How Google’s Earthquake Alerts Protected Millions — And How to Turn It On in Quake-Prone Countries When two massive earthquakes (7.2 and 7.5) struck Venezuela recently, the country had no national early warning system. But millions of Android phones lit up with loud alerts seconds to minutes before the shaking hit — giving people precious time to drop, cover, and hold on. Google’s clever system turns the accelerometers in over 2 billion Android phones into a giant crowdsourced seismic network. It detects the first waves, confirms the quake, and blasts notifications to users in the affected area. In Venezuela, it reached 11.4 million people — proving technology can save lives even where governments can’t. How to activate it (works in nearly 100 countries): Open Settings on your Android phone. Tap Safety & Emergency (or search for “Earthquake alerts”). Select Earthquake Alerts and toggle it ON. Keep Location services ena...
The new Pixel 8 series release with 7 years of software support seems like the best. The Pixel devices are known for their Simple Software, which sets them apart in the Android/smartphone market. They are considered smart devices because of their impressive features, such as photo editing, Audio Magic Eraser, and Google Assistant. The Pixel 8 and 8 Pro are better than their predecessors in several ways, making them more compelling. However, Google is asking for a lot of trust from its users to get there. The new phones are more expensive, with a $100 price hike for each model. This puts the Pixel 8 at $699 and the Pixel 8 Pro at $999. The days of the standard Pixel being an upper-tier midrange phone are gone, as they are now both flagship devices. The new Pixel 8 and 8 Pro come with the 4nm processor Tensor G3, which boosts performance and AI capabilities compared to the old Tensor G2. While the new Tensor still lacks the raw performance benchmarks of other devices like Samsung an...