Category: Android

Good news this morning for T-Mobile customers who are rocking the LG G5.  Android Nougat is out and available for your phone.  The 1.2GB update is coming to the G5 as an OTA update and along with bringing you all the goodness of Nougat, you are also getting the November security update for Android included in the update.  The updated build is NRD90U and T-Mobile has pushed the big red button to get the release out to customers.  You can check for the update on your G5 by going to Settings>About Phone>Software Update and manually check for it.  Because of the size, you are going to need to make sure you are on Wi-Fi to download the update file then will need at least 70% battery life to install it.  As with other updates, your phone will be rebooted in the upgrade process.

Thanks to a leak from Vodafone Australia, it looks like owners of the Nexus 6P and Google Pixel lineup will be seeing the Android Nougat 7.1.1 update starting next Monday, December 5th.  For the Nexus 6P, the updated build will be NMF26F and will bring app shortcuts to the phone as well as the December Android Security Update.  As readers will remember, the 7.1.1 update has been in beta for a few months now and the second and expected to be final Developer Preview dropped last week.  Google has said very early on that the 7.1.1 update would be coming in early December so the December 5th date lines up well with what has been publicly stated from the company.

Microsoft has begun rolling out an update to Next Lock Screen for Android phones that brings a lot of new improvements and features.  Probably the biggest new feature in the version 2.7 release is the ability to swipe down and search (via Bing or Google) right from the lock screen.  This makes searching for things faster and easier as you don’t necessarily have to unlock your phone every time to search for something.

This update also brings customization to the layout of apps page in the app.  Now you can select 4×5 or 4×6 for your app layout to give you the number of apps you want to see and quickly access.

OnePlus has begun rolling out OxygenOS 3.2.8 for the OnePlus 3 but before you get all excited, no, it’s not Nougat.  Not yet at least.  The update is a small one but does bring several improvements and fixes to the OP3, the company’s flagship device until a couple of weeks ago with then 3T was announced.  Still, OnePlus has remained committed to getting software updates out for both the 3 and the 3T and even though this update isn’t Nougat, that is expected before the end of the year.

So what’s in this update?  Quite a few nice changes and updates

Another great Black Friday deal is available on Amazon today.  The Huawei Honor 8 is available for $140 off thanks to the sale and an instant discount when you put the phone in your cart.  First, the details.  The Honor 8 is being sold unlocked so it will work with any GSM carrier here in the US like AT&T and T-Mobile.  It has a 2.3GHz octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB

Huawei Honor 8

of storage (expandable up to 256GB with the MicroSD slot).  The Honor 8 has a 5.2″ display, fingerprint scanner and a 12MP dual-camera rear shooter.

Normally the Honor 8 is $399.99 but today it is down to $289.99 for the 32GB model while the 64GB model is normally $449.99 and it is down to $339.99.  In both cases, when you drop the phone into your cart, you receive an additional $30 discount which drops the phones to $259 and $309 respectively.  Remember that this is the flagship device for Huawei when it launched in July and the company has committed to having an Android Nougat update out for the phone.  That is likely to come at the end of this year or early next.

Like other Black Friday deals, this one is for today only.  The Honor 8 is available in Black, White and Blue and all colors are eligible for the sale price.

• Honor 8 – 32GB of Storage – $259.99 (savings of $140)
• Honor 8 – 64GB of Storage – $309.99 (savings of $140)

For Black Friday, Amazon has rolled out special pricing on the Moto G lineup on the site.  Today you can get a great deal on the Moto G4, the Moto G4 Play and the Moto G4 Plus on the site with discounts ranging from $20 to $70 off.  These are great phones that, although they come with lock screen adverts from Amazon, are tough to be beat for the price.

The Moto G4 comes with 2GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of Storage, a 5.5″ display and a 13MP rear camera.

• Moto G with 16GB storage – $129.99 ($70 savings)
• Moto G with 32GB of storage – $139.99 ($90 savings)

The smaller Moto G Play is a 5″ display device that comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.  The phone can have the storage expanded by an additional 128GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.

• Moto G Play with 16GB of storage – $99.99 ($50 savings)

Finally there is the Moto G Plus.  This is a 5.5″ display phone with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and a 16MP main camera.  This is by far the most powerful of the lineup with an octa-core processor and the additional RAM and at $229, a heck of a deal.

• Moto G Plus with 64GB of storage – $229.99 ($70 savings)

As with most of the sales posts you will see today, these prices are good for today only.