Tag: Android

Last May at Google I/O, the company announced a new video calling app, Google Duo.  That app was promised at some point this summer and today it has hit the Play Store as a free download.  The app lets you place a video call to any of your contacts who have Duo and provides a seamless and great video experience.  One of the key features of the app is that it gives a video preview of the person who is calling or you are calling so you can see who it is and what they may be wanting to have a video call with you about before you answer.

The utilitarian app Google Calculator has been updated for Android and while it is certainly a small update, it does have one nice new creature comfort feature and an underlying more important one.  First, the update is build is version 7.0.1 for those keeping score at home and it is rolling out in the Google Play Store now.  You should see the OTA in a day or two.  As for the creature comfort feature, the app now groups large numbers.  In other words, here in the US, you will see a comma between each group of numbers such as 123,456,789.  Previously you would just see 123456789.  Again, not a big deal but it does make it easier if you are using the app for computing large numbers.

An important update is in the process or rolling out in the Google Play Store for Google Maps.  The update, version 9.33.1 for those keeping score at home, brings a new Wi-Fi only mode to the navigation app.  In this mode, Maps will not consume any data and will give you navigation information in areas that you have downloaded to your device.  Once you are connected again to a wireless network, you have full functionality of the app.  The idea behind this new feature is two-fold:  First, if you are traveling abroad, you can save on high data usage charges while you navigate in that foreign country.  Second, there are plenty of rural areas here in the United States were data from carriers is just not available.  Either way, you can use this new Wi-Fi mode and keep navigating.

In the first month since its release, Pokémon Go has hit the lofty number of 100 million.  That’s the number of installs that the augmented reality game has seen on Android and it is only going to climb.  The game has been a huge hit world wide with countless photos of parks and urban areas filled with people young and old with their phones in hand trying to catch them.  Whether you “get it” or not doesn’t matter:  The fact is that the game is hugely successful and for the developer, Niantic, it has been hugely lucrative.  In app purchases are rumored to be in the $10 million per day range for them.  They, clearly, caught them all.

In the latest platform version update from the Android team, the slow adoption of Android Marshmallow continues in the market.  The latest version of Android is now running on 15.2% of all devices that hit the Play Store during a 7 day period that ended August 1st.  That is up from 13.3% in the report last month.  While the growth is certainly not setting the world alight, it is a positive sign that more devices are either coming with the latest version of Android installed or are getting updated.  But, frankly, this also is a bit disheartening when you consider that in all likelihood, we will see Android Nougat released this month.

Earlier today Samsung announced the new Galaxy Note 7, the latest phablet from the company.  You can get all the specs and details here.  Part of the announcement were a good set of press images of the device in its various colors.  I’ve put all of them in a gallery after the break which you can flip through and of course download them yourself if you want.  The Note 7 will come in four different colors:  black, silver, gold and Blue Coral.  Like previous Note devices, it comes with a stylus with over 4000 points of pressure that can make it easier navigating the 5.7″ dual edge display.