Ask Paul: February 11 (Premium)

Happy Friday! Let’s kick off the weekend a bit early with another great round of reader questions.
Foldables
crunchyfrog asks:

It seems clear to me that Google is really starting to take foldable devices, wearables and large screens seriously with the beta release of Android 12L and the full release of WearOS 3. Android 12 has shown some great promise and although it's had a few issues so far, I expect that Android 13 will smooth out the issues we saw in 12.

I didn’t write this up---I don’t think there was an official announcement, just this---but Google did just release Android 12L Beta 3, which, among other things, adds support for the Pixel 6 series. And I’m a bit confused by the note that Android 13 will “build on some of the newer updates [Google] made in 12L to help [developers] take advantage of the 250+ million large-screen Android devices currently running.” But yeah. I’m very interested in this as well and am curious what this means on a variety of levels, including for Chrome OS, which was previously the heir apparent for tablets and convertibles.

That leads me to a few questions:

Do you see Google folding the features from 12L into a single OS or split between two versions (ie. iOS and iPadOS)?

I think they continue with two, similar to what Apple does with iOS and iPadOS, and that (as hinted in the quote above), there will be identical features in both when that makes sense (as is the case with iOS and iPadOS). It’s weird to me that they’re on different paths---why isn’t L on 13?---but maybe this is part of a lock-step strategy where the Android version lands first followed by the Android L version.

Does any of this have any influence on your next phone choice?

Not yet: it’s unlikely I’ll be buying a foldable this year, just as it’s unlikely I’ll be buying a full-sized (or any sized) Android tablet this year. But given the steady evolution of the former, it’s only a matter of time. It’s a bit weird to admit this, but it’s more likely that my wife will get one of these first. She’s curiously interested in foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold, as opposed to the smaller Galaxy Z Flip. But she’s not much of an early adopter, and she doesn’t like to spend money needlessly. She’s currently using a 2020-era Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (that I had purchased that year to review) and she’ll hold onto that for another year or two. After that, I bet her next phone is a foldable.

If a review opportunity came up, I’d take it, of course. But the problem---for me---with an Android foldable is that Android tablets just don’t measure up to the iPad yet. It’s clear that Samsung makes high-quality, competitive hardware. It’s more the software/services that are the issue. But if Android L pays off for Google, that could change. And then a foldable that could replace both a smartphone and a tablet starts to make a lot of sense. And not just for me.
Podcast apps
bwookey asks:
...