Travelling to Lake Erie! - Main Blog!

As always, I'll start with the biggest thing of the week! I have a Travel Blog post and Video from my trip to Lake Erie! A few weeks ago I was in Port Clinton and I took you all along! This post and video were a ton of work from Adobe's MANY, many software issues to photos not uploading correctly to the blog, I finally got there and was only an hour or so late posting it! Also, I didn't get any copyright claims on the video! Huge thank you to YouTube support for doing something last time we spoke! It seems that the music licences are going through perfectly now! You can check out the blog post with the blue button and the video can be seen by clicking through the blog post! 

Adobe Accelerate #7! - Behance

Another episode of Adobe Accelerate is out as well! I edited a photo from the 5th day in the Lake Erie area! Enjoy!

The Pixel 5a! - Medium

Google just released the Pixel 5a which is the next step in the Pixel "a" series line-up. There were some things I wanted to talk about and overall explain what I think Google's odd strategy is and why this phone isn't standing out like the 4a did! Also, I want to comment on my Medium audience engagement. The average read time is 11 minutes for a 6-minute post! Thank you so much!

One Year! 

This week, we hit a HUGE milestone on the blog! I have officially been posting for one year! On August 15th, I officially published the blog after a few months of development and I started a week of posts which soon turned into the weekly posts that the blog currently has! Thank you so much for this!  

200!

Another quick thing I wanted to thank you for is over 200 comments on the blog! Something I think is kinda funny is that I have had 200 spam comments in the past month that were filtered out by the WP spam protection. I think that is kinda funny, definitely links back to my post on Medium about spam comment issues!

News!
Now, to end off this newsletter with some news! Here is what happened this week in photo and tech news!

- A new Phantom ENTRY LEVEL camera can shoot more than ONE MILLION frames per second!

- Google is officially requiring vaccination for all employees once work returns, BUT they have delayed return to work until October.

- Although Apple has not been open about this, the Chip Shortage has now hit them and in a very quite and cryptic statement does hint at it effecting the upcoming iPhone 13.

- There may be some security issues with the new Windows 11 Apps in the way that the store is coded.

- Videoleap is now on Android... This isn't new news, but I totally forgot to put it in a past newsletter!

- More than 2 MILLION Google + users are receiving $2.15 after a lawsuit.

- DJI has released an Mini SE drone for $300!

- After going to court, it has been ruled that Google has infringed on Sonos patents for smart speakers... this could be very bad for the future of Google Nest assistants.

- Intel now officially has chip support for Windows 11 which could hint of a launch soon?

- Google was not able to create Pixel phone default wallpapers for the Pixel 4 and 4a apparently and the "official" wallpapers are now out. I was pretty sure my 4a had this last year though...

- Before the 5a release, there were some leaked photos from repair shops of the device.

- Right after this, the 5a did come out! Here is some info from the Verge.

- The incognito tab on Chrome had a redesign following a $5 Billion lawsuit... likely because someone was dumb enough to think that this was a private way of browsing. 

- Fuchsia OS is continuing to release onto 1st Gen Nest Hubs in an odd way. These devices look practically the same as before rollout, but have a different OS...

- Google is removing the charger from Pixel boxes, BUT I actually agree with Google on this one. Unlike both Apple and Samsung, Google has NEVER changed Pixel chargers. Since the Pixel 1 in 2016, the first ever Google Pixel, Google shipped a double ended USBC 18w charger! Especially for then, having such a nice charger in the box was incredible. Apple and Samsung have changed their chargers since then, also worth noting that they continue to use 5w chargers. I think you see what I mean, Google has had the same charger with phones and so most Pixel users upgrading from earlier Pixels that have lost support, don't need a new charger for the new phones, making it a logical choice for Google to remove the charger. An argument could be made to say that "budget" Google Pixels should have the charger still, but that is definitely something that could be debated.

- Google is discontinuing Android Auto for phones... kinda. It is now available in Google Maps if your phone knows you are driving and will switch to the simpler OS/UI. We aren't totally loosing Android Auto for phones, but the name is now Google Assistant Driving Mode. Yeah, I'll say it... So much for no longer discontinuing apps Google. 😂

- We got a major Photoshop Update with an updated sky replacement to compete with Laminar!

- Did you know that Windows users can actually be more than an administrator? Well, there is such thing as "god mode" in Windows 10 and 11! You can click through to the article to learn how to enable it!

- Amazon is rolling out a Kindle update.

- The Google lawsuit could result in Google Smart speakers being banned. It could be pretty bad, and I find it pretty worrying. Google could be totally banned from making smart speakers and have to put the line up on hold. It will cost Google a lot of money and it will likely reflect in different parts of the company as well.

- Canon unveiled the next gen studio camcorder!

- An old email uncovered from Apple confirms that Apple was working an iPhone nano just like the iPod nano.

- Samsung officially said that their phones will no longer ship with software ads! Oh wait, only if they are over $1000. Oh, great.

- To end off, here is another 5a review from the Android Police.

That is all for this week! Thank you so much, and I'll see you next week!
-Digital Wonders & Smiles!