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Technology and applications come and go but rarely do they stick around for decades in some form or fashion.  That has been the case with AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM.  The first version of the chat client for Windows came in 1997, allowing friends and family to communicate with each other over the proprietary solution.

Today however, we say goodbye to the messaging platform.  AOL announced back in October that they would be killing off the messaging service and as of now, they have no replacement for it.  It is unlikely they will ever replace it given the number of hugely popular messaging apps out there like Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts and Microsoft Skype (and many more).  Simply put, the competition for AIM was just to great and without innovation, technology, applications, and services eventually die.

With the premier of Star Wars:  The Last Jedi less than 24 hours away, it is time to get even more hyped up with wallpapers celebrating the movie.  As you may know, earlier this morning OnePlus announced a special edition OnePlus 5T, their latest flagship phone, that was Star Wars themed.  The phone, which functionally is identical to the standard OnePlus 5T, comes with 10 special edition wallpapers.

Well, as you would expect, they are now in the wild.  Engineering folks over at XDA have broken out the wallpapers and made them available.  I, in turn, have uploaded them to the Wallpapers page here on the site for everyone to download.

To save those of you who aren’t overly interested in the wallpapers, I’ve placed them after the break so you don’t have to see them.  But if you do, read on!

It has taken a few weeks but the ability to elevate a call within Google Phone to Google Duo has now rolled out to everyone.  The feature allows you to switch a phone call from a voice only call to a video call with a touch of a button within the Phone app.  But, as you would suspect, there is a catch.

First, you and the person you are calling has to be using the latest Google Phone app and the latest Google Duo app.  The latter of these isn’t so tough as you can download it from the Play Store.  The former, however, isn’t so easy.  Many manufactures have their own phone apps and you can’t install the Google app.

Assuming you can get past the apps issue, the other gotcha is that both you and the calling party have to have Duo installed and registered with the mobile number you are calling.  It is only under these circumstances that you’ll see the video call option in the Phone app.

Over the past few months, Sony has been making great strides in keeping their phones up to date with major Android releases as well as the monthly Android Security Update patches.  This month it would seem is no exception.  The Japanese company has rolled out the December security update to the Xperia XZ, Xperia XZs and the Xperia X Performance.

The update is firmware build 41.3.A.2.24 for all three devices and the update is hitting unlocked phones first as you likely suspect.  The update is small, less than 200MB, so it is a quick install but does require a reboot of your phone once you have it downloaded and installed.