Dieter Bohn Google just created an Android app subscription

Welcome back to the week. Many things are happening: Amazon’s event, Oculus’ event, reviews I can’t tell you about yet, drama, emotions. It’s going to be a lot.

I’m traveling so I’m handing the newsletter back to Jake Kastrenakes for the next few days. I should probably tell him that, that would be a kind thing for a coworker to do. I’ve actually had kindness on my mind a little bit lately, since I watched the Emmy awards last night. I don’t know why, but I did smile a mean little smile about Game of Thrones getting shown up a bunch. Then I felt bad about it, just a little.

Anyway, I did not like the commentary when the winners walked up to give their speeches. Here’s a gentle reminder for you all: snark is not the same thing as wit. Witty people can be mean, but mean people aren’t necessarily witty. Try being kind and funny first, you can work on cutting later and even if you never get there, that doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

- Dieter

+ Google Play Pass bundles 350 Android games and apps for $4.99 per month

Without a doubt, this is the biggest news of the day. I keep having to remind people that Android is 80 to 90 percent of the worldwide smartphone market even though here in the US it feels like a minority (it’s really not!). This could fundamentally change so many parts of the app ecosystem and makes Apple Arcade look like it’s just a toe-dip in the water. I will be VERY curious to see how much developers like this new model.

+ Amazon plans Alexa earbuds with fitness tracking, Echo with subwoofer - CNBC

Kudos to Eugene Kim at CNBC for getting the scoop. True story: we spent most of last week marveling at how good Amazon is at keeping its announcements from leaking. At least there aren’t photos yet.

+ The Galaxy Fold goes on sale again in the US on September 27th

+ Apple will make its new Mac Pro in the US

Maybe this explains why Tim Apple has been visiting the White House more than I expected him to.

Apple says building the computer in the US is possible thanks to receiving a tariff exemption on “certain necessary components.” Production is supposed to begin “soon.”

+ HBO won Emmys night, but the future belongs to streaming platforms

+ Leaked video shows off Android running on a feature phone

While my default is to be happy about competition, there is a little part of me that worries that Android will bigfoot in and take over yet another market. Google has done a lot to support KaiOS, though, so maybe everybody will be friends and leave space for one another. Here’s me, holding my breath.

+ Google is reducing how much audio it saves for human review

Google may technically be right that having your voice saved was always opt-in, but come on: how many of you actually paid attention to the text about your voice being used to improve services? And even if you did, it wasn’t explicit about human review before.

Anyway, good on Google for being a lot clearer and more transparent about what it plans on doing going forward. It’s still pretty wacky that it took a bunch of scandals for Google, Amazon, and Apple to get us here, though.

+ Google may have just ushered in an era of ‘quantum supremacy’

Every time I see a quantum computing story my attitude is to sit back and wait. Invariably I’m proven right, that the announcement isn’t as big as it first appeared. That’s the right attitude to take here too, though there’s just enough here (a pulled paper! Hi-jinks!) to pay more attention than usual.