Category: Android Marshmallow

If you are an Evernote user and have had some issues since upgrading to Android Marshmallow, there is a fix available for you in the Google Play Store.  Evernote for Android has been updated to version 7.3 for those keeping score at home and this update is primarily aimed at bringing support for the latest build of Android.  In searching Google+ and other forums, there have been a few people who have reported trouble with Evernote after upgrading their Nexus devices.  I for one never saw an issue on either my Nexus 6 or Nexus 7 but after upgrading to this new build this morning, the app seems to be a bit smoother in performance, particularly when moving from one notebook to another.

Evernote for Android – Free (In-App Purchases) – Download Now

If you are like me, next to my bed each night is my Android phone or tablet.  I use either of them for reading in the evening to wind down and given that my mobile number is the only number most of my family have for me, I want to have it near me in case of emergencies.  That said, I work for a global company and I get email at all hours of the day and night and the occasional call when someone forgets the world is round and we have time zones.  What I don’t want – and my wife really doesn’t want – are these tones and rings waking us up at night. Likewise, I don’t want the vibration of my phone sitting on my nightstand waking me up.

There have been a variety of apps that give you a Do Not Disturb like function for Android but with Android Marshmallow, it went native.  Google now includes a DND mode in their latest build of Android and it is highly customizable for your needs.  In fact, you can even have multiple rules for different days of the week.  All of this can be configured with just a few taps and I will show how to set these up so you can take advantage of this great new feature.

Like many of you who have Nexus devices, I have spent this past week putting the release build of Android Marshmallow through its paces.  As I noted in my review of Android Marshmallow, I’ve had it up and running on one of my Nexus 6 for the past few weeks with the Preview 3 and now running it on my daily driver Nexus 6 and my Nexus 7 tablet.  One of the key features that I mentioned in my review was Doze and App Standby. In Android Marshmallow, when your device is sitting idle, the OS will shut down apps to a very lower power state but will stay alive enough for you to get updates and notifications.  When you pick your device back up, everything comes back to life as normal and you won’t have any lag or delay when you open up an app.  This is the Doze part of the equation. What makes this really impressive is Marshmallow learns your habits and the apps that you use most and which ones you don’t so much.  On these apps it dramatically restricts the amount of power used by the apps for maximum battery efficiency.  This is the App Standby functionality.

I have spent the last couple of nights testing the Doze functionality and the results are dramatic.  This could well prove to be the killer feature of the release and based on what others are reporting, I’m not along in the battery savings I’m seeing on my devices.

[UPDATE] This is why I love the Android community.  After posting this, several people responded over on Google+ that this is indeed a feature, not a bug.  In fact the team over at Droid Life reported on this back in May… and I just missed it.

Like many of you who have Nexus devices, I’ve upgraded both my Nexus 6 and my Nexus 7 (2013) to Android Marshmallow and so far I’ve been pretty pleased (let me know how it has gone for you by taking my site poll).  However I have noted a strange behavior with the Notification Drawer and my Nexus 7.  Before I go through the bug report process I want to see if anyone else has seen this behavior and I reserve the right to get smarter:  Did I miss a feature in Marshmallow that would cause this behavior?  Further, for you Nexus 9 owners, are you seeing the same thing too?

While the news of Android Marshmallow has been dominating things these past few weeks, that doesn’t mean that Android Lollipop is dead by any means.  Google has updated their Developer Dashboard and the latest figures through October 5th, just yesterday, indicates that Android Lollipop is seeing its highest install base ever at 23.5%.  These numbers come from Google and represent the version of Android run on devices that signed into the Google Play Store over the course of the past 7 days.  While it is by no means complete or 100% accurate, it does give a good indicator of just where the Android install base is currently.

As I like to often say, living the future is pretty cool and thanks to Google, it’s about to get even more cool.  On the Android Developer Blog, Google has posted that starting next week, for those of you who have Google Translate and are running Android Marshmallow, they will begin offering in-app translation for apps that have been configured to support the feature.  The feature is one that could be very handy for those who want to read reviews or other user generated content without having to go out of the app and into Google Translate.  It works seamlessly on the backed.