Category: Android N

As expected, Google announced yesterday at I/O that the 3rd Developer Preview of Android N is now available for those registered in the beta program.  What is more interesting is that the company was quite clear that they believe this build is stable enough for general consumption on your every day devices.  It is a significant difference from the language used in the first two previews which was very clear in their “developer only” messaging.  While I would still caution those who don’t want to put up with odd behaviors or diminished battery life from download it, if you have an eligible device, you can get it through the Android Beta program site.

Readers will know that I don’t post a lot about rumors because they are, well, rumors.  But this one was just too good not share.  It looks like we are going to see not one but two new Nexus devices coming from HTC, possibly as soon as next month at I/O.  The rumor and support for it comes from Android Police and that team has a great track record for getting these types of rumors right.  They did it 2014 and 2015 with the Nexus 6, 6P and 5X.

About a month after the first Developer Preview as released, Google announced today that the 2nd preview for Android N has been released.  While Android N remains very much in beta mode, this update addresses a significant number of bugs that were identified by testers and also brings some new features for testing.

Editor’s Note:  This post is concerning a feature in Android N.  As this new version of Android is still in development, the features described in this post could change between the time of the writing and when it is released to the public in the summer of 2016.

One of the exciting changes that appears to be coming in Android N is the way that apps are optimized after a system level update.  The change means that you will be able to access apps on your device faster than you currently can with Marshmallow, albeit with them running a bit slower.  The change means that when you update your device with an update to Android itself, you should be able to use your phone much faster than you can today with Lollipop or Marshmallow.

Editor’s Note:  This post is concerning a feature in Android N.  As this new version of Android is still in development, the features described in this post could change between the time of the writing and when it is released to the public in the summer of 2016.

There was a time, in the not-to-distant-past, where being visually impaired made using a smartphone or even a PC challenging.  While huge strides have been made on the PC front, the accessibility changes needed on smartphones to help those with vision challenges have been slow to come.  It has improved significantly as both Google and Apple focus on this with their platforms, but there is always room for improvement.  As I dig into Android N further, it looks like those improvements are coming to the next generation of Android in a positive way.

If you are a Project Fi user, the first technical preview of Android N may not be for you.  In various forums and social sites across the web – Google+, the Product Forums and Reddit – Fi users have run into a wide range of problems with their devices after installing Project N.  This has included some bricked phones (to be fair though, there have been non-Fi users impacted by that) and users simply not being able to get the service to work even after clearing app caches and data.

The news of issues shouldn’t come as a complete shock given the nature of this first beta of Android N.  It is certainly not fully baked (think of it is a cake with a gloppy center right now) and while some users have had seemingly no problems, for Fi users, the inability to make calls or use data is, well, kinda a big deal.