Top 10 Android Stories of the Week (June 17th)
The amount of Android news each week can be overwhelming, but you can follow the best of the best with an app called EarlyBird – News for Android. It includes ALL of the Android news you crave and lets users decide what matters most to them.
You can download the app on the Google Play Store or, for desktop users, find related discussion in the Android Forums News section.
Here’s what you picked as your favorite news stories for the week:
#10 – Twitter restricts Flamingo app for an unknown reason
29 likes – Popular Twitter app, Flamingo, was subject to some shenanigans on the side of Twitter. The app was restricted from sending tweets for anyone, and until the developer got some help from those who work for Twitter, the app was unusable. Thankfully everything worked out, and Flamingo received its biggest update since being launched.
#9 – Latest update to Google Play Services adds support for Nearby
30 likes – Google introduced Nearby a few weeks ago but had yet to bring support to our devices. The latest update to Google Play Services changed that, and now users can go to their favorite stores and will receive prompts to get some awesome deals.
#8 – Chrome Dev version 53 lets you show tab colors in the tab manager
30 likes – The latest version of the Chrome Dev app now shows colors via the tab manager within the browser. Previously, we would only see the colors appear within the URL bar, but now this update will show the tab color across whenever accessing all of your tabs.
#7 – Google Chrome 53 will include major improvements to performance
31 likes – An upcoming stable version of Google Chrome will bring a slew of new improvements which will improve faster and smoother performance. These changes will surely make for a better overall experience while using the mobile browser.
#6 – Two-factor authentication via SMS might not be as secure as you think
33 likes – If you’re a believer of two-factor authentication, you may not be so sure after hearing about an incident with an activists Twitter account. According to the user, his twitter and two email accounts were hacked after some social engineering. He says someone called Verizon, impersonated him, and had his phone number switched to another SIM card. This allowed the hacker to bypass the SMS two-factor authentication protect he had setup on all three of these accounts.
#5 – Don’t forget, apps you have uninstalled can still access your Google account
34 likes – Just because you uninstall an app, that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t have access to your account. Whenever you sign into an app using your Google account, that application still has access to your account even after uninstalling the app. In order to remove permissions for the apps, you’ll need to check out the Google Security section of your account and revoke any permissions for apps that you no longer use.
#4 – Android N Developer Preview 4 is now rolling out
34 likes – The 4th Developer Preview of Android N has rolled out to Nexus users. Comprised of mainly bug fixes, Google did give us a little tease when accessing the Android N splash page. Keep an out for Android Namey McNameFace.
#3 – Google Now on Tap doesn’t require Google Now cards to be enabled to work
34 likes – The latest update to the Google application removes the need for Google Now Cards to be enabled in order for Now on Tap to function. This means that if you don’t want to use Google Now cards, but want to use Now on Tap, you will be able to.
#2 – Google app will soon get data saver feature and the ability to snooze reminders
35 likes – Saving data is a huge concern nowadays, and the latest version of the Google app may hint to something in the works from the big G. The app has hints of an upcoming data saver feature which would presumably show content at a lower resolution to help conserver those precious megabytes. Additionally, you may be able to start snoozing reminders from the Google app for any task that is over due. These are signs that the Google is in for a big update in the somewhat-near future.
#1 – Google fixes an Android 6.0 Marshmallow memory leak dating back to November 2015
38 likes – One of Android’s biggest issues has always been memory leaks. However, there has been one bug present that has caused a memory leak in Android 6.0 Marshmallow which has yet to be fixed. This bug dated back to November 2015, and has reportedly been patched. The downside to this is that we don’t know how long it will be before users see the fix implemented in Android and distributed to users.
What’s YOUR top news item for the week?
Disagree with the Top 10? Let us know in the comments and vote for yourself everyday by downloading EarlyBird on Google Play!