Author: Clinton

If your organization has Hangouts Meet or Chrome for Meetings hardware, there is a new update rolling out to you.  The Chrome 64 update for these hardware solutions has been released, taking you up to build Stable Channel Chrome OS release but has the Huddly firmware which is updated to 1.2.10.

For those that aren’t familiar with these two solutions, they are physical hardware packaged solutions that run on Chrome OS designed for conferences and meeting rooms.  They are available to G Suite customers in the Education, Business and Enterprise versions of the platform.

The rebranding exercise last week from Google on Android Wear was an important one, if nothing more than superficial.  Now known as Wear OS by Google, the flavor of Android designed to run on watches, the name change reflects many things that have been changing with the Android naming convention over the past few months.

But the problems for Wear OS are far deeper than a simple name change can fix.  Sure, Google can address the iPhone user market who, they report, is one out of every three Android Wear user today. The fact is, a premium Wear OS watch experience needs to happen and it needs to come from Google.  Just as they have done with phones and Chromebooks, a Google “Pixel Watch” would unleash all the potential of Wear OS to the masses.  But there are big obstacles in the way that have to be addressed.  If there is a company that can sort it out, it is Google.  The question is if they want to do it.

Samsung started their Android Oreo updates slowly but over the course of the past few weeks, have been trying to catch up in a hurry.  The latest example is the Oreo update for the Samsung Galaxy Note8.  It has begun rolling out to the unlocked variant of the phablet in Europe.

The update is build N950FXXU3CRC1 and it is just over 1.5GB in size.  It brings the Oreo update of course but also brings the March Android Security Update patch along with it.

After being released for the Samsung Galaxy S8 on Verizon last week, the Android Oreo update is now rolling out to S8 and S8+ owners over at T-Mobile.  The updates bring the latest version of Android as well as the February Android Security Update patch to the 2017 flagship devices.

For those of you who have the Galaxy S8, you are looking for build G950USQU2CRB9 while those of you who have the S8+, you are getting build G955USQU2CRB9.  Both updates come in at just over 1.5GB in size so you will certainly want to download them via WiFi when you get the notification of it being available.  As of now, T-Mobile has not updated the support pages for the devices to reflect the new build release notes.

Good news this morning for those of you own an unlocked Sony Xperia XA1, XA1 Plus, or XA1 Ultra.  Your update to Android Oreo is rolling out today.  The update for each of the phones comes in at about 900MB so you will want to download it via WiFi and make sure that you have at least 80% battery life if you aren’t plugged in charging.

All three of the  Sony Xperia XA1 phones are getting the same firmware update which is build 48.1.A.0.116.  Along with the update to Oreo, you will also have the February Android Security Update included.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ owners on Verizon, time to start checking for a system update.  The carrier has released the Android Oreo update for both phones on their network with the roll out starting today.

For those of you who have a S8, you are looking for build R16NW.G950USQU2CRB9 while the S8+ owners are going to be getting build R16NW.G955USQU2CRB9.  In both builds, you will be getting the February Android Security Update along with Oreo.