YouTube tested a new mini player redesign on Android last year, which was heavily criticized by users. It was rolled back after a few months, but YouTube later released it on the stable channel after fixing some of its more egregious issues. It seems like the platform isn’t done tweaking the mini player, as we’ve spotted an updated design in the latest YouTube beta for Android.

Instead of featuring prominent forward, rewind, and pause buttons in a bar at the bottom, the updated mini player features a pause button with a translucent background in the top left corner. The forward and rewind buttons are no longer available, but the button to close the mini player still occupies the same spot in the top right corner.

History is being made now, as a judge has ruled vehemently against Apple in the Epic Games vs Apple case related to in-app payments. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has ruled that, effective immediately, Apple will no longer impede developers’ ability to communicate with users, nor will it levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases.

In the latest 80-page ruling, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found Apple in willful violation of the Court’s previous injunction in 2021, which sought to restrain and prohibit Apple’s anticompetitive practices and pricing.

After months of teasing, the Galaxy S25 Edge seems right around the corner. We’ve long been hearing reports of an April-May launch for the device, which narrowed down recently to a May 13 date. A new leak corroborates this date, adding more weight to the possibility of the Galaxy S25 Edge launching on May 13, 2025.

Leaker Evan ‘evleaks’ Blass shared what looks like a Spanish marketing teaser for the Galaxy S25 Edge.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is one of the most sought-after high-end devices out there, and it’s actually our favorite premium handset in our list of the best Android smartphones. There is no doubt that many of you want one, and our job is to get you the best deals. Today, you can save a nice chunk of change on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. We have two offers to show you, one from Amazon and one from Google Fi.

Get the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra from Amazon for $1,067.99 ($232 off)

Growing up, I remember always wanting a projector. A rich friend had one, and I got hooked on the magical feeling that a dark room and a mini theater in his living room were like. It was nothing like watching TV, but projectors were large and expensive, so my Christmas wish list went ignored year after year. Now, projectors are getting better, smaller, portable, and most importantly, affordable. They can be cheaper than a TV, especially if you catch one at a discount. Here are a couple of great XGIMI ones you should consider.

Get the XGIMI Elfin Flip for just $299.99 ($10o off)

Samsung’s earnings call today included a few interesting reveals, including confirmation that new tablets and wearables are on the way later this year. While that in itself isn’t too surprising, we did get a glimpse of the tech giant’s plans.

During the call, Daniel Araujo from the company’s Mobile Experience (MX) division said Samsung will launch an AI-enhanced Galaxy Tab S11 series in the second half of 2025. He also mentioned a new Galaxy Watch with “an innovative design” and “enhanced health-related features,” though he didn’t go into more detail at this stage.

The start of May is just hours away, and from here on out it’s just a matter of days until Google I/O 2025 kicks off. This year’s shaping up to be a bit different than it’s looked in years past, with Android not necessarily taking a back burner to Google’s current AI interests, but getting its own special pre-I/O event. Even with all this about to happen just over the horizon, Google’s not about to sit around waiting for a few more weeks, and is already rolling out a very welcome addition to Gemini.

Android widgets offer some fantastically handy ways to quickly get to the app features you use the most, straight from your phone’s home screen. We recently took a look at some changes in the works for Google’s widgets for Keep and Calendar, but today we’ve got one better, as 9to5Google spots the arrival of a new widget just for Gemini.

Are you looking to light up your home with smart lights? These are a simple and affordable way to make your home smart, and they are still my most helpful smart home devices. While they used to be pricey acquisitions, prices are much more accessible now, especially when you can catch a deal like today’s! This Kasa Smart Light Bulbs 4-pack is under $25!

Buy this Kasa Smart Light Bulbs 4-pack for just $24.64 ($15.35 off)

Samsung has officially taken the wraps off the Galaxy Tab S10 series, along with the Galaxy S24 FE, and there’s a lot to unpack (heh). This year, the Galaxy Tab lineup has been streamlined, with just two models on offer: the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. The base Galaxy Tab S10 is missing for now, and it’s unclear whether it’ll make a later debut or if Samsung has decided to skip it entirely.

Galaxy Tab S10 series: Design and display

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has been battling through an ongoing antitrust case brought up by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). The case could result in the company being forced to sell off Chrome. During court proceedings for this case, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sundar Pichai mentioned an in-progress deal with Apple that could integrate its AI services into the iPhone.

According to Bloomberg, Pichai said in court that he hopes Gemini will be added as a built-in AI option on iPhones this year. The CEO went on to say that he has been having conversations with Apple CEO Tim Cook throughout 2024 in relation to this matter. Furthermore, Pichai reveals that he hopes to have a deal done by the middle of 2025.

Apple’s flagship wearables follow a predictable annual cadence, but its budget-focused SE line has been less consistent. The more affordable smartwatch offering hasn’t been updated since 2022. New supply chain intel now suggests that a third-generation Apple Watch SE is in the pipeline for release later this year.

Analyst Ross Young has identified new display components entering production that are likely tied to the upcoming SE model, as shared by 9to5Mac. The displays reportedly measure 1.6 and 1.8 inches, aligning closely with the 41mm and 45mm case sizes used in the Apple Watch Series 9 lineup. For context, Apple bumped the Series 10 to 42mm and 46mm in 2024, meaning the SE 3 would maintain a clear physical distinction from the flagship line while still offering more screen real estate than the previous SE.

Android has taken on a lot of different looks in the 16+ years since its debut — some loved, some reviled. Lately, though, it’s felt like we haven’t been seeing a ton on focus on freshening up the system UI very much. But that could soon be about to change, with new Material Design standards incoming. While it could still be some time before Google is ready to push its new design live, we just managed to bring you an early preview of how this major Android UI overhaul looks like it’s taking shape.

Mind you: This is still probably a very early preview, and we don’t have a ton of confidence that much of this will be ready in time for Android 16’s formal arrival. But even if the bulk of these changes don’t roll out until sometime in the Android 17 cycle, what we’ve uncovered sure suggests a cohesive effort towards bringing Android a new visual identity. But is this new look one that you’re a fan of?

With the first quarter of 2025 over, we’re now seeing reports about how the major brands in the smartphone market fared against each other globally. In addition to understanding how these brands stack up, we’re now also getting data about the state of the overall industry. It appears the smartphone market is still growing, but maybe not as much as analysts predicted.

New data from Canalys states that smartphone shipments worldwide reached 296.9 million units in Q1 2025. As a result, the global smartphone market only saw a growth of 0.2%. According to the report, this is the third consecutive quarter that global smartphone market growth has slowed down.

T-Mobile recently announced its new Experience plans, which the company billed as upgrades to the older Go5G offerings. However, one major change went unmentioned in its flashy announcement video: taxes and fees are no longer included in the advertised prices.

For many, the Experience plans just aren’t worth it. While T-Mobile no longer publicly advertises Go5G plans, it has still been possible to sign up for the older plans by speaking directly with a customer service representative or visiting a retail store. That window, however, may be closing as early as tomorrow.

The hype for the Nintendo Switch 2 is still going strong, and unless you’ve been very lucky, Switch 2 preorders have been quite hard to secure. So if you managed to snag one, congratulations! Everyone’s quite envious of you. With the hard part out of the way, you can now focus on the next important step — getting your current Nintendo Switch ready to transfer all your data.

Nintendo just released a new system update on April 29, and this is a big one. The most important addition with this update is the capability to transfer all of your data from that Switch over to the Switch 2 once you get it. The update also brings support for virtual game cards, as well as the GameShare feature that requires a Switch 2 to work. But there’s a catch to how some of the new additions work, according to Kotaku.

Google Photos is working on a new feature to make sharing photos and albums a whole lot easier. We got our first look at the upcoming QR code sharing feature last week, and as we wait for Google to roll it out, the company has announced another improvement for shared albums in Google Photos on Android.

So far, the Google Photos app for Android has not allowed users to edit photos or videos in shared albums. That’s changing with its latest update, and users should now see an Edit button while viewing an image or video in a shared album. Google says this new functionality will only be available to the album owner, and it will save the changes to both their gallery and shared album.

Touch Lock used to be just a handy way to avoid accidental taps on your Pixel Watch, especially in wet environments. However, a recent update has kicked its functionality up a notch, and not every user is happy about it.

As reported by 9to5Google, Touch Lock’s behavior has changed in Wear OS 5.1. Previously, enabling the setting disabled the touchscreen while still letting you use the rotating crown to scroll through notifications or access Quick Settings. With Wear OS 5.1, Touch Lock now disables both the screen and the crown.

Google is preparing a Material Design 3 refresh known as “Expressive” and as we edge closer to release, we are starting to see early versions of the design leak in a bunch of apps. We’ve seen it used in the Android settings app, and more recently in Google account settings. Now, Google is preparing such a refresh for its keyboard app too.

Thanks to a source inside Google, Android Authority was able to explore a mature version of the in-development Gboard feature, and we’ve seen evidence of a design change that some users might not like.

Whether necessary or not, Google loves to tweak the UI of its products. For example, YouTube recently started testing out a new UI for the media player. The company’s latest target, however, is Google Messages, which should see a few handy improvements.

When Google released the fourth beta of Android 16 this month, many users were disappointed by the lack of major UI changes. As Beta 4 is the final beta, it’s likely the stable Android 16 release won’t look much different than last year’s release. However, that might not hold true for subsequent updates. Google recently confirmed it will unveil a new version of its Material Design theme at its upcoming developer conference, and we’ve already caught glimpses of these design changes in Android—including a notable increase in background blur effects. Ahead of I/O next month, here’s an early look at Google’s upcoming Android redesign.

Before we begin, a word of caution: What we’re about to show you are hidden design changes found in Android 16 Beta 4. None of these are enabled by default in Beta 4, and we don’t know for certain when Google will activate them. While it’s highly likely we won’t see this full redesign in the stable release of Android 16, parts or all of it could appear in a future quarterly update. We’ll hopefully get more clarity next month during The Android Show or Google I/O 2025, where the company plans to unveil its new, more “expressive” version of Material Design, dubbed Material 3 Expressive.

YouTube is borrowing a page from Instagram’s handbook to protect users from accidental exposure to mature content. The platform has started testing a new feature that automatically blurs thumbnails for videos that may contain sexually explicit content.

YouTube says this experimental feature aims to provide a safer search experience for all users. It is currently available to a small percentage of viewers and only blurs thumbnails for videos that appear in search results for queries that “frequently include sexual themes.” YouTube has clarified that the feature does not hide the video title, channel name, and description, and even offers users an option to unblur the thumbnails.

It isn’t easy to keep up with the best new Android apps. Some might not be “new,” but they may still be new to you. Others often pass by without much fanfare. However, I’m here to help. Each month, I scoured the internet to find the best new Android apps and new Android games available, focusing on titles that offer something different to the status quo. Be sure to visit our lists of the best Android apps and best Android games of all time for the master lists.

The best new Android apps and games for May 2025

1. Giga Text
2. Prince of Persia: Lost Crown
3. Nobook
4. Octopi Launcher
5. Flappy Bird
6. Chainsaw Juice King: Idle Shop

Giga Text

Easily turn your phone into a digital signpost.

Millions worldwide use Spotify, and some of us inevitably end up using the app with a VPN. However, there has been plenty of confusion around using Spotify with a VPN, with many users fearmongering that using a VPN could lead to a ban from the service. A Reddit user asked Spotify’s support staff about the company’s stance on VPNs, but received the wrong advice that doing so would get them banned. We contacted Spotify to clear the air on VPNs, and users can breathe a sigh of relief: Using Spotify with a VPN will not get you banned.

The Reddit thread above cites customer support agents and mentions that using Spotify with a VPN will result in a ban from the service. This is incorrect, and a Spotify spokesperson has clarified the company’s stance to us with the following statement:

I’m the first to admit that I’m a rather disorganized person; flitting between must-do tasks and fleeting fancies like there’s no tomorrow. I’ve never been a note-taker, and I regularly misplace any tiny scraps of paper I bother to jot stuff down on, but this is increasingly coming back to bite me. Having read about the success my colleagues have had with the likes of Obsidian and Notion, I thought it was about time I hopped on the productivity app bandwagon.

However, I couldn’t immediately get on with Obsidian, because my entire problem with taking notes is having to dig them up. I need something instantly accessible, whether on my phone, tablet, work, or personal laptops. Given that I’m still testing the note-taking waters, I’m not paying Obsidian $48 a year to sync across devices. Notion seemed like the better option, but I don’t really want all my notes to be online-dependent either, and the learning curve looks quite steep. Talk about picky requirements, I know.

Gemini in Google Drive on the web can help you summarize files and folders, discuss topics based on information from files in your Drive, retrieve quick facts from documents, and even create images or new Google files and folders. However, you currently can’t use these Gemini integrations in the Google Drive app for Android. That’s set to change soon.

For the newest walls as well as all the ones from previous weeks, check out this Drive link. Want to submit your own? Head to the bottom of this article.

Wallpaper Wednesday: April 30, 2025

Another week, another set of awesome Android wallpapers for you to share! Remember that we are always looking for submissions from our readers. Head to the bottom of this article to find out how you could have one of your images featured in an upcoming Wallpaper Wednesday!

My phone is the center of my digital life, so when Android 15 added some new theft protection features, I knew I should check them out. Specifically, I wanted to test the novel Theft Detection Lock. Sure, it’s not going to do anything to prevent the actual theft of my phone, but it should keep thieves from accessing my bank account or my photos or deleting all of my Pokemon Go shinies.

What I didn’t expect was that I wouldn’t be able to get it to work at all. Well, not without a little help, at least.

I’ve been a Gmail user for a long time, and I’m quite happy with it. Honestly, I don’t see myself moving to another email provider anytime soon; I’m just too used to the interface and its quirks. Besides, its tight integration with Google Workspace, including Gemini, is a huge plus.

However, despite my general satisfaction with Gmail, I still fondly remember Inbox by Google. This long-gone email client was, in my opinion, superior to Gmail in several key ways. It felt more intuitive to use, genuinely helped me stay on top of my emails, and boasted a far more pleasing user interface.

VoLTE is one of the most important calling features on Android phones today, allowing traditional phone calls to be routed over LTE. This feature isn’t enabled by default on all Samsung phones, but that’s changing today.

Samsung and the GSMA have announced a partnership to enable VoLTE by default on all Galaxy phones running Android 15 (One UI 7):

Qualcomm is expected to follow up on the successful Snapdragon 8 Elite flagship SoC with a new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 SoC later in the year. Leaks suggest the SoC could be built by TSMC on its 3nm N3P process, which is a more advanced 3nm process than the 8 Elite’s N3E process. However, it seems that not all Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 SoCs will be built by TSMC, as Samsung Foundry is now said to be in the race for at least one variant of the flagship SoC.

According to a report from South Korea’s SE Daily (via Jukanlosreve on X) citing industry sources, Samsung Foundry is said to be coordinating plans with Qualcomm to produce a 2nm chip by the end of the year, likely under the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 banner/generation of SoCs. However, Samsung Foundry will produce it on a more advanced 2nm process, while TSMC will produce the same on a 3nm process. The report doesn’t mention the reason for this, but it’s likely because Samsung Foundry’s 2nm process will still be behind TSMC’s 3nm process when it comes to fruition.

If there’s a training plan out there, I can almost promise I’ve tried it. I’ve run marathons with Coros and Stryd, I trained for my first half marathon with Nike Run Club, and now I’m exploring Garmin’s revamped training as part of Connect Plus. But, for all of my training plans and experimentation, I’ve never tried something as highly customizable as Runna. So, when I found out that Strava was buying Runna, it excited me for the future of my favorite social media platform — here’s why.

Wait, what exactly is Runna?

My colleague Megan is losing faith in Duolingo. Her recent article on why she’s considering giving up her 550+ day streak is very well reasoned, but as a 700+ day streaker, I still believe in the app. It looks like a lot of you agree, and I encourage doubters to double down.

Megan outlined six good reasons why she no longer felt the benefit of the wildly popular language learning tool. She also ran a poll for readers in her article, and the results below show the love-hate nature you have with these apps.

Google Contacts‘ Single Contact widget lets you add specific contacts to your home screen. It features shortcuts to help you quickly call or text the contact, and shows your recent messages with the contact. Google now seems to be integrating the latter into profile pages in the Contacts app, allowing you to view recent texts and calls with a contact on their profile.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with Google’s widgets. Regarding aesthetic cohesion, they all adhere to the company’s love of pastels and rounded edges. So if you use a Google Pixel daily, they probably won’t seem too misplaced on your particular device. However, if you value information density or customization options, Google’s widgets are far from the best options for your home screen. To prove my point, I detail some of the best Google widget alternatives I use on my phone.

Event Flow Widget

One of the best uses for a smartphone camera is scanning documents, and Google lets you do this on Android via its various apps. Now, it looks like this functionality has received a useful, time-saving improvement.

Google has quietly introduced an improvement to the MLKit document scanner, which is used in apps like Google Drive, Files by Google, the Pixel Camera app, and a few other apps. Documents will now be automatically enhanced immediately after you’ve scanned them. You’ll also see a button in the top right corner after you’ve just scanned a document, allowing you to remove said enhancement. Check out the images below, showing the button and a before/after comparison.

The Pixel 10 series is still many months from launch, but rumors have been building up about what we can expect from the upcoming Android flagships. However, we haven’t heard much about what Google is expected to improve for the displays on the devices in the lineup until now. As it turns out, this could finally be the year when Google brings PWM dimming-related improvements to the Pixel 10 series.

Android Central had contacted Google to inquire about PWM dimming on the Pixel 9a. The company reverted with a forward-looking statement for devices coming later in the year:

These days I spend nearly all of my time behind a keyboard, but once upon a time I was a furniture maker with a workshop full of tools and machinery. That life ended nearly a decade ago, but I still feel the urge to make things — real, physical things you can touch. Digital creations just don’t hit the same.

I’ve toyed with 3D printers and laser cutters over the years, but when the eufyMake UV Printer E1 landed on my doorstep, I knew it was something special. There’s nothing like it on the market, and after testing it for a few weeks, my mind is swimming with potential projects it can tackle. This could be a game-changer for any creative small business.

Motorola has done something huge with its 2025 Razr family. As you’ve probably heard by now, there aren’t two new Razrs like we were expecting. Instead, there are three: the Razr, Razr Plus, and Razr Ultra. That means more choices, more price points, and (most importantly) more colors. As a longtime Motorola and Razr fan, I should be thrilled.

I should, but I’m not.

Update, April 30, 2025 (04:44 AM ET): This article initially mentioned that the extra space in the status bar was also present on the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s One UI 7 update. However, it seems Samsung is not applying the changes uniformly across recent Galaxy S Ultra devices.

Reddit user qlstar points out that the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s One UI 7 update only marginally increased the empty space at the left and right edges of the status bar, but the change is small enough for most people to ignore. In contrast, the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s One UI 7 update brought too much blank space in the status bar, and you can see why users would be annoyed.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Z Flip 7 FE are expected to launch in the second half of the year, and we’ve already seen leaked renders and some apparent specs. The Z Flip 7 FE is expected to use an Exynos 2400 series chip, but we’ve seen conflicting rumors about the Z Flip 7’s choice of processor. However, it looks like we’ve now got a more definitive answer.

Chosun Biz (h/t: Jukanlosreve on Twitter) reports that the Galaxy Z Flip 7 will be equipped with the Exynos 2500 flagship processor. The outlet cited a source who requested anonymity. It’s believed that the Exynos-toting Galaxy Z Flip 7 will go into mass production in May, with 200,000 units set to be manufactured by June.

Thankfully, many developers have heard the call and made their Android games compatible with a controller. If you’re not sure what to play, here are my favorite Android games to play with a controller, plus a couple of extras that you’ll have to scroll down to see.

Stardew Valley

Flappy Bird was a sensation upon its launch over a decade ago before creator Dong Nguyen pulled the mobile game. However, you can now play a version of the title once again as Flappy Bird has just landed on the Epic Games Store for Android.

Flappy Bird is a free-to-play title on the Epic Games Store, and the team behind the new game says it lacks cryptocurrency integration — at least on Epic’s storefront. The assertion comes after web pages related to the new game hinted at dreaded cryptocurrency and Web3 integration last year.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is here to claim its spot at the pinnacle of the Android world once again. However, if you’ve just dropped all that cash for the flagship of flagships, you’ll want to keep it safe from harm. There’s an easy way to do this: buy a case.

I’ve tested dozens of cases over my years at Android Authority, and only a few earn my wholehearted recommendation. These are the best Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra cases you can buy at launch.

The Narwal Freo X Ultra has been our favorite robot vacuum and mop since we tested it. It is an impressive cleaning machine, but its retail price is also really high at $1,399.99. We’re not saying the tech isn’t worth the price, but I am not about to spend nearly a grand and a half on a robot, no matter how awesome it is. I’d rather wait and get a deal like today’s! You can get the Narwal Freo X Ultra for just $699.99, which is a 50% discount.

Buy the Narwal Freo X Ultra for just $699.99 ($700 off)

The Apple MacBook Air line-up has become among the most popular laptop series around, especially since the release of Apple’s own processors. The latest one is the Apple MacBook Air M4, which was only released this March. Deals are already starting to get good, too, as the Apple MacBook Air M4 has just reached a new record-low price of $849. That’s a $150 discount!

Get the Apple MacBook Air M4 for just $849 ($150 off)!

If you feel like the Google Play Store looks a little less crowded these days, you are not imagining it. A major cleanup over the past year has cut nearly half the apps from the Android marketplace, according to new data shared by app intelligence firm Appfigures. (h/t: TechCrunch)

At the start of 2024, Google Play hosted roughly 3.4 million apps worldwide. Fast forward to today, and that number has dropped to about 1.8 million, representing a 47% decline. Appfigures pointed out that this isn’t part of a broader industry trend, either. Apple’s App Store, for instance, saw a slight uptick in apps during the same period, growing from 1.6 million to 1.64 million apps.

The Apple iPad A16 was only released this March, so it makes sense we haven’t see any major deals on it. Things are starting to get good with today’s new all-time low price, though. The Apple iPad A16 has hit $299, a full $50 discount on the original price point.

Buy the Apple iPad A16 for just $299 ($50 off)

In December 2024, Google rolled out a redesign for Emoji Kitchen as part of the last Pixel Drop of the year. The redesign was previously available for Gboard in beta, but it has now rolled out widely for Pixel phone owners.

If you open Gboard and tap on the smiley face emoji next to the space bar, you may notice something subtly different with the emoji picker. There’s now an arrow that appears to your Emoji Kitchen suggestions. Previously, there was a gear icon that appeared in this location.

These days, some of the best smartphones are pretty large because everyone goes by the “go big or go home” mantra. But that isn’t the case for everyone, with a smaller percentage of people actually preferring small and compact phones. And the options appear to be dwindling even more with each new release, to the dismay of small phone fans.

OnePlus launched the 13T last week, which comes in gray, black, and a gorgeous pink color. However, it is currently only available in China, though it’s also launching in India as the OnePlus 13S. While many held out hope for the OnePlus 13T to launch globally in more markets, that doesn’t appear to be the case, as OnePlus confirmed to The Verge that it is not coming to the US or Europe.

Call us a broken record by now, but the Audio Overviews Google initially cooked up for NotebookLM may just be the coolest thing we’ve seen from the company’s AI efforts over the past couple years. A little over a month ago, Google helped introduce these same podcast-like audio summaries to an even larger audience by baking them in to Gemini itself. It’s already incredibly impressive how the system is able to break topics down and communicate them in an easy-to-grasp manner, and now Google’s got a big expansion to share that’s only going to make Audio Overviews even more accessible.

Being able to parse documents across a swath of languages is impressive enough, but Google’s doing us one better by giving Audio Overviews the ability to generate spoken output in more than 50 languages. Sometimes we’re used to seeing Google get a little piecemeal with adding new languages to systems like this, so it’s great to witness the company instead going all-in with a concerted effort like this — while there will always be edge cases, this should be sufficient to address the vast majority of user needs.

Google continues to expand the ways it integrates its AI into everyday life, and its latest experiment aims to make learning a new language a little more personal and practical. The company has announced a new set of features called Little Language Lessons, which use generative AI to help people pick up vocabulary and expressions in bite-sized, real-world contexts.

According to Google, Little Language Lessons are not intended to replace formal study methods, such as textbooks or courses. Instead, it focuses on helping users weave small, manageable language-learning moments into daily life. The experiments include three primary tools:

Last month, Plex upset many people by announcing significant changes to how its service functions. Previously, anyone was allowed to stream as much media as they wanted from a privately owned Plex server for free. Starting today, though, the new rules are that a Plex server owner must be a Plex Pass subscriber (or lifetime member) for remote streaming to continue to be free. If the server owner doesn’t want to buy a Plex Pass, the streaming user needs a Remote Streaming Pass, which is cheaper than a Plex Pass subscription. We cover all these changes here if this is the first you’re hearing about them.

Now that these changes are rolling out, though, some users are facing an issue. When they fire up a Plex client to stream media from a private server, they are being asked to sign up for a Remote Streaming Pass — even if that server has a Plex Pass attached to it. In fact, this just happened to me!

Since the rollout of digital IDs in 2022, Google Wallet has slowly but surely been adding support for an increasing number of US states. Currently, the app supports Arizona, Maryland, Georgia, New Mexico, Colorado, and California. But soon it will be adding a few more to that list.

Today, Google announced that Wallet will soon expand digital ID support to residents in Arkansas, Montana, Puerto Rico, and West Virginia. However, the company doesn’t specify an exact date for when support will arrive. There are also some new use cases for digital IDs for existing eligible states.

Amazon’s Prime Day has become a major summer shopping tradition, marking one of the best chances to save big outside the holiday sales. For those waiting to mark their calendars, the company has confirmed that Prime Day 2025 will again occur in July.

The company made the announcement in an Amazon News post today, promising Prime members exclusive savings across more than 35 categories, including electronics, kitchenware, beauty products, and clothing. Amazon says members will also enjoy fast, free delivery on Prime Day purchases, helping to beat the back-to-school rush. This year’s event will run in 24 countries, with Ireland joining the list for the first time.

Amid the trade war triggered by the steep tariffs imposed by the US, companies are attempting to mitigate the impact on their business by raising prices. A new report claims that Amazon was planning to add import fees to show how much these tariffs are increasing the total price of products. However, the company has now publicly refuted the report.

According to a report published this morning by Punchbowl News, Amazon doesn’t want to take the blame for increasing prices. It’s said that the e-commerce giant is planning to display just how much of a product’s cost is derived from tariffs. This information would be shown right next to the final listed price.

Sometimes, it just takes a little while before you’re able to find your stride. Android 15 debuted last year without a heck of a lot of momentum, and Samsung took its sweet time in even getting its One UI 7 beta program started. Month and months later, when those betas had finished their job and Samsung was ready to get public distribution going, the company had to hit “pause” on its release just days after things got started. Lest you start thinking One UI 7 was cursed, in the days since we’ve seen Samsung’s fortunes quickly reverse, and that’s a trend that’s only continuing now.

While it’s been a bumpy road getting here, now that One UI 7 updates are reliably hitting Galaxy phones and tablets, Samsung’s been speeding up its release schedule. Yesterday we told you about One UI 7 starting to arrive for the Galaxy S22 series, Z Fold 4, and Z Flip 4, all ahead of the planned May release. Now we’re already hearing about updates for the previous generation, also arriving ahead of schedule.

Samsung’s efforts to spread AI across its smartphone lineup continue, but some users might need a bit of extra patience. The company has announced that several Samsung Galaxy A devices will soon support activating Google’s Gemini assistant by pressing and holding the side button, mirroring the shortcut already available on the flagship Galaxy S series.

In a press release today, Samsung confirmed that the update will start rolling out globally in early May. It will enable even more direct Gemini access on the Galaxy A56 5G, A55 5G, A54 5G, A36 5G, A35 5G, A34 5G, A26 5G, A25 5G, A25e 5G, and A24. However, the catch in the footnotes reveals that the phones will only get this update when running on One UI 7.

T-Mobile Tuesdays is often filled with cheap movie tickets, free food offers, various discounts, and more. But the best T-Mobile Tuesdays promos in the past have been physical items that you can get at a T-Mobile store, such as bags, stadium seat cushions, touchscreen gloves, various types of cups, and even socks. It’s been a while since T-Mobile gave away a physical freebie that wasn’t food, the last one being a magenta umbrella in February, as the company has transitioned more to digital promos, but this week’s is a good one.

T-Mobile is giving away its own mini tote today, April 29, for T-Mobile Tuesdays. Now, you may have seen the madness surrounding those Trader Joe’s mini totes, especially the new pastel spring colors. If you’ve been wanting one of those, but don’t want to wait in line for hours or overpay resellers, then this is a nice alternative.

Mint Mobile is best known as a wireless carrier that offers an inexpensive alternative to bigger carriers like AT&T or Verizon. While the company specializes in phone service, it looks like it’s ready to explore another type of offering. Mint Mobile is now dipping its toe into the home internet waters.

A Redditor has shared an email that reveals Mint Mobile, owned by T-Mobile, is now adding home internet plans to its service. The carrier is launching three home internet plans that may sound familiar. These plans are called Rely, Amplified, and All-In, the same three plans that T-Mobile offers.

I’ve used virtually every major streaming platform over the years but ultimately I settled on Android TV as my platform of choice. While it isn’t perfect, it suits my needs well, and I love that I can switch between using the streamer with a remote or casting content from my Android phone. For the past few years, we’ve been a Chromecast with Google TV family. That changes with the arrival of the Onn 4K Pro.

The Onn 4K Pro packs a ton of features unavailable on the Chromecast with Google TV, and yet it retails for the same price. But is the Onn 4K Pro really a better deal than the Chromecast with Google TV? Based on my time with it so far, I think that for many, the answer will be yes. But before you run out and buy it, you need to fully understand what you’re getting into with a value brand product like this.

Google offers 15GB of free cloud storage, which must be shared between Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos, and other Google services. Otherwise, you’ll need to splash out for cloud storage via the company’s Google One service.

We recently posted an article detailing what happens to your data if you stop paying for Google One. We also posted a poll inside the article asking readers whether they paid for Google One cloud storage. Here’s how you answered it.

If you own an Android flagship and a car, you’ve likely already heard of and used Android Auto. Android Auto is a neat way to leverage the smarts of your phone and pair it to the bigger and more conveniently positioned display on your car’s head unit, to get navigation and other functionality with very little distraction. However, Android Auto isn’t perfect, and one long-time complaint of users is the absence of any climate control settings, for which users often have to switch back to their car head unit’s OS. Google has been spotted working on bringing climate control settings to Android Auto, and today, we have a demo of it, showcasing Android Auto’s upcoming layout with integrated climate control settings.

I’ve been using Gemini Advanced for a while now, and for the most part, I’m really enjoying it. It significantly speeds up my workflow, whether I need brainstorming help for work or I’m diving deep into a topic I’m currently obsessed with.

But while I find it tremendously useful, there’s definitely room for improvement. There are features I find myself missing when using Gemini — capabilities that I believe would make this already great AI chatbot even better. I’ve compiled a list of five key areas for enhancement. While some might seem ambitious for now, I’m optimistic we’ll see them implemented eventually.

Garmin has long been my go-to smartwatch for fitness tracking, especially the Garmin Venu 3, which offers stellar workout tracking and amazing battery life. But this year, the OnePlus Watch 3 caught my attention. With even better battery performance and an updated tool kit, it’s the first Wear OS smartwatch to tempt me away from Garmin. So, I set out to test both of these unlikely competitors to see which one was a better overall fitness watch, and the results surprised me a bit.

A look at the basics

I bet we all have a love/hate relationship with notifications. They’ve become a necessary part of our digital lives, yet they can also be endlessly annoying and overwhelming if not controlled. While Google has grander plans for notifications in Android 16, and it’s about time, many of us need a solution today. I can vouch for one particular app to tame your notification demons. It’s called Buzzkill.

What is Buzzkill, and what does it do?

As of April 29th, Plex’s new pricing scheme is live — lifetime memberships have now doubled to $250, and monthly fees are creeping into streaming service territory. Ouch.

While the Plex faithful likely already bagged themselves a membership while it was “cheap,” those lumped with the new higher recurring cost or setting up a home media server for the first time might, quite reasonably, be wondering if there’s a more affordable option. Thankfully, there is — Jellyfin.

The One UI 7 rollout is finally in full swing for Samsung flagships, and the company has allegedly begun work on One UI 8, too. We’ve already seen leaked One UI 8 builds show off a few key features, and now, a new leak is showing off the brand new video summarization feature coming to Samsung Galaxy devices with One UI 8 through the Samsung Internet app.

Sammyguru discovered that Samsung is working on a new AI Video summarization tool within the Samsung Internet app. This tool seemingly analyses the video, detecting speech, visuals, and captions. It is said to use a multi-modal AI model then to summarize the video’s key points, presenting a list of them to the user.

Last week, Google made a surprise announcement regarding its smart home offerings. Later in October this year, the original Nest Learning Thermostats — Gen 1, Gen 2, and the European version of Gen 2 — will go “dumb.” They aren’t getting bricked, but Google is removing all the features that make the smart thermostats, well…smart. When this happens, they will be no better than a $20 unit you could buy at any hardware store.

It’s not all bad, though, as Google is already reaching out to people affected by this change with coupon codes to apply towards new thermostats. They are hefty discounts, too, at nearly 50% off. I wrote an explainer piece about all these enormous changes for Nest thermostats, which you should read if you own any affected products.

Apple is widely expected to launch the iPhone 17 series later this year, and there’s been no shortage of rumors to date. However, a new leak suggests that one of the Galaxy S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra‘s best features won’t come to the new iPhone after all.

MacRumors reports that Apple has canceled a scratch-resistant anti-reflective screen coating for the iPhone 17 Pro series, citing a “source with reliable information.” The outlet reports that Apple canceled this coating as it apparently ran into problems scaling the production process. This follows a Weibo tipster’s claim last year that the iPhone 17 series would have an anti-reflective coating.

A little under five years ago, Google released one of its most crucial streaming devices ever: the Chromecast with Google TV. It was the first streaming gadget to launch with Google TV, which, issues aside, offered a much more personalized and refined smart TV experience than Android TV ever did. Paired with fun colors, a great remote, and a $50 price tag, the Chromecast was an instant hit.

Google replaced the Chromecast with Google TV with the better (and more expensive) Google TV Streamer last September, and this February, the Chromecast with Google TV was officially laid to rest. The Google TV Streamer is a superior product overall, but for folks who liked the small size and lower price of the old Chromecast dongle, the Streamer is not a 1:1 replacement.

Google already loved constantly reinventing its apps and services, always testing redesigns and tweaking interfaces in the hopes of figuring out what works best. Then Gemini got here, and it feels like this practice has just shifted into high gear, with Google coming out with new Gemini models almost as fast as it’s updating the app itself. Today we’re not checking out any one big change to Gemini on Android, but instead taking a peek under the hood at a number of smaller adjustments that appear to currently be in development.

YouTube is available on many devices, but the website and smartphone app usually get the lion’s share of changes. Now, the company has announced a slew of features and improvements for the TV and console app.

Google announced a variety of improvements to the YouTube app on consoles and TVs in a post on its support forum. These improvements have either landed or are still scheduled to arrive in Q2 2025. For starters, your homepage will now show five new shelves or category types.

When it comes to premium retro gaming handhelds, AYANEO once again proves it’s the brand to beat with the new Pocket ACE. This new, smaller handheld slots between the Pocket Micro and Pocket S, but still packs the same punch as handhelds twice its size.

First teased last month, the AYANEO Pocket ACE features a 4.5-inch LCD display with a 3:2 aspect ratio. This is the golden ratio for GBA games, but it’s also a nice middle ground, providing minimal bezels on older 4:3 systems and newer 16:9 systems.

Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

Update, April 29, 2025 (03:02 AM ET): The Google app’s Activity tab is now widely rolling out to beta users without any additional steps. This is a good sign for the feature’s progress. We expect to see the Activity tab arrive for stable users soon, too.

Original article, November 7, 2024 (11:17 PM ET): Google is rolling out a new feature for the Google app that brings a new “Activity” tab at the bottom of the app. The new option allows users to easily access their search history from both Chrome and the Google app itself. The “Activity” tab, which is currently in the testing phase, will also serve as a central hub for managing saved items, replacing the existing “Saved” tab.

Samsung typically restricts its suite of Galaxy AI features to recent flagship Android phones and tablets. However, it turns out that you can actually activate one of these AI features on any Galaxy phone.

Redditor Connect_Jump_8627 discovered a way to activate Samsung’s Browsing Assist feature on unsupported Galaxy devices. Browsing Assist is a feature in Samsung Internet that lets you summarize and translate webpages. The video above (via Telegram user Vedant Kalore) provides a quick look at most of the settings that need to be activated. You should also check out the guide below for a more comprehensive rundown.

The Nothing Phone 3 has been nearly two years in the making, and expectations are running high. Nothing remains one of the few Android phone makers today that isn’t churning out cookie-cutter devices. Every recent release, whether it’s the Phone 3a series or the CMF Phone 2 Pro, has brought something unique to the table. With the Nothing Phone 3, we’re hoping for a true flagship killer. And the good news is, we might not have to wait much longer.

The Chromecast with Google TV may no longer be available, but that doesn’t mean Google is abandoning it. In fact, a new update dropped in March, bringing Android 14 to the popular streaming dongle. Now, Google’s erstwhile streamer is picking up the coveted Home Panel from its pricier successor, the Google TV Streamer.

Just today, we posted a great deal on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, but while that sale is really nice, paying $1,069.99 is still pretty heavy on the wallet. Those looking for a nice high-end smartphone that costs less will be better off taking advantage of this deal. The Google Pixel 9 has dropped to its record-low price of $599, saving you a whole $200 on the original $799 retail price.

Get the Google Pixel 9 for $599 ($200 off)

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is our top premium option in our list of the best Android phones. Some may disagree, but one thing is for certain: It will definitely be mentioned whenever anyone discusses the best devices around. That said, this excellent phone is not cheap. It’s a good idea to wait for a good Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra deal, and here’s a really nice one.

Buy the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra for $1,069.99 ($230 off)

Deals on Amazon Echo smart speakers come and go periodically, but right now, all the main speakers are at their full price. If you want to save, here’s a nice deal on the Amazon Echo Pop. It’s $24.99, but only if you are OK with getting “damaged packaging” with it.

Get the Amazon Echo Pop for just $24.99 ($15 off)