ClintonFitch.com

The growth of Android Pay continues at a torrid pace in 2017.  This weekend, another 13 banks were added to the service which pushes the total number of new banks added this year alone to over 100.  If you remember, 51 new financial institutions were added last month and given the heavy push that Google is making to get Android Pay used more and out there, the addition of so many banks big and small will help drive its adoption.

As with the additional banks last month, this month’s additions are generally smaller financial institutions.  Here is the rundown for this month’s additions:

• Bank of Stockton
• Boundary Waters Bank
• Citizens Bank of the South
• Country Bank for Savings
• Countryside Bank
• First Green Bank
• First State Bank of the Florida Keys
• Greenfield Cooperative Bank
• Infirmary Federal Credit Union
• Indiana University Credit Union
• Maquoketa State Bank
• McFarland State Bank
• The Conway National Bank

If you use one of these financial institutions, you should now be able to add your bank-backed credit or debit card to Android Pay.

While the feature isn’t enabled yet, it appears that Google Home will soon be getting the ability to support multiple accounts.  As a Google Home Pioneer, if there are two feature requests that have been at the top of the list, it has been multiple account support and support for Exchange calendars.  The former, at least, appears to be nearly ready.  This is something that I also pointed out in my review of Google Home back in October as being something which Google needed to address.

If you aren’t familiar with Google Home, right now you can only associate one Google account with the device.  If, for example, you and your partner want to use Home, it will only give you the calendar and other personalized information for the first account setup on the device.  The issues with this are pretty self evident:  I can get my calendar’s next appointment but when my wife asks for her, she gets mine.  Even if you add a second account to the Home app, it will only give you the personalized information for the first account.

Like many of you, I have a lot of gadgets around my office that require charging.  It is logical, therefore, that I’m usually hunting around for a cable to charge said gadgets.  In my office, I’ve pretty much got it setup the way I want but when I go on the road, I have to take some of those cables with me.  Inevitably I forget one (or two) at home.  Or, worse, I have one break.  That’s where bundles of cables really become a great value for me personally and I suspect I’m not alone.

Choetech has been making accessories for Android and iPhones for several years now and recently they sent me their 6-Pack of USB-C to USB-A cables to review.  I accepted the review cables because, having reviewed several Choetech items here on the site, I suspected that they would be good quality, solid construction and great performers.  I wasn’t disappointed.  I tested all of the cables in the pack for this review and all of them did exactly as I would have expected.  Considering that you are getting 6 of these cables in the pack for $19.99, they are also  a good value.

After being released on Monday for the unlocked variants, the Android Nougat 7.1.2 update for the Google Pixel and Pixel XL on Verizon has now been released.  The build for the Verizon Pixels is NHG47K, slightly different than the release for the unlocked devices.  That build was N2G47E.  The update is under 500MB in size but it is a good idea to download via Wi-Fi for speed and data plan savings.  Once downloaded, the update will take about 15 minutes to install and your phone will reboot once it is completed.

Th update for the Verizon variants contain the same updates as the unlocked versions of the Pixel and Pixel XL.  This includes improvements around Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, backup improvements to restore data from 1st-party apps like Calendar, and the April 2017 Android Security Patch.