Google Store drops Pixel C, but another detachable tablet is in the works

Google’s last Android tablet is dead.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – Android tablets are in a really awkward place right now. Devices like the Galaxy Tab S3 and Amazon’s line of Fire tablets stick out as some of the best options, but as a whole, the interest in large touch-screen canvases with Android has died down a lot.

Now, it appears even Google is calling it quits with Android tablets. The Pixel C is the last Android-powered tablet that Google released, and it came out all the way back in 2015. The Pixel C’s remained at its MSRP of $599 nearly its entire life with discounts being few and far between, and it’s also been sold out for a while, too. Now, the Pixel C has officially been removed from the Google Store for good.

The only laptop/tablet you can purchase on the Google Store is the Pixelbook, and while it does run Chrome OS, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Jerry noted in his review of the Pixelbook that it “is as much tablet as a laptop”, and a lot of this has to do with how well Chrome OS has evolved over the years for things like using apps, playing games, and watching movies. The Pixelbook is proof that Google’s tablet future lies with Chrome OS rather than Android, and the axing of the Pixel C is just reinforcement of this.

Samsung’s ‘Nautilus’ will likely have a stylus similar to the one on the Chromebook Pro.

On that same note, new details of an upcoming Chromebook have recently emerged, as well. There have been murmurings of a detachable Samsung Chromebook since last month by the name of “Nautilus”, and according to a new commit, Nautilus is referred to as having a stylus that can be stored in the Chromebook itself (ala Samsung’s Chromebook Pro).

This can be seen with text such as “PEN_EJECT” and “TEST=Verify that the ‘stylus tools’ menu gets launched when I eject the pen on nautilus”, and while exact details on the stylus aren’t mentioned here, it’ll likely perform similarly to what we’ve seen from past Samsung Chromebooks.

We still aren’t sure when we’ll get a public announcement of Nautilus, but if the Pixel C had to die in order for it to live, you won’t find us complaining about that at all.

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Honor View 10 specs

The Honor View 10 has a packed spec sheet without flagship pricing.

If you’re looking for a phone to compete with the $500 OnePlus 5T, the Honor View 10 (also known as the Honor V10 in parts of the world) is a good alternative. It’s got the latest specs from Huawei — it’s basically a Huawei Mate 10 Pro in all but appearance — along with its AI benefits at a price lower than we’re used to seeing in this category.

Chrome OS will finally let you run Android apps in the background

Introducing Android Parallel Tasks.

Android apps on Chrome OS have gotten much better since their debut earlier this year, and while the implementation still isn’t perfect for some titles, it dramatically increases the usefulness of Chrome OS compared to the likes of Windows and macOS.

Since their launch, however, there’s been one issue that’s made Android apps on Chrome OS feel somewhat incomplete – the inability to keep them open and running in the background. While you can have multiple apps on your screen at once, only one is active at any given time. This is something that can prove to be awfully annoying if you’re trying to multitask, but thankfully, you won’t have to put up with it for much longer.

First spotted by the folks over at Chrome Unboxed, a new feature in the Chrome OS beta channel on Chrome 64 allows multiple Android apps to be open and active at once. The feature is called Android Parallel Tasks, and although we’ve yet to get our own hands on it, it looks like something that’ll make Android apps feel much more natural when used on Chromebooks.

There’s no timeframe for when Android Parallel Tasks will be made available to the general public, but our guess is that it’ll be sooner rather than later seeing as how it’s already in beta.

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Face Unlock coming to OnePlus 5 with Open Beta, 3/3T might get it too

Yes, Carl, this is something we want.

Alongside the rollout of Android 8.0 Oreo for the OnePlus 5, Carl Pei took to Twitter to announce that the popular Face Unlock feature on the 5T would be making its way to its older brother. This came as exciting news, but we weren’t entirely sure how OnePlus would integrate the feature.

In a post that Pei shared on the OnePlus forums, we now know that Face Unlock will initially be pushed to the OnePlus 5 as part of the OxygenOS Open Beta. Pei says to think of this as “an early test run” where any bugs can be discovered and squashed, and following this, Face Unlock will make its way to all OnePlus 5s as part of a public OTA update.

As if that wasn’t enough, Pei also said this at the end of the post:

You all inspired us to bring Face Unlock to the OnePlus 5. When you share your thoughts and feedback, you impact how we build and maintain our devices. In the spirit of building together, we’d also like to ask our OnePlus 3 and 3T users: Do you want Face Unlock too?

One thread on the forums already shows about 50 pages of people talking about Face Unlock on the 3/3T, so it’s pretty clear that the interest is definitely there. We’re still awfully impressed with how well Face Unlock works on the 5T, so if OnePlus wants to bring it to more of its existing hardware, the more the merrier.

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Amazon

Apple and Amazon may set up shop in Saudi Arabia soon

Saudi Arabia has slowly been changing its attitude toward tech over the past two years, trying to lure in foreign investment from Silicon Valley. Now, Reuters reports that both Apple and Amazon are in talks to set up shop in the conservative country.

Apple has a presence in Saudi Arabia, but it’s through third parties. None of the big international tech companies have direct retail in the country, but that may be about to change. Apple’s presence will focus on the company’s popular products; the first Apple Store in the country may open in 2019. Apple is already the country’s second most popular phone provider, despite not having a direct presence, so it’s clearly a smart move for the tech company.

It’s also not a surprise that Amazon is interested in the Middle East. Earlier this year, the online retail giant acquired Souq.com, which was touted as the Amazon of the Middle East. This allowed for Amazon products to be sold in the country. Now, Amazon is clearly looking to move into back-end services, as the talks are heavily focused in its Web Services arena, which provides cloud services to companies. There is currently no timeline for the company’s goals in Saudi Arabia.

Source: Reuters

Chrome OS will finally run Android apps in the background

While it’s no longer a novelty to run Android apps on your Chromebook, that doesn’t mean they run well. To date, most of those apps pause when you switch away — fine for a phone, but not what you’d expect on a computer with a multi-window interface. However, they’re about to become far more functional. Chrome Unboxed has learned that the Chrome OS 64 beta introduces Android Parallel Tasks, which lets Android apps run at full bore regardless of what you’re doing. You could watch a video in a mobile app while you’re surfing the web, or take a break from a mobile game without jarring transitions.

There’s no guarantee that Android Parallel Tasks will reach the stable Chrome OS 64, so you might not want to plan a purchase around the feature. With that said, it’s hard to imagine Google leaving this out. This is a major step toward Android becoming fully integrated with Chrome OS, and arguably a step toward making Chrome OS behave like you’d expect if you’re coming from a more conventional computing platform.

Via: 9to5Google

Source: Chrome Unboxed

North Korea gets a modern staple: lousy airport WiFi

North Korea is continuing to slowly embrace modern technology, although not in the ways you might like. The AP’s Eric Talmadge has discovered that Pyongyang’s airport now has WiFi, with $2 getting you 30 minutes of online time. But just like many airport hotspots, it doesn’t appear to be usable — Talmadge couldn’t get a valid login even after enlisting the help of a supervisor, and it had trouble opening a page in the process. It’s unclear whether this was a one-time problem or reflective of poor maintenance, but the signal is definitely there.

Not that the airport’s WiFi is likely to get a lot of use, or that you’d necessarily want to use it. When just having a device with active WiFi can frequently lead to jail time or fines, most North Koreans can’t even consider using it — if they could afford the necessary devices, of course. And even if you did get online, you’d likely be using a highly censored, tightly monitored and overall very limited connection. In short: while it’s a notable gesture, it’d be much nicer if everyday North Koreans could enjoy unrestricted WiFi wherever they happen to be.

Source: AP (Popular Science)

Apple may face criminal charges in France over iPhone slowdowns

Earlier this month, Apple admitted to slowing older iPhone models in order to prevent phones with older batteries from suddenly shutting down. Now, Reuters reports that the company may face a legal battle in France over the practice. A French organization called HOP, which in French stands for Stop Planned Obsolescence, filed legal complaints against Apple in Paris this week. It also filed complaints against Epson for similar reasons.

Apple also faces lawsuits in the US, two of which were filed by Chicago’s Atlas Consumer Law group and individuals in California just days after reports of Apple’s practices surfaced. At least eight lawsuits have now been filed in the US seeking class-action while a suit was also filed earlier this week in Israel.

Under French law, planned obsolescence is not allowed and companies found to practicing it can be fined up to five percent of their annual sales.

Via: Reuters

Google pulls the Pixel C tablet from its online store

For now, at least, Google is out of the Android tablet game. The search giant has pulled the Pixel C from its official store, redirecting product page visitors to the Pixelbook. The company hasn’t explicitly outlined its reasons, but it told Engadget in a statement (available below) that it was “common” to stop selling a product after it has been “out for a few years” — and that’s true for the Pixel C, which hit the scene in late 2015. Instead, it suggests that you get a Pixelbook if you’re looking for a “versatile device.”

It’s not certain how well the Pixel C sold (other than not being a blockbuster hit), but there are a number of practical reasons to drop it regardless of its performance. The Pixel C received its last major software update with Android Oreo, and it wasn’t going to be very consumer-friendly to sell a tablet that was going to get nothing but security updates (and then only for another year). And yes, a 2-year-old $599 device just wasn’t going to be very competitive.

At the same time, this a tacit acknowledgment that Google’s Android tablet strategy hasn’t panned out as well those for Apple’s iPads or Microsoft’s Surface line. Android’s stock multitasking experience still leaves something to be desired, and Google has historically done a less-than-stellar job of fostering and promoting tablet-native Android apps. The Pixel C just didn’t fill the role of a laptop replacement as well as it could. We wouldn’t call the Pixelbook a one-for-one replacement for the Pixel C (it’s $400 more expensive and not as portable), but it might be a better fit. It’s a more conventional computer with a windowed interface, and it has access to Android apps if there’s a mobile program you just can’t live without.

Via: Android Police

Source: Google Store

Google Photos compiles your pics in ‘Smiles of 2017’ video

Google wants to give a you look back at the year and it’s doing so with a video called “Smiles of 2017” that compiles some of the photos you saved throughout year. The short movies are reportedly between 40 and 60 seconds long and are paired with typical Google Photos video music. While Google Photos had a “Smiles” slideshow last year as well, it appears that more users are getting access to this year’s version. The videos are appearing in the Assistant section of the Google Photos app or desktop site and if you have one, a notification should let you know.

Snapchat also released its 2017 lookback — a Story that collects some of the Snaps you saved to Memories throughout the year — and Spotify has created a playlist of users’ top 100 tracks of 2017. So, if you really want to review this year (understandable if you don’t), you have a few options through which you can do so.