Apple's A13 monster CPU benchmark, which Smart Display is best, and more

🌴 Happy Friday! Good news for me, I’m off to Greece next week for a final bit of European sun. Even better news for you: talented people will be here doing great things on the DGiT Daily, all week long!

Plus, of course, man on the microphone Adam Doud will still be guiding you through your day of tech, audibly. With audio. Speaking. With his voice... look, it’s our podcast, okay!

DGiT Intelligence: Smart Displays

This week in DGiT Intelligence, we bring in Andrew Grush, managing editor at Android Authority, to talk smart displays, a category just coming into maturity as smart speakers evolve.

And as Grushie says, Amazon may have pioneered the smart display, but Google and its partners have quickly caught up.

3. Amazon Echo Show:

Now in its second generation, the Amazon Echo Show (rundown) has a beautiful 8-inch display, excellent audio with great bass, and of course it is compatible with tons of smart home devices. It even has a two-way doorbell/camera feature.
This is a great option for those who prefer Alexa, though we warn you that its video features are only okay.
You can pick up the Show for around $230. Don’t want to spend that much? We recommend taking a look at the Echo Show 5 (review), which is basically a shrunken version, and is just $90.

2. Google Nest Hub

This is a 7-inch smart display formerly known as the Home Hub (review). The Hub is designed as a no-frills option, and that means no camera.
The sound quality also isn’t quite as good as the Show, but you get an excellent virtual recipe book and an easy to use interface, both of which arguably beat the Show.
And of course you get the power of Google Assistant, perfect for asking questions about the weather, the news, what something means, how to translate something, and more.
It’s also worth pointing out that the Hub has better video service support and is tightly integrated with YouTube. At only $149, there's a lot to love here.

1. Google Nest Hub Max

Not the cheapest, but definitely the best, the Hub Max has all the features of the standard hub but packs a larger 10-inch display and a camera for video calling.
Even more intriguing is the addition of Nest cam features, meaning your smart display also works as a security camera out of the box.
The Hub Max features plenty of smart display firsts, and with all of these bells and whistles, there’s really nothing else quite like it.
Of course, like the Show, it’s not quite a casual purchase, running for $230.
Full review here.

Round Up:

⏩ Apple A13 is 77% faster in single-core performance compared to Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 in Geekbench 5. Apple’s superiority isn't unexpected, but the gap is. Ouch, Qualcomm. GPU comparisons will likely be closer, though? Maybe?. r/android has a good discussion, and this is a great reply to a comment explaining why Google hasn’t jumped into building its own chips just yet. (It’s not just because the Pixel doesn’t sell in huge numbers, by the way.)

🤔 From last year: Why are Apple’s chips faster than Qualcomm’s? – Gary explains (Android Authority). Gary will have to re-explain with this A13 result, I suspect.

🌊 New Huawei Mate 30 Pro leak reveals curved waterfall display (Android Authority). By the way, TCL showed off display design at IFA 2019. It's coming.

🔫 Google Pixel 4 hands-on video shows off the phone’s gaming skills (Android Authority).

📷 Realme XT launched: India’s first 64MP smartphone retails for under $250 (Android Authority).

🖼 You can now order Google Photos prints for in-store, same-day pick-up at CVS in the U.S. (Android Authority).

🔙 Google One adds full automatic backups (Android Authority).

🆘 Google Maps' next update will make it easier for people to find addiction recovery resources and emergency medication (Android Authority).

📰 Google is changing its search algorithm to prioritize original news reporting (The Verge).

💰 T-Mobile gets aggressive, offers half off iPhone 11 even for current customers (CNET).

📦 Amazon's next big hardware event takes place September 25th (Engadget). Amazon already launched a lot of new devices at IFA, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of them again with clear U.S. pricing and availability. But what else?

📡 Hackers are exploiting a platform-agnostic flaw to track mobile phone locations (Ars Technica).

📜 California’s contractor law stirs confusion beyond the gig economy, as Uber says it doesn’t need to comply (NY Times).

🤔 Kickstarter has fired two union organizers in eight days (Slate).

🎮 Until E3, the idea of a gaming-dedicated browser was unheard of. Now Opera GX is adding even more features including network usage management alongside RAM and CPU limiters (Neowin).

🚗 Google's Waymo asked people to test its semi-autonomous car tech back in 2013. It worked just enough to force Google to cancel the tests (Jalopnik).

⬛ Even BMW’s ‘Vantablack’ X6 gets caught by LiDAR (Engadget).

🦴 2000-year-old belt buckle retrieved from ‘Russian Atlantis’ looks like a bedazzled phone case (Live Science).

🌔 Howl in delight at some of the best Astronomy photographs of 2019 (Gizmodo).

🤔 “People that keep their house really tidy, what's your secret?” (r/askreddit).

Friday Fun

The BBC published “The eternal life of the instant noodle” about a year ago, a tasty dive into ramen noodles, with different media including vids, audio, and articles.

Nuggets of ramen glory:

Ramen was perfected in 1958, by failed businessman inventor Momofuku Ando in Japan. Later, at age 61, he invented Cup Noodles for overseas markets.
Japan is so intensely fond of him and his creation that there’s a museum dedicated to the cup of noodle.
It’s a prison currency: instant noodles are valuable on the inside (as you would already know if you read an intensely interesting piece about the prison economy, linked back in the DGiT Monthly.)
New Zealander Kieran “Danger” Dooley ate nothing but instant noodles for 30 days, after watching Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me” documentary. Danger lost 11kg but won his top prize in his university documentary competition. I watched a lot of it, and it’s mostly bad.
“I couldn’t be bothered making the noodles,” said Dooley. “I’d just stare at them for 10 minutes and think, 'Why the hell did I do this?’”
Indeed.

I’ll catch you all the week after next!

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.