Tag: Android

I have always been a fan of book-style folio cases for phones.  I like the look and feel of most of them plus the added benefit of protection for the entire device when it is in use or in my pocket.  The Huawei P10 is one of the best selling phones so far in 2017 and although it has yet to make its debut in the United States, the Chinese company has a line of cases ready for the phone when it hits US shores.  If you live in Europe, your life is much easier and the Huawei Folio Smart View Case for the P10 is one to strongly consider.

The Folio case is designed by Huawei and works tightly with the P10 to provide you not only protection but information at a glance.  It’s Smart View window uses the settings of your P10 to give you time, weather and other information with the case closed on your phone.  No need to open it up to check the time.  But this case provides stylish protection for you investment too.  It protects all the edges of your phone, has precise cutouts to access ports and buttons, and fits your P10 firmly.

Today’s Deal is on the all new BlackBerry KEYone, the latest Android-powered phone from the company that also sports a physical keyboard.  The KEYone drew a lot of attention when it was announced back in January with its keyboard and after a couple of delays, it is finally available for ordering.  The GSM version of the phone is $549.99 on Amazon.

For those that don’t recall, the KEYone is a 4.5″ device that is powered by the Snadragon 625 processor.  It has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.  It runs Android Nougat 7.1.1 out of the box and has the same cameras as you will find in the Google Pixel and Pixel XL.  It is powered by a 3505mAh battery and has a physical QUERTY keyboard.

Samsung has begun rolling out the May 2017 Android Security update for the venerable Galaxy Note 4 and Note 4 Edge.  The update doesn’t contain any new features for the 2014 devices but will bring them up to the latest security patch for those still using it.  Both phones are running Android Marshmallow and it is highly unlikely they will ever see Nougat despite their extended support after the Note7 debacle.

The update weighs in at 345MB and it is recommended that you download the OTA update via Wi-Fi.  Once you have it downloaded, the install process will take about 10 minutes to complete and will require a reboot of the device.

Google is pushing hard to get Actions on Google built for Google Assistant and one of the best ways to do that is to throw some prize money at it.  Google has announced a new contest where the top prize is $10,000 and a trip to Google I/O 2018 for a developer who creates an app leveraging Actions on Google.

For those who are not developers, Actions is the set of APIs that are leveraged to bring Google Assistant compatibility and/or integration into apps.  Google opened up the platform earlier this year and while adoption has been good, Google of course wants to make it more widely used.  Amazon right now has over 10,000 apps that tie into Alexa and Echo and Google is significantly less than that number.  This contest should help change that a bit.

Google Photos has been getting a lot of attention in the past week.  The photo app was reported at Google I/O last week to have 500 million monthly users, had a new archive feature added, and a new photo book service where you can order a hardcover book of photos from your library.  All of this makes sense when you consider the update to the listing for the app in the Play Store.  Photos now has been downloaded 1 billion times for Android.

The update to the listing comes nearly two years to the day from when Google Photos was originally announced.  My fellow Google Top Contributor in Google Photos, Paolo Amoroso, reminded me this morning that the launch date of Photos was May 28, 2015.

Good news this morning for Canadian readers.  The Huawei P10 and P10 Plus are coming June 6th to various carriers in the country.  Both the P10 and the P10 Plus were announced back in February at MWC and both have been well received.  Reviews of the phones have been overall positive and Huawei has sold millions of units internationally.  To this point, neither phone has been in the North American market but it has been widely expected that Canada would see the phones first.  The US will likely see them too, just under a different name.  That’s not confirmed however.

For those who have not had a chance, you can read my review of the P10 to get my thoughts.  Personally, I’m a big fan of this phone and it is one of the fastest phones I’ve ever reviewed.

The P10 will be coming to Bell, Fido, Rogers and Videotron while the larger P10 Plus will be exclusive to Rogers for the initial release.