Category: Android

As expected based on the timelines provided by Google, Developer Preview 3 of Android P has been released for those in the Android Beta Program.  The release of this second public beta is an important milestone for the next version of Android as it finalizes the API set for the build so developers can begin in earnest testing and updating their apps to be compatible with them.

There are not a significant number of changes between the first beta build and this one overall.  Most of the updates are fixes behind the scenes as well as updating some security permissions, particularly how the phone call log is accessed.  There are also 157 new emoji in this build.

A new, cloud-side update is currently rolling out to Google Calendar that is going to make it much quicker to see when an event has been declined by all invitees.  If you have sent out an invite and all attendees have declined it, you will now see a small exclamation point next to the event in Google Calendar.  You can then tap on that event and will see a prompt to reschedule the event given it has been declined.

The idea is that at a glance, you can look at your calendar on your phone and see the decline without having to actually open up the invite on your calendar to see who has accepted and who has not.

A new commit in the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) repository suggests that facial authentication is coming to Android as a system level API.  It could mean that from system point of view, Android P could well allow for facial authentication on devices, assuming of course that the hardware to do so is built into the device.

Currently, for manufactures to support facial authentication (like OnePlus for example), they have to build their own app and leverage existing APIs, mostly around the fingerprint authentication.  That works, obviously, but it isn’t as optimized as it could be and it is dependent upon OEMs to build the supporting software & hardware to make it happen.  This commit would more-or-less standardize things for Android.

Improved dedicated topic pages in the Google Feed in the Pixel Launcher and the Google app are now in the process of broadly rolling out to users.  The improved feature allows you to select a topic of interest in your feed and get a dedicated page to that topic along with multiple related articles.  The change is a cloud-side change and appears to be rolling out to a wide range of versions of the Google app, including the current 8.5 stable version as well as the beta build which is version 8.6.

You will know that you have received the new update when you look at your Google Feed either in the Pixel Launcher page or by opening the dedicated Google app.  Next to the topic header, if you see a > (right arrow or chevron), then you have the update.

The Chrome team at Google has announced that starting with Chrome 68, the banner to prompt users to add a site to their Home screen will be changing.  Today, when you visit a site and are prompted to add it to your Home screen, it is a rather large banner.  Starting with Chrome 68, this will be displayed in a mini bar at the bottom of the display.

The goal of all of this is to eventually have an install button option on the omni bar in Chrome and this is a stepping stone to that eventuality.

If you have been wanting to get your hands on a Samsung Galaxy Note8, today is your day.  Amazon has dropped the price of the 6.3″ phablet by a whopping $200.  Now you can get it with 64GB of storage for $749 in either the Midnight Black or Orchid Gray colors.  This is by far the lowest price so far on the Note8.

For those that don’t recall, the Galaxy Note8 is a  6.3″ device that renders at 1440 x 2560 resolution with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio.  Physically it is 162.5 x 74.6 x 8.6mm and weighs 195g.  In old money, that’s 6.39 x 2.9 x .34 inches and a weight of 6.87 ounces.   It is powered by the Snapdragon 835 SocC and has an eye watering 6GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage.  That storage can be expanded up to 2TB thanks to the MicroSD slot.