• UFS 5.0
  • Apple Gets with the [End] Times
  • Android 17

Relatively speaking, it was a slow tech news week if you ignore the constant AI drama, as I desperately tried to do...

UFS 5.0
Universal Flash Storage (UFS) is used primarily in mobile devices such as phones, tablets, and wearables. As of today, the current iteration is UFS 4.1, which tops out at 4.3GB/s read and 4.1GB/s write speeds. This week, Samsung announced UFS 5.0, which now has max 10.8GB/s read and 9.5GB/s write speeds. It is also physically smaller than UFS 4.1, which measures 11mm x 13xx x 1mm. UFS 5.0 is nearly 17% smaller at 7.5mm x 13mm x 0.9mm. UFS 5.0 will allow apps to load faster and speed up file transfers. But even more importantly than that, it will allow for improved on-device AI processing because the neural processing unit (NPU) will have to spend less time waiting for data from the model to load. UFS 5.0 is also more energy efficient and should generate less heat, allowing for improvements in battery life for mobile devices. And because the physical size has been reduced, it will fit into smaller devices with tighter tolerances and less space, such as smart glasses and AR/XR wearables. Samsung says production will begin in late 2026 and they will undoubtedly use this new flash storage in their upcoming devices. But UFS 5.0 will make its way into other devices as well, which means your future phones, tablets, and smart wearables will be able to do more processing on device faster than what is possible now. The speed improvements should enable more capable AI assistants and result in smoother performing operating systems.

Apple Gets with the [End] Times
The times are always changing and when it comes to prices, the changes are usually not for the better. By now most people are at least peripherally aware of the impact of AI and the surge in data center demand for RAM and the resulting dramatic price increases for fast RAM. As supply tightens and demand increases, the prices of products that use RAM has increased as well. We've seen price increases on game consoles, laptops, phones, and other similar product lines. Multiple manufacturers have raised prices, some as quietly as possible and others loudly blaming AI in hopes of deflecting the ire of customers. But up until now, we'd not heard a peep out of Apple. As one of the world's wealthiest companies also known for its very comfortable price margins, Apple doesn't tend to raise price tags just because others are doing it. They are hyper-protective of their margins and will make moves to maintain them, but they aim to do it smoothly and over time as opposed to big surprise price jumps that might scare off price-sensitive customers. But Tim Cook revealed in a recent interview that component costs had increased so much that they could no longer hold prices firm and customers should expect prices to increase on products. This week, the official announcement came that prices are increasing on MacBooks and iPads by as much as 25% or $500. Knowing that Apple doesn't like to raise prices frequently, we can be hopeful that these prices will stick for a while and won't continue going up even as the RAM shortages are expected to continue through the end of 2027.

If there was ever a good time to make use of sales during Amazon's Prime Days and Best Buy's sales on tech products, this year may be a good one as there are some decent deals to be had on iPads and other Apple products. Even knowing that the new products will be able to make the best use of the new advancements in Siri and on-device AI processing, it might still make sense to shop sales on current products if you are in the market for new Apple devices.

Android 17
Android updates are always a bag of joy topped with a certain level of pain. Depending on what you phone you have, you are either aware that the update is coming and you will update as soon as it's available to you, or you likely have no idea that an update is coming and therefore won't be specifically disappointed if you can't get it in a timely manner (or at all). In the United States, Android phone owners generally fall into 3 to 4 groups. The first group is owners of Google Pixels who are hyperaware of impending updates and find them something to celebrate and hopefully enjoy with minimum side effects (Pixels, especially older models, seem to suffer quite a bit from adverse impacts of operating system upgrades). This group is probably the smallest but tend to make the most noise. The second group is owners of Samsung Galaxy phones for whom updates are something that will eventually show up, usually when least expected or desired. This is the largest group. One note: A subset of that Samsung group who buy the most expensive Galaxy phones (i.e. the Galaxy S Ultra line) technically fit into the first group as they are as dialed-in on updates as Pixel owners and participate in beta tests for the new operating system updates when Samsung makes them available for their phone, as Samsung has been more proactive in opening beta programs for their latest phones. The third group is owners of Motorola phones, who for the most part, probably aren't paying attention to operating system updates at all as they're simply not used to them arriving with any kind of regularity. It has been only very recently that Motorola has made an effort to put out phones offering multiple years of software support and operating system upgrades. The last Motorola phone I bought a few years ago was a high-end phone that got exactly one Android version upgrade and even then, it took about a year for it to arrive after it debuted on Pixel phones.

Since I am a gadget girl and Android enthusiast, for years I have made sure I have at least one Pixel in my collection so I can participate in Android betas and familiarize myself with the newest features and updates. That means Android 17 did not catch me by surprise. I had the developer betas installed on my Pixel 9 Pro XL and Pixel Tablet. But with much more going on in my life, I admit I hadn't spent as much time poring over features and trying to understand what was changing. Now that Android 17 is available for all supported Pixels, I have been trying to understand what the marquee features are. In the end, there are many small things that add up to a solid update, but there are ultimately two features that seem to have the most mindshare. The first of those features is a multi-tasking feature called "Bubbles". Now, we've seen bubbles in the past, primarily for messaging apps and keeping up with the chats that are most important to you. But this new expanded bubble feature allows you to open any app in a window and provides easy access for switching between apps you've opened simply by tapping on their respective bubbles. Now, this is technically more task-switching than multi-tasking because you aren't able to see more than one app at a time, but it can make switching between your most commonly used apps much faster than going back to the recent app list or pulling up the app drawer. You can also easily return to full screen mode by re-opening the app from the home screen or app drawer or by dismissing it in the bubble list view. I don't do as much multi-tasking or fast app switching on my phone as I do on my tablet, but I like this feature and I've been living with a few key apps in bubble mode on my Pixel 9 Pro XL and I enjoy being able to rotate among them quickly. When people eventually get to try this on their current or future phones, I think it might save people some time. You don't always have to have two or more apps on screen to speed up your workflow. This is one reasonably elegant way to get more stuff done faster.

The other feature that has been gathering much attention is the reactions feature that allows you to capture your face from the selfie camera while doing a screen recording. This means people can - on Pixel for now, anyway - do reaction videos or even app reviews or tutorials more easily than ever before. Knowing how popular reaction videos have become on YouTube and other video platforms, this may make the vertical versions even more prevalent as people discover they can very quickly whip out quick reaction videos and post them to social media without ever even needing to fire up a laptop or desktop. It may not result in a dramatic torrential downpour of new reaction videos right away, but over time, as phones get updated and people upgrade to new phones, this may start a new wave of reaction videos that none of us are prepared to need to frantically scroll past. The key will be whether Google will be effective at communicating these new features to customers. Google is unusually bad at marketing, so we will see how much these new features will take off and become mainstream. It may be left up to Samsung to market them and get everyday people to use them. Get ready for some bad commercials coming your way very soon.