Microsoft Edge Pushes Past One Million Downloads on Android

The Microsoft Edge browser for Android continues to make its mark in the handful of months it has been available.  The browser has now surpassed the one million downloads mark in the Google Play Store.  That puts it in reasonably elite company in the store and it has hit this mark just a week after being released from its beta program.

Edge is part of Microsoft’s broader mobile strategy which is aimed at making their apps available on whatever device you happen to be using – Android or iOS.  Edge also ties your Android phone closely to your Windows 10 PC by allowing you to start a browsing session on your phone then move it to your PC to continue at the moment or later.

Touch Controls Coming Back to Google Home Mini

When the Google Home Mini was announced back in October, one of the highlighted features of the device were touch controls.  These controls would all you to not only adjust the volume with a touch of either side of the device, but would also allow you to long press to play or pause music amongst other things.  Unfortunately it was discovered that the touch controls could be activated without actually touching them, prompting Google to disable the feature (save the volume up and down side touches) via a software update.

It appears now that Google has sorted out a potential resolution and will soon be re-enabling the touch controls of the Google Home Mini by bringing those to the side touch areas.  There is now a software update available to those in the Home Preview Program which is enabling long presses to pause or play music while short presses of the side buttons will remain volume control.  The top tap control however remains disabled and likely will remain so given it is as much a hardware challenge as it is software.

OxygenOS 4.7.4 Released for The OnePlus 5T

OnePlus has begun rolling out a new OxygenOS build for their new flagship, the OnePlus 5T.  The update is build 4.7.4 for those keeping score at home and brings several improvements to the device.  It is an update that 5T owners will want to get as soon as possible.

The headliner in the update is the optimization of the camera app’s UI and the overall improvement of photo quality.  The improvement in quality is especially in low-light situations.  Most owners of the 5T have been generally pleased with the camera and photo quality from the phone but there have been a few complaints around low light situations.  This update should address those concerns.

Google Photos Update Brings White Navigation Bar

A small update to the Google Photos app is rolling out in the Play Store that gives a glimpse of what is going to be coming to other Google apps.  The update is version 3.10.0.177481342 for those keeping score at home and functionally, you aren’t going to find anything different.  What you will notice is the navigation bar at the bottom of the display.

Up until this update, the navigation bar has always been black.  Now it is white.  It is something that you are likely going to see more of over the course of the next few weeks as Chrome in the canary channel has a white navigation bar and the latest update to the YouTube app also sports it as does Gmail and Google Maps.

The Pixel Check for Update Button is Broken Again

Remember back in September when I posted about the fact that the Check for Update button on Google Pixel and Nexus devices actually worked?  Like, it actually looked at the cloud where phone images live, did a stare-and-compare of what was there versus what was on your phone, and would immediately download it to your phone.  It was cool for the few minutes it worked.

No, it is not your imagination.  It is broken.

Googler Elliott Hughes has taken to his Google+ account to update everyone that the feature is broken due to an API incompatibility.  It will get fixed but it won’t be until 2018.

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