Author: Clinton

The November Android Distribution Report has been released by the Android team at Google and it reflect improvement in adoption of the latest two major versions of the platform.  Only Android Nougat (7.x) and Android Oreo (8.x) showed gains in this months reports, with all previous versions showing declines.

For those who may be new to Android, each month Google releases an Android Distribution Report that reflects the versions of Android that hit the Play Store over the course of a 7-day period.  This month’s report was for the seven days ending November 9, 2017.

The biggest loser in this month’s report was Marshmallow (6.x).  It saw a 1.1% drop in usage, down to 30.9% over the October report.  Marshmallow remains the most widely used version of Android at that 30.9% with Android Lollipop (5.x) a close second at 27.2%.  Lollipop, like Marshmallow, saw a drop but only by .5%.

From a stats perspective, the camera in the Pixel 2 XL is better than that of the original Pixel XL.  But if you can pick up a deal on the Pixel XL, are you sacrificing too much in photo quality?  That’s the question that fellow Google Top Contributor Scott Peachey tries to answer in his latest comparison.

Scott gives a detailed overview of the cameras in both the 2 XL and the original XL from a video, images and selfie images of both devices (he even squeezes in some Pixel 2 discussion in there too).  He explains his method for testing and you can see the results of the comparison in the six minute video.

The new “What song is this?” feature of Google Assistant, which made its debut on the Pixel 2 lineup, is now starting to roll out to everyone.  Assuming you have the latest version of the Google app installed, you can now upon up Assistant and ask, “What song is this?” or you will see a button to have Assistant do it for you in the carousel.

When you start the function, you will see an audio-like bar graph at the bottom of the Google Assistant card as the song is listened to and then identified.  Once the song is identified, you will get song information including the album and artist displayed.  There are also links to YouTube and Google Play Music to listen to the track or add it to your library.

With it being the Monday of the first full week of the month, Google’s Android team has released the November Android Security Update today.  The full version for those who want to manually flash their devices as well as the OTA incremental updates are now both available.  Users of eligible Pixel devices and Nexus devices can expect the update to hit their devices in the coming days.

Normally the Android Security Update patches consist of two patches but for November, there are three.  The first patch, dated November 1st, contains 11 fixes as does the second, November 5th patch.  Like previous months, the patch for the 1st contains system level fixes while the one for the 5th contains driver and device specific fixes for the Pixel and Nexus devices.

The third patch, dated November 6th, contains nine fixes which are aimed at fixing WiFi vulnerabilities.

Google Pixel devices will be getting the November 5th update as they have already received the WiFi fixes.

You can read all of the details in the Security Bulletin for this month’s releases.

Verizon customers who are using the Samsung Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge on the network have a new update rolling out to their phones.  The updates bring the October Android Security Update to the phones.  The Galaxy S6 will be getting updated firmware build NRD90M.G920VVRS4DQJ1 while the S6 Edge will be seeing build NRD90M.G925VVRS4DQJ1.

The updates are minor in that the only contain the Android Security Update patches for October.  There are no new features nor any other performance improvements mentioned in the respective release notes.  This isn’t surprising frankly as the S6 lineup is now well & truly in maintenance only mode.  Still, it is good to see Verizon keeping these popular mid-2015 phones going and secure.

Today’s Deal is on a great accessory for those who don’t like having your phone laying on your desk or nightstand.  The Lamicall S1 Phone Stand is made of aluminum, has cushioning to protect your phone and comes in grey or red colors for $8.99 today on Amazon.  The stand is designed to hold any Android device or iPhone as the padded cradle is 15mm in depth.  This means it will fit a Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S6, S7 or S8 and an iPhone.  In fact, most of these devices will fit on the cradle in their cases.

The Lamicall stand is designed to give you a great viewing angle for your video calls or for watching streaming content.  It is also compact.  It stands only 3.35″ tall and has a base of 2.95″ x 3.94″ so it won’t take up a lot of space on your desk.  The bottom of the stand has four anti-skid pads on it to keep it from moving around and from scratching up your desk.