Category: Android Marshmallow

If you equate the power and performance of an Android phone based on the screen size and device size, you need to stop.  Now.  The reason is that the recently announced Sony Xperia X Compact destroys your paradigm.  This 4.6″ device is a powerhouse with a phenomenal display and dare I say unbelievable camera.  Seriously, it rivals a digital SLR in image quality and color correctness.  I’ve been using the X Compact the last few days as my main phone and while getting use to the smaller size compared to my Nexus 6P was a bit tricky at first, the performance and design of this phone is exceptional.  I’ll be doing a full review of the phone over the course of the next few weeks but here are my initial thoughts on the Xperia X Compact.

The Android team has released the Android security update patches for October today.  The patches, two this month instead of three, have been released for all supported Nexus devices as well as the Pixel C.  As is the norm, the updates have been released as Factory Images and OTA images for those who want to flash their devices immediately.  If you don’t, the OTA update should be coming to your devices over the course of the next week or so.  For those who have Nexus 6 phones, the news is really great for you as Android Nougat has finally been released for your phone and includes this October update.

Google has been splitting up their patches the last few months and October is no exception.  Unlike the last couple of months however, there are only two this month.  The first patch is the 2016-10–1 patch and it is the one for all devices and manufactures.  It contains 12 high priority security patches, mostly around elevation of privileges and denial of service threats.  The second patch, 2016-10-05, is primarily aimed at Nexus devices and contains 5 critical patches focused on remote code execution.  If you have a Nexus device, you will see the October 5th update which is inclusive of the fixes in the October 1st update.

Android Marshmallow continues to see incremental growth in the install base according to the latest figures from Google.  In the platform version dashboard report released today, Marshmallow’s install base grew from 15.2% last month to 18.7% this month.  The growth was certainly expected given that a number of devices were updated to Marshmallow this past month from a wide range of manufactures.  Still, Marshmallow remains well behind the leading release, Lollipop, which stands at 35% of the install base.

As a reminder, these figures are derived by Google from devices that visited the Google Play Store for a 7 day period that ended on September 5, 2016.  While it is by no means exhaustive, it does give a good indicator of the varieties of Android that are out there and still in use today.

As a general rule, I try not to pick on any one particular carrier or device because whichever they happen to be, meets the need for some of the Android faithful.  But seriously AT&T, you need to get your act together.  Yesterday the carrier began rolling out the Android Marshmallow update for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the Note Edge on their network.  That is nearly three months after the last carrier in the US (T-Mobile) updated the device on their network, six months after the first updates were done by Sprint and yes, a year after Marshmallow was released by Google.  AT&T is notoriously slow at getting updates out to their devices (which isn’t helped in this case as Samsung is slow as well) and this may well be one of the best cases.

Okay, enough complaining.  It’s here and that’s the good news.

Today’s Deal over at Amazon is on the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua.  This 5″ Android phone is down to $149 over at Amazon, a savings of over $50.  The phone is unlocked and is compatible with GSM carriers here in the US (AT&T and T-Mobile), it has 16GB of storage which can be expanded thanks to the MicroSD slot and is water IP68 certified against dust and water.  That means this phone is dust and water proof up to 1.5 meters deep for up to 30 minutes.  Powering the Xperia M4 is the Snapdragon 6.15 processor clocked at 1.5GHz with 2GB of RAM installed.  If you are looking to pick up a solid performing phone at a great price, this could be a good option for you.

If have a Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge on the Verizon network, there is a new software update waiting for you.  The new build of Android Marshmallow addresses some call quality issues as well as enabling the FM radio built into the device.  Specifically, you are looking for Verizon’s software version MMB29M.G935VVRU2APG5 for those keeping score at home and it is currently rolling out to customers.  You can manually check for the update by going to Settings>System Updates.  It is a small one as Verizon is allowing users to download it over LTE but you can expect about a 10 minute download and another 10-15 minutes to install and reboot your device.