Category: Android

A new update to the Google Photos app is now rolling out in the Play Store, bringing several tweaks and enhancements to the photo storage app.  The update is version 3.13 for those keeping score at home.  One of the first changes you will notice is around Photo Books.  In this update, you can now get much more granular around book notifications, your draft photo books and promotions being offered.  Previously these were on by default.

There is also a new Share Back feature.  This works when you have an album shared with you in Google Photos.  In the overflow menu, you have the option to share back to that person immediately.  This will be a great feature for friends who want to share albums together.  For family members, it is still recommend you use the Partner Account sharing feature.

After being released in various other markets, the Android Oreo update for the US variant of the Huawei Mate 9 is now rolling out.  Both the MHA-L29 and MHA-L09 are getting the update and it should be coming to your Mate 9 over the course of the next few days.  The 29 is the dual SIM variant while the 09 is the single SIM.

Along with the update to Android Oreo itself, you will be getting the January Android Security Update patch, a new portrait mode for the rear camera, and the new AI-driving EMUI 8 user experience.

Through the use of Machine Learning to detect apps that impersonate, have inappropriate content or malware, Google removed over 700,000 rogue apps from the Google Play Store, taking 100,000 repeat offender developers along with them.  The injection of ML can find patterns that detect bad behaving apps quicker than human inspectors, resulting in a 70% increase in removing of apps from the Play Store over the previous year.

Not only did we remove more bad apps, we were able to identify and action against them earlier. In fact, 99% of apps with abusive contents were identified and rejected before anyone could install them.

The end result is that the Play Store, while still not perfect, is a far safer place than it was this time last year and it will only get better as the Machine Learning models get smarter.

Facing political pressure to scrap the deal, Verizon is dropping their plans to sell Huawei phones to their customers here in the United States.  The plan is a blow to the Chinese manufacture who suffered a similar blow from AT&T earlier this month.

The news comes from sources at Bloomberg who state the main thrust behind the decision was political pressure due to concerns about the company potentially spying for the Chinese government, something Huawei has long denied and there being no evidence from the other countries where their devices are sold as this being an issue.

Verizon has released an update to the Samsung Galaxy Note8 on their network, bringing some bug fixes to the device as well as the January 2018 Android Security Update patch.  The new firmware build is version NMF26X.N950USQU3BRA5 for those keeping score at home.

With the January Android Security Update included in this update, it means that the Verizon variant of the Note8 is protected against the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities which, if for no other reason, is why owners of the phablet should get this update as soon as possible.  The update also fixes a bug where the screen would freeze during incoming calls, fixes a force closed bug when unlocking the device, and another force closed issue when the method of unlocking for the device was attempted to be changed.

The ASUS ZenFone 3 is the latest ASUS phone to start getting its update to Android Oreo.  The update was released yesterday and should be making its way to owners as an OTA update over the course of the next few days.  The new firmware build is version 15.0410.1712.31 for those keeping score at home.

The update brings all of the things that you expect from Oreo along with an overall improved UI experience for the ZenFone 3.  One of those changes is a new app drawer where you will simply swipe up to show all the apps installed on your phone.  This behavior is similar to Google’s Pixel devices.