Tag: Pixel C

There has been a lot of press today covering Android P and the first developer preview dropping.  That is certainly news worthy because, honestly, it came a week or two earlier than expected.  But what is not news is the fact that the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P and Pixel C tablet will not be getting Android P, officially at least.  Google has made it very clear and very public when support for these devices would end, both in major releases and security updates.

While we can debate all day long if two years of software support is too short, it is the number that Google settled on and has published for support of devices.  The only exception, and likely the way going forward, is the Pixel 2 lineup which gets three years of major updates.  For the Nexus 5X and 6P, major build support ended in September 2017.  That means Android Oreo was the last major build.

The 2nd and likely the last beta of Android Nougat 7.1.2 has begun rolling out to those enrolled in the Android Beta program.  The update brings additional bug fixes and refinements to the first beta which, on the whole, is a bug fix and refinement release for Nougat.  While there is no official word on when the general public will see 7.1.2, it is likely not far away.  Generally the first beta was solid and this second appears to be smoothing out a few rough edges.  It feels complete at this point.

While the focus is on bug fixes and refinements, this beta does bring a few new things to the table.  First, for those of you with a Nexus 6P, you finally get the fingerprint scanner swipe action that has been on the Nexus 5X since the first beta.  If you remember, the first beta for the 6P was delayed by about three weeks and didn’t come with the ability to swipe down and read notifications.  That seems to have been addressed in this second beta.

It is the first of the month which means it is time for the monthly Android Security Bulletin to be released along with updated images for Nexus devices.  The June update is now on the Android Developer site in the factory images while OTA updates to Nexus devices will begin in short order.  Google has also released the full bulletin for the update, outlining all of the things that were addressed in the update.  In all there were 21 security updates in the release, six of which were considered critical in nature.  Google points out in the bulletin that no known exploitation of the issues are known but they are addressing them anyway to keep users safe and secure.