Category: Android

The popular keyboard app SwiftKey has a new update rolling out in the Play Store today.  The update, version 6.6.9.32 for those keeping score at home, is primarily a performance and bug fix release but there are a couple of new features of note too.

First, the app now supports signing in and synchronizing of your learned words and typing patterns with your Microsoft account.  Support for Google and email sign-ins have been support for some time now but not for those who prefer to use their Microsoft account.  Why is this a big deal?  Because Microsoft owns SwiftKey.  They bought the company in February 2016 so it seems odd that it took this long to bring support for their own accounts to their own apps.

After spending the past couple of weeks in beta, the rebranded Microsoft Launcher is now available for download in the Play Store.  This is what was formerly known as Arrow Launcher and this update, version 4.1 for those keeping score at home, brings a lot of polish to the already impressive launcher.

From a features perspective, you aren’t going to find a lot of new things in this update.  Outside of the new “Continue on PC” feature, which requires the upcoming Fall Creators Update on Windows 10, you won’t find a lot of new stuff.  Instead, there are a lot of refinements to the launcher.  For example, the Utility page now has a top banner with a greeting, the weather and the number of events you have on your calendar for the day.  Also, the Utility page has more clearly defined cards and they can now be themed both in colors as well as if you want the cards Light, Dark or Transparent.

Google Express has added Target stores to their growing list of retailers starting today.  Now when you open the Express app on your phone, you will have the option to show Target for a wide range of products from the big box retailer.  You can also associate your Target REDcard, their discount program, with Express to get discounts and free shipping.

Target is available only in the United States and only in the lower-48.  Hawaii and Alaska are not included.  As with other retailers, Target will provide free, 2-day shipping on orders over $35.

This is the second major US retailer that has joined Google Express in the past few months.  If you remember, Walmart recently joined the service.

When the Google Pixel 2 lineup was released a couple of weeks ago, the new phones, like the first generation, were announced to have free uploading of original quality photos to Google Photos.  For those not familiar with Google Photos, original quality photos normally count against your Google Drive quota (which is leveraged by Photos) but compressed, high quality photos, don’t count against it.  Normally for photos under 16MP high quality is a great option because it is pretty lossless.

After the release of the Pixel 2 phones, it was noticed that the original quality uploading for free ended in 2020.  It cause a lot of confusion:  What happens to my photos I’ve uploaded already?  Do they get deleted?  Do they get compressed?  Thanks to an APK tear down by the Android Police team, we have a clearer answer.

Today’s Deal is on the powerful flagship Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy S8.  Right now you can pick up the unlocked version of the phone with 64GB of storage in Midnight Black for $624.99.  That’s $100 off the original price of the phone.

The 5.8″ Galaxy S8 is powered by the octa-core Snapdragon 835 processor running four cores at 2.3GHz and the other four running at 1.9GHz.  It is coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage which is expandable up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD card.  The display renders at 2960 x 1440 QuadHD with an impressive 571 PPI.  Powering all of it is a 3000mAh battery which is charged with inductive charging.

The Google Daydream app has a new update rolling out in the Play Store that brings the promised support of Chromecast to the app.  The update, version 1.10.170912063 for those keeping score at home, now allows you to cast whatever you are doing or viewing on your Daydream headset so others can join in on the fun.

The ability to cast from Daydream was something that Google discussed back in May at Google I/O and was expected with the next major update of the app, version 2.0, but it appears that made it in a little earlier.