In this week’s headlines: The Google Home app adds to Nest Wifi usage history, Pixel brand loyalty is declining, OnePlus Watch Wear OS won’t run after all, and more.
Consistent with the announcement of the second-gen Hub, the Google Home app has been updated with more functionality for the Nest Wifi family of devices. As an update, you can now access a new “speed and usage” section in Network information, with graphs for individual devices as well as the network as a whole.
These Nest Wifi user graphics were previously a major omission for the Google Home app. That information was only available in an old Google Wifi client, which is now ripe for downsizing. Last year, Home added advanced Wifi options and the ability to merge existing networks.
A new report came out this week, suggesting that far fewer Pixel owners will buy Pixel as their next phone, falling from 84% down to 65.2%. In contrast, from the same report, 92% of iPhone owners surveyed said they would buy another iPhone as their next smartphone.
Honestly it’s not that hard to see why those numbers have dropped. The Google Pixel line has had some rocky points over the last two years, with the Pixel 4 having very poor battery stability and the Pixel 4a, 4a 5G, and Pixel 5 having a fuzzy line. The company’s 2020, we didn’t do that of course there are no major complaints about the quality of Google’s latest phones, but the lack of larger XL models and a stunning camera while still competitive is sure to make some practice looking elsewhere.
One of the expected wearables this year is the OnePlus Guard, which was once said to run on Google’s Wear OS platform. Instead, Pete Lau from OnePlus detailed some aspects of the upcoming watch, including that it would run on “RTOS” instead of Wear OS, due to battery life and more.
Lau also explains that the OnePlus Watch has an “amazing no-burden design” as well as connectivity with OnePlus smartphones and TV. An earlier report today reported that the watch could be used as a remote device for Android-based TVs. Apparently, all of this comes for an “affordable” price point as well.
There was a lot of anticipation for Android fans this week, as Google launched the second Android 12 Developer Preview. We’ve carefully compiled all the changes, big and small, found in the update, and we’ve also incorporated the most important ones into video.
One of the most immediately noticeable changes about Android 12 on Pixel phones is that the dark theme is much lighter than before. On Android 11, the dark theme of Google Pixel phones is “black AMOLED,” but Android 12 now uses a medium gray similar to the shade used in the dark mode of several Google apps.
Why the sudden change? We are not entirely sure. Google said that even gray matter can save battery on OLED displays compared to white, so a lighter gray is a reason to reduce battery savings. It’s a weird choice, but like I said, I dig a look of it.
The rest of this week’s top stories follow:
Android |
Android 12 |
Apps & Updates
Made by Google |
OnePlus |
YouTube |
Videos
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