
By Jonathan Martin and Adam Nagourney from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2CQl8Wt
via IFTTT
IFTTT is one of the most convenient ways to automate tasks at home by linking smart home devices and platforms together. The service is regularly updated with new additions and removals, and we just got our fair share of changes for the summer.
Among the additions, the most relevant ones are Tuya Smart Life, the white label maker behind a large amount of cheap lights, plugs, and switches sold Amazon and eBay, and Wink, which were both removed earlier this month but quickly made their way back.
Read MoreIFTTT resumes support for Tuya Smart Life and Wink, gains 22 other new services was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
In April, Motorola brought out the Edge+, a Verizon-exclusive $1,000 phone that broke away from the Moto Z monotony with invigorated industrial design and integrated 5G connectivity. What we kinda glossed over — with fair reason given what little detail we had then — is the fact that the company also launched a mid-range 5G phone with similar looks called the Edge in Europe. Well, that device is about to make its way stateside, unlocked, and with a couple key spec boosts to boot.
Read MoreMotorola Edge gets memory boost, $700 price tag, but still no US release date was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
I have been using Samsung phones every day for almost 4 years. It was because Samsung had fantastic hardware paired with—depending on the year—good software. 2020 is the first year in a while I’m not using a Samsung phone as my daily driver. The reason? Ads.
Ads in Samsung phones never really bothered me, at least not until the past few months. It started with the Galaxy Z Flip.
Read MoreAds are taking over Samsung's Galaxy smartphones — and it needs to stop was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
OnePlus has been teasing its next phone with various shenanigans on Instagram and now it's finally revealed the actual name. It's not the OnePlus 8 Lite or the OnePlus Z, but Nord, as had also been rumored previously. More than just a single smartphone OnePlus is referring to Nord as a new product line, so we could see a range of new trinkets with this new branding.
The new direction is in response to feedback from OnePlus fans who are no doubt unhappy with the higher prices OnePlus phones have commanded in recent years.
Read MoreOnePlus confirms Nord as the name of its next smartphone was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
It looks like Google is silently removing the option to send peer-to-peer transactions via Google Pay Send from its apps in the US. This follows the complete shutdown of the P2P service in the UK. For two of our tipsters, the option to send and receive money from friends via the Messages app has been missing for a few days, and now a Google support page has surfaced that confirms that the functionality is being stripped from the Assistant, Gmail, and Contacts, but it has returned to the latter mysteriously.
Read MoreGoogle Pay Send mysteriously returns to Contacts, but is still unavailable in Assistant, Gmail, and Messages was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Google has announced a Smart Home Virtual Summit on July 8 with a keynote, panel discussion, and various other developer sessions that would likely have been part of Google I/O last month had that event not been canceled. While it's only meant for developers building hardware and/or software that works with Google's smart home platform, we could also learn about some upcoming user-facing features, too.
The summit will be opened up with a keynote by Director of Product Management Michele Turner on the latest updates to the company's smart home API and how developers can better integrate their product with the Google Assistant's ever-growing capabilities.
Read More'Hey Google' Smart Home Summit to take place on July 8 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android's long-awaited Nearby Sharing may be just about ready. The feature, which allows you to share files between Android devices quickly, easily, and wirelessly, has been compared to Apple's AirDrop, and Google has confirmed to us that a beta test for Nearby Sharing is actively rolling out via the Play Services beta. We've also managed to snag a quick hands-on to show you how it works.
Left: "Nearby" in the share sheet on a Tweet.
Read MoreNearby Sharing — Android's AirDrop competitor — is rolling out now in beta was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Google Photos is easily one of Google's most magical and indispensable services, and now it's getting a tasteful redesign. The app is getting a simpler three-tab interface, and the map view previously spotted in testing is now official. The new changes cover not just the app, but the familiar pinwheel icon, too, which is getting a simpler (and seemingly polarizing) look. The changes, which were officially announced last week on June 25, are now rolling out to users via a server-side switch.
Read MoreBig Google Photos update rolling out with fresh three-tab design, mapping feature, and new icon (APK Download) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Spotify has been working on proper lyrics support for ages. It likely takes this long to implement the seemingly simple feature in part due to licensing issues surrounding songtexts, which already led to a lawsuit against Google. Spotify seems to have finally found a suitable solution, as TechCrunch reports that the company is planning to roll out lyrics synced with music to 26 markets today. The US, Canada, and the UK aren't among these, though.
Read MoreSpotify to launch proper lyrics in 26 markets today was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

MediaTek has just taken the wraps off two new G-series gaming chipsets: the Helio G25 and G35. These new chips fill a void at the lower end of the companies lineup, supplementing the previous G90, G85, G80, and G70. Whether you call that entry-level, budget, or "mainstream," as MediaTek does, either way it means faster gaming performance for cheaper phones.
The two new chips are both 8-core affairs with no big.LITTLE configuration, sporting eight Cortex A53 cores at two different max clock speeds — 2.3GHz for the higher-end G35 and 2GHz for the G25.
Read MoreMediaTek reveals two new gaming-focused chipsets destined for the low-end was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
The first Galaxy S20 units are already receiving the July security patch in Korea, but in the US, the slow carrier rollout of the June update continues to arrive on many people's phones. S10 and Note10 owners on Verizon and Note9 users on T-Mobile can look forward to the patch, which is only now starting to roll out to them. Along with the security enhancements, the phones are getting smaller system and performance improvements.
Read MoreVerizon Galaxy S10/Note10 and T-Mobile Note9 are receiving the June security patch was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
After years and years of experiments, Google recently killed Chrome Duet, its take on a bottom bar for its mobile browser. But the company doesn't seem to be entirely opposed to adding elements to more reachable spots, as a new test has emerged in Chrome for Android. A flag lets you add a tab strip to the bottom of the interface, similar to the experience when you use tab groups.
Read MoreGoogle is working on a bottom tab switcher strip for Chrome on Android was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
In a rather annoying move late last year, Google got rid of the Play Store notifications that showed up after your apps got automatically updated. The confusing removal process at first looked like a bug plaguing a handful of users, but Google soon clarified that it was all willful. Taking a U-turn on its initial stance, the company is bringing back those notifications in the Play Store and the associated settings, and they’ve already started appearing for some users.
Read MoreGoogle appears to be caving in and bringing back Play Store app update notifications was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Every year, around Apple WWDC time, I like taking off my Android geek and fan cap, putting it aside, and enjoying what our friends-slash-rivals from Cupertino are doing for their users. While a few years ago, I might've enjoyed discussions about which OS was superior, these days I'm mellower and more pragmatic. iOS has borrowed a lot from Android and continues to do so, and vice-versa. The two ecosystems have a mutually beneficial rivalry and keep pushing themselves further, and in doing so keep pushing each other too.
Read More18 things Apple announced for iOS 14 that we want on Android was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Windows has a built-in clipboard manager, but if Chrome OS is your platform of choice, you'll be hit harder by the lack of a native solution, as you currently have to rely on third-party extensions for clipboard history. While that works for Rita and me here at AP, many people are understandably worried about their privacy. It looks like that might soon be a thing of the past, as 9to5Google found that Google is working on a native solution, albeit one with a severe limitation.
Read MoreChrome OS could get a clipboard manager, but only for the 5 most recent items was written by the awesome team at Android Police.