In an update on Monday, Google says Chrome 138 is the last version of the browser that will support Android 8 and Android 9, both of which were released over five years ago. The browser will continue to work on these versions, but it won’t receive additional updates.
Chrome 139 and up will require at least Android 10 when it launches in August.
We already got a glimpse at what seems to be the repair-friendly Fairphone 6 earlier this month, but now Winfuture is back with another leak that shows how you can remove the lower half of the two-part back cover to reveal the phone’s battery.
As reported by Winfuture, you still have to unscrew the battery, but it’s not glued in, making it far easier to replace. Fairphone is expected to launch the new device on June 25th.
The Magic V5 will launch in China on July 2nd, and we know almost nothing about it except that Honor says it will be the slimmest around, allowing the company to reclaim the super-thin title it held with last year’s Magic V3.
That means it must be thinner than the Oppo Find N5’s 8.93mm when shut, but will it beat Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7, also launching in July and tipped to be slim?
The anti-Elon Musk protest organizers sent a letter to T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert demanding he “cut ties to Starlink,” citing T-Mobile’s use of the SpaceX subsidiary to power its T-Satellite direct-to-cell satellite messaging service:
By contracting with Starlink, T-Mobile is funding Elon Musk’s attacks on democracy in the US and around the world. We’re demanding T-Mobile pick a side. If they choose to continue in partnership with Starlink, they’re complicit in his assault on working people and his support of far-right authoritarian governments around the world.
The protesters are hinting that they’ll boycott T-Mobile if the company doesn’t comply. And given the brand damage that Tesla Takedown has inflicted on Musk’s company, it’s not a threat that T-Mobile can take lightly.
[actionnetwork.org]
Our money’s on one of these Chinese ODMs, but which phone is it?
They’re where a spokesperson says the new Trump Mobile T1 Phone will be manufactured, according to The Wall Street Journal:
“Manufacturing for the new phone will be in Alabama, California and Florida.”
We still think that pledge to make a $499 phone in the US in a couple of months sounds impossible, and note the “will be” up above: Eric Trump has admitted that “eventually” the phones can be built in the USA, which raises some obvious questions about what’s happening right now.
Founder Carl Pei had already teased as much, but now it’s official: when the phone launches next month it’ll go on sale at Amazon and Nothing’s own store. It won’t be available direct from carriers, but will support AT&T and T-Mobile, 4G and 5G. The same was true of 2023’s Phone 2, and that was mostly fine on Verizon too.
Oh, and don’t worry — Nothing’s first over-ear headphones are getting a North American release too.
Vivo claims its X Fold 5 has achieved an Android first: interoperability with the Apple Watch. According to product manager Han Boxiao the watch can display calls and texts from the X Fold 5, and sync health data. The phone can also receive calls and texts sent to an iPhone, access iCloud, and extend the display of a Mac.
How? We have no idea, but hopefully we’ll find out when the phone launches this month.
Rumors have long had it that this year’s Galaxy Z Fold phone will be substantially thinner, as Samsung tries to keep up with Oppo and Honor, and now the company itself has hinted at the same.
It says this year’s Fold is “our thinnest, lightest and most advanced foldable yet,” with a picture that certainly looks thin, as it promises to bring the Ultra experience to foldables.
Yesterday the official Android Developers account interrupted the WWDC hubbub to tease that the “final release” of Android 16 should arrive today, after seven months of testing. Don’t expect it to include the Material 3 Expressive design language though, which is coming later this year in a quarterly feature drop.
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Verge Score
Just be prepared for some funny looks.
And no, they’re not exactly surprising. But even so, a Galaxy Store listing for “Samsung Internet Browser for Fold7 and Flip7,” spotted by GalaxyClub, does give the game away a little, especially since we’re not expecting the new phones to launch for at least a month.
Of course, that doesn’t preclude extra versions, like the Fold Ultra Samsung teased just this week, or its rumored cheaper Flip FE.
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Samsung is hinting strongly at an Ultra-branded foldable coming soon with this new press release referencing a foldable with a “powerful camera,” which is traditionally a weakness of folding phones. The attached image is also named “Galaxy Z Fold 7 Z Flip 7 Pre tease,” so there’s that too.
Between this Ultra model and a rumored FE version of the Z Flip, we might have a whole bunch of new folding phones on our hands later this summer.
The company behind the Murena 2 smartphone and de-Googled Pixel Tablet has announced a new version of its operating system: /e/OS 3.0. It will make better use of the larger screens on tablets and give parents new tools for limiting screen time and app access.
The update also introduces a way to locate a missing device using SMS text messages without the need for internet access, and a new search engine called Murena Find.
We knew the Phone 3 was launching in July, but now we know exactly when: 1PM ET on July 1st, which is about as early in the month as we could have hoped for. Not long to wait now for what the company considers its first true flagship.
[nothing.community]
Earlier this year we oohed and ahhed over the thinnest foldable phone so far, and now it’s time for the lightest. Vivo product manager Han Boxiao released this clip that dramatically shows off how lightweight the upcoming X Fold 5 is, which leakers say will launch this month.
I was impressed by the X Fold 3, the first foldable I used that felt like its camera came without compromises, so I’m excited to see its successor.
Samsung is planning a big investment in Perplexity that could bring the AI search engine’s app and assistant to Samsung’s upcoming devices and its web browser, according to a report from Bloomberg.
If this rumor pans out, Samsung would join Motorola in offering users the option to set Perplexity as their default assistant instead of Google Gemini.
The company is giving 25 Pixel Superfans a chance to attend its pre-launch event in London on June 27th, according to a message sent to Superfans on Friday.
At its “Pixel Penthouse,” Google will offer up a sneak peek at its next-gen devices and features, which will likely include the Pixel 10 and maybe even its new buds, smartwatch, and tablet, too.
[androidauthority.com]
