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Microsoft has quietly rolled out a new feature on their personal assistant Cortana that Android users will appreciate.  Now in Microsoft Cortana, you can set up the assistant to have access to your Google account, allowing it to access both your Google calendar as well as your contacts.  Previously calendars and contacts were limited to Office 365 accounts or to an Outlook.com account.

The addition of Google services means that users of Cortana on their Android phone, PC or their Harman Kardon Invoke, will be able to ask Cortana about events on their Google Calendar or make a call to a Google Contact, a likely scenario for Android users.

As you would expect, this new integration requires that you connect your Google account to Cortana and authorize it.  This is done via Connected Services which can be found in your Cortana Notebook section of the app or on your PC.

As expected, Google has released the December 2017 Android Distribution Report this week.  The report reflects the version of Android on devices that visited the Google Play Store for the 7 day period ending December 11, 2017 and for those of you who keep track of this monthly report, you won’t find many surprises.

With the exception of Android Nougat and Android Oreo, the two latest version of the platform, all previous version saw a decline or no change in usage from the November report to this one.  Android Nougat grew some 2.7% in usage in that time, by far the biggest gainer.  It now has a 23.3% share of devices coming to the Play Store but it is still behind Android Lollipop and Android Marshmallow.  Marshmallow, version 6.x of Android, leads the pack overall with 29.7% of devices running that version.

As for the latest version of Android, Oreo, it continues a very slow adoption on devices.  It now is on .5% of devices, a jump of .2% over November.

Today’s Deal is on the new Nokia 6 from HMD Global.  The 5.5″ Full HD phone with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable memory is on sale for $149 over at Amazon.  This is fully unlocked and works on GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile and has the Amazon Prime adverts on the lock screen.  It is also in the popular Copper color. If you don’t want those ads on the lock screen, the non-Prime version is $229.

It is powered by the Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor clocked at 1.4GHz.  It has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage on board.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 128GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  It has a 5.5″ 2.5D Full HD display coupled with Dolby Atmos sound with 7.2W of output.  It has a a 16MP rear facing camera and 8MP selfie camera with the rear camera having a dual-tone flash for warmer flash photos.

Last week I posted about Google releasing the Android Oreo update for Android Wear.   But, like Android phones, the question of which watches would be getting the update was a bit foggy at the time.  Now Google has attempted to clear it up with an update to the a support page.

The page outlines the devices that have already started receiving the 8.0 update and which ones are “currently pursuing” the update.  As for devices already receiving it, here is the list:

• Fossil Q Venture
• LG Watch Sport
• Louis Vuitton Tambour
• Michael Kors Sofie
• Montblanc Summit

These devices have the update rolling out now and it has been widely reported that the Fossil Q Venture and LG Watch Sport were amongst the first.