👻 Hello, and welcome back to Tuesday’s Daily Authority! The sun’s shining, spring is on its way, and I’m headed off on a candlelit tour of a 17th-century haunted house later this week. Wish me luck!

In today’s Daily we’ve got hands-on Pixel 7a photos, Nothing Ear 2 specs and renders, bacteria named after Keanu Reeves (yes, really), and more…

Beating Google to the punch

The Pixel 7a hasn’t yet been officially announced, but we’ve already seen specs leak — and now a leaker has got their hands on the budget device to show off a series of hands-on photos.

• Vietnam’s Zing News discovered a Pixel 7a test unit (meant for developers) had fallen into the hands of a leaker.
• The impressive snapshots let us see the device from every angle.
• From a specs leak, we already know the phone’s expected to pack a 64MP main camera from Sony, with a 6.1-inch 90Hz OLED display, powered by the Tensor G2 chip with LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1.
• And we’re excited for its launch, which will likely happen at Google I/O 2023 on May 10, though we’re not sure Google will be able to surprise us much when it comes to the Pixel 7a.
• This is far from the first time Google devices have leaked prior to launch.
• Back in April 2022, someone found a Pixel Watch prototype just lying around in a restaurant and leaked it.
• It’s not the first time we’ve seen leaked Pixel 7a photos either, as a leaker in Vietnam shared images and videos earlier this year, though they’re not a patch on what we’ve seen today.

Roundup

👀 Pixel March feature drop brings Health Connect, faster Night Sight and more (Android Authority).

🔐 The March 2023 security update has also landed for Pixel phones, Pixel Watch (Android Authority).

🎶 Nothing Ear 2 specs and renders leak ahead of announcement (Android Authority).

📅 New OnePlus Nord could launch next month, but it’s not what you think (Android Authority).

🐝I don’t beelieve it: Bees learn to dance and to solve puzzles from their peers (Ars Technica).

📱 CoverScreen OS turns the Oppo Find N2 Flip’s cover display into a mini phone (Android Authority).

⌚ Samsung could bring back your favorite feature to the Galaxy Watch 6 Pro (Android Authority).

🎮 Dead Island 2 is looking refreshingly bloody and unpretentious (Rock Paper Shotgun).

😢 ASUS Zenfone 10 may lose the flagship’s best feature according to new leak (Android Authority).

💰 Samsung’s mid-range heroes are landing on March 16 (Android Authority).

🍄 Finally: A Super Mario mushroom that’s eluded players for 27 years has been grabbed by one interpid gamer (Kotaku).

Tuesday thing

Dude! Scientists just named a bacterial compound after Keanu Reeves himself (h/t Morning Brew/The New York Times).

• The compounds, which kill fungi by forming holes in their surface so they bleed to death (nice), was named after the actor’s character John Wick.
• These compounds apparently reminded scientists of how deadly Wick is at dealing with bad guys in the movies.
• So what have they been named? “Keanumycins.”

Be excellent to each other!

Paula Beaton, Copy Editor.