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, Oura launched its latest smart ring, Google announced new Chromebooks and ChromeOS features, Verizon dealt with a massive network outage at the most inconvenient time, Android 16 may get an early release, and Samsung reveals when One UI 7 will land.
The Oura Ring 4 shows everyone who's boss
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After the Oura Ring Gen 3 launched in 2021, the Finnish company is back with the Oura Ring 4. While it may not look too different from the Gen 3 Horizon style, there are plenty of improvements underneath that make it a worthy upgrade. Thanks to a new all-titanium design, upgraded sensors, and a new Smart Sensing technology, the Oura Ring 4 is more accurate than its predecessor.
Improvements to automatic activity detection allow the ring to monitor heart rate, too. Instead of the five exercises you can manually track, this increases the number of activities with heart rate monitoring to about 40.
There have also been improvements to stress monitoring, menstrual tracking, and battery life. The ring can last up to eight days on a single charge, which isn't the longest battery life we've seen on a smart ring, but it's still impressive.
With this comes an improved app experience, with a new UI and simpler navagation. There's also a new timeline feature that will provide a glanceable view of your day, such as your automatically tracked activities and other entries you can manually input. For Android users, Oura is finally launching its Labs experience, which allows users to try new features like the AI advisor and meal tracking.
The Oura Ring 4 is available for preorder and will ship on October 15. It starts at $349, depending on the color, and comes in sizes from 4 to 15.
One UI 7 is coming later than expected
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The wait for Android 15 continues, and it looks like Samsung owners will have to wait longer this time around for their update to arrive. This week at SDC 2024, Samsung revealed that the One UI 7 update will arrive alongside the Galaxy S25 series, meaning we can expect it sometime in early 2025.
It seems like quite a delay compared to recent years, with Samsung pushing major Android updates before the year's end. Android 14, for example, started rolling out on Samsung phones in October 2023, not long after Pixel's got the update.
It's not clear why Samsung is pushing the update back, but the company did show off One UI 7 during its developer conference, revealing the many visual changes coming with the update. For example, there will be a separation between the notification shade and the quick settings panel, which will show up depending on which side of the phone you swipe down from. There are also some changes that make it easier to use phones with one hand, such as the placement of the search bar in the app drawer at the bottom of the display.
But while we have to wait longer for stable One UI 7, Samsung also revealed that the beta will be available before the end of the year, meaning there will still be a chance to try it out before it reaches everyone. We hope you're patient!
Android 16 "Baklava"
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Android 15 isn't even out yet, but we're already getting some information about the next version of the OS. Android Authority dove into some code and revealed that Google may be changing up the Android codename a bit by starting back at the beginning of the alphabet, giving Android 16 the codename "Baklava."
While it sticks to the dessert theme, Android 15 is codenamed "Vanilla Ice Cream," meaning we would still have a few letters left before having gone through the full alphabet, more or less.
But beyond the new codename, Android Authority also discovered references to the Android 16 release window, which may point to the update launching in Q2 of 2025. If this is the case, it would be much easier than normal, as major Android releases usually roll out in the second half of the year. Android 15 is already seemingly behind schedule a bit, so it would be quite surprising if Google pushed Android 16 in the Spring, although it would coincide with Google I/O.
And given Samsung's delayed Android 15 update, it would mean the company would have some catching up to do. For now, we'll have to wait and see if this release window pans out.
An Inconvenient Outage
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This week, in the wake of Hurricane Helene's devastation, Verizon experienced a massive outage that left many people without cell service for nearly an entire day. Problems started around 10 a.m. ET, with Verizon addressing the outage on its official X account hours later, stating that it was working on identifying and fixing the issue.
Hours after that, Verizon said its engineers were making progress on restoring its network, which was eventually fully restored just after 7 p.m. that same day.
The outage came at a very inconvenient time, as many people on the East Coast were no doubt relying on the network to contact emergency services or their loved ones in the aftermath of the hurricane.
Fortunately, as Android Central's Jerry Hildenbrand pointed out, there were other options affected users could rely on, such as "disaster roaming" and even satellite communication on phones that support the feature. However, he stressed that these features were more important than ever in times like this, and hopefully we'll see more phones support satellite communication.
New Chromebooks and ChromeOS features
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On Tuesday (Oct. 1), Google unveiled two new Chromebooks, including a detachable from Lenovo and a Chromebook Plus model from Samsung. Android Central's Andrew Myrick went hands-on with both.
The new Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 features an 11-inch display 2K display and comes with a keyboard/kickstand combination. It's powered by a MediaTek Kompanio 838 chip, which unfortunately makes it ineligible for the Chromebook Plus branding but comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Still, users should have plenty of power to work with, and the device will be available this month starting at $349.
Samsung's new Galaxy Chromebook Plus is a bit more on the high-end side, powered by an Intel Core 3 100U with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The device features a 15.6-inch OLED and is touted as the "thinnest Chromebook Plus ever." The laptop is the first to feature Google's new Quick Insert Key, which opens a drop-down menu with access to various tools such as Help Me Write. And while this new key is currently only available on Samsung's new laptop, others will be able to access the functionality using the Launcher Key + F shortcut.
The Galaxy Chromebook Plus will be available in October for $799.
Lastly, Google announced several new features heading to ChromeOS machines, including an on-screen "Chat with Gemini" button, a "Welcome Recap" screen that will offer suggestions on what users should do based on their last session, a new Focus mode, and more. Acer Chromebook models will pick up a number of new AI features, followed by other Chromebook machines in the coming months.
Those are some of the biggest stories from this week. Meanwhile, here are some other stories that are worth catching up on:
- The new Motorola ThinkPhone 25 is all business, comes with five years of updates
- Motorola's new Moto G phone now has 'military-grade' toughness and an IP68 rating
- Google could give its Phone app a fresh coat of Apple-inspired paint
- Google is making Gemini Nano available for all Android apps
- The OnePlus 13 display may have just been officially revealed
- Netflix and Disney Plus are on a password-sharing crackdown, and families are feeling the pinch
- Google Messages might add a special folder for annoying international texts
- Galaxy S10 phones bricked by recent update, Samsung quickly offers a fix
- OnePlus can't catch a break as more problems seem to arise in Germany
- Pixel 9a renders might shock you with the lack of this iconic design element
