Category: Android

The awesome podcast app Pocket Casts has a new update rolling out that Android Oreo users are going to love.  The update, version 6.4 for those keeping score at home, brings a plethora of updates, many aimed at users who have the latest version of Oreo on their devices.

The biggest Oreo feature in this update is the support for Picture-in-Picture.  Now you can start a video podcast in the app, tap your Home button and the video will be minimized to your Home screen.  There you can keep watching while doing other things on your phone or tablet.

Additionally, support for Adaptive icons and Notification channels, both Oreo features, are supported in this latest update.

If you don’t have Oreo just yet, there are still plenty of things to love about this update.  Battery and Background improvements have been made to the app as well as improved image loading and other general performance fixes.  Show notes are now updated too when they are updated by the podcast’s author.

OnePlus has begun rolling out a new update to their OxygenOS platform for the OnePlus 5.  The new build is version 4.5.14 and has begun rolling out to a select number of users today.  A broader distribution will happen later once it is confirmed all is okay with the OTA.

There are several improvements in this update to OxygenOS but the big one is the patching of the KRACK vulnerability that impacted WPA2 security on WiFi.  This makes OnePlus one of the latest to update their flagship device with the patch.

Here is the full rundown of changes and improvements in this update:

• Supported Airtel VoLTE in India
• Supported Band 66 of Freedom in Canada
• Fixed Wi-Fi WPA2 security issue
• Optimized battery usage in some cases
• Optimized GPS accuracy
• General bug fixes

As is usually the case, we don’t know exactly what falls under the category of “General bug fixes” but knowing OnePlus, it probably has a lot of performance tweaks for the 5.

After weeks of rumors and speculation, the Razer Phone is official.  Razer, who acquired Android phone maker startup Nextbit earlier this year, makes their first named device in the Android space and it spectacular from a specifications perspective.  The phone will be $699 and pre-orders are being accepted starting Friday.  And, get this, it will be in Microsoft stores nationally.

Okay, to the nitty-gritty.  The Razer Phone is powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC, has an impressive 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB of onboard storage.  The phone will support a MicroSD card so you can expand that storage up to 256GB.  Display wise, it is a 5.7″ LCD that renders at 2560 x 1440 at, wait for it, 120Hz.

If you haven’t put it together yet, this phone is squarely aimed at being an entertainment device, both for gaming and for video watching.

Camera wise, the rear camera configuration is a dual camera with a 12MP f/1.75 wide angle shooter and a 13MP f/2.6 normal with both supported by PDAF.

Powering all of this is a 4000mAh battery that supports Quick Charge 4 technology.

As rumored, Samsung has begun the public beta testing of their Android Oreo build for the Galaxy S8.  The program officially kicked off today and is expected to run for at least a couple of months.  It is good news for S8 owners as Samsung is notoriously slow about getting major updates out to their devices.  It would see, at least with Oreo, Samsung is trying to reverse the trend.

Unlike the beta program for Google’s Pixel and Nexus devices, Samsung is being very limited in the number of Galaxy S8 owners who get the beta & who have signed up for the program.  In talking to their technical support team today, I was informed that a small number of users who had signed up for the beta were randomly selected and were offered the OTA update to the beta.  When I asked if this would be expanded later, the support agent indicated it was possible but that she could not comment.

Google has begun rolling out an improved look to the overflow menus in the Google app for Android.  The update is a server-side change, meaning that as long as you have the latest version of the app on your phone, it will be pushed down behind the scenes to your phone.

That latest version is 7.13.28.21 for those keeping score at home.

Previously, when you were looking at cards in the Google app or in the Google Pixel or Now Launcher page, you would get a pop-up card on the display when you wanted to dismiss a card.  Now, when you tap the three vertical dots in the right-hand corner of any card, you get a bottom-up card.  It looks much cleaner and refined over the pop-up card.

Today’s Deal is on the powerful, 5.2″ Sony Xperia XZs.  The XZs is a revamped version of last year’s XZ and has, as you would expect from Sony, some pretty impressive specs.  Today, the XZs has dropped in price down to $499 on Amazon.

The Xperia XZs is powered by the Snapdragon 820 processor clocked at 2.2GHz, has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.  That storage can be expanded and additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  The XZs is IP68 rated against water and dust intrusion and, a not-so-common thing here in the US, it is a dual-SIM phone.  The display is a 5.2″ FHD and all of this is powered by a 2900mAh battery that is charged via a USB-C port and it supports Quick Charge 3.0 technology.

What really makes the XZs however are the cameras.