☕ Good morning! Happy Valentine’s Day Boxing Day …if anyone celebrates that?

Stream Android apps?

A good discovery by 9to5Google paints an interesting picture: via the latest Android 13 release, it looks like Google Pixel phones can stream Android apps to PC, Mac, or Chromebook, be it running Windows or not.

The details:

• The first Android 13 Developer Preview release last week, and released only for Pixel phones, has a new feature via apps for cross-device streaming.
• Each app seems to be dedicated to connecting Pixels to other devices.
• From what 9to5Google suggests, including screenshots and videos showing the feature, the apps allow a Pixel phone to stream to a special web app, via a kind of virtual screen, rather than a mirror.
• That’s a little bit handy because you can tinker with an app on your phone and/or on your computer without one interrupting the other. Not bad.
• And from what we can see, apps can be interacted with as if they were natively open on the desktop.

What it all means:

• It seems like we’re at the point now where platforms are deciding they want to be more open, as the usefulness of smartphones keeps going up and the likelihood that you own some kind of computer as well is very high.
• The closer interaction without limitations seems like a natural path, though ecosystem limitations, aka walled gardens, remain present: I don’t fully expect Apple to offer iOS apps on Windows via this kind of cross-device app any time soon.
• The short-term question is if Google will sell this as a Pixel-only feature, or if it’s coming to Android 13.

Roundup

🤷‍♂️ The Samsung display controversy from yesterday was downplayed by Samsung in an official statement saying the hardware hasn’t changed, but it makes software adjustments to the refresh rate (Android Authority). Reading between the lines of that statement, I still don’t understand why Samsung “later opted to update how we communicate this specification.” It’s either accurate, or it’s not.

📸 After OnePlus went first, co-brand Oppo’s Find X phones will now get the Hasselblad treatment, too (Android Authority).

🔜 Samsung Galaxy A23 renders leak, showing a familiar design, but that might not be a bad thing (Android Authority).

🎁 Some official OnePlus Nord CE 2 images and specs revealed ahead of Thursday launch, and it’ll have a headphone jack too (Android Authority).

🤔 Motorola and Verizon made a chonky 5G neckband for AR/VR to save on headset weight (Android Authority).

📺 Some good YouTube vids: my colleague Joe Hindy’s full Android 13 DP 1 breakdown, and some others: Why China is getting interesting new smartphone tech before other regions, and the crazy computations inside your smartphone cameras, which is long but a good overview (YouTube).

👉 New report details how Apple forced Facebook to pivot its advertising tech (Recode).

🍎 Apple Support app for iPhone and iPad adds new ‘price estimates’ feature for service fees for fixing damage etc, and more (9to5Mac).

🍏 For a fourth week, Apple is fined by the Netherlands: regulator says Apple is being unreasonable making developers submit a different version of their apps just for the Netherlands (MacRumors).

💰 Intel to acquire contract chipmaker Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion, meaning more direct competition for TSMC (VentureBeat).

🤑 Cryptocurrency’s big Super Bowl ads sold FOMO, not the future (The Verge).

😎 Something from me as EVs rapidly become dominant: What impact will ubiquitous EVs have on the grid, our cities, countries, and solar? (PV Magazine).

📈 France, which has 56 nuclear power plants, announced it is adding 14 more, in a change from previous plans related to both local and world politics, and carbon emissions (Ars Technica).

🌎 I meant to link to Worldle yesterday (world, not word!): it’s good simple fun where you guess a country and your guess is rated based on distance, but today’s country wasn’t easy for me! Of all the Wordle off-shoot ideas, this one I keep coming back to (worldle.teuteuf.fr).

💩 Wastewater sampling already tracks Covid. What else can it find? (Wired).

🚀 Billionaire who flew to orbit with SpaceX buys three new missions to space (The Verge).

👁 “How do eyelash microorganisms get to a newborn baby?” (r/askscience).

Chart Tuesday

Well, this sure was frightening to look at this morning:

• There’s a lot of discussion, information, thoughts, counter-thoughts and chat on the thread at r/dataisbeautiful, including people horrified that emissions doubled or tripled since they were born.

Ominously,

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.