News Weekly is our column, where we highlight and summarize some of the week's top stories so you can catch up on the latest tech news.
This is Android Central's News Weekly, your go-to source for a concise roundup of the week's most significant tech stories. This is where we delve into the top headlines that provide the latest developments and innovations contributing to the digital landscape.
This week, AT&T suffered a massive data leak, Pixel released its April update on its devices, Spotify was set to increase its subscription, Google made fact-checking reliable, and Galaxy S23 struggled with a unique issue.
AT&T suffers massive data breach
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Unfortunately, this wasn't an April Fool's prank
Over 70 million AT&T customers woke up to a massive data breach on Monday, April 1. The company reported in a blog post that over 7.6 million current customers and 65.4 million former customers' data were floating around on the dark web due to the leak.
AT&T said that the leaked data included full names, email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, birthdates, AT&T account numbers, and passcodes. For the active customers impacted, the company has reset their security passcodes.
The data was posted on the dark web two weeks ago, and the company stated that it seems to be from 2019 or earlier.
If you're concerned about your personal information, Android Central's Jerry Hildenbrand has some advice for dealing with data breaches.
Pixel devices got a fresh patch of updates
Read more on the watch and phone update.
Earlier this week, Google rolled out a slew of updates to its phones and watches. The new TWD9.240405.001 firmware has begun rolling out and will likely reach all Pixel Watch owners over the next week.
This update "includes new features, numerous bug fixes, and performance updates for Pixel Watch users." Something new that watch users can look out for is the vibration feature, and as the name suggests, users will notice the current time play in haptics whenever a user chooses to use gestures on the watch face.
Additionally, it also got improvements in auto brightness functionality, allowing "users to perceive the difference when switching levels easily." Another feature to look out for is the new progress bar for app downloads/ updates done via Google Play Store, which isn't officially included, but it was spotted by some Pixel watch users recently.
Meanwhile, Pixel phone users also get their own set of updates at the same time. The update includes 28 general security patches for Android and another 25 that are exclusively for Pixel devices.
You can check if your Pixel phone has the April 2024 update by navigating to Settings > System > Software update.
Spotify could get expensive
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Spotify subscribers might be in for a pinch of another couple of dollars, according to a new report that was released this week. The Bloomberg report claims that the music streaming service might be raising the price for its 'basic' plan by a dollar and its duo plan by $2 in certain markets worldwide. This means that subscribers in the UK, Australia, and Pakistan will see these increases take effect by the end of April. The U.S. is also expected to see this price hike later this year. Spotify is also looking into adding more subscription plans for consumers to drive revenue.
Speculations around Spotify working on a new "basic" tier with music and podcasts, and without audiobooks, have also been making the rounds. This plan may cost $11, the same as the premium plan for a solo user.
A new "Supremium" plan was briefly mentioned in the report that allows users to stream HiFi audio for a steeper price.
Galaxy S23 users are having a tough time with One UI 6.1
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Samsung's new One UI 6.1 update for the Galaxy S23 series was meant to be a game changer, giving older phones access to the magic of Galaxy AI. However, things didn't go as planned for folks with the S23 series. Many faced charging issues, fingerprint scanner glitches, touchscreen woes, and biometric sensor issues.
Users took to Reddit to report problems with the biometrics (fingerprint), stating that their "fingerprint sensor randomly doesn't register my input" when attempting to unlock their device.
The touchscreen issue was seen on specific models like the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23 Plus, and Galaxy S23 Ultra. For some, the screen is completely unresponsive, while others can only use it with the S Pen. According to a post on Samsung Korea's support forums, they said that the Google Discover feature might be responsible for the touchscreen performance issues on affected devices.
However, there's no need to fret, as the touchscreen issues may have a temporary fix: delete any data associated with the Google app and update it to the latest version. But for now, it's best if S23 users might want to steer clear of the One UI 6.1 update if it can be helped.
Google makes fact checking easier
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With AI-manipulated images doing the rounds these days on social media, it's tough to gauge the truth from, well, clickbait. However, Google may have made cross-checking this a bit easier.
April 2 is seen as International Fact-Checking Day, and Google is expanding the reach of some of its most useful tools in Google Search for verifying facts, images, and sources. In addition, Google announced that its Fact Check Explorer is exiting beta and will be available to all.
Two familiar Google search features, About this image and About this page, are now available in 40 more languages globally. When it comes to About this image, when you open an image's detail menu in Search and tap the About this image option, you'll be able to learn more about an image and where it came from.
Specifically, Google says that About this image can list the following types of information about an image in Search: the history of an image, how the image is used and described by other sites, and the metadata associated with an image. This could reveal whether an image was AI-generated or came from an untrustworthy source.
Similarly, About this page and About this result will display more information about a website before you decide to click on a Google Search result. This could reveal whether the site is trustworthy, if it is believed to be biased in some way, and who owns it.
Those are some of the biggest stories from this week. Meanwhile, here are some other stories that are worth catching up on:
- Google officially shutters Google Podcasts in the US
- The Galaxy Z Fold 6 may skip a long-overdue battery upgrade in 2024
- Android 15 might automatically lock your phone when you're not paying attention
- NVIDIA's Shield TV Pro is still the best streaming device in 2024
- Ten years later, OnePlus is still trying to find its footing in the US
- Meta just employed its latest tactic to keep little kids off VR
- Fitbit now lets users integrate their Health Connect stats into its app
- Google teases the launch of its Find My Device network for Android
- Motorola brings new mid-range Edge 50 Pro 125W fast charge support
