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All good things must come to an end and it appears that day has come for the Nexus 6.  Google has quietly pulled the 2014 hero device from the Google Play Store, ending the 14 month reign of the Motorola built device.  Unveiled on October 15, 2014, the Nexus 6 sported a massive 5.96″ super high resolution (2560×1440) display, 3GB of RAM, a 13MP rear camera and powered by the Snapdragon 805 processor.  The device was met with glowing reviews overall with the two biggest sticking points being the price (started at $649 for the 32GB model) and the shear size of the device.  Google, it seems, listened to customers and critics as the Nexus 6P, the 2015 hero device, is considerably smaller and lighter weight while still sporting a 5.7″ display.

While Google has stopped selling the device, owners of the Nexus 6 still have a very viable phone in their hands.  Google released the device with Android Lollipop and has already rolled the update out to Marshmallow for it.  With the company’s commitment to a 2-year update cycle, that means that it should see Android N when it is released presumably in late 2016.

While the numbers are not dramatic, Android Marshmallow continues to gain in use and share according to the latest Android Developer Dashboard on versions of Android in use.  The latest version of the mobile OS made its debut in the report last month and as of the report today, is on .5% of all devices that went to the Google Play Store for the period ending December 7, 2015.  That is up from .3% in the initial report.  Although it is far from where everyone would like it to be, the growth is significant in these early days of Marshmallow as it shows more manufactures are getting the update out to their devices.

In comparison however, Android Lollipop still has 29.5% share which actually increased a bit as well over last month while KitKat, the top version out there, fell by nearly 1% which should be expected at this point in the life cycle of the release.

One of the few non-Material Design apps from Google, Google Authenticator, has finally been updated to reflect a more modern design.  The app has been bumped up to version 4.44 for those keeping score at home and also brings support for Android Wear so you can perform authentications for your 2-factor enabled accounts from your wrist and not just your phone or tablet.

For those who may not know what the app does, it provides you a six digit PIN for you to authenticate your identity on accounts such as Google, Evernote and Dropbox where you have enabled 2-factor authentication.  2-factor authentication is a more secure way of keeping your accounts secure by requiring not only a username or password but also this PIN to prove you are you.  It is always a best security practice to enable 2-factor on your accounts to prevent hacking of your accounts.

Google Authenticator for Android – Free – Download Now

Google has released an update to Google Calendar that, while is mainly focused on performance improvements, also brings a new and pretty sophisticated reminders function to the app.  The update is version 4.1 for those keeping score at home and it is in the Google Play Store now.  If you have not received the OTA update, you should over the course of the next couple of days.

The new reminder function allows you to setup a reminder for a wide range of activities from phone calls to checking in for flights and is found on the “+” menu in the lower right corner of the app.  Now you can chose Reminder as well as Event on that menu.  By adding a reminder, you will be able to tell the app what you want to be reminded of and fill in the details.  A reminder is then placed in your calendar for that event and you can setup notifications to remind you of your reminder.