The latest and greatest version of Android was released, and it has some interesting features. In the meantime, Rackspace was acquired and several things that I use have shut down or will/might be.

Android Nougat

The new version of Android, called Nougat or 7.0, was released, and obviously that means I can’t let it go unremarked. While I’m not an Android user myself, I do like to keep an eye on it to see if it has some nice new features that I wish were available on iOS. Due to the differences between them, Android’s more open development means it has certain advantages in what can be done when compared to iOS. In the same way, iOS has the advantage of only needing to run on certain hardware and therefore being able to optimize for that. Still, both tend to take the good stuff from each other and then adapt it to their strengths (usually, as there are some big misses on both sides as well).

So, let’s have a look at what’s new and shiny in Nougat. First is a split screen mode. A similar feature was released in iOS 9, but there it was limited to only the latest iPad versions. In Nougat it’s possible to even have two applications next (or below) each other on a phone. From a productivity standpoint it’s great that it’s here, although I’m not sure how many people will use it on a phone. Then again, if it allows you to play Pokemon Go while also having your grocery list open it will probably find a market.

A more useful feature for people like me is how the ability to have multiple languages on a single keyboard. There are obvious limits to this, so you can’t have for example Japanese and English, but two languages that use the western alphabet are possible. This doesn’t actually change the keyboard, but it does change the autocorrect features so they’re more aware. I’ve been looking forward to getting this next month in iOS 10, so it’s good to see that it’s available on Android as well.

Improved notifications is the last one I want to mention. While quick replies seem like a straight copy of the iOS implementation, the bundled notifications look very interesting. The way these work is that you’ll have a single notification for an app, which you can then expand to see all the individual notifications. At times where I haven’t been able to check my phone for a while¹ I often find my screen full of notifications that I don’t care about and it would be nice to just have all those emails limited to a single entry. I do hope that Apple will copy something like this for iOS 11.

However, this brings me to the thing that I’m most disappointed in when it comes to Android: the adoption of new versions. According to Google’s own statistics, at the time I write this Android Marshmallow (6.0) is installed on about 15.2% of all devices. This isn’t Google’s fault, and I’m sure they’re doing their best to make people upgrade. However, because of how Android works Google only has direct control over the software for its Nexus devices. All other models of phones and tablets first go through a long list of modifications by the device makers (companies like Samsung and HTC) and then are modified again for specific carriers. For a lot of these companies that means they have to make a choice whether creating an upgraded version is worth it or not.

If you’ve got the latest and greatest phone it’s usually fine. If you have last year’s model, or anything that’s not a flagship (expensive) phone, you’re likely to be out of luck. The investment for the device makers isn’t worth it, and they would prefer that you just get a new phone instead. Last year Google started releasing monthly security updates, but even with those you have the same issue. For the device makers it’s just not worth updating the phones where they hardly make any money in the first place. While on the one hand I can understand their reasoning, it means that most Android phones have known security weaknesses that often can be used at any times. Not the best thing when it’s the primary device for many people. And yes, of course, you can always make sure that you buy the latest Nexus device or root your device and install stock Android yourself. But seriously how many people do that, or even know how to do that?

Especially in a week where a major security flaw for iOS was released, I do get worried about this. This worry isn’t limited to Android either, too many people still run old and insecure versions of Windows as well². But more and more your phone is the device that knows the most about you. It goes everywhere with you and you use it to store your most intimate information.

Rackspace acquired

Rackspace, a major player in cloud hosting, was acquired. In effect, they’re being turned into a private company. On their blog they have an article about possible reasons for why they did this. That article seems to imply that it’s all about flexibility, but to be honest the thing that I noticed the most in it is the constant mention of how the board is trying to maximize shareholder value. It’s very possible these two aren’t in conflict, and I’m not a business analyst, but to me it sounds a lot like the decision was driven more by the board and shareholders as a way to get value out of the company than by a need for future growth. Without more insight into what’s going on, I’ll refrain from further comments.

More services shutting down

It’s been a while since I last mentioned any services that were shut down, but there have been a couple that impact me personally.

First is Google’s Chrome Apps. While they will still run until 2018 (and even longer for Chrome OS), it will eventually be shut down for most platforms. A disclaimer, I never really liked these apps. It seemed like using a platform within a platform, and never really felt like they were as good as if they were native. That said, I did use several of them, as they were convenient and probably easier to build for small tools than a true cross platform solution would have been. I’ve been weaning myself off of them for a while, basically since I switched to Safari as my main browser, but I’m sad to see them go.

The second one that’s going (has gone already) is Picturelife. This service for storing (and backing up) your photos was one that I liked. Mostly because they offered the option to use your own S3 bucket, thereby ensuring you kept your own data. I’ve been using this as an extra backup option for my photos in exactly that way, and it was good for that. But it isn’t surprising that it’s gone now. Most photos are taken on mobile devices and with Apple’s iCloud photo storage, but especially Google Photos, there are better solutions at hand. While the unpaid version of Google Photos doesn’t let you store the original photos, for most cases it’s still good enough. The only downside for those two is that you don’t have the option to supply your own storage space, but for most people that’s not a problem.

The last one I want to mention isn’t cancelled yet, but it’s just been acquired and so I fear that it might not last much longer. Instapaper was recently bought by Pinterest. As the original read later app (although nowadays Pocket is the clear market leader), I’ve been using this for a long time. Three years ago the original developer sold it, but it ended up in good hands. This time however, it moved to a big Silicon Valley company and I’ve seen too many apps and services go through a similar process to feel confident they’ll keep it around. This isn’t anything against Pinterest, and maybe in the future we’ll look back and decide this was wonderful, but just in case I’ll probably start looking at the alternatives again.