latest
A look back at every Google Nexus phone ever made
Take a walk through Google's hardware history as we look back at every Nexus phone
There are many Android smartphone lines with a rich history. Some, such as the Samsung Galaxy S series, are still going strong, while others, such as the HTC One and LG G series, have slipped into retirement. There are newer dynasties too, with the Google Pixel range going from strength to strength as a shop window for the firm’s latest and greatest tech. But before Pixel, Google gave us the Nexus line in 2010.
9 best Google hardware colors of all time
Your definitive (and absolutely not subjective) list of the best colors Google has offered
Have you been wondering what the best Google hardware colors of all time are? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Sure, color preference is almost entirely subjective - but to hell with that, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to give you the definitive list. Don’t like our picks? Let us know - but we’ll still be right. In the world of tech there are dominant colors - black, white, silver, and grey. These neutral shades sell well, but they’re hardly inspiring. Add to that the fact our phones, tablets, and headphones are some of the most personal devices we own, and these bland color options don’t help you express your individuality. We even said so much a couple of years ago - Rita El Khoury declared ‘I’m tired of bland, boring flagship phone colors’. Amen, Rita. So forgive us for wanting bolder, brighter color options for our tech. It’s taken a while, but in recent years manufacturers have started showering us with the full rainbow of colors. Google is no different, and even though it started its Nexus, Pixel, and Home lines off with the go-to black and white hues (and a splash of blue), we’ve been treated to a veritable buffet of color in the years since. Here are the best Google has had to offer.
Google's Nexus Twitter account rises from the dead to hype the Pixel 6 on iPhone day
Its last tweet was nearly 4 years ago
Google's current social media strategy for its hardware division mainly revolves around the @madebygoogle handle. Someone should tell that to the person who just tweeted from the @googlenexus account.
Read update
We've clearly got a little bias on the subject, but Android has a long and storied history filled with its own triumphs and pitfalls. It's been well over a decade now since that first HTC G1 landed, the inaugural Android smartphone, and things have changed drastically since then. Being "first" might make you think the G1 was the most influential Android phone — but was it, really?
Wi-Fi vulnerability affecting WPA2 encryption makes older Android phones insecure
Most currently supported devices have likely already been updated
These days, most people connect to the internet via Wi-Fi. We've been taught that on unprotected, open hotspots, you can easily be followed around the web, but generally, we would assume that password-protected networks are relatively safe from outside attacks. As it turns out, a vulnerability in the widely used Wi-Fi protected access 2 (WPA2) protocol lets hackers view unencrypted connections on these networks, even if they don't know the password. Patches are already rolling out to current routers and client devices, leaving only older, unsupported hardware indefinitely affected.
While Chrome OS' offline usability has improved a lot since the platform's early days, there's no denying that an internet connection is still essential to get a lot of things done on a Chromebook. When you're away from WiFi, you can tether your phone's connection, but Google has a smarter ace up its sleeve: Instant Tethering. The feature started showing up two years ago to link two Android devices, was later one of the highlights of the Pixelbook announcement, then expanded to more Chrome OS devices. However, until now, you had to have a Pixel phone (or a Nexus) to set up Instant Tethering. Things are changing though as we've received two tips from users who have the feature on their OnePlus and Samsung devices.
You may not have heard, but Android turned 10 this week. Over the course of the past decade, Google has loaded its phones up with tons of quality wallpapers — and here, we've tried to create a comprehensive repository of them.
For the longest time, we've suspected that Android's "Check for update" does nothing to actually get you the update. If you were in the group that is supposed to receive the update, the button simply sped up the process instead of waiting for the next automatic check to reveal it, but if there was an update and you weren't in the group, it did nothing to push you forward in the waiting line. Then in September, we were promised that manually pushing the button on Nexus and Pixel devices will get you an available update even when a passive background check wouldn't, and it worked momentarily. But we later discovered that an update to Google Play Services broke the button again and it wouldn't be back to working order until 2018.
Android TV is very much alive, as was made abundantly clear by the plethora of new Android TV powered televisions with Google Assistant capability shown off at CES 2018. Streaming boxes powered by Android TV, however, are conspicuously missing—the last Android TV set-top box to be released in the United States was the Xiaomi Mi Box in October 2016.
White navigation bars are nothing new, with LG phones having had them as options for many years and Samsung recently making them the default to reduce burn-in on its Galaxy phones. Now they're becoming abundant in Google phones with the introduction of Android 8.1 Oreo, both for aesthetic effect and in an attempt to minimize burn-in. Their latest appearances on 8.1 are in Gmail and Maps, where they've found new homes.
The Nexus Player, Google's first (and only) digital media player (see note) has received support for Google Assistant as part of the November security update. This is the third Android TV device to receive the Assistant, after the nVidia Shield and select Sony Bravia televisions.
Google has been publishing its security bulletin for the monthly Android patches for a long time, but starting October 2017 (last month), it created a special bulletin for Nexus and Pixel devices. With the newly released November patch, Google has started populating one new section in the bulletin that details "Functional updates."
Read update
Google makes updated Android builds available for its devices every month, and the time has come for October's downloads to go live for Google's new phones. You can grab the system images or OTA files for Nexus and Pixel devices, but not all of them are actually October patches. Google's latest and greatest phones are still only on the September security patch.
If anyone saw our hands-on with the Pixel 2 XL at Google's October 4th event, you may have noticed the phones are rocking some intriguing new live wallpapers. They are obviously intended to be Pixel 2 exclusives, but if there's one thing that you can rely on in the Android developer community, it's that someone out there will be on hand to mod an interesting new app and get it working on more devices.
If 1950's science fiction has taught me anything, it's that video calling is supposed to be the future. Today Google announced in a blog post that we're one step closer to that vision of reality. Integrated video calling (via Duo or ViLTE) is rolling out to first-generation Pixel, Android One, and Nexus devices, via the Phone, Contacts, and Android Messages apps. No schedule yet for ray-gun or jetpack integration.
The month of October has just begun, which means Pumpkin Spice lattes, leaves falling off trees, and marathons of The Nightmare Before Christmas on TV. It also means Google has released another Android security bulletin, just like the company does at the start of every month. As usual, OTA zips and factory images with the fixes are already available for Pixel and Nexus devices.
Google has followed the same device support pattern for years - two years of major Android OS updates, and three years of security updates. You might get Android updates after that, and you might get further security updates, but it's not guaranteed. Seemingly out of nowhere, Google has extended the security update period for the Nexus 5X and 6P to November 2018.
The Nexus Player is getting pretty long in the tooth, as it was released in 2014. It's still supported with software updates though, and was one of the devices to receive Android O Developer Previews earlier this year. However, a nasty bug was discovered close to official release, which caused the Nexus Player to upload a massive amount of data for no apparent reason.
It's September, and however you might feel about that, one thing is certain: Google's going to release its monthly security updates. While the OTAs were pushed yesterday, downloads for the factory images and OTAs weren't available until just now. So if you've been champing at the bit looking for a fix for BlueBorne and haven't seen the update on your device, you can go on ahead and manually pull it down.
The September 2017 Android security update is here, and the bulletin contains the usual details about vulnerabilities that could be affecting various Android devices. Images and OTAs that include the September patches should protect against any possible issues, but so far they're only available for the Nexus 9 on Android 7.1.1. There are no Android 8.0 Oreo images with September patches for Pixel or Nexus devices live yet, but it shouldn't be too long before they are added.