Author: Clinton

Nokia has announced several new phones today at Mobile World Congress including the company’s first Android Go edition phone, the Nokia 1.  Much like the Alcatel 1X announced earlier today, the Nokia 1 is a budget friendly phone with a MediaTek MT6737M SoC, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage.  It has a 4.5″ display with a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP selfie camera.

Nokia has indicated that the phone will be priced at a very budget friendly $85 in the markets it is made available in but, at this time, it is unclear which markets that will be just yet.  It is almost certainly emerging markets but it could make its way to established markets too.

The connectivity speed testing app, Speedtest by Ookla, has a new update rolling out that brings a completely revamped user experience.  The new update is version 4.0 for those keeping score at home and if you have the app installed, you can expect to see the update hit your phone over the course of the next few days.

Feature wise, there is nothing new in Speedtest.  It is all down to the new UI.  Gone is the speedometer style dial that you had when you tested your WiFi or 4G connectivity speed.  Instead, you now have a modern dial that has a Material Design feel to it.

If there was ever a proof point that LG’s mobile division is in trouble or at the very least in disarray, look no further than the LG V30S ThinQ.  The company announced this enhanced version of the LG V30 at Mobile World Congress and I use enhanced very liberally.  Basically it is a V30 with 6GB of RAM (instead of 4GB) and has a base storage of 128GB (up from 64GB).  Throw in a little Artificial Intelligence for improved photos and Android Oreo and badabing!  You have a LG V30S.

Spec wise, the V30S is identical to the V30 so you aren’t going to get any improvements as far as the SoC is concerned.  It is still running the Snapdragon 835.  It has the same display, same chassis design… same everything.  You get the idea.

The LineageOS team has announced that starting tomorrow, their new 15.1 build will be released to select devices.  This build is an important milestone as it brings the Android variant up to Oreo 8.1 as the base.

We’ve been working hard these months to get this new version available; the changes that were done in upstream (AOSP) are huge: Project Treble changed the way hardware is managed in Android, so all the OEM-abandoned platforms that are supported by Lineage had to be adapted for the new platform. Moreover, we’ve taken the time to make the code future-proof by converting a lot of our hardware-related code to make use of the new Treble capabilities: things such as LiveDisplay and lights (leds) control are now up to date with the new Android standards, so we’re going to have an easier time forward-porting stuff whenever a new Android version comes out.

Along with the update to Oreo 8.1, there are also some new features that have come along in this build.  Styles allows you to change the accent color that will also change from a light to dark theme based on the time of day (if enabled).

A long awaited feature has finally come to Chrome OS.  In the latest stable build of the platform, Chrome 64, the ability to rename external drives connected to your Chromebook has been enabled.  Now when you are in the File app, you can press ctrl+enter to rename the drive.

The ability to rename external drives is something that I first saw in a commit way back in August of last year.  The commit indicated that this shortcut would be coming but it wasn’t clear when exactly it would land on the platform.  This was not available to me on my Pixelbook under Chrome 63 so it looks like yesterday’s build release enabled it.

After a long delay and well after the Intel m3 and m5 variants were released, ASUS has finally put forth the m7 model of the Chromebook Flip C302.  Identical in every way to the m3 and m5 models, this new model sports the Intel m7 6Y75  processor clocked at 1.2GHz with 16GB of RAM and 64GB of Storage.

ASUS is aiming this variant of the Chromebook Flip at the power user, clearly, as 16GB of RAM is almost unheard of in a Chromebook.  It is debatable if it is needed but it is there nevertheless.  As far as price, this m7 variant is $929 and is available through Amazon.