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Leaks often happen right up to the last minute when a big announcement is happening, and today is no exception. Canadian carrier Rogers has posted on Facebook that the Pixel and Pixel XL are launching on October 20th. That's Canada, but I'd wager on the US date being the same. Will you be able to survive a few more weeks?
Google started fiddling with app streaming about a year ago via searches in the Google app, but only for a few specific apps. Then, we spotted some evidence of app streaming in a Play Store teardown a couple months ago. It looks like this feature has started rolling out today, allowing you to stream games to try before you buy. One AP staffer in addition to our tipster has this option available already, but it's a little buggy.
It can be hard to keep track of what's new and old in WhatsApp thanks in part to the beta program that's always testing a ton of stuff. This time, WhatsApp was good enough to make a blog post announcing some of the camera features we saw in a recent beta are official now. Starting today, Android users will be able to doddle on pictures, use their screen as a flash, and more.
There have been a number of big sales on apps and games in the Play Store as of late, but many of them don't include the US. Oh well, we tend to get preferential treatment from Google most of the time. Might as well let everyone else have some fun. Currently, Catan is down to $0.10, or whatever the smallest paid app price is in your local currency. It's not currently on sale in the US.
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It's that time of the month—the new Android security patches are heading out to Nexus and Pixel devices. The OTA will show up on its own soon enough, but if that's not actually soon enough, the OTAs or images can be downloaded from Google's developer page right now.
Google unveiled the Mi Box with Android TV way back in May at Google I/O. Then for months, nothing. We were starting to wonder if the device would ever come out when it began appearing on Walmart shelves last month. Now, the Mi Box is official. It's going on sale today on Mi.com and at Walmart for $69.
As you may have noticed in a recent teardown, Google's launcher shortcuts are most likely returning in Android 7.1 with the Pixel Launcher. This feature was part of the Nougat developer preview some months ago, but wasn't implemented in the final release. Now, an improved version is on the way, and Action Launcher continues its tradition of adding all the Pixel Launcher things before the Pixel Launcher even exists.
Google is making use of its new company blog to announce a feature for Maps. The app now has improved integration with your upcoming calendar appointments, a feature that we spotted in a teardown the other day. When you include a location with your Google Calendar events, they'll now show up on the Map and in a special upcoming places tab.
There's a new version of Gmail rolling out today with a number of small changes. You may or may not notice these tweaks to functionality, but you'll probably notice the new graphics Google has added for an empty inbox or spam folder. It's kind of like Inbox.
Those of you with a newer Samsung phone might want to take a peek at the battery usage today. Many users are reporting substantial battery drain after an update to the Oculus VR app. The only fix right now appears to be completely uninstalling the app.
Are you a developer? What about curious and somewhat brave? If either of those sound right, you can grab the new Android Wear 2.0 developer preview 3 images right now. These images include all the features Google announced as part of its new extended road map, which includes a delay into early 2017 for Wear 2.0.
Google has started rolling Android 7.0 Nougat out to Nexus devices, but no watches have gotten the corresponding Wear 2.0 update. The beta test has been ongoing for months, and today Google has released the third dev preview. That's good, but there's also some bad news. The developer preview is now expected to continue into early 2017, which is a significant delay.
Driving is serious business—you're in control of a rolling pile of metal and glass weighing thousands of pounds, and one moment of inattention can have very messy consequences. So, for goodness' sake, don't screw around with your phone while driving. Google Maps has voice commands while in navigation or driving mode to help you keep your hands off the phone, and today there are a lot more available.
SwiftKey has been making some big changes lately, and running the beta version of the keyboard gets you a sneak peek at what's coming next. In the latest beta update, there are new languages integrated with SwiftKey's improved neural network prediction engine, as well as support for using as many as five languages at the same time. SwiftKey loves multi-lingual users, apparently.
Buying a new car comes with myriad of considerations. Is it fuel efficient? Is it safe? Will it play nicely with my phone? People sometimes neglect the last one, but you're going to be carrying the phone literally every time you get in the car, so why not make sure? Mercedes and Kia seem to get that. They've added support for Android Auto to a ton of new cars today.
OnePlus is still plugging away at the merger of Oxygen and Hydrogen OS with a new community build for the OnePlus 3. This time, it's version 3.5.3, and the changes are surprisingly substantial. You can give it a shot now, but the usual warnings about bugs in pre-release software apply.
Oh, LG. You and your marketing gimmicks. The LG V20 was announced as the first phone that would launch with Android 7.0 Nougat, and indeed, that's about to happen. However, the launch this week is only happening in South Korea. The rest of the world has to wait. It's still first, though. LG was technically correct—the best kind of correct.
It looks like the ill-fated BlackBerry Priv will end up being the last piece of hardware developed internally by BlackBerry. The company has announced today that it is ending all hardware design efforts so it can focus on software. This comes alongside the company's quarterly results, which show yet another big loss. This is really the last course of action the company has.
As a kinda, sorta well-known technology journalist, I get a lot of pitches for hardware to review. More often than not, I just ignore these emails (sorry PR people) because I simply get too many of them. On occasion, someone pitches an interesting thing, and I'll take a closer look at it. Such was the case with the Grace Digital CastDock X2. I thought at first it was a Cast enabled speaker, and I bet that's what you thought just now too. Well, it's not. This is literally a dock for your Chromecast Audio, and that makes it just weird enough to warrant a quick hands-on here.
Spotify is big on music discovery with features like suggested artists and Smart Playlists that are based on your activity. Now, Spotify users are getting yet another music discovery feature. It's called Daily Mix, which offers a pretty good hint of what it does.