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In this week’s top stories: Google’s ‘Phone’ app for Android changes its name, new images are leaked from the upcoming Chromecast powered by ‘Google TV’, renders for the OnePlus 8T appear, and more.
Google recently brought its “Phone” app, previously exclusive to the Pixel, to nearly all Android phones. This week, possibly to emphasize that change, the company changed the name of the app to “Google Phone” in the Play Store.
Adding “by Google” is a pretty standard move for the company. Other apps with this naming scheme: Files, Wear OS, PhotoScan, Gallery Go, Read Along, Lookout, and Socratic.
The next Made by Google event is just around the corner, and some images and details of the new hardware were leaked this week. The ad everyone is most excited about, the new “Google Chromecast with Google TV,” had four new images leaked.
What’s notable about this leak, though, is the remote that Google includes with its new Chromecast. In previous leaks we could see this same basic design, but this time the buttons have been revised. There’s a D-Pad at the top with the Back, Assistant, Home, and Mute buttons listed. Then YouTube gets its own shortcut and the traditional Netflix button is present as well. To round things off, there’s a power button, a volume rocker on the side, and interestingly enough, an input switch as well.
In this week’s Android news, we got our first look at the OnePlus 8T in new renders. Between the shape of the phone and its camera module, the OnePlus 8T seems to have been heavily inspired by the Samsung Galaxy S20.
In addition to Samsung’s clear inspiration for this hardware, the OnePlus 8T is also set to arrive with OxygenOS 11 out of the box, according to previous leaks. As we’ve detailed above, OxygenOS 11 draws its biggest design changes from Samsung’s OneUI skin. It’s almost poetic that the new OxygenOS runs on such familiar hardware.
Fans of Made by Google hardware got some good news this week. Where it seemed like the Pixel 4a was delayed from its originally planned release date, the Pixel 5 event goes a bit in the opposite direction. The next Made by Google event, called “Launch Night In”, is scheduled for September 30, two weeks earlier than last year.
Along with the new smartphones, Google also teases a new smart speaker in its email. This is undoubtedly the Nest speaker that Google showed off in a single image and teaser video earlier this year. Other than that, there’s also the “new Chromecast,” which is the Android TV “Sabrina” dongle that we’ve seen leaking multiple times lately.
Lastly, some early adopters of the recently released Fitbit Charge 4 have noted that there is a gap between the watch strap and the tracker itself. This week, Fitbit took the time to confirm that these issues are a legitimate defect and encouraged those with the issue to contact customer service.
We are aware that a band connection issue is affecting a small number of Charge 4 users. We take customer satisfaction very seriously and the quality of our products is one of our top priorities. We encourage customers experiencing difficulties with their device to contact Customer Support for assistance.
– Fitbit
The rest of this week’s top stories follow:
Made by Google |
Android |
Applications and updates |
Chrome / OS |
IOS Applications |
OnePlus |
Samsung |
Wear OS |
Videos |
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