The Weekly Authority: 👋 Farewell, Fan Edition?

⚡ Welcome to The Weekly Authority, the Android Authority newsletter that breaks down the top Android and tech news from the week. The 199th edition here, with a possible farewell to Samsung’s Fan Edition, Pixel 6a unboxing, more Nothing Phone 1 news, and… a sentient AI?!

I finished The Quarry already, but still have to go back for all the different endings, plus some couch co-op. And yes, I confess, I did let Emma die…🤭

Popular news this week

Samsung:

• Samsung could be ending Fan Edition phone line — could mean no S22 FE, but it’s a shaky rumor.
• And Samsung could have a new, cheaper version of the Galaxy S21 FE on the way, could ship with downgraded processor.
• Meanwhile, Samsung once again caught cheating on benchmarks.
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 shows up in the real world way ahead of launch: less visible crease, reduced bezels, bigger battery, faster charging. Is that enough?
• And Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 reaches over 418,000 folds in marathon test.
• Samsung will fix your cracked screen for just $50 for a limited time.
• Plus, Samsung launches Samsung Wallet, a one-stop shop to manage your digital identity, essentially incorporating Samsung Pay, Samsung Pass, and Samsung SmartThings in one, though not replacing them
• And Samsung’s latest foldables finally gain eSIM support in the US.
• Speaking of, Samsung has some very lofty goals for foldables this year, turning to Chinese-made parts to help meet production goals.
• Finally: Samsung Galaxy XCover 6 Pro has a launch date, coming soon with rugged tablet tagging along.

Google:

• Here’s an unboxing video of the Pixel 6a — interesting, as it’s not out yet.
• Google Pixel Watch accessories detailed in new leak.
• A Google engineer believes Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications, or LaMDA has become sentient, and gets suspended.
• Plus, Google’s second-ever permanent store is open now.
• And Pixel 4 gets new life as face unlock cameras are used for Alzheimer’s research.

OnePlus:

• OnePlus 10/10T renders and specs leak: Closer to the Pro model, with similar design, powerful chip, faster charging?

Nothing:

• A video of the Nothing Phone 1 showed its light-up back, and that it might be a StockX exclusive, and later, Nothing and Flipkart posted an image showing the phone’s transparent back.
• Later in the week, we saw a first-look clip of the Phone 1. It glows.

Xiaomi

• Xiaomi 12 Ultra specs leak: Sounds like it won’t be a huge upgrade.

Motorola:

• The price of the Motorola Razr 3 just leaked, and it’s good news.

Poco:

• Poco’s latest smartphones break cover ahead of official launch: POCO F4, POCO X4 GT.
• And date announced for POCO F4 launch, but don’t expect a power boost over POCO F3.

Apple:

• MIT researchers uncover “unpatchable” flaw in Apple M1 chips: PAC (pointer authentication codes) seem to be the vulnerability.
• The base iPad will reportedly switch to USB-C this fall.
• And Apple has bought (all) the MLS rights for Apple TV Plus, for the next ten years, but it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, given there’s no Android Apple TV Plus app: also, the MLS won’t have geo-restrictions or local blackouts.
• Plus, Apple missing from major tech giants agreeing to new EU rules fighting disinformation.

Space:

• NASA’s plan to get Ingenuity through the Martian winter.
• Astra’s second failed launch this year resulted in the loss of two NASA weather satellites.
• And SpaceX’s Starship will be ready for first orbital flight in July, Elon Musk says.

Elsewhere:

• Amazon Prime Day 2022 dates and early deals announced: A bit earlier than expected this year.
• Last LG phone available through a major US carrier heads out to pasture.
• UK will not copy the EU’s demand for common charging cable, but likely won’t make any difference to how manufacturers will abide by the ruling.
• However, now US senators want a law to force companies to ditch proprietary chargers.
• Qualcomm’s $1,500 Snapdragon Insiders phone has missed six months of updates, and no mention of Android 12 upgrade yet.
• Meanwhile. Tesla increases prices across lineup, with Model X up as much as $6,000.
• Spotify’s acquiring AI voice platform Sonantic, used in Top Gun: Maverick, though not clear why yet.
• And Sonos accidentally sent a man a truckload of speakers worth thousands of dollars, and he wasn’t alone — but customers get to keep the items as freebies.
• Also, Amazon’s troubled drone delivery project is finally taking off in Lockeford, California, later this year.
• Adobe Photoshop’s web version might become free for all, with basic tools and core functionality.
• You can now transfer WhatsApp data from your Android phone to iPhone.
• And you can also now control who can (and can’t) see your WhatsApp profile.
• TikTok says it’s storing US data domestically amid renewed security concerns.
• Plus: The robots are coming to save the bees — Startup Beewise’s automated hives are pretty radical.

Movies/TV:

• Red Light, Green Light: Netflix misses the point and announces real-life Squid Game competition.
• And Squid Game’s season 2 teaser promises old faces and a new game.
• Jurassic World Dominion passed Top Gun: Maverick to open as last weekend’s top US film, with $143.4 million in North American ticket sales, though critics haven’t been kind.
• The creative team behind Cobra Kai’s making a Duke Nukem movie.
• And Sony’s making a Gran Turismo movie, for some reason.
• Meanwhile, Lightyear’s coming to theaters June 17, and Mashable’s got a review.
• Check out the best new streaming movies this week on Netflix, Apple TV Plus, and more.
• We can’t wait for volume two of Stranger Things season four, but when is it coming, and will there be a season 5?
• Love Studio Ghibli? Here’s where to watch all its gorgeous animated films, from Spirited Away to My Neighbor Totoro.
• Finishing up this week’s movie and TV news with a first look at Ryan Gosling as Barbie’s Ken…

Gaming:

• Last Sunday was the Xbox and Bethesda Gaming Showcase: We saw LOTS and The Verge has an excellent roundup, but highlights included Diablo IV (coming next year), an extended look at upcoming space exploration RPG Starfield (build your own ship!), gameplay for Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, and Hideo Kojima confirming his next game will come to Xbox, which his fans aren’t happy about.
• The PC Gamer showcase was also on Sunday: The Alters (from the producers of Children of Morta) was a standout, we saw Arma 4, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 got a look in — far too many games to list here but GamesHub has a good roundup.
• Tribeca Games Festival kicked off on Saturday, running until June 19, with timed playable demos of nine games including A Plague Tale: Requiem, As Dusk Falls, and Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals, but you’ll need to book tickets. (Oxenfree 2 was amazing!)
• And Steam Next Fest is underway until June 20: Here are the best VR demos, horror highlights, and Rock Paper Shotgun’s favorite demos.
• Plus, is a big Nintendo Direct coming? Rumors are circulating that it could be on June 29: we’d love updates on Breath of the Wild 2 and Metroid Prime 4, among others.
• Video games are getting a grammy: From The Washington Post, “The Recording Academy has introduced a new award for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media that will be awarded beginning in 2023.”
• The Last Of Us fans debate PS5 remake’s graphics.
• And God of War: Ragnarok’s rumored for a November release, according to three people familiar with the game’s development.
• Also: Frost Giant Studios’ Debut Mixes Starcraft With Diablo.

Reviews

• Garmin Forerunner 255 review: Running back to the top — An excellent update to a fan favorite.
• Xiaomi Mi Band 5 review: Taking the fight to Fitbit — “Even with its newer siblings snapping at its heels, the Mi Band 5 remains a solid and cheap fitness tracker.”
• Garmin Venu 2 Plus review: The first real Garmin smartwatch — “It’s not perfect, and it certainly isn’t cheap, but the Venu 2 Plus is one of the most well-rounded wearables we’ve ever used.”
• ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 (2022) Review — “It’s slim, good looking, and fast, with solid gaming and CPU performance. It’s often hot and loud, though, and you’ll certainly find more performance if you’re willing to use a thicker, heavier notebook instead” (Trusted Reviews).
• Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 Hands-on: Good Looks at the Boundary of Budget — “Initially I’d call the Surface Laptop Go 2 a good laptop if you’re looking at the higher end of the budget scale” (CNET).

Features

• Ultrawide monitors are overrated, here’s why I use a 4K TV instead: “A larger 4K display is almost as good as two ultrawide monitors mounted above each other” (Android Authority).
• Can your ISP see your browsing history? Here’s what you need to know: A quick primer on internet security and privacy (Android Authority).
• How a saxophonist tricked the KGB by encrypting secrets in music: “Using a custom encryption scheme based on musical notation, US musicians smuggled information into and out of the USSR” (Wired).
• This startup wants to pack more energy into electric vehicle batteries: “Solid Power is scaling its solid-state batteries — a technology it says could eventually beat lithium-ion on price, safety, and range” (MIT Technology Review).
• Why it’s impossible to rent a car right now: “From Avis-Budget to Hertz, traditional rental companies are struggling to restock their fleets. Now peer-to-peer upstarts are scrambling to fill the gap” (Wired).

Weekly Wonder

Following Vice‘s post a couple of months ago about the environmental impact of NFTs, and the ongoing discussion surrounding it, we found ourselves wondering about the carbon footprint of websites, and the internet, something most of us use on a daily basis.

Have you ever wondered about a website’s carbon footprint? Website Carbon shows you exactly what the environmental impact of any website is, so we thought we’d test it out on Android Authority‘s site, as well as a few other popular sites, and dive into the details.

• But first, what’s all this about websites having a carbon footprint?
• The internet uses lots of electricity, a whopping 16.2TWh per year, more than the whole of the United Kingdom.
• Gizmodo published an interesting piece about the internet being unsustainable, too.
• And a 2019 report from The Shift Project revealed that digital technologies are responsible for 4% of greenhouse gas emissions, with their energy consumption increasing by 9% a year.
• According to Website Carbon, “The average web page tested produces approximately 0.5 grams CO2 per page view. For a website with 10,000 monthly page views, that’s 60kg CO2 per year.”
• There are plenty of ways to make websites more sustainable, from SEO optimization to reducing video and keeping images as minimal as possible, or switching to a green web host.
• Simply: The more complex a website is, the more energy it takes to load, and the bigger its carbon footprint.

How did our site do?

Hurrah! Our website was cleaner than 76% of web pages tested. Not bad going.

According to the results, over a year, with 10,000 monthly page views, our site produces:

• 44.52kg of CO2 equivalent: That’s the same weight as 0.3 sumo wrestlers and as much CO2 as boiling water for 6,033 cups of tea.
• 48 billion bubbles.
• Three trees: Our site emits the amount of carbon that three trees absorb in a year.
• 103kWh of energy: Enough electricity to drive an electric car 662km.

You’ll find much more information on sustainable skateboards, e-bikes, scooters, solar panels, and more over at Green Authority.

What about some other big sites?

PC Mag took a deep dive into the worst websites for CO2 emissions annually, shown above, and it’s hardly surprising that video-heavy YouTube is the top offender.

Wired UK had a great piece last year about the impact websites are having on the planet.

• “According to figures from the HTTP Archive, websites have only become less efficient over the years: today, the average web page weighs in at around 2MB, compared with less than 500KB back in 2010.
• “A simple, stripped-back website like Low Tech Magazine produces just 0.24g of CO2 per page view; in contrast, a site with video autoplay features, such as 11 Coffee & Co, generates a hefty 10.08g of CO2 per page view. (The website for Elon and Kimbal Musk’s foundation — comprised of seven lines of text on a white background — is among the cleanest on the web, producing only 0.39kg of CO2 per year.)”

We had a quick look at some other sites and the results are pretty interesting:

• Facebook is cleaner than 90% of sites tested, producing just 0.10g of CO2 for every visit and 11.86kg of CO2 equivalent (over a year with 10,000 monthly page views).
• Perhaps shockingly (though we’re sure all those shiny images of vehicles has something to do with it) Tesla’s site was dirtier than 84% of web pages tested, producing 2.71g of CO2 for every visit and, over a year with 10,000 monthly page views, producing 324.75kg of CO2 equivalent — the same weight as 2.17 sumo wrestlers and as much CO2 as boiling water for 44,004 cups of tea. I love tea, but that’s a lot.
• Samsung and Apple both disappointed, Samsung came in as dirtier than 54% of web pages tested, producing 0.52g of CO2 per visit (62.81kg of CO2 equivalent per year), and Apple as dirtier than 50% of web pages tested, producing 0.47g of CO2 per visit or 56.76kg of CO2 equivalent per year (and neither use green hosting).

Tech Calendar

• June 13-20: Steam Next Fest
• June 20-23: Collision (Toronto)
• June 23: POCO F4 launch @ 8 AM ET
• June 26-July 3: Summer Games Done Quick
• June 28: HTCLog In To The Future launch event (Metaverse phone?)
• July 5: ASUS ROG Phone 6 launch @ 8 AM ET
• July 12: Nothing Phone 1 launch @ 4 PM BST (11 AM ET)
• July 13: Samsung Galaxy XCover 6 Pro and Galaxy Tab Active 4 Pro launch
• July 19: Stray lands on PS5, PS4, PC
• July 28: Pixel 6a launch
• August 10 (TBC): Samsung Unpacked? (new Galaxy foldables, Galaxy Watch 5 series?)

Tech Tweet of the Week

Something extra: Friday’s Daily Authority took a dive into the Google contractor suing Google for being sacked, and the “Fellowship of Friends” cult: Read more about it here (NYT gift link) or check out this episode of Cults podcast.

Until next week!

Paula Beaton, Copy Editor.