Month: November 2025

This week, Mishaal Rahman and C. Scott Brown discuss the bombshell news that Google has updated Quick Share to be compatible with Apple’s AirDrop — without Apple’s help. They also break down the leaked design and new “head gesture” features of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro and analyze the new “Now Nudges” coming to One UI 8.5.

The Authority Insights Podcast is a new weekly show from the Android Authority team hosted by Mishaal Rahman and C. Scott Brown. In each episode, we’ll break down the latest exclusive reports, app teardowns, and leaks from the Android Authority team.

Apple TV, the rebranded streaming service formerly known as Apple TV+, seems to have another hit in the viral Pluribus series. However, it’s more expensive than ever to get started binging Apple TV titles. The streaming service hiked prices from $9.99 to $12.99 per month in August for new and existing subscribers.

If you found those prices too expensive, Apple TV’s limited-time Black Friday promotion slashes the streaming service’s monthly price by more than half for six months. It’s available now for new and eligible returning subscribers, so interested customers should take advantage of it now.

Google’s new Quick Share update doesn’t just let Android users send files to iPhones using AirDrop. We’ve confirmed that AirDrop can also now send files from an iPhone directly to a Pixel 10 as well, bringing true cross-platform sharing to the table.

So if your friend has an iPhone, they can follow the exact same AirDrop steps they would use to send a file to another Apple device. Your Pixel 10 will show up in their AirDrop list, and the transfer goes through normally. On your side, you’ll just need to set “Who can share with you” in Quick Share to “Everyone for 10 minutes” or tap the Receive button to temporarily make your device visible to everyone. You’ll obviously need an updated phone and the new Quick Share app for interoperability to work.

If you’ve been daydreaming about a home theater setup but don’t want a giant TV overtaking your living room, Black Friday is the time to shop. Among the projectors currently hitting steep discounts, Aurzen’s compact Roku TV projectors are down to some of their best prices of the year. More importantly, both models currently on sale deliver far more portability than a wall-mounted behemoth. Aim either at a blank wall, and you’re all set for holiday movie nights.

Aurzen EAZZE D1R

At an approachable price point, the EAZZE D1R features built-in Roku TV for straightforward streaming without any extra hardware. It also packs 1080p resolution and Dolby Audio, plus auto focus and auto keystone for near-instant setup. Brightness lands at 280 ANSI lumens, which is solid for dark or evening viewing, and projection can stretch from 60 to 150 inches. That range should be more than ample for movies, gaming, or turning your space into an aggressively cozy virtual fireplace. Dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth round out the essentials. It’s an easy win for anyone wanting a plug-and-play projector that won’t dominate the room or the budget.

Home Assistant, the increasingly popular smart home platform that many enthusiasts now prefer over Google Home, has a new piece of hardware that promises to end your smart home chaos once and for all. Called the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2, this $49 device is a USB adapter designed to unify Zigbee, Thread, and Matter devices under one roof, no separate hubs ro apps required.

ReMarkable is getting a head start on the holiday season with an early Black Friday campaign. The rare, price-cutting deals begin on November 20, 2025, and run through Cyber Monday, offering meaningful discounts across the company’s lineup and giving shoppers ample time to secure a digital notebook before the holiday rush.

This year’s promotion includes two separate deals. The first is a $70 discount on all reMarkable 2 bundles, the brand’s crowd-pleasing classic. The reMarkable 2 stays popular because it’s slim, simple, and nails the paper-and-pen-like experience better than many e-ink competitors. The second deal is a $50 discount on all reMarkable Paper Pro bundles, giving the larger, more powerful model a friendlier price tag. In both cases, the discounts apply whether you’re buying new or refurbished.

Google is giving its weather tools a major upgrade. The company has announced WeatherNext 2, its most advanced AI-powered weather forecasting model yet. According to Google, WeatherNext 2 will make weather information in the Pixel Weather app, Google Search, Gemini, and Google Maps more accurate and more useful.

Google has just scored an important win for the Android camp in its competition with Apple. According to a study based on crowdsourced data collected by Ookla, the Pixel 10 Pro beat the iPhone 17 family by delivering the fastest global median Wi-Fi download speeds.

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I can’t say I’m remotely surprised to see reports that the Apple iPhone Air and Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge are struggling for sales. Nor that their successors might never even see the light of day. While the idea of a super lightweight, perfectly pocketable powerhouse sounds good on paper, they’re just not the kind of devices most people want to buy. They’re prohibitively expensive to start with, though that hasn’t stopped booklet-style foldables from finding a sustainable niche. No, the real problem — the one we all saw coming — is their dreadful battery life. And yet, better battery life consistently tops consumer wishlist

On the other hand, we now have our first smartphones that are pushing in the opposite direction. The new OnePlus 15 and OPPO Find X9 Pro are part of a new wave of handsets featuring silicon-carbon infused batteries, offering enough capacity to last two days of solid use and perhaps even longer for some. And I bet you can guess which of those two categories has my attention.

The vast majority of Android games use touchscreen controls, which makes sense since most Android devices are smartphones or tablets. However, there’s a growing number of Android games you can play with a controller — a list that will only expand as the operating system reaches new form factors. Furthermore, the rising popularity of cloud gaming allows Android users to play many non-touchscreen titles that aren’t natively available on the platform. To better bridge the gap between these input methods, Google is working on new features in Android 17 that will give gamers more control over button presses.

You’re reading the Authority Insights Newsletter, a weekly newsletter that reveals some new facet of Android that hasn’t been reported on anywhere else. If you’re looking for the latest scoops, the hottest leaks, and breaking news on Google’s Android operating system and other mobile tech topics, then we’ve got you covered.