Category: Android

The Microsoft OneDrive app for Android has been updated with an important and handy new feature that allows you to recover deleted files on the cloud storage service.  Version 5.7 of the OneDrive app is now rolling out in the Play Store which is where this new feature appears.

To this point, you have been able to delete files in OneDrive with no problem from your Android phone.  But, if you accidentally deleted a file and need to recover it, you couldn’t.  You had to go to the OneDrive site and go to the Trash folder to recover it.  Now you can do it all from your phone, making it quicker to recover that accidentally deleted file.

A third, and very likely the last for this train, update has come to the Chrome for Android Beta app in the Play Store.  The update brings a new build of Chrome 66 to the app, build 66.0.3359.106.  As readers likely know by now, the Chrome for Android Beta app is a separate download from the stable Chrome app and can be installed at the same time so you can see and try out the new look and features.

The update will likely be the last as the stable version of Chrome is slated to be updated tomorrow, April 17th.  It is also possible that this .106 build will be the build that makes it to the stable build assuming that there aren’t any major bugs found in this late stage.

Apple Music, the subscription music streaming service from the Cupertino company, is doing exceptionally well.  In an exclusive report at Variety, the company shared that the service now has 40 million subscribers world wide.  Perhaps even more of an indicator of the health of the service, it is outpacing Spotify when it comes to month-over-month growth.

Right now Spotify is gaining about 2% each month in new subscribers, which outstanding growth.  But Apple Music is growing at a staggering 5% each month.  The service, like Spotify, is helped by the fact that it works on both Android and iOS phones.

Google has begun rolling out a new cloud-side update to Google Lens, the applet inside of Google Assistant and Google Photos, enabling it to identify both dog and cat breeds you see or in your photos.  The new feature is making its way out broadly to users so it is likely that you already have it so long as you have the latest Google app on your phone.

Previously, when you used Google Lens on a photo of a dog or cat, either by using it in Assistant or in Photos, it would simply come up with a generic “looks like a cat” or “a cat” but it didn’t provide any breed information.

It is a day that everyone knew was coming.  Today the Google Store stopped selling the original Google Pixel and Pixel XL.  Not only was it removed from the main store, but it was also removed from the phone options list for Project Fi, Google’s MVNO.

The 2016 Pixel phones were breakthrough devices in many ways, bringing a completely reimagined launcher, a stunningly good camera (rated the best at the time of its release) and, of course, all the pure Android goodness that Google intended.

Today’s Deal is on one of my personal favorite phones from the past few years, the Sony Xperia X Compact.  Right now you can pick up this 4.6″ phone for just $289, by far the lowest price ever for this 2016 phone.  Why would you want to pick up a phone from 2016?  Well, in this case, Sony has already updated the X Compact to Android Oreo which makes it a compelling phone, especially at this price point.

I reviewed the Xperia X Compact in November of 2016 for those that want to read my comments about the phone.  It’s compact size is great but the overall performance and camera quality is excellent.