Category: Android

Today’s Deal is on the Essential Phone, the PH-1.  As readers will know, this is the first phone from Andy Rubin’s company and after a few software updates that have come out for it, the PH-1 has proven to be a solid performer.  Right now you can pick on up for $434 on Amazon, a savings of $264.  That price is for either the Black Moon or Pure White colors.

The Essential Phone has a titanium body with a ceramic back, a 5.7″ 2560 x 1320 Quad-HD display, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage built-in.  It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.  This octa-core processor has four cores running at 2.45GHz and the remaining four clocked at 1.9GHz.

Just a couple of days after the initial Chrome 64-based release of Chrome for Android, there is a new minor update build that is rolling out to users today.  The new build is version 64.0.3282.123 for those keeping score at home.  It is essentially a bug fix release but there is one bug in particular that is called out in the release notes.

That particular bug has to do with Chrome for Android crashing when using the Autofill when using Android System WebView.  This new build should address that issue if you have encountered it with the previous build of the app.

Today the Android team in Google released a new Android Wear SDK and emulator update for developers.  The new tools bring the SDK to version 2.2.0 and with it come several new watch face elements to the platform.

Those elements are aimed to be in the next consumer version of Wear, version 2.9.  Perhaps the biggest news of those new face elements will be unread notification indicators that can be coded into the watch faces.

Notification is a vital part of the Wear experience. As a result, starting from the next consumer release of Wear (version 2.9.0), a dot-shaped indicator will be displayed by default at the bottom of the watch face if there are new, unread notifications.

Developers of watch faces will have several options on how to implement the new feature.

If you are aiming to get to Google I/O 2018, your first important date is February 22nd. That is when ticket sales begin at 10:00 AM Pacific which is more-or-less a ticket into the lottery to be selected.

The lottery system has been the method Google has used for the past several years as there are always far more developers interested in attending than there is space for them to attend. To attempt to make it fair, you sign up starting the 22nd and if you are selected, you complete your registration. That is, you pay for your ticket.

Subscribers of Project Fi have a new feature coming to the Android Messages app for SMS and MMS.  Smart Replies is something that has been in Google Allo and Google Inbox for some time now and the feature is now rolling out to Fi subscribers.

Like Allo and Inbox, when a text message comes into your Android Messages app, you will see options for replies in three small bubbles just above the text box where you type your replies.  Backed by Google’s AI, smart replies understands the context of the message you were sent and offers quick, one tap replies to those messages.

The official app for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics has hit the Play Store today.  The app, sponsored by Samsung, gives news and information on the games as they happen as well as local information on moving around the venues and city in South Korea.  The 2018 Games start in 23 days on February 9th.

While the app currently is giving news and information about the Games, city and venues, when the Olympics get started, news and information about specific events will be there along with results and medal standings.