Month: May 2022

YouTube Go was launched in 2016 for developing markets as a lightweight alternative to the regular app but it will go away in August, the platform announced on its Community forums.

The video platform suggested that users who downloaded the lite version of YouTube on Android switch to regular YouTube or go to youtube.com from their browser.

YouTube Go launched five years ago without the ability to post, comment and create content. It also didn’t have Dark Mode. These features are now an essential part of YouTube Go and will soon be gone.

The announcement also confirmed there have been improvements regarding performance, especially on low-end devices, and the regular YouTube app will no longer be a strain on the connectivity or data prices. Viewers with restricted plans will also benefit from additional controls to reduce data usage.

It is important to mention that the market for smartphones has changed dramatically in the last five years. Manufacturers launch devices that have more storage and RAM, as well as better battery management. This is helping apps run smoothly and without any major problems.

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Samsung is pushing two updates for the Galaxy Buds Pro wireless earphones and its Galaxy Wearable companion app. Buds Pro’s new update bears the R190XXU0AVD1 build number and comes in at 2.2MB.

The update changelog specifies improvements to the battery charging algorithm as well as system stability and reliability improvements. The update can be downloaded to your Galaxy Buds Pro paired Galaxy Wearable app.

Alongside the new Buds Pro update, Samsung is pushing a version 2.2.48. 22033061 update to the Galaxy Wearable app. The new software adds the convenience of automatic updates.

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Today, Twitter has begun testing “Circles”. You can think of Twitter Circle as the equivalent of the “Close Friends” list on Instagram. When Tweeting to your Circle, only those you’ve added to your Circle will be able to see and reply to your Tweets.

Some Tweets are for everyone & others are just for people you’ve picked.

We’re now testing Twitter Circle, which lets you add up to 150 people who can see your Tweets when you want to share with a smaller crowd.

Some of you can create your own Twitter Circle beginning today! pic.twitter.com/nLaTG8qctp

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) May 3, 2022

Twitter has uploaded a new Help Center page that explains all about Twitter Circle. It is not the same as Twitter Communities, and it is not the same as having a protected account (where only those allowed can see your Tweets).

Currently, you can only have one Circle, and the number of people to a Circle is limited to 150 users. Only you can see the full list of users in your Circle and Tweets shared to a Circle cannot be Retweeted. Although the Circle restricts who can see certain Tweets, this does not stop them from re-sharing media or screenshots of your content.

Finally, if you were added to a Circle, you cannot remove yourself from them. Twitter recommends muting the conversations they don’t wish to be a part of.

Twitter is only testing this feature with some users globally. To see if you’re part of the test group, you should see the option to create a Circle pop up when you compose a Tweet on Android, iOS, or on Twitter.com. Anyone can be part of a Circle, even those who you don’t follow. Only those in your Circle can see, reply to, and read replies to your Tweet when posted to your Circle.

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While a smartphone’s storage capacity is one of the most important selling points for a consumer, the type of storage is often overlooked. Most Android smartphones (and many electronics) use the UFS (Universal Flash Storage) and most flagships nowadays use either 3.0 or 3. 1 UFS storage.

On Tuesday, Samsung introduced UFS 4.0 which uses Samsung’s Gen 7 V-NAND memory and proprietary controller with sequential read speeds of up to 4,200 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 2,800 MB/s. The new storage tech will also deliver a 46% power-efficiency improvement in sequential read speeds compared to the previous generation.

BREAKING: Samsung has developed the industry’s highest performing Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 4.0 storage solution, which has received JEDEC(r) board of director approval. What is UFS 4.0 and what does it mean for the future of storage? Continue reading to find out more. pic.twitter.com/4Wxdu0J2PD

— Samsung Semiconductor (@SamsungDSGlobal) May 3, 2022

Per lane, UFS 4.0 supports up to 23. 2Gbps per lane, doubled from UFS 3.1. Samsung boasts this amount of “bandwidth is perfect for 5G smartphones requiring huge amounts of data processing,” and it expects to see the technology be adopted in VR, AR, and automotive applications.

The new storage tech can be configured to support up to 1TB of storage so we hope that means we’ll begin seeing more smartphones outfitted with 512GB and 1TB capacities.

Samsung expects mass production of UFS 4.0 storage to start in Q3 so we can expect to see smartphones don the new technology towards the end of the year, or on the Galaxy S23 series that should launch in Q1 of 2023. Read the full Twitter thread to read Samsung’s full announcement about UFS 4.0.

Via Twitter

It may be easy to forget but Google hasn’t always promised a ton of software support for its Pixel smartphones. Three years ago, the update promise included three years’ worth of security updates. And guess what devices launched three years ago? The affordable Pixel 3a and 3a XL. You know exactly what this means.

The May software update that Google started rolling out yesterday should have been their last one, but as usual the company is giving out a bonus update to devices reaching end-of-life, software-wise. This last update will be delivered to the Pixel 3a and 3a XL “by July”, in Google’s own words. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it will happen in July, or that it will go out in June when the monthly update hits the rest of the Pixels.

But by July if you own a Pixel 3a or 3a XL you will be receiving its last ever software update, so perhaps it’s a good time to start looking for an alternative smartphone to buy and use – one that still gets updates, especially security ones, which sometimes can be extremely important.

Anyway. Here’s Google’s complete statement on the subject :

In May 2019 at the launch of the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL, we announced that the devices would receive three years of software updates and three years of security updates from when our devices first became available on the Google Store. The final update for Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL will rollout to users by July 2022.

The 3a and 3a XL were the first Pixels to venture into mid-range territory, and now their story is almost coming to a close – but the “a” line (for “affordable”?) lives on.

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