages more natural.

What you need to know

Telegram today announced Voice Chats, described as a “persistent conference call” for groups.
It’s the same concept as Twitter’s Audio Spaces or Clubhouse.
Founder Pavel Durov also shared plans to monetize the app going forward.

Telegram today rolled out a powerful new update, improving an underrated part of messaging app experiences — voice chats. Previously, you could send voice notes, just like alternate messenger apps offer. That’s still there, but it’s getting turned up to 11 in groups. From today, Telegram is adding a new feature to group chats known as Voice Chats. Described as a “persistent conference [call] that members can join and leave as they please”, it’s one of the biggest updates to the messaging app all year.

Telegram groups get a new dimension with Voice Chats – persistent conference calls that run in parallel to existing text chats. Voice Chats add a live layer of ephemeral talk to the g…

An early Christmas gift from Verizon.

What you need to know

The Galaxy Note 20 on Verizon now has the One UI 3.0 update.
This follows an earlier release from AT&T this week.
Samsung first announced and released One UI 3.0 for the S20 family in November.

Verizon is now rolling out Android 11 and One UI 3.0 to the Galaxy Note 20. It was also the first carrier to release Android 11 for the S20, so its laudable swiftness is par for the course this year.

Android 11 and One UI 3.0 are already known quanities. Samsung phones will now have messaging bubbles, the enhanced privacy options, and the new notifications categories Pixel owners have been enjoying since September.

The company also adds its own tweaks and improvements with One UI, so users will be receiving updates to Bixby, Dex, and even mundane things like the lockscreen for an Android experience that’s very Samsung. The overall UX also gets better, with Samsung adding a blur effect to notifications, redesigning its home …

You’ll have until December 31st to use the program.

What you need to know

Samsung is winding down its rewards program for Samsung Pay.
It’s also ending its Rewards Tier program at the same time.
The program will end at the stroke of midnight on the 31st of December.

Samsung Pay has a few benefits over Google Pay. It supported MST, a contactless solution popular in the U.S. It’s the default on Samsung phones, so some of the most popular phones in the world, and it had its own rewards program. With Samsung Pay rewards, you could accrue points and then redeem them towards gift cards, raffles, and more. That’s set to change soon.

Samsung Pay is losing its rewards program at the end of the year, the company shared in an email obtained by Android Police.

Via the email, Samsung told its customers the following:

As of 12/31/2020 at 11:59 PM PST, you will no longer earn Rewards points for Samsung Pay transactions and gift card purchases. This also means that Samsung Rewards Tiers …

Spotify has been leaning hard into the podcasts game.

What you need to know

Alexa can now play Spotify podcasts in 11 new countries as the two companies expand their integration.
These include Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, India, Austria, and Ireland.
Spotify originally launched this feature in the U.S. back in 2019.

Spotify this week announced an expansion of its integration with Alexa, as far as podcasts go that is. Currently, in the U.S., customers can verbally request that Alexa play podcasts in the same way they can do for songs or other supported content. Now, the company is expanding the availability of this functionality to other countries. These include Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, India, Austria, and Ireland.

You’ll need to have linked Spotify to your Alexa app and set it up as the default podcasting service first. Once this is done, you’ll be able to say: “Alexa, play [podcast…

Google’s Blob Opera is another of Google’s creative AI experiments.

What you need to know

Google has launched another creative AI experiment, Blob Opera.
Blob Opera uses ML to create festive opera-inspired sounds for you.
Google recorded hours of sound from four opera singers to create this tool.

Want to make your own Christmas song? You can do so with yet another of Google’s creative AI offerings. Known as Blob Opera, it’s a machine learning-powered tool that can transform your ideas into opera inspired sounds.

Here’s how it looks in action.

Google’s Arts and Culture team explainedhttps://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/arts-culture/create-festive-song-blob-opera/:

This experiment pays tribute to and explores the original musical instrument: the voice. We developed a machine learning model trained on the voices of four opera singers in order to create an engaging experiment for everyone, regardless of musical skills. […] The resulting experiment allows you to play …

Alexa is an assistant of many talents, live translation just became one of them.

What you need to know

Amazon now supports Live Translation via Alexa.
The new feature is enabled on Echo devices based in the U.S.
You can currently translate between English and Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, or Hindi.

Amazon today announced and launched a nifty new feature for Alexa, a built-in live translator. Now, select devices will be able to use Amazon’s assistant to serve as an interpreter between a limited pair of languages in real-time (via XDA Developers).

You’ll be able to use Live Translation with one of six language pairs, including English and Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, or Hindi. It’ll only be made available on Echo devices with their regions set to English U.S, at the moment.

Amazon explained how the feature worked on Monday, saying:

The Live Translation feature leverages several existing Amazon systems, including Alexa’s a…