Articles by Michael Allison

Chromebooks are getting interesting again.

What you need to know

A new Chromebook running a Snapdragon 7c is coming in 2021.
The Chromebook will be a detachable tablet with an 11-inch 3:2 display.
It’s also set to be the first Chromebook with a kickstand.

The trend in consumer computing at the moment is the move away from Intel to ARM processors. While Intel previously had the monopoly on power, ARM processors bring with them benefits including support for mobile connectivity and better battery life. Apple has accelerated this shift with the new MacBooks, but Google and Microsoft were already slowly moving towards this on their respective platforms. Now, there are reports about a new Chrome OS tablet coming next year, and it’ll bring a few things we haven’t seen on the platform.

The report comes from the enthusiasts over at Chrome Unboxed who gleaned a few details from Chromium commits. Codenamed Coachz, this upcoming tablet is a detachable tablet that’s powered by the Snapdra…

These new phones will go on sale in 2021.

What you need to know

Samsung has announced the A21 and A02s, two phones for 2021.
With big screens and large 5,000 mAH batteries, these phones are aimed at handling basic smartphone needs.
The A02s will start from €105 while the A12 will set buyers back €179.

Samsung today announced the Galaxy A12 and A02s,two low-priced phones set to hit the market in early 2021.

The Galaxy A12 is the more expensive of the two phones and succeeds the Galaxy A11. Samsung describes it as taking all of its essential features into one accessible package, and it shows. You’ll get a large 6.5-inch Infinity V display, but it’s a HD+ TFT display. The storage goes up to 128GB with 6GB of RAM but starts at 32GB with 3GB of RAM. There’s a quad-camera with a 48MP main sensor, but the other sensors are a 5MP ultra-wide lens and a pair of 2MP lens for depth sensing and macro capture respectively.

All this is powered by an unnamed octa-core processor and a 5,0…

OnePlus’s upcoming flagship keeps an familiar design.

What you need to know

A render of the OnePlus 9 Pro has just leaked online.
This leak comes courtesy of veteran leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer, also known as OnLeaks.
The phone keeps many design stylings from older OnePlus models, including a curved screen, a pinhole selfie camera, and a squared-off camera bump.

OnePlus’s upcoming flagship, the OnePlus 9 Pro, has just leaked courtesy of OnLeaks. The leaker warns that this render shows a phone that’s very nearly set in stone as far as designs, but small changes may still be made to minor features such as the camera layout.

With that being said, the render shows off a very modern phone that builds off past design decisions by the company. The launch of the 9 Pro will see the return of elements that appeared on the 8T and Nord -— including its squared-off camera bump. You’ll also find a 6.7-inch curved display, a single speaker, and it’ll keep the metal and glass construction tha…

Go SMS Pro’s developers have gone AWOL in the meantime.

What you need to know

Go SMS Pro, an Android messaging app with over a hundred million installs on the Play Store, has a massive security flaw.
Researchers were able to view files sent as attachments via the app remotely as the app would upload these files online with auto-generated, publicly accessible URLs.
The Go SMS Pro developers have yet to fix the issue.

Go SMS Pro, a popular third-party SMS app with over 100 million installs going off its Google Play listing has just been found to ship with a critical flaw.

Security researchers at the firm TrustWave found that the app was exposing user data carelessly by uploading files shared on the app to a public URL. After trying and failing to contact the app developers, they contacted the folks over at TechCrunch with their findings.

TechCrunch explained:

When a Go SMS Pro user sends a photo, video or other file to someone who doesn’t have the app installed, the app up…

Amazon’s Music app now bubbles up little trivia around songs currently being played.

What you need to know

Amazon Music now has X-Ray, a feature that highlights behind the scenes trivia around artists, albums, and individual songs.
It’s coming to tens of millions of songs in the company’s streaming catalogue.
You’ll also find X-Ray on the company’s other content brands, notably Kindle and Prime Video.

Amazon Music is the latest Amazon app to gain support for the company’s X-Ray feature. Already present on other content focused apps like Kindle and Prime Video, X-Ray will give you the option to glean behind the scenes tidbits about your favorite songs, the company shared.

Amazon says that the feature will be available starting today, with “tens-of-millions of songs available in the Amazon Music catalog” having the X-Ray functionality. It’ll feature on some of the “most popular songs in the U.S, and UK, and expanding over time with a constantly growing catalogue of song and ar…

Alexa’s Routines can now take your Fire TV commands into account

What you need to know

Alexa Routines now work with Fire TV commands.
You’ll be able to weave in content focused commands such as pausing movies with typical smart home controls like dimming lights.
Amazon is rolling this change out globally starting today.

Whether it’s Samsung, Google, or Amazon, big tech companies have been working on ‘routines’ via their digital assistant in the past couple of years. These are simple shortcuts that aggregate and combine multiple actions into one command to save time and give users more countrol. Today, Amazon is rolling out an improvement to Alexa’s Routines, adding support for the Fire TV’s voice commands.

Writing in a blog post, Amazon’s Fire TV team explained:

[Y]ou can now create an Alexa Routine so that when someone in your house says “Alexa, I’m getting a snack,” Alexa will pause your Fire TV content and turn on your smart lights. You can also create a Routine so that…

Google is unifying its global payment apps, as it promised years ago.

What you need to know

Google today started rolling out an upgrade to the Google Pay app in the U.S..
This overhaul brings it the design and feature set in line with the Google Pay experience the company just launched in India.
Google now more clearly highlights rewards, peer-to-peer payments, and support for retailers.

Google today announced a more powerful Google Pay app today. It’s coming first to the U.S., though the company has plans for a worldwide launch.

Pre-empting Google’s announcement, however, was an early access app page gone live prior to the launch that showed off all the new things Google later confirmed (via 9to5Google).

First, the app will be completely redesigned. It’ll match the Google Pay experience that Google ships in India in terms of looks, and it will now more clearly highlight peer-to-peer payment support upfront. This means that you’ll be able to see the friends and family that alr…

Ignoring people on WhatsApp will soon be more convenient than ever.

What you need to know

WhatsApp is testing a new feature that reworks archived chats.
It’s renaming the feature to Read Later, and will let you mute conversations indefinitely.
Currently, archived chats can still send notifications to your phone if one party sends a message.

WhatsApp is trialing a new feature known as Read Later (spotted via WABetainfo). It’s an upgrade to the current archived chats feature and takes the concept a little further to match the execution on Facebook’s other messaging apps. Currently, archived chats on WhatsApp Messenger work a little like email. They aren’t deleted, and they’re out of sight/out of mind until the other party involved chooses to message you again.

Read Later works the same way, but it will now automatically mute all notifications in an archived thread. In other words, the chats will be muted, and they’ll no longer pop-up on your inbox. You’ll be able to check the Re…

Google says this update is the “largest gain in Chrome performance in years.”

What you need to know

Google’s Chrome 87 is rolling out this week with speed and performance improvements.
Google says this version of Chrome will give you up to 1.25 hours more battery life.
Chrome’s address bar and tab strip will also get more powerful on the desktop, with the former offering action buttons and the latter now being searchable.

Google today released Chrome 87, its final build of the browser for 2020. The new update brings improved speed and improvements to common features like tabs, and the address bar.

First, Gooogle really talked up the speed of its browser in this release. Not just on the desktop, but also on Android. Google says that Chrome on Android loads pages instantaneously when you’re moving forward and backward. Presumably, you’ve already pre-loaded those pages, so it’s just speeding that common navigation use case up.

On all platforms, Google says that battery life usin…

Get disappointed with Season 8 all over again.

What you need to know

Amazon today announced the availability of HBO Max on its Fire TV platform.
It’ll be launching on Tuesday, November 17th.
The existing HBO app on Fire devices will automatically update to HBO Max, and the new app will integrate with Alexa for hands-free controls.

HBO Max is finally coming to the Amazon Fire TV platform, both companies announced today. From November 17th, you’ll be able to use the HBO Max app on Amazon Fire-branded devices to stream content ranging from Game of Thrones to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Tony Goncalves, Head of Sales and Distribution for WarnerMedia said in a statement:

We are very excited that Amazon customers will now be able to enjoy the best-in-class content that lives within HBO Max. Our continued goal is to make HBO Max and its unparalleled content available to customers across all the devices they love. Fire TV is a favorite among customers and we look forward to workin…