Author: Clinton

Owners of the LG G6 on T-Mobile should be seeing an update over the course of the next few days on the device.  The update is build H87211g for those keeping score at home.  According to the release notes, it was published on January 9th.

The release notes only indicated that the update brings Software stability and bug fixes so it is pretty generic on what, if anything, was addressed beyond the updating of the Android Security Update patch.  Still, users are encouraged to download the update and get it installed if for only the security patch update.

A commit that was discovered by the Chrome Story team suggest that Chrome OS could have the ability for administrators to sideload Android apps on devices.  Currently the only way you can sideload an APK to a Chromebook is if the device is in Developer Mode.  That mode essentially bypasses all of the Google security measures like boot loader verification.

If this Commit makes it through the gauntlet and arrives on Chrome OS, there would be a mechanism by which administrators could load apps that are not in the Google Play Store, currently the only way to install apps outside of the afore mentioned Developer Mode.  For now, it appears that this would only be an Enterprise level administrator feature in the platform.

Microsoft Edge for Android has a new update rolling out that brings a handful of new features and improvements.  The update is build 1.0.0.1552 for those keeping score at home and if you are an Android Oreo users, this will be an update you like.  This update brings support for Oreo’s Adaptive icons so it will look more natural based on your device’s icon strategy.

Sharing of links and texts is now supported from other apps into Microsoft Edge.  If you open a link in one location, you can now share that with Edge and have it open there.  Likewise, if you snip text and share it with Edge, it will use the browser’s default search engine to find that search result for that text.

With all of the concerns floating about around Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities in Intel processors, Google has been reasonably proactive in letting know users know if their Chromebook or Chromebox is going to be protected.  In that same list, there was another useful bit of information that may have been overlooked:  When devices will stop receiving automatic updates to the next version of Chrome OS.

The column in question can be found on the Meltdown vulnerability list and is marked Auto update ends (*=official).  There you will find the date for everyone Chromebook, Chromebase, Chromebox and Chromebit out there on when it will officially stop getting automatic updates.

The unlocked variant of the HTC U11 here in the United States has a new update rolling out starting today.  The update is build 2.42.617.1 for those keeping score and brings the December 2017 Android Security Update patch to the phone along with other system improvements.  The update is just over 730MB in size so users will need to download it via WiFi before installing it.

HTC highlighted in the release note the December Android Security Update patch but everything else in the note falls under “system enhancements”.  No details are given on what exactly was enhanced but given the size of the download, it is likely a significant number of fixes and performance improvement tweaks to the phone.

Hangouts Meet, the Google G Suite enterprise video conference solution, has added nine new countries to the dial-in support list.  With dial-in support, Hangouts Meet will generate a phone number for members to dial in to the meeting if they are not able to join via video.  The new countries are:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Czech Republic
• Finland
• Ireland
• Norway
• Romania
• Switzerland
• Turkey

With these additions, there are now 24 countries were dial-in is supported.  International dial-in support came to the conferencing solution back in October 2017 with it mostly being in Western European countries initially.