Category: Android

For those who have been waiting for the unlocked variant of the Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8+, you can now get your order in at Samsung’s website.  The company is offering both devices unlocked with a nice package of goodies along with it.  Orders are being taken now with shipments happening by May 30th.  Regardless of which one you order, Samsung is making an entertainment kit available for free with purchase that includes a standing case, a SanDisk 64GB MicroSD card and six free months of Netflix.

If you want a Galaxy S8, the outright purchase price is $724.99 while the S8+ is $100 more at $824.99.  Qualified buyers can apply for financing from Samsung which $30.21 per month for 24 months for the S8.  For the S8+, the monthly payment is $34.38.

Chrome for Android has a new update rolling out that brings a lot of improvements to the offline functionality of the browser.  The ability to view downloaded content offline in Chrome isn’t something new but this update goes a long way in making it easier to download that content and to get back to it later.  First, there is a new Download Link feature.  When you are viewing a page and run across a link, long press it and in the dialog box you will see an option to download the link.  This will download the content of the link which you can view while you are offline.

Next is a new download page later feature.  If you using Chrome and go offline, you will see the 8-bit dinosaur.  You will now also see a Download Page Later link.  Tap it and when you get back online, Chrome will automatically download the page for you so you can read it.

Over the weekend, many people were impacted by what appears to be a server-side experiment with Google Now.  The issue left those who use the Google Now Launcher, the Pixel launcher or the Google app on their phone useless for personalized information.  The cards would not display save one that simply stated “Failed to load cards”.  I was met with this issue on all three of my main devices:  Google Pixel XL, Nexus 9 and Huawei P10.

Fortunately there is what seems to be a rather quick and easy fix to this issue:  Clear the data on the Google app on your devices.  I did this on all three of my devices mentioned above and afterwards, the Google Now cards displayed as expected.  If you know how to clear data in an app, try the trick and let me know if it also works for you.  If you don’t know how to do this, keep reading and I’ll walk you through the steps.

If you have a Huawei P10 in your phone arsenal, it’s time to go check for an update.  The Chinese manufacture has begun rolling out a new update that brings a host of improvements as well as an updated security patch.  The update is version VTR-L09C432B123 (if you have the dual-SIM model, it will be VTR-L29C432B123) for those keeping score and is 467MB in size.  You will want to make sure you are connected to Wi-Fi before downloading it and once you do have it, expect about a 5 minute install time.  If you are curious about the Huawei P10, you can read my review and even though I have a Pixel XL, I still find myself using this phone more than any other phone.

The camera performance for the P10 has been improved with this update as Huawei has optimized the software running it.  The overall system stability has also been improved although frankly, I’ve never had a stability issue with this device in the previous build.  Huawei has also optimized the touchscreen sensitivity which is noticeable if you use the P10 as your daily phone.  It is more accurate and responsive now.

Google has released their monthly Android Distribution Report for May and it shows that Android Nougat continues to grow.  The latest version of Android accounted for 7.1% of devices that hit the Google Play Store in the week ending May 2, 2017.  That is up 2.2% from the April report.  While it is still not ideal to have the latest-and-greatest version at sub-10%, Nougat has continued to grow steadily over the past several months.  This, of course, has been helped by the larger number of devices either getting updated to Nougat or new devices like the LG G6 and Samsung Galaxy S8 lineup shipping with it.

Interestingly, both Android Marshmallow and Lollipop remained steady to the April report.  Marshmallow had a 31.2% install base while Lollipop kept its 32% base.  Android KitKat continued to drop, losing 1.2% in this months report.  That version is down to 18.8% now while Jelly Bean and Ice Cream Sandwich both lost 1%.  Gingerbread continues to hold on and actually gained .1% this month.  Go figure.

The lineup of devices supported by LineageOS continues to grow with 15 new devices announced this week with support.  The custom ROM development team, formerly from CyanogenMod, has been busy added support for a wide range of devices, many of which are in their Nougat based 14.1 train.

This latest news shows how fast the platform continues to grow.  With well over 1.5 million installs now, it has quickly become one of the most popular custom ROMs available for Android devices.