Tag: Android

It is looking increasingly likely that we will see the first Developer Preview of Android P this month.  That view comes from the ramp up in activity in the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) Git and code review but also thanks to a Tweet from the awesome Evan Blass.

Android P Developer Preview 1 is targeting a mid-month release.

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 3, 2018

If you are not following Evan on Twitter, take the time to do so. He is one of the best connected resources out there when it comes to leaks and rumors about Android. He is also deadly accurate on these leaks too so if he Tweets on it, chances are solid that it will actually happen.  Like 99% solid.

The Blackberry KEYone Black Edition has made its way to the United States via Amazon.  The slightly bumped-up-in-specs version of the KEYone is $549.99 at the online retailer and readily available.

Powered by the octa-core Snapdragon 625, the Blackberry KEYone Black Edition sports 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage built-in, which can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  It has a 4.5-inch display has a resolution of 1620 x 1080 and is powered by a 3505mAh battery that supports Quick Charge 3.0.  Of course, the unique feature of this phone is the built-in physical QWERTY keyboard.

The fourth and like the last Chrome 65 based beta build is now available for Chrome for Android testers.  The update is based on build 65.0.3325.109 and is rolling out to the Play Store this morning.

Unlike other beta programs in the Play Store, there is no sign up to get the Chrome beta for Android.  You can download it here and install it on your compatible devices.  Like all beta software however, its not recommended to run it as your daily browser or deploy it into production as there are likely still bugs to be found and there could be performance issues.

Although we are still weeks away from the first Developer Preview of Android P, more details of what will be in the next major release of the platform continue to come to light.  The latest is native support for iris scanning for biometric security.

A new commit points to iris identification to be supported within P, something that manufactures like Samsung have added to their devices.  This change should make it much easier for manufactures to add iris security support to their devices and it should be more reliable.

Android’s gaming hub app, Google Play Games, has a new update rolling out that brings a new Arcade tab to help you discover new games to play.  The update follows on from the major update that that app received in January.  That update brought a completely new look to the app along with some built-in games but there was no way to discover new games from within it.

This new 5.5 version of Google Play Games addresses that issue.  Now you have a new tab where you can find games to play and can filter your results based on what is new, kids games, premium games as well as genres like Action, Adventure, Board games, Racing, and RPG to name but a few.

Twitter has begun rolling out a handy new feature to their mobile apps and site:  Bookmarks.  The bookmarks feature allows you to save a Tweet in your feed to read later or to share later.  There appears to be no expiration of the bookmarks either so you can, in theory, save them for as long as you want.

The new feature is rolling out as a cloud-side update to the Twitter apps for both Android and iOS and is also live on the mobile site, mobile.twitter.com.  It does not appear to be on the main Twitter site, at least not yet.