Category: Google

It was widely expected that today would be the day that Google dropped the January security update for Nexus devices and that appears to be the case.  Google has updated the Factory Images page on their developer site, bringing the latest build of Android Marshmallow to a range of devices.  With the release of the images, users can expect the OTA updates to being shortly to the latest build of 6.0.1 while manufactures and carriers can start doing their testing to get updates out quickly.  It is likely we will see an update from HTC and T-Mobile drop for the One A9 and Nexus 6 respectively in the next two weeks.

The updated images are for all of the devices that were upgraded or released with Android Marshmallow.  Here is the list and the newest build number for each Nexus device.

• Pixel C:  6.0.1 (MXB48K)
• Nexus 6P:  6.0.1 (MMB29P)
• Nexus 5X:  6.0.1 (MMB29P)
• Nexus 6:  6.0.1 (MMB29S)
• Nexus Player: 6.0.1 (MMB29T)
• Nexus 9 LTE:  6.0.1 (MMB29S)
• Nexus 9 Wi-Fi:  6.0.1 (MMB29S)
• Nexus 5:  6.0.1 (MMB29S)
• Nexus 7 (2013) Wi-Fi: 6.0.1 (MMB29O)
• Nexus 7 (2013) LTE: 6.0.1 (MMB29O)

If you are comfortable with flashing your devices then you can download the files today and update immediately.  Otherwise you will need to wait for the OTA update.

If you use Google Calendar on your Android Phone or tablet, you will notice a wallpaper in the background as you view your diary in Schedule view. Each month has a different wallpaper representing that month or season in a Material Design kind-of-way.  Now you can download all 12 of these wallpapers to either make them a wallpaper for your devices any time you want.

Each wallpaper can be found on the Wallpaper page here on the site and each one measures 3840 x 3840 so you can easily make them a wallpaper for your Mac, PC or Chromebook should you chose to do so.  As with all of the wallpapers on the page, these are free to download.

Gmail, like many aspects of your Chromebook, PC or Mac, can be customized to suit your liking and personality.  While some find the simple white background that comes standard in the web-based email service, I for one am not a big fan of leaving things generic.  I like having a little color and more specifically, I like having things that match across all my devices.  Themes and wallpapers are part of that but so is Gmail for me.  My current favorite wallpaper is the default wallpaper that comes with Android Marshmallow.  It is the wallpaper on both my Nexus 6 and Nexus 7 as well as the wallpaper on my Chromebook and my Windows PC.  Now it is also the wallpaper for my Gmail account.

My Gmail Android Marshmallow Background

To be clear, in this How To I am talking about Gmail on the web, not the Android app.  Whether you are using Chrome, Internet Explorer or Safari, you can have a theme for your Gmail account in just a few simple steps.  First, make sure you have the photo that you want to use as your wallpaper saved somewhere on your PC or on Google Drive so you can access it.  Once you have that done, continue on after the break to see how to set it up, configure & customize it and finally share it with anyone.

While the concept of Project Fi is to provide users with the option of two carriers, T-Mobile and Sprint, there could be a time and place in the US where neither carrier has sufficient coverage. It is rare but it could happen. In that case, what happens to your Nexus phone on Fi? The news is actually really good both from a coverage and price perspective.

Keep in mind that if you are connected to Wi-Fi and it is strong enough, you can still take and make calls.  Last month I posted an article on how to tell if your calls are happening over Wi-Fi so you can refer to that for more details.  But assuming that you don’t even have that available, Fi kicks in to “Domestic Roaming”.  That means that it will use whatever carrier is available to get you connected to make those calls.  In my research of this topic, there have been multiple Fi users who have reported that when T-Mobile or Sprint was not available, their Nexus devices connected to AT&T or Verizon for coverage.  This happened automatically for those users who had roaming enabled (Settings>More>Cellular Networks on your device).

I should be clear that I personally have not experienced or used Domestic Roaming.  In all of my travels I have always had T-Mobile or Sprint available to me.

So what does that cost you as a Project Fi users if you happen to go onto the AT&T or Verizon network?  Absolutely nothing.

If you have been reading my site for the past few months, you know that I recently switched over to Project Fi after being an AT&T customer for over 17 years. You can read my review of Project Fi here but you can find all of my Project Fi related tips, tricks and How To’s at this link.  One of the key advantages of the service is the ability to switch between T-Mobile and Sprint, the two providers that make up Google’s MNVO (Mobile Network Virtual Operator).  In principle, the way it works is that whichever carrier has the stronger signal in your area is the one you will connect to but as you travel, you may switch from Sprint to T-Mobile or vise-versa.  The challenge is that you never really know which network you are on at any given moment and that fact, along with several other key features, is why Signal Spy is a must have app for Fi users.

Signal Spy is an app you may have heard of before as it was know as Fi Spy up until a few weeks ago after what I think was a discussion between the developer Novvia and Google’s legal team. 🙂  The name aside, Signal Spy gives Fi users the ability to not only see what carrier they happen to be using but also what LTE band they are using with that carrier, their Wi-Fi information (if connected) and the ability to force your Nexus device to switch from one carrier to another.  I have been using the app for several weeks now (I’m part of their beta program) and now that it is out and available for everyone, it should be an app that Fi users download right after the Project Fi app itself.  Even if you are not on Fi, you can still get some really useful information out of Signal Spy that makes it worth the download for anyone.

For the purpose of this review I am going to assume that you are a Project Fi user so I can explain all the features and usefulness of the app.  If you are a non-Fi user, keep in mind that your mileage will vary on what you can see in the app.

Signal Spy – Free (In-App Donation) – Download Now

One of the nice changes that has come with the latest update to the Google Phone app under Android Marshmallow has been a significantly improved Caller ID function.  Caller ID itself is a rather old technology with its origins back 1984 and while in principle it hasn’t changed a lot, providing this information on mobiles has been a less than perfect scenario.  Unlike land lines where you can associate a number with a specific point geographically on a map, mobiles are, well, mobile, and tying a number to them when they could be triangulating between cell towers is a challenge.

That is where this latest update from Google comes into play.  With the abilities built into the Phone app and Marshmallow, you can now get far more detail on a call than you could before including how far away that person or business is from your current location and information on that business.  All if this is possible of course with Google having the machine learning and apps that take advantage of it on your phone and in the cloud.  While it is far from perfect, it certainly is more robust than simply depending on the person calling you to be in your contacts – the most common way around the Caller ID problem on mobiles.

As I’ve implied a couple of times already, you have to have the latest Google Phone app and Android Marshmallow on your phone for this new functionality to work.  The app comes by default on Nexus devices but you can now install it on any Android phone and use it as your default phone app.  However, to get this new function you must be running Android Marshmallow.  With that established, now it is just a matter of enabling the function which I go into after the break.