If you’ve ever felt the need to start chatting with random strangers online, Facebook has a new feature with you in mind. Well, when I say “new” I really mean “old” but in a repackaged new location. Facebook Rooms as a standalone app was killed off back in December last year, but it is now reappearing as a part of Messenger.
Facebook Messenger now lets brands send you ads that look like messages
As many smartphones struggle to find their place in the market, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is reportedly doing quite well in terms of sales when compared to the first month it was available.
According to a report from EconoTimes (via SamMobile), Samsung managed to sell an impressive 230,000 units of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip in March, which is a 56.1% jump over February.
Of course, there are some caveats to those exciting sales numbers.
TL;DR
Google today introduced YouTube Charts, which ranks music related to its YouTube Music service. Each of the 29 YouTube Music territories gets five YouTube Charts — three for local results and two for global. Charts include the Top 100 Music Videos, Top 100 Songs, and Top 20 Trending. Google’s newest offering in the streaming music space, YouTube Music, is up and running. Today, the search giant launched a new feature for YouTube Music called YouTube Charts, which allows you to see rankings of songs and music videos both locally and globally.
Eric Zeman / Android Authority
Update, December 3, 2020 (01:04 PM ET): Today, ZTE revealed when and where you’ll be able to buy the ZTE Axon 20 5G (via Droid-Life). This will be the first commercially-available smartphone with an in-display selfie camera.
If you want to be an early adopter, you’ll need to live in specific areas of the world. As of now, the Axon 20 will only be available in these countries:
If you have downloaded the Android 7.1 Developer Preview that Google released earlier this week, you can go ahead and try out a new feature that allows user to add GIF images to the Messenger app from the standard Google Keyboard.
Android Nougat review: what's new in Android 7.1.2?
Features
It appears that this is limited to just the Messenger app, at least for now. The Google Keyboard cannot place GIF images in other apps, including Gmail.
Still, we knew that Shanzhai never sleeps, so it was only a matter of time until someone else again tried to replicate the iPhone 5’s design. And this time after actually getting to see the final design.
Meet the Zophone i5, a $200 clone that could make even Dolly the sheep jealous. The Chinese 4-incher not only Xeroxes iPhone 5’s dimensions, but even sports the same 1,136 x 640 pixels resolution, which goes to show you that there was actually a lot of thought put into making this doppelganger.
We learned a few days ago that those with rooted devices were no longer able to download the Netflix app from the Play Store. This was suspected to be related to Netflix’s adoption of the Widevine DRM protection provided by Google. That may not actually be the case, and, even more worrying, Netflix may not be the only app involved.
Recently discovered changes to the Google Play developer console, as spotted by Android Police, means that devs are essentially now able to choose whether their apps are available to rooted users in the Play Store.
It was at Computex 2018 that I came in contact with the Asus’ first dual-screen laptop, the Zenbook Pro — or as Asus called it internally, Project Precog. At the time, I didn’t see a lot of value in the concept. Asus doubled the trackpad as a display, complete with its own UI and an app launcher. The idea was to give users easy access to apps like Spotify or YouTube while working on the primary display.
To some, virtual reality might seem like a passing trend, but 2020 has actually been a great year for VR. New headsets with significant tech improvements and lower prices have hit the market, providing an immersive and entertaining experience. So, if you’ve been contemplating getting a VR headset for a while, there is no better time than now. Here are our picks for the best VR headsets you can currently buy.
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR
Someone hacked together an iPhone with a working USB-C port. YouTube user Kenny Pi uploaded a video of the working iPhone to his YouTube channel. Apple has refused to use USB-C in its iPhones, despite switching to the port on its MacBook and iPad devices. Ever since the switch away from the big ol’ 30-pin connectors in the iPhone 4, every iPhone since has used Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector for charging and data transfers.