Tag: Android

Ah, the fun of trying to read between the lines… or in this case, a wallpaper.  Google released a set of wallpapers yesterday on their Instagram account for Spring 2018.  That in itself is not news.  The Mountain View company has released such seasonal wallpapers for several years now.  But what grabbed everyone’s attention was this one:

Google Spring 2018 Wallpapers 6

The Android faithful know the next major version of Android is currently referred to as Android P.  And Popsicle starts with P.  Is Google giving us a bold and clear hint?

Apple Music, the subscription music streaming service from the Cupertino company, is doing exceptionally well.  In an exclusive report at Variety, the company shared that the service now has 40 million subscribers world wide.  Perhaps even more of an indicator of the health of the service, it is outpacing Spotify when it comes to month-over-month growth.

Right now Spotify is gaining about 2% each month in new subscribers, which outstanding growth.  But Apple Music is growing at a staggering 5% each month.  The service, like Spotify, is helped by the fact that it works on both Android and iOS phones.

The revamped Nokia 6 for 2018 is now available for purchase here in the United States on Amazon.  Listed as the Nokia 6.1, the updated midrange phone sells for $270, and comes with more RAM than last year’s Nokia 6.  The new Nokia 6.1 was introduced earlier this year at Mobile World Congress and at the time, it was announced that the phone would be coming to the US in May.  It seems things are rolling a little bit faster than expected.

For those that don’t recall, the 6.1 is powered by the Snapdragon 630, an octa-core SoC clocked at 2.2GHz.  Here in the US, it will come with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, which is expandable an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  This is 1GB more RAM than the international versions of the new 6.  It has a 5.5″ FHD display that is protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

It is a day that everyone knew was coming.  Today the Google Store stopped selling the original Google Pixel and Pixel XL.  Not only was it removed from the main store, but it was also removed from the phone options list for Project Fi, Google’s MVNO.

The 2016 Pixel phones were breakthrough devices in many ways, bringing a completely reimagined launcher, a stunningly good camera (rated the best at the time of its release) and, of course, all the pure Android goodness that Google intended.

A few days after the unlocked variant of the Essential Phone began receiving its latest update, now too is the Sprint enabled version of the PH-1.   The update is the same as it was for the unlocked version of the phone, bringing the same updates and improvements to the only carrier locked version of the Essential Phone.

The update brings the April Android Security Update patch to the phone which, despite being a few days behind the unlocked variant, still makes it one of the first to get updated to the latest security patches.  Also, the software to enabled Bluetooth 5.0 is in this update.  The radios for 5.0 have been in the PH-1 all along but were not enabled via the software on the device.  That now changes with this update.

Essential has released a new update for the Essential Phone, bringing a handful of improvements to the flagship phone.  The new build is OPM1.180104.141 and it is already rolling out to owners.  With the roll out, the Essential Phone becomes one of the first phones to get the April Android Security Update patch outside of Google Pixel devices.  As you may recall, this month’s security patch had a huge number of patches so it is good to see it already rolling out to non-Google branded devices.  And, frankly, Essential is always great at getting these updates quickly.

Along with the security patch, Bluetooth 5.0 is finally supported on the PH-1.  The hardware has been there all along but the software stack didn’t support it.  Now it does so you will get all the benefits of that on your phone now too.