Category: Android

When it comes to mid-market Android phones, there are a huge number of options at under $300.  Most of those devices have compromises of some sort to keep that price point, some of which are painful to overlook.  That’s not so much the case with the Honor 6X.  The follow up to last year’s 5X, the Honor 6X brings a lot of power and features in its 5.5″ frame and has the features that you would expect for this price point.  But it is not perfect and does have some blemishes, most of which will be addressed when this phone sees its impending Android Nougat update.  With that update, there is no reason to overlook the 6X if you are wanting a good sized, mid-range phone.

I’ve been spending the last few weeks with the Honor 6X and without giving away the plot, I don’t have a problem recommending it.  It performs well, has a good camera and plenty of battery power to get you through the day.  Here is my review and thoughts on the latest phone from Honor.

For those of you who have the Huawei Mate 9, there is a significant software update waiting for you today.  The update brings a lot of performance and battery improvements to the 5.9″ phablet that is recommended for all users.  Specifically, you are looking for build MHA-L29C185B172.  It is just over 500MB in size so you will want to make sure you can download it via Wi-Fi and have plenty of battery left on your phone if you are not connected to AC.

The update primarily focuses on performance improvements on the Mate 9, particularly around the touchscreen.  It also improves the battery optimization which, based on my review, were already pretty solid.  This update will only improve them.

The mobile analytics firm App Annie has pegged, for the first time, that the combined Android app stores in the market will out earn Apple’s App Store this year.  According to their report, they project that Android based stores will earn about $41 billion in 2017 compared to the $40 billion that Apple will earn with their app store.  The report is quick to point out that the Android numbers are a combination of the various app stores for Android that exist, such as Amazon’s Underground and Samsung’s app store.

If you strip down the report to just the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, Apple still leads the way.  The Google branded store will account for $20 billion of the projected $41 billion this year but the Apple store alone churns $40 billion in earnings.

After being announced last week followed by a limited roll out, the new location sharing feature of Google Maps has rolled out to the masses.  Users can expect the feature to be enabled in the Google Maps app shortly if it isn’t there already.  You will find the new feature located on the menu of the app.

The feature works cross platform (and on the web) and allows you to share your location or your status on a journey with others that you choose.  That sharing can be limited to a specific time period for sharing while the sharing of your journey will automatically end when you arrive at your destination.  It is more-or-less a return of the old Latitudes product but is more refined.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are launching today and we already know a lot about these two new phones.  We also have their new wallpapers that will be shipping with the phones.  All three of the wallpapers are views of nature and all three are pretty stunning.  I’ve added these wallpapers to the Wallpaper page here on the site so you can download them to your phone.  In addition, I’ve added them to this post below the break so for those who are interested in them can move along.

To save them to your phone, just tap-and-hold the image on your phone or right-click on your PC/Chromebook/Mac.

Some 4 months after the release of the Android Nougat update for the unlocked HTC 10, Verizon is finally releasing the update to the phone on their network.  The fun begins tomorrow, March 30th, according to a Tweet from HTC’s Mo Versi.  The update will make Verizon the last to update the phone on their network here in the United States.  T-Mobile rolled out the update back in January while Sprint rolled it out in February.  AT&T did not sell the HTC 10.

HTC, for their part, have been good about getting updates out on the HTC 10 when it comes to the unlocked version of the phone.  However, for carrier locked devices, they are at the mercy of the carriers to get the updates out to devices.  Verizon is notoriously slow at doing this so it isn’t a surprise they are the last one to update the phone on their network.