Tag: Google Pixel 2

With it being the first Monday of the first full week of June, as expect, the Android team within Google has released this month’s Android Security Update patches.  The full builds along with the OTA builds are now available for those who want to sideload while devices should be getting the update via the System Update settings on their phone later today.

As usual, there are two patches in this month’s update.  The first, date June 1, 2018, consists of 22 total patches, five of which are considered critical.  This patch mostly deals with the base Android platform itself and the patches address things like Media Framework and System level patches.

When the Google Pixel 2 lineup was released, a series of “Come & Play” wallpapers were made available to the those devices exclusively.  Consisting of 5 wallpapers in all, they are colorful, playful wallpapers that bring a mix of organic shapes and Material Design.

Now, you can download all of the wallpapers for your particular phone.  I’ve added the five wallpapers to the Wallpapers page here on the site as well as to this post.  As usual, I’ve added them after the break so for those of you who aren’t interested, you don’t have to wait for them to download on the main page.

As expected with it being the first Monday of the first full week of the month, Google has released the March 2018 Android Security Update patches for the Pixel lineup of phones as well as the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.  The full factory images for those who want to side load them are available as well as the OTA updates.  The automatic sending of the OTA updates should begin later this week for those that don’t want to bother with a side load.

As usual, there are two patches this month although there is also a second bulletin announcement regarding fixes specific to the Pixel 2 lineup.  In the March 1, 2018 dated patch, there are a total of 16 fixes, 8 of which are considered critical.  These fixes in the first patch deal with Android issues broadly and mostly have to do with media framework and system level issues that could allow for remote code execution.

Google is in the process of researching a new bug that is impacting Pixel 2 owners where rapid battery draining is occurring.  So far the Mountain View company hasn’t pinpointed the cause of the problem, which is not impacting all users.

A thread in the Google Product Forums, in the Pixel community, has been ongoing, particularly since the release of the February Android Security Update.  That appears to be when the issue began for several users although Google, right now at least, cannot find a correlation between the two, according to a source at 9to5Google.

A new beta of Google Play Service is currently available and it is bringing a much desired fix to the “Check for Update” button on Google Pixel devices.  The new beta build is version 12.2.09 and multiple sources are reporting that at least on the Pixel 2 lineup, you can actually tap the “Check for Update” option in Settings and it will immediately go download the new February Android Security Update patches.

The Check for Update button has been broken for a while now.  A fix was to come with Android Oreo but an update to Google Play Services, the culprit in all of the issues, broke it again late last year.  Google then indicated that a fix would be coming in 2018.  That fix now appears to be happening.

After being an exclusive to Verizon since October of last year, the Kinda Blue color option for the Google Pixel 2 is now available to everyone from Google or on Project Fi.  The pricing of the phone and the functionality of the phone is identical to any Pixel 2, it is just that you have a more unique color option than Black or White.

The Kinda Blue color was an exclusive for the phone from Verizon as being the other launch partner of the phone with Google.  That meant that the phone was locked to the carrier like the other Pixel phones they have sold.  Now with it being available from Google directly, you can get it unlocked.