Dissolving pods add cream to your coffee without creating waste

Why it matters to you

This dissolving milk pod may mean the days of splashing yourself when you open one of those tiny hotel milk containers are coming to an end.

Adding milk or cream to your coffee in a hotel room or on the move could be about to get a bit more environmentally friendly, thanks to the work of researchers from Germany’s Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. As a replacement for the miniature milk containers that are often used, they’ve developed dissolving milk pods, ready to be dropped straight into your favorite hot beverage like a sugar cube.

The milk pods are essentially small containers with a hard and stable shell, which contains liquid milk or condensed milk. The shell is made of a crystalline material like sucrose or a sugar substitute. When the capsules are added to a hot liquid, the coat quickly dissolves and the liquid filling is released into the drink with a minimum of fuss — and, more importantly, no waste.

“Conventional pre-portioned plastic [containers] are applied in a variety of sectors for packaging coffee-cream or condensed milk because of their handy size,” Martha Wellner, one of the researchers on the project, told Digital Trends. “However, they have a great disadvantage as the opening process leads to an unclean handling. The first main advantage of our product is that it avoids the splashing and spilling as no opening is necessary. Furthermore it contributes to an environmental waste reduction as the dissolvable capsule replaces conventional plastic [packaging].”

At present, the hard shell leaves behind a sweet taste: perfect if you like sugar in your coffee, not so great if you don’t. However, the researchers may be able to tweak their creation in subsequent iterations to result in no additional flavoring.

The team’s milk pods can be kept at room temperature for up to three weeks, with no negative effects. “We have discovered no changes so far,” Wellner said, regarding the milk quality after the pod-making process. The researchers also say that additional drinks, such as fruit juice concentrate, may also be stored in the same way.

A paper describing this research was recently published in the journal Chemical Engineering & Technology. With this and the various smart expiration labels and new approaches to pasteurization we’ve covered as of late, who knew there was so much innovation going on in the milk world?

Android 8.0 Oreo review

Android Nougat is so 2016. Like it or not, a new delectable dessert is in town: Oreo. It’s the name given by Google to the latest version of its Android mobile operating system. Android 8.0 Oreo follows Android 7.1.2 Nougat, and it continues Google’s tradition of alphabetically naming its version updates after desserts. It’s the second version of Android to use a brand name. The last was Android KitKat in 2013.

Android 8.0, like its predecessor, has more under-the-hood changes than visible overhauls. There are plenty of new features (see our Android Oreo roundup here), but they’re all relatively minor. Still, these new additions and improvements show us how much more mature Android is now, and they make version 8.0 an update you don’t want to miss.

As a note, we have been testing Android Oreo on a Google Pixel. While all the features will be similar across other Android 8.0 devices, there may be different color themes and reorganized layouts. For example, Google has changed the Pixel’s notification drawer to a white color, while the bluish-gray color remains on Nexus devices.

More useful notifications

Let’s start with one of the most visible changes to the operating system. The notification drawer, which you access by swiping down from the home screen, now shows the date on the bottom, and the Settings gear icon has also moved to the same lower pane. Expand the notification drawer and you’ll notice the display brightness slider is now at the top, with the Quick Settings tiles below. At the very bottom are the Quick Settings edit icon, user icon, and access to the Settings app. This is a minor, but welcome change that makes it easier to access these tools without needing to stretch your finger all the way to the very top of the screen.

General notifications like weather or commute times from the Google app now take up less space (though they can expand). Notifications themselves are more useful, due to three new features. First, and a personal favorite, you can schedule notifications. Gently swipe the notification left or right until you see a gear and a clock icon. Tap the clock and it will present you with options to have the notification resurface in 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 2 hours, or 1 hour (default). For inbox zero folks like me, this is a godsend as it means not having to swipe away important notifications, while still clearing my notification tray.

Notification Badges, or Dots, mimic iOS’ unread badge counters, and as the name suggests you’ll only see dots appear above an app or app folder with new notifications. These dots use the color from the app, so they aren’t distracting and don’t look out of place. Tapping and pressing the icon of an app with a dot can show you the notification as a pop-up, not unlike Apple’s 3D Touch. Here, you can also find app shortcuts, which were introduced in Android 7.1.1. They let you access specific functions in an app, and the look has been slightly redesigned in Android 8.0.

The Notification Channels feature brings more control over what notifications you see.

But perhaps the biggest change to notifications in the latest flavor of Android is through Notification Channels, or categories. This new feature brings more control over what notifications you see. Press and hold a notification, and you can see a toggle to block all notifications from an app. Tap All Categories and you’ll see all the different channels you can get notifications from via an app. For example, in the Twitter app’s notification settings, you can toggle notifications on or off for Direct Messages, Emergency Alerts, Followers and Contacts, and Recommendations from Twitter. It allows you to choose which type of notifications you want to get alerts from in an app. This feature can be incredibly handy (power users will love it), but you may not even use it much at first, particularly because it’s not immediately clear or well-explained how it works within the OS.

One of our favorite features in Android 7.0 Nougat is notification bundling, where multiple notifications from the same app are grouped and expandable. It’s exciting to see Google further improving notifications, and providing more tools for the user to control them in Android 8.0.

Streamlined Settings

The Settings menu in Android 8.0 is one of the largest visual overhauls in the update, mainly in how it’s now so much shorter than before. Google has grouped a lot of settings that once stayed separate, and while it will take some time to get used to or find a setting, we think these new groupings are for the better. You’ll also notice several new design changes across the Settings menu, with less dividers and better use of white space.

There’s no slide out menu for navigation anymore, just 13 Settings categories. At the top, you’ll see a blue-colored drop down for ongoing functions, such as if your Do not disturb or Night Light is on. Some notifications are now minimized into an Advanced tab in specific categories. While I like the idea, sometimes it means an additional tap to get to basic settings, such as assigning your default notification sound — there’s nothing advanced about that.

Overall, the Settings menu is well-designed and looks more professional than ever before. I’ve had trouble finding specific settings via the search icon, but it has been incredibly easy to find them now in version 8.0.

Picture-in-picture mode, Autofill, and Smart Text Selection

We have a few favorite new features, and especially like Autofill. Think of the Google Chrome browser’s autofill option, where it stores your login information or address, and allows you to easily add it into forms. Android now has the same feature. Every time you log into a new app, or add your address or credentials, Google will ask if you want it to remember the information. If you allow it, the next time you try to log in, it will automatically fill out the form. It’s far easier than remembering and typing out your username and password, and it’s a welcome addition into Android.

Picture-in-picture mode feels like a feature that should have been around for a while, and technically apps like Skype have utilized this function before. Essentially, it lets you continue watching a YouTube video or a video call when you exit the app. The video now acts like a floating pop-up over the home screen or other app you’re using, allowing you to multitask. Tapping on the pop-up allows you to either expand it again, or use some playback controls.

Like Autofill, Smart Text Selection is also one of those features you won’t appreciate until you use it. We’ve all had to copy an address or phone number from one app, and then open the corresponding app such as Google Maps or your phone dialer to paste it in. Now with Smart Text Selection, when you highlight a phone number, for example, you’ll get the option to jump into the dialer app immediately. The same is true for when you highlight an address — you can jump into Google Maps and the address will already be inputted. This feature will become even more robust as third-party developers add support for it.

Checking the Vitals

Android phones are already in more than a billion people’s hands, but Google is still tinkering with the operating system’s fundamentals in Android Oreo. Vitals is a new initiative to focus on security, system stability, boot time, and battery life.

On our Google Pixel, we’ve seen the boot time go from around a minute to about 15 seconds. We haven’t seen any issues with system stability or apps crashing, so perhaps it’s the operating system at work — we can’t be sure.

To keep your battery life safe, there are now Wise Limits on “how frequently background apps can retrieve the user’s current location,” and for your phone’s security there’s Google Play Protect. It’s a culmination of security features that have already been implemented. If you head over to Settings > Security & Location > Google Play Protect, Google will tell you when it last checked your app and device for “harmful behavior.” Find My Device is available here, and it’s essentially a rebranded Android Device Manager that lets you remotely lock and erase your phone if it’s lost.

Even installing apps from outside the Play Store is now a little more secure. You need to toggle which apps are allowed to download apps from “Unknown Sources.”

Project Treble

One of Android’s biggest flaws is fragmentation. It’s the fact that despite Android 7.0 Nougat’s release in August 2016, the version is only installed on 13.5 percent of Android devices. iOS 10, on the other hand, is installed on 86 percent of devices. It’s because Apple makes its hardware and software, and it can issue updates when it wants. When Google rolls out an update, chipmakers, manufacturers, and carriers all need to test it out to make sure nothing breaks, and this process can take months, if not more.

Project Treble attempts to mitigate the issue by separating the Android code to make it easier for chipmakers like Qualcomm to find and make sure the software works with its processors. While this makes things easier for chipmakers, it’s still up to manufacturers and carriers to move fast to issue the update timely. We won’t really be able to see how this plays out until next year because this whole project only works on devices that ship with Android Oreo.

You can read more about Project Treble here.

Miscellaneous improvements

There are plenty of other minute features we haven’t talked much about, such as support for higher quality audio codecs, support for a wider color gamut, and improved support for physical keyboards. There are Pixel-specific improvements as well, such as how double-tapping in the camera viewfinder now zooms in, and there’s now a video icon to swap to recording mode. The adaptive icons on your home screen can now be changed to different styles — from circles and squares to rounded squares, squircles, and teardrop-shaped apps.

A dunk-able update

All in all, Android Oreo doesn’t have one big flashy feature. It’s a minor update, but it’s still important in offering a cohesive plan on monitoring your devices ‘Vitals,’ while also introducing features than make the operating system feel more mature and robust than it ever has been. As always, it’s probably good to wait a few days when the update is available to make sure there are no major bugs reported, but after that, install away. Pixel and Nexus devices will get Android Oreo first, followed by devices from other manufacturers later this year or next year (whenever your manufacturer decides to issue the update).

When is your phone getting Android 8.0 Oreo? We asked every major manufacturer

It’s that time of year again. With a brand-new Android version comes the immediate question: when will my device get the upgrade? As a general rule, if your phone was made in the last two years, there’s a good chance you’re in luck — though every manufacturer is different and it really depends on what you own. Before Android 8.0 Oreo broke cover, 7.1.2 Nougat was the latest version of the platform, and it’s still unavailable to the wide majority of currently-supported phones. Still, that didn’t stop us from posing the question to all of Android’s major manufacturers. Here’s what they had to say.

Alcatel

Alcatel’s track record with Android updates is unfortunately spotty, and at the moment, there’s only one phone we expect to receive Android Oreo: The just-released Idol 5S. The Idol 5S is currently Alcatel’s only product running 7.1.1 Nougat. The company’s lower-priced handsets, the A50, A30 Plus, and A30, all launched with 7.0 Nougat. Alcatel also promised to eventually deliver Nougat to last year’s Idol 4S, which launched with Marshmallow.

We reached out to TCL, the company that owns Alcatel, regarding its update roadmap. The company had nothing to share at this time, though we’ll update this article as soon as we receive an answer.

Asus

Asus has confirmed to Digital Trends that the ZenFone 3 and ZenFone 4 series will receive Oreo by the second half of 2018. Although the company isn’t the quickest with updates, it did eventually follow through on its promise to bring Nougat to the ZenFone 3 series, so it’ll likely do the same here — just be prepared to wait a while. Part of the delay is likely due to the company adding its own ZenUI skin over the operating system, which will reportedly see an upgrade to 4.0 for Oreo.

Asus phones confirmed to receive the update:

• ZenFone 4
• ZenFone 4 Pro
• SenFone 4 Selfie
• ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro
• ZenFone 4 Max
• ZenFone 4 Max Pro
• ZenFone 3
• ZenFone 3 Deluxe
• ZenFone 3 Max
• ZenFone 3 Laser
• ZenFone 3 Zoom

BlackBerry

TCL, which works with BlackBerry to manufacture its devices, has confirmed it will update the KeyOne to Oreo. There’s no word on precisely when that might happen, but the version of Nougat on the device is pretty light and faithful to stock Android, so hopefully the company won’t have to make too many customization that would lengthen development. As far as some of the company’s other phones, no announcements have been made at this time, so we’ll have to wait and see.

BlackBerry phones confirmed to receive the update:

• KeyOne

Google

Google’s devices are the quickest to receive every new Android version. In keeping with the company’s 18-month support policy, four Google devices will be the first to receive the Oreo update: The Pixel, Pixel XL, Nexus 6P, and Nexus 5X. This will be the final major update for the Nexus line.

Google phones confirmed to receive the update:

• Pixel
• Pixel XL
• Nexus 6P
• Nexus 5X

HTC

HTC has been one of the more respectable Android manufacturers where updates are concerned. Last year, it confirmed early on which of its phones would see upgrades to Nougat. Although it hasn’t made an announcement yet, and has not returned our request for a timeline, the company should offer a clear-cut roadmap once it’s ready to do so. In the past, it’s gotten Marshmallow and Nougat updates out the door in less than four months — an impressive feat, given the company makes its Sense UI modifications to Google’s operating system.

Specifically for Oreo, we expect the HTC U11 and U Ultra to lead the way on updates, with the older HTC 10 to follow. We’ll provide a list as soon as we hear official word.

Honor

Like its parent company, Huawei, Honor hasn’t made any announcements regarding Oreo. Also much like Huawei, Honor doesn’t sell many devices in the U.S. — there’s the Honor 6X and Honor 8. The Honor 8 already received an update to Nougat, but there’s no telling whether it will make the jump to Oreo. We reached out for information, and will let you know what we hear.

Huawei

Huawei has yet to confirm which of its phones will receive Oreo, and hasn’t responded to our request for comment. We expect to see an update for the Mate 9 and P10, which launched with Nougat, sometime in 2018. Outside of that, it’s hard to say what the company’s plans are at this time.

When the update does release, it’ll likely come in tandem with a new version of Huawei’s user interface, EMUI. Additionally, most of its phones are not sold stateside — the Mate 9 is the only phone listed for sale on the company’s U.S. site. We’ll update this as we hear more.

LG

We’re still waiting to hear what LG’s update roadmap looks like. Until then, we can look to history for some clues. Last year’s LG V20 was one of the first devices to launch with Nougat, and we could see the same happen this year with the LG V30, which will be revealed on August 31. The company’s other flagship, the G6 will also certainly receive Oreo down the line; and while the G5, LG’s failed modular phone, is still within the update window, it’s unclear if it will still get it.

Digital Trends reached out to the company for clarification, and we’ll update this report as soon as we hear more.

Motorola

While Motorola isn’t quite as timely with its updates as it once was, the company is still pretty transparent about its plans, and is one of the better phone-makers in terms of making sure none of its products are left behind. Although Motorola couldn’t give us a list of devices upon our request or provide a timeline, it did return with the following statement:

“Once Android O is fully released, we will begin working on the new code for our devices — as always, we know upgrades are about getting it right and making sure the phone performance remains the best it can be. We’ll share upgrade plans for our products and more specific timing later, and will keep everyone posted on our software upgrade page.”

With that said, Motorola will assuredly upgrade the Moto Z and Z2 lines, and likely the Moto G4 and G5 families as well — though the Moto E3 may miss out. Check back here for new information.

OnePlus

OnePlus has said the OnePlus 3 and 3T will receive the next iteration of its own OxygenOS based on Oreo. Although unconfirmed, the recently-released OnePlus 5 is expected to follow suit. During a Reddit Ask Me Anything, the company confirmed it plans to release the updates before the end of 2017.

Unfortunately, older devices, like the OnePlus 2 and X, look to have been left behind after the company failed to follow through on its promise to update them to Nougat.

OnePlus phones to receive the update:

• OnePlus 5
• OnePlus 3
• OnePlus 3T

Samsung

Like most other phone makers, Samsung has not yet made any announcements regarding Oreo’s release. Still, there are rumors, courtesy of SamMobile, that indicate no less than 16 devices will receive the update. Of course, some phones, like the Galaxy S8 series, are a given. The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge should also receive the update. However, a few lesser-known devices not as common in the U.S., like the Galaxy J, A, and C series, may follow suit. These product lines typically are not supported for quite as long as the flagship S devices, so you’ll have to wait for official word from Samsung for clarification. In the meantime, we reached out to the company and are still awaiting a response.

Sony

As we wait to hear from Sony, its rumored nine of the company’s devices will see an Oreo update. The report comes from Phone Arena, and includes flagships like the Xperia XZ Premium, mid-rangers like the Xperia X Compact, and lower-end handsets like the Xperia XA1 Ultra. Other phones released within the past two years may also be supported.

Sony has stepped up its update efforts as of late, with the Xperia X Performance being the first of the company’s devices to receive Nougat just over three months after being released. With the IFA Conference coming up on September 1, and a Sony flagship rumored to be unveiled, it’s possible though unlikely that we could see new hardware debut with Oreo built-in. Keep an eye on our IFA coverage for news as it breaks.

ZTE

ZTE hasn’t said which of its phones are getting Oreo, and when we reached out for comment, a spokesperson responded with the following statement:

“We evaluate whether or not a device receives the latest update on a case by case basis. We are very open to looking at bringing Android O to all our of devices, but because of device hardware capabilities and carrier requirements, this will drive how quickly we would be able to commit to whether we can, and the actual timelines of seeing this come on a device.”

ZTE did make good on its promise to keep its devices current during Nougat’s run. It brought version 7.1.1 to the Axon 7, and added support for Daydream VR at the same time. The company even ran a program for ZMax Pro users to preview Nougat. It’s been reasonably timely with updates in the past, and hopefully that will continue with Oreo’s rollout. We expect the Axon 7 and Axon 7 Mini to lead the way.

That’s everything we know regarding which phones will receive Android 8.0 Oreo. There are some manufacturers not on this list, and for them we revert to Google’s official response:

“We’ve also been working closely with our partners, and by the end of this year, hardware makers including Essential, General Mobile, HMD Global Home of Nokia Phones, Huawei, HTC, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp and Sony are scheduled to launch or upgrade devices to Android 8.0 Oreo.”

It’s still early days in terms of the operating system’s latest release, however, so you can look forward to frequent updates in the coming months. If we missed a phone manufacturer you think should be on this list, let us know!

The explosive Junkertown is the next escort map set to be added to ‘Overwatch’

Why it matters to you

Overwatch’s escort game type is about to become even more varied, as Blizzard has revealed a new map set on the mean streets of Junkertown.

Blizzard officially unveiled the next piece of content set to be added to its enormous popular hero-based shooter, Overwatch. Junkertown is a map for the escort game type that is themed around everyone’s favorite society of lawless Australians.

In Overwatch lore, the Junkers are a savage society of people displaced into the irradiated outback after Australia’s supply of omnium was destroyed. Two members of the game’s cast — Junkrat and Roadhog — are Junkers, and Junkertown is the home base for this deranged and deadly group.

We learn a little bit more about Junkrat and Roadhog’s relationship with Junkertown in a short called The Plan that was released by Blizzard alongside the reveal of the map — namely, why they are not living there at the moment. The pair were exiled from Junkertown by its queen, having committed several crimes worthy of expulsion. We can perhaps assume that it is the queen that is speaking in the Junkertown reveal trailer.

Junkrat and Roadhog set about on a worldwide spree of heists, taking their bounty back to Junkertown in the hopes of using it to double-cross the queen and gain some measure of revenge. Unfortunately, despite Junkrat’s best efforts to perfect their plan ahead of time, there are a few hitches that get in the way.

Shorts like this one really help flesh out the world of Overwatch and Blizzard has been doing a great job of making both the setting and the characters that live in it seem full of life and history. For a multiplayer-only title, the studio has been able to tell plenty of bite-sized stories, a strategy that obviously owes a debt to Valve’s work on Team Fortress 2.

Of course, the big news for players is the fact that another map is being added to the game, bringing the current total up to 20. Response to the last map to be released — Horizon Lunar Colony, which made its debut in June 2017 — has been decidedly mixed, but there seem to be enough interesting elements like moving platforms and alternate routes to make Junkertown a hit. Plus, there is certainly room for more escort maps in the game.

Best Cases for the Samsung Galaxy S8

The Galaxy S8 is one of the most exciting phones of the year, so if you want to keep it pristine, grab a case!

The Samsung Galaxy S8 has been around for a few months now, and there’s no question that it’s one of the best-looking phones on the market right now. But there are two sides of curved Gorilla Glass, which means that any drop, even from a short distance, could damage it. If you’re looking for a case for your new Galaxy S8, we’ve got you covered!

• OtterBox Commuter Series Case
• Ringke Flex S Series
• VRS Single Fit Case
• Spigen Liquid Air Armor
• Nomad Leather Folio Wallet

Otterbox Commuter Series

The OtterBox Commuter Series has garnered a well-deserved reputation as being one of the best cases for keeping your phone well protected while maintaining a slim design.

Like most OtterBox cases, this is a two-piece case that features a soft inner sleeve paired with a hard outer shell that helps to absorb impacts while providing great all-around protection for your phone. The case features port covers over the headphone jack and USB-C charging port, which just adds extra protection against dirt, dust, and pocket lint.

Typically we’d also recommend OtterBox’s Defender Series, which typically offers more rugged protection with a built-in screen protector. However, OtterBox made the curious decision to not include a screen protector with their Defender Series case for the Galaxy S8. Both cases are compatible with screen protectors but the Commuter Series is probably your best bet, as it’s $10 cheaper and offers most of the same protection — although it lacks the Defender Series’ belt clip holster.

You can grab the OtterBox Commuter for around $25.

See at Amazon

Ringke Flex S Series

If you like your case’s name aligning with your phone’s, the Ringke Flex S is a great option. (It’s also a damn good case.)

The main attraction here is the exceptional protection gleaned from the combination of a flexible TPU layer cushioning the phone itself, which is covered by a hard polycarbonate layer. That’s a familiar combination, but Ringke’s version is very attractive, with a grippy, textured back that looks great as it protects.

You can pick up a Flex S case for around $14 and it comes in four colors.

See at Amazon

VRS Design Cases

VRS Design has a full collection of cases available from its site for the Galaxy S8, but we’ll highlight one of the more minimalist options here.

The Single Fit case offers a minimalist option for keeping your phone safe. It’s a one-piece case made of TPU that snugly fits around your Galaxy S8 without adding too much bulk to that sleek design. Unlike the phone itself, this case is fingerprint resistant and also provides better grip than the slippery Gorilla Glass on the Galaxy S8. You get nice protection around the camera and fingerprint sensor on the back, and a subtle lip around the screen, along with the ample cutouts and precise buttons to ensure your phone’s functionality is unaffected.

Check out the Single Fit case for around $20.

See at VRS Design

Spigen Liquid Air Armor

Spigen consistently delivers cases that combine great design and quality protection for a stylish product that keeps your phone safe. We’ve gone hands-on with their latest batch of cases for the Galaxy S8 and can report back that they’re as good as ever on Samsung’s latest device. Whether you like their Tough Armor series or their minimalist Thin Fit cases, you’re sure to find a case that you’ll love.

We’re big fans of the Liquid Air Armor, one of the most low-profile cases that actually protects your phone. It’s a great combination — a flexible TPU, not too thin, plus a textured back for extra grip.

Best of all, the case is just $10, which is a steal for one of our favorite cases for the Galaxy S8!

See at Amazon

Nomad Leather Folio Wallet

Nomad’s Galaxy S8 folio case is like nothing else on the list. It uses Horween leather from the oldest tannery in the United States that is meant to show its age. On the inside of the light brown case is a holder for up to six cards plus cash, and the phone insert is there to keep your Galaxy S8 steady in the case of a drop.

This is one of the nicest-looking folio cases we’ve seen to date, and we’re looking forward to seeing how it looks in three or six months!

See at Nomad

What case are you rocking?

We want to know how you plan to keep your Galaxy S8 protected. Let us know which case you’re getting in the comments!

Update, August 2017: This list has been updated with some new options and up-to-date links.

Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+

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Android Oreo will make you love notifications again

Android Oreo brings some great new features to one of the most important parts of the OS: the notification shade.

One of the major areas that get updated with Android Oreo is the notification system. Notifications and the tray method of showing them to us have long been one of Android’s strong points and making changes to something that’s already great can be difficult. Android Oreo builds on the current rich notification system that started a few versions ago and brings these new features.

Notification channels

Applications can now have different categories for the notifications they show us, and which ones are displayed and how is up to the user to define. Google’s YouTube app is a great example of how these changes work.

There are three categories of notification in YouTube on a phone with Android Oreo. Two of those categories are handled by your Android on a per phone basis (General notifications and Offline notifications) and the third is a section of account-based settings like notifications of highlighted videos or when someone you subscribe to uploads a new video.

If you enable one of the categories, you have fine-tuning controls like importance (a system setting that has important notifications make a sound, vibrate or peek open), what sound they should play if sounds are enabled, whether they should show an icon notification badge and more.

You’ll find this in the applications’ settings, but only if the developer specifically targeted Android Oreo when they built the app.

More: How to set up Android Oreo’s notification channels

Notification badges

We’re all familiar with “notification dots” that some manufacturers add to their launcher and third-party home replacements bring to any phone. With Android Oreo they are now part of the operating system and won’t rely on a third-party solution.

When you have a notification for an app that you haven’t yet looked at, the app’s icon will display a small colored dot in the upper-right corner. These badges follow the rules for notification channels if the app has enabled those, and are tied into cloud messaging so if you’ve checked on a computer or tablet, they go away on your phone.

These won’t replace existing solutions from apps like Nova Launcher, so you’ll be able to keep using what you already enjoy. If you would rather not have badges on your icons you can turn them off in the app’s notification settings.

Notification snoozing

Sometimes you don’t want a notification to disappear, but you aren’t able to check an app right away. Notification snoozing lets you postpone things.

Long pressing on a notification and sliding it to the right now gives you a timer icon in addition to the settings icon we’ve been seeing since Android Marshmallow. Tapping on it removes the notification from your tray but doesn’t mark it as “read”, and after a set amount of time, it will come back. Notifications reappear with the same level of importance they first appeared with so you’ll hear a sound of it will peek if you have it set to do so.

Checking an app from another location (like your tablet) can remove a snoozed notification, and they can be updated without reappearing — if you were to snooze a Gmail notification, another new email wouldn’t bring it back until the time is up.

Notification timeouts

Developers can now build a timer into a notification and have it disappear after it expires, even if the notification hasn’t been checked. This is handy for things that are time-sensitive like happy hour specials at your favorite restaurant. Knowing that appetizers are Buy One Get One Free until 7 PM is awesome, but seeing it at 8 PM isn’t.

Background colors

Notification can have a predetermined background color, including different colors for each notification category.

Google suggests that this is used only for “ongoing tasks which are critical for a user to see at a glance” like driving directions in the Maps app or an ongoing phone call. The color can be preset by the developer, or dynamic as we see in media players with persistent notifications.

This can make any ongoing notification stand out so you won’t have to scroll through a long list to see them. It also places a lot of responsibility on app developers to make sure their notifications don’t clash with any theming of the notification tray.

Messaging style improvements

Notifications can now provide more information in both collapsed and expanded forms. These changes were designed for your favorite messaging app. With Android Oreo, it can give quick reply bubbles when collapsed, or give message history when expanded.

This is a great way to give rich notifications a little context. If you can’t remember the previous messages in a conversation, you no longer have to open the app to read the most recent ones.

Notification settings and dismissal

Notification settings are tools for developers that help set the text displayed when you link from a notification back to the apps actual notification settings. This should allow developers to be a little more user-friendly and help guide us when they’re using Notification channels.

Notification dismissal is a new method of the Notification Listener service that lets an app know if the notification was removed because a user checked it or if it was removed for another reason, like snoozing.

Notifications are a big deal on a device designed to help us communicate. It’s great to see plenty of attention given to them at the operating system level!

Android Oreo

• Android Oreo review!
• Everything new in Android Oreo
• How to get Android Oreo on your Pixel or Nexus
• Oreo will make you love notifications again
• Will my phone get Android Oreo?
• Join the Discussion

Three great apps for your Merge Cube

Explore the shiny new world os Augmented Reality with these apps!

The Merge Cube from Merge VR is a real treat! At just $15 it opens up augmented reality in a way haven’t really seen before and, although it is fairly new there are a handful of fun apps you might enjoy.

We have whittled them down to the top 3 you should try and a bonus one that’s in trial. These 3 Apps are in no particular order as they are all equally fun in our eyes.

Read more at VRHeads!

Android 8.0 is officially Oreo!

Android 8.0 is officially nicknamed Oreo!

After months of teasing, we finally have an answer: Android 8.0 is officially Oreo. Not octopus, nor oatmeal cookie (thank goodness). We can now rest until the hype starts again next year.

Google kept this particular deal under wraps for months as it negotiated with Nabisco, the owner of the Oreo brand. The same excitement was maintained in the run-up to Android 4.4 KitKat, during which Google partnered with Nabisco rival Nestlé. Nabisco joined in on today’s fun.

If you’re interested in reading more about the update, we have plenty of coverage, including a full review for you to peruse!

Android Oreo

• Android Oreo review!
• Everything new in Android Oreo
• How to get Android Oreo on your Pixel or Nexus
• Oreo will make you love notifications again
• Will my phone get Android Oreo?
• Join the Discussion

Android 8.0 Oreo review: Vive la évolution

The latest version of Android packs in many small but important additions, all of which make the OS more polished and mature than ever.

Some Android releases represent massive sea changes for Google’s OS, overhauling technical underpinnings or introducing new design elements. Others are content to tighten up the screws and add polish to an already well-established platform.

The new release of Android for 2017/18 — version 8.0 Oreo — fits somewhere in between those two extremes. Android itself is pretty stable at this point, so it’s natural that broad, sweeping UX and functionality changes are less likely to happen with every new version. Yet although Oreo looks and feels a lot like the previous Android Nougat, contained within are myriad feature tweaks and low-level tune-ups that make Android more mature and powerful.

With Oreo, your phone (or, let’s be honest here, your next phone) will be able to view videos in the foreground as you use other apps in the background. It’ll become easier to keep track of multiple notifications from the same app, thanks to the new notification channels and notification dots features. Smarter text entry and autofill APIs will take the tedium out of entering passwords and other sensitive info. And Google’s “Project Treble” should help phones shipping on Oreo get faster updates to Android P and beyond.

That’s alongside subtle visual and animation tweaks that make Android lighter, brighter and more dynamic.

Google kept us guessing until the end when it came to the eventual nickname of Android 8.0, but the software itself has slowly been coming into focus through the past five months of developer previews. And now, with the final, stable release of Oreo in our hands, we’re ready to get stuck in.

This is the Android Central review of Android 8.0 Oreo.

About this review

I (Alex Dobie) started work on review in early August 2017, having used Android O in developer preview form since it first landed in March. Most of what’s written here is based on the last developer preview, which is considered a near-final “release candidate” quality build. We’re not expecting to see any significant differences in the final release of Oreo for Pixel and Nexus devices, but we will update this review should we find any noteworthy changes.

This review isn’t intended to be an exhaustive list of every little change Google has made in Android 8.0, nor will we go into excessive detail on the developer-centric additions, like the introduction of Kotlin as a fully supported language. These changes are important, but this review is intended to give regular Android users an idea of what to expect in the new version of the OS.

That said, we’re not writing an instruction manual here either. Instead, we’re presenting this review as an overview of the direction Google has taken Android in Oreo, zeroing in on major additions and offering a critique of how these affect the overall Android experience.

Enjoy!

Look and feel

Most of us see Android through the lens of whichever manufacturer’s UI we choose. This long-standing trend isn’t going to change in Oreo, and so bear in mind that when you get 8.0 on, for example, your Galaxy S8, it’ll look a bit different to what we’re reviewing here on Google’s Pixel devices.

Nevertheless, more manufacturers than ever — Motorola, Lenovo, OnePlus and HTC, to name a few — are using a near-stock Android UI right now. So in that context, the design direction of vanilla Android continues to matter.

There’s been no major visual overhaul in the new version of Android. In fact, the most striking visual difference is the brighter color palette for the quick settings area in the notification shade. It’s now light gray, not dark gray, reflecting similar color changes in the stock Settings app. For the non-phone nerds among us who own Pixels, these might well be the only visual change they notice. (As for whether it’s good or bad, that’s a matter of personal taste.)

Aside from this color change, there’s been some minor rearrangement to the quick settings panel, bringing the settings, user switching and edit shortcuts further down, making these easier to reach on larger phones. With the shift to an 18:9 aspect ratio in many popular flagships this year, improving reachability on taller phones is important.

The redesigned Settings app is the next most significant visual change. The slide-out “hamburger” navigation panel added in Nougat has been removed, and instead Google has made navigation easier by redesigning each of the 13 sub-menus. Many of the major settings options are accompanied by icons, and Android now does a better job of surfacing important items within each sub-menu.

Android’s settings are lighter, simpler to navigate and easier to reach.

The new battery settings page is a great example of this. Screen usage (screen-on time) is shown right up top, along with the time since your last full charge. Scroll down a little, and your most battery-hungry apps are displayed.

You need to look below the surface to spot many of the other visual changes in Android 8.0. For instance, Google has finally started bringing a sense of order to app icons, with the new “adaptive icons” feature. Just as Google pushed towards circular app icons in Android 7.1, adaptive icons lets phone makers change this cutout shape to what best fits their own visual style. (On the Pixels, you can choose between five cutout types.)

This means manufacturers like Samsung, Huawei and LG, who like to use their own icon cutout shape, have a more reliable way to do this that doesn’t result in bad, weird-looking icons for third-party apps. The new icon style should also bring some uniformity to Android app drawers and home screens, which for a long time have been a jumble of mismatched shapes.

Oreo introduces a handful of neat new animations in the notification area.

Android’s animations haven’t changed a whole lot in Oreo, but there are a couple of spritely new animation behaviors in the notification shade that add to the polish of Google’s Material Design. Icons smoothly transition from the status bar into their notification cards, then into the overflow area if you have lots of notifications. And icons also juggle themselves around the status bar places as new alerts arrive, making the whole system feel more dynamic.

These are small changes, but they go a long way towards making this important area of the system feel more lively and dynamic.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning a handful of upgrades to that most important of smartphone features, emoji! Android 8.0 adds a handful of new emoji in Emoji 5.0, while redesigning the graphics themselves in a move away from the old-style “blobs”. Going forward, Google’s emoji compatibility library will allow developers to support new emoji on older Android versions (all the way back to 4.4 KitKat).

Meanwhile, behind-the-scenes font changes in Oreo allow developers to customize the way emoji look in their specific apps, while making it easier for devs to use custom fonts in their apps. (Thanks to fonts becoming a full resource type in Android 8.0.)

Arguably, the Emoji Compatibility features in Google Play Services is the more significant changes here. Nevertheless, system-level support for new icons, and more consistent-looking emoji, are also a big deal. It’s easy to shrug off the importance of emoji, but they’re an important part of communication for millions of people, and Google is doing the right thing by focusing engineering effort on them, both in Android and Play Services.

Notifications, alerts and widgets

Android notifications were overhauled in Nougat, and Oreo brings a handful of smaller changes to make handling the daily firehose of alerts a little easier.

The big new thing is notification channels, a new feature which brings categories of notifications to apps, making it easier to manage and filter different types of alerts from the same app. A social app, for example, might have channels for direct messages, status updates, likes or other interactions.

And you can then choose how you’re alerted for notifications in each of these channels — sound, vibration, or LED — or even block notifications from some channels altogether. Long-pressing on a notification lets you see and configure its notification channels — just as in older versions of Android, you could choose to allow or block notifications.

There’s a certain amount of micro-management involved in getting to grips with notification channels.

There’s a certain amount of micro-management involved here, and it’s questionable whether most users will even be aware of notification channels in the short to medium term. Google is hoping to speed this process along by requiring notification channel support when apps target Android 8.0 on the Play Store.

And that’s the other caveat here — it’s going to take time, and a lot of individual app updates, before we know how successful this feature is going to be. Maybe notification channels will be genuinely useful. Or perhaps we’ll all be too lazy to bother with them.

Speaking of laziness, Android 8.0 also allows you to snooze individual notification groups for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, one hour or two hours, by swiping right and hitting the clock icon. The use case here is pretty obvious — this should be a helpful way to dismiss a notification you don’t need to deal with right away, without getting rid of it permanently.

Elsewhere, media player apps like Google Play Music, YouTube, and eventually others, can introduce a splash of color to their notifications, drawing upon the main colors of album art, video thumbnails or poster art. It’s a somewhat contentious feature, with some commentators arguing that it adds unnecessary visual clutter. The faded transition into album art is a little distracting, particularly when brighter colors are introduced, but it’s also arguable that this helps set media controls apart from other miscellaneous alerts.

Colorful playback notifications jump into the foreground, as persistent notifications fade into the background.

Just as media controls are being pushed more into the foreground, persistent notifications — for example, from Maps, the Google app, a Wi-Fi hotspot, USB connection or any other process that might be running in the background — are being de-cluttered. These now shrink down to a shorter notification card in a slightly darker shade, setting them apart from more important alerts. If you need to see more info, you can expand them like any other notification.

The changes to Android’s notification setup are small but numerous, and they aren’t confined to the notification shade itself. Ambient Display, first introduced way back on the Nexus 6, has seen its biggest overhaul thus far in Android 8.0.

The main Ambient Display area actually shows you less information than it did in Nougat, with only the time and a series of icons appearing when the phone is raised. The other side of that coin is that individual notifications now flash up in a more user-friendly way.

Notification pop-ups on the Ambient Display are larger and easier to read, and if you have the option enabled, a double-tap is all it takes to open up the main lock screen.

Balancing information density and glanceability is always tricky, but Google manages a reasonable blend of both in Oreo.

And last but not least, in addition to the notification shade, lock screen and always-on display, Android 8.0 allows launchers to show you individual app notifications through the notification badges feature. Apps with a pending notification will display a colored dot, and long-pressing to open up the shortcut menu will show notifications alongside app shortcuts, complete with the ability to swipe to dismiss.

That’s not the only new trick hiding behind the app shortcut menu in Oreo — a new widget shortcut button frees users from long, cumbersome widget menus, with an easy way to see all the widget from a particular app.

Picture-in-Picture

Picture-in-picture mode was actually introduced in Android 7.0, but only for Android TV devices. Version 8.0 brings it to phones and tablets, introducing a potentially huge feature for owners of extra-large phablet-class devices.

PiP mode varies a little depending on how the developer implements it, but basically this feature lets you start a video from within one app, then hit the home key to shrink it down into a smaller floating window with its own playback controls. You can resize and move it around the screen in the foreground, while opening and using other apps as normal in the background.

It’s similar to multi-window, introduced as standard in Nougat. And while you can use multi-window to split the screen between video and other apps, PiP is a much more elegant approach.

Picture-in-picture mode finally arrives on mobile devices — but will content providers make users pay to use it?

Like many Android 8.0 features, we’re going to have to wait for developer to update their apps to take advantage of PiP. And as always, some platform holders (or their advertisers), and rights holders (or their lawyers) may object to allowing background playback in some instances. We’re already seeing background playback gated off behind a virtual paywall in YouTube, where a YouTube Red subscription is required to play videos in the background.

In any case, Oreo lays the technical foundations for this feature on phones and tablets. And with the possibility of more Google-branded Android tablets ahead — and even more Android-enabled Chromebooks — there are exciting possibility for users and developers alike.

Smarter logins and text entry

Everyone hates entering passwords — the tedium of password entry has spawned an entire industry of password managers. But these still require a lot of frustrating copying and pasting.

So in Oreo, Google has tackled the password pain point on two fronts. Firstly, “Autofill with Google” can help you sign into accounts on your phone using information already stored in your Google account — all with a single tap. For instance, if you’ve signed into Twitter on the web through Chrome, Google can then use these saved credentials to help you sign into the Twitter app on your phone.

Android Oreo is the beginning of the end for password entry on phones.

If you’ve already signed up to a password manager service (and they’ve updated their app to work with Android 8.0), you’ll be able to pull in passwords from their app automatically, with any hopping back and forth, or copy-pasting between text fields.

This feature certainly takes a lot of the pain out of setting up a new Android devices, and from Google’s perspective, the benefits work both ways, giving Android users an additional reason to use Chrome for their desktop web browsing.

Taken to its logical extreme, Android 8.0’s password features could entirely do away with having to enter passwords on a mobile device. (With the exception of your Google password and two-factor code, of course.) But like many of Android’s most convenient features, you’ll need to be comfortable with giving Google all this information in the first place to reap the benefits.

On a related note, Android is also getting smarter about how it handles specific kinds of information in text fields. When highlighting text, Google’s machine learning figures out what kind of data you’ve selected and offers relevant contextual options — for example, a shortcut to the Dialer app for phone numbers, or Google Maps for addresses.

This is supported in Google Chrome on older versions of Android, but it’s great to see it being introduced throughout the OS in Oreo.

New features for convertibles

Despite the moribund state of the Android tablet market, Oreo provides clues that Google still intends to push into the convertible space — either through Android as we currently know it, Chrome OS running Android apps, or something else entirely.

Android 8.0 brings new life to the soon-to-be-retired (yet still criminally overpriced) Pixel C tablet. On top of the new multitasking interface introduced for tablets in version 7.1.2, Android 8.0 adds a new system for keyboard shortcuts within Android apps, making it quicker to get around apps and menus where it’s not convenient to touch the screen. That’s particularly useful considering that a vast majority of a large tablet’s life is spent attached to a keyboard.

No more awkwardly resizing that Netflix window to fit alongside your other apps.

More broadly, the Pixel C, and Chromebooks in general, should benefit from the new picture-in-picture mode, which will be particularly useful on a laptop, tablet or convertible. (No more awkwardly resizing that Netflix window to fit alongside Chrome, Twitter and other apps.) It’s not a full desktop window system, but instead brings Android tablets in line with where the iPad is right now.

Also noteworthy: New audiovisual improvements that should help make Android tablets more appealing to content creators. Support for wide-gamut color in apps (such as DPI-P3, Adobe RGB and Pro Photo RGB), aim to make Android tablets a better fit for photographers, while the new AAudio API will reduce audio latency, bringing Android a step closer to taking on GarageBand on the iPad.

Android still has a long way to go before it can challenge Apple and Microsoft on tablets and convertibles, but the new features in Oreo shouldn’t be discounted. As ever, the critical issue with Android tablets is still app support, where very few apps — even Google’s own — properly support large, landscape displays. Android 8.0, for all of its improvements, can’t really do anything to fix that.

Under the hood: Background limits, better battery life, faster OS updates

Out-of-control apps running in the background have long been the number one reason for poor battery life on Android phones. And now, building on the “Project Doze” and “Doze On-The-Go” enhancements in Android 6.0 and 7.0, version 8.0 makes it harder for badly-behaving apps to run roughshod over your device’s battery.

In Oreo, Google has introduced even more limits on what apps can do while they’re not in the foreground. Broadcast limitations in the new version mean that (with a few exceptions) apps in the background can’t react to broadcasts (things happening on the device) that don’t specifically target them. Google is using these restriction to nudge developers towards Androids job scheduler feature, introduced in Lollipop, which manages background tasks in a way that’s easier on your battery.

As the owner of a device on Android 8.0, you don’t need to do anything to take advantage of the battery life (and performance) benefits of tighter background controls. Over the past couple of weeks using the final Oreo developer preview, I can’t say I’ve noticed any huge difference in battery life on my Pixel XL compared to Nougat. (Then again, I’ve always found that phone’s standby battery life to be solid.)

Oreo makes it harder for misbehaving apps to devour your battery.

Another major pain point being addressed in Android 8.0 is OS updates. Through its new Project Treble initiative, Google is has created a modular structure that hardware companies can use to separate out their own customizations from the core OS. The idea is this will make it easier to push out firmware updates without completely reinventing the wheel. This isn’t a panacea for Android’s update woes, but it should significantly reduce the workload required to update a phone shipping on Android 8.0 to a hypothetical version 8.1 or 9.0, in addition to speeding up the rollout of security patches in the interim.

It’s going to take years, not months to judge the success (or otherwise) of Google’s new Project Treble.

It’s going take time to judge how much of a success Project Treble has been. AC understands that it’s not a hard requirement for OEMs shipping a phone on Android 8.0, but that Google will push device makers towards using Treble rather than continuing in the old way.

Watch this space.

Android 8.0: The Bottom Line

It’s hard to get excited about any single feature in Android 8.0 Oreo, even for smartphone nerds like us. That’s very much a product of where we are in the OS’s lifespan right now, but it also speaks to the fact that Google is using this release to target specific areas — notifications, autofill, picture-in-picture, background battery life, Project Treble — as opposed to doing any major work on the user-facing side of Android.

As a result, Oreo is the sum of many smaller changes that make the OS easier to use, with better performance, fewer pain points and added convenience. Android still feels like Android, but in 8.0 it’s more polished than ever.

Oreo is free from the early wonk that affected the first round of Android 7.0 releases.

That said, Nougat is still more than good enough for most folks, for the time being. And as Google and its partners continue to roll out security updates independently of OS updates, being out of step with the latest platform version doesn’t mean you’re open to malware. That’s just as well, because if past years are any indication, we’ll be well into 2018 before Oreo hits double figures in terms of its Android ecosystem share.

In the grand scheme of things, Project Treble could turn out to be the most significant addition in this version of Android, as Google finally picks away at the technical barriers that keep so many phones on older versions of the OS. At the same time, the introduction of picture-in-picture mode, as well as refinements to keyboard navigation, see Android shuffling closer to desktop/convertible OS status.

On the surface, this is a fairly safe release cycle for Android — evolution, not revolution. And true, most of us will see Oreo for the first time on a new 2018 handset, unless there’s an unexpected rush among OEMs to update existing devices. (That’s almost certainly not going to happen.)

But despite the lack of an exciting headline feature, Oreo is still an important update. More importantly, it appears to be free from the woes which affected early Nougat firmware for the Nexus 5X and 6P this time last year. And for Pixel and Nexus owners lucky enough to be on the early release track, they’ll be among the first to experience the most stable and capable Android release in years.

Andrew Martonik and Jerry Hildenbrand contributed to this review.

Android 8.0 Oreo system images available, update rolling to Developer Preview users

Google has uploaded the Android 8.0 Oreo system images.

For those that want to be on the bleeding edge, the Android 8.0 Oreo system images are now available. Google has the images for last year’s Pixel phones, the Nexus 6P and 5X, the Nexus Player and the Pixel C. Manually updating a device requires a few tools and a bit of time, but it’s an easy process overall. There are carrier-specific images for the Pixel phones, so make sure you download the right one for your device.

For users that were on the Developer Preview, you should be receiving two Over the Air (OTA) updates to the stable version of Oreo. Depending on the device and version of the developer preview you’re on, the first file should only be between 12MB and 50MB. The secondary update file clocks in at 900MB, so you’ll want to be on WiFi for that one.

Have you already installed Oreo? Let us know down below!

Here’s the fastest way to get Android Oreo on your phone right now!

Android Oreo

• Android Oreo review!
• Everything new in Android Oreo
• How to get Android Oreo on your Pixel or Nexus
• Oreo will make you love notifications again
• Will my phone get Android Oreo?
• Join the Discussion