Category: Android Oreo

Google has made a small but significant change to the way that Google Pixel devices measure estimated battery life.  The update replaces a simple model that was on the devices that could produce some wildly inaccurate measurements and results.

The news of the update came via the Pixel Product Help Site and essentially, the new model now looks at how you actually use your phone rather than making estimates based on your previous hour of usage.  Before this change, if you used 10% of your battery in an hour, the model would assume that you would continue to use your batter at a 10% per hour clip.  This resulted in some discrepancies if you went above or below that 10% rate.  The change to the model gives more personalized results.

To fix this, we built an on-device model that evaluates how you use your phone’s battery over time. Your phone looks at your battery usage on similar days and times, and uses that to predict your battery life in a personalized way.

The cool thing is, this is all a cloud-side change that Google pushed out so if you have a Pixel device, you likely already have this change in place.

Good news for readers who have the Nokia 8 flagship from from HMD Global.  The company’s Chief Products Officer, Juho Sarvikas, took to Twitter this morning to make the announcement.

O k, here we go
R eviewed your feedback
E verything is polished
O fficial update rolling out today! #AndroidOreo #Nokia8 #Oreo #Nokiamobilebetalabs pic.twitter.com/QpZeh9JTu0

— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) November 24, 2017

The beauty of the Nokia 8’s Android Oreo update is that it is completely uncluttered with bloatware or skins. It is pure Android, just what the company had indicated they would be doing for all of their devices as Oreo is rolled out.

The November Android Distribution Report has been released by the Android team at Google and it reflect improvement in adoption of the latest two major versions of the platform.  Only Android Nougat (7.x) and Android Oreo (8.x) showed gains in this months reports, with all previous versions showing declines.

For those who may be new to Android, each month Google releases an Android Distribution Report that reflects the versions of Android that hit the Play Store over the course of a 7-day period.  This month’s report was for the seven days ending November 9, 2017.

The biggest loser in this month’s report was Marshmallow (6.x).  It saw a 1.1% drop in usage, down to 30.9% over the October report.  Marshmallow remains the most widely used version of Android at that 30.9% with Android Lollipop (5.x) a close second at 27.2%.  Lollipop, like Marshmallow, saw a drop but only by .5%.

The awesome podcast app Pocket Casts has a new update rolling out that Android Oreo users are going to love.  The update, version 6.4 for those keeping score at home, brings a plethora of updates, many aimed at users who have the latest version of Oreo on their devices.

The biggest Oreo feature in this update is the support for Picture-in-Picture.  Now you can start a video podcast in the app, tap your Home button and the video will be minimized to your Home screen.  There you can keep watching while doing other things on your phone or tablet.

Additionally, support for Adaptive icons and Notification channels, both Oreo features, are supported in this latest update.

If you don’t have Oreo just yet, there are still plenty of things to love about this update.  Battery and Background improvements have been made to the app as well as improved image loading and other general performance fixes.  Show notes are now updated too when they are updated by the podcast’s author.

As rumored, Samsung has begun the public beta testing of their Android Oreo build for the Galaxy S8.  The program officially kicked off today and is expected to run for at least a couple of months.  It is good news for S8 owners as Samsung is notoriously slow about getting major updates out to their devices.  It would see, at least with Oreo, Samsung is trying to reverse the trend.

Unlike the beta program for Google’s Pixel and Nexus devices, Samsung is being very limited in the number of Galaxy S8 owners who get the beta & who have signed up for the program.  In talking to their technical support team today, I was informed that a small number of users who had signed up for the beta were randomly selected and were offered the OTA update to the beta.  When I asked if this would be expanded later, the support agent indicated it was possible but that she could not comment.

Nokia has opened up a beta program for Nokia 8 owners to give the upcoming Android Oreo build a test drive.  The news came via Twitter from HMD Global’s Juho Sarvikas.  Mr. Sarvikas is the company’s Chief Product Officer.

Announcing Nokia phones beta labs! Be the first to test #AndroidOreo on #Nokia8 (physical Oreos not included!) https://t.co/91uhqstnnm pic.twitter.com/GNiNrK31B0

— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) October 25, 2017

As a general rule, once these types of major updates hit the public beta realm, they are pretty well baked. But, the keyword here is “beta”.  There are likely still bugs to be found and other issues so if you are not comfortable with that, don’t download the update.  For those that do and find it unstable to the point of needing to revert back to Nougat 7.1.1, Nokia has confirmed that you will be able to do it.

Full details on how to join the beta can be found on the Nokia Beta Labs site.