Category: Android

While the news dominating the Android world the past 24 hours has been the release of the technical preview for Android N, that doesn’t mean that Android Marshmallow is dead and gone.  Today customers on the Sprint network that have the Samsung Galaxy S6 are the latest to see the current shipping version of the OS hit their devices.  The update brings the device up from Lollipop and weighs in at a hefty 1.2GB so you will absolutely have to be on Wi-Fi for the update to download.

Microsoft has released updated versions of their Office apps Excel, Word and PowerPoint for Android today with several new features and enhancements.  The apps are starting to show up in the Google Play Store and if you have the apps installed already, you should see the updates hit your devices over the course of the next few days.  While there are some unique features to Excel and PowerPoint, all three of them have received general update that users of the suite will appreciate.

The evolution of Google+ marches on and thanks to Google’s Luke Wroblewski, the details of the update to the Android app for the social & community site are now available.  The update has already started rolling to the Google Play Store so if you haven’t received the update yet, you will over the next few days.  The updated version you are looking for is 7.4.0 and it will be available for both Android phones and tablets.

On the heels of the first technical preview being released yesterday, Google has published the official Support and Release Notes for Android N.  The lengthy page outlines known issues with the release as well as performance issues that users may encounter with this first release of the next generation of Android.  As I put in the announcement of the preview yesterday, this release is not for the faint of heart and certainly not ready for your primary phone or tablet.  It has a lot of issues that you would expect at this very early stage and this document outlines a lot of them.

Google has now turned the wick up on the Android N Beta Program site, allowing you to register your device and download the next generation of Android to your eligible device.  The program is designed for developers to download the technical previews as they are released via an OTA update instead of having to reflash your device each time, a huge time saver to say the least.

[Update] I just received the discount code.  All in, it took about 45 minutes from the time I submitted to the time I received it.  Not bad.  Again, your mileage will vary.

As part of the announcement releasing the technical preview of Android N, Google has also announced that developers can save 25% off of the latest Android tablet, the Pixel C.  But here is the interesting things:  It seems that anyone can get the deal.  Simply register your email address and you will be sent a discount code to use in the Google Store.