ClintonFitch.com

While Android devices have quick and easy access to Google search, having alternatives on your phone is never a bad thing.  The Bing search app from Microsoft has been available for Android for a while now and it, like many of the Microsoft apps for Android, continues to grow and mature nicely.  The latest update to the search app brings a music discovery feature that allows you to find the song you hear in your local coffee shop or other location.  Like other apps, you simply turn on the app, hit the Music button and have Bing listen to the song.  Within a few seconds it will return the result, giving you the song title and artist.  You can then tap on that information at the bottom of the screen and get more details about the song, artist and albums that are available from that artist.  On most songs you will also get the lyrics for the song.

With Android Nougat out and already hitting Nexus devices, the big question everyone now wants an answer for is when their particular manufacture will be rolling it out to their devices.  For their part, Sony has published a list of no less than nine Xperia devices that will see the Nougat update, which will great to see, will leave some disappointed.  Missing from the list is the super popular Xperia Z3 as well as the entire Xperia C, E and M lineup.  To be fair, the Z3 missing from the list isn’t that shocking given that it was released in September 2014.  That’s right at the cusp of when a manufacture would consider an update.  For the newer C, E and M lineups however, that is a big disappointment.

The latest update to Skype is rolling out in the Play Store and with it comes bots.  The messaging, text and video call app now has a wide selection of automated services that can be accessed to play games, give you information and help you with tasks throughout your day.  There are dozens of bots to use within Skype and they are accesses from the floating menu at the bottom of the display, the same you use every day for IMs, video calls and phone calls.  Now when you open up the menu you will see the option to chat with a bot.  This new feature is in build 7.13.0.708 for those keeping score at home and if you have Skype installed, you should get the OTA update over the course of the next day or two.

Earlier this morning the official release of Android Nougat landed and now the Factory Images are available for those who want to manually update their Nexus devices.  The images are available for all of the supported Nexus devices as well as the Pixel C and for those of you who don’t want to wait for the OTA update to hit your device, you can manually update your device to the latest version of Android.

You can read my full review of Nougat to get all the details on what it brings to your devices.