Category: Android Marshmallow

If you are a Samsung device Android phone user, there is a bit of good news thanks to a leak over at Times News in the UK.  According to a post they have made today, it looks like several Samsung devices are going to see Android Marshmallow soon – like as soon as next month.  According to the post, The Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge+ will both be seeing the Marshmallow update in December while other devices will be seeing the update in January.  The good news is that it is a pretty comprehensive list of devices.

OnePlus has committed in their user forums that they will have an Android Marshmallow build for their last two flagship devices in the first quarter of 2016. The news is certainly good for owners of the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 as to this point it has remained somewhat of a mystery if these devices would ever get beyond Lollipop.

The biggest question for most was if the OnePlus One, the company’s original phone, would be receiving the update. That was cleared up in the post by Carl Pei

For the OnePlus One, Cyanogen OS will be updating to Marshmallow in the first quarter of 2016. We created a community build of OxygenOS for the OnePlus One, but this isn’t what the product officially ships with. We will be updating the community build of OxygenOS for the OnePlus One when time allows.

So in the case of the One, Android Marshmallow is essentially coming from Cyanogen and not OnePlus themselves.

Android Marshmallow has made it into the Android platform versions report from Google for the first time, just a little less than a month after its public release.  The new report can be found on the Android developer website and while the number for Marshmallow is low, .3%, it is expected to jump up pretty fast given the number of device manufactures who have started rolling out their updates or have committed to do so in short order.

For those who aren’t familiar with this report, Google published monthly a report that indicates which versions of Android are being used on devices that access the Google Play Store over the previous seven days.  This month’s report ended on November 2nd, well within the 30 day window since the release of Android Marshmallow to the public (October 5, 2015).  While it is aimed to help developers know what versions they need to continue to develop for in their apps, it is a good indicator to everyone of how a particular build of Android is doing – or not doing.  The report often serves as a prime resource for those who are concerned about Android fragmentation but that isn’t really the intent of it nor does that completely show itself in this report.

Since its debut in late September, the Nexus 6P has been a bit of a needle in a haystack to get.  Google has been sold out of their flagship phone virtually since day one and the ability to order the new phone has been met with red banners of “This selection is currently out of stock” from the Google Store.  Now, it seems, things are slowly improving.

On the Google Store, there are a few models of the Nexus 6P that are in stock in various colors and storage levels.  While I suspect these won’t last long, it is good to see that a few models are trickling in for those who didn’t pre-order or were waiting for review of it and/or Android Marshmallow.  The key here folks is if you want one, you probably need to jump on it sooner rather than later or you may be out of luck for a while.

Nexus 6P on the Google Store

Earlier today we saw the announcement of the HTC One A9, the next Android flagship phone from the company that will be running Android Marshmallow out-of-the-box.  Part of the announcement today also dealt with upgrades to Marshmallow and HTC made a bold statement.  In effect, if you have an unlocked One A9, you can expect an update to your device within 15 days of it being available for Nexus devices.

Let that sink in for a minute.  15 days.  Not weeks, not months.  Days.  This in light of devices running out there right now that still don’t have the Android Lollipop update.  This update is huge.

HTC this morning launched their next flagship devices, the One A9.  The 5″ Full HD display device is squarely aimed at the mid-market with a comfortable pre-order $399.99 price tag for the 32GB storage model.  Overall it is not a bad specifications on this device and obviously it is important for HTC that the One A9 does well given the lackluster performance of the One M9 last year.

The One A9 sports a fingerprint sensor which is rapidly become a standard issue for any Android device and equally as important, it comes with Android Marshmallow, making it the first non-Nexus device to come with the latest version of Android out-of-the-box.  The One A9 will come in two configurations:  a 2GB RAM/16GB Storage variety and a 3GB RAM/32GB Storage version while it is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 octa-core processor.  As mentioned, it has a 5″ Full HD display covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 4.