Exclusive: future Camera update will add more photo grid options and a handy toggle was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Exclusive: future Camera update will add more photo grid options and a handy toggle
Android Match
Pokémon GO update fixes the 'footprints' tracker by removing it, adds avatar adjustment and other tweaks
Pokémon GO version 0.31.0 takes out the footprints system entirely, so now players are merely presented with a vague list of nearby critters.
Read MorePokémon GO update fixes the 'footprints' tracker by removing it, adds avatar adjustment and other tweaks was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Waze beta reminds you not to forget your kid in the car
Forgetting children in a car is on a hot summer day is, sadly, not that uncommon of a way for young people to die. Hospitals give out notices to new parents alerting them to the risk. But a piece of paper is easy to, well, forget. So Waze is doing its part to reduce the number of incidents.
With Waze's new child reminder feature, you can receive a notification once you reach your destination.
Read MoreWaze beta reminds you not to forget your kid in the car was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Nest app update introduces Spaces view, groups products by room and shows live video on the home screen
Nest products monitor the many areas of your home, so it's not too much of a stretch to think you will want to view your home by room instead of gadget. The latest app update does just that. Nest's new Spaces view groups together all of the Nest products in your home by the room they're in.
The Nest app automatically enables the Spaces view if you have at least one camera connected to your account.
Read MoreNest app update introduces Spaces view, groups products by room and shows live video on the home screen was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Top 10 Android app updates this week: Runkeeper, Twitter
Welcome back to our weekly Top 10 Android App Updates column, where we take a look at the most frequently upgraded apps for the week. We’ve found that one of the best ways to discover useful apps is to find the ones that are actually being updated by the developers rather than selecting the apps with the most installs. As in the past, we’re going to filter out minor updates for the super-popular apps that have over 10 million installs, but we’ll make exceptions for apps that have had significant updates. We hope you enjoy this weekly feature and that you discover some apps that end up being useful.
Runkeeper - Version 7.0.0
What’s new in this version:
-
Running is better together, so we’re thrilled to bring you Running Groups to help keep you motivated! Pick a running challenge of your choosing, invite friends, track each other’s progress, and use the chat to cheer each other on.
Microsoft Powerpoint - Version 16.0.7127
What’s new in this version:
- Annotate with ink: Use your pen or finger to write, draw, and highlight with the tools on the new Draw tab
- Save files on SD cards: With Android 5.0 and newer versions, save files anywhere on an SD card.
- Discover more Office apps: PowerPoint now makes it easy for you to discover and quickly install all the Office apps available for your Android phone and tablet.
HERE WeGo - Version 2.0.10475
What’s new in this version:
- HERE Maps has a new name, a new look and new ways to get around. We’ve added bikes, taxis and car clubs — along with all kinds of rich information to help you out, like taxi and ticket prices. It’s faster to find routes, faster to compare them and faster to get you moving.
Google Chrome - Version 52.0.2743
What’s new in this version:
- Brought tab switching back into Chrome (Android L+)
- Bug fixes and speedy performance improvements
Twitter - Version 6.7.0
What’s new in this version:
- See your Tweets when the lights go out. Night Mode in Modern Android delivers a dark color palette that’s made for reading in the dark.
Microsoft Excel - Version 16.0.7127
What’s new in this version:
- Annotate with ink: Use your pen or finger to write, draw, and highlight with the tools on the new Draw tab
- Save files on SD cards: With Android 5.0 and newer versions, save files anywhere on an SD card.
- Discover more Office apps: PowerPoint now makes it easy for you to discover and quickly install all the Office apps available for your Android phone and tablet.
United Airlines - Version 2.1.9
What’s new in this version:
-
Fingerprint support comes to Android – access your MileagePlus account with your fingerprint
-
Various bug and back-end fixes.
Google Translate - Version 5.2.0
What’s new in this version:
-
Includes transliterations in Tap-to-Translate. Minor bug fixes. Android Nougat Support.
Microsoft Word - Version 16.0.7127
What’s new in this version:
- Annotate with ink: Use your pen or finger to write, draw, and highlight with the tools on the new Draw tab
- Save files on SD cards: With Android 5.0 and newer versions, save files anywhere on an SD card.
- Discover more Office apps: PowerPoint now makes it easy for you to discover and quickly install all the Office apps available for your Android phone and tablet.
WhatsApp Messenger - Version 2.16.207
What’s new in this version:
- Reply to specific messages in any chat. Just tap and hold on any message and tap the reply button at the top of the screen. You can even tap on the quoted part of the message to scroll up to the original message.
Android Match
SwiftKey admits connection between sync outage and prediction bug
As we reported yesterday, SwiftKey's synchronization service has been down for several days. At the time, there was speculation that the outage was related to reports from users that they were getting predictions from other accounts. That's not speculation anymore—in a brief post on the SwiftKey blog, the company confirms that it disabled sync because of the prediction bug.
The first reports of this issue began popping up almost a week ago.
Read MoreSwiftKey admits connection between sync outage and prediction bug was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Upcoming HTC Nexus Phones Will Not Share Same Build Quality
It’s been a while since there was any talk about Google’s upcoming Nexus lineup but now there has been new developments regarding the differences between Marlin and Sailfish.
NexusBlog has apparently received word from a source within HTC about Marlin and Sailfish not sharing the same build quality. This does make sense as Marlin being the premium model, will be made almost entirely out of metal like the HTC 10. Whereas Sailfish being the cheaper model, could sport a polycarbonate build or maybe even some metal similar to the recent Desire releases.
Both phones are expected to come with a Snapdragon 820/821 SoC and Android 7.0 Nougat.
The post Upcoming HTC Nexus Phones Will Not Share Same Build Quality appeared first on Android in Canada Blog.
Android Match
Samsung teases soon to be released Note 7 with new video
Samsung has released an official teaser video for the Galaxy Note 7, and while it doesn’t give us any new information on the device, it’s pretty entertaining.
Granted, we really don’t need much more info on the Note 7. Leaks have exposed pretty much every spec and angle of the device possible, so we know what we’re going to see at the Samsung event. All that’s left is official confirmation. The video does hint at waterproofing though, so it will likely share the IP68 rating with the Galaxy S7.
Watch the video above and get excited. We’re going to see the device unveiled in just five days, so we’ll soon know which rumors are true and which aren’t.
Android Match
Motorola releases two apps to manage your new Moto Mods
Now that the Moto Z and Moto Z Force are officially out on Verizon, Motorola has uploaded two apps to the Google Play Store to help you manage your new Moto Mods.
The Moto Mods Manager app will allow you to control the mods attached to your phone. It also lets you update the mods, which makes the mods a lot more open to new features and fixes from Motorola.
The Moto Mods Projector app is specific to the projector Moto Mod, and it opens a pop up menu when you press the button on the mod to control keystone and brightness on the fly.
If you own the device and some mods, hit the source link to download the apps!
Source: Google Play: Moto Mods Manager, Google Play: Moto Mods Projector
Via: Android Police
Android Match
Moto Z Droid and Moto Z Force Droid now available on Verizon
If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on a Moto Z or Moto Z Force, the Droid versions are now available for purchase on Verizon! Though pre-orders have been available for a while, you can now buy the devices online and in some stores.
Both devices feature a 5.5-inch QHD AMOLED display (though the Force has Shattershield tech), a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of memory with a microSD slot, and Moto Mods support. The camera is 13MP and 21MP on the Moto Z and Moto Z Force respectively, and the batteries are 2600 mAh and 3500 mAh. The battery alone makes the Force a good option, though you’ll lose the 5.2mm thickness.
Verizon is also selling Moto Mods, with 20% off your second Moto Mod. How many of you will be picking one up? Leave a comment!
Source: Moto Z Droid, Moto Z Force Droid
Android Match
Samsung reportedly releasing Gear S3 at IFA Berlin in September
The Samsung Gear S2 is a pretty solid smartwatch despite the fact that it runs Tizen instead of Android Wear. However, now might not be the best time to buy one, as the successor is reportedly launching in a little over a month.
The Samsung Gear S3 is said to launch at IFA Berlin, hosted between September 2 and 7. It will be another round watch with the same rotary bezel as the current model, but we don’t know what kind of upgrades we’ll be seeing.
With the Galaxy Note 7 not launching at IFA (only a few more days!), this device might be one of the bigger ones announced. So hold off on the purchase of a Gear S2, soon there will be a new model and discounts on the old one.
Android Match
[Not very swift] SwiftKey sync has been down for the last 3 days, but it's being worked on
Noticing something is amiss with SwiftKey lately? You are not alone. The keyboard's sync service has been broken for the last three days, and there's no sign of a resolution yet. SwiftKey is aware of the problem, though.
One of the nifty things about SwiftKey is that it includes Google account login for syncing your typing data. That means custom phrases and suggestions will be available in the keyboard. Without sync, no new words can be sent to the cloud or downloaded to devices.
Read More[Not very swift] SwiftKey sync has been down for the last 3 days, but it's being worked on was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Add-ons for Docs and Sheets are now on Google Play
Two years ago Google introduced extensions for Google Docs and Sheets. These third-party add-ons expanded on what the browser-based word processor and spreadsheet could do, often integrating them with online services. Now that functionality has made its way to Android.
These add-ons are available for download directly from Google Play as part of a developer preview. The initial wave includes the likes of DocuSign, PandaDoc, Scanbot, and Zoho. Through these extensions, you're gaining the ability to sign documents and save them directly to Docs or import CRM data to create reports and graphs on Sheets.
Read MoreAdd-ons for Docs and Sheets are now on Google Play was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Motorola releases Mods Manager and projector Mod app in the Play Store
The Moto Z and Moto Z Force have launched today as Verizon-exclusive devices. The Moto Z will come out as an unlocked device in the not too distant future, but the Droid phones are the only game in town when it comes to Moto Mods. And there are settings apps for the Mods in the Play Store—two of them, in fact. I guess that's cool.
The first app is the general Mod Manager service.
Read MoreMotorola releases Mods Manager and projector Mod app in the Play Store was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Announcing Android add-ons for Docs and Sheets
We know many of you consider your mobile device as your primary tool to consume business information, but what if you could use it to get more work done, from anywhere? We’re excited to introduce Android add-ons for Docs and Sheets, a new way for you to do just that—whether it’s readying a contract you have for e-signature from your phone, or pulling in CRM data on your tablet for some quick analysis while waiting for your morning coffee, Android add-ons can help you accomplish more.
Get more done with your favorite third-party apps, no matter where you are
We’ve worked with eight integration partners who have created seamless integrations for Docs and Sheets. Here’s a preview of just a few of them:- DocuSign - Trigger or complete a signing process from Docs or Sheets, and save the executed document to Drive. Read more here.
 |
| DocuSign lets you easily create signature envelopes right from Google Docs |
- ProsperWorks - Import your CRM data to create and update advanced dashboards, reports and graphs on Sheets, right from your device. Read more here.
- AppSheet - Create powerful mobile apps directly from your data in Sheets instantly — no coding required. Read more here.
- Scanbot - Scan your business documents using built-in OCR, and insert their contents into Docs as editable text. Read more here.
You can find these add-ons and many more, including PandaDoc, ZohoCRM, Teacher Aide, EasyBib and Classroom in our Google Play collection as well as directly from the add-on menus in Docs or Sheets.
Try them out today, and see how much more you can do.
Android Match
Latest YouTube update removes notification button to close background play
Google does a lot of smart things, but it also makes some very bizarre (dare I say, dumb?) decisions. Case in point, YouTube recently changed the way it handles background play, making it harder to end playback from the notification. The "x" used to be tiny, but now it's just gone.
Background play is a feature people begged Google to implement for years, and now it exists as long as you have YouTube Red.
Read MoreLatest YouTube update removes notification button to close background play was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Top 10 new Android games this week: Snakebird, ReRunners
Welcome back to Android Gaming Weekly, our weekly recap of new game releases. We still plan to cover upcoming releases and games we’re playing, but this column is dedicated to new games that you can start playing right now. Check out our top picks and let us know in the comments section if you have any suggestions for next week’s post.
Train Conductor World
Description: Train Conductor World is a high-speed train traversal puzzler; trundle, turn and track in this spectacular European adventure! Conduct and control the tracks, manage movement and watch your rail network grow.
Star Nomad 2
Description: Set in a dynamic open-world sandbox with an evolving conflict between three major splinter groups of humanity, players can freely be merchants, bounty hunters, pirates, miners, smugglers or wanderers.Your actions or in-actions, big or small carry consequences that are noticed by the inhabitants and factions. Empires will rise and fall, take a side, or sow the seeds of anarchy.
ReRunners
Description: Run, jump, and use devious weapons to become the fastest Runner of all time! Compete in breakneck, multiplayer races against friends and other people you don’t care about! Embark on an outlandish tale of good and evil, Tortoise and Hare, and fight your way towards the Race of the World, the greatest race in history! The fate of the universe rests between your thumbs!
Galaxy Reavers
Description: The flames of war rage across the galaxy. All delays in war will be dangerous. Only to be a raider or a prey in Galaxy Reavers. Command your fleets and conquer galaxy with your real-time strategy!
Eden: The Game
Description: “What if we could start again?” Find out for yourself in this, the official game of the series, Eden, where you must help your very own community grow on the same remote Scottish location. You’re responsible for prioritising everything they must do every day; will you have them constructing more camp buildings? Farming? Hunting? Scavenging?
Raccoon Escape
Description: Help the Raccoon escape the fiery pits where he is imprisoned! Connect the gears that will pull him up while avoiding various enemies. This is a fast paced endless runner where all your attention and skill will be needed!
Rocket R!ot
Description: Keep the outer space safe in Rocket Riot, the addicting tap and draw game. In this simple yet surprisingly addictive drawing game you take on the role of being a space controller. It is your job to direct rockets to color matching planets while avoiding other rockets and asteroids.
Snakebird
Description: What is the longest possible length a bird can be? Obviously a question only all the fruit in the world can answer! But where could all this fruit be hiding? Follow Redbird, Greenbird and Bluebird on a quest for an amount of fruit beyond any birds wildest dreams.
Guild of Dungeoneering
Description: Become the ultimate Dungeon Master as you bribe, entice and coax your heroes through their adventures on a quest to restore your guild to its ultimate glory! Guild of Dungeoneering is a unique turn-based RPG with a twist: instead of controlling the hero, you build the dungeon around him.
THE GAME OF LIFE: 2016 Edition
Description: Attend college, accept a job and play minigames in this interactive app that is fun for the whole family. Watch as board piece characters come to life and make their way through the various stages of life on this spectacular, 3D animated reworking of the familiar physical board.
Android Match
[Update: Brazil court freezes $11.7M of Facebook funds] Judge in Brazil orders WhatsApp blocked once again
WhatsApp is hugely popular in Brazil where mobile subscribers pay high rates for cellular calls and messaging. WhatsApp isn't getting as much use today as a Brazilian judge has ordered the country's five wireless providers to block access to the service.
Read More[Update: Brazil court freezes $11.7M of Facebook funds] Judge in Brazil orders WhatsApp blocked once again was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens beeps and bops its way onto Android
The LEGO games are great - a little repetitive, maybe, but very good, especially for mobile devices. For the Star Wars fans out there (and boy are there a lot of you), your time has come: LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens has hit the Play Store, almost a month after release on consoles and PC.
We all know the LEGO formula by now: run around with a character, collect as many coins as possible, and advance through the game.
Read MoreLEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens beeps and bops its way onto Android was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Galaxy Note 7 Will Come With 3,500 mAh Battery
Samsung is expected to launch their next flagship smartphone in less than a week from now and we pretty much know almost everything about the phone thanks to recent leaks. The Note lineup tends to come with larger than normal battery sizes to cope with the massive display, however that has remained a secret until now.
Thanks to a South Korean carrier product listing, the Galaxy Note 7 will sport a 3,500 mAh battery and have a weight of 169g, making it 2 grams lighter than its predecessor. Unfortunately, the rumoured 4,000 mAh battery did not come to fruition. Despite the size, the Note has always had decent battery life and I am expecting the same from the Note 7.
The post Galaxy Note 7 Will Come With 3,500 mAh Battery appeared first on Android in Canada Blog.
Android Match
YouTube Gaming v1.5 adds chat overlay to full-screen videos, landscape orientation, watch history, a new easter egg, and more [APK Download]
It has been about six weeks since the last YouTube Gaming update rolled out, and it's clear the developers have been keeping pretty busy on making changes. The latest update has quite a few improvements to be found throughout the app, not to mention at least one feature that might be considered pretty huge. Topping the list is a new live comment stream that overlays on top of gameplay videos so you can see the action and watch the commentary at the same time.
Read MoreYouTube Gaming v1.5 adds chat overlay to full-screen videos, landscape orientation, watch history, a new easter egg, and more [APK Download] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Protecting Android with more Linux kernel defenses
Posted by Jeff Vander Stoep, Android Security team
Android relies heavily on the Linux kernel for enforcement of its security model. To better protect the kernel, we’ve enabled a number of mechanisms within Android. At a high level these protections are grouped into two categories—memory protections and attack surface reduction.
Memory protections
One of the major security features provided by the kernel is memory protection for userspace processes in the form of address space separation. Unlike userspace processes, the kernel’s various tasks live within one address space and a vulnerability anywhere in the kernel can potentially impact unrelated portions of the system’s memory. Kernel memory protections are designed to maintain the integrity of the kernel in spite of vulnerabilities.
Mark memory as read-only/no-execute
This feature segments kernel memory into logical sections and sets restrictive page access permissions on each section. Code is marked as read only + execute. Data sections are marked as no-execute and further segmented into read-only and read-write sections. This feature is enabled with config option CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA. It was put together by Kees Cook and is based on a subset of Grsecurity’s KERNEXEC feature by Brad Spengler and Qualcomm’s CONFIG_STRICT_MEMORY_RWX feature by Larry Bassel and Laura Abbott. CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA landed in the upstream kernel for arm/arm64 and has been backported to Android’s 3.18+ arm/arm64 common kernel.
Restrict kernel access to userspace
This feature improves protection of the kernel by preventing it from directly accessing userspace memory. This can make a number of attacks more difficult because attackers have significantly less control over kernel memory that is executable, particularly with CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA enabled. Similar features were already in existence, the earliest being Grsecurity’s UDEREF. This feature is enabled with config option CONFIG_CPU_SW_DOMAIN_PAN and was implemented by Russell King for ARMv7 and backported to Android’s 4.1 kernel by Kees Cook.
Improve protection against stack buffer overflows
Much like its predecessor, stack-protector, stack-protector-strong protects against stack buffer overflows, but additionally provides coverage for more array types, as the original only protected character arrays. Stack-protector-strong was implemented by Han Shan and added to the gcc 4.9 compiler.
Attack surface reduction
Attack surface reduction attempts to expose fewer entry points to the kernel without breaking legitimate functionality. Reducing attack surface can include removing code, removing access to entry points, or selectively exposing features.
Remove default access to debug features
The kernel’s perf system provides infrastructure for performance measurement and can be used for analyzing both the kernel and userspace applications. Perf is a valuable tool for developers, but adds unnecessary attack surface for the vast majority of Android users. In Android Nougat, access to perf will be blocked by default. Developers may still access perf by enabling developer settings and using adb to set a property: “adb shell setprop security.perf_harden 0”.
The patchset for blocking access to perf may be broken down into kernel and userspace sections. The kernel patch is by Ben Hutchings and is derived from Grsecurity’s CONFIG_GRKERNSEC_PERF_HARDEN by Brad Spengler. The userspace changes were contributed by Daniel Micay. Thanks to Wish Wu and others for responsibly disclosing security vulnerabilities in perf.
Restrict app access to ioctl commands
Much of Android security model is described and enforced by SELinux. The ioctl() syscall represented a major gap in the granularity of enforcement via SELinux. Ioctl command whitelisting with SELinux was added as a means to provide per-command control over the ioctl syscall by SELinux.
Most of the kernel vulnerabilities reported on Android occur in drivers and are reached using the ioctl syscall, for example CVE-2016-0820. Some ioctl commands are needed by third-party applications, however most are not and access can be restricted without breaking legitimate functionality. In Android Nougat, only a small whitelist of socket ioctl commands are available to applications. For select devices, applications’ access to GPU ioctls has been similarly restricted.
Require seccomp-bpf
Seccomp provides an additional sandboxing mechanism allowing a process to restrict the syscalls and syscall arguments available using a configurable filter. Restricting the availability of syscalls can dramatically cut down on the exposed attack surface of the kernel. Since seccomp was first introduced on Nexus devices in Lollipop, its availability across the Android ecosystem has steadily improved. With Android Nougat, seccomp support is a requirement for all devices. On Android Nougat we are using seccomp on the mediaextractor and mediacodec processes as part of the media hardening effort.
Ongoing efforts
There are other projects underway aimed at protecting the kernel:
- The Kernel Self Protection Project is developing runtime and compiler defenses for the upstream kernel.
- Further sandbox tightening and attack surface reduction with SELinux is ongoing in AOSP.
- Minijail provides a convenient mechanism for applying many containment and sandboxing features offered by the kernel, including seccomp filters and namespaces.
- Projects like kasan and kcov help fuzzers discover the root cause of crashes and to intelligently construct test cases that increase code coverage—ultimately resulting in a more efficient bug hunting process.
Due to these efforts and others, we expect the security of the kernel to continue improving. As always, we appreciate feedback on our work and welcome suggestions for how we can improve Android. Contact us at security@android.com.
Android Match
United Airlines updates Android app with fingerprint authentication
Frequent United flyers may find themselves using the airline's Android app more often than they realize. The latest update cuts down on how often you have to type out your password as you sign in to your MileagePlus account. Now you can tap a fingerprint scanner instead.
The app notifies you of the addition following the update, but you can also find the feature under Settings. You can opt to scan when booking with miles or with money.
Read MoreUnited Airlines updates Android app with fingerprint authentication was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Pushbullet will limit API-based pushes to 500 per month on free accounts starting August 1
Pushbullet will limit API-based pushes to 500 per month on free accounts starting August 1 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
Android Match
Google Play Family Library lets family members share apps and content across devices
Google wants to make it easier than ever to share content, from apps and games to movies and books, with your family members. To do that, the company has announced and launched the Google Play Family Library.
With Family Library, sharing a variety of content, from movies, TV shows, books, comic books, and even games, is all a possibility. There are no additional sign-up fees to get it going. Just signing up gets a family on the right path, which includes setting up a shared credit or debit card with which purchases can be made from one device to another, and that content shared between them. Family members will be able to select their own personal payment methods, too, even if a family card is saved. And purchases made by the younger members of a family can be approved before finalized.
Users within a family will be able to add content to the Family Library and keep content private, too. That means a family can keep R-rated movies away from kids easily enough. The content can be shared between six different family members with Android devices, and movies, TV shows, and books can be shared on iOS devices and the web.
The Google Play Family Library is rolling out now, and it will be available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. You can sign up right here.
Google also took some time to promote its Google Play Music family plan, which allows for six members to share the subscription for only $14.99 per month. That feature launched late last year, but Google is now expanding it to Ireland, Italy, Mexico, and New Zealand.
Android Match
