Category: Android

The Google Maps app for Android has seen a minor update that brings a couple of small but important features to the app.  The update is version 9.21 for those keeping score at home and it is rolling out to the Google Play Store now.  You should see the OTA update hit your device over the course of the next couple of days.

The first change is a new notification for edits that you have made in Google Maps.  As you know, users of the app can edit all kinds of information about a business or location within the app.  You can change things like location (the pin drop location), the address, open hours, etc. to make sure that you and others users have the most up-to-date information.  These types of edits are verified by Google themselves and can take a day or two before they actually go live.  Now you can be informed of any edits you make going live within the app itself.

Over the course of the last week, the news coming out of Mobile World Congress (MWC) has been the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge along with the new LG G5.  These three devices look stunningly impressive from a design and function perspective and early indications are they will be quite a hit here in 2016.  But as the dust settled and people started taking a hard look at these devices, it became clear that one of the benefits of Android Marshmallow, which all three devices are running, is missing:  Adoptable Storage.

The latest update to Gmail for Android is finally bringing Rich Text Formatting to the email app.  The update has been released to the Google Play Store but it may be a few days before you see the OTA update on your devices.  Once you do, the ability to bold, italic, color, highlight and underline text will be available for you when you are creating an email.  Rumors of these features coming to Gmail have actually been floating around for a few months now.  Several sites have done APK teardowns that have shown the handlers in the code for the ability to do this type of formatting but until this point it hasn’t been available.

The improvements to Google+ for Android continue to roll and the latest update once again addresses a lot of bug fixes and improvements.  News of the new 7.3 version came via Google’s Luke Wroblewski on his Google+ profile and outlines a significant number of changes that are happening in the social network & community app.  The update has been pushed to the Google Play Store but it may be a day or two before all users see it on their devices.

While Microsoft’s own mobile platform may be struggling to survive, the company continues to develop apps to satisfy their “mobile first” mantra.  The latest app from the company, Hub Keyboard, is designed for Android with the purpose of making your life easier when it comes to moving content around on your device.  With a built in clipboard and the ability to quickly send information to Office 365 apps, the keyboard is aptly names as a hub for all of your Microsoft app needs on Android.

ZTE has introduced two new Android phones at MWC today, the Blade V7 and Blade V7 Lite.  The two devices have very similar specifications with the V7 aimed at being the premium version of the two. It sports a 5.2″ display, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage along with a octa-core processor running at 1.3 GHz.  The V7 Lite will have a quad-core processor but will have the same 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It was also announced that the V7 will have a 13MP rear camera and 5MP front camera.  Both devices will be running Android Marshmallow