The Weekly Authority: 🖐️ Pixel Fold hands-on video

⚡ Welcome to The Weekly Authority, the Android Authority newsletter that breaks down the top Android and tech news from the week. The 242nd edition here with a hands-on Pixel Fold video, a peek at Pixel 7a colorways, a first look at the Galaxy Z Fold 5, The Witcher Season 3 trailer, PS Plus Essential games for May (hope you like racing), and much more…

🎭 I saw Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane at the theater last weekend and was blown away. If you get a chance to see it on tour, I highly recommend it. This weekend’s bringing less high-brow activities for me as it’s time to see Scream VI and 65.

Popular news this week

Apple:

Microsoft:

Social media:

Twitter reinstates Blue verification mark for top accounts — even if they didn’t pay for it, even for deceased celebrities.
Plus: Twitter restricts its search to registered users while Musk suggests Fleets are coming back.
And TikTok may have generative AI avatars soon, letting you upload up to 10 photos of yourself and choose from five different styles.
Also: Mark Zuckerberg says Meta wants to ‘introduce AI agents to billions of people.’

Space:

Hitting the books: We’d likely have to liquidate Jupiter to build a Dyson Sphere around the Sun.
Astronomers snap first-ever direct image of a black hole blasting out a powerful jet.
And Japan’s ispace confirms that Hakuto-R failed its lunar landing, likely “made a hard landing on the moon’s surface.”

AI:

Is AI dangerous? Here’s what Musk, Pichai, and AI experts think.
Google gives Bard the ability to generate and debug code: It can write in 20 programming languages, plus provide explanations for code snippets.
Microsoft’s AI will now help you design your Instagram posts in seconds.
Plus, NVIDIA open sources universal ‘guardrails’ to keep those dumb AIs in line: “NeMo” is supposed to work with GPT-4 to help chatbots stay on topic and prevent it from providing misinformation or toxic or racist responses, plus stop it creating malicious code.
Also: Palantir shows off an AI that can go to war.
And the UK will spend £100 million to develop its own ‘sovereign’ AI to make the country ‘globally competitive.’

Elsewhere:

The Poco F5 is officially coming, will pack a beastly processor.
The Lenovo ThinkPhone is much, much cheaper than expected, which is good news.
And Nokia XR21 leaks in full: The next rugged Nokia phone is coming soon.
Meanwhile, Sony could have really set a better launch date for the Xperia 1 V.
All Amazon Halo devices will stop working later this year, refunds to come.
You can now use WhatsApp on up to five smartphones at once, if that’s what you want.
Scientists may have figured out how to regenerate lost hearing.
Plus, scientists taught pet parrots to video call each other — and the birds loved it.

Movies/TV

Check out our pick of the week’s best streaming movies, like Scream VI and Hulu original horror film Clock.
Or dive into the week’s best streaming shows, from Hulu’s psychological thriller Saint X to Sweet Tooth Season 2.
How to cast to your Fire TV Stick from your iPhone or Android device.
Steven Spielberg shared his reaction after seeing Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny, and he’s full of praise, saying, “Everybody loved the movie. It’s really, really a good Indiana Jones film. I’m really proud of what Jim has done with it.”
We saw the first trailer for Pedro Almodóvar’s Western short Strange Way Of Life with Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke.
And we’ve got some good news for Black Mirror fans: Season 6 is coming to Netflix in June, plus we saw a new teaser.
Plus some good news for Cavill fans: The Witcher Season 3 trailer confirms two-volume release this summer, with the first part streaming June 29 and the second part on July 27.
We also saw a Season 2 teaser for And Just Like That, confirming a June premier and Aidan’s return.

Gaming:

Qualcomm’s new upscaling tech will boost Android games to 4K 60FPS, should launch later this year.
Meanwhile, the ASUS ROG Ally is sounding like a Steam Deck on steroids, and a May 11 launch date confirmed, plus price leaks.
Furious Microsoft boss says confidence in UK ‘severely shaken’ as company’s Activision deal blocked by regulator — but almost immediately inks another cloud gaming deal with NWare.
Here’s everything you need to know about NVIDIA Reflex, from what it is to what supports it and how you can enable it on your PC.
Want to move your Steam games to another drive? Here’s how to do that.
Boo: You can’t share Xbox clips directly to Twitter anymore.
PS Plus Essential games for May announced: GRID Legends, Chivalry 2, and Descenders.
Meanwhile, Nintendo confirms return to Gamescom this year, the first time it’s shown up at the show since 2019.
Plus, Diablo 4 PC system requirements confirmed, and you’d better brace yourself if you want to play in 4K — you’ll need a whopping 32GB of RAM.
And we saw a first proper trailer for Flashback 2, plus a confirmed November release date.

Reviews

Samsung Galaxy A54 5G review: Who needs a Galaxy S23 FE? “You get an awful lot of flagship polish for a very mid-range price.”
OnePlus Pad review: Can the flagship killer beat the iPad? “OnePlus didn’t hurry its first tablet, but if you want a fuss-free Android slate, it’ll have been worth the wait.”
Google Pixel 7a vs Samsung Galaxy A54 5G: “Is the Pixel 7a worth waiting for, or should you grab the Galaxy A54 5G now?”
Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 review: Tiny, mighty, and affordable — “These comfortable earbuds are best for Samsung, but still great for all Android users.”
Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) review: The best earbuds for iPhone — “The AirPods Pro feature modest improvements over their predecessors, but Android users should still avoid them.”
Mophie 3-in-1 Travel Charger with MagSafe review: Places to go, tech to pack — “Never leave home without it, or at least not on an overnight trip.”

Features

The Pixel 8 deserves a more powerful processor, and it might be coming (Android Authority).
Gimmicks are dead — just make a good phone: “Buyers aren’t interested in all the fancy tricks OEMs come up with. They just want a phone that excels at the basics” (Android Authority).
I installed Windows on my iPad so you don’t have to — “It’s an exercise in frustration and requires a lot of patience. But the bigger question remains: Is it worth it?” (Android Authority).
After years of searching, I have the answer to the flat vs curved display debate (Android Authority).
NSA cybersecurity director says ‘Buckle up’ for generative AI: “The security issues raised by ChatGPT and similar tech are just beginning to emerge, but Rob Joyce says it’s time to prepare for what comes next” (Wired).
Tech billionaires bet on fusion as holy grail for business: Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are among titans chasing almost Iimitless energy source ($, WSJ).
What young workers miss without the ‘power of proximity’ — One of the first major studies on remote work shows a hidden penalty of flexibility: less supervision ($, The New York Times).

Weekly Wonder

This week the first satellite call using a normal phone was made, making history.

The call was made from Texas to Japan by AT&T and AST SpaceMobile, by a Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Though satellite phones aren’t new, they are massively bulky, and cramming all the tech they contain into a normal phone hasn’t been possible yet.
But the Galaxy S23’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 already supports satellite communication, you might be thinking. That’s true, but Samsung hasn’t done anything with it yet, and the system works like Garmin’s InReach products, using the Iridium Satellite network. It can’t be used for phone calls, only text messages.

Making history

This first satellite call was made, as we already mentioned, from a Galaxy S22 Ultra in Texas to a Bluewalker 3 satellite, before coming back down to another smartphone in Japan.

With AT&T as the middleman, the phones didn’t need to be modified in any way for the call to work.
This test proved that connecting anyone, anywhere in the world — even in areas without cellular tower infrastructure — is possible, even without changes to current smartphones.
It’s great news for developing nations or anyone living in a rural area, and could change cellular connectivity for remote locations in the future.

Tech Calendar

May 5: Hogwarts Legacy lands on PS4 and Xbox
May 9: HUAWEI Mate X3 and P60 series Europe launch
May 10: Google I/O 2023
May 11: Sony Xperia 1 V launch
May 11 @ 10 AM ET: ASUS ROG Ally release date
June 1 (TBC): Motorola’s two Razr foldables launch?
June 5: Apple WWDC (Reality One or Reality Pro mixed-reality headset?)
June 8: Summer Game Fest
June 11: Xbox Games Showcase
June 12: Ubisoft event

Tech Tweet of the Week

Something extra: Need some weekend viewing inspiration? Check out this movie suggestions site (h/t: The Hustle).

Have a great week!

Paula Beaton, Copy Editor.