Lenovo’s K4 Note has finally received its taste of Marshmallow, as Lenovo is rolling out Android 6.0 to the K4 Note. The rollout begins today, and will likely continues in a phased manner till all devices are covered.
In Google’s unending quest to create multiples of everything, Google announced today they were making finding your lost device even easier. You may be familiar with the Android Device Manager application which already does this, but is hidden in an overflow menu on the Play Store website that few know where to find. Well Google obviously took the difficulty to use and find to heart and moved it to the awesome My Account feature you can access at myaccount.google.com. In an interesting twist of fates Google did not create a whole new application like one would think – based on their past – they just re-skinned and moved the Android Device Manager features to this new home. All functions of “Find My Phone” through the My Account page are done through the ADM application installed on your phone.
The Find My Phone dashboard lists all your devices including tablets and devices like the Nexus Player. While you cannot locate Android TV devices, you can sign out of them which is a welcomed feature. Surprisingly Google has seen fit to include Apple devices, but in a more limited capacity. My wife’s iPhone was available through the site, it included a handy link to iCloud to lock or wipe the device and allowed me to logout of my Google account on the device. I would assume it would invalidate any logins for the Apple email client and remove your account from apps like Hangouts, Google Play Music and the Google app
So how does it work? To sum it up, pretty awesomely.
Once this was announced I tried it out on my HTC 10 and it worked within seconds allowing me to ring and locate my phone. If ringing your phone doesn’t work, or it 
Other options include the ability to call your phone or sign out of your device and it reminds you to contact your carrier and local law enforcement. Finally, Google allows a thermonuclear option that will blow up your phone erase your device immediately upon a network connection. For MicroSD card users it appears Google MAY be able to wipe your card, but it clearly states it may not be able to, my guess is Marshmallow devices and up will have their MicroSD wiped, a feature I don’t plan on testing.
Anyways this is a welcomed addition to Google users regardless of platform, but especially for Android users. It is always great for to see Google making it easier for its users to lock and recover their lost devices!
The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has just ruled that a warrant is not required in order for police to obtain your location data. However, this only applies to those who have agreed to give their location data to a 3rd-party company (like Google). Since you freely gave up this data, the court feels this data isn’t protected under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.
Microsoft has been partnering with Android OEMs so they can get their apps pre-installed on as many devices as possible. Their latest partnership is with Xiaomi and they tell us the Chinese Android OEM will start shipping Microsoft Office and Skype on Xiaomi Android smartphones and tablets. This deal also includes a cross-license and patent transfer agreement which could help them expand into the US.
Back in February, we saw LG announce the LG Style 2, and this week they’ve just announced a new variant to the smartphone series. The device offers a 5.7″ 1080p display, 1.4GHz quad-core SoC (no mention of what kind), 2GB RAM/16GB storage and 3GB RAM/32GB storage options, 13MP rear and 5MP/8MP front cameras (depending on region), fingerprint sensor and a 3,000mAh capacity battery.
Samsung is getting ready for an event in NYC and they’ve just started to send out invites to the media. The press invite has the words Go, Move, Explore, Create, & With Galaxy on it. Then they talk about experiencing how Samsung devices work together to create a Galaxy of possibilities. Some are speculating Samsung could be launching their Gear Fit 2 & IconX earbuds at the event.
On the company’s Weibo account, OnePlus has just announced they will be announcing the OnePlus 3 in China on June 15th. We have seen multiple rumors about what the device will look like and what type of specs we can expect to see. OnePlus also announced that the device will be put on sale one day after its announcement, on June 16th.
