Residents in Los Angeles County are angry at Google Waze for sending traffic through their resident areas. Previously quiet roads are now supposedly filled with traffic due apparently to Google Waze who has been diverting people off a local freeway and onto these previously quiet roads.
Located in Los Angeles Country (home to over 7.5 million registered vehicles), the freeway at issue (Interstate 405) carries 379,000 cars a day.
“We spent billions of dollars expanding the 405 to 10 lanes—why don’t they take that?
Your good tech news digest, by way of the DGiT Daily newsletter, for Wednesday, April 1. No April Fooling here!
1. Zoom? Not so much.Zoom has become the darling of the working-from-home/lockdown world but that popularity is coming at a cost. I mentioned yesterday how there’s been rapid backlash against the company. But people like Basecamp founder David Heinemeier Hansson (@DHH) have jumped way further, calling the organization “fundamentally corrupt.”
Oliver Cragg / Android Authority
TL;DR
Microsoft has acquired Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The deal will also see Activision Blizzard titles come to Game Pass. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s future role remains uncertain. Update, January 18, 2022 (12:22 PM ET): Microsoft responded to our query about Bobby Kotick’s role at Activision Blizzard after the Microsoft acquisition. Here is the company’s full response:
Bobby will lead Activision Blizzard as CEO, as he has for the last 30 years.
Looking for a reasonably decent smartphone without paying a cent? Best Buy is now offering the Motorola Droid RAZR for free with a two year contract.
With new devices like the Motorola Droid RAZR HD and RAZR M out on the market, the older Droid RAZR might not be the most exciting phone around, but it’s still reasonably capable. The Droid RAZR features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage.
Netflix has announced Dolby Atmos support starting with the critically-acclaimed Okja, but the number of compatible devices is extremely limited.
10 best video streaming apps and services for Android
Apps
From delivering “low-resolution” DVDs to offering 4K HDR content with wide color gamut, Netflix has come a long way in terms of visual standards, but what about audio enhancements? While major TV manufacturers are busy advertising just how amazing their screens are, it seems audio standards are often neglected despite the fact that they’re just as important in media-consumption.
TL;DR
A new report exposes how a federal contractor secretly puts government tracking software into hundreds of mobile apps. The data gleaned from this tracking is then sold back to the US government for undisclosed purposes. This tactic is deceptive because the tracking isn’t disclosed. However, it appears to be totally legal. A new report today from The Wall Street Journal exposes yet another concerning development when it comes to mobile phone tracking.
Andy Walker / Android Authority
TL;DR
Google has announced Health Connect, its bid to improve health data sharing between apps on Android. Health Connect will let users store their private fitness details and allow approved services to access this data. This could be a major breakthrough for those juggling data from multiple trackers and health apps. Health and fitness tracking gets tricky if you jump between platforms and apps, but it seems Google is aware of this issue and might already have a solution well in the works.
TL;DR
Google has started a new global program for app developers to better integrate their apps across devices. The program will specifically benefit video, audio, and book apps. The ultimate goal is to improve cross-device user experience on Android TV, Google TV, Wear OS, and other platforms. Google is looking to make app experiences smoother beyond mobile and across all form factors and platforms such as Wear OS, Android TV, Google TV, Android Auto, and more.
But it looks like that latter part of the earnings report was just one of Amazon’s first marketing moves targeting what it clearly sees as its most important rival in the tablet ecosystem. Now the company has placed that Kindle Fire HD vs iPad mini comparison right on top of its front page – and since Amazon.com is the biggest retailer in the world, that’s quite a prime placement.
Amazon’s point is that you get “much more for much less” buying the Kindle Fire HD (starting price $199) than the iPad mini (starting price $329).
Quizlet.com has become a savior for students and learners everywhere. It is a fun and interactive way to memorize vocabulary lists. You can make your own flash cards or search through Quizlet for sets that were made by other people. But, with almost everyone and their dog owning a smartphone now, being able to take the flash cards on the go is just what Quizlet needed.
Here are a few cool apps that you can use to train your memory on the go with your Android device.