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Android Authority
25 minutes ago
- Android Authority
Gone but not forgotten: Survey reveals Android users miss these features the most
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority Our smartphones have undergone profound commodification. But in the process of forging them into objects we use and rely on for nearly every waking hour, phone companies have focused a lot on optimizing utility, which, in turn, has resulted in many key features being dropped from our beloved devices. These days, leading brands especially insist on slimming down phones more, even going against what users may truly want. So, to get a sense of which features our readers miss the most, we recently asked you which features among those abandoned by phone companies you miss the most. Thanks to those of you who participated and shared their views, we know we aren't alone in missing these features that were once fundamental elements of our smartphones but are now rare. Which abandoned Android phone features do you miss the most? More than 4,000 of you voted and told us which phone features you ache over the most. While we don't have a clear winner from the survey, our results convey that an almost equal number of people long for two key features. The 3.5mm headphone jack and the easy-to-replace battery were at the top of our results, receiving roughly 27% and 25% votes, respectively. We weren't surprised by the top choices, though the results were more tangled than we had anticipated initially. Right behind the top two choices were expandable storage and notification LEDs from older Android devices. This was obvious, too, since over the years, larger and significantly faster internal storage options have eliminated the need for hot-swappable SD cards, but they haven't replaced the latter's ease of transferring data from one device to another. And while brands like Nothing have tried to reinvent the OG notification LED with modern solutions like light strips or dot-matrix interfaces, they haven't quite been able to recreate the charm and unobstrusiveness of the tiny multi-colored LED. Meanwhile, fewer people said they missed the IR blaster, probably because some phones, such as the OnePlus 13, still offer it. Meanwhile, the FM radio is missed, but by only a small fraction. Some of our readers also suggested features that we initially did not account for, such as dual front-facing speakers or the squeeze gestures from the Pixel 3, the Soli RADAR for face unlock on the Pixel 4, and physical rear fingerprint scanners on devices. A few comments also rekindled memories from the days when modding Android devices with custom ROMs and kernels was popular. However, one reader left a very profound note on the nature of the phone market. Kamil Devonish speaks for many of us when they say the market now delivers very similar devices. What I miss is the the race to optimize these supply chains, we've somehow settled on phones that are in many ways a little worse than stuff we had before. Kamil Devonish Many of our commenters also noted that they miss more than a single feature, and I concur. But if I were to revive one feature, it would be the headphone jack. I miss the ease of plugging out from one device and into another in a second, without the arduous process of having to pair or unpair — while facing the limits in terms of devices we can connect to at once. Above all, I miss sitting with a close friend or a loved one and sharing one of the two earpieces with them while listening to the same soundtracks or music. Even though we can replicate it with wireless earbuds too, the lack of wires has allowed us to be reserved to our own personal spaces and grow distant as human beings. In this transition, we have started focusing more on the utility of technology while ignoring the emotions these channels led to. Follow
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Here's How Alphabet Can Become the World's Second $4 Trillion Company
Key Points The company generates the most profits among its big tech peers. Investors are worried about the legacy search business. But Alphabet has proven that it's here to stay. 10 stocks we like better than Alphabet › Nvidia made history by becoming the world's first $4 trillion company, and no other company has achieved this feat. Currently, Microsoft and Apple are in second and third place but have a bit of work to do with their $3.8 trillion and $3.2 trillion market caps, respectively. However, there's a dark horse that could beat those two to the $4 trillion threshold: Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), the world's fifth-largest company by market cap with a valuation of $2.5 trillion. That's a long way away from $4 trillion and significantly behind Microsoft and Apple. But there's one factor that Alphabet has going for it that gives it a solid argument for reaching $4 trillion before any of the companies ahead of it. Alphabet's second quarter was dominant Alphabet is likely better known by the businesses that it owns: Google, YouTube, Waymo, and the Android operating system. It has a dominant empire in various niches, but its most important is Google Search. In the second quarter, Google Search generated $54 billion of the company's revenue of $96 billion. That's a large chunk of its total, so it needs to continue having this division perform well to succeed as a whole. However, there are some early warning signs that have investors concerned. The most significant technologies in generative artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to transform how people use the internet. Currently, the vast majority of people seek information using Google Search. That could change if generative AI becomes more widely adopted by the masses. The market broadly assumes that it will replace Google, but that seems far from reality. One area where Google has bridged the gap is with AI search overviews, which give users a generative AI-powered summary of their search results. Management discussed the popularity of this feature during its second-quarter conference call and provided a couple of key insights for investors. First, AI overviews now have over 2 billion users in 40 different languages, showcasing its widespread appeal. Another huge revelation for investors is that it sees the same monetization as regular search results, so it's not harming Google's business at all by heavily investing in this technology. This showed up in Alphabet's results, as Google Search revenue rose 12% year over year. That's an acceleration from the 10% year-over-year growth in the first quarter. This isn't a sign of a dying business; it's a sign of one that's growing. As a result, there's no reason for Alphabet to trade at a significant discount to its big-tech peers, since it's growing just as fast (if not faster) than most of them. Its peers fetch a much higher premium The four companies ahead of Alphabet in market cap are Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon. Compared to these four, Alphabet trades at a huge discount. However, over the past 12 months, Alphabet has produced the most net income of any of these companies. Alphabet actually produces the most profit of any company that trades on U.S. exchanges, and if it received the same multiple as its peers, it would be the largest company in the world (in some cases). Company Trailing P/E Alphabet's Valuation at That Premium Nvidia 56.0 $6.47 Trillion Microsoft 39.7 $4.59 Trillion Apple 33.3 $3.85 Trillion Amazon 37.7 $4.36 Trillion Data source: YCharts. So, if the company were to receive the same respect as its peers, it would already be the world's largest company. Whether you think most of the big tech stocks are overvalued or if you think Alphabet is undervalued, it doesn't matter. It has some of the best chances of beating the market over the next few years due to its low valuation and impressive growth, considering its size. I think it's a top stock to buy now, and it makes even more sense if you're concerned that the market in general is getting too expensive. Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now? Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $625,254!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,090,257!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,036% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 181% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025 Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Here's How Alphabet Can Become the World's Second $4 Trillion Company was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
What Do Investors Need to Know About Real-World Assets (RWAs) in Cryptocurrency?
Key Points Blockchains can track who owns which asset once the assets are tokenized. Tokenization is just a fancy word for tracking information with a crypto token. Stocks, bonds, property, and commodities can all be tokenized, among other assets. 10 stocks we like better than Ethereum › When the shipping container debuted in 1956, it looked like little more than a steel box. Yet standardized containers soon rewired global trade by letting cargo move from trucks to ships to trains without repacking. Similarly, tokenization aims to do something just as radical for ownership records by imprinting an asset's paperwork onto a crypto token that can live on any blockchain where code can run. And it's the promise of this concept that's the reason investors keep hearing about real-world asset (RWA) tokens for everything from U.S. Treasuries to stocks to real estate. The hype about the sector is loud, but it's also just starting to pick up speed, so let's take a few minutes to understand why RWAs are worth knowing about. What tokenization really means First, let's clarify our nomenclature a bit. Think of a token as a deed written in code. Instead of a courthouse filing cabinet, the deed sits on a blockchain, recording who owns what and under what conditions. It isn't necessarily easy to exchange such a token for an actual deeded claim, but in theory, owning the token is the same as having the deed for the right to control the underlying asset. Stablecoins are the most familiar RWA, but they are just the gateway. Treasury bills, private credit, commodities, stocks, even real estate liens now have tokenized versions. The value of such assets already tokenized on public blockchains is at about $21.4 billion as of July 29. That figure looks puny next to forecasts. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) projects a total of $16.1 trillion of tokenized assets by 2030, or roughly 10% of global gross domestic product (GDP). That implies a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) near 148% from today's base. The pitch to asset issuers is relatively simple: Automate back-office drudgery, broaden token distribution to a 24/7 market instead of potentially highly illiquid and fragmented markets, and unlock fractional ownership if it isn't already widespread in the asset class. The pitch to investors is even simpler: Higher efficiency can shave transaction fees, slash red tape, and widen access to income-producing instruments previously walled off by minimum purchase sizes. Notably, while these promises look extremely likely to be proven true in the near future, they are not yet, and they may not ever be, proven for every asset class. Aside from that, there are a couple of issues with tokenization right now. Transaction settlement finality across jurisdictions, anti-money-laundering (AML) checks, and tax treatment remain largely unaddressed contingencies, but they won't be forever. Regulators are watching closely, and compliance standards differ from chain to chain. For most individuals, owning RWA tokens is unnecessary right now. The smarter play is identifying which blockchains are the most likely to capture the coming flood of institutional assets. And there are already a handful of decent contenders at the table. Three chains are positioned to benefit from this trend The current leaderboard for RWA tokenization winners starts with Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH). By value, about 55% of all tokenized RWAs, stablecoins included, sit on Ethereum, thanks to its sprawling ecosystem of custody, compliance, and lending tools, all of which are continuously evolving to meet the needs of its largest-in-class decentralized finance (DeFi) segment. That dominance could persist because big institutions prefer deep liquidity and familiar (if highly imperfect) infrastructure. Yet Ethereum's gas (user) fees spike when traffic is heavy on the network, and full-stack compliance (like built-in restrictions) still relies on third-party smart contract templates rather than built-in solutions. Rising fast is Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) due to its high speed and low costs, two traits asset managers love when minting high-volume instruments such as U.S. Treasuries or money market tokens. The value of RWAs on Solana has vaulted by about 140% this year to reach roughly $418 million, far outpacing the broader market's growth, especially in the tokenized stocks segment, where it is a leader. If Solana can keep transaction fees near fractions of a cent while volumes climb, it may evolve into the New York Stock Exchange of tokenized funds. Finally, there is XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), which is issued by the company Ripple. Ripple's engineers hard-wired regulatory compliance features like issuer freeze controls, blacklists, and compliance credentials directly into the protocol, creating a low-friction environment for banks that need to obey strict know-your-customer (KYC) and AML rules. Today XRP's chain hosts only a sliver of the RWA market, around $114 million, but if regulators demand more built-in safeguards, its advantage could compound quickly. Furthermore, its positioning is intended to make it the preferred solution for institutional investors, so it will likely have an advantage in onboarding their capital over time. For investors deciding how to ride the wave of this trend, remember that tokenization will be lifting chains that: Deliver good compliance infrastructure Maintain a large population of developers Keep transaction costs low enough to be almost insignificant, even at large scales The state of play here is that Ethereum checks the second box, Solana the latter two, and XRP the first and last. There's an opportunity here to own the digital ports collecting tolls as global finance loads its cargo into blockchain containers. Assuming the forecasts about the scale of tokenized RWAs are even half right, owning a slice of the winning infrastructure is going to be very rewarding. Diversifying across this trio of leaders is a decent way to ensure you get a return from whichever coin wins a given segment of the market for RWA tokenization. Should you invest $1,000 in Ethereum right now? Before you buy stock in Ethereum, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Ethereum wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $638,629!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,098,838!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,049% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025 Alex Carchidi has positions in Ethereum and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. What Do Investors Need to Know About Real-World Assets (RWAs) in Cryptocurrency? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
