In this week’s top stories: the Pixel 6 goes to work on a Google-made chip, the existence of the “Pixel Buds A” is leaked, and Samsung’s April 2021 security update begins.
The biggest news in the Android world this week comes from our exclusive report that Google’s 2021 fall phones, including the supposed ‘Pixel 6’, will be working on the Google-made Whitechapel ‘GS101’ chip. This breaks with the norms of the Pixel line, which has so far been used exclusively on Qualcomm Snapdragon processors.
From the references, it appears that Whitechapel is being developed with Samsung Semiconductor’s large-scale integration (SLSI) division, which means that the Google chips will have some similarities with Samsung Exynos, including software components.
Elsewhere in Made by Google, we reported this week that Google’s next earbuds are the “Pixel Buds A.” is. These new earbuds come in two colors, white and green, and are visually identical to last year’s Pixel Buds, except for a few color scheme changes.
The price for the Pixel Buds A is currently unknown, but the A indication indicates that we can look at a more affordable set of Made by Google earbuds, just as the Pixel 4a is an affordable alternative to the Pixel 4. With the 2nd generation Pixel Buds currently sell for $ 179, there’s plenty of room for a more affordable range in the Made by Google range. That being said, it’s not clear what savings Google could make by offering these buttons at a more affordable price point.
On the Samsung side of the issue, the company started rolling out their April 2021 security pattern to their flagship and mid-range phones as early as March 29th. Since Google is only releasing the monthly Pixel update on the first Monday of each month, Samsung’s April 2021 security update introduces a full week ahead of the competition.
Samsung’s true flagship series is usually one of the first to see monthly updates, and this month the launch began on March 29 with the current flagship family, the Galaxy S21 series. The download of S21 devices weighs more than 1 GB and was started in India but has since expanded on a mostly global scale. The update has been extended to the S20 FE and S10 series, and on April 1 it will appear on the Galaxy S9 + in Germany.
Fans of the Chromecast with Google TV were treated to a fun new accessory, the ‘SideClick’, this week. As the name implies, the SideClick attaches the standard buttons of a universal remote to the side of your Chromecast with Google TV remote.
What is the use of this accessory? SideClick is essentially a miniaturized universal remote control that is supposed to handle vital functions of your TV or audio bar without holding out multiple reports. It can duplicate the IR output of your original remote and add it to your ‘new’ remote.
The developers of Lawnchair – the third-party Android launcher app that repeats some of the best aspects of the Pixel Launcher – shared the Alpha version of their next version, Lawnchair 11.. The main feature is that the launcher now supports Android 11, but considerable effort has been made to completely rewrite the features of the app.
At the moment, the team behind Lawnchair 11 has only confirmed Android 11 support, but support for older versions will arrive. You may experience crashes or problems if you try to work on a device that does not have the latest mobile operating system. We should also mention that you should not expect the same feature set as the current public building of Lawnchair Launcher. It is still very early, with certain core features not yet available.
The rest of the week’s top stories follow:
Android |
Android / Google TV |
Programs and Updates |
Chrome / OS |
Google |
Made by Google |
Dra OS |
Videos |
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