Tech
Apple Watch Might Work With Samsung Galaxy Phones
Apple has been facing allegations regarding monopolizing smartphone markets for a few days, which are not baseless.
In the counterclaim, there was strong evidence the agency showed against Apple that the Cupertino-based tech giant is a monopoly. The Apple Watch is the focal point of the evidence since it is already known that the Apple Watch is only compatible with the Apple device, and this agency said that “Apple’s smartwatch—the Apple Watch—is only compatible with the iPhone. So, if Apple can steer a user towards buying an Apple Watch, it becomes more costly for that user to purchase a different kind of smartphone because doing so requires the user to abandon their costly Apple Watch and purchase a new, Android-compatible smartwatch.”
Apple took a stand for itself and backfired on the DOJ’s accusation by revealing that once it thought about making the Apple Watch compatible with Android devices and spent almost three years trying to bring the Apple Watch to Android, however, that didn’t work as the report says. The reason for abandoning this idea was due to certain technical limitations.
If the technical limitation hadn’t come across, then at least Samsung Galaxy users would have been able to use the Apple Watch with their Galaxy phones, which would surely take users’ experience to the next level since the Apple Watch features better fitness tracking facilities for enhancing the users’ health monitoring experience as compared to other smartwatches such as the Galaxy Watch or Wear OS smartwatches.
Unfortunately, the idea didn’t come true, but the fact is, there is still a chance that Apple could make the Apple Watch compatible with Android since the lawsuit could force it to. If this comes true, then the people will not be required to make costly investments.
Google’s Android ecosystem is always reliable for users, whether it comes to customization or availability, but it sometimes lacks in the security department. However, the company is improving in this department, and over the years, it has been dedicatedly working towards it. Now a new report also specifies the improvement.
Google has recently published a post where it shared details about the encounter with the application that hasn’t followed the terms and conditions of the Play Store.
According to the report, Google has detected 2.28 million apps that have violated the rules, and therefore, the developers are not able to publish them on the Play Store. This is all possible due to the company’s continuous effort, which developed the mechanism.
Along with this, there are almost 200000 applications detected that did not follow the rules and did not guarantee the correct use of sensitive permissions, and there are more than 330000 accounts that were banned for violations that were severe and repeated or the presence of malware in published apps.
In a recent report, the company also mentioned that there are almost 1.5 million old applications that lack the support of the recent APIs, and therefore they are not available for users who are using the latest version of Android. Additionally, Google Play Protect and real-time app scanning have allowed the Mountain View giant to identify over 5 million dangerous applications that are downloaded unofficially. For more information, you can read the full official post via this link.
Google and Samsung are coming together as their partnership goes beyond Android. On one side, Pixel smartphone devices use Samsung-manufactured Tensor chips; on the other hand, Smsung’s flagship Galaxy smartphones have AI features, like Circle to Search, noticeably before even the Pixel 8 series got this novelty.
In the report it is being unveiled, Rick Osteroh, SVP of platforms and devices at Google, stated that the brand’s “partnership has never been stronger.” A post on X shared by @rosterloh pointed to a positive meeting between TM Roh and @SamsungMobile leadership. It highlights a strong partnership between both and excitement about future collaborations, particularly in the area of AI.
Following the statement, he also attached a selfie with TM Roh, president and head of MX Business at Samsung Electronics.
Then, @SamsungMobile reposted Osterloh’s post and teased that both brands are actively working on expanding the functionalities of AI features for Android and Galaxy devices to enhance Galaxy experiences.
Google has already announced at the last Galaxy Unpacked event, back in January in San Jose, that the Samsung Galaxy S24 series will use Gemini AI models to power the forthcoming AI capabilities in the applications and services built by the Korean giant. The brand also brought new functionalities for Google Messages and Android Auto, powered by Gemini Nano.
For enhancing the summarizing facility, Samsung’s Smarter Notes, Voice Recorder, and Keyboard applications use the AI model Gemini Pro, whereas the Galaxy S24 series smartphones use Imagen 2 text-to-image technology to offer “Generative Edit” features in the Gallery application for upgrading photo editing.
Finally, Qualcomm has debuted its new ARM-based processor, the Snapdragon X Plus, designed for laptops. We anticipate Samsung to incorporate this chipset into its upcoming laptops.
However, this new chipset appears a bit below the company’s high-end laptop chipset, the Snapdragon X Elite, which was unveiled a few months ago and is expected to be used in Samsung’s forthcoming Galaxy Book 4 Edge.
The Snapdragon X Plus is a 4nm chip with a 10-core CPU. The Snapdragon X Elite and this newly launched chipset use the same Oryon CPU cores. This chipset is expected to be used in more affordable laptops running on the Windows OS. The CPU of this chipset operates at 3.4GHz, while the Snapdragon X Elite clocks at 3.8GHz.
Snapdragon X Plus’ integrated Adreno GPU has 3.8 TFLOPS of power, which could be equivalent to the Intel Core Ultra 7 series. The noticeable thing that remained constant in this new chipset is its NPU, which still offers 45 TOPS performance for on-device AI inference, similar to the Snapdragon X Elite.
This qualifies the chip as an AI chip, according to Microsoft Copilot’s minimum requirement of 40 TOPS. The brand has assured that the Snapdragon X Plus delivers 10% faster CPU performance than Apple’s M3 chipset while running at the same power. On the other hand, the Snapdragon chip claims to be 37% faster at the same wattage as the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H. This chip is expected to appear in laptops and will debut in the second half of this year.
Previously, Samsung has used Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line and mid-range Snapdragon chipset in its ARM laptops, and the giant has already unveiled that the forthcoming Galaxy Book 4 Edge will use the Snapdragon X Elite. Given this fact, it is quite possible that the brand could launch a more affordable Galaxy Book 4 series laptop with the Snapdragon X Plus.