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- It took a few more weeks of this app being broken for Google to roll out a fix. With version 2019041100, which you can grab from the Play Store or APK Mirror, Google Admin should be working again for everyone. Our own Artem, who was affected by the bug, can confirm that it's back to functional for him.
Based on recent reports, as well as our own experiences here at Android Police, Google has broken its Google Admin app for G Suite administrators. Reports of the outage in angry Play Store reviews go back around two weeks, and at the time of writing, the G Suite Status Dashboard makes no mention of this ongoing problem.
For those of us that prefer wired headphones, or who merely can't tolerate the bugginess of Bluetooth on many Android phones, there aren't a lot of USB Type-C choices out there — especially if you don't want noise canceling. Moshi's new Avanti C checks the right boxes, though. There's no charging, no Bluetooth, and no ANC. What you do get is good audio, nice build quality, and dongle-free wired compatibility with 3.5mm and USB Type-C sources. Moshi thinks that's worth $200, and I agree.
Most of us probably have money on the mind, given tax day is just around the corner. As we're all going through records and transaction lists for the last year, I'm curious about how you choose to make payments. NFC's effectively universal availability gives people in 27 countries access to Google Pay, and Samsung phones have that sweet MST — just two names among a longer list of options. So, how often do you use contactless payments?
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- Android Q Beta 3 has just landed, and it introduces some welcome changes to gesture navigation. In addition to getting screen-edge-swipe back gestures, we also have a correction to the way app switching works, letting users directly swipe on the nav bar to access recent apps.
Android Q Beta 2 landed just earlier today, and with it came a substantial set of changes to the gesture system originally introduced via Android Pie. The new gestures may not free up as much space as Apple's since they still require a navigation bar, but they're definitely iOS-like, allowing you to pull on the "pill" in any direction to switch apps (finally.)
Usually, it's big new marketable features that can be shown off with screenshots or GIFs that get people excited, but Android Q Beta 2 also includes some less visually interesting developer-facing changes that are no less exciting — at least, in my opinion. Chief among them is a new API for microphone directionality, allowing applications to pull audio from different directions.
Together with the Android Q Beta 2 release today, Google is pushing out a bleeding-edge preview of Android Studio Canary. The emulator included in version 3.5 includes support for foldable devices, allowing developers to get started porting apps to the form factor now.
In keeping with the initially projected schedule, Android Q Beta 2 has just been released for human consumption. While we all wait for the Beta Program OTAs to roll out, the impatient can get an edge on the rest of us by sideloading the already available OTA images or manually flashing the factory images.
It's that time of the year again. Whether you like it or hate it, April Fools day is here, and with it, most of the major companies are rolling out their best gags and jokes — or their best efforts at one, anyway. For your convenience, either to track down jokes or purposely avoid them, we've put together a list of all the ones we've spotted so far.
It's the first Monday of the month, and Google's monthly security patches are rolling out, as expected. Downloads for all Pixel phones are up now. Functional patches this month include a fix for the Pixel 3 screen flashing on wake (finally), Bluetooth improvements for the OG, and improved "voice-unlocking performance for Google Assistant."
In just a couple of days, Google is set to finally, sadly kill Inbox. The much-loved email client for Gmail may not have supplanted the original's popularity, but its unique feature set paired with a minimal and pleasing interface earned it plenty of fans, with many of them claiming they would hang on until the cold and bitter end. Are you one of them?
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- According to a report by Nikkei, Sony is following up this restructuring effort with a series of mass job cuts for those previously in the mobile division. "Up to half" of its smartphone workforce is expected to be cut, which could constitute 2,000 out of a projected total of 4,000 employees at Sony losing their jobs.
Two days ago, Sony revealed a drastic change in its business organization going forward. Sony's Mobile Communications division — responsible for the Xperia line of phones — will be merged with the Imaging Products & Solutions and Home Entertainment & Sound divisions. This "realignment" unifies all of Sony's consumer electronics branches under a single internal division, while conveniently hiding the mobile division's future losses behind a merged balance sheet. That's good for Sony, because according to today's exchange rate, the company has lost over $910 million in the last year making phones.
Yesterday John Wu, the prolific developer behind the go-to Android root solution Magisk, released the public beta of Magisk version 19. The full changelog is available on XDA, with a more verbose version on the project's Github, but in short, v19 delivers a new module installation method, imageless support for modules, a return of native 64-bit support, a new MagiskHide system, and support for Android Q Beta 1.
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- According to an announcement made today, T-Mobile is rolling out an LTE-based pilot program for its home internet plans. To start, only a few customers in specific, undisclosed markets will be invited to the program, which will deliver "around" 50Mbps with no data caps for $50 a month, with no modem or equipment rental fees.
Today T-Mobile has announced plans to "un-carrier" the home broadband market, launching its own service that aims to provide speeds over 100Mbps to 90% of the US population. T-Mobile's wireless home ISP will eventually be powered by the company's upcoming 5G network, but in the meantime it's revealing a 4G pilot program to test the idea out.
As some of us are painfully aware, Inbox is set to die next Tuesday, April 2nd. Google has been pushing Inbox users back to Gmail since the original announcement last September. Initially, that transition was eased with promises that Gmail would eventually inherit Inbox's bundling, the email client's most useful feature. Six months later, a mere week before Inbox's euthanasia, Gmail still doesn't have bundles.
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- Our friends at 9to5Google reached out to let us know offline playback may have appeared as early a v3.03, though that version doesn't exhibit the behavior in our tests. The precise version this may have been delivered with is indeterminate, but either way, it occurred within the last month or so.
Google has been pitching YouTube Music as an eventual replacement for Google Play Music since the company refocused what it was for last year, but it's still missing plenty of features. You still can't access your Google Play Music uploads from YouTube Music, and there's no easy way to import playlists or libraries between the two services. However, YouTube Music has just picked up the ability to play locally stored audio files — though, sadly, only via external means like file managers. In-app local media playback is still absent.
The Galaxy S10+ may be one of the best phones you can buy right now, but based on recent reports and our own testing, there's at least one metric where it falls behind: signal strength. It turns out that a combination of your carrier, the frequency you're connected to, and even going caseless can have a huge impact on the quality of its cellular connection, resulting in measurably lower signal strength compared to other recent phones in our testing.
Square, of point of sale/payment processing fame, has just pushed out a new application onto the Play Store for handling invoices. The functionally named "Square Invoices" will allow Square customers to create and fire off invoices and estimates, track payment statuses, and set automatic reminders for unpaid invoices. This is all without any monthly fees — though you still have to pay card processing fees.
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- Google has just published an official announcement to its G Suite blog formally revealing these new features, as well as the precise workflow to import reminders into Tasks manually. We've updated our coverage with any new information provided, plus a sweet pair of GIFs.
Google's Tasks to-do list service may be simple to the point of uselessness for many, and its old standalone web UI could die at any time, but it's still under active development. Proof for that comes today, as Google is rolling out a much-needed change to Tasks, giving us the option to add specific times of the day to tasks and set them to repeat. Note that these changes only seem to affect Tasks on the web for now. Google's Tasks and Calendar apps for Android haven't picked them up yet.
Earlier this week, Google formally revealed its upcoming game streaming plans during its GDC Keynote. Stadia, as the new platform is to be called, will be the continuation of efforts that began with Project Stream, giving future consumers access to the latest games at the highest settings, streamed over the internet into their homes. However, many important details when it comes to Stadia, such as the final pricing model, are still unknown. So I'm curious, how much would you be willing to pay for it?
Bose's QuietComfort 35 II might have a bit of a non-descriptive name, but they're among the best noise canceling Bluetooth headphones you can get, especially considering they come with the Google Assistant built right in. Apart from the name, their only disadvantage is price, as they typically run $300-350. Right now, though, you can pick up a pair for a mere $258 over at Rakuten.