The Apple Watch 7 Series launched alongside the iPhone 13 series and the new iPads. Interestingly, Apple never gave any type of availability for the Apple Watch past stating that it would arrive in “fall”, while all of the other products announced had clear pre-order dates. This might have been as a result of production issues ahead of its launch, though when it comes to Apple, we’ll never really be sure. Now, ahead of when pre-orders are expected to open, what appears to be a first real-world look at the Apple Watch 7 Series has surfaced on Facebook.
The images above were posted in a Facebook group for Apple Watch enthusiasts and were spotted by MacRumors. Previously, the only images that we have seen of the Apple Watch 7 Series have been in press renders and marketing materials. Furthermore, there hasn’t even been a confirmed date for pre-orders, though they’re expected to be very, very soon. The images above show the device with a larger (though not flat) display, along with rounded corners. The poster claimed that they work with a carrier and that they were testing the watch before it officially goes on sale “later this fall.”
The Apple Watch Series 7 promises up to 18 hours of battery life on a single charge and offers 33% faster charging through a new charging architecture and Magnetic Fast Charger USB-Type C Cable. Other highlights of this watch include GPS, Bluetooth, and dual-band Wi-Fi. The smartwatch runs watchOS 8 out of the box, which comes with a huge set of new software features. The Apple Watch Series 7 starts at $399, and it comes in a wide range of finishes. Those include five new colors for the aluminum variant, three colors for the stainless steel variant, and two titanium colorways. Finally, it’s backward compatible with older Apple Watch bands, too.
Minecraft may have come out over 10 years ago, but it’s still an incredibly popular game. Over the years, it’s gotten tons of (free!) updates, with new features, and even multiple versions of the game. But something that it’s arguably been missing is the ability to sync worlds across devices. Sure, you could set up a server, but what if you don’t have Internet? That’s where Bedrock comes in, at least for Android.
Bedrock is a simple app with a simple concept: It syncs your Minecraft worlds across devices. To do this, Bedrock makes use of your Google Drive account to upload your worlds to the cloud. Once you’re logged in, on any Android device, you can upload, download, and sync worlds with the touch of a button.
How to use Bedrock
Using Bedrock is pretty easy. Open the app and you’ll be asked to sign into your Google Drive account. Next, the app will request permission to read and write to where Minecraft worlds are stored. Once all the sign-in and permissions stuff are done, you’ll be greeted with a list of Minecraft worlds, from both your device and the cloud.
You can choose to upload a local world to the cloud, download a cloud world to your device, or delete a world from either location. There’s also a menu that lets you apply an action to all your Minecraft worlds at once.
Download Bedrock
Bedrock was released about two months ago by XDA Recognized Developer tytydraco, but it’s still a pretty new project. The UI may see some changes, and more features will probably be added as time goes on. Personally, I’d like to see some sort of autosync feature that can run on a schedule. It would also be nice to have an indicator for which version (cloud or local) is newer.
But the core functionality is there. If you have a bunch of Minecraft worlds that you want to play on different devices, Bedrock will make it a lot easier, at least for Android.
If you’re interested in giving Bedrock a try, you can download it from Google Play $0.99. If you have any feedback for the developer, be sure to visit the XDA forum thread linked below too.
The app only costs $0.99, but if you’re the kind of person who likes to try something before contributing, then keep an eye out on the comments section below. We’ll be sharing 45 promo codes for the app, courtesy of developer tytydraco. You can redeem a code from the Play Store website or from within the mobile app.
The Wine project has been around for years, allowing people to run (some) Windows applications on Linux, macOS, and BSD operating systems. It’s one of the best examples of open-source software development, but Wine can’t quite run on everything. Boxedwine, a newer project that builds upon Wine, aims to fix that — it can run on more operating systems, and even web browsers.
Wine isn’t an emulator — instead, it translates Windows API calls into POSIX-compatible calls. However, Boxedwine is an emulator. It uses an unmodified 32-bit version of Wine that runs in an emulated Linux environment. Boxedwine is written in C++ with an SDL interface, so it’s even more cross-platform than Wine. Mac and Linux are supported, same as regular Wine, but you can also run it on Windows. This could be helpful if you want to use older 16-bit Windows applications that won’t work in modern Windows, or if you just want an isolated environment that doesn’t involve setting up a Windows virtual machine. Boxedwine is also being ported to other platforms, including Haiku OS.
Boxedwine can also run inside of modern web browsers, thanks to WebAssembly and Emscripten. You can try out some demo Windows applications and games at boxedwine.org/demo, including Age of Empires (1997), AbiWord, and 3-D Ultra Pinball: Creep Night. Boxedwine is already at around 25% of the speed of the host system (according to the developer), and there’s likely a further decrease from running inside a browser, but basic applications like AbiWord are usable with Chromium on my PC with a Ryzen 5 1500 processor.
Even though Boxedwine in the browser isn’t practical enough yet for most situations, it’s still an impressive technical demo. The browser is running an entire Linux kernel, an unmodified copy of Wine, and the Windows application all on top — with no video streaming from a server involved.
AbiWord running inside Chromium 94 on a Ryzen 1500 PC
Boxedwine could become a fantastic tool for running Windows applications in the future, if performance can be improved. Since the x86 emulation is written in portable C++ code, it could be one solution to running x86 Windows applications on ARM devices, like Android tablets. Wine is already available on ARM Android, but it can only run Windows software compiled for ARM — there’s no emulation layer.
Here’s hoping the project continues to improve. If you want to give the desktop version a shot, pre-compiled Windows versions are available from the Boxedwine website.
Here at XDA, we are all huge fans of rooting, installing custom ROMs, and all other sorts of modifications. In case you don’t want to dip your toes into the aftermarket development pool but still wish to change the look of your phone, all you need to do is download and install one of the best Android launchers like the popular Lawnchair app. While Lawnchair is a great third-party launcher, the app got its last major stable update nearly two years ago, though a new team has taken reins on continued development. If you love Lawnchair but feel that it could use a few tweaks, then Omega Launcher might be worth your attention.
Created by Saul “otakuhqz” Henriquez, Omega Launcher is a completely free and open-source fork of the Lawnchair app. This means that it is based on the foundation of a very capable third-party launcher, on top of which the developer has added a number of fixes and enhancements. Besides all the familiar customization options, Omega Launcher also supports protecting apps using a security PIN or biometric authentication. You can pair the launcher with a custom Google feed provider, as well as configure the default search engine with a large number of options to choose from.
Essentially, Omega Launcher includes everything one would expect from a feature-rich launcher with a host of customization options, so you can tweak it exactly how you like it. Here’s the full list of working features available in this launcher:
Omega Launcher Feature List
Five modes of sorting apps in the drawer.
Google feed integration.
Theme support.
Customize search engine.
Gesture support
Notification configuration.
Categorize apps in the drawer.
Icon Shape support.
Quick action shortcuts (dash).
Hide and Protect apps using security PIN or biometric.
Dock search.
Drawer grid preference.
Customize app icons.
All apps icon scaling.
Dock icon scaling.
Workspace icon scaling.
Desktop grid preference.
App predictions (v8 – v9 only).
Icon pack support.
Back up and restore preferences.
Vertical Apps List.
You can grab bleeding edge nightly builds of Omega Launcher from the project’s GitHub repository. Alternatively, if you don’t want to mess around with potentially unstable builds, regular APKs can be downloaded from the release section of the GitHub repo or from IzzyOnDroid. F-Droid users can also download the current debug version by adding this repo to the F-Droid app. Developers, on the other hand, can check out the GitHub repository linked below to take a look at the codebase and learn more about this project.
Genshin Impact has had quite an eventful past few months. The biggest updates to the game dropped in the form of 2.0 and 2.1, building upon another set of exciting gameplay elements to one of the better games on Android. Genshin Impact is also celebrating its one-year anniversary, and players have been treated to fair few freebies along the way (but not without many free-to-play players criticizing the previously planned set of freebies). Anyway, it’s time for a new update, and we get v2.2 with a new character Thoma, a new location unlock in the Inazuma region, new monsters, a collaboration with Razer for global, and a teaser for an upcoming OnePlus collaboration for China.
Free Primogems from Genshin Impact 2.2 Livestream
Before we begin, here are the free primogem codes coming from this event live stream:
LBNDKG8XDTND
NB6VKHQWVANZ
BSNUJGQFUTPM
Redeem them quickly over here through your browser. You can also redeem them in-game, but browser redemption is quicker. Act quickly as these are time-limited codes and will expire soon.
New Playable Characters in Genshin Impact v2.2: Thoma
There’s only one new character in this update, but that should give people time to farm and level up the whole slew of new characters that have been releasing for the past few updates now.
Thoma is a four-star Pyro Polearm character, one that seems to be centered around a support role. He provides a strong defense and buffs, which is what you’re looking at for a support role. We’ll have to his full kit and stats to see the kind of teams he fits into, but he does look like a better-positioned unit than Xinyan.
New location in Inazuma:
Inazuma is getting its final major island to unlock in the form of Tsurumi Island, which should be completing Inazuma as a region. The highlight of this region is the dense fog in the region, as well as the new enemies that apply a corrosion effect. Tsurumi Island will also be the focus of new events, which means exploring it would be crucial to obtain event-limited rewards.
New Enemies in Genshin Impact 2.2: Rifthounds and Rifthound Whelps
Rifthounds and their Whelps are the newest enemies players will encounter when they go around exploring Tsurumi Island. These creatures focus on stealth and try to sneak an attack on the player. When an attack hits a character, all party members will be affected by the “Corrosion” status (similar to the Corrosion status in the current Spiral Abyss Floor 11), which causes all members to continually lose HP regardless of their shield status. There appear to be two element types of Rifthounds: Geo and Electro.
Event Wish Banner: Childe, followed by Hu Tao
The next character banner after the current Kokomi banner is for Childe (along with 3 other four-star characters), followed by a banner featuring Hu Tao, Thoma, and two other four-star characters.
This is the third banner for Childe, and considering it precedes Hu Tao and Thoma’s banner, there’s a good chance a lot of players skip this one and roll on Hu Tao instead. Hyper carries like Hu Tao are still the rage.
Other new game mechanics, events and changes in Genshin Impact 2.2
Aloy for all players
Aloy, the 5 star Cryo Bow user unlocked for PlayStation users in the last patch, will now be available to all players (above Adventure Rank 20) in this patch.
All you have to do is log into the game once in this patch, and she should be made available to you to build and play. Reception to Aloy has been muted so far, but we don’t say no to a freebie.
Hangout Events: Sayu and Thoma
Both Sayu and Thoma are the newest characters getting their own Hangout event.
Events: Labyrinth Warriors; Tuned to the World’s Sounds
We’re getting two events this patch. Labyrinth Warriors is a combat event centered around Childe and Xinyan, while Tuned to the World’s Sounds is a music-based event.
Serenitea Pot
The Serenitea Pot is getting a new Inazuma-themed realm layout called “Silken Courtyard” (unlocked when you reach Thunder Sakura level 40), several more Inazuma-style Furnishing Blueprints in the wild as well as through Tubby, a new furnishing type in the form of Floating Platforms which can be height adjusted, and flowers that can be earned through the time-limited “Dreams of Bloom” event.
Miscellaneous Changes
With Genshin Impact v2.2, support for the PlayStation 5 DualSense Controller has been added for the PC version.
Genshin Impact x Razer Co-Branded Products
Mihoyo has inked a new partnership with Razer to create Genshin Impact co-branded products. These include a Genshin Impact-themed Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro wireless gaming mouse, a Razer Goliathus Speed mouse mat, and a Razer Iskur X gaming chair. Not only do these products come with Paimon from Genshin Impact as their theme, they also come with bonus in-game rewards. Genshin Impact designs will also be made available on Razer Customs, an online service by Razer that offers official partner designs for a range of Razer hardware. All of these are coming soon, and no concrete date or availability was presented at this time.
There’s also a custom-tuned THX Game Profile on offer via the THX Spatial Audio app. The profile is available on PC and is compatible with all gaming headsets for GEnshin Impact.
Genshin Impact x OnePlus
In the Chinese live stream, Genshin Impact also teased a collaboration with OnePlus, coming up in November 2021.
Unfortunately, there are no English transcripts, and we can only take a wild guess what this could be. Could this be a custom phone edition like the OnePlus 8T Cyberpunk 2077 Edition, or could it just be custom cases and themes? We’ll have to wait until November to find out. Keep your hopes low of this being made available globally, as the announcement was only made in the Chinese stream and not in the Global stream, indicating a China-limited release for whatever this is.
What are your favorite bits from the announcements? Let us know in the comments below!
The launch of Android 12 and Windows 11 are on the horizon. Android 12’s launch date seems to be Monday, the 4th of October, whereas Windows 11’s launch date is Tuesday, the 5th of October. It’s a busy week for tech nerds around the world, as Android and Windows are the two most popular operating systems in the world. With those updates come a lot of changes, and I’m personally equally excited for both. If you are looking forward to one more than the other, which are you more excited about?
Android 12 will bring a massive redesign to the mobile OS, particularly with the introduction of Material You. Material You’s dynamic coloring feature lets UI elements within the app adapt to the colors of your phone’s wallpaper. For example, if your wallpaper has a large sunflower in it, dynamic coloring will create a color palette with a pastel version of yellow which the app can use instead of the simpler white or black. There are a ton of other changes too, but a fresh new look is one of the most exciting aspects of the update. Sadly, this wallpaper-based theming system won’t be available to every device, at least not with the Android 12 release.
As for Windows 11, new Windows versions are pretty rare. Windows 10 was released in July 2015 — more than six years ago. Microsoft is calling this “the next generation of Windows”, and it’s getting Android app support (but not at launch), a new Store, a big visual overhaul, and a whole lot more. However, it’s not all good news. The operating system’s stringent TPM 2.0 requirements will mean that games like VALORANT won’t run on your computer unless you have the necessary security hardware. It’s a rough one for gamers, and there’s going to be some teething issues when it releases.
With all of that said, which of these two OSes are you more excited about? Android 12 is shaping up to be a fantastic update, and the same can be said of Windows 11 too. Let us know in the comments!
As I play a lot of esports titles such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and VALORANT, I’m looking forward a whole lot more to Android 12 rather than Windows 11. I’m worried about the implications of upgrading to Windows 11 when it comes to gaming, so I’ll be waiting to see what happens to other people who upgrade before me.
If there’s one thing that the recent release of the iPhone 13 series highlighted for me, it’s that yearly phone upgrades are slowing down. Gone are the days of major year-on-year innovation — instead, each year in smartphones is more or less a pledge to stability with one or two smaller changes or improvements. The iPhone 12 vs the iPhone 13? The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra vs the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra? There’s barely a difference when compared to their predecessors, and it can be argued that we’ve reached a point where these iterative upgrades add lesser and lesser value to the overall experience of a smartphone.
This could literally be any one among the hundreds of smartphones released in the past 3 years
We often see the stagnation in smartphone development drawn attention to whenever public discussion sways towards calling smartphones “boring”. “Smartphones aren’t getting boring” I hear you cry, and the proliferation of foldable smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 are obviously evidence of that. However, “smartphones” as an industry has matured leaps and bounds over what it once was many years ago, and that’s good for consumers.
The death of Moore’s Law
Technology across the board has been in an interesting spot in recent years, not just mobile technology. “Moore’s Law” observes that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years, while the cost is halved. Moore’s Law was posited in the 1960s by Gordon Moore, a former CEO of Intel. In the 1960s, the technological landscape was obviously very, very different from what we have in the current day, and such exponential growth can’t be sustained forever.
Meaningful improvements are harder and harder to come by
Moore’s Law set the groundwork for regular, year-on-year innovation that gave an entire industry something to strive for. Even if we can’t necessarily fulfill Moore’s Law nowadays, its spirit lives on, and yearly release cycles are partially a result of that. Companies are scrambling for meaningful improvements and changes, and yet the diminishing value of iterative improvements has meant that those meaningful improvements are harder and harder to come by.
The Google Pixel 6 Pro is an example of meaningful improvement
The Pixel 6 Pro is an example of meaningful improvements and the applicability of Moore’s Law, and there’s a simple reason why. It’s the biggest smartphone release from Google in years, with some massive improvements over last year’s Pixel 5, and the Pixel 4, and the Pixel 3. An upgraded camera, an all-new design, a custom chipset, and more that we don’t even know about yet is what really makes this exciting. It makes it the first Pixel in several years to be really, truly pumped up about. A good part of that is on Google and the stagnation on Pixels, but it also highlights our main point — smartphones are getting boring.
To be clear, the Pixel 6 Pro is not necessarily a product of Moore’s Law, but there are a huge number of changes when the Pixel 6 Pro is compared to the Pixel 5. Every facet of the phone is changed or different from last year’s Pixel 5, and that is why it’s so exciting. It’s not a minor upgrade with a newer chip and a slightly upgraded camera — it’s an entirely new thing. Google is going all-in on a flagship, and that gets our smartphone-nerd hearts racing because of how different it is from the previous year’s glass slab.
In fact, if we delve into the history of the Pixel series, there’s never really been a massive iterative improvement from one model to the next. The original Pixel’s upgrade to the Pixel 2 didn’t bring a whole lot of changes. The Pixel 2 introduced a matte coating, that year’s flagship Qualcomm chipset, a pair of front-facing speakers, optical image stabilization, and the Pixel Visual Core. It also brought the IMX362, a step below the IMX363 which was introduced with the Pixel 3 and has been used as the primary sensor on every Pixel smartphone up until the Pixel 5. Let that sink in for a moment.
It seems every time Google improved something in a Pixel smartphone, something else was compromised
When it comes to the Pixel 3, that didn’t see much by way of improvement either. Aside from its shrunk bezels and larger display, it was more of the same. The Pixel 4 changed things up a small bit, though there were numerous display issues with the 90Hz panel that was used. Other than a high-refresh-rate display, the only other real improvement in the Pixel 4 was Soli support for face unlock, though the company then dropped the fingerprint sensor. It seems every time Google improved something in a Pixel smartphone, something else was compromised.
In that respect, we can see how the Pixel line differs from most ordinary flagships. Most flagships don’t benefit from a massive year-on-year improvement, as companies have figured out a formula that works. Why would Samsung radically change the premise of the S series, when the company knows that the incremental improvements that they make are what the vast majority of consumers want? There’s no need for groundbreaking, expensive innovation when the same formula every year is all that needs to be slightly improved upon.
However, the Pixel 6 is different, as it seems to be a culmination of pretty much every feature that Google has tested, removed, or in some way or another not quite perfected. The history of the Pixel series is why consumers are so hyped up about the Pixel 6 series, and is indirect proof of the stagnation that we’ve seen coming to the smartphone market for years. It’s not that the Pixel 6 series by itself is groundbreaking (though its worth keeping an eye out for the Google Tensor chip) — it’s that the predecessors were just plain and boring enough.
What does the future hold?
It’s hard to argue that the glass slab smartphone hasn’t peaked. The same formula every year is all that needs to be improved upon, and there’s no need for expensive innovation in the same form factor. The next step in smartphones is rethinking something better than just a glass slab, and that successor seems to come in the form of foldables. Devices like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 are exciting because they represent something entirely new. Samsung is even using the Fold series as a playground of sorts, as the Z Fold 3 incorporates the company’s first under-display camera, too.
Foldables are likely far away from the mainstream still, though, and as smartphones become consistent, the conversation turns around to software. We’re seeing smartphone makers start to focus on the longevity of software support, with companies like Samsung and Xiaomi offering extended support periods. Even Google is looking to support the Pixel 6 series for at least five years, putting it in the same league as the iPhone. Software updates can change a smartphone experience entirely, and they might convince consumers to stick around on otherwise outdated devices. That’s great news for people who look at phones as just tools of utility — use it till it breaks, and then buy a new one.
Furthermore, when smartphones are updated for longer, their resale value goes up. That’s because they’re still seen as “active” and supported, and that’s partially why iPhones can retain their value for years. Obviously, there’s also an element of the ability to switch to any other Android brand (whereas iPhones are the only place to get the iOS experience), but the point still stands that software updates definitely help.
In fact, the recently-released Fairphone 4 might capitalize on this, as it promises software updates until the end of 2025. The company also hopes to be able to release major updates as far as Android 15, with software support lasting until 2027. It’s a tall order that no order smartphone manufacturer has managed before, but there’s a reason why sustainability is important. Companies want to keep customers coming back so that when they upgrade in the future, they go back to the company that supported them the longest.
Why are boring smartphones good?
Nowadays, buying a smartphone is no longer such a long, drawn-out ordeal as it once was. I remember watching hours and hours of reviews before making a smartphone purchase years ago. Before committing to my Nexus 5 or my OnePlus 3, I wanted to make sure that I was making the right decision, that it did everything I needed, especially as the Android market was, back then, pretty messy.
In fact, pretty much any flagship phone is going to be good enough for anyone. Heck, even most mid-range smartphones are going to be good enough for most people. No longer are there any super weird quirks, you know what you’re getting and it’s going to largely do the job. Whatever the latest Samsung Galaxy S series smartphone is is likely the best for the majority of users, but if you’re on a budget, then you might look towards another brand like Xiaomi. Most consumers know what they’re looking for, and it makes it much easier to decide on a purchase when upgrading.
There’s a lot to be said for boring smartphones if it makes life easier. Innovation is fun, but innovation leads to products that aren’t good enough for everyone. The ZTE Axon 30 series is a prime example of that — the Axon 30 is a fantastic device in its own right, and innovation is good and healthy, but most consumers shouldn’t buy it if they care about selfie quality. These problems don’t happen when phones are stagnant, and boring means that each and every year’s improvements are predictable.
For enthusiasts, the stagnation of smartphones is a sad truth, but for the average consumer, it’s very much a good thing. The glass slab has pretty much peaked, and foldables are the new playground for companies to test out new hardware. Go enjoy your glass slab for four years now, without any regrets.
