Category: Android

Slowly Google Allo is growing up and with the latest update, there is a new bot that will allow you to create simple Yes/No polls for your friends and family.  The update is a behind-the-scenes update so as long as you have the latest version of Allo on your phone, you will have access to the new poll.  For reference, the latest build is version 8.0.035.  To activate the new poll bot, simply type @yesno in the text box to message a single friend or a group of friends.  After you type in @yesno, type in your question right after it.  For example, “@yesno Have you tried the new polls in Google Allo?”  Press send and it will go to all of your friends in that message group.  They (and you) can then tap the Yes or the No button to vote.  Simple and easy.

Where this could be useful is if you are meeting a group of friends and want to know if the restaurant you have selected is a good option.  Or if everyone wants to go to lunch in the office.

Today’s Deal is on the first Project Tango enabled phone, the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro.  Right now you can pick one up in Grey for $370.25 on Amazon.  That’s a healthy saving off the original price of $499.  For those who may not recall what exactly Project Tango is from Google, it is devices and apps that work in augmented reality.  These apps and now the Phab 2 Pro allow you to do thing like measure distances, fly through the solar system and other things all from the device.  A good example is the Lowe’s Vision app for Tango. It allows you to measure a space in your house and virtually put an appliance or other furniture you buy from Lowes in your house.

As for the Phab 2 Pro, you are getting a lot of horsepower in the package from Lenovo, starting with the 6.4″ display that renders 2560 x 1440.  Coupled with this is the Snapdragon 652 octa-core process running at 1.8GHz.

Google has released the April Android Security Update today for Nexus and Pixel devices but, and likely more interesting to readers, the update comes in the Android Nougat 7.1.2 release.  Nougat 7.1.2 has been in beta for several weeks know and is purely a maintenance build for devices.  There are a few  new features in the build but a lot of refinements on features already in the platform.  Perhaps the biggest news is the enablement of Fingerprint scanner swiping on the Nexus 5X and 6P.  There are also some new battery usage warnings for both devices.

Google has already released the full images and the OTA images for devices.  The release notes, however, outlining everything that has been addressed, have not been released at the time of this writing.  Remember that unless you are comfortable manually flashing your devices, you should wait until the OTA update rolls out from Google to your device automatically.

After dominating the world for the past three decades-plus, Windows is no longer the most widely used Operating System in terms of Internet usage.  That honor now goes to Android according to the team at StatCounter.  In their latest report, Android passed Windows by .02% to take over the top spot.  The report measures the Operating Systems in use globally to access the Internet and this is the first time that Windows has been beaten – by anyone.

The report reflects what many have seen for a long time:  The world is going mobile and with Android dominating the mobile landscape as far as install base, it isn’t shocking to see it take over the #1 slot when it comes to Internet usage.  It also reflects a fundamental shift in how we get to the information we need in our day-to-day lives.  Mobile search has continued to climb as the most common way people access information so this report fits that trend too.

Joining an ever increasing list of devices that support Google Daydream, the Google VR team have posted via Twitter that the Huawei Mate 9 now supports the Virtual Reality platform that is built into Android Nougat.  This will add the Mate 9 to the list of devices that support Daydream that currently includes the Google Pixel phones, the Moto Z, and ZTE Axon 7.  The update to support Daydream will include the Mate 9 as well as the higher priced Porsche Design version of the 6″ phablet.

The support for Google Daydream will come to the Mate 9 via an OTA update.  When that update will be coming & the size of the update is unclear.  Given that Google has announced this more-or-less, my suspicion is that the pressure is on Huawei to get it out in reasonably short order – likely the next few weeks.  If you have the Mate 9, be sure to check for updates.  Once you have Daydream support, you can use the Google Daydream headset for VR experiences.

With the bulk of the editing feature of Google Map Maker now in Google Maps, the company quietly shut down Map Maker last week, on March 31st.  The help page for Map Maker now indicates that the service is no longer available.  The news isn’t entirely a surprise.  Map Maker had been around since 2008 and gave users the ability to add places to Google Maps, edit places and edit road segments amongst other things.  All of those features are in Google Maps now so it somewhat made Map Maker redundant.

On the help page, Google points out that they will continue to brings more features to Google Maps from Map Maker.