The Weekly Authority: 📱 Pixel Prototype

⚡ Welcome to  The Weekly Authority, the Android Authority newsletter that breaks down the top Android and tech news from the week. The 197th edition here, with that Pixel 7 prototype, Galaxy foldable 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’ve been enjoying the two-day national holiday, and we had a street party here in town!

Popular news this week

Google:

Samsung:

OnePlus:

Xiaomi

Apple:

Space:

Elsewhere:

Movies/TV:

• Top Gun: Maverick’s Memorial Day weekend opener brought in $124 million at the box office last Sunday night ($248 million worldwide).
• The Boys season 3 hit Amazon Prime Video on Friday and the first reviews are in.
• And Stranger Things creators answer burning questions ahead of Volume 2 (spoiler alert if you haven’t already binged through Volume 1!).
• Meanwhile, Netflix’s new password sharing crackdown is a confusing mess in test markets in Costa Rica, Chile, and Peru.
• Speaking of Netflix, a trailer dropped for new action comedy The Man From Toronto, starring Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson.
• Owen Wilson’s superhero movie is coming to Paramount Plus: but no offical release date for Secret Headquarters yet.
• Spider haters look away now: An Arachnophobia remake’s in the works, with Christopher Landon on board as director, James Wan and Michael Clear named as producers.
• And: Beavis and Butt-Head Do The Universe gets a release date, premiering on Paramount Plus June 23 — plus there’s a trailer, and 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 pick of the best new streaming movies, from 13 Going on 30 to Colossal.

Gaming:

• Bad news for Diablo fans: Many of Samsung’s Exynos-powered phones can’t run Diablo Immortal, but Blizzard’s working on a fix.
• Speaking of, Diablo Immortal won’t be released in Belgium or The Netherlands, due to the countries’ laws around lootboxes.
• Steam Deck’s docking station indefinitely delayed with Valve citing “parts shortages and COVID closures.”
• And Amazon finally launches an invite system for buying a PS5 or Xbox Series X.
• Summer Game Fest reveals lineup of over 30 participating companies, taking place June 9-12.
• Meanwhile, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sequel’s coming next year, will be next-gen only.
• The first Modern Warfare 2 trailer landed ahead of the June 8 full gameplay reveal.
• And Modern Warfare 2 art sparks Call of Duty platform speculation — could the game return to Steam?
• BioWare confirms next big fantasy RPG title — Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, but don’t expect it this year.
• Veteran Square-Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto retires — often credited for spawning Kingdom Hearts franchise, he also worked on FF VIII, FF IX, and The World Ends With You, plus its sequel.
• Sony’s going all in on 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 revered game developers is making a game for Apple’s subscription service: Yu Suzuki and his team are working on Air Twister, out June 24.
• Also: This interview with Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney dives into Fortnite, the metaverse, and more…

Reviews

• Vivo X80 Pro review: Vivo’s best, (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, excellent display, long-lasting 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 flaws, missing features at launch, and an extremely limited third-party app ecosystem unless you plan to stick with a Huawei phone.”
• 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 extensively-supported, feature-packed software, the Galaxy S22 Ultra boasts the S Pen and a plethora of productivity tools unmatched by the competition.”

Features

This week PlayStation’s latest State of Play gave us lots to be excited about, including Final Fantasy 16 news:

If you missed it, you can catch up here, but otherwise keep reading for everything you missed:

• Things kicked off with a new trailer for the Resident Evil 4 remake, which we were expecting but still excited for. It’s coming March 24, 2023, plus being developed for PSVR2, and will come to PC and Xbox Series X/S.
• The PSVR2 news continued with a look at Resident Evil Village — to be honest, looks a bit scary for me but kudos to anyone brave enough to play it! Following up the horror was another scary title, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners Ch2, and we also got a glimpse at a VR version of No Man’s Sky.
• But the PSVR2 trailer everyone wanted to see was a first peek at Horizon Call of the Mountain, with some amazing-looking gameplay — plus news on a new patch for Horizon Forbidden West, which landed Thursday.

Everything you need to know about PlayStation Plus

• On to the news I’m most excited for: We got a release date for Stray! It’s coming July 19! We also got another trailer that showed off some gameplay. Oh, and it’ll be included as part of higher PlayStation Plus tiers.
• What else? Spider-Man’s coming to PC on August 12, with Miles Morales to follow soon.
• We saw a trailer for survival horror The Callisto Protocol, giving us serious Dead Space vibes and coming December 2.
• Plus Rollerdrome‘s out August 16: the sci-fi roller derby game looks pretty fun — and anime action/dating sim Eternights lands early 2023.

• In case you missed it: Street Fighter 6 got a look in, showing off new character Jamie alongside Luke, Chun-Li, and Ryu, coming in 2023, with Xbox Series X/S and PC versions on the way too.
• The critically acclaimed Tunic hits PS4 and PS5 on September 27, and Season: A Letter to the Future looks hauntingly intriguing, coming this fall.
• But the biggest update, the one everyone was waiting for, was Final Fantasy XVI news. We got a trailer, alongside a summer 2023 release window. I. can’t. wait.

Tech Calendar

• June 6-10: Apple WWDC 2022
• June 9-12: Summer Game Fest
• June 10: The Quarry released on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One
• June 10: Jurassic World Dominion in theaters
• June 12: Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase @ 12 PM CT
• June 20-23: Collision (Toronto)
• June 26-July 3: Summer Games Done Quick
• July 5 @ 8 AM ET: Asus ROG Phone 6 launch
• July 19: Stray lands on PS5, PS4, PC

Tech Tweet of the Week

Some DALL-E 2 Kermit The Frog-inspired goodness — The Sopranos one is pretty great:

Paula Beaton, Copy Editor.