Articles by Michael Allison

Reports of outages started this afternoon.

What you need to know

Reddit is down for some users in North America and Europe.
Outages started this afternoon, around 1 PM Eastern.
Users may experience problems loading the site or app.

Having problems with Reddit? You’re not alone. Reports of an outage spiked on DownDetector earlier today. As per the site, users have been experiencing issues roughly around 1PM Eastern Time in Western Europe and North America.

It’s not clear what the specific issue is, but we’ve seen (and experienced) issues with loading content on the app and site. Reddit support has yet to issue any comment, but we’ll update this article when we have more information.

Best Reddit apps for Android…

OnePlus’ lack of true wireless earbuds was disappointing for some, but the company may be about to fix that.

What you need to know

OnePlus is rumored to be launching its first true wireless earbuds in July.
The company launched the Bullets Wireless Z, a set of wired earbuds with its OnePlus 8 Pro last month.
OnePlus is expected to launch the OnePlus Z, an upcoming mid-ranger powered by the Snapdragon 765, around that time as well.

Everyone’s launching true wireless earbuds nowadays. Samsung has theirs, Google has theirs, Huawei has theirs, and then there’s Apple stealing all the air (and profit) in the room.

OnePlus might be about to join in the fray, according to leaker Max J (via 9toGoogle).

*¹ New but seemingly reliable source; take it with a pinch of salt— Max J. (@MaxJmb) May 15, 2020

A pinch of salt may be required with this leak as Max notes that his source is a new one, albeit reliable.

That said, it does make sense for OnePlus to launch a truly wireless pair of …

Huawei’s P30 Pro returns. Again.

What you need to know

Huawei is launching the P30 Pro New Edition again.
It’s the first Huawei ‘flagship’ this year to ship with Google apps.
The company says this is to celebrate the one year anniversary of the P30’s launch.

Huawei is once again relaunching the P30 Pro after an initial relaunch last year to add a new finish. Unlike all other Huawei phones released this year, the P30 Pro stands apart from them by being able to use Google’s apps and services.

Huawei made the announcement today (via Android Police):

The new fan-favourite smartphone will provide users with increased RAM to 8GB, expanded ROM to 256GB, as well as the return of the award-winning Leica Quad Camera. After setting a new standard in DxOMark scores, in August 2019, the European Image and Sound Association (EISA), a group comprising of 55 of the world’s most respected consumer electronics magazines, named HUAWEI’s P30 Pro the “EISA Best Smartphone 2019-2020”.

The …

Instagram’s new tools will make it easier to tackle bullying on the social network.

What you need to know

Instagram’s new tools will grant users more control over their account.
From today, users will be able to mass delete comments and control who can tag or mention them.
The company is also testing a pinned comments feature.

Instagram today launched a selection of tools that would make it easier for users to retain control of their accounts. Specifically, users now have more control over what comments are displayed under their photos and who can tag or mention them.

As per the Instagram team:

First, we’re launching a new feature to help people manage multiple unwanted interactions at once. We know it can feel overwhelming to manage a rush of negative comments, so we’ve been testing the ability to delete comments in bulk, as well as block or restrict multiple accounts that post negative comments. Early feedback has been encouraging, and we’ve found that it helps people, e…

Tweets that serve up misleading information are now at risk of being removed.

What you need to know

Twitter will begin taking action against COVID-19 misinformation with a new labeling system.
It will apply labels on tweets sharing disputed or misleading information and may delete them in severe cases.
The system will work retroactively, applying to tweets made before the announcement as well.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to fuel the rise of conspiracy theories and fake news, Twitter will now warn users if a tweet they are viewing will contain health misinformation. Posts and tweets have been circulating on social media, espousing miracle cures, warning about microchipped vaccines, and linking 5G to the virus — among other conspiracies. While some of these have been benign, others have the ability to cause real harm, and have already done so.

Twitter’s Site Integrity and Public Policy team heads made the announcement today, saying:

Earlier this year, we introduced…

You can’t be with your friends, but you can stream with them.

What you need to know

Spotify has released Group Session, a new feature that’ll make it easier to share a music experience with friends from a distance.
Aimed at Premium subscribers, group features will allow two or more users to control a single queue.
It’s currently in beta and will continually evolve over time.

Spotify is launching Group Session, a feature of the app that will let Premium users stream music with each other. It was spotted in testing last year but will now be made available broadly going forward.

As reported by 9to5Mac, the company made the announcement this morning:

Today, Spotify is launching a beta version of Group Session, an evolving feature that allows a group of two or more Premium users in the same space to share the control for their listening session with others via a Spotify Code. In addition to real-time listening, the feature will offer shared queue control and collaboration for th…

Google is speeding up the development of new tools to enable better learning from home.

What you need to know

Google’s new Read Along app wants to help reluctant readers grow.
A reading budding Ziya and a badge system will provide reinforcement and motivation respectively.
For parents, a lack of IAPs and ads may aid in peace of mind.

Alongside a Lens update for learning foreign languages earlier today, Google is also rolling out a new Read Along app to keep our brains engaged while we’re at home. As the name implies, the app is meant to build literacy by encouraging children age 5+ to “read along” with verbal and visual feedback as they progress.

Google’s Zohair Hyder, Engineering Lead of Read Along, explained:

Read Along helps kids independently learn and build their reading skills with the help of an in-app reading buddy named Diya. As kids read out loud, Diya uses Google’s text-to-speech and speech recognition technology to detect if a student is struggling or successfu…

Google is speeding up the development of new tools to enable better learning from home.

What you need to know

Google’s new Read Along app wants to help reluctant readers grow.
A reading budding Ziya and a badge system will provide reinforcement and motivation respectively.
For parents, a lack of IAPs and ads may aid in peace of mind.

Alongside a Lens update for learning foreign languages earlier today, Google is also rolling out a new Read Along app to keep our brains engaged while we’re at home. As the name implies, the app is meant to build literacy by encouraging children age 5+ to “read along” with verbal and visual feedback as they progress.

Google’s Zohair Hyder, Engineering Lead of Read Along, explained:

Read Along helps kids independently learn and build their reading skills with the help of an in-app reading buddy named Diya. As kids read out loud, Diya uses Google’s text-to-speech and speech recognition technology to detect if a student is struggling or successfu…

Google’s RCS isn’t locked to Messages anymore.

What you need to know

Samsung has worked with Google to enable RCS in Messages.
Users of the Samsung Messages app will no longer need to rely on carrier-based RCS so long as Google supports RCS in their country or region.
Samsung’s Messages app is the first non-Google made app to work with Google’s RCS implementation.

Samsung is enabling RCS support for more Galaxy phones in partnership with Google, the company announced in late April.

“Samsung is bringing support for Google’s Rich Communication Services (RCS) to Galaxy smartphones to make your conversations more seamless. The two companies have been working since 2018 to bring the features to Samsung devices,” Samsung said, in April, “the Samsung Messages app with RCS allows users to do more, including chat over both Wi-Fi and mobile data, send and receive high-resolution photos and videos, receive read receipts, and create feature-rich group chats. The Messages app is also availa…

Google will move away from the Chromecast brand as well, dipping into the more successful Nest label.

What you need to know

Google is set to debut a Chromecast Ultra replacement.
This new dongle will re-focus on media over apps amd wlll run the soon-to-be-rebranded Android TV.
The company will also look into using the Nest brand on the Chromecast sequel.

Google just debuted the Pixel Buds and is set for a launch of the Pixel 4a in the coming weeks, but that isn’t the end of the company’s short-term hardware releases.

9to5Google earlier shared a report of an upcoming Chromecast Ultra successor, and now we have a few more details, courtesy of Protocol.

Protocol reports:

Google is set to introduce an Android TV streaming device in the coming months, a reimagined dongle with a new user interface that will put a bigger emphasis on individual movies and TV shows as opposed to apps, multiple sources with knowledge of the company’s plans told Protocol. The company will likely exte…