Author: Clinton

As expected, Google has gone through a rebranding exercise on the Google On app.  With the introduction of Google Wi-Fi in October, and now with that product shipping, the question wasn’t if the Google On app would change but rather would that change be a completely new app or, worse, a separate app.  Thankfully no.  Google Wifi is the name of the Google On app now, allowing you to control your entire Wi-Fi network, including your Google OnHub and Google Wi-Fi products.  The update is rolling out into the Play Store now and if you have Google On installed, you should see the update hit your devices over the course of the next 2-3 days.

At first glance, the UI for Google Wifi doesn’t look all that different than the previous one from Google On.  However, there are a lot of changes including the three tab navigation at the top of the app which gives you information, your network information and shortcuts to quick tidbits of information respectively.

After arriving on iOS a few weeks back, F1 2016 has arrived for Android.  The racing simulator gives you all 21 races of the just concluded 2016 season and allows you to race as your favorite team and driver in one-off races, a season and in weekly challenges.  Codemasters, who has been developing the official F1 games for Xbox, Playstation and PC, fully optimized this build of the game for mobile with mobile friendly touch controls and graphics.  If you have played one of their games in the past on other platforms, you will not be disappointed with what you see in this game.

The game weighs in at a hefty 1.2GB download and you will need at least 2.7GB of storage on your device in order to install it.  Yes it is heavy but all that graphic goodness comes at a cost, mostly the amount of storage required.

Huawei has become the latest manufacture to indicate which of their phones will be receiving the Android Nougat update.  The news is certainly good for those who have purchased one of their flagship devices over the course of the last 18 months or so and it means that starting in the first quarter of next year, updates should be rolling out.  As for the list, it’s all the ones you would hope for and expect to get the update:

• Huawei Mate 8
• Huawei P9
• Huawei P9 Plus
• Huawei P9 lite
• Huawei Nova
• Huawei Nova Plus

The update will come via the EMUI 5.0 update which is Huawei’s Android UI and flavor of Android.  EMUI 5.0 shipped with the Mate 8 and P9 so those devices are already running Nougat.

Today’s Deal is on the well appointed mid-range Android phone, the ASUS ZenFone 3 Laser.  This 5.5″ phone has 2GB of RAM, 32GB of onboard storage and supports dual-SIMs and is down to $179 at Amazon today.  The phone is unlocked and works with GSM carriers here in the United States like AT&T and T-Mobile.  The 5.5″ display provides full HD resolution and the 32GB of onboard storage can be expanded up to an additional 128GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.

As the name suggests, the ZenFone 3 Laser uses laser technology to focus the main 13MP camera which ASUS claims will focus in .03 seconds.  The camera also supports optical and electronic image stabilization.

It has been a long time requested feature of Netflix and it is finally here in the Android app.  The latest update to the streaming content provider now gives you the option to download television shows and movies so you can view them offline.

Let’s all take a moment to raise a glass to Netflix.

In the latest update to the app, version 4.12.0 for those keeping score at home, you now have a section “Available for Download”.  Here you will see all of the shows and movies that you can download to your phone or tablet so you can view them later.  You have two options for quality of the downloads:  Standard (720p) or High (1080p) and, as you would expect, the High quality downloads take up more storage on your device.

Google Docs has an update rolling out today that brings the ability for you to insert a GIF animation into a document… and it not break!  The update comes into Google Docs but there are also updates to Google Sheets and Google Slides too.  All of these updates are in rapid release which means that users should see the updated versions of these apps hit their devices over the course of the next few days.

For all three apps, you now have the ability to not only view your Trash folder for the app but also restore files from your trash folder.  Now you don’t have to go to the desktop version of Docs, Sheets or Slides to do a file restore.