Author: Clinton

A new update to Microsoft Launcher is rolling out in the Google Play Store today, bringing several bug fixes and stability improvements to the app, as well as a few new features.  The new build is version 4.7.5 for those keeping score at home and if you have the launcher installed, you should get the OTA update to this new build over the next few days.

Microsoft characterized this new build as a maintenance build and it pretty much is just that.  There are several fixes included in this build including fixing top crashes and apps not responding errors in the launcher as well as fixing several badge count issues if you have that feature enabled in the launcher.  You will also find a lot of tweaks under-the-hood that bring performance, memory and CPU utilization improvements to Microsoft Launcher.

Here in the US, the Samsung Galaxy S8 has been updated to Android Oreo on AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint over the course of the past few weeks.  Now the unlocked variants, which usually get these big updates first, have finally started receiving their Oreo treatment.

The new build is about 1.5GB in size all in so you will certainly want to download it via WiFi.  Once you do have it downloaded, it will take about 15 minutes to install and will require a reboot.  Then you will have your Oreo goodness along with some improvements to the Samsung goodies on your S8 or S8+

Back in January, I posted about a new commit in the Chrome OS Gerrit that pointed to the ability for Android apps to be able to access a USB drive attached to your Chromebook.  At the time, it was only a commit and had not shown up in any channel for the platform but that now has changed.

The team over at Chrome Story had discovered a new flag that enables this feature in the Chrome OS Canary Channel.  The Canary Channel right now is based on what will be Chrome 68 so we are still several months away from it landing in the Stable Channel – but it appears to be coming.

In addition to the Chrome OS Beta Channel, which was updated today, the Chromium team in Google has also released a new build for the Chrome OS Dev Channel.  The update brings the third Chrome 67 build to the platform’s alpha testing channel, which is build 67.0.3383.0 (Platform version: 10539.0.0).  The updated build is available for the majority of devices that are currently in the Dev channel.

As a reminder to readers, the Chrome OS Dev Channel is the alpha testing channel for the platform and not intended for daily use.  It is aimed at testers and developers and will contain bugs and have crash issues as it is tested.

Google has extended the length of time your Pixel 2 and 2 XL will be covered under their optional Preferred Care program.  The Preferred Care program is an add-on purchase to the phones that protects them against accidental damage.  Previously this 24 months of coverage, the same as the hardware warranty that comes with the devices.  Now you get coverage for an additional 6 months, 30 months in total.

Preferred Care also brings you six months of mechanical failure for 6 months after the main warranty has ended for the phone in addition to the accidental damage coverage.

Samsung has updated their Android Security Update page and it appears that it is the end of the line for the majority of the Galaxy S6 series of phones.  The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge will both no longer receive any updates of any type from Samsung while the S6 Edge+ and S6 Active will still get updates – but that’s likely not for long.

The S6 lineup for the most part was introduced in April 2015 and for the S6 and S6 Edge, the last official update they will receive is the February Android Security Update for Android Nougat.  It is likely that one last update will come to the Edge+ and Active but that hasn’t been officially announced.