Tag: android’s
Android’s Circle to Search is déjà vu all over again
Over the past several days, I’ve been exploring what might just be one of the most meaningful Android advancements in recent memory.
It’s a shiny new feature that’s poised to change the very way we interact with our devices. It’s also one of those things you really have to experience to fully grasp — because it’s essentially taking an existing function and reframing how we use it. But subtle of a shift as that may be, it is incredibly significant in terms of real-world value.
The feature, while technically brand new and in the midst of rolling out to a very small subset of Android devices right now, is also quite familiar. In fact, if you’ve been paying attention to Android for long, you’ll almost certainly make the connection between it and an eerily similar system from nearly a decade ago.
Bluetooth Tags For Android’s 3 Billion-Strong Tracking Network Are Here
Now, third-party Bluetooth trackers for Android’s network are starting to arrive. The two companies that have announced products are Chipolo and Pebblebee, both of which seem to be cloning the Tile line of products. Both offer normal keychain tracker tags and slim credit card format trackers. The worst habits of Tile include making completely disposable products because the batteries can’t be changed, but it looks like our clones have mostly avoided that. All of Pebblebee’s Find My Device products are rechargeable, which is great, while the Chipolo keychain tracker has a replaceable CR2032 battery. Only the Chipolo wallet tracker is disposable (boo!). All these tags will show up in the Find My Device app, right alongside your Android phones, headphones, and whatever else you have that plugs in to the network. They also have a speaker, like normal, so you can make them ring when you’re near them. Both sets of products are up for preorder now.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Google Play Store Wriggles Way Out of Housing Third-Party App Stores in Android’s Biggest Market
Google will not have to host third-party Android app stores in the Indian version of its Play Store, following antitrust rulings from January. The company is still facing a $161 million fine from Indian regulators, though they have eased up on how Android should function in the country moving forward. This comes in…
Quick fix: get rid of Android’s Discover page
Issue
Google’s Discover page, which is the leftmost page on many Android phones, can be a useful source of news, or it can be an irritating list of clickbait headlines and repetitive articles. And because it is an intrinsic part of the OS on many phones, unless you actually installed it yourself, you probably can’t uninstall it.
You can try to adjust the content by selecting the two dots at the bottom right of each article and letting the algorithm know you’re not interested, but that doesn’t always work. Or you can simply get rid of it.
Quick fix
Long-press on any homepage screen…