ClintonFitch.com

Google has released the July Android Distribution Report for the 7 day period ending July 6, 2017.  The report shows that Android Nougat has finally broken through the 10% install base on devices that hit the Play Store during the week, topping out at 11.5%.  That is up 2% from the June report.  While good news, Nougat still lags far behind the top installed version, Marshmallow.  The report shows that Android 6.x was on 31.8% of devices hitting the store, up .6% over the June report.

All other previous versions of Android in the report saw declines in install base month-over month.

• Android Lollipop:  -.7%
• Android KitKat:  -.1%
• Android Jelly Bean:  -.7%
• Android Ice Cream Sandwich:  -.1%
• Android Gingerbread:  -.1%

In the case of Android Ice Cream Sandwich and Gingerbread, both sit at .7% of install base.  Generally, Google stops counting it when it hits .1% or less so we will likely see these in the next few Android Distribution Reports.

Today’s Deal over at Amazon is a great opportunity to pick up a huge external power pack for your phones and tablets without dropping a lot of cash.  The RAVPower 22000mAh Power Pack is available today for $39.99, a savings of 70% off the regular price of $99.99.  The pack, despite its huge battery, is relatively small at roughly the size of an iPhone 7 Plus and has 3 USB ports for charging three devices at the same time.  In fact, you can get 5 charges of your Galaxy S7 out of this RAVPower pack and an amazing 9 charges of an iPhone 6S.  Each port of the pack can output 2.4A of power and uses RAVPower’s iSmart technology for fast, smooth and safe charging of your devices.

Yesterday, T-Mobile started rolling out the June Android Security update to the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge on their network.  Today, Sprint has followed suit.  The update is build G930PVPU4BQF3 for the Galaxy S7 while the S7 Edge will be getting build G935PVPU4BQF3.  The update for either device comes in at just under 300MB in size and it is recommended that it be downloaded via Wi-Fi and that you have at 50% of battery left prior to trying to install it.

The release notes for the updates are somewhat generic in describing what is addressed.  The security is improved thank to the new Android Security patch level but there are also “device stability & improvements”.  There are also performance improvements but again, not specific is called out.  This is similar to the T-Mobile release yesterday which just indicated “various system improvements”.

OnePlus has begun the process of rolling out OxygenOS 4.5.5 to their new flagship, the OnePlus 5.  The update has been released to a small subset of devices already and assuming that all goes smoothly, a broader distribution will happen later this week.  The update has a handful of fixes and optimizations for the new phone.  Credit where it is due:  OnePlus has been pushing out updates to OxygenOS and the OnePlus 5 at a pretty rapid pace since it’s launch last month.

Fixes in this build of the Android Nougat based OxygenOS 4.5.5 include a fix to the Wi-Fi signal indicator which always showed it as week, a fix for some apps which would not work under IPv6 and a fix that restores connectivity to a Windows 10 PC.  The release notes for this update indicate that you need to turn off USB debugging prior to the upgrade to assure this is fixed.