Ready or not, iOS 14 is here. Some developers are annoyed that Apple only gave them a 1-day heads up that the update would begin rolling out, so it’s possible that some apps might not fully support all the new features yet. But iPhone users can now take advantage of picture-in-picture video, more compact notifications, home screen widgets and new ways to organize the home screen… and generally a bunch of features Android users have had for years.
We’re long past the point where it’s truly fair to say that Apple is playing catch up to Google or vice versa – both companies regularly borrow ideas from the other, and customers benefit from this creative borrowing and re-purposing. But I did have a feeling of déjà vu when Apple unveiled its iOS 14 feature set in June.
Meanwhile, if iOS is getting more Android-like, the Purism Librem 5 Linux smartphone is literally getting support for running Android apps. The Microsoft Surface Duo has at least one fan… or at least someone who sees its potential. And Amazon is the latest company to launch a podcast app (or rather podcast support in its existing music app).
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.
- iOS 14 is available today [Apple]
Apple has released iOS 14 with support for home screen widgets and an app drawer… I mean library. Call and Siri notifications are smaller. There’s picture in picture support. And a bunch of other features Android has had for years. Just saying. - Run Android apps on the Librem 5 with Anbox [Linux Smartphones]
Purism announces that Anbox now works with the Librem 5, allowing you to run Android applications on this Linux smartphone. This opens the door to running thousands of mobile apps that might not otherwise be available for the platform. - Arm Is Now Backing Panfrost Gallium3D As Open-Source Mali Graphics Driver [Phoronix]
Arm Holdings is now an official backer of the Panfrost Gallum3D driver, which is an effort to reverse engineer an open-source driver for Mali Bifrost and Midgard graphics. Now that Arm is a sponsor, maybe it’s not so much reverse and just engineering. - Microsoft Surface Duo: Dual screens and dual personalities [Kevin C Tofel]
Not everyone hates the Surface Duo. The software is still buggy, but if you think of it as a brand new form factor that’s more like a dual screen tablet that you can also use as a phone… or for viewing multiple apps at once, it may be kind of useful. - Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20215 [Windows Blogs]
The latest Windows 10 preview build brings dark mode support for Windows Search, bug fixes, and developer updates. - Amazon Podcasts [Amazon]
Amazon enters the Podcast game with support for Podcasts in the Amazon Music mobile and web apps. You can access 70K shows for now including many of the most popular podcasts. A few exclusives are also coming including The First One hosted by DJ Khaled. - Bose QuietComfort 35 II Gaming Headset​ [Bose]
Now Bose makes a gaming version of its QuietComfort 35 II headphones… the main difference is that these have a microphone and sell for about $30 more. They’re up for pre-order now.
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