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About a week ago, images of the Galaxy Tab S4 were leaked, showing some interesting departures from its predecessor. The screen ratio reverted back to 16:10, and the physical home button was ditched. It looks like similar things are happening with the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2018), which has just been leaked by Netherlands-based site NieuweMobiel.
Chrome for Android has had a home button since its inception, but only on certain devices. Google started experimenting with allowing all devices to have a home button in April, but the feature is still opt-in. Now it appears Google is experimenting with the button's design.
You may have noticed that when using Chrome on some devices, a home button appears in the address bar. This is because manufacturers can optionally include an APK called 'ChromeCustomizations.apk' in the system folder, which sets default values for the home link and bookmarks (there's an example here). Strangely, if you have a device without ChromeCustomizations.apk, you can't get the home button in the first place.
The personal assistant arms race is heating up, as the latest update for Microsoft's Cortana can now easily replace the Google Assistant. If you'd like, the next time you long-press home to pull up your personal assistant, you can find the familiar oscillating purple and white dot staring back at you. The new feature comes via the latest 2.8 update to the Cortana app on Google Play. If you'd like to check out how it works, we gave it a try.
We're starting to hear a few Galaxy S8 rumors well ahead of the usual Mobile World Congress-ish reveal for Samsung's flagship series (usually around late February or March). That may or may not have something to do with the phenomenal failure of the Galaxy Note 7, after which Samsung must be scrambling to shift potential customers' attention elsewhere. So we're treated with two somewhat credible pieces of Galaxy S8 info in a single week: one that Samsung will drop the headphone jack, and another that the company will finally release its deathgrip on physical home buttons.
A good portion of you have probably been playing with a spiffy new Windows 10 upgrade this week. If you're a fan of Microsoft's HALO-branded digital voice assistant, Cortana, you can check it out on your Android phone, too - it's more or less a remade version of the implementation that debuted on Windows Phone devices. The Android beta app has been available for a few weeks, and Android developers are already having fun with the new tool.
Numerous users have come to us with reports of an option to enable a home button appearing on Chrome's settings page. None of us at Android Police have personally seen this item pop up on our devices, but if it's going out as a limited test, this wouldn't be at all out of the norm. The user who submitted the shots below, taken on an LG G3, says the option doesn't appear on any of his other devices despite having the same (stable) version of Chrome installed.
Since the OTAs for KRT16S started rolling out in the middle of last week, some Nexus 4 owners updating from Jelly Bean are experiencing really troubling behavior after installing the new version. There are reports of issues with core interface functionality like a non-working Home button, Quick Settings toggle, a broken dialer, and various other issues. Not all affected devices have had exactly the same results, and many weren't hit, but some unusual complications have definitely started turning up.
Yesterday, I picked up my new baby - a brand spanking new Galaxy Note 3 that replaced my aging Note 2. (Update: I'd like to clarify this since a lot of people have misconstrued the "aging" comment for something it's not. My Note 2 has a screen crack and shows significant wear and tear. You may not consider the Note 2 or INSERT_DEVICE_HERE aging, but that's not what this line was about - it was about a very specific phone I was upgrading from and nothing else.) It's a great device on many fronts, as David pointed out in our extensive review, but it appears putting out solidly built products was not on Samsung's roadmap yet again.