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The Android team has released the Android security update patches for October today.  The patches, two this month instead of three, have been released for all supported Nexus devices as well as the Pixel C.  As is the norm, the updates have been released as Factory Images and OTA images for those who want to flash their devices immediately.  If you don’t, the OTA update should be coming to your devices over the course of the next week or so.  For those who have Nexus 6 phones, the news is really great for you as Android Nougat has finally been released for your phone and includes this October update.

Google has been splitting up their patches the last few months and October is no exception.  Unlike the last couple of months however, there are only two this month.  The first patch is the 2016-10–1 patch and it is the one for all devices and manufactures.  It contains 12 high priority security patches, mostly around elevation of privileges and denial of service threats.  The second patch, 2016-10-05, is primarily aimed at Nexus devices and contains 5 critical patches focused on remote code execution.  If you have a Nexus device, you will see the October 5th update which is inclusive of the fixes in the October 1st update.

Google Maps has had a nice addition over the last few days which gives you a list of events you have coming up so you can quickly find them in Maps and navigate to them.  The new list is found under My Places in the app.  There you will find a new tap, Upcoming, where you will find events that you have coming up based on things Maps finds in your calendar and in Gmail.  If, for example, you have travel plans or dinner reservation confirmations emailed to your Gmail account, they will now show up in this Upcoming list.  Likewise, if you add an event to your calendar, it too will show up.

Once you have the event in the Upcoming tab, all you can tap on it and it will bring up the event’s location within Google Maps.  From there you can easily navigate to that event.

I feel for Google.  They, like Apple and really any other phone manufacture in the world, struggles mightly to keep their new phones a secret until launch day.  The problem is usually not the company themselves but partners or carriers who leak and today is another great example of it.  Thanks to the folks at UK-based Carphone Warehouse, we now have the full specs of the Google Pixel and the Pixel XL which will launch tomorrow.  Frankly the specs really don’t have any surprises if you consider previous leaks guesses on what the specs would be at launch day.  Given the retailer had full page renders of all the Pixel goodness on their site, which has now been taken down, you can pretty much count on these being a lock.  We’ll know for sure tomorrow.

As for the Google Pixel, it is a 5″ Full HD display with 441 ppi and protected by Gorilla Glass 4.  It is powered by the quad-core Snapdragon 821 processor running at 2.15GHz and that is coupled with 4GB of RAM.  The main camera is 12.3MP f/2.0 shooter with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) while the front camera will be an 8MP unit.  It will have all of the normal base features of a contemporary phone such as a fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C connector and NFC.  Yes, it will have a 3.5mm headphone jack too. 🙂  Interestingly, the phone will have two storage options:  32GB or 128GB and it will be powered by Android Nougat 7.1.

When the announcement came out a few weeks ago that Google would be holding an event on October 4th, it seems pretty straight forward.  This Google event, it seemed, would bring us a couple of new phones and that would be about it.  However, the much anticipated Pixel and Pixel XL are likely to only be the tip of the iceberg.  The event is shaping up to be huge with announcements across a wide swath of the Google landscape.

While everything to this point is purely rumor, there are strong indicators of what we will see or won’t see.  I’ve put together a list of things we are likely to see in the October 4th event and it is expansive.  Get ready for a really exciting day!

Google Pixel / Google Pixel XL – Probability:  100%

Fundamentally, this event started as a launch event for Google’s new phones, the 5.2″ Pixel and 5.5″ Pixel XL.  Both devices are expected to be launched with the new Pixel Launcher and with

Google Pixel

Android Nougat 7.1, the first maintenance release for the latest version of Android.  As for the details, both devices are expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 820 processor and both will have 4GB of RAM.  Both are expected to have a 12MP main camera, fingerprint scanner and sticking with Nexus tradition, will not have a MicroSD card for storage expansion.  They will however come with 32, 64 or 128GB of Storage.

The devices have been heavily influenced by Google and are built by HTC.  It is also expect that for the first time, Google will have their phones in carrier and retailers.  Pricing is still a bit of a mystery but something around the $450 mark for the Pixel and $650 for the XL (starting price) is likely.

Finally, don’t expect these phones to be available on the 4th.  It will likely be the end of the month before we see them ship if history holds true.  You will however likely be able to pre-order them on or around the 4th.