Tag: Android

Runtastic and Google Play Music have teamed up to provide you curated playlists to listen to within the app.  Now when you are within the Runstatic app and chose the music tab, you can chose different playlists to help keep you motivated during that exercise routine.

Keep pace with Today’s Running Hits featuring songs that are all over 130 beats per minute, embark on a Sweaty EDM Workout, or kick it up a notch with someHigh-Energy Hard Rock; the choice is yours. This new app feature is available in more than 60 countries around the world where Google Play Music is available.

This new feature means that you won’t have to leave Runtastic to start playing your music which saves time but also prevents accidental stops or pauses of your exercise tracking.

Portable Bluetooth speakers are widely available in a wide range of prices.  With some you are buying the brand while others you are buying the audio performance but the two are not mutually exclusive.  iClever has been around for a few years now and have been making accessories for Android and iOS devices ranging from charging options to said Bluetooth speakers.  Their latest speaker option, the BTS04, is arguably one of the better values out there for this type of accessory.  The problem with many of these types of devices is that you end up with poor bass quality or poor treble quality.  Neither is the case in this affordably priced speaker and to top that, it looks nice and is even splash resistant.  That means you should have no worries about taking it out by the pool on a summer day.

Recently the team over at iClever sent me the BTS04 to review and I have to say I’m not disappointed.  While I do find the button combination of short presses and long presses a little confusing, overall I can’t fault the performance, size and sound quality from the speaker.  Here is my review.

For those Verizon customers who are looking to pick up the one of the new Google Pixel phones, be aware that the bootloader will be locked to the carrier.  To this point, Google has kept their Nexus devices with an unlocked bootloader.  For those who aren’t familiar with what a bootloader is exactly, it is the first thing that runs when you power up an Android phone.  It is the boot sequence of the device and the loading of the Operating System.  Carriers generally like these locked because the do not want someone loading a custom ROM on the device to bypass their software or other settings.

Motorola has posted on their company blog a full list of devices that they plan to upgrade to Android Nougat.  The list is reasonably comprehensive although there are some notable devices missing, and should give those of you who have Motorola devices some hope for your phones.  The post states that the Moto Z and the 4th generation Moto G will be the first devices to see the update and that will happen in Q4 of this year.  As for the rest of the list, there isn’t a specific timeframe given.

A few weeks ago I posted the Pixel Launcher which you could sideload to your current Nexus or other Android device.  For now, that may be the only way you can get onto your device.  The new launcher will be exclusive to the new Google Pixel and Pixel XL for now although according to Android Police, Google is considering bringing it to other phones.  The new launcher as you have likely seen by now, is a significant departure from the Google Now launcher with a slide up App Drawer and the Google “G” pill at the top to activate searching.  Personally I’m a big fan of the new look but as a Nexus 6P owner, I may be waiting a while.

The Android team has released the Android security update patches for October today.  The patches, two this month instead of three, have been released for all supported Nexus devices as well as the Pixel C.  As is the norm, the updates have been released as Factory Images and OTA images for those who want to flash their devices immediately.  If you don’t, the OTA update should be coming to your devices over the course of the next week or so.  For those who have Nexus 6 phones, the news is really great for you as Android Nougat has finally been released for your phone and includes this October update.

Google has been splitting up their patches the last few months and October is no exception.  Unlike the last couple of months however, there are only two this month.  The first patch is the 2016-10–1 patch and it is the one for all devices and manufactures.  It contains 12 high priority security patches, mostly around elevation of privileges and denial of service threats.  The second patch, 2016-10-05, is primarily aimed at Nexus devices and contains 5 critical patches focused on remote code execution.  If you have a Nexus device, you will see the October 5th update which is inclusive of the fixes in the October 1st update.