Author: Clinton

Good news this morning for those of you who have the Sony Xperia XZ or the Xperia X Performance.  Sony has released the Android Nougat 7.1.1 update for both of these phones and it is already rolling out to users.  The updated build is 41.2.A.2.199 for both devices and along with the improvements that come with 7.1.1, the April Android Security patch is also in this build.

The big change with 7.1.1 is the support for app shortcuts.  This allows you to long press an icon and be able to get to a particular part of an app (for example, in Gmail you can tap-and-hold to start composing an email in a particular account).  The problem is that the Sony launcher doesn’t support app shortcuts, at least not yet.  If you are using a launcher that does support them on either of these phones (like Nova Launcher), then you will get to use the new feature.  Also, the 7.1.1 update brings Unicode v9 emoji to these devices.

T-Mobile continues to be a growing force to reckon with here in the United States.  The carrier reported their last quarter financials yesterday and in it, pointed to so heady numbers both financially and with their customer base.  In the last quarter, the “uncarrier” added 1.1 million total new customers, 914,000 of which were postpay while an additional 386,000 were pre-pay thanks to the MetroPCS division.  That marks four years straight in which the carrier has added over 1 million new customers per quarter.  Perhaps even more impressive, the company only had a 1.18% churn rate (the rate of customers leaving) which is shockingly good for any service provider, let alone a mobile carrier.

Financially, the carrier is on solid footing.  T-Mobile reported $9.6 billion in total revenue with $698 million in net income.  That revenue number is an increase of 11% while the income was up 46%.  The company also has $1.7 billion in net cash available with $185 million in free cash flow.

Microsoft has rolled out another update to OneDrive for Android, bringing the ability to mark folders available for offline use.  The updated build is version 4.12 for those keeping score and is out in the Play Store now.  Expect the update to hit your devices over the course of the new few days.  The new offline folder feature is available for Office 365 Personal, Home and Solo users currently with support for work and education accounts “will be rolled out soon!”.  When is soon?  That’s not clear but given Microsoft’s consistent updating of their Android apps, likely not very long.

But not all is lost in this update for work and education users of OneDrive.  This update brings an updated design to the Discovery view which now gives you access to a feed of the most relevant content across your company or campus.

T-Mobile has joined the list of carriers that have officially released the Android Nougat 7.0 update for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7.  The update was announced last week but will start rolling out to the two year old phablet starting today.  The update will bring the Nougat update and all the greatness it includes to the device as well as the March 2017 Android Security update.  For those who need a reminder, Nougat includes things like multi-window viewing of apps, improved Doze and lots of other features.  Here is a summary of the highlights.

This update will take about 15-20 min to download and install.  It is best to download the update via Wi-Fi as it is over a 1GB download.  Once it is downloaded, you will need to reboot your device after the install.

Over at Amazon you can still pick up the Nextbit Robin for $149.   I reviewed the Robin a few months ago and at the time I said it was a pretty good deal at $299.  At $149, it is one of the best deals on a phone with these specs out there right now, especially for a phone that runs Android Nougat.

For those that don’t recall, the Nextbit Robin has some great features and offers a unique device-meets-cloud storage solution.  It has 32GB of onboard storage merged with 100 GB online storage, so you always have the space you need. Robin seamlessly backs up your apps and photos, intelligently archives the stuff you’re not using, and easily restores items when you need them.  The idea is that you never run out of space.  Those less used apps are backed up into the cloud but then are instantly available when you want them.  You’ll know an app has been backed up into the cloud as it will be grey on your Robin.  You can read my review of the Robin to see all my thoughts on this great little phone.  I also think it is perhaps one of the most underrated phones of 2016.

In October 2016 I received my Google Home from the Google Store.  I quickly unpacked it, got it setup using the Home app on my Nexus 6P and began issuing it random commands as I tried to learn the limits of the device.  And in that process, I found out there were quite a few.  As I put in my review of the device in November,

Can I without any doubt recommend Google Home? No, not yet at least. There is a lot of growing room to happen with this device and Google Assistant within it. Do I think I will change my view in 6 months? Almost certainly. By that time, Google and other developers will have leveraged the platform and APIs available to integrate more apps and more services.

So here we are, six months later almost to the day.  Has it improved?  Undoubtedly and it is continuing to improve.

What I expect to happen has to a large degree, with dozens of new services now available for Google Home along with better smart home integration.  It feels far more complete than it did back in October, partly because of these new services but partly because Google Assistant, built into Home, has gotten smarter too.  It is continually learning both on how I use it but also behind-the-scenes as Google tweaks it.

Can I recommend Google Home now?  Yes, without question and here is why.