Author: Clinton

Behold Chrome OS fans:  The new Google Pixelbook.  The rumors have been floating for months now that Google would be releasing an updated version of their Chromebook Pixel lineup and it looks like it is going to happen at the October 4th event.  Droidlife, kings of the leaks today, has gathered a lot of information on this new Chromebook and if nothing else, it looks pretty sweet.

The Google Pixelbook will come in three variants:  128GB, 256 or 512GB of storage and will start at $1199 for the 128GB model.  The 256GB model will be $1399 and the 512GB model will be an eye-watering $1749.  For a Chromebook.  Yep, it is going to be spendy.  The Pixelbook will be a 2-in-1 design with a touchscreen and, of course, will support Android apps out of the box.  As for the processor configuration, that’s not known yet but you can bet it will be an Intel based chipset.

Along with the Google Pixel 2 XL, we now know what the smaller HTC-built Pixel 2 will look like, its color options and pricing structure.  Like the XL, it is expected that this phone will be launched at the Google event on October 4th.

The Pixel 2 will come in three colors:  Kinda Blue, Just Black and Clearly White.  The first color is very similar to the Ice Blue that was on the Nexus 5X (at least from the renders it appears to be so) while the Just Black and Clearly White are similar to the color options on the Pixel today.

Today’s Deal over at Amazon is on the solidly built and performing LG G5.  This 5.3″ display device with 32GB of storage and 4GB of RAM is down from it’s normal price of $449.99 to $249.99 on Amazon in their Titan (Dark Grey) color.  This is a great price on this phone and certainly should be one to consider if you are looking for a top-end phone at a mid-market price.  The G5 is powered by the Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor and coupled with the Adreno 530 GPU.  It has 4GB of RAM which is going to be enough to really do anything with this phone and has 32GB of onboard storage.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 2TB (that’s right, 2 terabytes) thanks to the MicroSD card slot.

Camera wise, you have dual rear cameras in the LG G5 that give you 16MP images with laser auto-focus and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization).  It has a 2-stage LED flash while the front facing camera is an 8MP shooter with a nice 135 degree wide angle view.

For most who follow the Android community, this will fall under the “duh” category but it is still good to have confirmation.  Essential’s company Twitter posted last night that the Essential PH-1 will be getting updated to Android Oreo “in the next couple of months”.

Get your milk ready–#AndroidOreo is coming soon to Essential Phone. Watch for updates in the next couple months. pic.twitter.com/GEV1ntvDao

— Essential (@essential) September 18, 2017

The news certainly isn’t a surprise and reading between the lines, it looks like the update to Oreo could come at some point before year’s end. That would be great to see and would fall in line with the company’s commitment to rolling out updates quickly – both major and minor updates.

Last week, Motorola announced which of their devices would be getting updated to Android Oreo.  Notably, the entire G4 lineup of phones were missing and that created a bit of a raging storm for the company.  The problem was that the G4 lineup is well within the 2-year window for upgrades indicated by Google themselves and Moto themselves had indicated that the G4 lineup would get updated to the next version of Android.

Now Lenovo, the parent company of Motorola, has come back around and clarified that at least one of the G4 phones will get updated to Android Oreo.  That phone is the G4 Plus.

Google is rolling out an update to Gmail and Inbox for both Android and the web that will create links for physical addresses, email addresses and phone numbers that are found in your email messages.  The update is on the fast track which means it should roll out to all users over the course of the next few days.

How it works is pretty straightforward and should save time for users.  If there is a physical address in an email message, the link will take you to Google Maps.  If there is an email address found, the link will open up your default email client and set you up to compose a new email to that address.  Finally, when you are on your Android phone, if there is phone number found, clicking the link will open up your default phone app to place a call to the number.