Information Weekly
Information Weekly is our column the place we spotlight and summarize a number of the week’s high tales so you’ll be able to compensate for the newest tech information.
That is Android Central’s Information Weekly, your go-to supply for a concise roundup of the week’s most important tech tales. That is the place we delve into the highest headlines that present the newest developments and improvements contributing to the digital panorama.
This week, Qualcomm unveiled its highly effective new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip for 2025 flagship telephones, Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Particular Version, Arm is terminating its licenses with Qualcomm, Boox launches new e-readers, and Google Messages is tackling message spam.
Qualcomm is taking your subsequent Android telephone to new heights
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The Snapdragon Summit kicked off on October 24, and the corporate introduced its newest flagship chip. Dubbed the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the chip adopts Oryon cores much like its PC counterpart, which brings boosted energy and effectivity, and, most significantly, AI efficiency.
The 3nm chip presents 45% higher CPU efficiency and 40% higher GPU efficiency in comparison with the already spectacular Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. NPU efficiency can also be up by 45%, which means the chip is far more able to dealing with AI duties.
Curiously, the chip brings 44% higher effectivity although it doesn’t embody any effectivity cores, and Qualcomm defined to Android Central that the Oryon cores make it in order that they don’t seem to be mandatory.
The primary telephones with the chip are launching this month, together with the OPPO Discover X8 collection, OnePlus 13, and Xiaomi 15.
The Galaxy Z Fold SE is what the Z Fold 6 ought to’ve been
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We simply received the Galaxy Z Fold 6 in July, however Samsung is again with a model new foldable telephone, which has us scratching our heads a bit. The brand new Galaxy Z Fold Particular Version options an up to date design with bigger shows, a thinner profile, and a strong 200MP major digicam.
Different spec upgrades embody 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, all issues we want we had on the usual Galaxy Z Fold 6. That mentioned, in keeping with the official specs on the product web page, there is not S Pen help. That could possibly be a deal breaker for some, because the common Galaxy Z Fold 6 helps the S Pen, though that may nonetheless be a further value for many who need one.
And whereas the brand new telephone sounds implausible, the telephone has launched completely in Korea, and it would not seem to be it is coming to different areas. Fingers crossed that Samsung expands availability or at the least brings us a much-improved Galaxy Z Fold 7 with out the necessity for a particular version mannequin.
Arm is not too proud of Qualcomm
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Qualcomm is driving excessive on the success of the Snapdragon X Elite for PCs and the newly launched Snapdragon 8 Elite for telephones, however Arm is spoiling the celebration. The corporate, whose cores are utilized by main chip makers reminiscent of Apple, Samsung, and MediaTek, has issued a 60-day discover to finish Qualcomm’s architectural license. Why? Due to the corporate’s continued use of Arm applied sciences following its buy of Nuvia again in 2021.
Arm sued Qualcomm a 12 months later, claiming that the corporate was illegally utilizing its chip designs and structure via the Nuvia acquisition. Via the lawsuit, it has searched for Qualcomm to “destroy sure Nuvia designs” and is additional looking for an injunction in addition to honest compensation for the trademark infringement.
As for the lately introduced cancellation discover, Arm says it was “left with no alternative however to take formal motion.” In the meantime, Qualcomm is claiming that the transfer is “utterly baseless,” calling it “anticompetitive.” Android Central senior editor Jerry Hildenbrand believes the businesses will come to a last-minute settlement earlier than something drastic occurs, however he additionally factors out that Qualcomm wants Arm greater than Arm wants Qualcomm.
The brand new Boox Palma will get some good upgrades
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We’re followers of the unique Boox Palma e-reader, and now the corporate is again with a sequel, providing some welcome adjustments. The brand new Boox Palma 2 comes with a sooner processor and the Boox Tremendous Refresh know-how, which means the machine ought to really feel a lot sooner in each day use and deal with scrolling higher than another e-readers. And even higher, the machine runs Android 13, an improve from Android 11 on the earlier machine.
The e-reader retains the 16MP digicam but in addition positive factors a side-mounted fingerprint sensor so you’ll be able to securely and rapidly unlock the machine. In any other case, you get 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and entry to cons of apps through the Google Play Retailer.
The Boox Palma 2 is on the market to order now in white or black and prices $279.99. It should ship on November 12.
Along with the brand new Palma, Boox launched the $499 Word Air4 C with an improved show with higher colour and distinction whereas additionally teasing the Word Max, which encompasses a 13.3-inch, “ultra-crisp” Carta 1300 e-ink show and a keyboard “shell” that provides it a laptop-like feel and look. Boox has not revealed when the Max will probably be obtainable, however it’ll retail for $649.
Google Messages and the combat in opposition to spam
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All of us hate spam texts, and firms attempt alternative ways to sort out it. With Google Messages, Android is about to turn into lots higher at not solely detecting scams but in addition warning customers about probably dangerous/offensive messages.
To do that, the corporate is rolling out 5 new options to Google Messages, together with enhanced rip-off detection for beta customers. When the system detects scammy bundle supply or job-seeking messages, it’ll both warn the person or transfer the message into the spam inbox.
Google Messages may even give customers extra management over messages from unknown worldwide senders and warn customers about probably dangerous hyperlinks. A brand new on-device characteristic will detect and blur pictures in the event that they include nudity, much like Google Search’s SafeSearch, though that is an opt-in characteristic until the person is underneath 18 years of age (on this case, it will be opt-out).
Lastly, Google is engaged on an id verification characteristic to assist weed via spam messages of senders making an attempt to impersonate contacts or somebody chances are you’ll know. We’ll have to attend a bit longer for this, because it will not arrive till subsequent 12 months.
Extra tales this week
These are a number of the largest tales from this week. In the meantime, listed here are another tales which can be value catching up on:
