Articles by Michael Allison

It’s reminiscent of TikTok and its endless For You page.

What you need to know

Instagram will now suggest new content to users once they exhaust updates from people and hashtags they follow.
Previously, Instagram would warn users when they used the app too much as part of a digital wellbeing initiative
This update seems reminiscent of TikTok’s popular For You page, which worked on the same principle.

Apparently done with digital wellbeing, a new Instagram feature will make it easier fot you to stay on the app perpetually. From today on, once you run out of content from accounts and hashtags you follow on your feed, Instagram will now let you keep scrolling indefinitely through content its algorithms think you’ll like.

Prior to this update, once you had viewed all content on your feed, an Instagram warning would pop up and let you know that you’d seen all the new posts over the past few days. The Verge reports that it’ll still keep that message, but will also offer you a new opt…

It was an unexpected move from Google.

Update, August 19 (12:30 pm ET): Zoom is coming to the Amazon Echo Show and Facebook Portal as well.

What you need to know

Google will add Zoom support to the Nest Hub and other Assistant-enabled smart displays.
Buyers will be able to use them as easily as they can Google Meet or Duo.
Google says to expect the update by the end of the year.

While you can use either Google Meet or Duo to make video calls on Nest Hub smart displays, in the future, Google will be adding support for a competing service, Zoom.

Google announced on Wednesday:

Zoom is coming to Assistant-enabled Smart Displays, including Nest Hub Max, by the end of the year. […]Anyone with a Zoom account—whether it’s free or paid—will be able to join a video call from their Hub Max or other Assistant-enabled Smart Display. With Meet or Zoom, you can easily move from one call to the next.

While Google Duo and Meet were expected on the platform, Zoom comes as a bit of a…

MediaTek continues to push 5G to the mass market

What you need to know

MediaTek today announced the Dimensity 800U.
This chip is built to bring 5G to more affordable devices.
It supports 5G technologies like dual SIM dual standby, theoretically useful in places where dual sim use is common.

MediaTek continues to release 5G enabled chips for lower-priced phones. This time, it has announced the Dimensity 800U, another chip aimed at powering more affordable high-performing phones. It’s another model for the Dimensity 800-series, following up the 820 announced earlier this year.

Dr. Yenchi Lee, Deputy General Manager of MediaTek’s Wireless Communications Business Unit said:

MediaTek has always focused on enhancing the user experience with our leading semiconductor technology, whether consumers are streaming, gaming or taking photos. Dimensity 800U brings cutting-edge, next-gen technology to the Dimensity SoC series, bringing MediaTek’s advanced 5G, imaging, and multimedia techn…

Google is getting really good at helping you travel. It may also put a lot of startups out of business along the way.

What you need to know

European travel startups are unhappy with Google’s incursion into the travel industry.
The company has been accused of using data from those startups to build up its own travel feature-set, creating an unassailable advantage when combined with its reach on the continent.
Some are considering filing a travel complaint with the European Commission.

Google is suffering from a deluge of antitrust complaints in countries ranging from the U.S., India, and even the European Union as a whole. Now, some members of the European travel industry want to add to that caseload with complaints that Google is pushing startups out of business.

In a very dense, in-depth piece, TechCrunch reported:

More than half a dozen travel startups in Germany are united in a shared complaint that Google is abusing its search dominance in a number of ways they argue ar…

The update rolled out to Pixel and Samsung phones already.

What you need to know

OnePlus has started rolling out the August 2020 security patch to the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro.
The update also comes with fixes for the ambient display.
Finally, OnePlus adds an optimized shooting effect with the front camera.

OnePlus does fairly well with updates, and just like Google and Samsung, it has started rolling out the August 2020 security patch to users of its OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro.

As per XDA Developers, here’s what’s new in this update:

System

Fixed the overlapping character display issue with Ambient display
Fixed known issues and improved system stability
Updated Android Security Patch to 2020.08

Camera

Optimized shooting effect with front camera

The security update itself isn’t anything super interesting. There are some media and processor framework improvements, but OnePlus’ front-facing camera and ambient display fixes are the most n…

Another 5G phone makes the new standard accessible to more. for less.

Update, August 14 (12:55 am ET): The Galaxy A51 5G is now available from Verizon as well.

What you need to know

Samsung has introduced the Galaxy A51 5G to the U.S.
It will go on sale on T-Mobile and Metro from August 7th and Verizon on the 13th.
Samsung previously launched the Galaxy A71 5G for $600.

Samsung has just announced the launch of the Galaxy A51 5G in the U.S this week. The phone, already sold internationally, will join the Galaxy A71 and Samsung Galaxy S20 as the company’s U.S. slate of 5G phones. It will also be the cheapest phone Samsung’s selling with the next-gen wireless standard at $499.99.

It will come to T-Mobile and Metro from August 7, with a Verizon UW variant to follow shortly after on August 13.

The Galaxy A51 is an impressively designed phone, but we weren’t overly impressed with it when reviewing the 4G version earlier in the year.

Writing for Android Central, Harish Jonnalagadd…

The Finnish tech company, HMD Global has been selling Nokia phones since January 2017.

What you need to know

HMD Global has raised $230 million as part of a recent funding round from big-name investors including Qualcomm, Google, and longtime partner, Nokia.
The company is now valued at over $1 billion.
HMD Global expects to launch 5G phones in the latter half of 2020, including the Nokia 8.3 5G.

Google, Qualcomm, and Nokia were among companies that invested $230 million into HMD Global as part of a Series A2 funding round, the company announced today. It will use this investment to fund the development of further 5G devices as the new standard becomes commonplace. The company also confirmed to VenureBeat that it was now valued at over $1 billion.

HMD Global has been making Nokia phones on Google’s Android One platform since 2017, The lineup has included including loved models like the Nokia 7 Plus, unique ones like penta-lens Nokia 9 Pureview, and yet-to-be-released ones like …

The Mi10 Ultra is Xiaomi’s 2020 superphone.

What you need to know

Xiaomi today announced the Mi 10 Ultra.
The phone comes as a celebration of the company’s 1oth anniversary.
It’s a phone that indulges in excessive specs, with Xiaomi highlighting 120Hz display, 120W fast wireless charging, and 120x AI superzoom.

Xiaomi today announced the Mi 10 Ultra, its ultimate 2020 flagship. It takes everything loved about the Mi 10 Pro and drives it up to 120%. On this phone, you’ll find a 120x AI superzoom camera, 120W ultra-fast wired charging, and a 120Hz display. The Mi 10 Ultra is being released for Xiaomi’s 10th anniversary, so it’s natural that the company felt the need to lean into the ridiculous.

Breaking down the specs, the Mi 10 Ultra comes with a massive 6.67-inch FHD+ OLED display capable of 800nits of brightness, it also has a 240Hz touch sampling rate. Combined with the aforementioned 120Hz display, Xiaomi’s hoping swiping around this phone would be as smooth as butter.

Came…

Google introduced Bedtime in Clock for Pixel users, but now it is making it available to older Android devices.

What you need to know

Google today announced new features to make your Android phone more helpful.
Bedtime Mode, an update introduced in the June Feature drop, is coming to older Android phones from today.
The company also issued updates to both Android Auto and the Lookout app.

Google today announced a slew of new features it was bringing to Android, including a nifty new earthquake detection feature we covered here. The other features aren’t quite as earthshaking, but they’re still useful.

The first of these new features is Bedtime mode. Technically, it’s not a new feature, it’s one that made a debut earlier this year as part of the June feature drop as an update to both the Google’s Digital Wellbeing and Clock apps. It’ll help you keep track of your sleep patterns, and offer the option to soothe you to sleep with sleep sounds and wake you up with the gentle Sunris…

T-Mobile completed its merger with Sprint to overshoot AT&T as the number 2 carrier.

What you need to know

T-Mobile is now America’s number two carrier as the company overtakes AT&T.
The boost was fueled by the Sprint merger which contributed to the addition of 1,245,000 new customers.
T-Mobile now boasts 98.3 million total customers.

T-Mobile this week announced that it had now become the number two carrier in the U.S. The growth was fueled by its merger with Sprint and the absorption of the latter’s customers. T-Mobile added 1,245,000 customers which it claimed was the “best in industry” for a total of 98.3 million customers at the end of Q2 2020.

Commenting on the news, Mike Sievert, T-Mobile CEO said:

“Surpassing AT&T to become #2 was a huge milestone to kick off Q2, but that was only the beginning! In our first
quarter as a combined company, T-Mobile led the industry in total branded customer adds – even in a challenging
environment – and there is n…