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This week’s top stories: Pixel 6 ad campaign, Google Weather redesign, Android 12 Beta 5, more

Kyle Bradshaw | Sep 11 2021 - 11:14 am PT

In this week’s top stories: advertising campaign begins for the Pixel 6, Google revamps its Weather applet, Android 12 Beta 5 releases, and more.

Ahead of the iPhone 13 launch event next week, Google has begun its advertising campaign for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. The first ad, which debuted on the Made by Google YouTube channel, gives us our first look at the real Pixel 6 in real people’s hands rather than the renders which Google has shown up to this point.

This first ad ends on “Coming Fall 2021” and a “For All You Are” tagline that will probably be how Google markets the Pixel 6 in videos and print. The company is appealing to the idea of a smart, personalized device that adapts to you. This is primarily thanks to Material You, but hopefully there are other smart software features.

After much anticipation and a few false-start rollouts, the Google Weather applet redesign is finally rolled out widely on Android. The new style ditches the navigation drawer and adds more rounded corners.

Upon launching from the At A Glance widget, homescreen shortcut icon (which Android 12 Beta 5 users have to do), or Search, the screen is initially white before theming to the current weather condition. The system gesture bar remains white, but the top portion now fully matches. Meanwhile, you can tap the new profile avatar to change temperature units between Fahrenheit and Celsius, as well as “Add to homescreen.”

Google has released the final Android 12 Beta for Pixel phones this week, ahead of its formal launch later this year. As always, our team has carefully located and cataloged all of the changes of Android 12 Beta 5, including Material You redesigns for Clock and Calculator, as well as an expanded easter egg. Here are just a few of our favorites:

For Pixel owners who aren’t testing Android 12, this week marked the release of September’s security patch. While there were no major features added, this update was notable as the first security patch for the Pixel 5a which launched with the June security patch.

There are 17 issues resolved in the September security patch dated 2021-09-01 and 23 for 2021-09-05. Vulnerabilities range from moderate to critical, with the most severe relating to the media framework and a remote attacker possibly executing arbitrary code through a crafted file.

Ahead of Android 12’s launch later this year, Google has unveiled a suite of Material You redesigns for their “Workspace” apps. While none of the redesigns are particularly radical, they’ll surprisingly also become available on Android 11.

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides is getting Material You with version 1.21.342. The updates are rolling out now, and limited to theming toolbars and other UI chrome. The document background does not change.