Author: Clinton

Like clockwork, with the change of the calendar to August, the Android team has just released the Android Security update for the month.  The new update patches are going to be hitting the AOSP over the course of the next 48 hours with the OTA updates for Nexus devices likely coming at the end of the week or early next week.  Like the Android team did in July, the August security updates are coming in two patches.  The first is the August 1st patch which has 1 critical update and 4 high priority updates out of the 14 total updates in the patch.  This patch is more generic in nature and applies to Android in general.  The Google team is trying to get these high priority updates out to their manufacturing partners faster so updates are done faster by them.  Those well versed in Android lore know that patches and updates are, um, lacking in some cases.

The official Wikipedia app for Android has been updated in a big way, bringing a completely revamped user experience to the app.  The new home page for the app, the Explore feed, provides personalize and dynamic content to you.  It will show you top news stories, trending Wikipedia articles, suggestions to read and more.  It is pretty impressive and is a big departure from the somewhat static page the app had previously.

In addition to the new Explore feed in the Wikipedia app, voice integrated search is now in the app as well.  Now you tap the microphone icon in the search box and tell the app what you want to search for in Wikipedia.  The app leverages the voice recognition engine that is already built into your Android phone and leverages the Google APIs.  That means that you are getting the same accuracy that you do when you use “OK Google” on your phone.

With the Rio 2016 Olympic games starting on August 5th, this coming Friday, the need for information and results always goes up and Google Search could be your answer.  Google has announced that Google Search on your Android phone has been updated behind-the-scenes to provide a wealth of information about the games as they happen in Rio.  The good news is this is all done on Google’s end – you don’t have to update your app on your phone.

On Google, searching for information about your favorite athletes and sports, the medal race, or your country’s schedule has never been easier. Pro tip: if you search on the Google app on Android and iOS, you’ll also see an option to get automatic updates on top event and medal wins, so you’ll never miss a beat.

With these changes, Google Search could well be your one-stop to get news and information about what is going on in Rio 2016 and your country’s athletes at the games this year.

Today LG has announced that their upcoming flagship device, the LG V20, will be shipping starting in September.  Specifications around the new phone are virtually unknown.  Very few leaks have come out for the V20, a rarity these days, so nobody is 100% sure what the phone will have for a processor/memory combination.  Given it is a flagship, the V20 will likely have the upper end of the Snapdragon processor lineup (8xx) and 3GB of RAM but again, just speculation on my part.  What we do know however, based on this release from LG, is that the V20 will come with Android Nougat installed.

One of the big benefits of Google Now is getting travel time information to your next appointment.  It is really handing in planning your journey time as it takes into account things like travel time itself but also things like traffic on along your route thanks to its Google Maps integration.  That travel time can be adjusted depending on your mode of transportation:  Car, bike, bus or public transit or walking and, in some place, car sharing services like Uber.

There is another small but important feature that this service in Now offers and that is the ability to adjust your arrival time regardless of your transportation mode.  I, for example, generally like to be at a meeting place about 5 minutes before the actual start time of the meeting.  Old habits die hard, what can I say?  Within the travel time information in Google Now, you can adjust when you want to arrive at your destination which, in turn, adjust the time in which you need to leave.  In this How To, I’ll show you how to tweak this little feature so you can show up at the time you want to show up for your next appointment.

For readers who have the Samsung Galaxy S7 through AT&T, there is a new and important software update rolling your way today.  The new update brings several enhancements and new features including support for Wi-Fi calling.  The updated build number is MMB29M and is available for the S7 and S7 Edge.

Wi-Fi calling is probably the most noticeable addition in this update which AT&T has brought to several of the phones on their network already.  This feature is pretty self explanatory but it allows you to make calls over Wi-Fi (assuming the quality and strength of that Wi-Fi signal is acceptable).  Think of it as mobile Voice over IP (VoIP).