Category: Android

A few days after the unlocked variant of the Essential Phone began receiving its latest update, now too is the Sprint enabled version of the PH-1.   The update is the same as it was for the unlocked version of the phone, bringing the same updates and improvements to the only carrier locked version of the Essential Phone.

The update brings the April Android Security Update patch to the phone which, despite being a few days behind the unlocked variant, still makes it one of the first to get updated to the latest security patches.  Also, the software to enabled Bluetooth 5.0 is in this update.  The radios for 5.0 have been in the PH-1 all along but were not enabled via the software on the device.  That now changes with this update.

Essential has released a new update for the Essential Phone, bringing a handful of improvements to the flagship phone.  The new build is OPM1.180104.141 and it is already rolling out to owners.  With the roll out, the Essential Phone becomes one of the first phones to get the April Android Security Update patch outside of Google Pixel devices.  As you may recall, this month’s security patch had a huge number of patches so it is good to see it already rolling out to non-Google branded devices.  And, frankly, Essential is always great at getting these updates quickly.

Along with the security patch, Bluetooth 5.0 is finally supported on the PH-1.  The hardware has been there all along but the software stack didn’t support it.  Now it does so you will get all the benefits of that on your phone now too.

A new update to Microsoft Launcher is rolling out in the Google Play Store today, bringing several bug fixes and stability improvements to the app, as well as a few new features.  The new build is version 4.7.5 for those keeping score at home and if you have the launcher installed, you should get the OTA update to this new build over the next few days.

Microsoft characterized this new build as a maintenance build and it pretty much is just that.  There are several fixes included in this build including fixing top crashes and apps not responding errors in the launcher as well as fixing several badge count issues if you have that feature enabled in the launcher.  You will also find a lot of tweaks under-the-hood that bring performance, memory and CPU utilization improvements to Microsoft Launcher.

Here in the US, the Samsung Galaxy S8 has been updated to Android Oreo on AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint over the course of the past few weeks.  Now the unlocked variants, which usually get these big updates first, have finally started receiving their Oreo treatment.

The new build is about 1.5GB in size all in so you will certainly want to download it via WiFi.  Once you do have it downloaded, it will take about 15 minutes to install and will require a reboot.  Then you will have your Oreo goodness along with some improvements to the Samsung goodies on your S8 or S8+

Samsung has updated their Android Security Update page and it appears that it is the end of the line for the majority of the Galaxy S6 series of phones.  The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge will both no longer receive any updates of any type from Samsung while the S6 Edge+ and S6 Active will still get updates – but that’s likely not for long.

The S6 lineup for the most part was introduced in April 2015 and for the S6 and S6 Edge, the last official update they will receive is the February Android Security Update for Android Nougat.  It is likely that one last update will come to the Edge+ and Active but that hasn’t been officially announced.

Google has released the April 2018 Android Security Update for devices, bringing a massive 311 different fixes and patches to the platform.  As normal, there are two patches that are available.  The first patch, dated April 1, mostly deals with Android system level patches while the second, data April 5, is for components updates aimed at the Pixel lineup of phones.

To have this many patches in one update is rare.  Most of the updates over the past few months have had less than 50 total updates across both patches.  This month however, there are well over 100 patches just for the Qualcomm closed source components.