Author: Clinton

While we are still a few months away from seeing a developer preview, work is steadily going happening on Android P.  There is one change however that could impact developers who are accessing hidden APIs in Android.  It looks like access to them is going to be blocked in P.

A new commit in the Android Release gerrit suggests that access to hidden APIs will be blocked, forcing developers to use the approved APIs in the release.

The following patch enforces the hidden API blacklist, preventing access to boot class path methods/fields marked by the `hiddenapi` tool using static linking, reflection and JNI.

This could require some developers to rework their apps if they want them to work on Android P.

Google is set to roll out an update to Google Play Services tomorrow aimed at addressing the slow WiFi issue that some users of Chromecast and Google Home have experienced.  The issue cropped up a couple of weeks ago and at first, was thought to be an issue with the new Google Home Max.  It turns out that Google Play Services was the culprit.

For those that haven’t encountered the problem (good!), it comes down to Android devices on your network as well as Chromecast and Home devices.  Essentially what was happening is that Android devices on the same network would see the Cast enabled device and flood your network with packets.  That would cause slowness or instability.  It was effectively an internal DDoS attack.

Google is in the process of rolling out a change they announced back in early December 2017 where viewing of Google Photos will no longer be available in Google Drive.  To be clear, this is in reference to the Google Photo menu option on the left.  If you click on that either online or in the Android/iOS app, you will no longer be able to view them.  Instead, you be prompted to go to Google Photos to view them.

Google Photos in Google Drive

The change is in an effort to simplify the connection between Google Photos and Google Drive.  Users were confused on where exactly to go and manage or edit photos as it appeared you could do it in both services.  Now Google is pushing everyone towards Photos for photo management.

Let the Android P name guessing begin!  It is 2018 and while Google hasn’t firmly committed that there will be a version 9.0 of Android, it is pretty much a given that we will see it late this year and likely will see the first beta builds as soon as May, around Google I/O.

The question, as it is every year, is what will the official name of Android P be when it is released?  Well, we may have gotten a hint.  Or not.  Who knows?  There is a new commit in the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) Gerrit that refers to “Pi”, which is likely the internal name for Android v9.0.

Chromebooks have come a long way these past six years both in overall design and function as well as Chrome OS itself.  While there are still plenty of budget friendly, sub-$200 options out there, there are also more powerful devices out there aimed at being your daily driver of a laptop.  The pinnacle of this is, of course, the Google Pixelbook.  But at a base price of $999, it is out of the reach of some who still need something as powerful or close to it.  That is where the ASUS Flip C302CA could prove to be a viable option.

The base model of the C302CA is price at $449 with the top-end, Intel m5 equipped model topping out at $609.  While the mCore processors don’t have the same grunt as the iCore processors, for the majority of users it will get the job done.  Is it also lightweight, has an excellent screen and solid, all day battery life.

I was recently sent an ASUS Flip C302CA to review and having used it as my primary laptop device for the past couple of weeks, I believe it is the second best option out there in the current lineup of high-end, power Chromebooks behind the Pixelbook.  Yes it has some compromises but I do not think they are deal breakers for the majority of people reading this review.

Samsung has announced that a new limited edition model of the Galaxy Note8 will be made available to athletes and International Olympic Committee (IOC) members for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang next month.

In collaboration with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG), Samsung will deliver over 4,000 devices to all Olympians as well as the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic family, including IOC and POCOG staff allowing them to lean on Samsung mobile technology to enhance their experiences and connect more conveniently.

This isn’t the first games that Samsung has provided devices to athletes as they did the same in Rio De Janeiro.