Category: Android

The release of the Google Pixel 2 lineup should have gone much better.  The phones were highly touted, packed with a lot of power and Artificial Intelligence.  But it hasn’t been a smooth road.  Users of the phones started reporting screen issues, popping sounds and other issues with the flagship devices.  Google, who began investigating the issues immediately, has now indicated their plan to address the issues.

First, the Pixel 2 lineup will come with a two year warranty.  This is to put people at ease when considering the phone and is one of the longest warranties out there for a smartphone.  Google clearly thinks that the phone’s operations and design are fine and are backing it up.

Second, Google plans to address the popping sound and some of the screen items through software updates.  Those should start rolling out as soon as November.  But it should be said that when Google explained the display issue in their Product Forums, it didn’t satisfy everyone.  The reality is, Google’s response and how they plan to address the issue is spot-on.

Amazon today has added four new LG phones to their popular Amazon Prime phone lineup.  The four phones join the nine other phones already in the lineup but are the first from LG to be added.

Like the other phones in the program, they will have adverts on the lock screen for the discounted price but, if you want, you can opt to pay a bit more and not have the ads.  They are also unlocked and will work with AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint or Verizon depending on the model.

The four phones added are the LG X Charge, LG Q6, LG G6 and the LG G6+.

The entry level X Charge is a 5.5″ 720p display phone powered by the MediaTek MT6750 SoC.  It has 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a MicroSD slot for memory expansion.  It has a 13MP main camera and a 5MP selfie camera.  The X Charge will work with AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile and runs Android Nougat 7.1.

The phone is $199 without the ads and $149 with the ads.

Next is the LG Q6.  It is more-or-less a “lite” version of the G6.  It has a 5.5″ 18:9 FHD+ display and is powered by the Snapdragon 435 SoC.  It has 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and can expand thanks to the MicroSD slot.  Like the X Charge, it also has a 13MP main camera and 5MP selfie camera.  The phone will work on AT&T and T-Mobile and it is running Nougat 7.1.

The Q6 is $299 without adverts while the subsidized version is $229.  Note that the LG Q6 will be available to ship starting November 9th.

For those of you are in the Early Release program for Microsoft Edge, look for an update to hit your devices today.  The update for the Android port of the Windows 10 browser is mainly aimed at bringing stability and performance improvements to the app.  No specific items were called out in the release notes other than these general statements.

It has been widely reported by those in the testing program that the Android version of the app is slower and less stable than the preview that is available on iOS.  This update is aimed at addressing some of those issues.

I’m part of the Early Release program on Microsoft Edge and I’ve already received the update.  In my very preliminary testing for this post, the browser certainly feels faster than the original build with improved rendering speeds on pages.

The first public beta of Android Oreo 8.1 has been released to the Android Beta Program community today.  The new build is OPP5.170921.005 and it is the same across all eligible devices in the program.  That includes the Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 6P and the Nexus 5X.

It has been suspected that this first maintenance build of Oreo was going to be here quickly after the Pixel 2 launch and that has proven to be the case.  Oreo 8.1 does bring some noticeable changes from an end user experience but for developers, there are some significant changes.

From a user perspective, there are minor changes to the UI like colors on the settings menu, a new ambient screen on the original Pixel lineup and Bluetooth power indicators on the notification shade. Most of these are in the new Pixel 2 lineup already but are no going out across other Pixel and some Nexus devices too.

For developers, the API level is up to API 27 but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  There are other new APIs along with refinements to other features of the platform.    Here is the rundown.

Neural Networks API

The Neural Networks API (NNAPI) provides apps with hardware acceleration for on-device machine learning operations. The API supports on-device model creation, compilation, and execution. Apps typically do not use NNAPI directly; instead, NNAPI is meant to be called by machine learning libraries, frameworks, and tools that let developers train their models and deploy them on Android devices.

Added WallpaperColors API

Android 8.1 Developer Preview (API level 27) adds support for managing wallpaper colors. This feature lets you create a WallpaperColors object from a bitmap, a drawable, or by using the first three most visually representative colors. You can also retrieve details of the first three noticeable colors of a wallpaper.

The Chrome team has released the latest update of the browser for Android.  The updated build is version 62.0.3202.66 for those keeping score at home and should be rolling out via the Play Store over the next few weeks.  This is the first build in the 62 train for Android that has hit the production release.

This new version contains the normal security and performance improvements that you have come to expect from this big monthly updates so no real news there.  No, the news is in the new features.

Accelerated downloads are now a part of the browser to allow for faster downloading of files while on your phone or tablet.  If you aren’t familiar with Download Accelerators, essentially what they do is break up large files into smaller bits which are faster to download than one big file.

To say that BLU had a miserable summer would be an understatement.  The Miami based company was hit with several privacy concerns and malware issues on their phones which, at one point, was so bad that Amazon removed their products from their site.

Yeah, it was bad.

But BLU has rebounded with a vengeance.  They have patched up all of their issues, committed to more scrutiny of their firmware build and have even come out with a few new phones.  The latest, the BLU VIVO 8L, was released yesterday and it is Today’s Deal.

The 5.3″ VIVO 8L is on an introductory price of $149.99 on their Amazon storefront and will work with GSM carriers here in the US.  Here is what you get for that price.

The phone is powered by the MediaTek 6753 octa-core processor that is clocked at 1.2GHz.  It is coupled with the Mali-T720 GPU for graphics performance.  Onboard is a healthy 3GB of RAM and it comes with 32GB of Storage built in but that can be expanded up to an additional 64GB thanks the the MicroSD slot.   Powering all of this is a 4000mAh battery that supports Quick Charge technology.

As for cameras, the main camera is a 13MP shooter with Sony optics while the front facing selfie camera is a whooping 20MP shooter with screen flash.