Tag: Android Nougat

As expected, Google has released the December 2017 Android Distribution Report this week.  The report reflects the version of Android on devices that visited the Google Play Store for the 7 day period ending December 11, 2017 and for those of you who keep track of this monthly report, you won’t find many surprises.

With the exception of Android Nougat and Android Oreo, the two latest version of the platform, all previous version saw a decline or no change in usage from the November report to this one.  Android Nougat grew some 2.7% in usage in that time, by far the biggest gainer.  It now has a 23.3% share of devices coming to the Play Store but it is still behind Android Lollipop and Android Marshmallow.  Marshmallow, version 6.x of Android, leads the pack overall with 29.7% of devices running that version.

As for the latest version of Android, Oreo, it continues a very slow adoption on devices.  It now is on .5% of devices, a jump of .2% over November.

Good news this morning for those of you who have an unlocked Essential Phone.  The company has begun rolling out an update that brings the December Android Security Update to the device.  It will make Essential one of the first beyond Google themselves to get the December update out to end users.

The update is build NMJ51B for those keeping score at home and, based on Essential’s twitter post about the update, it appears that the update contains only this security patch.

We’re currently rolling out a software update (build NMJ51B) with December security patches.

— Essential (@essential) December 5, 2017

It is possible (likely) that there are some other minor updates in the build but clearly the main focus is on the December security update.

OnePlus has begun rolling out a new update to their OxygenOS platform for the OnePlus 5.  The new build is version 4.5.14 and has begun rolling out to a select number of users today.  A broader distribution will happen later once it is confirmed all is okay with the OTA.

There are several improvements in this update to OxygenOS but the big one is the patching of the KRACK vulnerability that impacted WPA2 security on WiFi.  This makes OnePlus one of the latest to update their flagship device with the patch.

Here is the full rundown of changes and improvements in this update:

• Supported Airtel VoLTE in India
• Supported Band 66 of Freedom in Canada
• Fixed Wi-Fi WPA2 security issue
• Optimized battery usage in some cases
• Optimized GPS accuracy
• General bug fixes

As is usually the case, we don’t know exactly what falls under the category of “General bug fixes” but knowing OnePlus, it probably has a lot of performance tweaks for the 5.

Google has released this month’s Android Distribution Report and the latest version of the platform has finally made its debut.  Android Oreo accounted for .2% of the traffic to the Google Play Store for the seven day period ending October 2, 2017.  It was only one of two versions of Android that gained in the distribution report, joined by Android Nougat.

Nougat saw a 2% jump over the September report, accounting for 17.8% of the traffic to the Play Store.  All of the others either had no change or saw drops in usage.

Today’s Deal is on the powerful and ultra thin Lenovo Yoga Book Android tablet.  The 10″ 2-in-1 tablet is on sale right now at Amazon for $299.94 in Gunmetal Gray.  That’s a savings of $200.

The Yoga Book has a 10.1″ display that gives Full HD resolution of 1200 x 1920.  It is powered by the Intel Atom x5-Z8550 processor, a quad-core processor that is clocked at 2.4GHz.  That is coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.  That internal storage can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  Also, the Lenovo Yoga Book can take advantage of Adaptive Storage in Android Nougat so once you have a MicroSD card installed, it can act as part of the main storage on the device.

What really makes the Yoga Book stand out is its size.  It measure just 6.72 x 10.1 x 0.38 in and weighs 1.52lbs.  That’s 256.00 x 170.80 x 9.60mm and 690 grams in new money.  When you open it up, it is 4mm thin.  It has a beautiful hinge that allows the keyboard to rotate completely around to the back of the tablet to use it in tablet mode.  Camera wise, there is an 8MP main camera and 2MP front camera for selfies and video calls.  All of this is powered by a whopping 8500mAh battery that gets you 15 hours of use between charges.  Charging is done via a MicroUSB connector and it supports Quick Charge 3.0 technology for fast charging.

Good news this afternoon for those of you who, like me, have the Lenovo Yoga Book.  The long awaited update to Android Nougat is now available.  The 1.39GB update is build YB1-X90F_17902 for those keeping score at home and brings a lot of updates and changes beyond the Nougat update.  The OTA is rolling out now and should be hitting devices over the course of the next few days.

The Nougat update for the Yoga Book was planned by Lenovo but it was not slated to hit until October.

First, Android Nougat.  The Yoga Book update takes it to Nougat 7.1.1 so you have all of the benefits that it brings.  It is also updated to the June 2017 Android Security Patch.  That’s not so great but hopefully it’ll get updated soon.