As a longtime proprietor and fan, I used to be curious to seek out out what Android 14 information we’d hear about Google I/O. In any case, I/O 2023 was a groundbreaking time for Google merchandise. The primary foldable telephone! The primary pill (shortly)! A brand new “a” Pixel! However… hardly any Android information?! Now I’m wondering if Google has forgotten the true that means of Google I/O and the little droid that introduced them there.
New Pixel 7a telephone, which I reviewed for every week earlier than it’s introduced at Google I/O, will ship with Android 13. No new OS for the brand new telephone, just a few minor enhancements (digicam), or not (battery).
The brand new Pixel pill will run Android 13. There can be Nest software program and a few sort of built-in Google Chromecast performance, however these appear unique to the Pixel pill, not upcoming Android pill options. In reality, Google hasn’t mentioned something in any respect about how Android has been tailored to work higher on the Pixel pill, and its silence is suspect.
The brand new Pixel Fold will run Android 13 at launch, and it will doubtless do extra for Android telephones than any Android machine Google has launched so far. Google will lastly must adapt its interface to work with the dynamic and foldable show. A number of shows directly, even. We have seen guarantees of how dual-screen options may work within the AI demos Google confirmed through the Google I/O keynote.
In a single demo, the Pixel Fold acted as a dwell interpreter for a dialog between two individuals talking completely different languages. By holding the fold up for each events to see, every might learn a translation of the opposite’s phrases on the display in entrance of them. One individual will get the massive inside display, one other the outer display. Each individuals profit from dwell translation.
Superb! New AI options are coming to Android! Besides Google by no means actually developed this, or if one thing related would come to different Android telephones.
In reality, the one different AI function I keep in mind from the Google I/O keynote was some kind of generative AI wallpaper. Nothing I am unable to accomplish by having DALL-E create a picture after which make it my wallpaper. I assume Google thinks I ought to be impressed when the Pixel does it for me, however I am not .
Apple does not mess with iOS 17
Apple doesn’t go away its customers behind, which makes the iPhone extra helpful
It has been a horrible 12 months for Google to be asleep on the helm of Android. Apple appeared distracted by facet tasks just like the AR headset which will by no means materialize, however current rumors counsel iOS17the subsequent main iOS replace will please everybody.
One of the crucial correct Apple leakers, Mark Gurman, notes that the iOS 17″ replace will tick off most of the most requested options by customers.” There is no finish to what that may imply, however different leaks level to myriad enhancements to each facet of the iOS interface, from widgets to go looking to the lock display. All the pieces could possibly be higher.
For Android? Something might occur… what precisely? Older? Out of date? Google’s newest Pixel 7a funds telephone left me baffled after I found it might solely get three years of main software program updates. Though it runs on the identical hyper-advanced Google-developed Tensor G2 chipset because the Pixel 7 Professional. Three years, then he drifts into the ocean. It stings much more that it begins with Android 13, regardless that Android 14 is already accessible in public beta. These three years will solely go via Android 16.
In the meantime, Apple is throwing a raft at its long-term customers. These superb new iOS 17 options? They might go all the best way again to iPhone X (10), possibly even earlier. The most cost effective iPhones get the identical updates as the most effective iPhones. Apple does not go away its customers behind, which makes the iPhone extra helpful in comparison with an Android yearly you personal it.
All the new stuff introduced by Google throughout Google I/O was both an AI improvement or a function particular to one of many new gadgets. There was nothing for everybody. In June, Apple will inform its loyal followers about all of the cool new options it confirmed off at WWDC 2023. Google is letting smaller producers ship its Android 14 beta with out a lot fanfare.
Google, do not take my love with no consideration
Android, as a system and a group, feels misplaced. Is Google nonetheless our buddy? Was it ever? I’ve owned largely Samsung Android telephones, like most Android homeowners, should you deduce gross sales numbers. Google has all the time felt extra like a competitor to Samsung than a companion, regardless that the finest samsung telephones are the finest android telephonesand vice versa.
Probably the most notable exception was the co-development of Put on the working system, however that was just because Google needed to create its personal smartwatch. Samsung cannot promote a ton of Galaxy Watchesnevertheless it sells extra watches than some other Android telephone maker.
These watches have lengthy used a wide range of wearable working programs Samsung concocted in its residence kitchens. Earlier than the Put on OS partnership, it was Tizen, a small, rugged working system that Samsung makes use of throughout its product line, even on TVs. Tizen was an evolution of Samsung’s Bada working system, which it used on just a few attention-grabbing function telephones earlier than shifting to Android.
You see what I imply ? Samsung is the biggest producer of Android telephones. Why does it even want Android? Primarily for Google. It wants app distribution from Google in Play Retailer. It wants Google Play apps and providers. With out Google, you do not have Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps, and plenty of helpful Google options.
Samsung has lengthy been the scapegoat… whereas Google escapes unscathed by the horrible status of the platform it created
But others handle. Huawei was shunned by Google and the US authorities for just a few years, and it nonetheless clings on, regardless that its success is solely native lately. It would not be exhausting to think about just a few massive firms, together with Huawei, getting collectively and deciding they’d had sufficient of Google’s dominance of Android.
Samsung has lengthy been the scapegoat of the cell trade, blaming shoddy Android telephones and lack of respect for Android homeowners, whereas Google stays unscathed by the platform’s horrible status it has created. How lengthy ought to Samsung endure the abuse? Perhaps it is time for Samsung and different telephone makers to offer us a 3rd platform possibility.
You are most likely utilizing a cell phone working system in your TV
The thought will not be as profane or inconceivable because it appears. On the one hand, there may be at the moment an excellent cell working system on different merchandise. Your LG TV can work webOSwho began life as a revenant Palm cell machine working system. It has advanced significantly since then, as have the wants of our cell gadgets, nevertheless it’s an thought.
Then again, cell gadgets have lengthy been asking cell gadgets to transcend the walled gardens of platforms and turn out to be extra agnostic in counting on the browser for many functions. In case your telephone was working a Chromium-based browser that was correctly beefed up with processor and graphics capabilities, there is not any motive why each app you employ as we speak could not be run via the telephone’s browser as a substitute. of a standalone utility.
Perhaps I am drained after spending every week with a telephone that dies earlier than dinner (learn extra in my Pixel 7a evaluate). Perhaps I am nervous that each one these AI options which have monopolized Google’s consideration on I/O are simply going to steal my job and destroy the social cloth, in that order.
Or possibly I am a giant outdated Android fan who wore my Massive Android BBQ t-shirt to look at Google’s massive Android present Google I/O and I did not take Android out of it. All I bought had been AI wallpapers and Google variations of merchandise made by different firms – a pill and a foldable telephone. If Google is simply following others on Android, possibly it is time for these others to take the lead.
