News Weekly: Wear OS 5 is coming, TikTok’s days are numbered, Meta’s big AI upgrade

This is Android Central’s News Weekly, your go-to source for a concise summary of the week’s most important tech news. This is where we take a look at the top titles that showcase the latest developments and innovations contributing to the digital landscape.

This week, the US government signed a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban on TikTok, X plans to take on YouTube with its own smart TV app, Google revealed the 2024 I/O schedule with some news about the next major release. of Wear OS, a major update to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses brings useful AI features, and HMD revealed its first non-Nokia-branded smartphones.

The transition to Wear OS 5

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Google I/O 2024 is scheduled for mid-May, and with it we’ll hear a lot about what the company has planned for the coming year in terms of hardware and software. With the schedule now released, we have a preview of what will be discussed at the event, including the next Wear OS release.

Wear OS 3 marked a resurgence for Google’s Wear OS, and since then the company has continued to make efforts to improve it. With Wear OS 5 now confirmed to appear at I/O 2024, it looks like Google is ready to move on to the next major release. This differs from recent years, when the platform moved from Wear OS 3 to 3.5 and then to Wear OS 4. Now, like Apple’s WatchOS platform, Wear OS will apparently start making early version jumps , which is a good sign for the platform.

What will we see? So far, there’s not much going on, but Google has hinted at a few things, like an update to the watch face format, which helps developers create more thrifty watch faces in battery. But we’ll have to wait and see what else we get when I/O starts.

TikTok could be banned in less than a year

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It’s finally here. After years of battling the global phenomenon TikTok, the US government has released a bill that is expected to ban the app nationwide. After passing the Senate and House, President Biden signed the bill, which gives TikTok owner ByteDance 270 days to sell the app, cutting it off from its ties to the Chinese government. If this does not happen, Google and Apple will no longer be able to offer the app in their respective app stores.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew has long defended the company, saying it has spent billions of dollars protecting U.S. data. He spoke after the bill was signed, calling it “unconstitutional” and indicating that TikTok was planning to fight back.

There’s still plenty of time before the deadline, so it could go either way, but it doesn’t look good for TikTok in the US, especially since ByteDance has reportedly indicated that it technology/bytedance-prefers-tiktok-shutdown-us-if-legal-options-fail-sources-say-2024-04-25/” data-url=”https://www.reuters.com/technology/bytedance-prefers-tiktok-shutdown-us-if-legal-options-fail-sources-say-2024-04-25/” target=”_blank” rel=”sponsored noopener” referrerpolicy=”no-referrer-when-downgrade” data-hl-processed=”none”>does not intend to sell the application.

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The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are already pretty great, but Meta just released a huge update that brings more intelligence to its glasses. The update now allows users to participate in POV-style video calls via WhatsApp and Messenger, but that’s not even the best part.

With the built-in camera and support for multimodal AI through Meta AI, owners of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses can now ask their glasses questions about what they see. This includes translating menus, creating recipes, learning about specific animals or buildings, and much more. It’s like Google Lens on your face, and without having to take your phone out of your pocket.

The update is only available in the US and Canada, but it significantly improves an already excellent pair of smart glasses, especially while we wait for Meta’s upcoming AR glasses to debut in the near future.

X takes on YouTube with a TV app

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For more X randomness, the platform, formerly known as Twitter, is preparing to launch a smart TV application. For what? Why not? Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, posted a short video on X showing a bit of the app, which will be focused on video content, much like YouTube. She said the app would be your “go-to companion for an immersive, high-quality entertainment experience on a bigger screen” and would feature trending videos, enhanced search and AI-powered topics for you help personalize the experience.

The app will also work on all devices, so you should be able to start a video on your phone and continue it on your TV, or you can just stream videos from your phone to the TV if you prefer.

The app is still in development, but will apparently be widely available soon. Is it what it takes to replace YouTube on your TV? Who knows.

HMD Global does its own thing

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Nokia is being pushed aside as the first HMD Global brand phones have just been launched. The company’s new Pulse lineup consists of three phones offered in vibrant colors. The top-of-the-line model is the HMD Pulse Pro, although it offers roughly mid-range/budget specs, likely to keep the price low. It features an HD+ display with a 50MP dual-camera setup, a 5,000mAh battery with 20W support, and 6GB of RAM. The phone is powered by a Unisoc chipset and runs Android 14 with the promise of two OS upgrades (we’re looking at you, Motorola).

Both the Pulse Plus and Pulse feature HD+ displays, 5,000mAh batteries, and 10W charging, but the Plus has a 50MP camera, while the Pulse makes do with ‘a 13 MP shooter. They use the same Unisoc chipset but with 4GB of RAM in addition to 128GB and 64GB of expandable storage for the Plus and Pulse, respectively.

All phones only support 4G connectivity, which is a bit disappointing in 2024, especially for early HMD-branded phones. The devices are also not available in North America at the moment, but a separate HMD Vibe should arrive at some point at a very affordable price.

These are some of the biggest stories this week. In the meantime, here are some other stories worth telling: