AC Information Weekly
Information Weekly is our column the place we spotlight and summarize among the week’s prime tales so you’ll be able to atone for the newest tech information.
That is Android Central’s Information Weekly, your go-to supply for a concise roundup of the week’s most important tech tales. That is the place we delve into the highest headlines that present the newest developments and improvements contributing to the digital panorama.
This week, Oura launched its newest good ring, Google introduced new Chromebooks and ChromeOS options, Verizon handled an enormous community outage on the most inconvenient time, Android 16 could get an early launch, and Samsung reveals when One UI 7 will land.
The Oura Ring 4 reveals everybody who’s boss
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After the Oura Ring Gen 3 launched in 2021, the Finnish firm is again with the Oura Ring 4. Whereas it might not look too totally different from the Gen 3 Horizon fashion, there are many enhancements beneath that make it a worthy improve. Because of a brand new all-titanium design, upgraded sensors, and a brand new Good Sensing know-how, the Oura Ring 4 is extra correct than its predecessor.
Enhancements to computerized exercise detection permit the ring to observe coronary heart fee, too. As an alternative of the 5 workout routines you’ll be able to manually observe, this will increase the variety of actions with coronary heart fee monitoring to about 40.
There have additionally been enhancements to emphasize monitoring, menstrual monitoring, and battery life. The ring can last as long as eight days on a single cost, which is not the longest battery life we have seen on a good ring, nevertheless it’s nonetheless spectacular.
With this comes an improved app expertise, with a brand new UI and easier navagation. There’s additionally a brand new timeline characteristic that may present a glanceable view of your day, resembling your routinely tracked actions and different entries you’ll be able to manually enter. For Android customers, Oura is lastly launching its Labs expertise, which permits customers to strive new options just like the AI advisor and meal monitoring.
The Oura Ring 4 is out there for preorder and can ship on October 15. It begins at $349, relying on the colour, and is available in sizes from 4 to fifteen.
One UI 7 is coming later than anticipated
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The anticipate Android 15 continues, and it appears to be like like Samsung house owners must wait longer this time round for his or her replace to reach. This week at SDC 2024, Samsung revealed that the One UI 7 replace will arrive alongside the Galaxy S25 collection, which means we are able to anticipate it someday in early 2025.
It looks like fairly a delay in comparison with current years, with Samsung pushing main Android updates earlier than the 12 months’s finish. Android 14, for instance, began rolling out on Samsung telephones in October 2023, not lengthy after Pixel’s bought the replace.
It isn’t clear why Samsung is pushing the replace again, however the firm did exhibit One UI 7 throughout its developer convention, revealing the numerous visible adjustments coming with the replace. For instance, there will likely be a separation between the notification shade and the short settings panel, which can present up relying on which facet of the telephone you swipe down from. There are additionally some adjustments that make it simpler to make use of telephones with one hand, resembling the position of the search bar within the app drawer on the backside of the show.
However whereas now we have to attend longer for steady One UI 7, Samsung additionally revealed that the beta will likely be accessible earlier than the tip of the 12 months, which means there’ll nonetheless be an opportunity to strive it out earlier than it reaches everybody. We hope you are affected person!
Android 16 “Baklava”
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Android 15 is not even out but, however we’re already getting some details about the subsequent model of the OS. Android Authority dove into some code and revealed that Google could also be altering up the Android codename a bit by beginning again firstly of the alphabet, giving Android 16 the codename “Baklava.”
Whereas it sticks to the dessert theme, Android 15 is codenamed “Vanilla Ice Cream,” which means we might nonetheless have a number of letters left earlier than having gone by the total alphabet, kind of.
However past the brand new codename, Android Authority additionally found references to the Android 16 launch window, which can level to the replace launching in Q2 of 2025. If so, it will be a lot simpler than regular, as main Android releases normally roll out within the second half of the 12 months. Android 15 is already seemingly delayed a bit, so it will be fairly stunning if Google pushed Android 16 within the Spring, though it will coincide with Google I/O.
And given Samsung’s delayed Android 15 replace, it will imply the corporate would have some catching as much as do. For now, we’ll have to attend and see if this launch window pans out.
An Inconvenient Outage
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This week, within the wake of Hurricane Helene’s devastation, Verizon skilled an enormous outage that left many individuals with out cell service for almost a complete day. Issues began round 10 a.m. ET, with Verizon addressing the outage on its official X account hours later, stating that it was engaged on figuring out and fixing the problem.
Hours after that, Verizon stated its engineers have been making progress on restoring its community, which was ultimately absolutely restored simply after 7 p.m. that very same day.
The outage got here at a really inconvenient time, as many individuals on the East Coast have been little question counting on the community to contact emergency companies or their family members within the aftermath of the hurricane.
Happily, as Android Central’s Jerry Hildenbrand identified, there have been different choices affected customers may depend on, resembling “catastrophe roaming” and even satellite tv for pc communication on telephones that help the characteristic. Nevertheless, he careworn that these options have been extra essential than ever in occasions like this, and hopefully we’ll see extra telephones help satellite tv for pc communication.
New Chromebooks and ChromeOS options
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On Tuesday (Oct. 1), Google unveiled two new Chromebooks, together with a removable from Lenovo and a Chromebook Plus mannequin from Samsung. Android Central’s Andrew Myrick went hands-on with each.
The brand new Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 options an 11-inch show 2K show and comes with a keyboard/kickstand mixture. It is powered by a MediaTek Kompanio 838 chip, which sadly makes it ineligible for the Chromebook Plus branding however comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Nonetheless, customers ought to have loads of energy to work with, and the gadget will likely be accessible this month beginning at $349.
Samsung’s new Galaxy Chromebook Plus is a little more on the high-end facet, powered by an Intel Core 3 100U with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The gadget contains a 15.6-inch OLED and is touted because the “thinnest Chromebook Plus ever.” The laptop computer is the primary to characteristic Google’s new Fast Insert Key, which opens a drop-down menu with entry to varied instruments resembling Assist Me Write. And whereas this new key’s at present solely accessible on Samsung’s new laptop computer, others will be capable to entry the performance utilizing the Launcher Key + F shortcut.
The Galaxy Chromebook Plus will likely be accessible in October for $799.
Lastly, Google introduced a number of new options heading to ChromeOS machines, together with an on-screen “Chat with Gemini” button, a “Welcome Recap” display screen that may supply ideas on what customers ought to do primarily based on their final session, a brand new Focus mode, and extra. Acer Chromebook fashions will decide up quite a lot of new AI options, adopted by different Chromebook machines within the coming months.
These are among the largest tales from this week. In the meantime, listed below are another tales which are value catching up on: