Category: Android

OnePlus has begun the rollout of OxygenOS 5.1.2 for the OnePlus 5 and 5T today, bringing a number of fixes and improvements to the devices.  The update is just over 1.6GB in size so it will be one that you will need to download via WiFi.  Also keep in mind that the update was released over the weekend and it is being phased out to users as OnePlus normally does.  If you don’t see the update on your 5 or 5T yet, it is just a matter of when it gets to your device.

The OxygenOS 5.1.2 update, from a feature perspective, brings a couple of new features according to the release notes.  First, in the Gallery app, you will now find a “Recently Deleted” collection of photos you have deleted from your phone.  This makes it easier to find them should you want to recover them (I still recommend using Google Photos).

About a week after the second Chrome 67 beta build arrived, the Chrome for Android Beta app in the Play Store has been updated with an updated build of the next version of the browser.  Build 67.0.3396.59 is now the version you will find when you install the Beta app for Chrome in the Store.  Unlike other beta programs, anyone can get the beta app by simply downloading it and you can use it side-by-side with the stable version of the browser.

There isn’t a lot to report as far as new features go in this build.  In reviewing the change log, most of the items mentioned are bug fixes or performance improvement updates.

The new look YouTube PiP (Picture in Picture feature is now rolling out broadly to everyone this morning.  The new design of the PiP is aimed at providing a bit more information about the video you have in the smaller view window such as the name of the video, not just a thumbnail of the video itself.

Now when you are viewing a video on YouTube and swipe down to put it into the PiP view, you will not only see the video but will see the title of the video as well as the creator of the content in a white panel next to it.

The new Favorites feature of Google Photos, one of two new features announced for the photo app & service, has started to broadly roll out this morning to users.  The new feature is a cloud-side change so as long as you have the latest version of the app on your phone, you should see the new Star icon to select a photo as a favorite when you are viewing an individual photo.

Once you select a photos as a favorite, Google Photos will also automatically create a new album for you, aptly named Favorites.  Here you can quickly see all the photos you have designated as favorites instead of having to search for them in your photos library.

HTC has pulled back the covers on their latest flagship device, the HTC U12+.  The first phone from the Taiwanese company for 2018 has all the specs you would expect from a flagship phone and has the price to go along with it.

Powering the U12+ is the 2.8GHz Snapdragon 845 SoC which is a 64-bit, octa-core architecture.  This is coupled with 6GB of RAM and either 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage.  That storage can be expanded thanks to the MicroSD slot.  Display wise, you have a 6″ QHD LCD display which renders at 2880×1440.  It provides an eye-popping 537ppi on the 18:9 ratio display.  All this comes in a phone that is 156.6 x 73.9 x 8.7-9.7mm and weighs 188g.

The alchemy melding of Chrome OS and Android show no real signs of letting up and the latest example that is in the Chrome OS Canary Channel may be one of the most useful yet.  In the Canary Channel, when you open up the Files app to view files, you will now also see Android app related files with an appropriate flag enabled.  It means, for the first time, you can actually see the files associated with Android apps on your Chromebook all in one place.

The flag is -show-android-files-in-files-app and right now, it is only in the Canary Channel.  That means, roughly, that it is based in Chrome 69 which isn’t due out until September 11th of this year.  In other words, we’ve got a ways to go but the fact it is there is great news.  If you want to read the code commit, you can do that here.