Pocketnow Daily: Apple’s Spring Event DATE REVEALED, Facebook and Instagram SHUTTING DOWN in EU? & more! (video)

The official news today begin with Google and something we talked about last week. If you remember, we reported about Mountain View’s Q4 earnings call where they reported that the Pixel 6 Series was selling excellently and breaking sales records but, they didn’t provide any numbers and it might not be so good as they’re making it seem. We have some new data from Counterpoint , claiming that Pixel phones sales only went up 7% year-over-year in Q4 when compared to 2020. However, in the month of December, the sales went up 14% which might be the record breaking growth that Google was talking about.. Counterpoint states that Google’s smartphone sales went up by 56% when compared to the previous year but, they’re still 6th in the US market with a 1% share behind other companies like OnePlus. And this doesn’t really come off as a surprise as Google has been facing supply chain issues and the Pixel 6 is only available in certain countries at the moment but, it is slowly expanding to countries like Spain and Italy. Let us know if any of you got a Pixel and by the way, there’s a fix for the Magic Eraser update on the way.

I know, by the time you’re watching this we’re only a day away but let’s talk about a couple of new Galaxy S22 details that have been making some headlines. Starting with something official, Samsung recently announced that they’re making a new material for their devices made out of “repurposed ocean-bound discarded fishing nets” and this material will make its debut alongside the S22 Series. We’re not sure how Samsung plans to use this material or if it’s going to be a part of the Galaxy S22 Series but hey, I think this is a better way to help the environment than taking the charging brick out of the box. Moving on to some official leaks, Sammy just pulled a Google and flat out revealed the design for their new phones on their Facebook page in a pre-order post. Confirming that the Ultra looks like a Note, it brings an S Pen, and the Bronze color is making a comeback. AT&T has also joined the party as Galaxy S22 Series posters can be seen in some of their stores, showing off the same image we got from Sammy’s page. So yeah, I guess I can finally say is that the only thing left here is for them to tell us the price.

Let’s switch over to Meta and more controversy because, that’s the way things go. For starters, the company’s stocks recently fell by around 25% which means they lost a whole 251 Billion dollars off their market cap, their biggest drop in valuation… Ever. But, the controversy starts when we get some new reports submitted to the SEC, where the company is outlining a scenario where they would have to shut down Facebook and Instagram in Europe. If you’re wondering why? Well, Europe’s new laws require users’ data to be kept and processed in Europe servers only, and Meta shares servers between the US and Europe claiming that processing data across continents is essential to their business… Meaning they haven’t been able to comply with these new data-sharing agreements and this would result in them no longer being able to offer these services in Europe. On a statement, Meta’s VP talked about how the impact in these new laws might affect both small and large businesses across multiple sectors and I think it’s the first time they play the “small business card” which I’ll debate because if Meta really cared about not affecting all the small businesses that rely on their services, well, they would simply abide by the laws that weren’t made public yesterday.

Finally, for the hottest news today let’s talk about Apple and that Spring Event that’s been in the leaks for the past few weeks and I’m sorry if I sound like a broken record with some of the stuff I’m about to say. In his latest newsletter and in a report from Friday, Mark Gurman claims that Cupertino will be holding a virtual event on Tuesday March 8th, where they plan to release the new iPhone SE and iPad Air models. We’ve been covering these a ton so, as a quick recap.. Both of these are expected to bring the same design from their predecessors but, they’ll both be powered by an A15 chip and bring 5G support as their major changes. Where things get interesting is when Gurman mentions that Apple plans to launch at least one new Mac this Spring.. The problem is he wasn’t explicit on whether it was coming at this event or not. Rumors hint that it could be the high end Mac mini powered by the M1 Pro and M1 Max, as a temporary replacement to the 27-inch iMac that’s rumored for the second half of the year. Finally, he also mentioned that Cupertino has at least 4 Macs powered by M2 chips in the pipeline for this year. These most likely include the new redesigned MacBook Air, the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, the 24-inch iMac, and a refreshed entry-level Mac mini. So yes, iPhone SE and iPad Air and one Mac for the Spring, and a ton of Macs along with the rest of the products for the end of the year.