Samsung starts rolling out Android Oreo for Galaxy S8 and S8+, starts in beta in Germany

Review: Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

Better late than never, right? Samsung just began pushing out the Android 8.0 Oreo for the Galaxy S8 and S8+. But it’s not coming to all devices around the world just yet. Version SM-G955XXU1CRAP is currently rolling out to German users who are part of Samsung’s beta program. This will later make its way to other users in the country and then later on to other regions. When that will happen we don’t know yet.

The arrival of Android Oreo also means users will be getting February security patch and Samsung Experience 9.0, which introduces things like a new keyboard, color lens for the display, and improvements to Bixby.

Source: GSMArena

Nest will now be part of Google

With companies fighting to bring its artificial intelligence technology into its products, the latest move from Google’s parent company Alphabet makes sense. Nest will be merged into Google’s hardware team with its current CEO Marwan Fawaz reporting directly to Google Hardware SVP Rick Osterloh. This merger, according to Google, will allow them to “combine hardware, software, and services” between the two companies with “Google’s artificial intelligence and the Assistant at the core.” But this doesn’t mean the Nest brand is going away, at least according to CNET. The merger was also supposedly years in the making with the two teams reportedly combining its supply chain teams back in 2016. Also, it must be noted that during the “Made By Google” Pixel 2 launch, the Nest got a spot in there, where the integration of Google Assistant into Nest products were discussed.

Source: Ars Technica

Tip on how to stop websites on Chrome from displaying its incessant notification prompt

Chrome notifications seem like a good idea until a lot sites started to support them and now you’ll get the pop-up notification every single time you open a new site that supports it. You can block these individually but that would be a time-consuming task. To completely shut this feature off, you just need to head to this link and flip the toggle from “Ask before sending” to “Blocked.” For those on Android, you just need to head to Settings in Chrome and head to Advanced and then locate Site Settings. From there tap on Notifications and you’ll see the toggle “Ask before sending” and flip that again to “Blocked.”

Source: Android Police

The February security update for Android starts rolling out to the Essential Phone

Essential has had their fair share of issues since the company was launched last year. But we have to give credit where credit is due, they’re one of the companies that have kept up with the security updates almost instantaneously. Just a day after AOSP posted the February 2018 Android Security Bulletin, Essential rolled out a software update for the Essential Phone with the security patch included. So if you have an Essential Phone, you can expect to see this update head your way pretty soon.

Source: Android Authority