Author: Clinton

OnePlus has released OxygenOS 5.1 for the OnePlus 5 and 5T today, bringing Android Oreo 8.1 to the two phones as well as other improvements to the device.  On the OnePlus 5T, it also brings the new full screen gesture support which is similar to the gestures found on Apple’s iPhone X.  The gestures have generated a bit of controversy as they appear to almost directly mimic Apple’s gestures on their flagship phone – but the implementation in testing has been lackluster with multiple user issues.

Along with Oreo 8.1, OxygenOS 5.1 brings the April Android Security Update patches to the phone as well as a new optimizing gaming mode which pauses the adaptive brightness of the screen and has power saving features.

The second beta of iOS 11.4 has arrived for testers running their iPhones, bringing several bug fixes along with the new Messages in iCloud.  The beta is only available to those who have registered their devices in the Apple beta program with the official release of the new version expected to be late in May or early June.

The big new feature in this build is Messages in iCloud which returns to the beta program.  It originally showed up in the 11.3 beta program but was dropped and not released as part of that update.  It appears that Apple has been doing their homework and will allow users to enable it.  This will allow for new messages to be sync’d to your iCloud account along with photos and videos which will save space on your iPhone.

If there has been one almost universal complaint about the Samsung Chromebook Pro, it has been the lack of a backlit keyboard.  Many felt, me included, that for the price point of $599, it should have had this simple feature.  It would see that Samsung has listened.  Over the weekend, the product page for the Chromebook Pro on the Samsung site was updated and it highlights that it now comes with a backlit keyboard.

The price of this slightly updated Pro is $599, the same price as the original when its as released last year.  Based on the specifications listed on the product page, it appears to be exactly the same device as the first generation Chromebook Pro, just with the keyboard backlighting added.

The Microsoft OneDrive app for Android has been updated with an important and handy new feature that allows you to recover deleted files on the cloud storage service.  Version 5.7 of the OneDrive app is now rolling out in the Play Store which is where this new feature appears.

To this point, you have been able to delete files in OneDrive with no problem from your Android phone.  But, if you accidentally deleted a file and need to recover it, you couldn’t.  You had to go to the OneDrive site and go to the Trash folder to recover it.  Now you can do it all from your phone, making it quicker to recover that accidentally deleted file.

The fourth Chrome 66 build for Chrome OS has landed in the Chrome OS Beta Channel today.  Build 66.0.3359.102 (Platform version: 10452.54.0) is now available for most systems, bringing bug fixes and performance improvements.   You can manually check for the update by typing chrome://help in the browser bar if you have a Chromebook in the beta channel.

As most readers know, the Chrome OS Beta Channel is the last step before a new build of Chrome arrives for everyone in the Stable channel.  Chrome 66, which is essentially a maintenance build for the platform, is slated to go to the Stable Channel on or around April 25th.  There will likely be a fifth and final beta build next week.

Ah, the fun of trying to read between the lines… or in this case, a wallpaper.  Google released a set of wallpapers yesterday on their Instagram account for Spring 2018.  That in itself is not news.  The Mountain View company has released such seasonal wallpapers for several years now.  But what grabbed everyone’s attention was this one:

Google Spring 2018 Wallpapers 6

The Android faithful know the next major version of Android is currently referred to as Android P.  And Popsicle starts with P.  Is Google giving us a bold and clear hint?