Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Welcome to The weekly authoritythe android authority newsletter with the best Android and tech news of the week. The 206th edition here, with the launch of OnePlus 10T, possible Pixel 7 launch and release dates, a new game from Witcher 3 developers and much more…
📚 I took a break from gaming and reading a lot this week after getting a new, totally magical bookshop on a recent trip to Edinburgh.
Popular news this week
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
OnePlus:
google:
Samsung:
Pre-order the next Samsung Galaxy and get up to $200 in credit!
Pre-order now Galaxy Z Fold 4, Z Flip 4, Watch 5 or Buds 2 Pro and get free stuff
You can now pre-order a Galaxy Z Fold 4, Galaxy Z Flip 4, Galaxy Watch 5 and the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro directly from Samsung. Reservations are free and entitle you to a whole host of free stuff when you place your order. You have until August 10 to make a reservation.
Nothing:
Motorola:
Apple:
Room:
Elsewhere:
- Fitbit Inspire 3, Sense 2 and Versa 4 leak in official-looking renders.
- Oppo Watch Series 3 images leaked online: Looks a lot like a curved Apple Watch – also gets a big battery boost.
- Elsewhere, Amazon is going to clean up by buying Roomba maker iRobot for $1.7 billion.
- Uber will provide drivers with more information about destination and revenue before accepting a ride as it tries to improve driver support, which will hopefully mean fewer canceled rides for drivers.
- And Uber receipts crash Microsoft Outlook: A formatting error appears to be the culprit, causing Outlook to freeze when emails with complex tables (and apparently receipts) – Microsoft has developed a fix to reach beta users “soon” and everyone else in an update arriving in August 9.
- Meanwhile, Bolt Mobility, an e-bike-sharing company, appears to have closed in six U.S. cities, leaving equipment on the streets.
- The latest Windows 11 Android update is one for mobile gamers, with gamepad support and new keyboard mapping options, now available to beta testers.
- Halloween is horrifying enough without the news that Hershey may not be able to meet the demand for candy this year.
- Speaking of your sweet tooth, fancy a free donut? Canadian chain Tim Hortons may have spied on you for a year, but now it’s offering free apologetic coffee and a baked good to those affected after the app tracked users’ location without permission.
- Elon Musk went on to contradict Twitter last Friday, but the details are not yet public.
- In today’s science news: MIT engineers are developing stamp-sized stickers that can see inside the body: The “sonographic adhesives” stick to the skin and provide “continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for 48 hours.”
- Even spookier science news: Zombie pigs could be a thing, as scientists revive pig cells an hour after death, in what could be a potential breakthrough for organ transplants.
- And sodium-based batteries could solve the lithium crisis, but it could take several years.
Movies/TV:
- First some sad news. Nichelle Nichols, whom we all know and love as Lieutenant Uhura from Star Trek: The Original Series, has died aged 89: According to the BBC, the pioneering actor was one of the first black women to play an authority figure, and later became an authority figure. enlisted by NASA to encourage more women and African Americans to become astronauts.
- The Sandman came to Netflix on Friday and the guardhas an interview with author Neil Gaiman about comics, diversity and casting Death.
- And we saw the first full trailer for Netflix’s Cyberpunk 2077 animated series, arriving sometime in September.
- We also have a trailer for Andor, the new Star Wars prequel series coming to Disney Plus on September 21.
- Prey landed on Disney Plus and Hulu on Friday, and some viewers are saying that the Predator prequel we’ve all been waiting for is better than the original movie — TechRadarThe spoiler-free review calls the fifth film in the Predator series “the entertaining sci-fi movie that Predator fans have been hunting for for the past 30 years.”
- Meanwhile, this week we’ve got the best new TV shows to stream, including Paper Girls, Uncoupled, and more.
- Bronze statues of Breaking Bad stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul were unveiled at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
- The people at mashable Watched Taiwanese movie Incantation, the horror movie that drives TikTok crazy (I haven’t been brave enough to watch it yet!)
- Batgirl is no more: Warner Bros delayed the film Tuesday, just a few months before its release, reportedly due to its poor performance in test screenings.
- Political drama series The First Lady will be canned by Showtime after its first season.
- And this is your last chance to see these movies leaving Netflix and other streamers in August.
- Finally: mashableThe Bullet Train review calls Brad Pitt’s latest a “daffy, ultra-violent action romp,” hitting theaters this weekend.
Gaming:
- A group of Witcher 3 developers are working on a new online action game set in feudal Japan.
- Sony is discontinuing the PS5’s Accolades feature – to be honest, we didn’t even know about its existence until now.
- And Sega Genesis Mini 2 inventory will be extremely limited in the US due to the global semiconductor shortage.
- Meanwhile, Indonesia is blocking access to Steam, Epic Games and Nintendo Online after companies missed the cut-off date to comply with the new law.
- The Japanese indie game festival BitSummit runs this weekend, August 6-7.
- Logitech will launch a handheld cloud gaming device in 2022, with support for Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia’s GeForce Now services.
- Here’s what’s coming (and leaving) to Game Pass in August: Goodbye Boyfriend Dungeon.
- And Microsoft is starting to test an Xbox Game Pass family plan that will allow you to add up to four people to your subscription, first as a preview in Ireland and Colombia.
- GTA Online’s latest mission is unexpectedly terrifying, according to Kotaku (spoiler warning!).
- Games Hublists all the major video game releases for August, including Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and the Saints Row reboot.
- Finally, Nintendo, like other game companies, reports a drop in sales – Nintendo sold 3.4 million Switch systems in the spring, a million less than a year ago.
Reviews
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
- OnePlus 10T review: raw power – “It takes more than a fast chipset and even faster charging to create an all-rounder” (android authority).
- Huawei Freebuds Pro 2 review: An attractive package – “The Freebuds Pro 2 sounds great and has tons of features, but they are not without flaws” (android authority).
- Acer Chromebook Spin 513 (2H) review: Reworking the basics — “Slow flash memory and mediocre processor mean it’s not the best for heavier workloads, but for students and casual users, the Spin 513 (2H) is a good one choice” (android authority).
- Lenovo Tab M10 HD Review — “It certainly looks and feels good for its price, and it really doesn’t cost much at all. However, its positioning as a budget media player is undermined by a humble screen, appalling performance and mediocre battery life” (Trustworthy reviews).
Functions
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
One of the test vehicles that Apple uses for autonomous driving.
After wiredIn the article about EV manufacturers figuring out what women want, a Pew Research survey shows that women are more skeptical of self-driving cars than men. And it’s not just driverless cars – in general, women are more skeptical than men about the use of artificial intelligence.
- The survey found that 37% of men think driverless cars are a good idea, while only 17% of women agree.
- More than 50% of women said they would not feel comfortable driving on the road next to self-driving cars, compared to just 35% of men.
- And only 27% of women would actually want to drive a driverless car, compared to 46% of men.
- Women are also more likely than men (33% versus 20%) to think that self-driving cars can lead to an increase in car crashes.
This also applies to driverless public transport: more than 50% of women oppose the use of self-driving technology for buses, compared to only 35% of men.
What about other applications of artificial intelligence?
The study also showed:
- Only 42% of women in the US said technology has had a positive impact on society, compared to 54% of men.
- Women are also less likely than men (13% compared to 22%) to express excitement rather than worry about the increased use of AI in everyday life.
- And more than 30% of women surveyed said they aren’t sure whether police use of facial recognition technology is a good idea, compared to 22% of men.
The design of AI technologies
Women also expressed more concern about who is involved in the design and implementation of AI technologies.
- More women than men (67% vs. 58%) said they thought it was important for social media companies to involve people of different genders and races in designing their algorithms.
- Women also doubt more than men that AI computer programs are capable of consistently making fair decisions in complex situations. Only 22% of women surveyed said they believed it was possible to design AI programs that could consistently make fair decisions, compared to 38% of men.
Personally, I think driverless cars are a good idea, but I’m not sure what to think of something bigger like an autonomous bus or truck. And I wonder if there’s such a gender disparity about using AI in the home, like robotic vacuum cleaners or robotic lawnmowers?
Technical calendar
- 10 August: Samsung unpacked (Galaxy Z Flip 4, Fold 4, Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro?)
- 1st of September: OnePlus 10T preorders open (US)
- Sept 2-6: IFA Berlin
- September 10 at 9 p.m. CEST: Ubisoft Forward Showcase
- Sept 29: OnePlus 10T on sale
- October 6: Pixel 7 launch? (TB)
- October 13: Pixel 7 for sale? (TB)
- Nov 8: Skull and Bones release date on Xbox Series S/X, PS5, PC, Stadia and Luna
- Nov 9: God of War: Ragnarok launches on PS4, PS5
Tech Tweet of the Week
Who would have thought the lottery was a good way to catch time travelers?
Something extra: From the hassle, this week in 2017 Luis Fonsi’s Despacito became the most watched YouTube video of all time, with over 3 billion views. What is the most viewed video today? Baby Shark Dance (sorry in advance!)
Paula Beaton, text editor.
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