Category: Android

Today’s Deal is on the all new BlackBerry KEYone, the latest Android-powered phone from the company that also sports a physical keyboard.  The KEYone drew a lot of attention when it was announced back in January with its keyboard and after a couple of delays, it is finally available for ordering.  The GSM version of the phone is $549.99 on Amazon.

For those that don’t recall, the KEYone is a 4.5″ device that is powered by the Snadragon 625 processor.  It has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.  It runs Android Nougat 7.1.1 out of the box and has the same cameras as you will find in the Google Pixel and Pixel XL.  It is powered by a 3505mAh battery and has a physical QUERTY keyboard.

After experimenting with it in the beta channel, then doing a bit of A/B testing, it seems that Google is finally ready to roll out bottom navigation in the YouTube app.  The update is a combination of an app update, which happened last week, and a server-side update, which is happening now.  Assuming you have the former, the later should be coming to you over the course of the next few hours.

Once you have it, gone will be the top tab navigation for Home, Trending, Subscriptions, Shared and Library.  Instead, they are all clearly identified on the bottom of the display in the streaming content app.

The much rumored and equally anticipated new phone from Android creator Andy Rubin is now reality.  The Essential Phone is packed with impressive specifications and is available for pre-order from the Essential Products site.  The phone starts at $699 or you can pick it up with a magnetic attachable 360-degree camera for $749.

At this price, the near bezel-less phone is aimed at the flagship market and it has the specifications to justify the price.  The Essential PH-1 has a titanium body with a ceramic back, a 5.7″ 2560 x 1320 Quad-HD display, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage built-in.  It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.  This octa-core processor has four cores running at 2.45GHz and the remaining four clocked at 1.9GHz.

Google Photos has been getting a lot of attention in the past week.  The photo app was reported at Google I/O last week to have 500 million monthly users, had a new archive feature added, and a new photo book service where you can order a hardcover book of photos from your library.  All of this makes sense when you consider the update to the listing for the app in the Play Store.  Photos now has been downloaded 1 billion times for Android.

The update to the listing comes nearly two years to the day from when Google Photos was originally announced.  My fellow Google Top Contributor in Google Photos, Paolo Amoroso, reminded me this morning that the launch date of Photos was May 28, 2015.

Microsoft Authenticator, the 2-factor verification app from the Redmond company, has a nice update rolling out to it for users.  The new build, version 6.1.7 for those keeping score at home, brings fingerprint authentication to the app.  What this will allow you to do is approve a login request by tapping the fingerprint scanner on your phone and not require you to enter the six digit code to approve it.  It is all aimed at keeping things easier but also secure.

If you haven’t tried Microsoft Authenticator, it works how you would expect a 2-factor app to work but it does so with a bit more flare by having avatars for your accounts.  For example, you have the Facebook logo for your Facebook account, or the Google “G” with your Google account.  It also has a nice, 30 second countdown clock next to each code so you know when it is about to expire.

Google has begun the process of rolling out a new Archive feature to Google Photos.  The new feature will allow you to select photos and move them to an Archive album, hiding them from your main photos view. You will still be able to view the photos in Albums and you can still search for them.  It just removes them from your Photos view.

This feature can be quite handy for more-or-less cleaning up your Photo stream.  As a Top Contributor for Google Photos, I take a lot of screenshots of my Chromebook, Mac and Android devices to help people in the forums.  That means I have dozens of these screenshots in my Photos view.  Well, I did until yesterday.  Now I have them archived but if I ever need to refer to one, I can easily do so.  They aren’t deleted or altered in any way.