Sony Launches The Impressive Xperia XZ

Sony introduced their new flagship Android phone, the Xperia XZ, at IFA 2016 and it is impressive.  The 5.2″ Full HD display device comes with just about everything you would want in a phone including an astonishing 23MP camera.  That’s right:  23 Megapixels.  Powering the XZ is the Snapdragon 820 processor and it is coupled with the Adreno 530 GPU.  It has 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and that storage can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.

The cameras however somewhat steal the show.

Huawei Announces The Nova and Nova Plus

Huawei took the stage at IFA 2016 in Berlin this morning and announced two new mid-market phones, the Nova and Nova Plus.  Both devices will be making their debut in European markets in October while the larger global release will happen later in the year.  Overall, both devices are nicely appointed and similar in most areas outside of the screen size.  The Nova will be around $440 when it hits the US and comes with a 5″ Full HD display.  It is powered by the Snapdragon 625 SoC processor, has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage.  That storage can be expanded via a MicroSD slot.  The main camera is a 12MP shooter while the front camera is 8MP.  It supports USB-C and has a 3025mAh battery.

Chrome Build 53 Released for Desktops

Users of the Chrome browser for Windows, MacOS and Linux will want to grab the latest update rolling out.  Chrome Build 53 has been pushed out by the Chromium team and with it comes a whole host of fixes, security patches and updates.  Specifically, the build is version 53.0.2785.89 for those keeping score at home and it contains 13 high priority updates amongst the total of 20 updates.  Many of those fixes have to do with Heap Overflows and spoofing which the Chromium team has closed thanks to the help of contributors globally.  If you are running Chrome on your desktop, go to chrome://help and it will automatically start downloading the update for you.  Remember that you will need to do an restart of the browser to kick in the new version.

Fashion Week Front and Center in Google Search

Fall Fashion Week is nearly here and Google Search is making it easier than ever to follow the events, fashion houses, designers and, of course, the fashions during the events.  Across the world starting next week and with events in New York, Milan, Paris and London (to name a few), keeping up with all of it can be challenging.  Google Search is aiming to make it just a bit easier.  Starting now you can type in “Fashion Week” in Search and it will bring you designers, top stories and links to information from these events from around the world.

And this year in Google Search on your mobile phone, you can see the latest styles straight from the runway, hear directly from the designers, shop your favorite looks, see the schedule of events, find related news and follow the action like you’re sitting in the front row — or even backstage.

Google has partnered with BFA and firstVIEW to give you a wealth of information about what is going on not only on the runway but behind the scenes, the parties and of course the celebrity sightings. For Search users, you get the benefit of just being able to go one place to get all the information you want on the events around the globe.

Skype for Android Update Brings Nougat Support and Fixes

The Skype app for Android has been update with full support for Android Nougat as well as a host of other fixes and improvements.  The updated build is version 7.14 for those keeping score at home and if you have the messaging app installed already, you should see the OTA update come to your phone or tablet over the course of the next few days.  While support for the latest version of Android is great, that really isn’t the banner item in this update.  Rather, it is a number of user related issues that the team addressed as well as cross-app suggested contacts.

The suggested contacts gives you suggestions on contacts you can reach through Skype from other Skype apps.  For example, if you have Skype for Business installed on your phone, you can now see suggested contacts for your business contacts in Skype.  You can have this setting set to automatically add your contacts or you can manually add them.

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