Technology - Google News

The Morning After: A simpler Gmail - Engadget
Amazon Fire TV Edition 4K TVs start at $199, and Google Home Hub is $60 off - The Verge
iPhone XR sequel might gain twin-lens rear camera in 2019 - AppleInsider

The Morning After: A simpler Gmail - Engadget

Posted: 27 Apr 2019 06:42 AM PDT

Sponsored Links

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to your weekend! While the weird situation around Samsung's Galaxy Fold dominated things this week, there were other notable stories. Check out a few of them below, along with news from Friday including a Gmail extension you might like and an Avengers: Endgame Easter Egg in Google search.

Snap.There's a Thanos-themed Easter egg hiding in Google Search

Open the Google homepage and search for "Thanos." Then, click the Infinity Gauntlet that appears in the supervillain's Knowledge Graph card.

Wait for it.Galaxy Fold review: A lot of money for a prototype

After spending a week with the Galaxy Fold, Christopher Velazco found a lot to love about its groundbreaking design. The only problem is it comes with so many compromises that he concluded "almost no one should consider buying one." We couldn't score the $1,980 device without testing a US production unit first (ours was a European model), but as we found out a few hours later -- that might not happen for a while.

Nothing to see here.iFixit pulls its Galaxy Fold teardown at Samsung's request

Remember iFixit's teardown of a pre-release Samsung Galaxy Fold? Great, now forget it. Samsung requested -- via the "trusted partner" that provided the donor device -- that iFixit pull its teardown, and the site complied voluntarily. Of course, the Internet Archive is still there if you really want to see the Fold's hinge undressed, or you could wait for a new release date so iFixit can grab a retail model and find out what, if anything, is different.

Explains why it's skipping E3 this year.Sony says its new PlayStation is more than a year away

Sony's Interactive Entertainment (SIE) arm has commented on the PlayStation's future, in that there's no chance of seeing the successor to the PlayStation 4 in stores any time between now and April 2020.

An alternative vision.Former Gmail designer builds Chrome extension to declutter your inbox

Michael Leggett has launched Simplify, a free Chrome extension meant to streamline your inbox. Simplify moves all of Gmail's sidebar icons to discrete drop-down and pull-up menus. It relocates the search feature to a less prominent location and moves core functions, like delete, to the top bar. It also eliminates color-coded labels and places the create new mail button in the bottom right corner, where the new mail window opens.

Pick your next upgrade.These gaming laptops pack Intel's 9th-generation CPUs and new NVIDIA hardware

It's the most wonderful time of the year -- if you like nanometers, clock speeds and laptop refreshes. Intel's 9th-generation chips have arrived, while NVIDIA has unveiled its GTX 16-series mobile GPUs to bring more performance punch to your next laptop. We've summarized all the new models, but it's worth paying attention to some more interesting options like Razer's upgraded Blade series.

But wait, there's more...

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you'll miss if you don't Subscribe.

Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.

Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? Send us a note.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Amazon Fire TV Edition 4K TVs start at $199, and Google Home Hub is $60 off - The Verge

Posted: 27 Apr 2019 08:00 AM PDT

Best Buy's four-day sale is concluding later today, but you still have a chance to save on 4K TVs with built-in Amazon Fire TV hardware, Sonos-ready outdoor speakers, and more.

In case you needed a reminder of how affordable TVs have become, Insignia's 43-inch 4K HDR TV can play content from Prime Video out of the box, and it's $199.99 at Best Buy. If you want to go a bit bigger, Toshiba's 55-inch model is $249.99. Both of these TVs are over $100 off of the original price.

Best Buy is also discounting Sonos and Sonance's weatherproof outdoor speakers. Usually $799.99 for a pair, this bundle is now $649.98 and also includes a Sonos Connect amplifier with purchase. The amplifier is required to power the speakers, and it also allows you to connect them wirelessly to other Sonos speakers that you have in your house.

You can check out more deals from Best Buy's sale here.

Another deal set to end this weekend is Massdrop's $60 price drop on the Google Home Hub smart display. There have only been a few instances where this product fell below $100, and it's currently $88. You can choose between chalk or charcoal color options at checkout, but note that the estimated ship date is currently May 15th. So, only order if you're cool with waiting a few weeks for delivery.

Speaking of Google, its Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL phones are each $200 off from its store. This brings the starting cost down to $599 and $699, respectively. This offer is active until May 6th at 11:59PM PT, which is the night before Google I/O kicks off. Aside from hearing more details about Android Q, we may see a Pixel 3a announcement at Google's annual developer conference. Buying the Pixel 3 before a new phone is released may not seem like a smart idea, but the Pixel 3a is rumored to be a midrange phone, and if so, it won't stack up to the hardware in Google's most recent flagship phones.

If you want to speed up how long it takes to recharge your iPhone 8, iPhone X, iPhone XS, or iPhone XR, you'll need to use something other than what Apple included with your phone. Making the jump to USB-C will let you connect to fast chargers, and the most affordable Lightning to USB-C cable comes from Anker. If you use the offer code ANKERCTL at Amazon, its $17.99 cable will only cost $13.99 for a limited time.

Not only will you have to buy one extra accessory to unlock fast charging, but you'll also need a good charger to go with the cable. RavPower's USB-C wall adapter is fast, small, and can charge more than just your iPhone. It works with any product that charges over USB-C, be it an Android phone, MacBook Pro, or a Nintendo Switch. It's currently $12 off for Verge readers at Amazon with the offer code VERGE104.

Amazon's third-generation Echo Dot smart speaker is back up to $49.99, but you can still get one for free with the purchase of Sengled's smart lighting kit. It may not have the brand recognition of Philips Hue, but it's a similar setup: it comes with two A19 light bulbs that support white and a wide spectrum of other colors, and a hub so you can add more bulbs on if you choose to. Unlike Philips, though, it's super cheap — $69.99 will get you the whole kit, plus a free Amazon Echo Dot.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

iPhone XR sequel might gain twin-lens rear camera in 2019 - AppleInsider

Posted: 26 Apr 2019 02:05 PM PDT

Rumors suggest Apple's iPhone XR follow-up will upgrade to a dual-lens rear camera in 2019, potentially delivering the company's advanced photographic technology to an entry-level smartphone model for the first time.

As with the iPhone X and XS, one lens would be wide-angle and the other telephoto, Mac Otakara said on Friday, citing information from Chinese suppliers. The current XR has a single wide-angle lens, identical to recent base level iPhone offerings.

Traditionally Apple has used telephoto lenses for two purposes, the first being 2x optical zoom instead of digital enlargement. The second, though, is Portrait Mode photos accomplished in the iOS Camera app — the telephoto becomes the primary lens, while the wide-angle captures depth data used to isolate the subject and simulate DSLR-style bokeh.

The XR employs specialized algorithms to achieve a similar Portrait effect, but the resulting image is zoomed-out and not necessarily as accurate as its XS counterpart.

Multiple reports have pointed to flagship 5.8- and 6.5-inch "XI" and "XI Max" OLED iPhones coming with a triple-lens camera, the third lens possibly being a super-wide unit. Mac Otakara added that two out of three lenses/sensors may be used as common parts to keep costs down.

Separate design changes may include iPad-style mute switches and the use of 3D-molded rear glass, even covering the phones' larger camera bumps. That same all-glass design is expected with the dual-camera XR successor, which could rely on a familiar 6.1-inch LCD screen, the report said.

It is also possible that the new phones will include USB-C to Lightning cables and 18-watt USB-C power adapters, but keep Lightning as their wired data type.

Let's block ads! (Why?)