Category: Android

Instagram has begun rolling out a major update to both their Android and iOS apps today with a focus on content while maintaining the app’s easy navigation.  The revamp of the photo sharing app is the first major redesign in several years and it does away with the darker theme of the app and brings with it a light, white UI with content dominating the screen instead of it being a mix of photos and text.  And yes, even the icon for the app is changed up in this release.

If you have been waiting for a great deal on an unlocked Android phone, Amazon has a great deal on the BLU Advance 5.  This dual-SIM unlocked Android Lollipop based phone now is only $47.99 for today only.  You can pick it up in either black or white for that price but the price is only for today only.  While this phone isn’t going to set the world alight from a spec perspective, it is a great phone to pick up as a backup phone, one for the kids or a travel phone.

If you use the shopping & auction app eBay on your phone, the latest update to the app is one you will want to get when it hits your updates.  The new version 5.0 build sports a whole host of changes including a complete makeover with Material Design.  This version of the app, visually, is much cleaner than the previous versions and is more fitting to the contemporary design of Android apps.  Along with this new design, navigation has also been improved and is more consistent with other apps.

The latest update to Google Street View brings a handful of enhancements to the VR-meets-map app, including a much improved handling of Photo Sphere images.  The update is version 2.12 for those keeping score at home and it is rolling out to the Google Play Store now.  In the update, you can now create a connection between photo spheres within the app and you can tap and hold to select multiple published photo spheres.  Photo spheres are automatically grouped together in the app as well so you can find them a bit easier when you are looking at a location in the app.

For a while now, Netflix has been throttling users data consumption on AT&T and T-Mobile to help users not kill their entire data allotment on a streaming movie.  Now Netflix has brought that capability to everyone thanks to the latest update of the Android app from the streaming service.  The updated build, version 4.5.0 for those keeping score at home, is rolling out now in the Google Play Store.  If you have the app installed, you should see the OTA update over the course of the next day or so.

The Google Plus app for Android has yet another update rolling out today, the ninth such update this year.  Version 7.8.0 brings mostly refinements to the community centric app for Android and brings back quick access to other Google apps you may have installed on your phone.  In all, there are 22 bugs fixed in this update according to Google’s Luke Wroblewski as well as Quick access to Google Photos, Hangouts and Search within the app. If this seems like a blast from the past, it should.  Before Google decided to decouple other services and apps from G+, you had quick access to other Google apps before the whole Google Plus is Dead, Long Live Google Plus era we are in now.  This is back now and frankly is a great touch that has needed to come back to the new and improved app.