Posts by Joe Fedewa- XDA Developers

Google Chrome may soon get biometric authentication for payments on Android

Joe Fedewa July 6, 2020

A couple of months ago, users discovered that Google Chrome for desktop supported "Windows Hello" for payment authentication. That means people could use their fingerprint or face to authorize payments on a Windows PC. Not many people have computers with fingerprint or face unlock yet, but most of us have those biometric security methods available...

Samsung’s next Fold will be called the “Galaxy Z Fold 2”

Joe Fedewa July 6, 2020

After all the excitement of the original Samsung Galaxy Fold, we've been waiting to see the company's next "phone > tablet" transformer. The Galaxy Z Flip was a cool form factor, but the size of the Fold makes more sense for productivity purposes. We've assumed the successor to be simply called the "Galaxy Fold 2,"...

[Update 2: Launching on July 21] It sure sounds like the OnePlus 8 Lite/OnePlus Z will be called the OnePlus Nord instead

Joe Fedewa July 6, 2020

OnePlus burst onto the smartphone scene by making affordable phones with impressive specifications. However, as time has gone on, OnePlus devices have begun to creep up in price. We've been hearing about the company's return to affordable phones with the rumored OnePlus Z/OnePlus 8 Lite. Evidence is starting to pile up to suggest the phone...

Firefox for Android ditches Preview builds to simplify releases

Joe Fedewa July 3, 2020

We talk a lot about Chrome when it comes to Android browsers, but there are several other great options available. Firefox is one such browser and Mozilla maintains a few different builds for people looking to try the latest features. There is stable Firefox, Firefox Beta, Firefox Nightly, Firefox Preview, and Firefox Preview Nightly. Sound...

Chrome is switching to 64-bit on Android 10

Joe Fedewa July 3, 2020

The first version of Android to support 64-bit architecture was Android 5.0 Lollipop, launched in 2014. That was a pretty big deal at the time, and nowadays, nearly all Android devices can run 64-bit apps. Speaking of which, starting with Google Chrome 85, the browser is now being released in a 64-bit version for Android...

T-Mobile shuts down Sprint’s legacy 5G network

Joe Fedewa July 2, 2020

Sprint and T-Mobile continue to shift things around as part of their merger that went through earlier this year. As expected, T-Mobile is now shutting down Sprint's 5G network. T-Mobile started this process back in April and has been refarming Sprint's 2.5GHz spectrum to augment its own 5G network. We knew this day was coming and...

Honor launches the massive 7.09″ Honor X10 Max and 6.5″ Honor 30 Lite with the 5G MediaTek Dimensity 800

Joe Fedewa July 2, 2020

Honor, the smartphone sub-brand under the Huawei Consumer Business Group, is launching two new smartphones in its home market of China: the aptly named Honor X10 Max and the Honor 30 Lite. The X10 Max has a tablet-esque 7.09-inch display, while the 30 Lite has a "smaller" 6.5-inch display. One of the most interesting features...

Motorola One Fusion announced with 48MP camera and the Snapdragon 710

Joe Fedewa July 2, 2020

Motorola quietly revealed the One Fusion+ without an announcement last month and it later launched in India as well. The previously leaked non-Plus Motorola One Fusion model was nowhere to be seen, but today the company is making both devices (more) official in a blog post published today. As you can probably guess by the lack...

Android Auto for phones gets a better landscape UI for Google Maps

Joe Fedewa July 2, 2020

Google's strategy with the Android Auto phone interface has been confusing, to say the least. For a while, you could simply use the Android Auto app to get a head unit-like experience on your phone. That's still basically the current situation, but how we got here is complicated. The most recent update to the phone...

Pandora update adds a dark theme and offline podcasts for Plus and Premium subscribers

Joe Fedewa July 2, 2020

Last year, the Pandora app got its first major revamp in a long time. The app was looking a little outdated and the company hoped a refresh could breathe new life into the aging music streaming service. One feature that wasn't present in the redesign was a dark theme, despite many Android apps adding it...

ASUS will announce the ROG Phone 3 on July 22nd at the “ROG Game Changer” event

Joe Fedewa July 1, 2020

The ASUS ROG Phone was one of the original "gaming phones" and the company has continued to improve the series. The ROG Phone II was launched about a year ago and we've been tracking its successor as of late. Now, thanks to a countdown posted on ASUS' website, we know the ROG Phone 3 will...

The à la carte TV dream died before it ever got off the ground

Joe Fedewa July 1, 2020

Cordcutters are people who don't subscribe (literally) to the traditional forms of TV. One of the biggest reasons for "cutting the cord" (ie. canceling your cable subscription) is the bloated channel lineups and inflated costs. Many people look at a long list of channels and see a lot of stuff they'll never watch (but have...