Sony has finally started rolling out the Android 8.0 Oreo update for the Xperia XA1 series that includes XA1, XA1 Plus, and XA1 Ultra just as it promised. The update brings the build number from 48.0.A.1.131 to 48.1.A.0.116 which is based on Oreo. Continue reading “Sony Xperia XA1, XA1 Plus, XA1 Ultra Android 8.0 Oreo update starts rolling out”
Sony has introduced the Seamless System updates feature to the Xperia XZ2 and XA2. Seamless System updates are the feature that Google introduced back during Nougat days. However, the feature never caught up and has not seen wide support from manufacturers. It’s only the Pixel phones that have support for seamless updates until now. Continue reading “Sony Xperia XZ2 and XA2 series get A/B Seamless System updates”
Google today released 4th annual “Android security year in review,” and announced that its Play Protection technology has successfully taken down over 39 million from Play Store in 2017. Play protect was announced back in May 2017 at the I/O event. Continue reading “Google Play Protect took down over 39 million apps from Play Store in 2017”
WhatsApp rolled out the group description for Android beta back in February and now it is rolling out the feature to iOS as well. The functionality is available to users who have updated WhatsApp to 2.18.31. Continue reading “WhatsApp Group description available to all iOS and Android users”
Pixel 2 has one of the best cameras on a smartphone and Google is using its AI to make the images look so good. In a blog post today, the company announced that it is open-sourcing a portion of this AI; a piece of software that underpins the Pixel’s portrait mode. Continue reading “Google open-sources semantic image segmentation that powers Pixel 2 Portraits”
After launching Bharat 5 and 5 Plus, Micromax today launched the Bharat 5 Pro that comes with Face Unlock and a similar 5000mAh battery. The latest budget segment device from Micromax in the Bharat series, sports a 5.2-inches HD display and has 3GB of RAM. Continue reading “Micromax Bharat 5 Pro with 5000mAh battery, face-unlock launched for Rs. 7999”
Google has rolled out an update to the search results on mobile which now will display captions for images. The move is to give images better visual discovery and more context on the image results page. Google last year had started showing badges like recipe or product. Continue reading “Google search results on mobile will now show captions for images”
Speedtest app is one such application we turn to test out internet speeds be it broadband or LTE speeds. The company today has rolled V4.0 that brings brand new design reminiscent of iOS that received the update back in December. This is the first major design change for the Android app since I have been using the old design with yellow Begin test button. Continue reading “Speedtest 4.0 for Android brings brand new design, now measures packet loss and jitter”
WhatsApp V2.18.74 beta for Android brings adaptive launcher icon which is a part of the Android O. The latest icon looks almost similar to the one that we have seen years ago replacing the older more shadowy one. Continue reading “WhatsApp beta for Android gets adaptive launcher icon”
Amidst the P20 launch, Huawei is also busy prepping the Y9 (2018) as it is now spotted passing through the FCC. It comes with 18:9 aspect ratio full-screen display, quad-cameras (two dual and two front cameras), a 3900mAh battery. According to a report, the Y9 (2018) was expected to go official on March 15th. Continue reading “Huawei Y9 (2018) with full-screen display, dual front and rear cameras, 3900mAh battery passes through the FCC”
Microsoft has announced that it has optimized the Skype for Android phones running 4.0.3 to 5.1. Skype for Android crossed over one billion downloads from the Google Play Store last year. The new optimized version of Skype will be rolled out in the next few days worldwide. Continue reading “Skype now optimized for Android phones running 4.0.3 to 5.1”
Generally, Google has a trend of rolling out new Android version as developer preview before the official introduction at the I/O event. Following the same trend this time as well, it is widely anticipated that Google might release the first developer’s preview later this month according to popular leakster Evan Blass. Continue reading “Android P first developer preview expected to release mid-March”
WhatsApp beta for Android with V2.18.69 has extended ‘delete for everyone’ duration from 7 minutes or 420 seconds to 4096 seconds which is about 68 minutes and 16 seconds or 1 hour, 8 minutes and 16 seconds. Along with this, WhatsApp has rolled out two more new beta updates to Android the V2.18.70 that brings fixes to GIF crashes and 2.18.71 adds changes to voice note sending icon in a chat window. Continue reading “WhatsApp beta for Android extends ‘delete for everyone’ duration to more than an hour”
Iris Scanner which first debuted on the most controversial Galaxy Note7 though failed to create an impact has opened up to a new biometric authentication. With Apple implementing the Face Unlock feature, Android OEMs have developed their own version of the facial unlocking system and made it a mainstream feature. Continue reading “Android P said to have native support for Iris Scanner”
According to the International Data Corporation’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, smartphone shipments worldwide have declined 0.5% in 2017 making it the first year-over-year decline in the market since the evolution of smartphones. A total of 1.46 billion devices were shipped in 2017 including both Android and iOS. Continue reading “Worldwide smartphone shipments decline 0.5% first-time in 2017, expected to return to growth in 2018: IDC”
