Android Faithful

This episode is sponsored by TORRAS.

It's the biggest day of the year! Well, one of the biggest days of the year for the world of Android - it's Made by Google day! With Made By Google 2026 happening later today in New York City, Jason Howell, Ron Richards and Huyen Tue Dao are here to give you all the details of the new line of Pixel phones and devices: the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pro XL and Pixel 11 Pro Fold plus the Pixel Watch 5, Pixel Buds Pro 2 and the all new Pixel Tag! All this plus all the Android news that has nothing to do with the Pixel 11 rollout. What a day!

This episode of Android Faithful is brought to you by TORRAS. The Pixel 11 is coming, and you'll want it protected from day one. Buy the TORRAS Q3 Air for the Pixel 11 Pro XL on Amazon today at https://amzn.to/3TDn5gC and use promo code JASON2608 at checkout for 15% off. Thanks to TORRAS for supporting Android Faithful!

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00:01:46 - PIXEL 11 / MADE BY GOOGLE

• The Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold were formally announced today and are available for pre-order and will be in stores on August 20, 2026
• Now you can share you contact info, files and more just by tapping you Pixel to other Pixels and Android devices
• The Pixel Watch 5, Pixel Buds Pro 2 and Pixel Tag were also announced.

00:54:52 - NEWS & HARDWARE

• Nothing dispels rumors of it's pivot by saying it's doubling it's phone production and expanding
• RIP Google Assistant. Google confirms Assistant is going away, for real this time and forever (unless it's in a car) on September 4, 2026
• Unboxing an hands on with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8
• PATRON PICK: The Minimal Phone 2 looks to be the real deal, it's small, got a physical keyboard and packs solid specs!

01:23:03 - APPS 'n SOFTWARE 'n STUFF

• It's really happening! Third party app stores are in the Google Play store!
• Hey, you can now use Venmo in Google Play Store to pay for apps.
• Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Sunbird is back to give you access to iMessages
• And Beeper now lets you message someone on every platform

01:31:32 - COMMUNITY FEEDBACK

• Daniel followed up on his saga of not having his volume turned down automatically
• Derek from Illinois has a handy tip for using your keyboard when accessing the app drawer
• Harry from Ft. Lauderdale realized you can finally remove that chain link fence from a photo with Gemini!

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It's one week until the Pixel 11 rollout during the Made By Google event and Huyen Tue Dao, Jason Howell and Ron Richards are getting HYPED. Maybe it's the Android Summer heat or maybe it's the mix of weirdness and oddities in the news this week that we're parsing. Either way, it's a fun show this week!

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00:03:30 - NEWS

• Depending on which report you read, Smartphone shipments dropped in Q2'26 OR Smartphone revenue was up in Q2'26
• Where there's smoke...reports coming out of Nothing that they're pivoting away from phones and focusing on AI and general devices, just as they announce new earbuds!
• Happy 5th Birthday Jetpack Compose, featuring a cameo from Huyen!
• PATRON PICK: These leaked renders of the new Samsung Galaxy Buds On are a new look for Samsung ear buds

00:32:01 - HARDWARE

• With Made By Google approaching, we get a teaser of the Pixel 11 with a focus on the Pixel Glow or perhaps it's called something else, like "HiLight"?
• In addition to the Pixel 11, will we get a a "Pixel Tag"?
• The first Googlebooks from Lenovo have leaked and so have the Googlebooks from Asus!
• Tecno is claiming to have to have the first truly bezel-less phone
• OnePlus isn't dead yet! The OnePlus 16 is confirmed to be coming later this year (just not here in the US)

00:55:52 - APPS 'n SOFTWARE 'n STUFF

• Google merges a bunch of features under voice search that use....your voice
• Google kills an app before it even launches and then kills Nano Banana 2 in Google Earth less than 24 hours after launching it
• There's a major issue plaguing Spotify on Android right now, but Spotify is aware of it and working on it
• Missing TV Time? The original creator is back with Bingers

01:08:11 - COMMUNITY FEEDBACK

• Daniel wants to turn off the annoying automatic volume lowering feature. Here's how!
• Hilton from Virginia shares adventures in car repair with Gemini
• Mike from Ohio confirms that his Nexus 5 is indeed running Marshmallow/Android 6.0

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We welcome Adam Doud back to the show to provide the firsthand experience from Samsung Galaxy Unpacked plus hands-on with the new devices as Jason Howell and Ron Richards are amazed at how thin the new foldables actually are!

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00:07:49 - NEWS

• Android is in the center of a legal battle as GrapheneOS and Duress PIN are at the center of a criminal case
• More bad news on prices of phones as Qualcomm confirms chip prices are going up and reports of the Pixel 11 prices are increasing
• If you're using Android 6.0, AKA Marshmallow, it's time to upgrade as Google cuts support making Android 7.0 the earliest supported version
• PATRON PICK: Looking for an alternative to Google Photos? Look no further!

00:40:15 - HARDWARE

• Samsungs Galaxy Unpacked gets unpacked by Adam with a breakdown of the phones: The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, the Z Fold 8, the Z Flip 8,
• And of course the watches: The Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2
• We were surprised to see the move to silicon carbon batteries
• Google showed up to Galaxy Unpacked with some announcements

01:09:34 - APPS 'n SOFTWARE 'n STUFF

• Now you can log into your Google Account with your face.
• Looks like you'll soon be able to tune your Daily Briefing to your personal tastes

01:18:23 - COMMUNITY FEEDBACK

• Bayou Byte Studio shared their new app, Journal Spaces - give it a download and check it out!
• Bob from Pennsylvania is curious what we think about the new Commodore Callback phone
• Becky B. from New Jersey found a better TV Tracking app that works with Simkl called Cinopsys and it has widgets!
• Shane C. suggests Refract to replace TV Time

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We didn't realize how much we loved OnePlus until they were gone...join Huyen Tue Dao, Jason Howell and Ron Richards process their grief on this week's episode along with our special preview of Samsung Galaxy Unpacked!

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00:06:09 - NEWS

• The inevitable has happened as OnePlus pulls out of North America and Europe
• Weird week in Google and legal drama as the EU demands Google open Android and Search to rivals and Google and Epic drop the appeals and end the battle as third party appstores come to Google Play next week
• More bad news from smartphone sales as globally sales are down 4%. Thanks RAM shortage. Thanks a lot.
• PATRON PICK: HiSense has a phone with an E-Ink Display and a snap-on LCD Display on the back. What?

00:37:48 - HARDWARE

• Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026 is upon us tomorrow! We preview the event with what to expect and what we'll be surprised by.
• Not to be forgotten, Google gives us our first tease of the PIxel 11 with a glimpse of Pixel Glow
• Stop the presses! The Honor AI Robot Phone is available for Pre-Order AND was spotted at the World Cup Final!!

01:00:51 - APPS 'n SOFTWARE 'n STUFF

• Google rolls out the Android 17 QPR2 Beta 1 for Pixels as well as a batch of new Gemini 3.6 and 3.5 Flash AI Models
• To celebrate World Emoji Day, Google goes in-depth on the design of the new 3D Emojis
• X rolled out their new, built from the ground up (without AI) Android app

01:10:14 - COMMUNITY FEEDBACK

• Partha shares their app LyricGlow and everyone should download and install it
• Kevin weighs in on the demise of TV Time and recommends the combo of Trakt and Showly
• Bryan from NJ checks in on the TV Time-pocalypse and joins the Simkl bandwagon but wishes it had a widget
• Ron shares the news of the TV Time creator's new app Bingers and another upstart called Episodeo

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This week Jason Howell and Ron Richards sit down with Chris Patrick, Qualcomm's SVP and GM of Handsets and a 30-year company veteran, for a deep dive into the state of mobile. Patrick opens up about RAMageddon, how surging memory prices are squeezing phone costs at every level, and what Qualcomm is doing to innovate through it with techniques like model compression.

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0:00 Intro

1:36 Introducing Chris Patrick from Qualcomm

3:42 Interview Begins

5:13 What Phone Does Qualcomm's Boss Carry?

6:55 What Would've Been Impossible 30 Years Ago

9:36 AI Becoming the New Phone UI

13:00 On-Device AI: Perception, Reasoning, Action

17:05 Engineering Chips for Foldables

19:57 Inside the Qualcomm-Samsung Partnership

23:18 Galaxy Unpacked Preview

24:10 Are Wearables Replacing Smartphones?

27:51 RAMageddon: Why Phone Prices Are Surging

32:39 What Happens to Budget Android Phones

36:19 Competing With Your Own Customers

39:11 Snapdragon Summit 2026

41:02 Wrapping Up With Chris

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Jason and Huyen hold down the fort and this is one of those episodes that is filled to the brim with rumory goodness (if you like that sort of thing.) From the price of memory in cheap phones, to battery promises by big players, to basically every Pixel 11 device leaked to Amazon by Google itself, this episode is full of the future!

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00:04:08 - NEWS

• OnePlus is reportedly bailing on the US
• OnePlus will reportedly officially shut down in the US and Europe later this week
• Global smartphones priced below $400 will decline by 22% as memory costs soar
• Google updates Android Bench with new LLMs, but Gemini still lags behind
• PATRON PICK: Google and Samsung beware: This Android brand just raised the bar for free battery replacements

00:32:04 - HARDWARE

• Official renders for Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 8, Watch 9, Watch 2 Ultra and Z Fold 8 leak
• It was nice while it lasted: Samsung reportedly ending free storage upgrades
• Samsung officially confirms everything new on Galaxy Watch 9 in teaser
• Massive Pixel 11 leak just revealed almost everything about Google's next phones
• The Pixel colors might rule this year
• Pixel Watch 5 leaks in official-looking renders with new colors, bands, watch face
• Nvidia appears to have discontinued the Shield TV tube streaming media player
• NVIDIA clarifies why you can't find a Shield TV anywhere

00:54:49 - APPS 'n SOFTWARE 'n STUFF

• Samsung Health will delete your data unless you hand it over for AI training
• ‘Magic Pointer’ app for Googlebooks released to Play Store
• Google Just Made Snapseed a Serious RAW Photo Editor With This New Update

01:07:07 - COMMUNITY FEEDBACK

• Dave got a OnePlus Open just in time for OnePlus to exit the market!
• Mike restored his old Nexus 5 and offered it to the Hall of Fame

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For the past 3 years there has been one constant in our lives: Android. And this week is no different as Jason Howell, Huyen Tue Dao, Florence Ion and Ron Richards celebrate three years of Android Faithful with a barrage of news from all the manufacturers along with a fair share of drama and disappointment. You know, the typical Android roller coaster of emotions.

PATREON SPECIAL: We're celebrating our 3rd Anniversary this week and you can get 20% off a membership at Patreon with code 3AF at https://www.patreon.com/c/AndroidFaithful

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00:07:25 - NEWS

• Breaking news as Google announces Made By Google 2026 is happening in New York City on August 12!
• Google gets slapped with a hefty 4.1 Billion Euros fine for blocking competition with Android
• More signs of OnePlus' demise as OxygenOS gets discontinued and Oppo encourages OnePlus customers to buy Oppo phones
• PATRON PICK: Protect your phone's battery from the summer heat!

00:40:48 - HARDWARE

• Samsung officially announces Galaxy Unpacked happening in London on July 22 just as they drop many teasers for the Galaxy Fold and the various shapes and sizes
• The Nothing 4(b) phone looks to be the real deal and Nothing keeps it going with the Nothing Ear 3(a) release
• Looking for a small phone? Keep an eye out for the Enough Phone coming soon.

01:03:21 - APPS 'n SOFTWARE 'n STUFF

• TV Time abruptly shuts down and Ron is pissed
• Android 17 QPR1 hits platform stability with beta 6 release
• And the Android 17 July Update for Pixels just rolled out!
• Get ready to touch phones as Google Contacts is getting Tap to Share
• And the new Signatures app from Google starts rolling out as well

01:15:15 - COMMUNITY FEEDBACK

• Matt M. checks in with his Android 17 experience so far
• Scott Moore shares his experience after getting hit with the T-Mobile price hike

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Android Summer continues as we prepare for the Fourth of July here in the U.S. and Jason Howell, Huyen Tue Dao and Ron Richards are pondering their T-Mobile bill and impossibly thin phones with huge batteries while trying to stay cool

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00:05:14 - NEWS

• Hot off the heels of last week's news of T-Mobile being the best carrier in the U.S., the news breaks that T-Mobile is forcing millions of customers on legacy plans to current, more expensive plans. Not cool.
• Android phones alerted millions of people ahead of the earthquake in Venezuela - exactly how did it all work?
• Massive upgrade to 50W wireless charging may be in Qi2's future for Googe Pixel phones
• PATRON PICK: How can the Tecno Camon Slim be 6.39mm thick and have a 5,600mAh Battery??

00:39:21 - HARDWARE

• Nothing officially revealed the Nothing 4(b) design and it's pretty good!
• Samsung unveils the Samsung Galaxy A27 5G and they really want you to think it's awesome
• Could the Samsung Rollable be coming sooner than we think?
• The Clicks Communicator is real and it's fantastic! A First Look video shows off the device.

00:57:41 - APPS 'n SOFTWARE 'n STUFF

• Android 17 making foldables fun for gaming is no joke!
• Hey! Google made an app for Finance!
• And Google is giving you more controls over backups!
• But Google is taking away a loophole for FitBit users to avoid Google Health
• You can now watch Instagram Reels on TVs with Google Cast.

01:09:42 - COMMUNITY FEEDBACK

• Becky B. from New Jersey has a use for an old Razr plus tales of selling Meta Ray Bans
• Jordan "Sassquatch" from Montana has a throwback use for an old phone
• Andrew LeRoy reports from flyover country about why T-Mobile isn't so hot and why AT&T is still king

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We're kicking off summer...no, we're kicking off ANDROID Summer as Jason Howell, Huyen Tue Dao and Ron Richards get ready for a wild, green summer of new phones and operating systems with bumpy rollouts!

PATREON SPECIAL: We're celebrating our 3rd Anniversary all month and you can get 20% off a membership at Patreon with code AF3 at https://www.patreon.com/c/AndroidFaithful

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00:05:43 - NEWS

• This just in! T-Mobile is the best mobile carrier in the U.S. Can you believe it?
• Drama update for the timeline on the Google Developer verification process
• Looking for something to do with your old smartphone? Have you thought about turning it into a data center?
• PATRON PICK: If not a data center, here's 5 other things you can do with your old Android phone

00:38:48 - HARDWARE

• Jason reviews the Motorola Edge 2026
• Lots of Nothing news as the CMF Phone is dead due to RAM Prices, the 4(B) Phone gets teased, and they're back dreaming up phones that will never get built
• Finally, the Google Home Speaker gets an on-sale date and a price! June 25th and $99!
• The OnePlus 16 might go bezel-less - where have we heard this before?

01:04:49 - APPS 'n SOFTWARE 'n STUFF

• Android 17's rollout has been...not so smooth as some users have lost 5G support, and other users lost touch input, and some other users lost their widgets.
• But hey, it's not all bad news with Android 17. They quietly added support for LHDC Audio!
• Looks like Google is also working on something called "Audio Memory" which likely will improve music recognition but could also listen to your conversations...but you know, in a good way. Maybe? We hope
• So you like to sideload apps, but how do you handle updates. Well, here's a solution!

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The show starts with a bang as Jason, Huyen, and Flo consider what you might call Android smartphone reviewers obsession with carrying around multiple smartphones at any given time. Plus, the crew tries really REALLY hard to catch the attention of Coca-Cola. Oh, and there's plenty of chat about actual Android news as well.

PATREON SPECIAL: We're celebrating our 3rd Anniversary all month and you can get 20% off a membership at Patreon with code AF3 at https://www.patreon.com/c/AndroidFaithful

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00:09:35 - NEWS

• Big Day for Android: Android 17 Released! WearOS 7 Released! June Pixel Drop!
• Android 17 Is Now Live for Anyone With a Pixel Smartphone
• Check out what's new in Android 17
• Wear OS 7 helps your smartwatch keep up with you
• June Pixel Drop: New features for creators, Gemini upgrades and more
• Verizon sent man a refurbished phone with MDM, then deleted his data remotely
• Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon Reality Elite, Its New Flagship XR Chipset
• XREAL’s Android XR glasses will cost under $1,500, which isn’t as expensive as it sounds
• Related: Snap is finally about to ship AR glasses — and they cost a fortune
• PATRON PICK: /e/OS 4.0 is here: Murena's Android fork makes it even easier to escape Google's clutches

00:44:12 - HARDWARE

• Exclusive: Nothing headphones and smartphones are now available at Best Buy in the US
• This budget phone has a dot-matrix camera lens.
• Lenovo’s new rugged Android tablet has a removable battery, now on sale for $499

00:56:43 - APPS 'n SOFTWARE 'n STUFF

• Waze now shows traffic lights on your route, but it’s rolling out slowly
• Telegram brings back its Wear OS app after five years with chats, voice messages, more

01:05:04 - COMMUNITY

• Tharanga from Australia agrees with Huyen from last week's AI tirade.

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