Tag: Android

The calorie and diet tracking app MyFitnessPal has an update rolling out to Android users that will more granular nutrition information to your diary entries.  When you add an item to your diary, be it from a manual entry or a barcode scan, the app will now give you information such as calories, carbs, fat and protein in that item.  It will also give you the percentages of your daily goals in these areas with everyone getting calorie percentages while Premium subscribers get carbs fat and protein percentages.

The information is aimed at helping you make informed and wise food and drink decisions to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

One of the announcements this week at Google I/O ’17 was the addition of Smart Reply to Gmail.  This one-tap feature allows you to reply to an email quickly and without having to type anything in response.  It is a feature that has been in Google Inbox for some time now and it appears that users of the Gmail app on Android are starting to see it show up.  If you aren’t familiar with Smart Reply, here is how it works at a high level.

Using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, the email you receive is interrogated for information – Is there a question?  Is there a date or time?  Those kinds of things.  If such an item is found in the email, you will see a selection of replies to that question at the bottom of the page.  Just tap the appropriate response and a new email pane is opened.  Tap send and you are done.  That’s it.

Friday for the Android faithful was a fun day.  Ahead of Google I/O, which starts this week, the company announced Project Treble, a modularized change to Android that will make it far easier for Google themselves to upgrade the core OS while leaving the manufactures and carriers to upgrade their bits on your phone.  It has a huge amount of promise and would go a long way in sorting out one of Android’s biggest problems – timely updates.

Timely updates, particularly security updates, has always been a challenge.  Manufactures are slow (and don’t really have an incentive to keep things upgraded) and carriers just add to the pain. It is a key reason I have chosen Google Nexus and Pixel products as my main drivers.  I know I will get timely updates.   Treble would leave the base level OS upgrades to Google who could upgrade your devices directly for things like security patches without having to involve the manufactures or carriers.

Unfortunately, I have to rain on everyone’s parade a bit.  Treble is coming for Android O and this week at I/O we are likely going to hear a lot more about it.  But don’t expect it to hit your current phone.  Even if you have a Google Pixel, don’t expect it.  Why?  Two Words:  System Partition.

For those of you who have a rooted or bootloader unlocked phone, the Netflix app just got a bit more difficult to installed.  If your device rooted or unlocked, you will no longer be able to install it directly from the Google Play Store.  Netflix has confirmed to the team over at Android Police that they are fully reliant on the Widevine DRM provided by Google and thus, devices that are unlocked or rooted will no longer be able to install the latest app.  Widevine, for those that do not know, is a Google created DRM technology that works across multiple platforms.

The good news is that, for now, the app will still work if you have it installed already or you side load it.

One of the most common questions I get about ClintonFitch.com is how I make the screenshots that you see in reviews, how to’s and articles like this one.  The answer is Screener.  The app is made by Toastcode and they just released a nice update to the app in the Play Store.  The updated build is version 2.5 for those keeping score and it brings a redesigned user experience and some other nice features that make taking screenshots of you Android devices easy.  A bit about Screener.  It is an app that allows you to take a screenshot you have taken on your phone (most often this is the combination of Volume Down + Power button) and put that into a frame of a popular Android device (and iPhones too).  There are hundreds of frames, some of which are 3D, and there are frames for both phones and Android Wear devices.

This update to the app brings improved Notifications so you can be informed of when new device frames are available, app updates are available or other information from the developer.  You can now control which, if any, you get notifications for on your device.  To change this, go to Menu>Settings>Notifications.

AccuWeather Platinum, the pay version of the free weather app in the Google Play Store, has been updated today with several new features and enhancements.  The updated build is version 4.7.2-paid for those keeping score at home and if you have Android Nougat 7.1.1 on your device, you can take advantage of the new app shortcuts.  Long pressing the app’s icon will get you to shortcuts that will take you directly to the Daily Forecast, the Hourly Forecast or a Map with local weather radar.  All three of these can be dragged to your Home page so you can have them just a tap away if you want to do so.

The Widgets for the app have also been updated.  You can now select to see what AccuWeather calls “RealFeel” temperatures on the widgets.  RealFeel is the temperature with considerations made for windchill or humidity to give you a more accurate idea of what it feels like outside.