Your weekly look at the world of smartphones and mobile technology, this is the Phone Buzz on Friday 21st May 2021.

• Following the highly visible success of the Apple Store, and the less well-remember Microsoft Store and Nokia Store, Google is preparing to open its own retail space. Google has worked on stores before, but of the pop-up variety rather than permanent options. The first ‘fixed’ store is expected to launch in New York’s Chelsea district, in the same complex as Google’s NY offices (TechCrunch).

Apple Headlines

• This week’s discussion over the iPhone 13 is not about new features leaking out of the supply chain, but the thirst for a concept render of the handset. Which is pink. While it might seem a bit out there, not only have we seen pink in the line-up previously with the iPhone 5C, but there’s a newfound love of colours in Apple’s newer releases, especially the iMac, Maybe the geekerati are right to dream of pink (Cnet).
• Apple has announced a number of updates to its devices that will increase the accessibility of the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch (Apple Newsroom). Improvements are being made to Assistive Touch, VoiceOver, Hearing Aid support, and background noise filters.. (The Verge).
• Reports of a two-month delay to the new iPad Pro are coming in. The global chip shortage has hit the mini-LED supply chain so the cutting edge tablet (even though Apple doesn’t call it a tablet) with the M1 chip is going to be tough to find in retail stores (Notebook Check).
• Naturally, there are enough iPad Pro units for reviewers. John Gruber goes through a quick history lesson of the iPad, x86 architecture, Apple’s Axx processors, and finally to the M1 tablet in his review (Daring Fireball).
• Can you have such a thing as a portable desktop? That’s Devindra Hardawar’s question as he reviews the new Apple Silicon powered iMac (Engadget).
• Jack Nicas, Raymond Zhong and Daisuke Wakabayashi have examined Apple’s relationship with Chine in a hard hitting report for the NYT. In their words, “Apple built the world’s most valuable business on top of China. Now it has to answer to the Chinese government.”(New York Times).
• Japan is seeing a rapid explosion of 5G device sales – much like other territories- and the iPhone 12 family is getting a lot of credit thanks to a near fifty percent market share ahead of Sharp, Samsung, Fujitsu, and Sony (iMore).
• Apple Music is adding new audio codes to the service that will offer both lossless audio and spatial audio to the service. This will be available to all subscribers at no extra cost, starting in June 2021 (Apple Newsroom).
• …although to get the full benefit you are going to need suitable hardware, and that excludes every one of Apple’s current audio products, even the $549 AirPods Max (Tech Radar).
• Apple TV+ has green-lit a ten-part series called ‘Wool’, based on Hugh Howey’s dystopian book series where the world;d population lives in huge underground bunkers because of Earth’s toxic surface (MacRumors).
• The team behind the popular professional camera app for the iPhone, Halide, have brought the comprehensive app over the the iPad. It may be for a small subset of users, but it’s a powerful choice for the group (Lux).

Android Headlines

• Samsung has scored a quiet victory over Apple. The latest Consumer Satisfaction Index survey puts Samsung ahead of Apple as a whole (81 vs 80), and there are six Galaxy handsets (including the mid-range A20) ahead of the chasing pack of iPhones (Apple Insider).
• There’s going to be a new limited edition Galaxy S21 for the Olympics. NTT Docomo has announced the S21 Olympic Games Edition, based on the S21 5G model, as part of its New 2021 Collection. Assuming there is an Olympics… (SamMobile).
• Samsung Display debuted a number of new screen technologies earlier this year for folding phones, sliding phones, and rolling phones. With a new trademark applied for, it looks like the latter could become a new super-smartphone design… the Samsung Z Roll (Let’s Go Digital).
• This week was Google’s big developer event/ I/O. Many of the updates announced were software based – such as the addition of 150,000 km of cycle paths in Google Maps, new password tools in Google Chrome, and new privacy controls based around the data used by your apps.  Jason Cipriani  rounds up the announcements (ZDnet).
• Probably the key event at I/O was the launch of the Android 12 beta. Ron Amadeo has taken a closer look at the proposed operating system, noting the new Material You design ethos, new tools to allow developers to match their app to the selected Android theme, and improved power efficiency for longer battery standby times (Ars Technica).
• Xiaomi’s Mi11 family has a number of smartphones in it, covering a wide range of price points. The team at GSM Arena have reviewed the Mi11X Pro, which is is in the upper band of the mid-range, taking on the flagships at a lower price point. It’s very much a winner in its key market of India, but it’s middle of the pack in Europe (GSM Arena).
• Sony has announced its latest Xperia handset. The Xperia X10 III runs the SnapDragon 690, backed up by 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. Pricing not he handset is 429 Euros (XDA Developers).
• Qualcomm has announced a new SnapDragon processor that is going to feature in a lot of ‘flagship killer’ level handsets next year. It comes with the integrated X53 5G modem, and a number of manufacturers are signed up, including Oppo, RealMe, Honor, and Xiaomi (Thurrot).

Mobile Tech Headlines

• Microsoft’s Windows 10 on ARM may have an emulation layer for 32-bit x86 apps (with 64-bit support in testing) but ARM64 builds can leverage the extra potential of these systems. So it’s a welcome to one of the biggest apps outside of the office… World of Warcraft’s ARM build is here (Blizzard Forum).

And Finally…

• This week’s “just one thing” from the Epic Games vs Apple trial is Craig Federighi’s discussion on “significant” and “unacceptable” levels of malware on macOS. It’s a curious line, suggesting that because this product line has issues, another product line can lock itself down (Cnet).

Ewan Spence

Ewan is the editor at Phone Buzz News. For over 30 years he has been covering the worlds of media and technology, from the early days of the first smartphone through to their essential role in today's society.