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HTC: One M9 and M9+ will get Android M, more device announcements coming later

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Starting with Android Lollipop, we saw a number of OEMs attempt to up their game when it came to pushing out prompt updates. HTC was among the first OEMs to promise fast updates to Android Lollipop, with a commitment to bringing the update out in 90 days or less. While a number of delays kept it from meeting its initial goal, it was still fairly responsive when it came to delivering Android 5.0 Lollipop. To little surprise, HTC is once again one of the first OEMs to speak up about their Android M plans. Taking to Twitter, HTC has announced that the One M9 and M9+ will both be upgraded to Android M, with more device announcements coming soon. While we can’t say for sure, we’d say it is a pretty safe bet that the One M8 and some of last year’s higher-end Desire devices will also get some M lovin’, but that’s just speculation at this stage. We’re excited to announce that the HTC One M9 and M9+ will be updated to Android M, with more devices to be announced soon! #io15 — HTC (@htc) M

Diving into M: Launcher lets you uninstall from homescreen, lockscreen gets minor change too

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In our very first ‘episode’ of Diving into M we took a look at the revised app drawer found in Android M’s launcher. Now that we’ve had a bit more time, let’s talk about two other minor but potentially useful changes found in the latest version of Google’s launcher. Want to dive even deeper?  Check out our full “Diving into M” series by clicking here. The most useful of the two changes has to do with the way you remove apps. In the past, removing apps only happened through the app drawer, but no longer. Now dragging on icons on the home screen gives you the option of simply removing them or uninstalling them completely. As you can see, dragging to uninstall makes the icon turn red, while dragging to remove grays out the icon. Next up, the lockscreen is also getting a minor change. Previously there were two shortcuts at the bottom corners of the Android lockscreen: camera and phone. While the camera icon can still be found on the right side, the left has been replaced with a mic i

Diving into M: Android M lets you move apps to microSD thanks to “adoptable” storage

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Google is famously uninterested in giving proper support for microSD, but it looks like the Android team is having a slight change of heart. One of the many new features that Google didn’t really advertise about Android M yesterday is Adoptable Storage Devices. Adoptable basically means that Android M can “adopt” an external storage device like a microSD card and format and encrypt it so it acts like the device’s internal storage. It looks like Google no longer sees microSD as for storing media only; with adoptable storage, you will be able to move apps and their data to microSD or other external storage devices. The caveat is you won’t be able to use an adopted card on other devices, because of the encryption. But that’s a small sacrifice given the benefits. The ability to move apps between internal and external storage is a feature that many OEMs added to their devices years ago. Now Google is building it into stock Android, despite the fact that there are no Nexus devices with

Diving into M: Multi-window option can be enabled with some work!

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Back in March we first reported on how multi-window functionality had been discovered in an Android code commit. While many custom ROMs and OEM skins have had multi-window capabilities for a while, stock Android fans have been long been waiting for such a feature. The good news is that Android M does in fact carry such a function! Before you get too excited, there’s some bad news, too. First, this is an EXTREMELY early, experimental function. It’s so experimental that you can’t just turn it on in developer options, you first have to edit your build.prop to change user type to “userdebug” before the feature even shows up in dev options. Want to dive even deeper?  Check out our full “Diving into M” series by clicking here. As you can see in the screenshots at the top of the page, the multi-window mode gives you the power to show two windows side-by-side. You control this functionality through the recent menu by clicking on a new icon that shows up to the left of the (X). Once you d

Don’t miss our videos: Android M, Now on Tap, new Photos, event rundown, and more

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Android M is here and everyone wants to know what’s new and exciting. We’ve spent the better part of the past 24 hours bringing you that (and we’re not done), but if you just want all the important stuff, boiled down and put in video form, our videos are a must see. Android M first look and impressions Google Photos first look Google Now on Tap demo New Android Wear features New Google Cardboard VR Google I/O keynote rundown For a deeper dive into Android M and all things new from Google I/O, here are some starting points: Watch the full Google I/O keynote A look at the new Google Photos app Announcement roundup: all the big news in one place Android M developers preview images Android M: everything you need to know Keep it tuned for more.

Google plans regular updates to Android M preview, the first coming in a month

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Google is looking to instill some predictability into its Android calendar, and that includes a switch to yearly releases , but also more regular updates for developer previews. For the Android M preview release , Google plans to release monthly updates based on the feedback it receives from developers. That means things could change a lot between now and the final release expected this fall, and hopefully that will lead to a more stable and polished operating system. Google’s Chet Haase confirmed the regular updates during his “What’s new in Android” session yesterday. According to Haase, the goal is to release the next update for Android M developer preview at the end of June, followed by new updates every month until the full launch in Q3. This new approach contrasts to what happened last year with Lollipop, when there were very few changes between the late June release of Android L preview and the November launch of Lollipop . For a look at what Android M brings to the

Google launches password manager that can log you automatically into apps

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One of the new features coming along  Android M that Google chose not to highlight during the keynote yesterday is a password manager called Smart Lock for Passwords . Here’s how it works. When you first sign into an app that supports Smart Lock for Passwords, your device will ask if you want to save the credentials into Smart Lock. If you chose yes, the credentials will be stored online and the next time you need to log into the respective app, you will be logged in automatically with zero effort on your side. And that goes for any device on which you are signed in with your Google account. Log into Netflix one time on your smartphone and then never have to type a password again on your tablet or Android TV. And this works with Chrome as well, so saving your credentials in the desktop browser will make them available for apps on your mobile device, and vice versa. Speaking of Netflix , the video service is one of the handful of apps that already integrate the feature, along wit