Author: Clinton

For those readers who administer a Google G Suite environment, take note of an announcement that Google made this week.  On February 28, 2018 the classic Google Calendar interop tool will be shuttered, meaning that you will need to be using the new tool which was announced back in July.

For those who aren’t familiar with this tool, it allows for the seamless coexistence of a Microsoft Exchange or Office 365 environment within a G Suite account in that same environment.  That means users can search across not only Google Calendar but Microsoft-based calendars for information, meeting times and the like.

In July, Google released a far more robust version of this interop tool, bringing several new features and overall stability to the solution.  That is the version that Google wants you using and, come February next year, you will have to use it going forward.

While it won’t fall in the “most exciting” app category, the Google Phone app is a solid performer and Google, like so many of their other apps, continues to make improvements to it.  The latest update to the dialer is rolling out in the Google Play Store now, bringing with it a few new features along with the normal smattering of bug fixes & performance updates.

The new build is version 15 for those keeping score at home.

Borrowing a feature from the Google Contacts app, this new version of the Phone app now has a contact clean up feature.  Now when you go to the Contacts tab within the app, a bottom pop-up will display to show you which contacts you have that are duplicated.  You can then choose to clean those contacts up by merging them.  The feature is not as robust as the one found in the proper Contacts app but will get the job done nevertheless.

As expected, Google has released the December 2017 Android Distribution Report this week.  The report reflects the version of Android on devices that visited the Google Play Store for the 7 day period ending December 11, 2017 and for those of you who keep track of this monthly report, you won’t find many surprises.

With the exception of Android Nougat and Android Oreo, the two latest version of the platform, all previous version saw a decline or no change in usage from the November report to this one.  Android Nougat grew some 2.7% in usage in that time, by far the biggest gainer.  It now has a 23.3% share of devices coming to the Play Store but it is still behind Android Lollipop and Android Marshmallow.  Marshmallow, version 6.x of Android, leads the pack overall with 29.7% of devices running that version.

As for the latest version of Android, Oreo, it continues a very slow adoption on devices.  It now is on .5% of devices, a jump of .2% over November.

Microsoft has released another update to their popular Microsoft Launcher for Android.  The launcher formerly known as Arrow Launcher, has been updated to version 4.3 and it comes with a lot of improvements and a few new features.  A lot of the improvements in this update are aimed at making the user experience better or giving users more control.

On the Home page, you can now have an icon grid of up to 12 columns and 12 rows and can have apps or widgets at the half-grid cell.  That means that if you have a large screen device (5.5″ or larger), you can really cram a lot of icons on your home page.

Probably the single biggest improvement with this update to Microsoft Launcher is the ability to import your home screen layout from your previous launcher to it.  Before, you could only import from a previous backup of the Microsoft launcher, which you can still do.  But, if you like how your Home page is laid out in the Pixel Launcher, Action Launcher or Nova Launcher, you can have it copied over to the Microsoft app as you setup the launcher for the first time.

Last week I posted about Google releasing the Android Oreo update for Android Wear.   But, like Android phones, the question of which watches would be getting the update was a bit foggy at the time.  Now Google has attempted to clear it up with an update to the a support page.

The page outlines the devices that have already started receiving the 8.0 update and which ones are “currently pursuing” the update.  As for devices already receiving it, here is the list:

• Fossil Q Venture
• LG Watch Sport
• Louis Vuitton Tambour
• Michael Kors Sofie
• Montblanc Summit

These devices have the update rolling out now and it has been widely reported that the Fossil Q Venture and LG Watch Sport were amongst the first.

The Microsoft Edge browser for Android continues to make its mark in the handful of months it has been available.  The browser has now surpassed the one million downloads mark in the Google Play Store.  That puts it in reasonably elite company in the store and it has hit this mark just a week after being released from its beta program.

Edge is part of Microsoft’s broader mobile strategy which is aimed at making their apps available on whatever device you happen to be using – Android or iOS.  Edge also ties your Android phone closely to your Windows 10 PC by allowing you to start a browsing session on your phone then move it to your PC to continue at the moment or later.