Tag: Android

Readers who own the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 on the AT&T network have a nice surprise waiting for them this morning.  The carrier has rolled out the July 1st Android Security Update to the device in what must be record time.  The update, a 22.6MB sized download, will give your Note 5 all of the security fixes and improvements from the first security patch released this month by the Android team.  Remember that there were two patches this month, one dated July 1 and the other July 5.  In the Release Notes, according to the Kernel version, this patch was compiled on July 4 so it will not have any of the fixes or driver updates that were in the 2nd patch.  Those, likely, will be rolled up into an August update for the Galaxy Note 5 on the carrier’s network.

The Android development team at Google has rolled out what is likely the last Developer Preview for Android Nougat.  The update takes devices to build NPD90G and it is available for all of the Nexus devices that have been a part of the beta testing process.  Those devices include

• Nexus 5X
• Nexus 6
• Nexus 6P
• Nexus 9
• Nexus Player
• Pixel C
• General Mobile 4G (Android One)

For those how have devices registered in the Android Beta program, the OTA update should be coming to you over the course of the next few hours.  If you want to manually flash your device to the newest build, the images are available already.

For those who have Nexus devices, the July Security Update for Android is now rolling out via an OTA update.  The update, 2 of them this month, were released last week on July 6th along with factory images and OTA images that users could flash to their devices manually.  With Google now pushing the updates out to Nexus devices, users will get the update as they usually do each month.  If you recall, this month’s update was split into two parts.  The first update, dated July 1st, was more a general fix for Android while the one dated July 6th was more driver specific updates for specific devices.  Google’s stated intent was to get the first update out so all of their partners could update their devices quickly without having to wade through driver tests for things their their devices just don’t use.

Today’s Deal over at Amazon is a great one if you are needing to pick up an external power pack for your devices.  Today you can pick up the Anker PowerCore 10000 for $18.69, a savings of over 63% off the regular $49 price tag.  As the name suggests, this power pack has a 10,000 mAh battery in it so you can easily charge most devices three times before having to recharge it.  It has a single USB-A connector so you can use it with really anything out there:  MicroUSB, USB-C (A to C cable) and an Apple Lightening cable.  It is designed to work with any device and get you powered up and going again.  It also is in a small package.  This pack is slightly larger than a credit card so you won’t have a big, bulky battery to carry around with you.

For those of you who have installed the ClintonFitch.com app on your Android devices (and Thank You!), there is a new update out this morning.  The update, version 6.0.1 for those keeping score at home, is mostly aimed at improving performance on older devices.  If you have a device running on KitKat then you should see some stability and speed improvements with this new build.  Given that 33% of all of the installs of the app are on KitKat, that should be a big improvement for a good percentage of you.

Like clockwork, Google has released the July Android Security updates for the platform, with both OTA and full factory images now available.  Interestingly, Google has split this month’s update into two different patches.  The first patch, dated July 1, is the most critical and broad reaching.  It includes two critical patches and 11 high priority patches for Android.  In all there are 22 fixes in this patch.  The second patch, dated July 5, contains several more fixes but is more specific to drivers and specific devices.  This patch has 7 critical patches and 19 high priority patches.  So why split them up?  Google is trying to get manufactures to update their devices faster and with the first patch being more broad its fixes, the hope is manufactures will get these updates out faster.  This will in turn give them time to do testing of the second patch (which may or may not be applicable to their devices anyway) for distribution as a separate patch or even a roll up into August.