Category: Google

Like many of you who have Nexus devices, I have spent this past week putting the release build of Android Marshmallow through its paces.  As I noted in my review of Android Marshmallow, I’ve had it up and running on one of my Nexus 6 for the past few weeks with the Preview 3 and now running it on my daily driver Nexus 6 and my Nexus 7 tablet.  One of the key features that I mentioned in my review was Doze and App Standby. In Android Marshmallow, when your device is sitting idle, the OS will shut down apps to a very lower power state but will stay alive enough for you to get updates and notifications.  When you pick your device back up, everything comes back to life as normal and you won’t have any lag or delay when you open up an app.  This is the Doze part of the equation. What makes this really impressive is Marshmallow learns your habits and the apps that you use most and which ones you don’t so much.  On these apps it dramatically restricts the amount of power used by the apps for maximum battery efficiency.  This is the App Standby functionality.

I have spent the last couple of nights testing the Doze functionality and the results are dramatic.  This could well prove to be the killer feature of the release and based on what others are reporting, I’m not along in the battery savings I’m seeing on my devices.

While the news of Android Marshmallow has been dominating things these past few weeks, that doesn’t mean that Android Lollipop is dead by any means.  Google has updated their Developer Dashboard and the latest figures through October 5th, just yesterday, indicates that Android Lollipop is seeing its highest install base ever at 23.5%.  These numbers come from Google and represent the version of Android run on devices that signed into the Google Play Store over the course of the past 7 days.  While it is by no means complete or 100% accurate, it does give a good indicator of just where the Android install base is currently.

If you have been on any Android centric website then undoubtedly you have seen the Android Marshmallow (or previously the Android Lollipop) icon wallpaper.  This is where you have the Marshmallow logo laid over your current wallpaper on your Android device.  If you have ever wondered how that icon is found, it’s actually easy and it is in every Android device.  The even better news is that it is quite literally only a few taps away on your device.

Google has released an update to the Google Play Movies & TV app that, amongst many changes, brings Android Marshmallow support to the app.  The update is version 3.9.20 for those keeping score at home and it is available for both Android phones and tablets.  Given that Android Marshmallow is starting to roll out today, it is a good idea to get this update so you can assure compatibility.  Note that if you already have Google Play Movies & TV installed you should get the update via an OTA over the next couple of days.

As the name suggests for those who aren’t familiar with it, Google Play Movies & TV is the app that allows you to purchase, download and stream movies and televisions shows from the Google library.  Once you make a purchase through the app or the Google Play Store, you can download it to your devices for offline viewing or you can simply stream it on your device.  The app is also Chromecast compatible and works great with the Chromecast 2015 device (You can read my review of it here).

Google Play Movies & TV – Free (In-App Purchases) – Download Now

With Android Marshmallow expected to be released Over-the-Air (OTA) tomorrow, Google is already paving the way for that to happen.  They have just posted the Factory Images of Android Marshmallow for the Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 7 (2013), Nexus 9 and Nexus Player on the Android developer website for those of you who have been running the preview of Marshmallow or want to root your device and install it today instead of waiting for the OTA.

Unless you know what you are doing, I strongly advise waiting to get the OTA instead of doing the Factory Image install but the instructions for doing it are on the site.

Some interesting news and rumors to start your week.  Tomorrow, Microsoft is holding an event where it is widely expected that they will launch at least two new Windows 10 Mobile devices along with the new Surface 4 Pro and other key announcements.  This event likely is a signal that the mobile version of Windows 10 is at or very close to completion.

Now there are rumors floating about that Google will be in attendance and that they will be announcing a wide range of Google apps to access their services on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.  This would be a huge step forward in the relationship between the two tech giants with Google pretty much ignoring Microsoft and Windows these past few years.  If you remember, I wrote a piece on the one sided relationship between the companies earlier this year and as of today, not much has changed.  That could be very different tomorrow.