Android 14 is now live, and just started rolling out to some select Pixel devices - it's also live in the Android Open Source Project. Android 14 is designed to improve productivity for app devs while enhancing performance, privacy, security, and customization for users. This release brings an expressive new look to Android with updated colors, logos, and overall design. Below is an overview of what's new in Android 14.
These were the most popular Android apps and games in 2022 (in millions of downloads), grouped by category. Depressing to see TikTok being the most popular one in the world, 672 million brainwashed users per year, that's a lot.
Previously, ads within the Play Store were rather discreetly integrated into the Suggested for you section, typically presented as simple icons that users could swipe through to explore more recommendations. However, your experience is about to get worse. Google Play Store is testing a new ad display format, where you'll encounter a two-row carousel of banners instead, expanding the visibility of ads.
Google Pixel 8 Pro, part of the upcoming Pixel smartphone series, is expected to launch later this year. A leaked video revealed the Pixel 8 Pro's design details, including a punch-hole front camera and a pill-shaped module housing three rear cameras. Biggest surprise is the inclusion of a thermometer sensor.
Google finally unveiled at Google I/O 2023 the Pixel 7a and Pixel Fold, its first foldable smartphone, along with other new features (including AI-powered ones) that will be released later this year.
WhatsApp is beta testing an app for the Pixel Watch, Galaxy Watch 5, and other smartwatch devices. This means very soon a public version of Whatsapp for Wear OS 3 will be available. If you want to beta test Whatsapp for WearOS, you can sign-up here
After reviewing almost 500 projects, Unity picked the winners of the 2023 Unity for Humanity Grant. All of the social impact creators receiving funding this year are using real-time 3D to drive change in truly innovative ways. Projects were judged based on vision, impact, inclusion, and viability. Winners will receive a bespoke grant from a pool of $500,000 USD, plus mentorship and technical support to help bring their projects to life.
This gets me to the easiest way I earned free Amazon gift cards: I've reviewed apps on Capterra, a platform that lists and compares apps. At first I was a bit reluctant, because I couldn't believe you can get $20 for posting a review on an app you use that takes 10 minutes to write. But after I did receive the first Amazon gift card from them, I started writing more reviews and got free Amazon gift cards each time.
With Google's Pixel 7a launch just around the corner, the tech world is buzzing with anticipation for the successor to the highly popular Pixel 6a. Although the smartphone has yet to be officially unveiled, there is some leaked information revealing details about its specs and price.
Good news for anyone that has their smartphones rooted using it, because Magisk v26 was released on April 5th, 2023, almost 1 year after the previous release (v25.2). Magisk has increased its minimum Android version to 6.0 and will no longer support Android Lollipop due to the lack of adequate testing. Additionally, Magisk has made significant improvements to its Magic Mount feature, which allows modules to modify partitions, and its sepolicy.rule implementation, which allows modules to provide custom SELinux patches. Zygisk, the API used by Magisk, has also received updates, including new features and a refined PLT function hook API. However, an installation of Magisk v26+ using custom recovery will be incomplete and require a subsequent re-installation through the Magisk app after booting up due to a new pre-init partition detection mechanism.
