Androidifying

The Sony Xperia X Performance is the first in the Xperia lineup of smartphones to begin getting the over-the-air update to Android 7.0 Nougat . The update has reportedly begun rolling out in some sections of the world for the phone, along with its Dual SIM variant. See also: Android 7.1 Nougat Developer Preview 2 goes live 1 week ago The report comes from the unofficial Xperia Blog , which says the firmware number for the Nougat update is 39.2.A.0.327. There’s no word on which regions of the world are getting the update for the Xperia X Performance, but we hopefully will learn more information soon. This is just the latest example of Android 7.0 Nougat OTA updates hitting smartphones. It has started rolling out to the LG G5 on T-Mobile earlier this week , and a few days ago owners of the unlocked HTC 10 began to receive the same download. Samsung began beta testing its Nougat update for the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge a few weeks ago, and the third beta version began rolling

Fans of Google’s Hangouts chat client can expect to see a new 15.0 version of the app to roll out this week. The new version’s major addition is just for the very few smartphone owners who have Android 7.1 Nougat installed, as it adds the GIF keyboard to the app. See also: This is Nougat on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 1 day ago The GIF keyboard made its debut in the Android 7.1 Developer Preview a few weeks ago on Google’s Messenger app . The addition of the same keyboard in Hangouts 15.0 will apparently not work for Google Voice messages in the app, according to 9to5Google.  Aside from that new feature, the only other thing about Hangouts 15.0 is the fixing of a bug from 14.0 that was showing the sender of a single person’s name twice in notifications. Again, this update for Hangouts has apparently just started rolling out in the Google Play Store, so it may take a few days to reach all Android users. If you happen to have both this update and Android 7.1 Nougat insta

If you own a Xiaomi Mi 5 , you can now apply to be a beta tester for company’s latest custom interface, MIUI 8, which will be updated to  Android 7.0 Nougat . The beta testing is for the global ROM owners of the phone. See also: MIUI 8 global rollout kicks off August 23, 2016 As with the earlier testing period for people in China, people who own the global ROM version of the Mi 5 will need to use a PC to apply for testing at the MIUI website . Besides the requirement of owning this phone, interested testers must have at least some knowledge about ROMs and be active in the forums. They also must be willing to chat with other members about their experience in the QQ alpha group and forums. Finally, they must use the QQ app. In addition to the Nougat testing for the Mi 5, Xiaomi is also accepting applications for people who own the global Mi Max 32GB and the Redmi 3S/Prime phones to beta test their versions of MIUI 8. However, those phones will not be getting the Android 7.

The number of fake reviews and rankings for apps and other content in the Google Play Store may be taking a big drop in the near future. The company announced today it has made some improvements to the backend that will allow it to find and take down those kinds of reviews. See also: How to get a refund for apps purchased from the Google Play Store September 6, 2016 A few weeks ago, Google announced it would be going after apps who generate a lot of recorded installs through fraudulent means . Today, the company said that actual fake reviews, or reviews that have been created by people who have been paid to do so, will be identified and removed from the Play Store. Obviously, Google does not want to reveal exactly how it is making these removal decisions. The company also mentioned once again that any Android apps in the Play Store must abide by its Developer Policy. That means app reviews must come from people who have actually used the app they are writing about, and

App developers are pushing the envelope on a daily basis trying to improve and enhance our smartphone and tablet experiences. In fact, so many Android apps come out every day that it’s difficult to keep track of them all. It’s difficult to usurp the best of the best but if you’re getting bored with what you’ve got and want to try something new, check out the best new Android apps from the last month! You can watch the videos from passed months by clicking here ! Best New Android games from the last month! Best Android apps, ever! Adobe Apps [Price: Free (may require Adobe CC subscription)] Adobe released three new apps in the month of November. The first was Photoshop Fix. This app lets you retouch photos and it also comes with some restoration features. The second was Adobe Photoshop Sketch. As the name implies, this app gives you a variety of tools to sketch and create original pieces of artwork that can then be ported to Adobe’s desktop apps. The last one is Adobe Comp CC.

Shutterstock A few days ago, Adobe issued a report that Black Friday 2016 brought in a total of $3.34 billion from online shopping sources in the US, with $1.2 billion of that number from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. At the time, Adobe thought there was a chance that the online revenues from Black Friday would top those from Cyber Monday , which traditionally has been the top online shopping day of the year. See also: Best Cyber Week deals on headphones 3 days ago As it turns out, Monday, November 28 showed that online shopping numbers just beat those of Black Friday. Adobe said today that revenues for Cyber Monday 2016 hit a new record of $3.39 billion, narrowly ahead of Black Friday’s numbers. Of that $3.39 billion, $1.19 billion in online shopping came from smartphones and tablets, which is a 48-percent increase from 2015, but still slightly lower than the numbers from Black Friday 2016. The majority of visits to retail websites during Cyber Monday

Google Earth is a great online resource to see how our planet looks from above, and now it’s even more useful to see how parts of the Earth have changed over time. The company has now expanded its Timelapse feature, which it introduced in 2013, with even more images that span several years in certain locations. See also: Google Maps and Google Earth now have insanely high res satellite imagery June 27, 2016 Google said it went through over 5 million satellite images to add the ones in this new Timelapse update for Google Earth. The best from all those three quadrillion pixels were used to create 33 images of the entire planet, one for each year. From those photos, the company made 25 million overlapping multi-resolution video tiles from a number of locations on the planet. Using technology from Carnegie Mellon CREATE Lab’s Time Machine, those tiles were converted into images that not only offer time-lapse movement over the years, but can also be panned and zoomed into by