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This week’s top stories: Netflix may buy Roku, Pixel Feature Drop, likely ‘Chromecast HD’ reaches FCC

Kyle Bradshaw | Jun 11 2022 - 6:30 am PT

In this week’s top stories: rumors suggest Roku may be acquired by Netflix, Pixel phones get the June 2022 Feature Drop, the likely “Chromecast HD” gets FCC approval, and more.

According to a new report, rumors have been swirling among Roku employees that the company may get acquired by streaming giant Netflix. Such a buyout would reportedly cost around $13 billion, but give the service a firm foothold into the hardware market.

In today’s heated streaming market, Roku being acquired by Netflix just makes a whole lot of sense. Roku has reportedly been looking for a buyer for years, and with both companies in tough spots due to increased competition, they can bolster each other in some big ways.

Google Pixel phones all received an update this week, bringing all the enhancements of the June Pixel Feature Drop. The update includes improvements to At a Glance, digital vaccine cards, and a new music video creation app. Our Damien Wilde has prepared a fantastic overview of everything that’s new.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Google would be releasing a “Chromecast HD with Google TV,” offering an even more affordable option. This week, Google registered a “wireless device” with the FCC in the US, but the few available specs line up with that 1080p Chromecast rumor.

Google is presumably reusing the existing Voice Remote to save on costs as a new model would have likely arrived at the regulatory agency at the same time and there is nothing else today. Other information gleaned today is the presence of two antennas in the device.

After months of intermittent availability at only two retailers (Amazon and Target), Motorola Audio has expanded the purchase options for its popular MA1 dongle for wireless Android Auto. However, the addition of Best Buy as a third retailer has quickly led to simply being a third out of stock notice.

Like Amazon and Target, though, Motorola MA1 at Best Buy is suffering from the same stock issues. The product is completely out of stock at the time we were publishing this article, but it was available recently. As of June 3, the product was in stock for at least an hour, which beats out the mere seconds that other retailers manage. But even that quickly dried up due to the pent-up demand.

At Apple’s WWDC event this week, the company unveiled the new features fans can expect from iOS 16. We took a closer look at some of these iOS 16 improvements and compared them to features that have existed in Android already.

Every year when Google and Apple come out with their latest OS updates, there are always features that were inspired by each other. Whether it’s a new customization feature, design, or accessibility, someone always did it first. Here are the five biggest iOS 16 features that Google did first and Android phones can do right now.