Category: Android

For those who have a Nextbit Robin, April is going to be a fun month for you.  The company took to Twitter and Periscope and announced that a new build of Android Marshmallow will be coming to the device along with some fixes around the camera app in the device.  The startup company indicated that the update will be based on Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 but there is no indication at which security patch will be included in the update.  Hopefully it will have at least the March update but by the time the update is released, the April patch could well be included.

In what has become a pretty regular trend, Google has released an updated version of a standard app that is now standalone.  Google Calculator is hitting the Google Play Store today as an independent-of-the-OS app, following apps such as Google Messenger and Google Calendar as apps who have made the same migration.  The news, for users, is great because it means that you can get updates for the app without having to wait for general Android updates.  I wrote about this in detail back in July of last year and how moving apps from embedded to standalone is a benefit not only to users but to Google themselves and manufactures.

Microsoft has released updates to their suite of Office apps for Android, bringing several new features to each of the apps.  The updates are for Excel, PowerPoint and Word and while some features are unique to each app, there are some common improvements across all of them.  One of those is the ability to send a file to someone as a PDF.  Before this update, you were not able to share a file in any other format than the native Office format.  Now when you go to share a file as an attachment, you can still do that or you can send it as a PDF.

Google Photos for Android has been updated with a much needed and welcomed change around photo editing.  The changes are found in version 1.17 of the app, which is currently rolling out to the Google Play Store and devices.  The update brings what is commonly considered “non-destructive” photo editing.  It means that your original photo is stored along with the edited version in one file and if you want to go back to your original photo, you simply undo the edits.  This behavior is quite common in other photo editing apps but, until now, was not in Google Photos.

The Google Nexus 9 tablet is back on sale again at Amazon with the 32GB, Wi-Fi model at $299.99.  Originally this model sold for $479.99 so you are saving $180.  Keep in mind too that the Nexus 9 has already been upgraded to Android Marshmallow (and you get the updates fast since this is a Nexus device) and it is eligible to be upgraded to Android N when it is released so you are somewhat future proof for the next year on this tablet.

The adoption of Android Marshmallow continues today with the release of the latest supported build of Android coming to both the Verizon LG V10 and the Sprint Galaxy Note 5.  For those of you on Verizon who have a V10, the build you are looking for is VS99022A while on Sprint, the version you want to get for your Note 5 is N920PVU2BPC3.  As with all of these update, they are rolling out in phases so it make take a day or up to a week for it to actually come to your device.  Once it does, you will have all of the benefits of Android Marshmallow including things like Doze and more robust app permissions.