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The Samsung Galaxy S10’s face unlock has apparently been defeated by photos and video clips. A prominent developer even reported that she was able to unlock her brother’s Galaxy S10. You should probably stick to the phone’s in-display fingerprint sensor if you value security. The Samsung Galaxy S10 series ditched the iris scanner of prior entries in favor of an in-display fingerprint sensor and camera-based face unlock technology.
With top-tier smartphones sporting physical QWERTY keyboards becoming a rarity these days, we can add HTC to the list of phone manufacturers that won’t be offering a new keyboard-equipped Android smartphone anytime soon.
Speaking during a press event in Seattle, HTC creative director Claude Zellweger explained the company’s stance on creating QWERTY phones. “As a company, the QWERTY keyboard we’re moving away from in general”, he said. This can be translated as the company’s reluctance to go against the current, with more and more manufacturers focusing solely on producing touchscreen phones, some without physical buttons at all.
The OnePlus 7 and the OnePlus 7 Pro are similar in many ways, yet, there are some key differences between the two. The two phones deliver a one-two punch where they both pack exceptional internals, but there’s just a little extra on-offer with the Pro which may make you want to upgrade.
While there are several differences between the devices, the size of the battery and the display are two of the key differentiating features.
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
Mobile Payments is an ever growing market with OEMs attempting to replace the traditional wallet with your smartphone, but most of them have very similar feature sets. While Android Pay and Apple Pay both use the NFC standard to communicate with payment terminals, this requires retailers to upgrade their hardware to accept contactless payments.
Samsung Pay may support phones from other brands in future
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Eric Zeman / Android Authority
It’s only taken a couple of years for true wireless earbuds to flood the market, as audio companies and smartphone brands alike all jumped on the wire-free bandwagon and ditched the cable running between earbuds.
But as unobtrusive as these gadgets are, I simply find myself unwilling to switch to them. Sure, the lack of wires makes for a truly snag-free experience, but they have major downsides too.
Alcatel Idol 4sThe Idol 4S undoubtedly delivers several welcome improvements over the cheaper Idol 3 and a worthy successor it is, but in an increasingly-competitive industry, the Idol 4S may not be the best smartphone you can buy for $399.
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Alcatel made some noise last year with the release of the OneTouch Idol 3 as an affordable and attractive package that caught the eye of consumers. The OneTouch Idol 3 was very much a budget-friendly mid-range smartphone, but while its Alcatel may have dropped the OneTouch branding with its successor, the Idol 4S improves on it by offering better specs at an equally affordable price tag.
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Samsung is reportedly working on the Galaxy W22 5G for China. It’s expected to be an ultra-premium Galaxy Z Fold 3 for the market. Samsung launched the Galaxy W21 5G last year, which was a China-exclusive Galaxy Z Fold 2 with a taller design and an eye-watering price tag. Now, it looks like Samsung is working on a similar device for China based on the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 3.
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Google Photos was released on May 28, seven years ago, ushering in a new era for photo backups on Android and at large. The service stood out as one of the best photo editing apps thanks to its free unlimited backups, smart categorization, sharing features, and a suite of editing tools. And the feature set has only grown since 2015.
Despite having had plenty of time to familiarize ourselves with the app, there are several nifty features that you might have yet to discover.
Open-source software has revolutionized the computing in the past few decades. Have an Android smartphone? That uses open-source software. The server hosting this website is running open-source software. Parts of macOS use open-source software. Same with the iPhone. I could go on, the point is that open source software is everywhere.
Open-source software is as much a social contract as it is a legal agreement. That is why companies that break the open-source “contract” are immoral and unjust.
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
Today, Google is rolling out Android 12 DP 3, the final (planned) preview before the first official beta. The latest preview has a slew of new features, including precise haptic feedback control, app launch templates, and deeper web linking. You can get this preview on your recent Pixel device now. However, it is still not quite ready to be used as a daily driver.