Category: Android

Just a few days after Chrome 59 was released for desktops, the latest update to Google’s browser is now starting to roll out for Android.  The update is version Chrome 59 (59.0.3071.92) for those keeping score at home and it has been released to the Play Store.  It should hit your devices over the course of the next several days via an OTA update.

While the release notes were limited, there are two improvements that are in this update.  First, overall loading of pages should be improved with this update.  Unfortunately, the Chromium team within Google didn’t quantify just how much faster the page loading happens.  It’s something that you will have to visually check and estimate yourself.

A hard-to-track and not always an issue bug is impacting many that have the Google Pixel Launcher running on their Pixel phone.  The issue is around searching when you tap the search pill at the top of the launcher.  Some have reported that when they tap it, their search history does not display and suggestions does not load.

The issue does not seem to be universal.  Some users have had no problem (I fall into that category) while others have found that a restart of their phone resolves the issue, others haven’t been able to get it resolved with a reboot.  Equally, it is not clear if the issue is related to the recent update to the Pixel Launcher which rolled out earlier this week.

As expected with it being the first Monday of the month, Google has released the Android Security Update patches for June today.  Like the past few updates, this month’s patch consists of two patches, one dated June 1st and the other June 5th.  The first patch deals with broader issues with Android in general while the second patch is more driver or component specific.

Perhaps the best news in this month’s update is the fix of a long standing Bluetooth vulnerability within Android.  There are three specific fixes that are in this update which squelch the ability of malicious apps to elevate permissions.  This issue has actually be in Android since the KitKat days.  Yeah, a long time coming.

After a few months in beta testing, the Android Nougat 7.1.1 update for the Nextbit Robin is now available.  The 540MB update is rolling out to all Robins starting today and brings with it the April Android Security Update along with it.  The OTA update to 7.1.1 should automatically be checked for by your Robin but if you want to manually check, go to Settings>About Phone>Check for Update.

As most readers will know by now, Nextbit was acquired by Razer at the end of 2016 and the Robin, the San Francisco startup’s only phone, was discontinued at that point.  The company committed to keeping the device up-to-date through February 2018 but realistically, this will be the last major update for the phone.  It will likely only be security patches from this point forward.

Artist Hampus Olsson has released a set of six new wallpapers in support of the latest update to Paranoid Android.  For those who may not know Olsson’s work, he is the artist behind the colorful and creative wallpapers for OnePlus and Paranoid Android.  Chances are you have seen them, you just may not know the creator behind them.

The new wallpapers are available on his site and you can download them directly from there for all your devices, even if you aren’t running Paranoid Android.  He also has other artwork and wallpapers available on his site and a bit of history on his creative works.  You will also see the extensive list of clients he has who use his artwork.

In a blog post yesterday, Google clearly and carefully outlined their plan for blocking overly aggressive adverts on the web.  At first blush, it would seem odd that Google, a company who primarily makes their money from adverts, would block ads.  Further, it would seem self serving as the types of adverts they want to block in Chrome, they themselves don’t serve up so only their ads would get through the blocker.  That’s not entirely true.

As a site owner who depends on adverts and as a consumer, I’m quite happy with this announcement and planned implementation in 2018.

The short of it is this:  In Google Chrome, starting in 2018, overly intrusive adverts are going to be blocked by the browser.  As Google described them, “it’s far too common that people encounter annoying, intrusive ads on the web–like the kind that blare music unexpectedly, or force you to wait 10 seconds before you can see the content on the page. These frustrating experiences can lead some people to block all ads–taking a big toll on the content creators, journalists, web developers and videographers who depend on ads to fund their content creation.”

We all know examples of sites that use these types of ads and as a consumer, I hate them.  I never block the ads but I just don’t go to those sites any more.  And that hurts me in getting the information I want or need and ultimately, it hurts the site as they don’t get revenue from their ads.