Ryan Haynes / Android Authority
âš¡ Welcome to The Weekly Authority, Android Authority’s newsletter that breaks down the most important Android and tech news of the week. The 209th edition here, with our review of the Galaxy Z Flip 4, a new Google patent for foldable devices, Apple’s Far Out event and the upcoming film Days Gone — plus much more.
👻 I’m off to Edinburgh Festival this week to see (or should I hear?) three of Darkfield’s fascinating shows, Eulogy, Flight and Seance — and I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty scared but also excited!
Popular news this week
Ryan Haynes / Android Authority
Social media:
- Did you get spammed by the Facebook bug that filled users’ feeds with endless posts from celebrity accounts?
- Creepy: TikTok Tracks Your Keystrokes — The company’s in-app browser can track your activity on external websites and even capture your credit card information or passwords.
- Twitter’s security is a huge mess, according to whistleblower Peter “Mudge” Zatko, who was just fired as Twitter’s head of security and wrote a report outlining a range of problems, including that “more than half of Twitter’s employees had direct access to active service code and data.”
- Elon Musk is subpoenaing Jack Dorsey as he prepares for his Oct. 17 trial — the subpoena “seeks information related to fake or spam accounts and information about how Twitter reports spam accounts.”
Elsewhere:
- A $1,200 phone was the most popular Android phone in North America in the second quarter of 2022.
- Fitbit’s surprise launch on Wednesday saw Fitbit launch three new wearables: the Fitbit 2, Versa 4 and Inspire 3 are available for pre-order now.
- And Sony announced an event on September 1, hinting at a compact device that could mean the Xperia 5 IV is coming.
- The post-Leica Huawei Mate 50 series officially launches next month, almost two years after the Mate 40 line.
- This week also saw the launch of the DJI Avata hybrid racing drone, which is easy to control and offers a fun experience.
- Now even Redmi Note phones may miss the charger in the box: No phone line is safe?
- The leak reveals Bose’s upcoming QuietComfort Earbuds II headphones: they look significantly more compact.
- And this cool, rugged prototype Chromebook is made from recycled materials—not bad when it comes to productivity.
- Elsewhere, T-Mobile is rolling out Starlink satellite coverage to consumers, with a beta program expected by the end of next year — but there’s a big catch.
- Tesla is raising the price of its fully self-driving feature to $15,000 in North America, up from an already high $12,000.
- Speaking of which, Tesla wants videos of its cars running over child-sized mannequins taken down, claiming they’re defamatory.
- UK drivers may not be liable for accidents when their car is self-driving later this decade. Instead, producers will take the fall.
- Also: the data privacy bill will give you more control over the information collected about you and force companies to change the way they handle data.
- Finally this week: DuckDuckGo is now offering its anti-tracking email service to everyone and adding new features.
Movies/TV:
- Over 10 million watched the premiere of House of Dragon, but how much do you know about Game of Thrones? We also have some shows like House of the Dragon that you will love.
- Speaking of fantasy, we’ve seen a new trailer for LOTR: The Rings of Power and we’re stoked — we also asked what excites you more, House of the Dragon or The Rings of Power…
- We’ve got a tantalizing 20-second look at HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us, featuring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay as Joel and Ellie.
- Speaking of adaptations, Sony is reportedly making a Days Gone movie, which may seem like an odd choice, but is likely due to the game’s newfound success on PC.
- And Umbrella Academy creator Steve Blackman is adapting Horizon Zero Dawn for Netflix.
- Good news: Netflix’s ad-supported tier may be ad-free during newer original movies, possibly children’s content as well.
- Meanwhile, a new Google TV update finally improves speed and storage.
- It’s been a week for security breaches: You should change your Plex password now, as the service announced a potential data breach, and on Friday, LastPass also confirmed a breach, though the company said user data and master passwords were not compromised.
- Cineworld, the world’s number two cinema chain, is preparing to file for bankruptcy.
- And a revamped MoviePass is back on Labor Day, launching a new invite-only beta service — the service already partners with a quarter of U.S. theaters, with prices ranging from $10 to $30 a month.
- A new film based on the rise and fall of BlackBerry has recently wrapped production. Yes really.
Games:
- Gamescom kicked off on Tuesday night, and we’ve already seen Sony’s new adaptive PS5 controller, the DualSense Edge, new footage for Hogwarts Legacy, The Callisto Protocol, and more, a Sonic Frontiers release date (November 8), and an official Dead Island 2 announcement — plus the announcement of open world survival MMO Dune Awakening, Deck 13’s fantasy action RPG Atlas Fallen, New Tales from the Borderlands (coming in October) and many more. much more.
- We also saw the Destiny 2 Lightfall reveal trailer at the game’s showcase, which you can view here.
- Speaking of Dead Island 2, you’ll apparently be able to use Amazon Alexa to distract zombies and trigger in-game actions.
- And we heard from former Bethesda Games Studio developer Jeff Gardiner, who introduced a new studio, Something Wicked Games. Creates a brand new occult RPG called Wyrdsong that looks weird (but cool).
- You can now play Death Stranding on PC Game Pass, but Sony says it wasn’t involved in the PC launch.
- PlayStation has been hit with a $5.9 billion lawsuit for “ripping off the people” in digital games — the argument being that the company shouldn’t use its “near monopoly” on selling digital games to charge higher prices. as a 30% commission fee charged to the UK PlayStation Store.
- Sony also confirmed that the PS VR2 is coming “early 2023.”
- The PS5 just got a price hike in Canada, Europe and other regions – but US users aren’t affected for now.
- And while we’re on the subject of Sony, here are seven things you (probably) didn’t know your PS5 could do.
- Google Play Games has opened its beta version to allow more Android users to play games on PC.
- Meanwhile, Valve has released a new beta that completely revamps the Steam mobile app, with an overhaul of the UI and framework plus a few new features.
- Negative reviews of the new Saints Row game have been pouring in, with VGC calling it “generic” and IGN saying it’s “more like a repetitive regeneration than a proper reboot”, although there are also positive opinions about it.
- Finally this week: Zuckerberg confirms the new Meta VR headset is arriving in October. And Meta accounts and Horizon accounts arrived on Tuesday, so you no longer need a Facebook login for your Quest.
Reviews
Ryan Haynes / Android Authority
Characteristic
Ryan McLeod / Android Authority
Weekly Wonder
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
I’m still surrounded by moving boxes, so I thought for this week’s edition of the Weekly Wonder I’d take a look at some tech-related things that can help with your move.
Last week, my colleague S. Scott Brown wrote about moving house and how he realized that saving boxes of tech products was pointless.
- I have to admit, I’m guilty of hoarding boxes of tech products myself with a “you never know when you might need it” mentality.
- However, they are definitely something extra to sort and pack amongst a mountain of stuff, and I’ve ultimately found that the smaller I can get that mountain, the less stressful my move will be.
- I’ve got about 90% of my tech boxes set up, keeping just a few for larger items that are still under warranty, but they also serve as moving packaging for the items, so I think it works.
We asked you if you keep your tech boxes, and it turns out that very few of you actually throw away all of your boxes, with the majority (45.2%) saying they only throw away some of their boxes. Almost as many of you (44.5%) kept all your tech boxes, with only 10.3% of readers surveyed saying they threw all their boxes away—and that’s probably a smart choice if you’re struggling with limited storage space.
Get moving with your smart home technology
There are so many things to think about when moving home, such as migrating your smart home technology as well as considering home security for your new place.
- Smart doorbells, thermostats, locks and outdoor security cameras – as well as other hard-mounted products – can all be cumbersome to move, so it may be wiser to leave them behind.
- It’s often easier to invest in a new wireless security camera, smart video doorbell, or window coverings like smart blinds or shades rather than taking your existing smart home technology with you, although this can be prohibitive given the seemingly endless costs of relocation.
Fortunately, this isn’t an issue for my move — I’m moving from an older property that doesn’t even have electric lights in all the rooms, let alone a smart home tech setup.
One thing I’ve definitely realized through all of this, though, is how important it is to get enough sleep to deal with the stress of moving. Sleep tracking apps are really helpful here, as are meditation apps – Calm helps me stay sane, but there are plenty of other good choices.
Technical calendar
- Now through August 28: Gamescom
- September 1: OnePlus 10T pre-orders open (US)
- September 1 at 3am ET: Sony Xperia launch event (Xperia 5 IV?)
- September 2-6: IFA Berlin
- September 6: Launch of the Huawei Mate 50 series
- September 7 @ 10:00 AM PT (1:00 PM ET, 7:00 PM CET): Apple’s Far Out Event
- September 10 at 21:00 CEST: Ubisoft Forward Showcase
- September 29: OnePlus 10T on sale
- October 6: Pixel 7 launch? (TBC)
- October 13: Pixel 7 on sale? (TBC)
- November 8: Skull and Bones Release Date for Xbox Series…
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