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Android 6.0 Marshmallow

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Android Marshmallow is the 6.0 release of Google’s mobile operating system.

Features |

Granular App Permissions

Following yesterday’s rumors of more granular app permissions, we received confirmation of exactly that. The new app permissions will make it faster for developers to get new users up and running in their apps by only requesting permissions as the app needs them. For users, permissions are now being simplified into several easy to understand categories like Location, Camera, Microphone, and more. Users will also be able to go into the Settings menu of their phone at any time and revoke all or specific permissions as they please.

Chrome Custom Tabs

Google is bringing the features and capabilities that users have come to love from the Chrome browser to in-app webviews. Available in the Chrome Dev Channel today and rolling out to users in Q3 this year, Chrome Custom Tabs gives users looking at a webpage through an in-app webview sign-in and caching of web services, saved passwords, autofill, and multi-process security (i.e. two-factor authentication). Developers will be able to customize the webview to their liking with buttons as well as options in an overflow menu, and also pre-fetch any links before the user clicks on them so they’ll load quickly. The company shared how Chrome Custom Tabs will work with a Pinterest integration showing off a “Pin It” button in the menu bar at the top of the webview as well as a “See related Pins” button in the overflow menu.

App Links

Following up on yesterday’s rollout of App Indexing of iOS apps in Google’s native Search and Chrome applications, Google is revamping its intents system to provide a more powerful cross-app linking capability. App developers can now add an “autoVerify” attribute to their application manifest to indicate to Android that the links they claim they support should be verified by the platform at the time of the app’s installation. Android will then make a request to the servers associated with the links and look for a file containing the name and signature of the application, and if it successfully verifies that the app owns the links it claims to, when a user with the application installed clicks on a link owned by the app, it’ll push the user to the app without opening an intents menu.

Android Pay

Following that Android Pay logo we saw this morning, Google detailed its Android Pay mobile payment service coming to Android M.

Android Pay includes the ability to pay for goods in retail stores using Android phones and NFC while users can also make payments within apps for buying digital goods. Users will be able to plug in existing debit and credit cards from supported banks, and Android Pay has carrier support to ensure Android Pay is setup on new devices sold through vendors.

Android Pay will be available through Google’s own app, and banking apps will be able to integrate the service in their own apps. Google says over 700,000 stores across the United States will be Android Pay ready in addition to many Google Play apps as well.

Fingerprint Support

Android M will include standardized fingerprint recognition support as well to leverage the fingerprint sensors that have been shipping on Android phones for years. Android Pay will use this sensor as a payment approval method as part of the mobile payment process.

Google says that at launch any app developer will be able to make use of the new fingerprint APIs in Android M to add support for fingerprint authentication to their own apps. One example the company provided of how fingerprint support might work in a third-party app was the Target app. Users will be able to, when they install the app, associate their login credentials and payment information with their fingerprint so that when they go to complete a purchase all they’ll have to do to confirm the order is place their fingerprint on the sensor.

Power & Charging

Through a new feature called “Doze,” Google is making Android smarter about managing power. Doze will use “significant motion detection” to learn when a device is being left unattended for an extended period of time, and exponentially back off background activity to go into a deeper state of sleep for longer battery life. While the device is dozing it will still be possible to trigger alarms or respond to incoming chat requests from high-priority messages.

Google says they took two Nexus 9’s, putting Lollipop on one and M on the other with all the same apps installed and processes running, and found that devices on M tend to last up to 2x longer on standby.

In terms of power and charging, the company also announced that they’ve been working closely with device manufacturers to bring new devices to the market which take advantage of USB Type-C for charging. Since Type-C USB cables are bidirectional, meaning you can send data or power in either direction, Android M will provide more control over what you can do with the cable plugged into your device. Instead of just charging your phone through the cable, for example, you could choose to instead send power from your phone to the charger it’s connected to.

Google “Now on Tap”

Last but most definitely not least, Google Now is getting a bit smarter at figuring out what you want more information on based on your context within the phone experience.

Coming soon to over 100 third-party apps, Google Now will proactively surface specific actions from within apps on your phone as it thinks you’ll need them. Examples they provided in the keynote include surfacing the ability to request an Uber from Now once you land at the airport or surfacing your favorite Pandora station when Now knows you’re at a public transit station.

But the company is going even further than that, and will allow you to take advantage of Google Now from wherever you are on your phone and without having to be super specific with your request. So if your friend texts you a restaurant suggestion for dinner, by tapping and holding the home button Now will figure out what you’re wanting to get more info about, in this case a certain restaurant you were texted about, and deliver a card to you from the bottom of the screen with more information on the place. The company also demonstrated this from within Spotify, with a user listening to a song from Skrillex able to ask Now “what’s the real name of this artist” and have it pull up that information without the user even needing to indicate which artist they’re even referring to, because they asked from within the app with the artist already playing. This new feature of Google Now is called “Now on Tap” and will be rolled out with Android M.

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Opinion: 5 reasons why USB Type-C is a non-negotiable feature in my next Android phone

Very quickly, USB Type-C has this year become a part of every phone’s spec sheet. Either a new phone has USB Type-C, or it doesn’t. And it’s already being seen as a pro (or a con) when comparing phones against each other. Before the introduction of USB-C, pretty much every handset was assumed to have the previous connector, microUSB. And pretty much every phone did. Now, that’s changing.

With the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, and the OnePlus 2 before that, Android smartphones have recently begun adopting the new standard en masse, and as far as we know, many of the phones set to be announced in the coming months — including the HTC One M10 and the LG G5 — are going to make the jump. For me, supporting USB Type-C is absolutely a requirement for my next phone. Here’s why…


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Samsung Galaxy devices with Android Marshmallow get better browsing and multitasking

Samsung has already shown off the new Edge panel for devices like the Galaxy S6 Edge and Edge+ which comes as part of the Android Marshmallow update. Today, it detailed some of the other, perhaps more important, additions coming to Galaxy phones with Android 6.0 which started rolling out two days ago.


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Marshmallow coming to UK Sony Xperia Z5, Z4 Tablet, & Z3+ on March 7

While Sony’s Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact have just made their way to the US, their British equivalents should start getting Marshmallow early next month. According to the Xperia UK Twitter account, the Z5 series, Z4 Tablet, and Z3+ should get Android 6.0 on March 7th with more details coming later.


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LG quietly adds Marshmallow-powered K8 to its mid-range lineup

At CES last month, LG launched a couple of new K-series midrange smartphones with the aim to at least have a presence at the low end of the market. Design was almost identical between the K7 and K10, although specifications were slightly different. Without as much as a press release, it seems the company has now added another K-series phone which sits right in between those two.


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Android Marshmallow update for Huawei Honor 7 being released ‘within the next 2 weeks’

Honor has announced through its official Twitter channel that customers with the Honor 7 should start to see Android Marshmallow land on their devices within the next couple of weeks. Currently, the Huawei brand is rolling out the update to beta testers, and will push the software to all other users once that staged roll-out is over.


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LG X cam and X screen are two Marshmallow-powered mid-tier smartphones, launching at MWC 2016

Having already officially outed one of the features of its upcoming G5 smartphone, LG clearly isn’t shy about announcing features and products ahead of time. Ahead of their official debut, LG has revealed details of two Android Marshmallow-powered mass-tier phones called the X screen and X cam. As you can probably imagine from their names, each has its own single main feature.


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Android 6.0 Marshmallow for Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge rolling out, complete with enhanced ‘Edge panel’ features

galaxy s6

Samsung has announced officially — at long last — that its Android 6.0 Marshmallow update for the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge is rolling out from today. This news follows weeks after the company made it available for some Galaxy Note 5 beta testers on AT&T and some UK beta testers with the S6/S6 Edge.  The rollout will begin in Korea from today, with other markets and carrier-locked models to come in the near future. Samsung also notes that the software update for other Galaxy models is “soon to follow”…


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Marshmallow updates for T-Mobile’s HTC One M9 and Verizon’s Droid Turbo 2 are incoming [Update: Verizon’s One M9 too]

Update: Verizon’s HTC One M9 will also get Marshmallow on February 16.

The onslaught of carrier-locked devices getting Android 6.0 is beginning. Marshmallow made its way to the AT&T and T-Mobile variants last week and is now coming to the T-Mobile HTC One M9 and Verizon Droid Turbo 2.


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Android Wear 1.4: Hands-on with the new Messenger & Reminders apps + much more in Marshmallow [Gallery]

Marshmallow for Android Wear finally began rolling out last week after having been announced in November. While speaker support and new gestures are the marquee user facing features, the under-the-hood performance changes that Marshmallow brings are a huge deal. The update also brings some small tweaks and changes to Android Wear …


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Android 6.0 Marshmallow rolling out to 2nd-gen Moto G handsets over the next few days

Good news for owners of the Moto G 2nd-Gen: an OTA update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow has begun rolling out in batches, and all users should receive it over the next few days.

You’ll need to be on the latest stock Lollipop 5.0.2 ROM to receive it. Anyone who has flashed their ROM to a different version will need to restore, but no need to bother if you’re running the Stock 6.0 Soak Build (MPB24.65-24/34) as this is identical to the final release version.

Check out this Reddit thread for more details. The LG G4 began receiving the same update last week for T-Mobile users and yesterday for those on AT&T.

Release notes for the 2nd gen Moto 360 detail Doze mode & other Android 6.0 features

Update: Release notes for Moto 360 (first generation) and Moto 360 Sport are now available as well.

Marshmallow for Android Wear was finally announced yesterday and the OTA update for the watches should begin at any moment. Motorola is the first out with release notes on more details about Android Wear 1.4 for their second generation Moto 360.


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Sony’s Xperia Marshmallow concept launcher has been ported, here’s our hands-on [Video]

Over the past few months, Sony has been testing various concept software, offering it up to Xperia owners as part of a limited public beta test. One XDA Developers member was able to port the home launcher and release it as a downloadable APK which works on any Android device with Lollipop or later, and doesn’t require rooting. Needless to say, we were eager to go hands-on…


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Android Wear 1.4 is here w/ support for speaker hardware, more messaging apps, new gestures

Google has today launched the latest update to the Android Wear OS, bumping it from version 1.3 to 1.4 (the companion app got an update in November, which tipped us off that this firmware update was on the way). Among other features, this version of the OS enables support for the speaker hardware that was previously discovered on the Huawei Watch and the ASUS ZenWatch 2


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Google Messenger Wear app & Google Store point to imminent launch of Marshmallow for Android Wear

It’s been nearly three months since we first got wind of the Marshmallow update for Android Wear devices. The changelog was first spotted in the updated Android companion app and it was briefly released on the since recalled LTE version of the LG Watch Urbane 2. However, there are some signs that the update’s full release is imminent.


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Android 6.0 Marshmallow reportedly rolling out to some Galaxy Note 5 beta testers

A few weeks back, Samsung opened up an Android Marshmallow beta testing program for specific carrier models of the Galaxy S6 Edge, S6 Edge+ and the Galaxy Note 5. While we’re undoubtedly still some time away from seeing the OS update land officially for those carrier-locked devices, Samsung has started pushing out the beta-testing software to some users.


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Opinion: Three months later, is the Nexus 6P still the best Android phone?

nexus 6p lawsuit

One of Google’s latest slogans created to showcase the essence of Android in a nutshell spells: “Be together, not the same.” It is both a testament to the company’s general embracement of diversity and arguably one of the most precise ways to describe the OS as a whole. Fans, however, have long had trouble trying to identify the ‘ultimate’ Android device, despite the sea of devices whose supposed heterogeneity should guarantee a perfect match for everyone.

In an endless fight among the various OEMs to come out at the top of the critics’ — as well as the fans’ — rankings, one trend has notoriously stood out. People love Android devices because of the software (specifically its flexibility), and in spite of the countless efforts made by manufacturers to tweak and enhance the OS in order to make it better, the pure, unadulterated experience offered by Google has long been preferred by virtually every enthusiast.

Be it because of its simplicity and cleanliness, dedication to Google’s brand, or the sheer fact that updates are not hampered by carriers and other third parties, stock Android has always had the upper hand over UXs such as Samsung’s TouchWiz or HTC’s Sense — at least to those who even know what “TouchWiz” is. To this day, the problem with Google’s vanilla OS still resides almost solely in the hardware it runs on.


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Opinion: With Android Marshmallow, the Moto X Play is born again [Video]

A few months ago, as soon as it was officially launched in the UK, I checked out the Moto X Play. Price and spec-wise it stood halfway between the Moto G and the Moto X Style/Pure. Although it undoubtedly had its positives, there were some elements of the experience that left me disappointed. It intermittently stuttered and lagged during transitions, and very often refused to load data within apps. It wasn’t all the time, but it was enough to leave a less-than-great feeling.

With Android Marshmallow, the experience is so vastly different, it’s pretty difficult to believe. In fact, it’s so much better, I felt the phone should be revisited…


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Original NVIDIA Shield Tablet gets Marshmallow, K1 update fixes bugs & adds stylus support

After a voluntary recall of the first SHIELD Tablet, NVIDIA came back last fall with a refreshed and cheaper SHIELD Tablet K1. The K1 is receiving an update today that addresses bugs and adds back hardware functionality, while the original SHIELD Tablet is finally getting updated to Marshmallow.


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Android Marshmallow for Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Note 5 rolling out from next month according to sketchy leaked schedule

Samsung is historically a little behind its Android-making competitors when it comes to rolling out major software updates for its smartphones. So it’s no surprise to see that Marshmallow hasn’t yet officially landed on any Galaxy series devices. If a leaked roadmap is anything to go by, that could be about to change…


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