Your weekly look at the world of smartphones and mobile technology, this is the Phone Buzz on Friday 7th May 2021.

This Week’s Top Story

• With the opening remarks this week (9to5Mac), the legal case of Epic Games vs Apple over the App Store, its policies, and the impact on Fortnite and Epic has begun. No doubt there’s going to be lots of little reveals of the business side of app development that will feed headlines for weeks, if not months. The broad arguments played out in plug are now in Court.
• Nick Statt has laid out the high level details and how the two sides see the battle. For Apple this is about Epic using this case against one of the smaller Fortune player bases “to [try and] disrupt the entire iOS ecosystem for financial gain”; while Epic seems this as going far beyond Fortnite and is “an existential fight for the future for media, computing and software distribution” (Protocol).
• Although not specifically called out as progressive web apps (PWAs), Apple has been leaning heavily into the idea of web apps being a functional equivalent to native iOS apps; but web apps don’t need to go through the App Store. Dieter Bohn goes into detail on why Apple’s approach to web apps falls a long way short of the support offered by Google and Microsoft (The Verge).

Apple Headlines

• A foldable iPhone. Really. The hardware used by many Android manufacturers that demonstrates the technical prowess in ultra high-end smartphones has long been a favourite ’surely that’s next’ for Apple’s iPhone line. Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports that its definitely coming in 2023 (MacRumors). I’m not so sure (Forbes).
• Also in Kuo’s report is a new iPad Mini with an updated form factor. The suggestion is a 9-inch display and a design that follows the iPad Air with smaller bezels and a TouchID sensor mounted on the side of the chassis rather than below the screen (9to5Mac).
• Last year saw Apple effectively choose 5G for the iPhone 12 over the faster refreshing screen technology. This year? Well 5G is already there so the expectation is for the 120Hz display to arrive. With reports that Apple will be using LTPO based OLED panels – the technology required for faster refreshing – the expectation is looking like reality (The Elec).
• The recently launched Purple iPhone 12 looks to be the first Apple product with the new randomised serial number. Previously the serial number pattern would help identify the manufacturing location, date of manufacture, and the SKU. Presumably Apple will hold this data, but the obfuscation will add another layer of difficulty for third-arty repair centres (MacRumors).
• One week after Apple rolled out iOS 14.5 which handed more control to users over their own data, and reducing the effectiveness of traditional advertising from companies such as Facebook, Apple has added increased available ad inventory in the App Store for developers to purchase (BBC News).
• Apple decided to remove as many ports from its laptops as possible, to suit the demands of the users. And the users saw fit to build up the market for dongles and creating a profitable peripheral based economy. Dain Evans looks at the rise of the dongle (CNBC).
• Have you lost your Mac Pro? Does it keep rolling away in the office? Never fear, Apple has the answer (Forbes).
• Speaking of AirTags, the team at iFixit have performed their customary teardown and discovered something relatively unique in a piece of Apple hardware… you can change the battery (iFixit).

Android Headlines

• The Galaxy S20 Fan Edition was a surprise hit for Samsung last year. The ’six months later’ update to the Galaxy S20 family was great value for money while offering a similar feature set. There’s more information around a Galaxy S21 Fan Edition this week, with colours and renders all showing up. On top of that, a mid- to late-August release date is being discussed. That date ties in with Samsung’s traditional August launch event (Notebook Check).
• Further down the line is next year’s Galaxy S22 family, with the eyes of the geekerati on the S22 Ultra. Noted Twitter tipster Ice Universe has details on the potential camera upgrade; an improved perisocpe arrangements offering constant zoom which should offer magnification between x3 and x10 (SamMobile).
• Is Xiaomi getting ready to launch some high-end tablets? Tucked inside the code of it’s mobile operating system Mi UI are references to three new Android powered devices. Coupled with the option to configure the tablet desktop in an alpha version of the Mi UI home/launcher app, the signs point to yes (XDA Developers).
• Samsung is one of the few Android manufactures to have significant tablet presence. This week saw leaked press renders of the next tablet, the Tab S7+ Lite (SamMobile).
• Following their announcement last month, HMD Global has released the Nokia X20 and the Nokia G10 in the UK. Available for purchase direct through nokia.com, the Android One powered handsets are priced at £320 for the Nokia X20 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and £110 for the Nokia G10 with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Right now these are the only memory/storage variants available (Nokia Power User).
• As well as the Nokia X20 handset, HMD Global has launched its MVNO in the UK – the first smartphone manufacturer to do so. Running over the EE network, pricing starts at £15/month for 10GB of data, plus unlimited calls and texts. There are discounts available as the service launches, and you can sign up for the network while buying a handset for further discounts (USwitch).
• One month after its launch, Ryne Hager returns to his OnePlus 9 Pro review. The updates in the OS are noted, as are the areas not yet updated; improved battery life; and continuing issues with consistency results from the camera (Android Police).
• Qualcomm has confirmed a security flow in its Mobile Station Modem. The company released a patch to its customers in December 2020, and manufactures have been rolling out fixes as part of their Android updates (Ars Technica).
• Building on discussions in April, Google’s own ‘Whitechapel’ processor has been tied to the upcoming Pixel 6. Google Engineers working on the Android Open Source Project shared a web page which highlights both the project name and a model number that matches the naming scheme of Mountain View’s own line of smartphones (Pocket Lint).
• In another slip, the next version of Google’s Pixel Buds will be known as ‘Pixel Buds A’ . The buds are expected to target the lower end of the market. If only Google had a big event in the next few weeks it could use to launch them… (Android Police).
• Google’s I/O developer event starts in the next few weeks, so you might want to check out the schedule of the events to see if any catch your eye (Google I/O Website).

Mobile Tech Headlines

• Twitter has purchased Scroll, a beloved but small service to make reading news easier. The service did strip out advertising from websites, but in exchange part of the monthly subscription was passed back to the original website. It’s more likely Twitter has purchased the service because of its ‘daily emails of top stories’ sent to users; that matches with the rush of email-based subscription services from the Silicon Valley megacorps (The Verge).
• Facebook’s Workplace service for enterprise customers has passed the seven million subscriber mark. It still has some way to go to challenge other workplace social networks, with Microsoft Teams reporting 145 million daily users (CNBC).
• IBM has announced the creation of a 2nm node chip. Thanks to 3D transistor design, the 2nm here is actually representing “the equivalent of a 2D design”, and is a better guide to density rather than physical size (Anandtech).

And Finally…

• The team at Signal, a privacy focussed messaging client, submitted a number of adverts for Instagram to not only promote Signal, but also demonstrate the data being captured by the Facebook owned social network. The user data targeted was displayed in the ad – one example suggests “You got this ad because you’re a teacher, but more importantly you are a Leo (and single). This ad uses your location to see you’re in Moscow. You like to support sketch comedy, and this ad thinks you do drag” as the displayed text. Innovative, informative, and educational. And according to Signal, Facebook disabled their Ad Account (Signal Blog).

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.