The Weekly Authority: 📱 Pixel Prototype

⚡ Welcome to The weekly authoritythe Android authority Newsletter that breaks down the top Android and tech news of the week. The 197th edition here, with this Pixel 7 prototype, foldable Galaxy specs, Final Fantasy 16 updates and some good news for coffee drinkers.

🎉This week marked the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations here in the UK (the first British monarch to celebrate 70 years of service!) so I enjoyed the two day National Day and we had a street party here in town!

Popular news this week

• Top Gun: Mavericks Memorial Day weekend opener grossed $124 million at the box office last Sunday night ($248 million worldwide).
• The third season of “The Boys” premiered on Amazon Prime Video on Friday and February 27 first reviews are here.
• and The creators of Stranger Things answer burning questions before volume 2 (spoiler alert if you haven’t played through volume 1 yet!).
• In the meantime, Netflix’s new approach to password sharing is a confusing mess in test markets in Costa Rica, Chile and Peru.
• Speaking of Netflix, a Trailer for new action comedy The Man From Toronto releasedwith Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson.
• Owen Wilson’s superhero film is coming to Paramount Plus: but no official release date for Secret Headquarters yet.
• Spider haters look away now: An Arachnophobia remake is in the workswith Christopher Landon on board to direct, James Wan and Michael Clear credited as producers.
• And: Beavis and Butt-Head Do The Universe get a release datePremieres on Paramount Plus June 23 – plus there’s a followerand a new revival series coming later this year.
• We ranked Sam Raimi movies from worst to best, including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
• Also this week, our picks for the best new streaming movies, from 13 Going on 30 to Colossal.

To play:

• Bad news for Diablo fans: many of Samsung’s Exynos-powered phones can’t run Diablo Immortal, but Blizzard is working on a fix.
• speaking of Diablo Immortal will not be released in Belgium or the Netherlandsdue to countries’ laws regarding loot boxes.
• Steam deck docking station delayed indefinitely with Valve, citing “part shortages and COVID closures.”
• And Amazon is finally launching an invitation system to buy a PS5 or Xbox Series X.
• The Summer Game Fest announces the lineup from over 30 participating companies, which takes place from June 9th to 12th.
• In the meantime, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sequel is coming next year it will just be the next generation.
• The first The trailer for Modern Warfare 2 has landed ahead of the full gameplay reveal on June 8th.
• and The art of Modern Warfare 2 is sparking speculation across the Call of Duty platform — Could the game return to Steam?
• BioWare confirms the next big fantasy RPG title — Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, but don’t expect it this year.
• Veteran Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto is retiring – often credited with creating the Kingdom Hearts franchise, he also worked on FF VIII, FF IX and The World Ends With You as well as the sequel.
• Sony goes all out when it comes to live service games after buying Bungie — according to TechCrunch The company expects to spend 49% of its PlayStation Studios development budget on live service games by the end of the year.
• and One of Japan’s most respected game developers is developing a game for Apple‘s subscription service: Yu Suzuki and his team are working on Air Twister, which will be released on June 24th.
• Likewise: This interview with Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games dive into Fortnite, the Metaverse and more…

reviews

• Vivo X80 Pro review: The best of Vivo, (mostly) refined – “It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s still a welcome upgrade over its already great predecessor.”
• Samsung Galaxy A52s review: Jack of all trades – A high-end build, an excellent display, long battery life and long-term software support make this easy to recommend.
• Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro review: Titanium, ceramic, and compromises – “Lots to offer, but hampered by too many software bugs, lack of features at launch, and an extremely limited third-party app ecosystem unless you’re planning on investing at a Huawei phone to stay. ”
• Fossil Gen 5 smartwatch review: An oldie but a goodie – The best Wear OS 2 watch you can buy.
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Review: The power user’s best friend – “In addition to top specs and fully supported, feature-rich software, the Galaxy S22 Ultra offers the S Pen and a wealth of productivity tools unmatched by the competition.”

features

This week brought us PlayStation’s latest State of Play many Stay tuned, including Final Fantasy 16 news:

If you missed it, you can do it catch up herebut otherwise read on for anything you missed:

• Things started with a new one Trailer for Resident Evil 4 Remake, which we expected but were still excited about. Coming March 24, 2023, it will be in development for PSVR2 and will be released for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
• PSVR2 news continued with a look at Resident Evil Village – It looks a bit scary to me to be honest, but kudos to anyone brave enough to play it! The horror was followed by another spooky title, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners Ch2, and we also got a glimpse of a VR version of No Man’s Sky.
• But the PSVR2 trailer everyone wanted to see was a first look horizon call of the mountainwith amazing looking gameplay – plus news of a new patch for Horizon Forbidden West that landed on Thursday.

Everything you need to know about PlayStation Plus

• Now for the news I’m most looking forward to: We have a Stray release date! It’s coming on July 19th! We also have another follower that showed some gameplay. Oh, and it will be included as part of higher PlayStation Plus tiers.
• What else? Spider-Man is coming to PC on August 12, Miles Morales to follow soon.
• We saw a trailer for Survival Horror The Callisto Protocolwhich is giving us some serious Dead Space vibes and is out on December 2nd.
• plus rollerdromComing August 16th: The sci-fi roller derby game looks pretty fun – and anime action/dating sim ages lands in early 2023.

• In case you missed it: street fighter 6 Take a look inside and see new character Jamie coming along in 2023 alongside Luke, Chun-Li and Ryu Xbox Series X/S and PC versions also on the go.
• The critically acclaimed tunic Coming to PS4 and PS5 on September 27th Season: A Letter to the Future looks incredibly intriguing and coming this fall.
• But the biggest update everyone has been waiting for was the news of Final Fantasy XVI. We have a short film, next to a Summer 2023 release window. I can’t. Waiting.

tech calendar

• June 6th to 10th: Apple WWDC 2022
• June 9-12: Summer Game Festival
• June 10th: The Quarry releases on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One
• June 10th: Jurassic World Dominion in theaters
• 12th of June: Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase @ 12 p.m. CT
• 20-23 June: Collision (Toronto)
• June 26 – July 3: Summer games done quickly
• July 5 at 8:00 p.m. ET: Introducing the Asus ROG Phone 6
• July 19: Stray lands on PS5, PS4, PC

Tech tweet of the week

Some DALL-E 2 Kermit The Frog-inspired goodness – The Sopranos is pretty awesome:

Paula Beaton, Editor.