Android

I really like the idea of a “dumbphone”, or a minimalist phone. It’s just the essentials. The phone, maps, calendar — only the useful bits. None of the time-sucky, doom-scrolly distractions. But I don’t like the idea of spending $500 on a Light Phone or a Wisephone. Instead, I’ve been on a quest to turn my Pixel 9a into a calmer device. And the good news is, it works.

I’ve tested dozens of wireless chargers and desk setups over the years, and most of them suffer from the same problem. They all try to shoehorn everything into a single hub. There’s little, if any, flexibility in placement, choice of charging options, or future upgradeability. Moreover, as a design enthusiast, I care a lot about how a particular piece of tech looks in my space, and most chargers just aren’t very pretty to look at. But looks are subjective. Anyway, the fact is that most charging stations expect you to conform to a fixed layout for your phone, earbuds, and smartwatch. That’s fine for a functional product, but for one, the fixed layout has never really suited how I use my phone. Want to rearrange things? Tough luck.

Credit: Matt Horne / Android Authority Even as one of the last remaining Duolingo holdouts on the team, I can see how much worse Duolingo has become in recent years. The once-motivating gamification certainly appears to have been kicked up a few notches, and it’s the free users who’ve had it much worse. On the free plan, you’re bombarded with adverts for Super Duolingo and third-party games that you can’t skip for several seconds. Even worse, the heart system that allowed you to keep practicing until you made five mistakes was replaced by an energy bar that runs down even if you’re nailing the answers. That’s why I was excited to learn about a very simple trick that returns you to a simpler version of Duolingo — one with the hearts system, no ads at all, fewer clicks between lessons, and less gamification.

While the new iPhone Duo has received a lot of fanfare, the standard iPhone 18 Pro is going to be the one driving most of Apple’s sales. It doesn’t look much different from the iPhone 17 Pro on the outside, but Apple’s presentation was full of internal changes, from better battery performance to a new physically adjustable camera aperture. All those features do seem tempting at first glance, but I’d still go with the Pixel 11 Pro any day — just because it’s a much better overall purchase than its Apple counterpart.

Be it a daily morning commute or a long road trip, most of us spend a surprising amount of time looking at Google Maps even without realizing it. Beyond the usual in-car navigation, it is my go-to when I’m looking for a new coffee shop or just checking transit schedules in a new country. And yet, lately, I find myself popping open Apple Maps more often than I expected. Apple has spent the last decade rebuilding Maps into a surprisingly capable navigation app. It might not beat Google Maps just yet, as Google still has the edge when it comes to local search and the sheer amount of information available. However, Apple has a few areas where its approach is simply better. Here are the things I prefer about Apple Maps and want Google Maps to copy.

Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR US Insta360 users will have access to a new “Spatial Capture” tab on September 28. The feature uses 3D Gaussian Splatting technology to turn video into explorable 3D scenes. Support will be available for the X6, X5, and X4 Air. Insta360, the brand known for its 360-degree cameras, is about to deliver a new experience for its users. No, the company is not launching new hardware. Rather its a new feature for those with an X6, X5, or X4 Air. This new feature is designed to let you explore your memories in a more immersive way. Today, Insta360 announced the launch of “Spatial Capture,” which will appear as a new tab in the Insta360 app. Here, you’ll be able to turn your recorded videos into explorable 3D scenes. Better yet, no specialized capture equipment or complex workflows are needed.

Credit: Andrew Grush / Android Authority There was a time when performance and battery optimizers were all the rage. In truth, they never worked that well, and as Android evolved, the methods used to preserve battery life often made things worse in the long haul. The good news is that not all battery apps are a complete waste of time. Case in point, AccuBattery is one of the only battery apps I recommend anymore. AccuBattery isn’t about magically fixing your battery life. The focus here is entirely on noticing and diagnosing software and hardware issues that are putting extra strain on your phone’s battery life. Now, I will be the first to admit you don’t strictly need this tool if you already have decent built-in tools on your existing Android device. That said, AccuBattery can be great when you want a second opinion or have a device without extensive built-in tools, such as many generic Android tablets.

Pixels and I get on reasonably well, but if there’s one area that I find myself constantly sighing loudly at, it’s charging the darn phones. Yes, you can just splash the cash on official accessories like the Pixel Flex 67W charger (), a mighty impressive USB-C adapter in its own right. But not all the accessories in Google’s charging ecosystem are as good — and I’m pointing fingers squarely at the PixelSnap charger (). I’m still disappointed that Google has essentially abandoned my beloved Pixel Stand in favor of PixelSnap. While MagSafe undoubtedly has some conveniences for case accessories, it’s proven to be a significant downgrade in terms of what actually matters — charging times. Last year’s Pixel 10 Pro XL using PixelSnap proved to be over half an hour slower than the Pixel 9 Pro XL on the old Pixel Stand.

You hear horror stories of people unwittingly incurring monstrous mobile bills when roaming abroad. Just recently, one Reddit user was horrified to find that AT&T had clobbered them with a $53k charge, after an eight-day European trip they expected to run them about $100 in roaming fees. You tend to feel sorry for these people, while also having lingering thoughts that they’ve been dealt a very tough life lesson. Thankfully, my own roaming-fee surprise involved considerably fewer zeroes. I only incurred about $20 in roaming charges, so not a big hit, but what bothered me was that I’d done everything right to avoid using mobile data. At least, I thought I had. You might be thinking I’m just as culpable, and maybe lucky I wasn’t charged more. I can assure you that wasn’t the case. I hadn’t forgotten to switch something over after landing, and this wasn’t a travel eSIM taking a few seconds to wake up. In fact, I wasn’t trying to use data at all. I live outside the country of my home network, and that SIM sits in a separate phone on my desk. Mobile data and roaming are switched off in the device settings, plus the phone is always connected to my Wi-Fi network. I rarely even touch the device and don’t use it to contact anyone, to the point that it’s more of a paperweight than a phone. Despite all that, I was hit with phantom roaming charges twice in three months.

The Moto Watch Ultra is Motorola’s latest smartwatch, featuring a unique blend of features for the price. The singular variant costs $350 and includes LTE eSIM support, Wear OS 6, a 1.5-inch pOLED display, and Polar’s health and fitness tracking algorithms. That’s a fabulous combination in itself, but Motorola has cut corners on the processor and is only offering two OS upgrades. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of good Wear OS smartwatch options in the market. From Google to Samsung, there are plenty of great alternatives you should consider first. So, before settling on the Moto Watch Ultra, consider these five other alternatives.

I’ve had Immich running on my home server for the past three years. It’s a self-hosting essential for me as I try to offload as much of my backups and services from the cloud as possible. It’s where I keep the photos from my SLR, where my phone backs up photos automatically, and where I can search through years of images without handing everything over to Google. For a self-hosted alternative to Google Photos, there’s little doubt that Immich is the go-to for most. But as good as Immich is, as an enthusiast, I was bound to run into limitations. Immich is great at managing individual photo libraries, but it isn’t always great at managing a family’s photo library. If you’re trying to share a portion of your library, Immich makes it extremely hard. And you can absolutely forget about sharing certain aspects of the library, like metadata.

Credit: Andy Walker / Android Authority TL;DR Some Android Auto users say Gemini has suddenly stopped controlling their smart home devices. The issue follows recent Gemini smart home control problems on Wear OS, which Google said it had fixed. It’s not clear what’s causing the Android Auto problem — we’ve reached out to Google for comment. Gemini has had a rough couple of weeks with smart home controls. Wear OS users recently reported that Gemini would claim it had controlled lights, AC units, and other devices when nothing actually happened, before Google said that the issue had been fixed. It isn’t clear if it’s related, but some Android Auto users are now finding that Gemini suddenly refuses to control their smart home devices, even though those same commands worked previously. In a post on the r/AndroidAuto subreddit earlier today, one user says that Gemini has stopped executing commands such as turning on the AC. Instead, it now responds that it “cannot control smart home devices through Google Maps while driving.” The poster says the feature had been working for months before this change.

TL;DR Googlebook laptops are just about to arrive, with pre-orders opening on September 21. Hardware will include models from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, and leaks have already shown off much of what to expect. With just a few more days to go, a fresh set of ASUS renders offers maybe our best look yet at the company’s Googlebook. We’re about to witness the debut of a new computing platform, and it’s going to be here before you know it. Google first announced Googlebooks back in May, and after a summer full of hardware leaks, the initial lineup is finally nearly ready to go official, with pre-orders set to open first thing next week, on Monday, September 21. Before that day gets here, though, we’ve got one more Googlebook leak to check out, showing off ASUS hardware in some of the most detail yet. The first run of Googlebooks will include models from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, and we’ve already seen several leaks giving us an early peek at the model from ASUS. Now, with only a few days left before pre-orders begin, the Mac Observer is sharing some great new pics highlighting what we can expect.

Credit: Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR A leak may have revealed the full specs of the Galaxy Tab S12 Plus and Ultra. The Plus model is said to have up to 12GB of RAM, while the Ultra may come with up to 16GB of RAM. The two tablets will reportedly launch on October 7 in silver and gray. Samsung will be launching two new tablets this year, the Galaxy Tab S12 Plus and Ultra. Over the months, we’ve seen leaks here and there, including the processor and battery capacity. However, new information has surfaced, and it gives us a complete picture of both tablets. The folks over at Winfuture have shared the full spec sheet of Samsung’s next-generation tablets. Both models will have a few things in common, such as the chip, but will also differ in some areas.

TL;DR Snapseed has been working on support for custom look-up tables and blur options. After seeing those in development last month, they’re now arriving for beta testers. The app also gets new preset options, including a Community Looks tool for sharing them. Snapseed on Android is having a moment. After years of being ignored, we finally got the big 4.0 update this past spring, pushing the app back into relevancy. In the months since, it’s only kept getting better and better with lots of new feature additions. Today we’re checking out some of the latest to hit the Snapseed beta, including a few we’ve been eagerly anticipating. One month back, we spotted Snapseed developers working towards a couple new features: look-up table (LUT) support for custom color grading, and bringing the app’s Motion Blur from iOS over to Android.