It is being reported that Samsung's own Chung Seung-eun recently visited ASML HQ in order to sign a $178.41 million deal with the company. The lithography machines Samsung is buying, which they already have one of, will enable the company to produce smaller semiconductors for their next-generation chips. The deal isn't over yet, as Samsung plans to purchase more from ASML when the yield rate improves.
Yesterday, we learned that the previously unavailable Galaxy Note 7 can be purchased from AT&T again, and now two other major US wireless carriers have it back in stock. So if you have a faulty unit that you purchased from either sprint or Verizon Wireless, then you can take it to them and have it swapped out instantly for a safe one.
Lenovo has launched the Z2 Plus, which is a rebranded ZUK Z2, in India at very competitive prices, making it the cheapest Snapdragon 820 available for purchase in the Indian market. The 3GB RAM + 32GB storage variants is priced at ₹17,999 ($269), while the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant is still competitively priced at ₹19,999 ($299).
The amount of Android accessories that are available are endless. In a sea of crappy cheap garbage it can be almost impossible to know if what you order is going to be decent or not. In the Android Crap series on XDA TV we do reviews on some of the most strange or interesting accessories we can find. In this video we are looking at at Muvi X-Lapse panorama device that works much like a kitchen timer.
The only complaint I have with this device is with the grip that you slide your smartphone in. While the head is turning, there is a good chance that your phone will slip out of place, ruining your shot. This can be fixed by replacing the grip with another more sturdy mount for your smartphone.
When the X-Lapse works, it works great. Check out this video taken with a Nexus 6P and X-Lapse.
Get a Muvi X-Lapse for yourself using our affiliate link:
I remember back in 2013 when Google unveiled Hangouts, it was a breath of fresh air. Finally, a true cross-platform integrated messaging program to compete with iMessage and BBM. Finally, an easy way to integrate SMS, Google Voice, and all the bonus features that come with instant messaging into one app, which would sync across all my devices and seamlessly transition between SMS and data when necessary. Unfortunately, that wasn't quite the case, and Allo appears to be the final nail in that coffin.
No, Hangouts didn't allow you to send texts through your phone from your computer, but it did eventually allow you to send texts through Google Voice from your computer (and at the time we were promised that there had been a renewed effort to bring Google Voice to other countries). It was cross-platform, was semi-smart about what method you use to reply to people, it had a single thread for any conversation with anyone, and at least it synced your Hangouts messages across devices (if not your texts as well). It wasn't perfect, but it was a solid start.
"All-in-one apps are not the future."
Unfortunately, there's been a shift inside of Google. The push for a unified messenger has ended, and instead we're seeing a fragmentation of platforms (actual fragmentation, not the buzzword that we often see thrown around).
Merged conversations are gone from Hangouts. Users are being recommended to switch their SMS usage over to Google's Messenger. Google is launching a second instant messaging app in the form of Allo (which can kind of send SMS to certain numbers) and a second video conferencing app in the form of Duo, while keeping Hangouts alive, and they are currently isolated from each other despite being advertised in unison. Google has been silent on Google Voice for a while. Oh, and they're also pushing for a replacement for SMS called RCS/Joyn/Jibe, which is expected to do enhanced calls, texts, and video chatting straight through the carriers, and is expected to need its own app as well. That'd be five communication platforms where we were supposed to have one (six if you count the phone app, seven if you count the Hangouts Dialer).
Five apps that not everyone will be signed into. Five apps that not everyone will have installed. Five apps that you'll have trouble finding your friends on. Five apps that you aren't going to be able to convince your friends to join or adopt (not this time at least).
The inconvenience of having multiple apps in and of itself is problematic as well. Switching between apps on the homescreen is easy, but it doesn't help you with figuring out, and later remembering, which platform your friend/colleague/teammate/crush/etc. is on, and it definitely doesn't help you keep everything you said to them in line (especially if you talk to someone on multiple platforms). Having to switch from chatroom to chatroom is also less convenient if your contacts are spread around multiple applications, rather than one "back" press away. Speaking of your chat history, it still shocks me that Google is having so much trouble with the search function on their messaging apps, but I digress.
This isn't just an issue with the current implementation that will eventually be fixed, this is a mentality issue. The project lead for Allo is outright arguing that because Facebook has Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, and Instagram, that having more apps is better.
Google seems to not understand just how important achieving that critical mass is for anything social
He's arguing that Facebook won't merge their messaging platforms, even though the only reason they're currently separate is because Facebook bought Whatsapp (rather than creating multiple platforms), and the writing is on the wall for the eventual merger of user bases, with Whatsapp announcing last month that they will begin sharing user data with Facebook, with intention to "coordinate more with Facebook in the months ahead".
Facebook might be doing exactly what Allo's project lead thinks the market doesn't want. They're likely doing what Allo's project lead thinks that they won't do. They're doing what the market is seemingly asking, and making it easier to reach people by consolidating. They're trying to become the universally accepted standard, and Facebook seems to be succeeding at it with their proprietary service (rather than an open standard like RCS/Joyn/Jibe). They have a critical mass of users, and then some. They realize that people want to go to the messaging platform that their friends are on, and that is easy to use, something that Google seems to be missing.
Even worse, the project lead knows it, and didn't act to prevent it. They went ahead with launching on the last day of summer to hit their "Summer 2016" release date (which breeds mistrust in release dates, but that's a whole other topic), and is trying to assuage people's' concerns about the issues with promises of frequent improvements, like Chrome.
If the initial experience is less than stellar (or just terrible) in such a competitive market, people will forget about it and uninstall it, and likely not give it a second chance later on when it improves. There are too many powerful, widely-adopted alternatives to fall back onto anyway.
Google seems to not understand just how important achieving that critical mass is for anything social (whether it be a messaging app, or a social network), and it's destroying their attempts at creating something that they have shown hints of having the potential to do extremely well.
Evan Blass took to Twitter to give us a render of an upcoming HTC device, the HTC Bolt. The HTC Bolt will reportedly come as a Sprint exclusive, and looks similar to the existing HTC 10. The major point of difference, tweeted by LlabTooFeR and retweeted back by Evan, is that the device is not likely to sport a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Deducing release dates scribbled on paper, googling when Summer ends down to the minute, watching Play Store listings looking for any movement… If you have been around the forums or Reddit you probably took part in one of those activities or saw someone who did.
Expectations were high, Google finally seemed to have a pulse on what may work for a chat client. Strong SMS support? Google has some really strong acquisitions in RCS, the next evolution of SMS. Easy syncing between devices and device types? Google is a leader in making your content easily available on almost any platform you happen to be on. Google has made such strong strides in terms of their software and targeting the general consumer market, it was not a far stretch to hope that some of this would have extended into this totally new chat client. Instead Allo, as it ships today, is a mere echo of what so many of us hoped it would be and more than that, what it needed to be…
……….
Oh, were you expecting another especially good point? So were many others. But unfortunately the Google Assistant is the ONLY solid, exclusive element of Allo as it stands today, and so many negative elements all but totally cloud out that benefit. So let's start with the beginning.
Unlike many other chat clients Allo is only available for iOS and Android. There is no web client and there are no tablet applications either. This puts Allo into a particularly tricky situation. Allo has all of the drawbacks of a single device SMS client AND the drawbacks of an IM client that does not handle SMS.
Google even went a few steps further by including an almost totally useless SMS feature that allows you to send SMS from it, however, it isn't an SMS client… Confused? Your recipients will be too since it sends from a random unknown 5-digit number.
But it still gets worse.
With many IM clients you are able to use it on multiple devices with syncing. It's one of the primary benefits of IM compared to SMS, unless you are called iMessage and own all Apple devices. However, Google – a leader in allowing your content to be available everywhere – failed to add any sort of multiple device support. "Ok, well that can be worked around I'll just login and logout of other devices".. Except Google managed to break that too. Instances of Allo are new and separate, even with the same phone number. It does not use your number or Google account to sync anything, even the basics like your name and profile picture and let's not get started in that ALL YOUR CONVERSATIONS ARE LOST when you switch devices.
and here is the annoying part about that…
The Google Assistant – the only positive element of the whole application – was said to use your conversations transiently and not stored to help improve its service when it was announced. Except now, it stores all conversations indefinitely (a move which they will almost certainly backpedal on due to backlash). So ignoring the privacy element of this, seriously every tech site has an article about it today, let's go back to what I stated above about syncing. Did you make the connection yet? Google stores your conversations indefinitely, HOWEVER, you as the user are not able to have that data sync between devices or instances…. Let that sink in.
I am not going to elaborate much more on all of the reasons that make me believe you should not consider Allo for anything more than to play with Assistant. But here are a few tidbits:
When it all comes down to it Allo is just another application on the Play Store that has a really nifty parlor trick. Google Assistant will make you smile, it will make you impressed, but Allo will disappoint. "Bot conversations" are nice, quick, but currently not worth the trouble. There is little doubt that these interactions, similar to Siri or Alexa, will make it to the standard Google application for your enjoyment at some point. Unless you must have it right now, there is no need to use Allo today. This really sucks because I was very excited about it, I was one of the many who thought Allo would be Google's best foot forward. Now I don't even have it installed anymore, I didn't bother setting my wife up with it, and we went back to Facebook Messenger, an all-in-one fully featured chat client.
Stumbling out of the gate is something many products do and they can rebound, but I'd say Allo fell flat on its face. No doubt, Google will make this product better and will probably fix a lot of these issues. But the chat client race is high stakes right now, there is little to no reason to leave your preferred chat client today, especially after convincing several friends and family members to join your favorite solution. Over the past 12 months most have become really good, integrated into other services making entry easier, offering chat and video chat within the same application, and some are secure.
There simply is no reason you should stop using WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, SMS or even… Hangouts. Google missed the mark, failed to leverage its strengths, and delivered an entirely disappointing chat client… it's almost like the last 4 months have been spent figuring out the icon.
