Category: Android

Nokia has opened up a beta program for Nokia 8 owners to give the upcoming Android Oreo build a test drive.  The news came via Twitter from HMD Global’s Juho Sarvikas.  Mr. Sarvikas is the company’s Chief Product Officer.

Announcing Nokia phones beta labs! Be the first to test #AndroidOreo on #Nokia8 (physical Oreos not included!) https://t.co/91uhqstnnm pic.twitter.com/GNiNrK31B0

— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) October 25, 2017

As a general rule, once these types of major updates hit the public beta realm, they are pretty well baked. But, the keyword here is “beta”.  There are likely still bugs to be found and other issues so if you are not comfortable with that, don’t download the update.  For those that do and find it unstable to the point of needing to revert back to Nougat 7.1.1, Nokia has confirmed that you will be able to do it.

Full details on how to join the beta can be found on the Nokia Beta Labs site.

It looks like owners of the latest Samsung Galaxy devices have a bit of a wait before they see the Android Oreo update.  The company’s Turkish site has posted that the testing of the new Oreo build has begun and that it will begin rolling out next year.

Our work on our pilot model for Android 8.0 (Oreo) has begun. We aim to present the new operating system to you at the beginning of the new year.

The problem, of course, is when exactly it will be in the new year but this all-but confirms that the update won’t hit in 2017.  Samsung has been very quiet about a timeline on when the update will roll out and this is the only confirmation that has been seen to this point.

If it is indeed 2018 before the Galaxy S8 phones and the Note8 see Oreo, it will once again make Samsung one of the last of the major OEMs to get the update out to their current devices.  Huawei, OnePlus, LG, Sony, HTC and Moto have all confirmed that at least some of their devices will get the update prior to the end of the year.

Verizon has begun rolling out a new update to the Moto Z2 Force that brings support for their upcoming Gigabit LTE (5G) network.  Verizon has been testing faster LTE networks over the course of the past months, mostly in their labs, but have pushed this update out for some real world testing.  To be crystal clear on this, you have to have this update on the Moto Z2 Force and be in a test area for Verizon’s Gigabit LTE.  Verizon has not begun rolling it out to the public yet so think of this as a “getting you ready” update.

The updated build is version NDX26.183-15 and it brings the September Android Security Update patch along with the Gigabit LTE support.

You can read my review of the Moto Z2 Force here.

Through a blog post made this morning, Sony has announced that Android Oreo has begun rolling out to the Xperia XZ Premium.  The update was released to unlocked devices today and it could take several days before everyone sees it.  It also makes Sony one of the first manufactures to get an Oreo update out to a device.

As you would expect, the update is big at over 1GB in size so you will want to make sure you have your phone connected to WiFi to download and that you have at least 70% battery life available (if not connected to AC).

In addition to Oreo itself, Sony has added several new features to the Xperia XZ Premium with this update.  There is a new 3D Creator app that lets you scan any object and render it as a 3D avatar or free form image.  The app can do this in less than a minute and can share it with friends, on social networks or even send it to a 3D printer.

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 $599 on Amazon, a savings of $100.  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.

An updated version of the ClintonFitch.com site app for Android is now rolling out to the Google Play Store.  The update, version 10.05 for those keeping score at home, brings mostly behind-the-scene changes to improve the overall feel and function of the app.

One new feature in this build is the ability to pull down on your device’s screen to refresh the news feed.  This was something that has been needed for a while and now you don’t have to exit the app or wait for the app to refresh itself using background services.  In order to work with Oreo better, this feature needed to be added.

The overall look of the ClintonFitch.com app has been tweaked with a new color scheme and font changes that should make it more readable on smaller devices.