AT&T Rolls Out Nougat to the LG G5 and Galaxy S7

AT&T has finally started rolling out the anticipated Android Nougat update to the LG G5 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 lineup.  The carrier is the last of the major carriers to release the update for the LG G5 while they were second to get the Nougat update out for the S7 and S7 Edge behind T-Mobile.  If you have any of these devices on AT&T, you should start seeing the update roll out to you this week.

For the LG G5, the update is build NRD90U and weighs in a 1.5GB.  For those who keep up with Nougat builds, you will quickly identify that this is Nougat 7.0, not 7.1.  The good news however is that it contains the January Android Security Update.  The update from download to complete install will take about 20 minutes and you’ll want to make sure you get the hefty update down to your phone via Wi-Fi.  You should get a notification on your phone when it is ready for download but you can check manually by going to Settings>About phone.

What Happens if You Go Over Your Google Drive Storage?

Google Drive is a great service for storing your files and photos.  You get 15GB free and if you want or need more storage, you can get an additional 100GB for just $1.99 per month.  But let’s suppose for a minute you signed up for 100GB, use about 30GB and decide you want to cancel your subscription?  You are 15GB over the free limit so what happens to your files, photos and other things you have stored in Google Drive?  In short, not much.  It comes down to the service you are using tied to Google Drive but the data that you have there will remain there and not be deleted.  That’s the good news.  The not-so-good news is that your Gmail will start bouncing incoming messages.

Let’s deal with Google Drive itself first.  If you are over your quota, you won’t be able to upload new files.  Period.  Equally, syncing between your Google Drive folder on your PC or Mac will stop.  But, and critically, you can still create Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides files as they don’t consume any space anyway.  It isn’t necessarily a loophole in that the Google apps never used your quota anyway but it certainly is a way to keep on creating documents.  But keep in mind that the sync between your computer and your Google Drive stops so any Google Docs files created will only show up online in Chrome.  Those PDFs and Microsoft Office files? Yeah, no more uploading and syncing.

An option you would have – which I have done – is to convert your Microsoft Office files to Google.  This can be done via the web app or the Android app quite easily.  Just open up that Word document then go to File and convert it to Google Docs.  You can do the same for Excel files and PowerPoint files.  Once you have done your conversions, be sure to go to your Google Drive trash folder and empty it.  That will delete the Office files and reclaim your quota.  Keep in mind that reclaiming can take up to 24 hours to happen.

HTC One A9 on Sprint Has Android Nougat Rolling Out

Good news this morning for those of you who have the HTC One A9 on Sprint.  Android Nougat is rolling out to you starting today.  The software update from the carrier is build 2.18.651.2 and it brings Android Nougat 7.0 to your phone along with the January Android Security update.  With it, you get all the goodness that is Nougat including multi-window support, improved data saver and other features.

The OTA update should be hitting devices soon but you can always manually check for it by going to Settings>System Updates>HTC Software Updates on your phone.  As these things tend to go, it will take a few days before everyone sees the update so patience is required.

Android Accounts for 81.7% of all Smartphones Sold at The End of 2016

Gartner has released their quarterly smartphone sales report and it is solid news for both Android and iOS.  In the report, the analyst company states that Android accounted for 81.7% of all smartphones solid in Q4 of last year.  If you add that to the 17.7% for iOS, these two platforms account for 98.4% of all smartphone sales.  It is a staggering number and it goes a long way in explaining why the Microsoft’s and Blackberry’s of the world have all-but killed their own Operating Systems on mobile devices.

The report goes on to say that Apple has surpassed Samsung as the top selling brand globally in the final quarter of the year.

Get Fun Facts on Google Search

Sometimes you just need a fun fact.  Whether you are at a party trying to throw out some random trivia or teaching your kids some fun things about animals, flowers or other things, fun facts can be, well, fun, and maybe even educate you at the same time.  Google Search is making it easier to find those fun facts with a improved algorithm that surfaces these types of searches.  If you type in “Cat fun facts”, you will get a highlighted (with larger print) fun fact about cats.  Refresh your search (pull down on the screen on your Android phone) and it will give you a new fun fact.  There is nothing you need to update, it is just something that is now showing up more predominantly in search results.

Most of the fun facts are for animals and plants but you’ll also find some fun vegetable facts too.

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