Category: Android

After being launched last month at IFA in Berlin, the new Sony Xperia XZ1 is now available for purchase here in the US.  The 5.2″ phone is available in four colors and is $699 through Sony’s Amazon storefront.

The Xperia XZ1 is powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC, has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage on board.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  The XZ1 has a 19MP main camera and 13MP selfie camera, is IP68 rated for water and dust resistance and has a HDR 1080p IPS display.

Apple’s music app for Android, Apple Music, has a new update rolling out that brings several new features and enhancements.  Perhaps the most interesting of these is support for Google Assistant in the app.  Now you can use the “OK Google” command to open the app and stream music from it much like you can Google Play Music.

There is also a new widget for the app that will allow you to see your recently played songs which also has the ability to play music from your home screen.

Google Cloud Print is a handy feature that can be found in Android and Chrome OS that allows you to quickly and easily print to printers that are configured and enabled to leverage the cloud-based printing solution.  The vast majority of printers on the market today will work with Cloud Print but, if you haven’t invited users to use your printers at home or in your small office, they won’t see them as a printing option.

This seems to be the most common problem I find for users who are trying to get a printer configured to work with their Chromebook or phone.

This tutorial is aimed at those who have Android, Chrome OS and a compatible Google Cloud Print printer at their home or small office.  Most enterprise Android & Chrome OS users will not have to worry about this as printers are managed through your G Suite administrator.

Along with the Google Pixel 2 XL, we now know what the smaller HTC-built Pixel 2 will look like, its color options and pricing structure.  Like the XL, it is expected that this phone will be launched at the Google event on October 4th.

The Pixel 2 will come in three colors:  Kinda Blue, Just Black and Clearly White.  The first color is very similar to the Ice Blue that was on the Nexus 5X (at least from the renders it appears to be so) while the Just Black and Clearly White are similar to the color options on the Pixel today.

Today’s Deal over at Amazon is on the solidly built and performing LG G5.  This 5.3″ display device with 32GB of storage and 4GB of RAM is down from it’s normal price of $449.99 to $249.99 on Amazon in their Titan (Dark Grey) color.  This is a great price on this phone and certainly should be one to consider if you are looking for a top-end phone at a mid-market price.  The G5 is powered by the Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor and coupled with the Adreno 530 GPU.  It has 4GB of RAM which is going to be enough to really do anything with this phone and has 32GB of onboard storage.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 2TB (that’s right, 2 terabytes) thanks to the MicroSD card slot.

Camera wise, you have dual rear cameras in the LG G5 that give you 16MP images with laser auto-focus and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization).  It has a 2-stage LED flash while the front facing camera is an 8MP shooter with a nice 135 degree wide angle view.

For most who follow the Android community, this will fall under the “duh” category but it is still good to have confirmation.  Essential’s company Twitter posted last night that the Essential PH-1 will be getting updated to Android Oreo “in the next couple of months”.

Get your milk ready–#AndroidOreo is coming soon to Essential Phone. Watch for updates in the next couple months. pic.twitter.com/GEV1ntvDao

— Essential (@essential) September 18, 2017

The news certainly isn’t a surprise and reading between the lines, it looks like the update to Oreo could come at some point before year’s end. That would be great to see and would fall in line with the company’s commitment to rolling out updates quickly – both major and minor updates.