HTC has just launched its first Android 6.0 Marshmallow powered smartphone, One A9, which also packs an updated version of HTC Sense 7.0 UI. The new User Interface packs some minor improvements on top of Marshmallow.
The Improvements can be visible on the System app's icons, Setting menu, Notification bar, HTC Sense Keyboard, App drawer and the blinkfeed too. Everything is more flat than the previous Sense 7.0 release (for Lollipop).
All the icons used are now packing a long-shadow style. The camera Interface has also been updated with flat simple icons. System-wide the new UI is taking advantage of all Marshmallow features and tries to follow Google's Material Design as much as possible but still keeping the good old Sense smooth feeling which makes it the perfect combination and the best custom launcher in the market. Check the video below to see the HTC One A9 with Marshmallow 6.0 Sense 7.0 UI in action.
The Latest flavour of Google's Android OS is the Marshmallow 6.0 which made official on September,29th. This release is focusing more on services integration, battery life improvements and user control, Google also updated the Material Design guidelines on this release with some minor changes.
We gathered everything you need to know about Marshmallow in one place... Here's the Full official change-log and Key features list of the Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Android Marshmallow Key Features
Contextual Assistance- Now on Tap: get assistance without having to leave what you're doing-whether you're in an app or on a website. Just touch and hold the home button.
- Do more with your voice. Now you can have a dialogue with any of your apps that support the new voice interaction service. For example, if a user says "play some music on TuneIn," TuneIn will respond by asking "What genre?".
- Direct Share: a fast and easy way to share to the right person in the right app.
Battery
- Doze: when your device is at rest, Doze automatically puts it into a sleep state to increase your standby battery life.
- App Standby: no more battery drain from seldom used apps; App Standby limits their impact on battery life so your charge lasts longer.
- USB Type C support: Quickly transfer power and data all through the same cable. Lightning fast charging gives you hours of power in just minutes.
Privacy & Security
- On an Android Marshmallow device, apps designed for Android Marshmallow only ask for permission right when it's needed. You can deny any permission and still continue to use the app.
- Advanced controls to turn permissions on or off for all your installed apps.
- Verified boot: when your Android device boots up, it will warn you if the firmware and Android operating system have been modified from the factory version.
- Use fingerprint sensors to unlock your device, make purchases in Google Play, authenticate transactions in apps, and pay in stores.
Android Runtime ("ART")
- Improved application performance and lower memory overhead for faster multi-tasking.
Productivity
- BluetoothTM stylus support, including pressure sensitivity and modifier keys.
- Improved typesetting and text rendering performance.
- Smarter text selection, built-in undo/redo, and text actions closer to your fingers.
- Text selection actions such as a new Translate option that lets you translate text from one language to another right on the spot. (Note: requires Google Translate app installed)
- Save paper with duplex printing support.
System usability improvements
- App links: enables installed apps to automatically handle their web URLs so you can jump right into the app, rather than the mobile web site, as appropriate.
- Easily toggle and configure Do Not Disturb from quick settings.
- If someone calls you twice within 15 minutes, you can choose to allow the call to ring through while Do Not Disturb is enabled.
- Use automatic rules to enable Do Not Disturb for as many custom time blocks as you like or around events on your calendar.
- Simplified volume controls allow you to manage notification, music, and alarm volumes easily from anywhere with the touch of your volume keys.
- Streamlined Settings let you manage an app's settings all in one place, from battery and memory usage, to notifications and permissions controls.
- Google Now Launcher app list refreshed with search, fast alphabetic scrolling, and predictive -- App Suggestions.
Connectivity
- More power efficient Bluetooth Low Energy ("BLE") scanning for nearby beacons and your accessories.
- Hotspot 2.0: Connect to compatible Wi-Fi networks seamlessly and securely.
- Bluetooth SAP: Make calls from your carphone using your phone's SIM.
- Portable Wi-Fi hotspot now supports 5GHz frequency bands.
Expandable storage
- Flex Storage: makes using SD cards or external storage devices as encrypted expanded storage for your apps and games on Android Marshmallow a whole lot easier.
Device setup and migration
- Easily transfer your accounts, apps and data to a new device.
- During setup, you can add an additional personal or corporate email account (e.g., IMAP)
- Auto backup for Apps: seamless app data backup and restore.
- Backup/restore of additional system settings such as your Sync settings, preferred apps, Do Not Disturb settings, Accessibility settings and enabled IMEs.
Media
- MIDI support: create, consume, and perform music using your Android device with USB MIDI devices, MIDI over BLE, and software-based MIDI devices.
Internationalization
- Android is now available in 74+ languages with 6 new additions: Azerbaijani, Gujarati, Kazakh, Albanian, Urdu, and Uzbek.
Android for Work
- When receiving calls or viewing past messages, you can now see the full work contact details even if you're not logged into your work profile.
- Work status notification: A status bar briefcase icon now appears when you're using an app from the work profile and if the device is unlocked directly to an app in the work profile, an alert is displayed notifying the user.
- VPN apps are now visible in Settings > More > VPN. Additionally, the notifications that VPNs use are now specific to whether that VPN is configured for a work profile or the entire device.
Android Marshmallow Change-log
#1: Easy word selection and floating clipboard toolbar"Finally," someone in the crowd at Google I/O shouted when software head David Burke announced that Android M brings improved word selection and a new clipboard toolbar. Currently, you have a bar of obscure icons at the top when selecting text and that is changing to a floating window that appears alongside your selection (a much more logical place) and features clear and concise buttons rather than obscure icons: 'cut', 'copy', and 'paste' is what the buttons say. Word selection is now also improved as you can select jumping word by word, or character by character.
#2: Fingerprint sensor support
Finally, Google is building a standard API for fingerprint support that - it seems - apps can make use of, and it will be a unified way for phone manufacturers to encode support for fingerprint scanners, knowing that they are compatible with the new Android Pay NFC-based system.
#3: Direct Share
Sharing on Android is by far the best of any mobile operating system, but it's still far from perfect. When you have a bunch of apps installed, you end up with a huge list of sharing options that is extremely frustrating to operate. Direct Share in Android M fixes that by prioritizing and putting first the options that you use the most and that are the most logical for that particular item.
#4: Doze
Doze is a deeper state of sleep, especially useful for Android devices like tablets that spend a lot of time laying idle on a night stand, only to be picked up at night. By hibernating apps and allowing only for alarms and priority notifications to stay awake, Android M brings significant improvements to standby battery life, extending it up to twice on a Nexus 9 unit that Google tested.
#5: Simplified volume controls
If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Google, however, did try to fix the non-broken volume controls in KitKat, and that resulted in an outcry from users frustrated with volume controls in Android 5 Lollipop. So, it was time to fix what has been fixed: volume controls are now again granular, with separate control for ringer volume, alarm volume, and media volume. Finally!
#6: Google Now 'On Tap'
Google Now is getting contextually aware in Android M. What does that mean? With the new Google Now 'On Tap' feature, your voice searches will be recognized contextually within an app. Say, you have the music player on, you can fire up voice search and ask something like "what year was this recorded?", and the search will understand that 'this' refers to the song. Neat!
#7: Auto backup for apps (link to Android developers)
The Android system in M will automatically make a full data backup and restore for apps. This is something that is done for apps targeting M by default, with no need for developers to code in anything. If users delete their Google accounts, their backup data is deleted as well. Automatic backups happen every 24 hours, when the device is idle, charging, AND connected to a Wi-Fi network. This way, when you upgrade to a new device, or wipe clean a device, you can restore easily and pain-free.
#8: Contextual assist framework
#9: Secure token storage APIs
#10: Setup wizard: IMAP sign-in
#11: App Standby
#12: Flex storage
Few weeks ago, Google revealed its new Logo with an updated multi-colored shape. The official Google App for Android has been updated to version 5.5.26 with more changes to match the Google's new look.
First thing you will notice is the new "G" Launcher icon that packs more colors than the plain old white icon. Google Now search screen also got updated with the a colorful Google logo, revamped User Interface, new cards design and new animation too. The update brings with it some new changes for the Google Now Launcher and a New app drawer.
Colors Everywhere... As you can see, there is now colors everywhere in the app, even the pop-up Google now icon.It's nice to finally see Google step out of the black and white world and try to be a little flashier.
Google Search v5.5.26 change-log:
- New "G" app icon.
- Google new multi-colored logo is now in the search widget.
- Updated logo and font throughout the whole app.
- Updated Google Now UI.
- Updated Cards design.- Updated Google Now launcher.
- New App drawer.
If you want to try out the New Google Now look, just install the APK below on your Android device (4.4+) and Enjoy!
Google is currently rolling-out the first Google Play Services 8.3 update for all Android devices worldwide. We still don't have the full change-log for this update yet but it should be posted very soon on the official Google Android developers blogspot.
So far, Google Play Services 8.3 brings more Android Auto desktop new features support and the Android Auto companion app from the play store. Also this release brings support for Android 6.0 Marshmallow final release and the New Google icon design too.
If you don't want to wait for the update to hit your device, you can download the Official Google Play Services 8.3 APK below. Make sure to follow the instructions below to get the version required for your device.
*WARNING*: We've seen reports of constant crashes with these. Proceed at your own risk.
To figure out the right version of Google Play services for your Android device, go to Settings -> Apps -> Google Play services, and look at the last 3 numbers in the parentheses. You'll see something like -XYZ where:
* X defines Android version:
0 for Android <5.0
2 for Android 5.0 and 5.1 starting with Play Services v8
4 for Android 5.0 and 5.1 before Play Services v8, Android >= 6.0 after
7 for Android 5.0
8 for Android TV
* Y defines CPU architecture:
1 for armeabi
3 for armeabi-v7a
4 for arm64-v8a
7 for x86
* Z defines DPI:
0 for universal
2 for 160
4 for 240
6 for 320
8 for 480
Notes:
It seems that -7YZ builds became -4YZ with Google Play services v6.5. If you were on -7YZ before, you should now install -4YZ.
It seems that -4YZ builds got split into -2YZ for Lollipop and -4YZ for Marshmallow with Google Play services v8. If you were on -4YZ before, you should now install -2YZ in Lollipop and -4YZ in Marshmallow.
Looks like -8YZ builds are for Android TV.
Examples:
-014 for Android <5.0 armeabi CPU 240 DPI device
-438 for Android 6.0+ armeabi-v7a CPU 480 DPI device
-876 for Android TV x86 CPU 320 DPI device
Google Play Services 8.3 [APK]
The latest WhatsApp version 2.12.330 for Android packs various bug fixes and some New features along with the usual Bug fixes.
One of the new features is the ability to mute contacts individually, whereas previously you could only mute groups. You can now take control of the mobile data used during whatsapp calls and chat sessions in the new version's settings.
The new updates also bring the ability to mark conversations as unread, although this will only take effect in your app, and the message will still show up as read to the other participants in a conversation.
The new features also include a few new setting options. One particularly interesting addition is a new low data mode for voice calls, one that, as the name suggests, will put voice calls on a data diet, a feature that will be surely welcomed in emerging markets where mobile data is still expensive.
WhatsApp 2.12.330 Change-log:
• Per chat custom notification settings and mute
• Mark chats as unread or read
• Added new emoji. You can also tap and hold on some emoji to choose a different color.
• When receiving a contact card, you can now quickly message or save the contact if they're on WhatsApp
• Lower the data usage used during WhatsApp calls in Settings > Chats and Calls
• Language support for Urdu and Bengali
You can Download the New WhatsApp 2.12.330 Official APK below, if you don't want to wait until the update reaches your Android device via Google Play Store.
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