The official Twitter app for Android is getting a major makeover today that brings a full-on Material Design makeover along with improvements in the overall user interface of the app. The update is rolling out now in the Play Store so if you have it installed, you should be seeing the OTA update over the course of the next day or so. Once you have it, you will have a vastly improved Twitter experience on your phone or your tablet.
The MLB at Bat app for Android has been updated today with a lot of improvements around video playback and some new features for those of you who are Lite users of the app. The biggest change is the support of 60 FPS video on phones that support it. Video playback in the app was my only real complaint about it as it was a bit pixelated and not very smooth. In checking it out this morning after this update, it is not even comparable to the old build. Video is very clear and smooth in playback.
For those of you who are on the Sprint network with the HTC Desire 626s, today is a good day! HTC has announced that the Android Marshmallow update is rolling out to the mid-range phone starting today. The update will take the phone from Android Lollipop 5.1 up to Marshmallow 6.0 and brings all of the goodies that comes with the latest major build of Android. The update is a big one at just around 1GB so you will need to download it via Wi-Fi and once you start the install process, it will take about 20-30 minutes to complete it.
Today’s deal over at Amazon is a pretty good one for those who are looking for a MicroSD card for the Android devices (or other devices for that matter). Right now you can pick up the Samsung 128GB Class 10 SDXC card for just $39.99. The card has a transfer rate of 48MB/sec so it should work on virtually any Android device that supports up to 128GB cards and is fast enough to record full HD video in cameras. Double-check your phone or camera’s specs to make sure.
If you don’t need or can’t use a 128GB card, the 64GB card is also on sale today for $19.89.
The Google Clock app for Android has been updated with a few new improvements that most users will likely appreciate. The updated build is version 4.4 for those keeping score at home and it is rolling out in the Google Play Store now. There are two big features in the update: Inline volume controls for alarms within the app and the ability to have timers vibrate, not just give an audible tone. On volume controls, previously when you wanted to adjust the alarm volume, you had to use the volume rocker on your phone to turn it up or down. With this update, that is no longer the case. You can now change the volume of your alarms within the app using a slider within the Clock app, making setting the alarm a bit more precise and easier than tapping a physical button.
Google Hangouts has been updated for Android that brings a much desired feature for those who use Hangouts a lot: Direct Share. For those who aren’t familiar with what I’m referring to, Direct Share allows you to share content from another app directly to someone on Hangouts. To this point, if you wanted to share something, it was difficult and involved a fair bit of cutting and pasting in some cases. That isn’t a big deal for those who don’t use the app much but for power users, it was a time consuming step. That, for the most part, is gone now.
It is the first of the month which means it is time for the monthly Android Security Bulletin to be released along with updated images for Nexus devices. The June update is now on the Android Developer site in the factory images while OTA updates to Nexus devices will begin in short order. Google has also released the full bulletin for the update, outlining all of the things that were addressed in the update. In all there were 21 security updates in the release, six of which were considered critical in nature. Google points out in the bulletin that no known exploitation of the issues are known but they are addressing them anyway to keep users safe and secure.
In Today’s Deal update from Amazon, they have a great price on last year’s Asus ZenFone 2 Laser Android phone. The ZenFone 2 Laser comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage and is unlocked for GSM carriers (AT&T and T-Mobile). Today you can pick one up for $199 at the online retailer. It’s a great price for a pretty powerful phone that, as the name suggest, uses laser focusing technology for the 13MP rear camera that is built into it. Better yet, it is a dual-SIM device and if you need more storage than the 32GB built in, you can expand it up to 128GB more with the MicroSD slot.