Tag: Android

Microsoft has rolled out a nice update to the Microsoft Office suite of apps for Android.  Excel, PowerPoint and Word for Android have all been updated to build 16.0.7301.1013 for those keeping score at home and bring with it some improvements around file sharing and collaboration.  In fact, in the release notes for each of the apps, Microsoft points out that collaboration is now “front and center” for each of the apps.  So what does that mean?  It means that you can now easily and quickly find documents that have been shared with you in the new “Shared with me” section of the menu.  Here you can see files others have shared with you from their PC, Mac, iOS device or Office online when they used the “invite people” option on a document.  It is a faster way of finding those files without having to search through the app to find that document. This collaboration also means that you can quickly share a document and have the ability to see who is working on it in the Android apps.

Google has rolled out a nice improvement to the search functionality in the Google Inbox app.  This latest update builds on the 1.30 update that rolled out last week and is a behind-the-scenes update.  So long as you have the latest version of the app, this feature will roll out to you over the course of the next few days.  Essentially, this new search function makes it far easier and faster to search for an email message.  By tapping the search function, you will see a quick list of the contacts you email with often, the businesses you email with often and a refinements section that allows you to search for messages that have attachments, photos or are from last week to name a few.  You can, of course, still search for any word, date or topic within the search function as you have always been able to do.

Give credit to T-Mobile.  Usually the question of if a device on a particular carrier will see a major Android update is a mystery at best and a frustration at worst.  T-Mobile is working to eliminate that for their customers.  The carrier has published a list of all the devices that are on their network that will see the Android Nougat update.  Now let’s be clear:  This isn’t going to happen overnight.  Customers are likely weeks or months away, depending on the device, from seeing the update.  Further, the carrier points out that the update has to come from the manufacture first, then they will release it.  If the manufacture doesn’t release it, then that device won’t get the update.

Google Wallet isn’t dead and, in fact, has just received a pretty nice update.  The update that is rolling out in the Play Store now allows you to have funds you receive in your wallet to be automatically transferred to your bank account.  This new feature is far faster than the cash out process that use to be your only option in the app.  Now, once you have an account associated with Google Wallet, any time you receive funds, you can have them go to your bank account and be there usually within 2-3 days (your mileage will vary based on your bank).

The PayPal app for Android has been updated with full support of the Android Fingerprint API.  That addition to the app means that you can use your fingerprint to sign into the app instead of having to use a PIN.  The app, this point, has supported the Samsung Fingerprint API which was to the benefit of Samsung device owners.  Now that they have moved over to the Android API, anyone with a fingerprint reader on their device will be able to sign into the app with it.

The setup of your fingerprint in the app is pretty easy and I’ll cover that after the break.

Project Fi subscribers are about to get some much needed improvements around international data usage tracking.  In a post in the Fi user forums, Community Manager Jordan posted that improved graphs and the ability to setup threshold warnings is coming to the service.

We’re improving the way you keep track of your international data usage with Project Fi. Currently, international data is not included in the threshold for triggering data usage alerts nor the data usage graph (under Account > Current Cycle). We’ll be making changes to both of these features to include international data usage to help you view and monitor more accurately. Note that international data is the same rate you’ve always paid, $10 per GB.

This is great news as now international users of the service will be able to track their data more discretely versus their domestic data usage.