Category: Android

After spending the last few months in Preview (Beta) mode, Microsoft has officially launched the Office for Android Phone apps to the general public.  The new Excel, PowerPoint and Word apps are now universal apps for both Android tablets & phones and are available for free from the Google Play Store.  If you have a device that is under 10.1″ in screen size, they are able to view, create and edit files while those with an Office 365 subscription will have every feature fully enabled.

For those who keep score at home, the Office for Android new versions are builds 16.0.4201.1008.

I’ve been testing the Office for Android apps for the entire Preview period and while there were a few bugs here and there, generally speaking they were all solid on performance and stability.  The release today brings some additional features to the apps including support for Google Drive.

Excel for Android – Free – Download Now

PowerPoint for Android – Free – Download Now

Word for Android – Free – Download Now

The Google Drive for Android app has been updated with several new features and improvements, mostly aimed at making file sharing and downloading of files easier and quicker.  The update is free and available now in the Google Play Store and users will immediately notice the changes in the app.  For those keeping score at home, this new version of Google Drive is build (wait for it) 2.2.233.30.35.  Because, easy build number convention. 🙂

Google Drive for Android – Free – Download Now

The Fitbit for Android app received an update this morning that every user of the fitness tracking devices should download.  It addresses a reasonably significant bug that made firmware update very slow that lead some update to fail.  This new version, build 2.7.3 for those keeping score at home, should address that and make it much quicker and more reliable.

Fitbit for Android – Free – Download Now

One of the most anticipated Android phone releases of 2015 will be the OnePlus 2, the follow up to the highly successful OnePlus One from the Chinese manufacture OnePlus.  There have been a huge number of leaks, rumors and guesses as to what the OnePlus 2 will look like, it’s price, what it will have powering it and when it will actually be released. The challenge of course is separating the fiction from fact and, to their credit, OnePlus has been doing a pretty good job of confirming and denying these leaks and rumors as they have come out.

To help set things straight, I’ve put together a list of the things that we know for sure about the OnePlus 2.  These are all confirmed by OnePlus themselves.  I have purposely avoided rumor posts just to get visitors to my site and I stand firm in that.  What you won’t find in this post are supposed leaked images of the phone or other guesses.  It’s just facts.

That said, I have been clear in my opinion that the OnePlus 2 is critical to the long term success of OnePlus.  It has to be a success for the long term sustainability of the company.

Since the release of Lollipop about 6 months ago, Google has been on a slow and methodical march with the apps that are included in the release.  While we have always had stand alone apps like Google Maps and YouTube, increasingly even the most basic of apps found in Lollipop are being released into the Google Play Store for everyone to download, regardless if they are running Android 5.x or not.  Apps like Google Messages (for SMS), Google Calendar, Inbox, Chrome and the latest, Google Clock are no longer confined to just the latest release of Android.  Anyone can download them and get a Lollipop-like experience with these apps but also get the latest-and-greatest offerings from Google.

This migration to standalone apps is not being highly touted by Google but in my opinion it is a sign of things to come and a step in the right direction when it comes to base Android versus apps.  By making this move it also helps solidify the future of Android by potentially speeding up releases of Android core updates.  It is a win for everyone.

You may have 99 problems, but streaming radio certainly shouldn’t be one of them.  Last week Google announced that their Google Play Music app and service will now provide you free, ad-supported streaming music to your Android phone and tablet with a premium, ad-free service costing $9.99 per month. It falls in line with other services that are already available and the upcoming Apple Music service coming to iOS in July.  The question for Google will be if anyone will be interested given there are so many options available today but the Google Play Music does have some nice features like being able to incorporate your own music you have uploaded into the service, something you aren’t able to do on some other services.  To get this new streaming feature you will need to have the latest Google Play Music app which is now up to version 6.0.1945S for those keeping score at home.

Google Play Music – Free (In-App Subscription Available) – Download Now