Tag: Android

Mobile World Congress last week was a fantastic event for Nokia.  Not only did they announce five new phones, but according to Twitter Marketing UK, they were the most talked about brand on the first full night of the event.  Everyone assumed that Samsung would take this honor, especially given they launched their new flagship phones, the Galaxy S9 and S9+, the night prior.  But Nokia stole the limelight for a few reasons.

First, Nokia is a brand that people know and love.  Sure, you can same the same thing about Samsung today but chances are, most of you reading this post, started life with a Nokia device or have had one at some point in your mobile life.  That is not necessarily the case with Samsung.

With the release of the March Android Security Update patches earlier today, the opportunity has come to test the Check for update button on Pixel devices.  And guess what?  It works again.

The saga of the Check for update button has been going on for months – really years if you take in the fact that it has never really done anything in the past.  That changed late last year when Google indicated that the button would actually go tap the update servers in Google and give you the latest update for your Pixel or Nexus.  Then an update to Google Play Services broke it.  Then a new beta of Google Play Services was released with the explicit indicator that it fixed the issue.  But that update came out after the February Android Security Update patches.  So today was the first real opportunity to test it.

As expected with it being the first Monday of the first full week of the month, Google has released the March 2018 Android Security Update patches for the Pixel lineup of phones as well as the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.  The full factory images for those who want to side load them are available as well as the OTA updates.  The automatic sending of the OTA updates should begin later this week for those that don’t want to bother with a side load.

As usual, there are two patches this month although there is also a second bulletin announcement regarding fixes specific to the Pixel 2 lineup.  In the March 1, 2018 dated patch, there are a total of 16 fixes, 8 of which are considered critical.  These fixes in the first patch deal with Android issues broadly and mostly have to do with media framework and system level issues that could allow for remote code execution.

While the Samsung Galaxy S9 is now available to pre-order, if you want to save yourself a bit of money, you can pick up a good deal on last years Galaxy S8.  Right now the Samsung Galaxy S8 is available in Midnight Black for $599 on Amazon.  That’s $125 off the regular price.  Given that the S8 has its Android Oreo update rolling out, complete with Samsung Experience 9 of the Galaxy S9, you really getting close to the same device for a lot less.

The 5.8″ Galaxy S8 is powered by the octa-core Snapdragon 835 processor running four cores at 2.3GHz and the other four running at 1.9GHz.  It is coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage which is expandable up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD card.  The display renders at 2960 x 1440 QuadHD with an impressive 571 PPI.  Powering all of it is a 3000mAh battery which is charged with inductive charging.

Last week at Mobile World Congress, a concept video of the Vivo Apex caught a lot of attention.  The concept phone had a lot of cool tricks, including a pop-up selfie camera.  By building the camera into the chassis like this, it allows for a completely bezel-less design yet also eliminates the much loved or hated “Notch”.  Now it seems we have a bit more clarity on this design from a patent perspective thanks to Essential’s Andy Rubin.

In a Tweet over the weekend, Mr. Rubin pointed to a patent that is in his name, along with others, that is held by Essential.  That patent points out the pop-up selfie camera design and the patent for it was granted on August 15, 2017.

There is a new update to Microsoft’s SwiftKey keyboard app rolling out today in the Play Store.  The update, version 6.7.8.25 for those keeping score at home, brings support for nine new languages as well as a number of bug fixes.  It also brings support for Hiragana layout for Japanese language users.

As for the new languages, users of SwiftKey now have these new ones available:  Afar, Banjarese, Fulani, Gayo, Guarani, Madurese, Minangkabau, Nias, Bengkulu.  That brings the total number of languages supported by the keyboard app to well over 200.