These are the best deals for Amazon Prime Day!
Samsung Galaxy S21 series, and more Discover deals are available today
M1 MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini and iMac are currently on sale
Of course, the official news today begin with deals as we’re getting closer to Prime Day. Let’s start with the new MacBooks.. And I know, sort of new. You can currently get the M1 MacBook Air for 50 dollars off on Amazon, leaving the base model for 949. If you go for the half a terabyte of storage model, that one is 100 bucks off, leaving it at 1149 but you need to grab the Gold variant. If you wanna go for the MacBook Pro, that one is 150 dollars off, leaving it at 1149 as well for the base model. Oh and by the way, Apple Care+ is now cheaper for M1 models so, that’s another way to use those savings, and trust me, out of experience.. AppleCare+ is worth every penny. Moving on to Sammy, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 is available for 100 dollars off, meaning it starts at 449. If you’re looking for some Earbuds, the AirPods Pro are 52 dollars off, leaving them at 197. We also have deals on Jabra Earbuds, Amazon Speakers and more in the links in the description.
Qualcomm: Current chips support new WearOS / Google: Not so fast!
Let’s move on to Qualcomm, Google and WearOS. There’s a very interesting twist over the news we got last month. If you remember, at Google I/O, the company announced a WearOS revamp where they are partnering with Samsung to bring major changes to WearOS but, that also left a ton of concerns for people with existing watches, and companies like Fossil painted a grim picture over support for legacy hardware. Well, on a conversation with XDA, Qualcomm mentioned that they are working with Google to bring the new WearOS at least to their 4100 and 4100+ platforms. They went as far as to mention that their previous chips are capable of running the new WearOS but here’s where things get interesting. After the news broke, Google provided a statement to 9to5Google where they reiterated that they “have not confirmed if any last generation hardware is ready for the use of the new WearOS yet”. They are claiming that the user experience will be the deciding factor as they mention that there is a ton of “technical requirements” that they have to work on to ensure everything is optimized. So yeah, on one side you have Qualcomm saying one thing, on the other we have Google shooting it down. Oh well. Just make sure you don’t buy any WearOS watch for the time being.
Galaxy Z Fold 3 is coming so Samsung discontinues Z Fold 2?
Let’s switch on to Samsung on some more official news as things start to get interesting with their foldables. Actually, I’m not even sure this can be called official, but let’s call it for now. We’ve been covering a ton of rumors lately for the Galaxy Z Fold 3, including their new partnerships for display technology, features, specs and more. Well, Samsung just discontinued the Galaxy Z Fold 2.. Sort of. See, if you go on the store to buy the Z Fold 2 it redirects customers to a notice that says, “The Galaxy Fold is no longer available for purchase on Samsung.com”. And notice it says Galaxy Fold, but then if you go to the first generation Galaxy Fold’s page, that one is still there, along with the Z Flip 5G. And listen, it could be a mistake as we know Samsung tends to have some mix ups with their websites but, it could also mean a couple of other things. As it stands, you can’t buy a Z Fold 2 right now so, this might not be a bug because it would’ve been patched by Samsung already. So they either ran out of stock, or they actually discontinued the Z Fold 2 ahead of the next Unpacked, which means this is definitely what we’re getting. What do you guys think?
Pixel 6 design hinted by another batch of alleged cases
Let’s shift gears back on to Google but this time let’s talk about the king of leaks, aka the Pixel 6. So far we’ve gotten information of the design, at least some of the specifications, its wireless charger and some case renders. Well, now we have some hands on images of other cases that were recovered from Weibo, but these ones actually provide more detail on what to expect. Apparently these belong to both variants showing off the size differences, and then we get to see how the cameras vary, along with a size comparison with a Pixel 4 XL case. They’re both pretty similar if you look close, with the regular Pixel 6 being the shortest with a 6.4-inch display, while the 6 Pro will go up to 6.7-inches. We can also see the new camera hump which is completely covered by this case, but you can see that the Pixel 6 Pro has an extra sensor when compared to its smaller sibling. Speaking of those cameras, we’re expecting a 50MP main sensor, a 12MP wide angle and then the Pro will reportedly have an extra periscopic zoom lens. Also, notice the text claiming Auto Focus ultimate experience. I wonder what that’s all about? We’re also expecting these to be powered by a custom Google SoC, at least 6 Gigs of RAM and of course, running Android 12. All leaks and even Google teasers point to us getting these some time in October on its typical schedule. Again, I just hope this isn’t another mid-ranger.
Story of the day:
Legislation could ban Apple from shipping iPhone with its own apps
New Right to Repair legislation FINALLY introduced in the House
But finally, for the hottest news today, let’s switch to Apple and some legislations that might affect the smartphone industry as a whole. And yes, it doesn’t just affect Cupertino, but let’s just say they’re the main reason this is a problem. Apple has been under a ton of scrutiny as of late, primarily for their privacy policies, but things are moving on to a different level it seems. One of the most controversial topics has been Right-To-Repair, with Apple not just being against it, but forcing you to require special tools, or gluing products shut for zero reparability.. Well, a new legislation was introduced last week in the House, that requires manufactures to provide diagnostic and repair information, provide parts, tools and other resources for third party repair shops and they have to do it in a timely manner, and on fair terms. Now, it remains to be seen whether this legislation would pass, but if it does it might affect the whole industry. Moving on to another legislation that directly affects Apple, a new report from Bloomberg mentions that this other initiative would ban Cupertino from shipping iPhones with their own apps pre-installed. Meaning, some time in the future your iPhone could come without the default Messages, Calendar, Notes and Photos Apps, sort of how the EU enforced Google to offer a different search engine while setting up your device. If this legislation passes, this would completely change the set up process on an iPhone and definitely reduces Apple’s services business. Apparently this legislation would only affect Amazon and Apple at the moment, since Kindle Fire tablets are another walled garden, but it might expand on to other companies.
Subscribe: http://bit.ly/pocketnowsub http://pocketnow.com
Follow us: http://flipboard.com/@Pocketnow http://facebook.com/pocketnow http://twitter.com/pocketnow