The Weekly Authority: 📱 A lot of fuss about nothing

Welcome to The weekly authoritythe android authority newsletter with the best Android and tech news of the week. The 203rd edition here, with the launch of Nothing Phone 1, Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold 5 rumored, the PS Plus lineup from July, World Emoji Day and more…

🧊 The craziest deal I saw on Prime Day this year was a $500 ice cream maker (that’s after the discount). Does anyone really need that much ice? Needless to say, not added to cart!

Popular news this week

Nothing:

• Nothing Phone 1 was officially launched on Tuesday: A mid-range affair with 6.55-inch 120Hz Full HD + OLED display, 4,500 mAh battery, dual 50 MP cameras and 8/12 GB RAM powered by the Snapdragon 778G Plus, plus 15W Qi wireless charging . The “Glyph” LEDs on the back can blink when you get a call, pulse when you get a notification, and other functions, which is pretty cool. Prices start at £399 (8GB/128GB), but the phone isn’t coming to the US (more in our full review, below).

google:

Samsung:

OnePlus:

Apple:

Room:

Elsewhere:

• Who needs a Nothing phone when you can? turn your existing phone into one?
• It is official: The Asus Zenfone 9 arrives on July 28th.
• Qualcomm says it is Next Snapdragon chip for Wear OS smartwatches coming ‘soon’‘.
• Montblanc Summit 3 has arrived: See what Wear OS 3 looks like on a non-Samsung watch.
• And some of us still don’t have Windows 11, but this is when windows 12 could land because Microsoft could return to the release schedules of years gone by.
• This one hands-on with LG’s roll-up phone was doomed before it started.
• You can store and charge your wireless earbuds in the latest phone from Nokia – a pretty cool idea.
• According to Bloomberg, 5% of US new car sales in the past six months have been all-electric vehicles. Could this be the tipping point where mainstream demand overtakes early adoption?
• Watch out here unfixed, untraceable hack that can unlock and start your Honda from a distance.
• In the meantime, “Uber Files” Reveal Dark Things: More than 124,000 emails, messages and texts leaked by ex-Uber exec Mark MacGann reveal questionable behavior among execs.
• Now anyone can get themselves out of Twitter threadsgreat if you are in the middle of an unwanted conversation.
• It’s World Emoji Day on July 17 and the official Emojipedia has released its concept designs for the new 2022 emojis. arranged by Gizmodo (more on that in the Weekly Wonder).
• Something I loved this week: The website Literature Clock finds a quote from the literature stating the exact time. It’s not exactly convenient? But interesting and strange nonetheless.
• More than robot chef cooks all dishes in this Tokyo restaurant.
• Finally: Hidden artwork revealed by X-Ray appears to be Van Gogh’s self-portraitexperts say.

Movies/TV:

• The Last of U TV series finally gets a release window: appears to be early 2023.
• And a little exciting news for Black Mirror fans: We haven’t had a new episode since 2019, but season 6 is on its way, with Aaron Paul, Kate Mara and Josh Hartnett all on board, among other household names – hopefully next year.
• Severance, Squid Game, Stranger Things, and Yellowjackets drive Emmy nominations, with Squid Game making history as the first-ever non-English Emmy nominee – Gizmodo has a great roundup of all nominations.
• There are reviews for Thor: Love and Thunder, and they aren’t particularly great – mashable says, “Chris Hemsworth is back, but that’s where the good news ends,” while the… NOW is generally more positive, calling it “A God’s comic twilight.”
• In the meantime, Chromecast with Google TV gets a new update after 7 monthsbut it’s not what we’ve been waiting for.
• And YouTube TV leads the live streaming market with over 5 million subscribers, it is now the largest Internet TV company in the US.
• Another trailer has been dropped for the dark comedy Bodies Bodies Bodiesand the murderous Millenial weekend getaway looks like a lot of fun, in select theaters on August 5, everywhere on August 12.
• And we saw the first long trailer for Rob Zombie’s new film adaptation of the creepy ’60s TV comedy The Munsters.
• The first trailer for horror prequel Orphan: First Kill has also landed and looking pretty spooky, hitting theaters on August 19 and also streaming on Paramount Plus in the US.
• The live-action Resident Evil series has landed on Netflix, and our AA colleague Fred Blichert has some thoughts.
• Plus: Now that the sixth and final season of Peaky Blinders is over, here are: 9 Crime Shows To Watch on Netflix.

Gaming:

• Sony unveiled its inaugural game catalog for new PlayStation Plusavailable to Extra and Premium subscribers starting July 19, including Stray, which debuts on launch day, FF VII Remake Intergrade, Marvel’s Avengers, two Saints Row titles, and five Assassin’s Creed games.
• And Sony Announces PlayStation Stars Loyalty Program for PS5, PS4 fans, with rewards including PS Store wallet funds and games, launching later this year.
• And a new Walking Dead project debuts on Facebook – The Walking Dead: Last Mile has a month-long story shaped by players’ decisions and actions, so everyone has an influence on what happens next, and time moves forward with each real day.
• In the meantime, Aliens is getting a single player action horror game: Developer Survios has teamed up with 20th Century Fox for the title, currently referred to as “Aliens”, although we don’t know much beyond that it’s being made in Unreal Engine 5 for PC, unnamed consoles, and VR.
• GoldenEye 007 remaster is still in limbo because of the war in Ukraine: Some rumors from reputable sources claim that the game is complete and ready for formal announcement and launch, while Microsoft has yet to confirm its existence.
• And The sunset of Rockstar Red Dead Online: The multiplayer component of Red Dead Redemption 2 will no longer receive major content updates as developers focus on Grand Theft Auto 6.
• Speaking of Red Dead Online, players gathered online for the game’s funeral on Wednesday, a day-long affair attended by actor Roger Clark, the voice of RDR 2’s Arthur Morgan.
• Meanwhile, long-awaited exclusive Bayonetta 3 finally arrives on Switch October 28.
• And Skate 4 is officially called skatewill be free to play with cross-play and cross-progression, but there is no release date yet.
• Looking for Switch games to play with friends? Here are the best multiplayer switch games around.
• Plus: as the temperature rises, Nintendo issues Switch heat wave warning — don’t use your Switch above 35 degrees Celsius (isn’t that summer for many of us?)

Reviews

This week is World Emoji Day (July 17), and we’ve already seen it Emojipedia’s Concept Designs for the New Emojis of 2022, which to be honest we weren’t too impressed with (not sure when to use a goose emoji?). So it seemed like a good time to dive into all the emoji-related stuff — because it turns out those little icons we know and love haven’t been around that long.

It’s no coincidence that July 17 is the date for World Emoji Day. Not only is it the date shown on the calendar emoji, but it is also the date iCal for Mac was announced at MacWorld Expo in 2002.

• The word emoji is actually a mix of two Japanese words: e (image, “image”) + moji (character, “character”).
• We can trace the roots of today’s emojis back to chat rooms of the 90s.
• Back then, emojis were a bit more primitive, so you probably would have used 🙂 to smile at someone or 😉 to respond in a flirty or sarcastic way.
• The Japanese designer Shigetaka Kurita is seen as the founder of today’s emojis.
• In 1999, NTT DOCOMO, a Japanese mobile company, released the first-ever emoji library: 176 emojis designed for pagers and mobile phones.
• Kurita used a mix of illustrations, icons, Japanese graphic novels, and the Zapf Dingbats font to create the emoji library.
• You can see it on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The Emoji Evolution

Did you know that there are over 3,600 emojis in use today?

• More than 900 million are used on Facebook Messenger every day.
• One in five tweets contains an Emoji.
• And 50% of Instagram comments contain emojis.
• Face with tears of joy (😂) was the the world’s most popular emoji from when Emojipedia’s records started (2011) to March 2021, when Loudly Crying Face (😭) took the top spot for 10 months – quite understandable considering everything that was happening in the world. Today the face with tears of joy is again on top.
• Did you know you can still use android cute yellow blob emoji?
• Today we use emojis on all our devices — you can even put them on your Chromebook.

Global emoji usage reached new heights in July 2022, ahead of World Emoji Day:

• Over 22% of all tweets sent in July (leading up to World Emoji Day) contained at least one emoji.
• From June to July 2022, we saw record emoji usage, with the highest number of emojis per tweet since Emojipedia’s records began in 2011.

As part of World Emoji Day, you can watch Emojipedia’s video series “Emojis Across The World” on the official Emojipedia YouTube Channelpacked with contributions from global emoji experts and emoji enthusiasts around the world.

Tech Calendar

• July 19: Stray lands on PS5, PS4, PC
• July 28: Pixel 6a launch
• July 28: Asus Zenfone 9 launch
• End of July/beginning of August: Possible launch of OnePlus 10T?
• August 10 (NBC): Samsung unpacked? (new Galaxy Foldables, Galaxy Watch 5 series?)
• Sept 2-6: IFA Berlin
• September 10 at 9pm CEST: Ubisoft Forward Showcase
• Nov 8: Skull and Bones release date on Xbox Series S/X, PS5, PC, Stadia and Luna
• Nov 9: God of War: Ragnarok launches on PS4, PS5

Tech Tweet of the Week

Paula Beaton, text editor.