Samsung is using Android updates to attempt to foist unwanted apps on to customers’ smartphones. When customers perform an Android update on their Samsung smartphone – which customers must do to benefit from the latest security updates – they find a notification waiting after the operating system has been installed.
Around this time last year, Google revealed it was working on a multiyear initiative to improve privacy and remodel ad tracking on Android phones, bringing the mobile platform in line with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature for iOS. Google says the first beta for Privacy Sandbox on Android will start rolling out tomorrow to a limited number of Android 13 devices.
Airbnb lit up Android phones around the globe with a notification that reads: “Test dev.” The apparent blunder occurred early Wednesday morning, and judging by how many users are posting about it on Twitter, it seems like a lot of people received the accidental alert (via 9to5Google).
The change was announced on Twitter by Jeff Verkoeyen, engineer lead for Google Design on Apple’s platforms. I recommend reading the full thread if you’re interested, but Verkoeyen says his team “shifted the open source Material components libraries for iOS into maintenance mode” earlier this year. Material Design is Google’s in-house set of design conventions, which it introduced in 2014 in order to unify the look and feel of its apps and services across mobile devices, Chrome OS, and the web.
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