In this week’s top stories: Android 12 leak reveals a radical new design, the Google Pixel Buds receive their first firmware update of 2021, Samsung continues to place ads on their Galaxy phones, and more.
The biggest Google news this week is that the report that Android 12 mockups have been leaked, with the leak revealing a major design overhaul for the operating system. In the images, we see the confirmation that Android 12 is getting an in-depth theme system, along with a curious new “Conversation” widget that still puts the focus on people.
On the privacy front, Google will alert users when the microphone or camera is active. There will be a green pill in the top right corner of the status that shrinks to a point. When you tap on the notification page, more information is provided with links to settings. With a new unified privacy settings page, users can ‘Disable Camera’, ‘Mute Microphone’, and can turn high-level location on / off. The latter control is currently its own preferred page.
This week, Google released a firmware update for the Pixel Buds, which ranged from version 552 to 553. Google has not yet released any information about what this update contains.
[…] the [update] process starts by connecting the Pixel Buds to your phone. In about ten minutes, the new firmware is transferred to the headphones. After placing the eyelets in the boot, it takes another ten minutes before the upgrade takes place. All components must be adequately charged.
On the Samsung side, we took Ben Schoon time to show how frustrating it is that even Samsung’s flagship phones show ads for Samsung devices and services. Fortunately, you can eliminate quite a few of these ads, but not everyone of them.
Okay, so let’s start with the bad news. Samsung never lets you fully disable ads. The most effective way to get rid of ads is to turn off notifications, as outlined below. The rest, however, is not so easy to get rid of. If you want to use Samsung’s Weather app, chances are you’ll see ads while doing so. The same goes for many other Samsung apps.
In Google Nest News, the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max received a firmware update for version 1.52 this week. With the update, the smart screens have gained a new alarm clock experience – including the “Sunrise alarm” that was originally exclusive to Pixel phones on the Pixel Stand accessory – a family tab and more.
Google unveiled a preview of Zoom to the Nest Hub Max in December. Earlier this month, @MadeByGoogle tweeted that Zoom is now available. The wider launch may coincide with this firmware, although the Google Support Document – with full setup instructions – still states that the integration is ‘only available to a limited number of users’.
Fitbit, now part of Google, shared some improvements to their app this week, with the addition of blood glucose tracking to help those with diabetes. In addition, the ECB features of the newly released Fitbit Sense will soon be available for use in Canada, New Zealand and US territories.
Fitbit’s Charge 4 also get an update displayed on the device SpO2 lectures, as well as the metric and skin temperature data in Health Metrics. This new fitness tracker firmware is coming soon.
The rest of the week’s top stories follow:
Android |
Android TV / Google TV |
Programs and Updates |
Chrome / OS |
Made by Google |
Stadiums |
Dra OS |
Videos |
FTC: We use revenue to earn automatically affiliate links. More.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news: