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When it comes to Personal Assistants on phones, we tend to think of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa most often while iOS users tend to think of Siri.  But Microsoft Cortana slowly and quietly continues to develop and made inroads on both Android and iOS.  A new report suggests that Cortana is about to go even further into both platforms.

The Verge is reporting that Microsoft is working on integrating Cortana in Outlook for both Android and iOS.  This would allow for things like emails to be read to you while you are on-the-go but could also allow for dictation of emails.

As expected with it being the first Monday of the first full week of the month, Google has released the March 2018 Android Security Update patches for the Pixel lineup of phones as well as the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.  The full factory images for those who want to side load them are available as well as the OTA updates.  The automatic sending of the OTA updates should begin later this week for those that don’t want to bother with a side load.

As usual, there are two patches this month although there is also a second bulletin announcement regarding fixes specific to the Pixel 2 lineup.  In the March 1, 2018 dated patch, there are a total of 16 fixes, 8 of which are considered critical.  These fixes in the first patch deal with Android issues broadly and mostly have to do with media framework and system level issues that could allow for remote code execution.

By any measure, Mobile World Congress was a good show for Nokia.  The company announced several new phones including the revamped Nokia 6, the Nokia 7 Plus and the Nokia 8 Sirocco.  But it appears that the HMD Global owned brand is far from done for 2018.  According to an exclusive at Nokia Power User, the company plans to launch two more devices this year:  The Nokia 8 Pro and Nokia 9.

First is the Nokia 8 Pro.  It will be powered by the Snapdragon 845, have a rotating zoom lens, and will feature a double-glass (front and back) design.  It will also be an 18:9 ratio device with a 5.5″ display.  Looking at the design concepts, this device harkens back to Nokia devices when they were making Windows Phone based phones.

Last week at Mobile World Congress, a concept video of the Vivo Apex caught a lot of attention.  The concept phone had a lot of cool tricks, including a pop-up selfie camera.  By building the camera into the chassis like this, it allows for a completely bezel-less design yet also eliminates the much loved or hated “Notch”.  Now it seems we have a bit more clarity on this design from a patent perspective thanks to Essential’s Andy Rubin.

In a Tweet over the weekend, Mr. Rubin pointed to a patent that is in his name, along with others, that is held by Essential.  That patent points out the pop-up selfie camera design and the patent for it was granted on August 15, 2017.