Catch up on the week's top tech news right here, from new Galaxy A series phones to Netflix's sharing crackdown.
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By Paula Beaton, Mar 20, 2022
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⚡ Welcome to The Weekly Authority, the Android Authority newsletter that breaks down the top Android and tech news from the week. The 186th edition here, with Samsung’s new A series phones, Xiaomi 12 first impressions, and that Netflix sharing crackdown…
🦕 I’m now many, many hours into Horizon Forbidden West and showing no signs of coming up for air — could somebody bring me snacks? It’s that good.
Popular news this week
Samsung:
- At Samsung’s Galaxy A event on Thursday, we saw the Galaxy A53 and Galaxy A33 announced, plus the A73 quietly launched as well. The Exynos 1280-powered Galaxy A53 looks a lot like the A52/A52s, with a 5,000mAh battery, 6.5-inch screen, and quadruple cameras. The A33 also has an upgrade with the Exynos 1280 chip, 5,000mAh battery, and IP67 water resistance, more of an upgrade over its predecessor. Pre-orders go until the end of March, though the A33 isn’t yet announced for the US.
- On the Galaxy A73: 108MP camera comes to the A-series, though Samsung’s unfortunately swapped out the A72’s 3X telephoto camera for a depth sensor.
- In wearables, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 battery leaked: Allegedly model number EB-BR900ABY with a 276mAh capacity, about 10% larger than the one in the 40mm Galaxy Watch 4.
- Meanwhile, the Galaxy Tab S8 has now been removed from Geekbench as it’s also guilty of GOS throttling.
- Speaking of, Samsung apologizes for throttling, says it will add new features to prevent overheating: “We will secure safety using a heat control algorithm.”
- And Samsung’s offering to fix a busted screen on Galaxy S or Galaxy Note devices for $100, only until March 28.
- Samsung’s also giving away curved gaming monitors: Pre-order a Galaxy Book 2 Pro or Book 2 Pro 360 and get a 32-inch Odyssey G35T curved gaming monitor worth $229. Pre-order the non-pro Galaxy Book 2 360 and you get a free 24-inch Samsung CRG5 gaming monitor worth $175.
- Also this week: You might actually want to use the 30x zoom on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Google:
Xiaomi
- Xiaomi 12, 12 Pro, and 12X launched globally on Tuesday, but no Ultra phone (likely later this year): A Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip for both the 12 and 12 Pro, with a new Sony IMX707 main sensor for the Pro, plus faster charging compared to last year’s Mi 11 Ultra (and fast chargers in the box!). No IP rating, though, no autofocus on the ultrawide, and only a 2x telephoto lens.
- Xiaomi Watch S1 (and S1 Active) also launched this week, available throughout Europe this month.
- Yet another Xiaomi launch: The Redmi K50 and K50 Pro, with two Mediatek Dimensity flagship SoCs with QHD+ displays, sizeable batteries, and fast wired charging: China-only for now but could launch globally as rebranded devices sometime in the future.
OnePlus:
- OnePlus Nord 3 specs leak: Another rebrand could be on the cards, as specs look very similar to previously leaked Realme GT Neo 3 specs.
Apple:
Space:
Elsewhere:
Movies/TV:
- Netflix is cracking down on sharing: In a blog post, the company mentioned account sharing “impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.” It’s testing a new feature that effectively raises prices for sharing outside your own household, initially in Costa Rica, Chile, and Peru.
- And Discovery Plus and WarnerMedia’s HBO Max are being combined into one service.
- Meanwhile, Amazon’s $8.5 billion MGM deal completes, will see more than 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows added to Prime Video, including classics like Silence of the Lambs and Fargo — and Amazon now owns rights to franchises such as Robocop, 007, and more.
- The Godfather is considered as one of the best movies of all time, but it almost never got made: Trung Phan’s SatPost has an interesting deep dive that’ll take up most of your afternoon.
- Umbrella Academy season 3 finally has a launch date: June 22 on Netflix, following the show’s two-year hiatus.
- And True Detective season 4 is in the works at HBO, currently titled “True Detective: Night Country,” with rumors saying it could be set in the Arctic and feature two female leads, though the plot’s largely under wraps
- Also this week: Reviews are in for the Halo video game TV series (coming to Paramount Plus March 24), and seem mixed.
- If you’re wondering what to watch this week, check out our pick of the best new streaming movies, including post-apocalyptic thriller Black Crab and erotic thriller Deep Water.
Gaming:
- At Sony’s State of Play this week we got a deep dive into Hogwarts Legacy, including almost 15 minutes of gameplay. Expect the game Holiday 2022.
- Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online launched Tuesday for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X — according to Kotaku, GTA Online feels like a new game, with the career builder feature offering you four career options, plus the usual framerate and resolution bump.
- And Gran Turismo 7 was offline for over 24 hours: So much of the game needs an online connection that players have been locked out. The reason? Server maintenance scheduled for March 17 uncovered an issue that led to an extension — but it’s now back online.
- Someone finished Elden Ring in under 30 minutes: Dark Souls speedrunner Distortion2 completed the game in just 28 minutes and 59 seconds using the wrong warp glitch.
- Speaking of Elden Ring, it’s sold 12 million copies in the two and a half weeks since launch.
- SteamDeck emulation looks pretty good: YouTuber ETA Prime tried out a bunch of old console games on Valve’s handheld.
- And Steam games are officially coming to Chrome OS but powerful, high-end Chromebooks only: minimum specs appear to be 11th-gen Intel CPU i5 or better, and 7GB of RAM.
- Meanwhile, xScreen turns an Xbox Series S into a portable console, but it’ll cost you.
- Elsewhere, the latest Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti leak — but take it with a pinch of salt — suggests that the GPU is finally going to launch on March 29, hitting shelves same day, with reviews embargoed until that date too.
- And while we’re on the topic of Xbox, the ID@Xbox Spring Indie showcase took place on Wednesday, with a peek at games like Cursed to Golf (amazing!), A44 Games’ Flintlock, an open-world action RPG, and interactive movie trilogy Immortality.
- Sad news: EA has canceled its annual Play Live event in June.
Reviews
Features
Weekly Wonder
With the news that Daylight Saving Time (DST) could become permanent, we’re taking a dive into the history books this week with the inventor of DST, plus some facts you (probably) never knew…
Who invented Daylight Saving Time?
Many credit Benjamin Franklin as being the brain behind the idea of Daylight Saving Time. While it’s true that he did write a satirical essay on the topic in 1784, he didn’t actually suggest DST, either as a joke or a serious idea. Instead, the first person to propose the idea was actually an entomologist (an insect biology specialist) in New Zealand, in 1895.
- George Vernon Hudson worked a day job at the Wellington Post Office.
- Hudson found he didn’t have enough daylight hours after work to collect insects for his studies.
- If clocks were advanced two hours in summer and shifted back in the winter (when he wouldn’t be hunting for bugs), he figured that might solve the problem.
- He proposed a two-hour Daylight Saving Time for New Zealand, arguing that the benefits to the population were many:
- “The effect of this alteration would be to advance all the day’s operations in summer two hours compared with the present system. In this way, the early-morning daylight would be utilized, and a long period of daylight leisure would be made available in the evening for cricket, gardening, cycling, or any other outdoor pursuit desired.”
When the idea was first presented to the Royal Society of New Zealand, Hudson was openly mocked, and many thought the proposal unnecessary and confusing. With time, attitudes changed and his idea was adopted by many nations, including New Zealand in 1927.
The Waste of Daylight
Some years later, William Willett proposed his own idea for a scheme that would see clocks altered by a more modest 20 minutes.
- Willett was a keen golfer who despaired at having his evening round of golf cut short by the encroaching dark.
- Willett wrote a pamphlet called “The Waste of Daylight.“
- He wrote: “Standard time remains so fixed, that for nearly half the year the sun shines upon the land, for several hours a day, while we are asleep. And is rapidly nearing the horizon, having already passed its western limit, when we reach home after the work of the day is over.“
- He had a point!
- The British parliament considered Willett’s proposal in 1908, but the bill was never passed, though Willet lobbied for it for the rest of his life.
A few more facts
Did you know that Austria and Germany were the first two countries to adopt Daylight Saving Time?
- This happened in 1916 as a wartime measure to conserve energy, with many other countries in Europe following later.
- The UK adopted DST in May 1916, the US in 1918.
- In 1919, following the end of the war, Woodrow Wilson put an end to DST in the US.
- It wasn’t until 1942 that DST was brought back to the US, then known as “War Time,” and it has stuck around for most of the country ever since.
Daylight Saving Time was standardized by Congress in 1966, when the Uniform Time Act was passed. Prior to this, DST started and ended on different dates across various US cities and states, causing chaos. This Act didn’t make DST mandatory though, so states that didn’t wish to implement it, like Alaska and Arizona, weren’t forced to.
Fast forward to today
Today, 127 years after Hudson first proposed his idea for Daylight Saving Time, it’s in effect in 70 countries worldwide.
If current legislation proceeds, Americans may no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. According to some, that could be good news for our health as we’ll (supposedly) stick to the same sleep schedule every night. When we shift our clocks forward one hour in spring, that hour of sleep is lost for many of us, and we start feeling jet-lagged and out of sync. Then there are those who believe permanent DST would be bad for our health.
Whether you’re in support of the proposal or not, bear this in mind. In the 1970s, there was a period where daylight saving time was permanent for 16 months. A poll revealed only 30% of Americans approved.
Tech Calendar
- March 23: Nothing event with Carl Pei keynote.
- March 24: Halo TV show lands on Paramount Plus
- March 25: Ghostwire Tokyo released for PS5/PC
- By end of March: OnePlus 10 Pro global launch
- April 1: Galaxy A53 on sale (T-Mobile and Verizon from March 31)
- May 11-12: Google I/O 2022
Tech Tweet of the Week
Something extra: From The Hustle — This site lets you experience the Apollo 11 moon landing from the perspective of the crew and Mission Control.
Have a great week!
Paula Beaton, Copy Editor
