It's funny - just a few years ago, everyone was worrying about the demise of microSD card slots because of the growing popularity of cloud storage, but now, virtually every smartphone, flagship or otherwise, is capable of taking microSD cards (iPhone and Pixel excluded, of course). To take full advantage of your phone's microSD slot, why not stick a 256GB card, the highest capacity widely available, in there? Now, Massdrop is offering 256GB Samsung EVO+ microSD cards up for just $129.99.
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The latest post to the official Google Maps blog brings some welcome news. A couple of features that have been exclusive to betas of the Android app, not to mention hinted at by our cheeky teardown posts, are now in the public version. Specifically, that handy Wi-Fi-only mode for users on a limited data allotment should now be live for everyone (it was limited to a subset of users before), and the option to save local mapping data to the SD card is now active as well.
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A brand new update for Google Maps just started rolling out last night and it's definitely a big one. Perhaps the most important detail is that this is the first installable on the Android N Developer Previews. The Timeline screen has also gone through a partial redesign and gained a couple of new tricks. However, the really interesting things are coming in the teardown. In fact, there's so much stuff that the teardown portion is going to be split into a second part. Let's get to the good stuff.
Note: according to a post on the issue tracker, this could be a beta release.
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It was a nice surprise when Samsung announced that its new flagship phones would be running Android 6.0, and that they were bringing back the much-requested expandable storage was icing on the cake. The news that the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge would not support adoptable storage, Android Marshmallow's ability to take an SD card and partition it as semi-permanent device storage, was met with less enthusiasm. But all is not lost, expandable storage fans: long-time modder and ROM developer Paul "MoDaCo" O'Brien has got this covered.
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The price-per-gigabyte of microSD cards has absolutely plummeted over the last 5 years. Yesterday, Amazon had a 24-hour deal on a SanDisk 200GB microSD for just $80. That's scarcely more than what a decent 240GB SSD costs these days.
So, does your smartphone have a microSD slot? We know most of our audience are Nexus phone users, so most of you should answer "no" to this question just based on our web metrics. But I'm more interested in, if it does have one, whether or not you actually use it.
MicroSD cards have something of a tortured history in relation to Android smartphones.
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You knew this was coming sooner or later. Android Auto has been viewed as a mostly closed system, if not by nature of the software itself (which is technically open source) then by the fact that it's an extension of Android running on a big chunk of metal installed in your car. But some intrepid developers over on enthusiast forum AVIC411 have discovered a way to boot software directly from the SD card slot on Pioneer's NEX series of aftermarket Android Auto head units. That paves the way for custom ROMs in your car, or at least your car's entertainment system.
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While far from completely definite, strong rumors abound that the Galaxy Note 5 will not have a removable battery or an SD card slot. Given that the phone is suspected to essentially be a giant Galaxy S6 with a stylus, that makes sense.
What may not make sense is the continued allure of the Note series of devices if this is true, at least among you - people who read Android Police. The stylus isn't without value to some users (I, personally, have never been one of them), but the flexibility of a removable battery and expandable storage have long made the Note series the all-around power user device of choice among Android fans.
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Every power user has a favorite file manager. It doesn't matter how many are installed or why, there is always one that takes the lead position. Of course, as new features become popular, it's not uncommon for people to switch out their favorite app to pull up one that offers whatever they need. The new must-have among file managers is support for writing to the SD card on Android 5.0 Lollipop. One week after Root Explorer added this ability, Solid Explorer comes rolling in with its own update.
Version 1.6.3
-ability to write SD card contents on Android Lollipop
-improved root handling on Android Lollipop
-fixed misaligned splashscreen on high resolution displays
Now that Lollipop no longer requires root permission to gain access to the SD card, most file managers will be working to add compatibility fairly quickly.
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Root Explorer is one of those apps that has been on each and every one of my Android devices for years, and part of the reason why is that developer Speed Software has kept it relevant with near-constant useful updates. The latest, version 3.3, takes advantage of the revised SD card management on Android 5.0. Those with Lollipop devices can once again write to an external SD card even without root.
Yes, Root Explorer works without root permissions - if you haven't rooted your device (or you can't), it's basically just a well-rounded file manager that can't modify the /system partition or other protected areas of Android's file system.
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