Tag: Android

The popular save it for later app, Pocket, has a new update rolling out to Android users.  The update, version 6.6.3.2 for those keeping score at home, brings the ability to have articles read to you while you are on the go.

For those that aren’t familiar with Pocket, it is an app and service that allows you to save an article or other find on the web for viewing or reading later.  There are apps for Android, iOS and plug-ins for popular browsers like Chrome.  It is a great way to save and share articles of interest.

The new text-to-speech feature works great.  Once you have an article open in the app you want read to you, go to the menu (three vertical dots) and tap on “Listen (TTS)”.  The app will automatically start reading the article to you.  The voices used by the app are a little robotic but not to the point of distracting and the app supports playback in the background too.  If you are playing it in the background, the ability to play/pause the reading is available to you in the notification shade.

For those of you are in the Early Release program for Microsoft Edge, look for an update to hit your devices today.  The update for the Android port of the Windows 10 browser is mainly aimed at bringing stability and performance improvements to the app.  No specific items were called out in the release notes other than these general statements.

It has been widely reported by those in the testing program that the Android version of the app is slower and less stable than the preview that is available on iOS.  This update is aimed at addressing some of those issues.

I’m part of the Early Release program on Microsoft Edge and I’ve already received the update.  In my very preliminary testing for this post, the browser certainly feels faster than the original build with improved rendering speeds on pages.

The first public beta of Android Oreo 8.1 has been released to the Android Beta Program community today.  The new build is OPP5.170921.005 and it is the same across all eligible devices in the program.  That includes the Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 6P and the Nexus 5X.

It has been suspected that this first maintenance build of Oreo was going to be here quickly after the Pixel 2 launch and that has proven to be the case.  Oreo 8.1 does bring some noticeable changes from an end user experience but for developers, there are some significant changes.

From a user perspective, there are minor changes to the UI like colors on the settings menu, a new ambient screen on the original Pixel lineup and Bluetooth power indicators on the notification shade. Most of these are in the new Pixel 2 lineup already but are no going out across other Pixel and some Nexus devices too.

For developers, the API level is up to API 27 but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  There are other new APIs along with refinements to other features of the platform.    Here is the rundown.

Neural Networks API

The Neural Networks API (NNAPI) provides apps with hardware acceleration for on-device machine learning operations. The API supports on-device model creation, compilation, and execution. Apps typically do not use NNAPI directly; instead, NNAPI is meant to be called by machine learning libraries, frameworks, and tools that let developers train their models and deploy them on Android devices.

Added WallpaperColors API

Android 8.1 Developer Preview (API level 27) adds support for managing wallpaper colors. This feature lets you create a WallpaperColors object from a bitmap, a drawable, or by using the first three most visually representative colors. You can also retrieve details of the first three noticeable colors of a wallpaper.

While I am not a New Yorker (I live in the quiet mountains of Colorado), when I do go to Gotham I always pre-load a MetroCard.  The card is your ticket, literally, to getting around the various subway lines of the city.  It was introduced in the 1990s, replacing the coin token system, and it has been a reasonable way of getting through the system.  But New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) also feels the cards are outmoded for today’s world.

MTA has thus turned to NFC, or Near Field Communication.  Through a $573 million contract, the MetroCard will be replaced with NFC at turnstiles.  This will allow users with NFC enabled credit and debit cards as well as Android Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay users to pay for a fare simply by tapping their phone to the terminal.  The new system will be very similar to the system that is used by the London Transit Authority for the Underground in London.

The new system will begin rolling out in late 2018 and by 2023, the MetroCard will be phased out completely.

The Chrome team has released the latest update of the browser for Android.  The updated build is version 62.0.3202.66 for those keeping score at home and should be rolling out via the Play Store over the next few weeks.  This is the first build in the 62 train for Android that has hit the production release.

This new version contains the normal security and performance improvements that you have come to expect from this big monthly updates so no real news there.  No, the news is in the new features.

Accelerated downloads are now a part of the browser to allow for faster downloading of files while on your phone or tablet.  If you aren’t familiar with Download Accelerators, essentially what they do is break up large files into smaller bits which are faster to download than one big file.

To say that BLU had a miserable summer would be an understatement.  The Miami based company was hit with several privacy concerns and malware issues on their phones which, at one point, was so bad that Amazon removed their products from their site.

Yeah, it was bad.

But BLU has rebounded with a vengeance.  They have patched up all of their issues, committed to more scrutiny of their firmware build and have even come out with a few new phones.  The latest, the BLU VIVO 8L, was released yesterday and it is Today’s Deal.

The 5.3″ VIVO 8L is on an introductory price of $149.99 on their Amazon storefront and will work with GSM carriers here in the US.  Here is what you get for that price.

The phone is powered by the MediaTek 6753 octa-core processor that is clocked at 1.2GHz.  It is coupled with the Mali-T720 GPU for graphics performance.  Onboard is a healthy 3GB of RAM and it comes with 32GB of Storage built in but that can be expanded up to an additional 64GB thanks the the MicroSD slot.   Powering all of this is a 4000mAh battery that supports Quick Charge technology.

As for cameras, the main camera is a 13MP shooter with Sony optics while the front facing selfie camera is a whooping 20MP shooter with screen flash.