Articles by Michael Allison

Amazon’s new Car Mode launches today for safer in-car music access.

What you need to know

Amazon today launched a new Car Mode for its Android app.
Once enabled, users gain easier access to Alexa and customizable preset playlists.
It’s available on the latest version of the Amazon Music app for all price tiers.

Amazon is making it easier and safer to use the Amazon Music app when you’re on the move. It’s doing this via a feature called Car Mode that’s debuting on Android with the latest version of Amazon Music (so that’s version 17.7.4).

Once this update is rolled out, you can connect to your car’s Bluetooth to enable this. Once enabled, users will have more Alexa hands-free functionality in the app. This is so you can speak more and keep your eyes and hands both focused on driving. As for the interface itself, it’ll now feature that there’s larger text, larger pictures, more swipe gestures, and less of a focus on searching and selecting new songs. Instead, you’ll find custom…

It’s a story about cheap phones and Huawei.

What you need to know

MediaTek became the number 1 chipset supplier last year.
It was carried by the absence of Huawei’s Kirin chips in the low-end market.
MediaTek was also helped by the sale of low-end Xiaomi and Samsung handsets.

MediaTek has taken the crown of the biggest smartphone supplier, according to a report from analyst firm Omdia (via Digitimes). The company shipped 351.8 million chips to smartphone OEMs, a growth of 47.8% coming from what it had supplied in 2019.

The company’s rise in 2020 can be attributed to an increase in the sales of cheap Android phones, alongside a ban on rival chipset maker, Huawei.

Huawei last year had said that it would be quitting the chip market for low-end phones, allowing MediaTek to swoop in and supply chipsets to the likes of Xiaomi. Xiaomi also saw a sales bump due to Huawei’s absence in the market, further contributing to MediaTek’s rise.

Zaker Li, senior analyst of wireless devices co…

Google Meet’s free service limitations remain suspended till June.

What you need to know

Google Meet’s unlimited meetings will remain available for the free version of the service till June this year.
Google had previously extended it through March after initially lifting the limitations of the free iteration in 2020.
Now, users will no longer have to pay to hold a meeting that exceeds 1 hour until June.

Google is extending the temporary removal of limitations on the free iteration of Meet past March, the company announced today. It’s a second extension to a freebie that was initially slated to expire in September 2020.

To be precise, it allowed users to hold meetings longer than an hour on the free version of Meet. Users would have had to pay for the privilege by signing up for a Google Workspace plan before this move. Now, Google is extending this gift through June, allowing users to make use of the product for a little while longer.

We’re continuing unlimited #GoogleMeet …

Google’s been making its products more child-friendly over the last year, this is just the latest step.

Update, Mar 30 (2:30 pm ET): Rolling out now on Google TV

What you need to know

Google TV is the latest Google service to add a kids profile feature.
Once enabled, parents will be able to control what kind of apps and content can be used or consumed on the Google TV platform.
It’s coming to the U.S. in March and other countries later in the year.

Google is building out an update for the Google TV platform that’ll make it more child-friendly, as expected from a report last month. It’s rolling out “kids profiles”, a feature that’ll allow parents to create a space on the Google platform focused on appropriate content for their children.

As with the main Google TV home screen, the kids profile home screen will be filled with recommendations revolving around apps and programs. They’ll all be child-friendly apps, think YouTube Kids, and parents will be able to control what purcha…

A new prompt in Chrome sets PWAs apart.

What you need to know

Google is making PWAs more app-like with a new app install prompt.
Developers can now add an app description and screenshots to the app installation flow.
Twitter’s Progressive Web App is already using it.

Progressive Web Apps, or PWAs, are getting a lot more app-like with a new feature that now evokes the installation flow you’ll recognize from an app store. A PWA, to recap, is a web-app that acts like a native app. It can launch in its own app window, can work offline in some regards, and even launches with a splash page.

Previously, installing a PWA was indistinguishable from creating a shortcut to a web page or a non-progressive web app. Now, when installing a PWA that’s built for this new system, you’ll see screenshots, an app description, and everything you’d expect to see if the web app was listed in a traditional app store pop up as part of the installation process. It’s just another step that’s going a long …

It’s an 8.4-inch mini-tablet, not a 7-inch one, as the name would imply.

What you need to know

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy A7 Lite tablet just leaked.
It’s a small 8.4-inch tablet that’ll double as a cheap option.
It’s also expected to come in June.

Samsung is preparing to launch a new small tablet over the next couple of months, as per a new leak from prolific leaker Evan Blass. When it arrives, It’ll be branded the Galaxy A7 Lite. It won’t be very powerful, and it’s set to ship with a MediaTek Helio P22T SoC, 3GB of RAM, and a single rear camera without flash, all powered by a 5,100mAh battery. Unlike what you’d believe from the name and Samsung’s previous patterns, it is not a 7-inch tablet but an 8.4-inch one. So it’ll be compact, suitable for entertainment and light games — and very much a low-end affair and aimed at budget-conscious customers.

It’s said to come alongside the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Lite, likely a more interesting product. Both are scheduled for a June 2021 …

It’s not clear how many people are affected by this yet.

What you need to know

Some Pixel phone owners are reporting a “Sim Manager” error.
If affected, users may find themselves subject to an irritating pop-up that reminds them that the ‘Sim-Manager has stopped working.’
A temporary fix involves uninstalling all updates and reverting the app to the shipping version.

Just like WebView, SIM Manager is an app that’s unsexy in its plainness. It’s supposed to be invisible, working in the background, handling whatever SIM Managers do if you could be bothered to look it up. So when it bugs out, and users become aware of it, it’s a very bad thing. More and more Pixel owners are chiming into a growing thread in the Pixel support forums reporting an error whereby their phone pops up a “Sim Manager has stopped working” error, over, and over, and over again.

Checking the Play Store reveals similarly pleased users. One complains, “Crashes about every 3 minutes. No option to turn it off. T…

The writing has been on the wall for LG’s smartphone business for years.

What you need to know

LG might be closing down its smartphone business for good.
The company had tried and failed to find buyers for its once-thriving mobile business.
LG is said to be sharing its decision by April.

LG’s smartphone business might be done for, according to a new report from the South Korean trade Donga (via Bloomberg). The company, unable to find a buyer, is said to be strongly leaning towards shuttering the mobile arm of its business.

According to the report, LG has already pressed pause on its entire 2021 smartphone lineup, including the sequel to the LG Velvet and its rollable phone. The company had been in talks with the Vietnamese Vingroup as well as Volkswagen, but negotiations fell through.

LG is said to be considering a pivot to other industries in which it currently dabbles, including household appliances, automobiles, and other more profitable businesses.

The decision isn’t out …

Small changes adding up.

What you need to know

Google has released the second Android 12 developer preview today.
This update focuses on refining some multi-tasking tools, including lockscreen notifications and picture-in-picture mode.
Another change in this build will let developers build apps that take full advantage of the screen real estate in phones which have rounded corners.

Google is rolling out the second developer preview of Android 12 today. As expected, there aren’t many consumer-facing features here, it’s more tweaks to the underlying core experience and APIs changes for developers. However, some of the tweaks here do add a bit of veracity to earlier reports about what to be being expected in Android 12, so let’s go over them briefly.

Here’s what’s being highlighted:

Extended security for lockscreen notifications: Enabling developers to configure notifications on the lockscreen to always require user authentication.
Improvements to Picture in Picture mod…

You’ll be able to by a TV and an Android TV stick to go with it.

What you need to know

Walmart is preparing to launch an Android TV stick under the Onn brand.
Images of the upcoming streaming device found their way to social media from the company’s FCC listing.
It’ll support up to 2K streaming when it launches.

It’s already pretty cheap to jump into the Android TV ecosystem, and Walmart is lowering the cost of entry even further. The retail giant is making its own Android TV stick, according to an FCC listing spotted by Android TV Guide over on Twitter (via Android Police). When this stick launches, It’ll do so under the Onn brand, the company’s own label for budget electronics.

In terms of hardware, it’s nothing special. There’s a small white Onn-branded reference remote with buttons for YouTube, Netflix, and Assistant in addition to the regular navigation buttons. You’ll also find the small Onn TV stick dongle, as well as a USB cable, a power adapter and a HDMI connector f…