Tag: Android

Apple’s music app for Android, Apple Music, has a new update rolling out that brings several new features and enhancements.  Perhaps the most interesting of these is support for Google Assistant in the app.  Now you can use the “OK Google” command to open the app and stream music from it much like you can Google Play Music.

There is also a new widget for the app that will allow you to see your recently played songs which also has the ability to play music from your home screen.

A lot of leaks and rumors are suggesting that tomorrow we can expect a big announcement between Google and HTC.  That announcement is expected to be that Google will acquire all or some of HTC.  Bloomberg Gadfly reporter Tim Culpan is reporting that trading of the Taiwanese company will halt trading of their stock tomorrow as part of the “major announcement”.

Rumors of the demise of HTC have been swirling for years as the company has struggled to make a firm foundation for itself in the smartphone space.  While they have had some outstanding phones, they have also had plenty that have simply not performed well both in sales and overall usability.  HTC has built phones for Google in the past and is the company behind the upcoming Google Pixel 2.

Along with the Google Pixel 2 XL, we now know what the smaller HTC-built Pixel 2 will look like, its color options and pricing structure.  Like the XL, it is expected that this phone will be launched at the Google event on October 4th.

The Pixel 2 will come in three colors:  Kinda Blue, Just Black and Clearly White.  The first color is very similar to the Ice Blue that was on the Nexus 5X (at least from the renders it appears to be so) while the Just Black and Clearly White are similar to the color options on the Pixel today.

With the launch of the new Google Pixel lineup just a few weeks away, we now know what the larger of the two anticipated phones will look like thanks to the team over at Droidlife.  They got official images of the upcoming Pixel 2 XL as well as pricing information.

First, as for colors, the LG built Pixel 2 XL will come in a “Black & White” color scheme as well as a “Just Black” look.  On the Black & White scheme, you have a black glass panel at the top that houses the camera and flash while the rest of the chassis is in white.  This is very similar to the current Pixel phones in look although there will be a few changes around the camera size and positioning.

For most who follow the Android community, this will fall under the “duh” category but it is still good to have confirmation.  Essential’s company Twitter posted last night that the Essential PH-1 will be getting updated to Android Oreo “in the next couple of months”.

Get your milk ready–#AndroidOreo is coming soon to Essential Phone. Watch for updates in the next couple months. pic.twitter.com/GEV1ntvDao

— Essential (@essential) September 18, 2017

The news certainly isn’t a surprise and reading between the lines, it looks like the update to Oreo could come at some point before year’s end. That would be great to see and would fall in line with the company’s commitment to rolling out updates quickly – both major and minor updates.

Last week, Motorola announced which of their devices would be getting updated to Android Oreo.  Notably, the entire G4 lineup of phones were missing and that created a bit of a raging storm for the company.  The problem was that the G4 lineup is well within the 2-year window for upgrades indicated by Google themselves and Moto themselves had indicated that the G4 lineup would get updated to the next version of Android.

Now Lenovo, the parent company of Motorola, has come back around and clarified that at least one of the G4 phones will get updated to Android Oreo.  That phone is the G4 Plus.