Category: Android

T-Mobile continues to be a growing force to reckon with here in the United States.  The carrier reported their last quarter financials yesterday and in it, pointed to so heady numbers both financially and with their customer base.  In the last quarter, the “uncarrier” added 1.1 million total new customers, 914,000 of which were postpay while an additional 386,000 were pre-pay thanks to the MetroPCS division.  That marks four years straight in which the carrier has added over 1 million new customers per quarter.  Perhaps even more impressive, the company only had a 1.18% churn rate (the rate of customers leaving) which is shockingly good for any service provider, let alone a mobile carrier.

Financially, the carrier is on solid footing.  T-Mobile reported $9.6 billion in total revenue with $698 million in net income.  That revenue number is an increase of 11% while the income was up 46%.  The company also has $1.7 billion in net cash available with $185 million in free cash flow.

Microsoft has rolled out another update to OneDrive for Android, bringing the ability to mark folders available for offline use.  The updated build is version 4.12 for those keeping score and is out in the Play Store now.  Expect the update to hit your devices over the course of the new few days.  The new offline folder feature is available for Office 365 Personal, Home and Solo users currently with support for work and education accounts “will be rolled out soon!”.  When is soon?  That’s not clear but given Microsoft’s consistent updating of their Android apps, likely not very long.

But not all is lost in this update for work and education users of OneDrive.  This update brings an updated design to the Discovery view which now gives you access to a feed of the most relevant content across your company or campus.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus may have only been released last week but they are already receiving updates from carriers here in the United States that carry them.  AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon all have released updates to the new flagship devices which should be hitting those who own the phone via an OTA update over the course of the next few days.  The update is about 300MB in size across all of the carriers.

All of the updates contain the April 2017 Android Security update as well as baseband updates for each of the carriers.  These two reasons alone make this a must have download as it assures the security of the device as well assuring it will work optimally with your carrier of choice.  This update also addresses general performance improvements around the display and fixes some known bugs with the software.

Over at Amazon you can still pick up the Nextbit Robin for $149.   I reviewed the Robin a few months ago and at the time I said it was a pretty good deal at $299.  At $149, it is one of the best deals on a phone with these specs out there right now, especially for a phone that runs Android Nougat.

For those that don’t recall, the Nextbit Robin has some great features and offers a unique device-meets-cloud storage solution.  It has 32GB of onboard storage merged with 100 GB online storage, so you always have the space you need. Robin seamlessly backs up your apps and photos, intelligently archives the stuff you’re not using, and easily restores items when you need them.  The idea is that you never run out of space.  Those less used apps are backed up into the cloud but then are instantly available when you want them.  You’ll know an app has been backed up into the cloud as it will be grey on your Robin.  You can read my review of the Robin to see all my thoughts on this great little phone.  I also think it is perhaps one of the most underrated phones of 2016.

More news today regarding Android Pay.  In addition to adding banks here in the US, Google and PayPal have announced a new collaboration effort which will bring PayPal to Android Pay as a payment option.  The new effort was announced today and when it rolls out to users in the coming weeks, you will now have the option to link your account to Android Pay as a payment option when you use the service at a retailer.

The announcement came from PayPal this morning and is a big win for people (like me) who use both services to pay for things both online and in retail locations.

Coming soon, consumers in the U.S. will be able to use PayPal in Android Pay at retailers from Walgreens to Dunkin’ Donuts. This partnership will enable our customers to pay across even more contexts, and will extend PayPal’s mobile leadership and reach as consumers become more comfortable shopping and buying on their mobile devices.

The new service isn’t available just yet.  According to the post from Google, you can expect it to come to both the PayPal and the Android pay app via updates in the coming weeks.

Building on the addition of over a dozen new banks earlier this month, Android Pay has added support for five more banks here in the United States.  The update brings the total 18 new banks & financial institutions adding support for the tap-to-pay service in April alone and adds to the over 150 new banks added in 2017.  As with the update earlier this month, this round of supporting banks are mostly credit unions and smaller institutions.  They include:

• Barksdale Federal Credit Union
• Florence Savings Bank
• J.S.C. Federal Credit Union
• O Bee Credit Union
• Security State Bank of Hibbing

If you are a customer or member of one of these credit unions or banks, you can now add your bank-backed credit and debit cards to Android Pay to use them where it is accepted.