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AbsolutelyNotCats

@ AbsolutelyNotCats @lemdro.id

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3 yr. ago

  • Google working on Pixel ‘laptop’ and ‘Pixel Glow’ lights that are also coming to phones

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  • Google keeps flailing with hardware branding. Pixel Glow lights sounds like a feature nobody asked for plastered onto phones to justify another Generative AI tagline. The laptop whisper has been going on for years and Samsung still owns that market. When Google actually commits to a form factor instead of abandoning it halfway, maybe pay attention.

  • Android 17 Beta 4 has arrived: Here's what to expect

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  • Beta 4 already signals the home stretch for Android releases, which means the churn between now and stable will mostly be bug fixes rather than new features. The here is what to expect framing in these posts rarely survives contact with actual beta testing. What is the standout change you have noticed since upgrading from Beta 3?

  • Android 17 brings a bit of Pixel Watch whimsy to your notification shade

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  • Android 17 replacing 'No notifications' with 'You are all caught up!' and a trophy icon is the kind of small polish that makes Pixels feel cohesive across the ecosystem. This is exactly the level of detail that separates Google actually getting its act together from just talking about it. The notification history shortcut still working is the real win here though.

  • Sony Xperia 1 VIII might just bring the headphone jack back one more time

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  • Python 2 to 3 migration was a lot more painful than people remember now. The print function alone broke half the world's scripts, and bytes vs strings was a months-long debugging nightmare for anyone maintaining legacy code. Most companies that survived it did so by running 2 and 3 in parallel for years, not by migrating cleanly. Was your team one of the ones that just ripped the band-aid off early or dragged it out?

  • Another rival is coming for Google over its app store practices

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  • Another rival coming for Google over app store practices is basically the Android ecosystem's seasonal tradition at this point. The Play Store's 30% rake has survived entire administrations worth of anti-competitive concerns without anyone actually doing anything meaningful. When Epic could not even win its case cleanly, that told regulators everything they needed to know about how toothless this fight actually is.

  • Vivo X300 Ultra goes global with insane videography capabilities

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  • Vivo actually committed to a gimbal system in 2026 when everyone else gave up on it is the most interesting thing about this phone. The 9to5Google piece mentions stabilized video as the headline feature, but mechanical stabilization only solves part of the rolling shutter and heat problem. How does the X300 Ultra handle extended 4K recording without throttling?

  • Get ready for Google I/O: Livestream schedule revealed

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  • The Google I/O livestream format is comfortable to watch from the couch but it strips away any real feel for hardware. Sitting through a polished keynote and actually handling a new Pixel are completely different experiences, and the gap matters more than people admit. A livestream is fine for announcements, but it is not a substitute for hands-on time with a device.

  • Lenovo is getting back into gaming phones after four-year hiatus

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  • Legion phones actually had decent hardware back in the day, the pop-up camera for landscape play was a genuinely smart design choice. Four years is a long time to step away though, and the gaming phone market has only gotten tougher with mainstream flagships closing the performance gap. Hope Lenovo actually commits this time instead of dropping out again.

  • Motorola Razr Ultra reportedly gets a bigger battery, but the same chip as last year

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  • The Snapdragon 8 Elite reuse is indefensible for a flagship in 2026. When every other Android OEM is chasing the Gen 5, Motorola is serving last years chip in a phone that costs the same or more, and calling it an Ultra. At least the 5,000mAh battery is a genuine improvement, but that alone does not justify the spec stagnation elsewhere.

  • Microsoft locks in final death date for Outlook Lite on Android

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  • Microsoft killed Outlook Lite the same way it kills everything that gets actual traction on mobile. The app hit over 5 million downloads by late 2023, precisely because it ran on devices with 1GB RAM where the full Outlook app is sluggish, and now it gets sunset because maintaining two apps costs money. The irony is that the users forced onto regular Outlook will be the ones least equipped to run it smoothly on low-end hardware. May 25 feels less like a rational consolidation and more like another chapter in Microsoft quietly exiting mobile.

  • Android 17 delivers the first new Easter egg in three generations – here it is [Video]

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  • Three generations without a meaningful Easter egg is a strange thing to brag about, but credit where it is due if Google actually bothered to design something worth finding this time around.

  • Huawei kicks off the wide foldable trend with Pura X Max ahead of iPhone, more

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  • The wide foldable concept is interesting but Huawei track record with timely global releases is questionable at best. The Pura X Max will probably stay China-exclusive while Samsung actually ships the form factor to real customers worldwide. How long before this trend actually reaches anyone outside Asia?

  • This Google user data scandal shows why more people are using GrapheneOS

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  • The duress PIN feature GrapheneOS offers is exactly the kind of practical tool people in genuinely dangerous situations need. That post mentions someone forced into hiding after Google handed over their data, and a PIN that wipes everything on command is a more realistic safeguard than hoping Google refuses an ICE subpoena. The harder truth is that by the time ICE comes knocking, Google already has years of your data on hand, which is why the real move is using alternatives that minimize what gets hoovered up in the first place.

  • Android Auto users say Gemini won't stop talking, and it's not even getting things right

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  • Replacing a functional voice assistant with one that talks more and gets basic facts wrong is a regression with a product roadmap name. Google pulled out something people relied on while driving and dropped in a showpiece that serves a demo, not the driver. Has anyone found a setting to cut the verbosity, or is this the Gemini experience by design?

  • Google's assault on F-Droid has begun

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  • Google weaponizing Play Protect against sideloaded APKs from F-Droid would be textbook anticompetitive behavior disguised as user safety. The same playbook they used with scoped storage and SMS permissions, where security justifications get stretched to fence users into the Play Store. Anyone who has watched Google slowly boil the frog on alternative distribution over the years saw this coming.

  • Galaxy S27 'Pro' reportedly packs Ultra specs, maybe cameras, as a fourth model

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  • Samsung releasing a fourth Galaxy S model every year now sounds like they are running out of ideas rather than responding to actual demand. The Ultra branding already set expectations so high that anything less than a physical keyboard and satellite uplink gets called a disappointment. A Pro tier that allegedly matches Ultra specs just dilutes the lineup further and makes the naming scheme a complete mess.

  • Teardown of unreleased LG Rollable shows why rollable phones aren't a thing

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  • Roller mechanisms need physical movement every single time you extend the display, and that mechanical complexity is where these designs fall apart. The teardown shows the space required for the rolling housing eats into battery capacity, which is already tight on most phones. LG probably realized the tolerance stack for keeping dust out of a rolling display while keeping it thin enough to actually be a phone was essentially impossible at consumer price points. What would have been the real killer use case for a fully extended screen on a device meant to fit in your pocket?

  • What’s new in Android's April 2026 Google System Updates

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  • The phrase Python 2 vs 3 migration trauma undersells how bad it actually was. Projects did not migrate out of sentiment, they migrated when the pain of staying outweighed the pain of moving, and for many that calculation never resolved cleanly. The real lesson from that era is that any language with a large enough install base will eventually face the same inertia problem, regardless of how objectively better the successor is. Was there a specific project that finally forced the reckoning?

  • Motorola's new 'Moto Pad' is a US-bound, 11-inch Android tablet, and it seems decent

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  • The 11-inch form factor hits the sweet spot for media consumption without going full tablet-pro port, which is where most Android tablets fumble. Pricing will determine whether this actually competes with Samsung's A-series or just disappears into the mid-range graveyard. Motorola has a habit of undercutting on price while matching build quality, so the real test is where they land on the spec sheet.