Category: Android Nougat

Just a day after releasing the Android Marshmallow update for the Xperia Z3, Sony has announced that owners of select models of the phone can download and test the Android N Technical Preview on their devices now, months ahead of its official release.  The news means that Google has expanded the boarders of the Android N preview far wider than any other previous beta of the Operating System and Sony could well be the first of many manufactures who open up a similar program.

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.

For those of you who are running the Android N Technical Preview, the first of what is likely to be many OTA updates is starting to roll out.  Users of the Nexus 6, Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X are all seeing a small, 30MB update come to their phones as we speak and you should see the update hit your device soon if you haven’t already.  Google has also updated the factory images that includes these updates and you can flash directly to them if you want to do so (although it is easier to just do the OTA through the Android N Beta Program).  The new builds are as follows:

• Nexus 5X:  NCP56W
• Nexus 6P:  NCP 56W
• Nexus 6:  NCP56P
• Pixel C:  NCP 56P
• Nexus 9:  NCP56X
• Nexus Player:  NCP56R

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.

When Google unleashed the first technical preview of Android N on the world this week, nobody really saw it coming. In fact, talking to sources at Google, I’m not even sure most of the company knew. Sure the Android team did and like a few other critical teams but broadly?  I don’t think so.  Many Googlers I know were just as surprised as you or me.

For me though, the release of the preview could not have been timed more perfectly and the way they opened it up to anyone running a Nexus device will assure that this launch will likely be the most successful ever for an Android release.  It also moves up their release timeline to mid-year, something that will help year end holiday season sales of devices as N will be well established by then.  It is a stroke of genius by Google and should not be lost on anyone.

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.

As I dig further into Android N, another nice improvement to a feature already there has surfaced that will benefit users on low data allowances.  Data Usage has been in Android a while and in Marshmallow is pretty good at giving you notifications on when you are approaching your cellular data threshold for the month and, in fact, can even be configured to disable your data once you hit that threshold to avoid overages.  But it is somewhat of an all or nothing proposition and while you can go into Data Usage and restrict apps from using data, it is again an all or nothing.  That appears to be changing in Android N.