Tag: Android

Confirming a rumor from last week prior to Google I/O, the Mountain View company pulled back the curtains on the all new Google News app and service yesterday at the event.  The new look site and app brings an significantly updated, more Material Design look to the apps while also bringing more visual and video content along with it.

Along with the updated look, there is now a Newsstand tab in the app which brings in magazine and online content subscriptions to the app.  With that, it spells the end of the Google Play Newsstand app.

As expected, Google has announced that Developer Preview 2 and the first public beta of Android P, the next major version of the mobile platform, is now available.  The announcement came at Google I/O today along with a slew of new features that will be coming to Android P.  Perhaps more exciting is that for the first time, Google will be opening up the public beta to non-Google devices.  Those devices, beyond the Google Pixel lineup, include the Sony Xperia XZ2, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, Nokia 7 Plus, Oppo R15 Pro, Vivo X21, OnePlus 6, and Essential PH‑1.

As for Android P itself, there are a lot of new features.  First, the UI has moved to a more gesture driven experience with the ability to enable swipes around the UI to open up the app tray and a new app system navigation view.

Today at Google I/O, the company announced some big new features are coming to Google Assistant.  In the coming months, Assistant will be able to handle multiple actions at once while also being able to continue a conversation with you as you interact with it.  This will be available on Google Home and on your Android and iOS phones.

Continuing conversations is a huge step forward as it will allow you to link various conversation elements together into one interaction without having to say “Hey Google” between each command.  It will make Assistant – which will also have six new voices – more conversational and natural to interact with in your day.

With Mother’s Day coming up this weekend, Huawei has a great promotion running for those Mums who need a new phone.  Right now at Amazon you can pick up the powerful Huawei Mate 10 Pro in an exclusive Mocha Brown color, for $649.  That’s $150 off the regular price.  There is no coupon code required – just visit this link and the special pricing is already applied.  That pricing will be good now through May 19th.

I reviewed the Huawei Mate 10 Pro a few months ago and as I put in that review, it is one of the best phones out there right now.  Huawei has done a fantastic job with the overall design of the phone and the Android Oreo built EMUI 8 user experience is excellent.

As expected today, Google has released the May 2018 Android Security Update for the Pixel and Nexus devices.  The update, which consists of two patches, is rolling out now to compatible Google devices.  With it being the Monday of the first full week of the new month, it was expected we would see these patches land today.

As has become the norm, there are two patches for this month’s Android Security Update.  The first, dated May 1, 2018, consists of 7 patches, all of which are marked as High priority.  The patches in this build deal with general Android items like frameworks, runtimes and other base elements to the platform.

After some 17 months of testing in various shapes and forms, Android Things has finally been released.  The 1.0 version of Android for IoT (Internet of Things) devices, brings all the benefits of Android but in a streamlined, power friendly package.  Developers of Android should find Android Things familiar straight away.

The beauty of Things is that you have access to all the APIs, development tools and resources that are already used in Android development and can use them to develop hardware solutions on certified Android Things hardware for use in IoT projects.