One of the drawbacks to being such a huge company with a product used by people all over the world is that sometimes it can lead to legal issues. Take for example over in India where recently Indian regulators have decided to launch an investigation into the company for alleged monopolistic practices regarding Android.

We know that Google will be launching new Pixel smartphones this year, and now according to a report from the Nikkei Asian Review, they have detailed the hardware that Google could be launching this year which includes the Pixel smartphones, a budget Pixel smartphone that we have been hearing about for a while now, a new Google Home, and the Pixel Watch.

A lot of us probably taking our hearing for granted, but for those who might have their hearing impaired, they might face a lot of challenges in day to day situations. This is why Google has since launched a new tool for Android called Live Transcribe that is aimed at empowering its users who might be hard of hearing.

Several years ago, Google’s Gmail team launched a new email platform called Inbox. The idea with Inbox was to help users achieve inbox zero, where all emails would be sorted and cleared from the main inbox, thus allowing users to focus on incoming emails that actually matter. It was also smart enough to sort emails based on its content, such as trips, purchases, and more.

Just like how Sony and Nintendo have their own online platforms and services for their consoles, so does Microsoft with its Xbox Live service. Each of these services are exclusive to their own console, but it seems that Microsoft is hoping to expand it by bringing in onto other platforms like iOS, Android, and even the Nintendo Switch.

Whenever you download a camera or photo editing app, usually it asks for permission to access your photos and camera. This makes sense and for the most part most of us wouldn’t think twice about it. Unfortunately it appears that there have been some camera apps that have been abusing these permissions and are stealing photos of users.

Early last year, a report from TechCrunch revealed that Facebook had been trying to promote its VPN client which actually tracked and gathered information about the user. The app was later removed from Apple’s App Store. However a new report from TechCrunch has revealed that Facebook is trying again, this time by paying users to install a VPN app called “Facebook Research”.

Google’s Gmail app on mobile has evolved over the years in its design, where it adopted the various design languages that Google has used in the past. Now it looks like Google is pushing out an update that will give its mobile app a brand new look with its Material Theme design language.

Fortnite has long been available for iOS and Android-powered mobile devices. It’s finally getting support for Bluetooth controllers today. The support is part of the latest patch that’s rolling out today for the popular battle royale title. Epic has been working on this feature since last year and it’s rolling it out starting today.

Due to the way smartphone platforms have been designed, it locks users in by tying their purchases to their accounts. This means that switching from iOS to Android and vice versa isn’t quite as simple or straightforward as switching shampoo brands. This is also why it’s not surprising to see that users are remaining loyal to their choice of platform.

Updates are usually something to look forward to since they bring about improvements, bug fixes, and new features to an app. However sometimes there is a chance that an update could actually end up breaking an app, or changing it in such a way that you don’t find particularly useful.

The security features of our phone, like passcodes, fingerprint, face recognition, iris scanning, and so on are designed to act as the first layer of security. This in general prevents users from accessing our mobile devices without our permission. However when the phone does get unlocked, it’s more or less open season.

One of the reasons to buy into a company’s ecosystem is that generally companies would make products and services more tightly integrated with each other. A good example would be Chrome OS which has a feature called Instant Tethering that will turn your Pixel handset into a hotspot that it can connect to if there is no other internet connection available.

Back when smartphones were still new-ish, Rovio’s Angry Birds was one of the more popular games. It was so popular that companies like Microsoft were trying to get Rovio to bring the game onto Windows Phone. These days it’s more like a fond memory of the good old days, but it looks like Rovio isn’t done milking the franchise yet.