Tag: Android

The official Formula 1 app for Android has received a nice update this week ahead of the start of the 2017 championship in a few weeks time.  The update brings a significantly improved UI to the app with bottom navigation buttons and a brighter overall look to the app.  All of the content that you have had in past seasons is still there but there are a load of new notifications you can sign up for within the app, including the current pre-season testing that is going on in Barcelona.

The Formula 1 app is a subscription-based app.  For free, you get live timing at each race, post-race interviews, video highlights and standings.  The $2.99 per month subscription gets you access to all of that plus timing & scoring for all sessions (practice & qualifying), in-car audio, in-race commentary and full 3D maps that you can view the race in action.

LineageOS is making up for lost time and doing it fast.  The rise of the platform out of the CyanogenMod project has been very impressive and got even more so today.  Multiple Samsung devices, both phones and tablets, have been added to the supported devices for the platform.  The new build is in the 14.1 train of the platform which is based on Android Nougat.

As for which Samsung devices were added, the list is pretty comprehensive.  The Galaxy S7 (G930F), S7 Edge (G935F) are probably the banner models that will catch everyones attention.  But the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7″ was also added, both the Wi-FI and the LTE variants.  The Note 7 Tablet was updated to the 14.1 train too.

The March Android Security Update has been released for Nexus and Pixel devices and, the good news, the update is already rolling out to devices.  The update was officially released yesterday and has become the way of things, consists of two patches.  The first patch, dated March 1st, contains three critical patches and 8 high priority patches.  This patch is generally for all Android devices while the second patch, dated March 5th, has 8 critical patches and contains a whopping 21 high priority patches.  This update is mostly for Nexus and Pixel devices.

Like previous releases, this month’s security update has been released as a full factory image for those who want to flash their devices manually and so has the OTA patch to do an incremental update.  For those who want to wait until Google actually pushes it to your phone or tablet, you won’t have to wait long.

Good news this morning for Verizon customers using the Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge – Android Nougat is finally coming your way.  The update is being released today and you are looking for build  NRD90M.G930VVRU4BQA2 for the Galaxy S7 while the S7 Edge is getting build NRD90M.G935VVRU4BQA2.  Both updates come in at just over 1GB in size so you will want to make sure you are connected to Wi-Fi to download the update for your phone.  Once you have it downloaded, the install process should take about 30 minutes all-in.

By now readers will know what comes with Nougat so I won’t bore you with the details once again.  If you aren’t clear on what Nougat brings, check out my review.  As for this particular update, you aren’t going to find much different than the Galaxy S7 updates that have been on T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint.  Essentially the updates are the same with very minor tweaks between them for each carrier.  That, frankly, is good in that you don’t have a different experience just because you are on a different carrier.

Yesterday I posted on the improved support for Exchange in the latest update to the Gmail app.  The update to the app now allows you to manage your Exchange tasks from within the app so you don’t have to go elsewhere to do so.  There is another nice update that came with the 7.2 version when it comes to the app shortcuts.  Now when you long press the Gmail icon, you will be able with a single tap access any of the configured accounts you have in the app.

As readers likely know, in order for app shortcuts to work, you have to be running Nougat 7.1.1 or later.  That, for now, limits it to just a handful of devices unfortunately.

When you access the shortcuts, you will have one for each of your accounts along with a compose shortcut.  When you select one of your accounts, you are taken to the inbox for just that account, allowing you to focus just on it and not all of your emails from various accounts you have configured.

The streaming music Spotify continues to grow, passing the 50 million paid subscriber mark this week.  The news came via company’s official Twitter account yesterday and is a good indicator of the popularity of the $9.99 per month service.

Thank you to our 50 million subscribers. #Spotify50 pic.twitter.com/eXkOV71bwu

— Spotify (@Spotify) March 2, 2017

The number of paid subscribers is across all platforms and includes Android as well as iOS.