The Google Play Store is notorious for making it difficult to find apps optimized for non-phone devices —you’ve often had to guess and hope for the best. Now, however, it just involves a couple of taps. Google says it recently added Play Store home pages to its Android app with recommendations for Android Automotive, Android TV and Wear OS apps. Visit “other devices” and you can find a health tracker for your Galaxy Watch 5, or a video service for your Chromecast.
New search filters also limit results to those that support non-phone hardware. If you find something you like, you can remotely install it from your handset. Google also noted that it previously revised the Play Store website to improve navigation and features like remote installs.
Google
The move follows efforts to accommodate tablet users, and could be helpful if you can’t (or just don’t want to) search for apps on the device where you’ll use them. That’s particularly helpful for Wear OS users who might have to browse apps on a tiny screen. You might find more apps for your devices and (as Google no doubt hopes) increase your chances of sticking to the Android ecosystem.
It’s also difficult to ignore the timing. Google is formally debuting the Pixel Watch at its New York City event on October 6th, and just revamped the 1080p Chromecast. The improved app discovery could help sell these products to customers wondering if their favorite app is available. Not that you’ll likely mind if you prefer third-party gear — this might boost Android as a whole.
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Apple released its latest iPhone lineup and mobile platforms earlier this month, and a couple of annoying bugs quickly made themselves known to users. The good news is that the tech giant has quickly whipped up patches to fix the issues and has now released them as part of the iOS 16.0.2 update. One of the problems the update solves is the iPhone 14 Pro’s compatibility troubles with third-party apps that use its camera, such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.
Users found that when they fire up those apps and use the device’s rear cam, the camera view shakes on screen and the phone emanates grinding and rattling noises. In its patch notes, Apple said the update fixes an issue wherein the “[c]amera may vibrate and cause blurry photos when shooting with some third-party apps on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.” The company didn’t elaborate on the cause behind it, but it’s possible that the apps weren’t meshing well with the device’s optical image stabilization system, causing the rattling noises.
Another troublesome problem the update fixes is the persistent appearance of permission prompts when trying to copy and paste content between apps. Apple senior manager Ron Huang previously admitted that it was “absolutely not expected behavior” and said the company was dealing with it. iOS 16.0.2 will get rid of other bugs, as well, including one that causes the device’s display to go black during setup and another that renders the touch input on some iPhone X, iPhone XR and iPhone 11 displays to be unresponsive after they’re serviced.
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Logitech is hosting an event today, during which it’s revealing some new products for gamers and streamers. Details on one of those leaked in advance as a preorder page for the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld went live on Amazon Canada a bit early. The company has now officially unveiled the device.
According to the listing, which was spotted by Lbabinz on Twitter, the Cloud Gaming Handheld will arrive on October 18th and cost $400 CAD. Logitech’s press materials, on the other hand, say the product will ship next month. The system will also be available from Amazon in the US, where it costs $350 USD, or $300 if you preorder. That’s fairly pricey for a dedicated cloud gaming handheld, especially considering that a Nintendo Switch OLED is the same price (and can be jailbroken to run cloud gaming services).
Logitech
The specs and design align with leaked details from late August. You’ll be able to stream games in 1080p at up to 60 frames per second on the seven-inch, 450-nit touchscreen. The handheld, which is a customized Android tablet housed inside a controller unit, offers haptic feedback, gyroscope controls and remappable buttons. It has the inputs you’d expect, including a D-pad, face buttons, dual thumbsticks, bumpers and triggers, along with option buttons on both sides, a G button and a Home button.
Because you’ll be streaming games for the most part, the Cloud Gaming Handheld doesn’t require a ton of processing power. That’s one likely reason why Logitech has been able to limit the weight to 463g, or just over a pound. For comparison, the Nintendo Switch weighs 0.88 pounds (398g) when the Joy-Cons are attached and the Steam Deck weighs around 1.5 pounds (669g).
The device runs on an octo-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G. It has 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 64GB of storage, which is expandable through a microSD slot. Logitech claims the battery will run for up to 12 hours on a single charge. If the power’s off, it should fully recharge in around 2.5 hours through a USB-C cable.
There are stereo speakers and a stereo microphone, which offers echo canceling and noise suppression. In addition, the device has Bluetooth 5.1 and USB-C headphone support, as well as, thankfully, a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Logitech
Logitech and Tencent (who built the device together) collaborated with Microsoft and NVIDIA to ensure there’s native support for Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now. You’ll be able to use the Steam Link app to play games from your PC remotely, while the Xbox app supports remote play from consoles. Logitech notes that users will be able to download apps from the Google Play Store. So, you should be able to access the likes of Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, as well as social media apps, Android games and streaming video services such as YouTube and Netflix (you can use the device in tablet mode).
“What we wanted to do was challenge ourselves to build a device that was perfectly optimized for cloud gaming,” Ujesh Desai, vice president and general manager of Logitech Gaming, said in a statement. “This meant precision controls – similar to a high-end Xbox controller – a large HD screen, amazing battery life and lightweight design so players can enjoy long gaming sessions, without any compromises.”
Update 12:12 PM ET: Added more details from Logitech.
LG was supposed to release another phone with an unusual form factor after The Wing as an answer to Samsung’s foldables. At CES 2021, the company confirmed that it was working on a phone with a rollable display and that it was going to be available later that year. It never got to launch the device before shutting down its mobile business after its newest models, which included the Wing, failed to gain traction. But now, a hands-on video by Korean tech reviewer 뻘짓연구소 (BullsLab) shows just how close LG got to launching the phone that would’ve simply gone by the name “Rollable.”
While the Wing featured a rotatable display on top of a smaller one underneath, the Rollable was designed to have a screen that stretches out until the phone becomes a small tablet. In the video, you’ll see how responsive the device is and how quickly it starts expanding after the YouTuber swipes at the screen with three fingers. Whatever’s displayed on screen — even the animated wallpapers — automatically adjusts itself. At one point, the reviewer places three books beside the phone to show that its motor is strong enough to move the pile as it stretches out.
In addition to the stretchable main display, the phone’s back panel also functions as an extra screen that can house a handful of widgets, including ones for the camera, calendar and music. If you fire up the camera app from that extra screen, you’ll be able to take selfies without powering on the main phone.
Based on the device BullsLab reviewed, the Rollable would’ve launched with a Snapdragon 888 CPU, up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Those were top-level specs that would’ve put the Rollable in the same category as flagships, such as the Samsung Galaxy S21.
Since LG’s mobile business no longer exists, there’s little to no chance for the Rollable to, well, roll out. It’s worth noting that Oppo also showed off a rollable phone back in 2021, but it was just a prototype, and we haven’t heard anything about it since then.
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