Author: Clinton

Last month I posted about the new Gmail experience going GA (General Availability) for G Suite users with the option for Admins to move their users to the new experience or to keep the classic look for a bit longer.  That GA event has now happened and Admins can have the option for users to move to the new experience now or later.

In the blog post Google made about it today, Admins basically have three options available to users ranging from opting-in now on the new experience to delaying it until September.

Just an hour after Google released Beta 4 of Android P for the Pixel lineup of devices, Essential has released their own Beta 3 for the Essential Phone, which is this latest beta from Google.  The update is build is PPR1.180610.066 for those keeping score at home.  If you have an Essential Phone registered in the company’s Android P beta program, you should be getting the update today if you don’t have it already through the Beta app from Essential.

Essential, like OnePlus, Oppo, and Sony to name a few, generally runs a few days or weeks behind Google on these releases.  Of all the partners, Essential is by far the quickest in getting these updates out but today’s one hour gap, even for them, is fast.

A sixth and likely final Chrome 68 build has arrived in the Chrome OS Beta Channel.  Build 68.0.3440.76 (Platform version: 10718.63.0) is making its way out to the majority of device out there in the beta channel.  You can check for the update, as always, by typing chrome://help in the browser then clicking the Check for update button.

With the release of Chrome 68 for the Stable Channel expected next Tuesday, July 31st, it is possible that this .76 will be the one we see at that release barring a show stopping bug being found at this late hour in the beta cycle.

File this one under “What took so long?”.  After the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge were updated to Android Oreo by all the major carriers here in the United States, the unlocked variant of the 2016 flagship devices remained on Android Nougat.  Normally the unlocked phones get these major updates first but for whatever reason, Samsung never rolled it out.  That, thankfully, is changing.

If you have an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge, the South Korean company has finally released the Android Oreo update to US owners.  It is a hefty update at just under 1.5 GB so make sure you are on WiFi before you download it and that you have at least 50% of battery life left before installing it.

The Android team at Google has released Beta 4 of Android P today.  The update is considered a Release Candidate version of the next major version of Android with the feature set complete as well as the API set.  Those who have devices registered in the Android Developer Program should see the OTA update to this build over the course of the next few hours.

Beta 4 marks the last update to beta cycle for Android P as it is prepared for release to the general public.  That release should happen in August but Google has not confirmed that officially.  Nor do we know what it will be named, but Android Pistachio Ice Cream seems to be the odds-on favorite right now.

A new update to the Google Play Books app is rolling out this morning, bringing a new feature to trim silent moments in audio books to speed up the listening process.  The update is version 4.3 for those keeping score at home and is just now making its way into the Play Store.

The new Trim Silence feature is found in the Playback settings menu that you can access while listening to an audio book.  For those that may not use Google Play Books often for audio books, this is accessed by pressing the speed playback icon while listening to an audio book.