Just this morning, Google began sending out an update to the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 that fixed up the Stagefright security issue. Now a whole flood of patches is being released for phones from all different manufacturers and carriers. Sprint is now pushing out a security update for the bug to four different Samsung phones:

• Samsung Galaxy S5
• Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
• Samsung Galaxy S6
• Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

In addition, AT&T is pushing out a security fix for four Samsung phones on its network:

• Samsung Galaxy S5
• Samsung Galaxy S5 Active
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
• Samsung Galaxy S6 Active

Finally, Alcatel OneTouch has sent an email out with the announcement that the company will be pushing out a security fix to the Idol 3 on August 10. The update will initially commence in the US and expand from there.

There are plenty of new updates arriving, but a lot of phones are still awaiting updates to patch the issue. We’ll work to keep you posted on other updates that arrive.

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Last week brought a mild panic to the Android world with the discovery of a major security flaw in Stagefright, the media playback tool that Android has used since Froyo. The bug essentially allows an attacker to simply send an infected MMS to your device, thus introducing a virus to your phone. Updates are beginning to roll out to phones in order to patch the bug and the latest devices to get an update are the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6.

Sprint has announced that an update to fix the flaw is now rolling out to the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6. The update doesn’t contain anything other than the patch and is titled build LMY48I. It’s unclear if it’s only rolling out to Sprint devices or all models of the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6. Judging by Google’s past rollout, we’re going to guess the latter, meaning that you should soon see it if you’re using one of the two devices.

Source: Sprint (1), (2)

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OnePlus may not have a great history when it comes to creating promotions for invites to buy its phones, but the company’s latest promo is a good one.

OnePlus today kicked off Invites for a Cause, an effort that’ll let you bid on OnePlus 2 invites and help out a charity, too. OnePlus is selling 100 invites on eBay, and all of the proceeds will go to help the UNICEF Tap Project, which helps get clean water to underprivileged kids.

There are currently 50 invites available on OnePlus’ eBay page, with bidding ranging from $31 to $355. These auctions will last until August 8, and OnePlus plans to begin auctioning off another 50 invite tomorrow. If you win, you’ll get an invite to buy a 64GB Sandstone Black OnePlus 2. You’ll have a full week to claim your invite and a full month to buy your OnePlus 2.

OnePlus says that it’s noticed some invite holders selling their invites on third-party sites in the past, and while that’s not technically against any rules, this Invites for a Cause campaign does the same thing but is backed by OnePlus and helps a worthy charity. While a lot of us may not be huge fans of OnePlus’s invite system as a whole, most of us could probably agree that it’s nice to see OnePlus using the system for good.

Are you going to bid on a OnePlus 2 invite?

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One week after Google launched the Lava Pixel V1 in India, it’s introduced another Android One phone for Thailand.

The i-mobile iQ II is the latest member of the Android One smartphone, and it’s the first to arrive in Thailand. It’s bringing with it a 5-inch 1280×720 display, Snapdragon 410, 8-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front cameras, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a microSD slot to add up to another 32GB of space. Powering the iQ II is a 2500mAh battery and Android 5.1.1. And because it’s an Android One phone, the iQ II will get updated to the next version of Android shortly after its release.

The iQ II will set buyers back 4444 Thai Baht, or approximately $127 USD. It comes with dual SIM slots and supports HSPA connectivity up to 42Mbps. It’s available in black and white color options.

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If you live in the southeastern US and you’re wondering what’s going on with your cell service right now, know that you’re not the only one dealing with issues.

Several reports are coming in that show that all four major US carriers are experiencing outages across the southeastern US. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon have all acknowledged the issues either in statements or on social media. AT&T told Re/code that it’s “working as quickly as possible to restore service,” and Verizon says that its engineers are working to address connectivity issues in portions of Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Exactly what’s causing the problems isn’t known, but a Sprint rep has said that a “local exchange provider” could be behind the issues. Whatever is happening, hopefully all four operators can get it figured out and taken care of soon, because this is a big outage that’s affecting the largest four US carriers in a large chunk of the US.

If you’re located in the southeastern US, are you having any issues with your service? Or are you lucky enough to have avoided the outage?

Sources: Re/code, Down Detector: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon

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A shower of leaks? When it comes to the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, it’s been closer to a flood. The upcoming phablet can’t resist showing off for the camera and its specs list is all over the Internet. In the latest leak, Droid-Life has secured some clear pictures of the Galaxy Note 5 in the wild. The photos reveal some of the design features of the phone and the site also has some info on specs and such.

The Galaxy Note 5 shares plenty of style features with the smaller Galaxy S6. It features a glass and metal frame, though the Note 5 has curved edges on the back panel, making it more comfortable in the hand. It also has a spring-loaded S Pen port on the bottom, standard microUSB port, bottom speaker and headphone jack. The front of the phone is fairly standard, featuring a physical home button as well as ultra-thin bezels.

Specs-wise, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 reported has 4GB of RAM, 32/64/128GB storage options with no microSD card slot and a 3000mAh non-removable battery. From the pictures, we can also see Air Command and a new menu that includes Action memo, Smart select, Screen write, S Note, Settings, and a customizable button that’s set to Instagram.

From its myriad of leaks, the Galaxy Note 5 looks to be a fantastic phone, and one that should compete well against the upcoming duo of iPhones. Samsung’s holding an event in New York next week to give an official announcement, so keep it locked on the site for more info.

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In the past couple of years, we’ve seen a shake-up in the US carrier market. T-Mobile, once the small and timid carrier, has aggressively expanded and fought tooth and nail against the other US carriers. While slow to wake, the other carriers have taken notice and changed their game plans to retain customers. Sprint has been hit the hardest, but the company has done its own overhaul and with its Q1 2015 report, it seems to be having a good effect.

During the past quarter, Sprint added 675,000 new customers, an enormous increase over last year’s Q1 loss of 220,000 customers. The churn rate rose to an all-time high of 1.56%, up 49 points year-over-year. The company also made note of improved network performance, earning itself 180 RootScore network awards in the past quarter, up from a mere 27 last year.

In terms of income, Sprint posted a loss of $20 million and operating revenue dropped from $8.79 billion to $8.03 billion. That being said, Sprint has raised its expected operating income for 2015 up by nearly half a billion, showing that the company is optimistic about the trends.

Sprint’s quick fire changes seem to be working, as these results are some of the best that we’ve seen from Sprint in recent times. Nonetheless, the carrier recently fell to be the No. 4 carrier in the US, with T-Mobile rising to No. 3. With the current trends, Sprint has a shot at taking the spot back, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work.

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Let’s be honest, we’re always looking for the latest news about the next smartphone to hit the market, but there’s not much fanfare around tablets. While Android tablets can do pretty much anything an Android smartphone can, they usually get left at home and lost behind the couch (a regular occurrence if you have kids around the house). The main reason for this is because tablets are a lot larger and heavier than smartphone and don’t offer nearly as much functionality as a laptop with a dedicated keyboard.

While larger tablets claim they are more functional due to their size, we have found that small tablets typically get used more. As it turns out, bigger isn’t always better. The new Lenovo TAB 2 A8 was a tablet designed with that very point in mind, delivering a lot of value at just the right size.

When buying a new tablet, there are a lot of factors to consider. Display (size and resolution), processor, camera, design, battery life and software experience are typically the main items we take into consideration, but the price of the Lenovo TAB 2 A8 is definitely its best attribute. The suggested retail price of the Tab 2 A8 is $159.99, but we suggest picking one up from Amazon for $119.99. For that price, you get a tablet equipped with a 1.30GHz quad-core MTK 8161 SoC, an 8.0-inch 800×1280 LCD display, 1GB of RAM, front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby Digital audio, 16GB of internal storage and a 4,200 mAh battery. The tablet also features a 5-megapixel primary camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling.

The Good

Software: Before using the Lenovo TAB 2 A8, if you would have asked me for a list Android device manufacturers with the best Android software experience, Lenovo wouldn’t have been in my top five. The software tweaks on the TAB 2 A8 are so minimal that you’d have a hard time differentiating it from stock Android if it weren’t for a handful of cosmetic tweaks and custom icons for the stock apps. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Lenovo’s launcher, but we’re sure you’d find the tablet slightly more appealing if you install the Google Now Launcher from the Play Store.

Sound: Since the introduction of BoomSound on the HTC One, every phone and tablet maker has been trying to emulate that experience. The Lenovo TAB 2 A8 does a pretty decent job by incorporating two stereo speakers with Dolby Digital surround sound into the front of the tablet. The audio quality is still a half step down from what the Nexus 9 offers, but it is noticeably louder.

Battery life: If you’re looking for great battery life on a tablet, the TAB 2 A8 should be right up your alley. The tablet can easily get 5 hours of screen-on time with a single charge, but the 4,200mAh battery and  1.30GHz quad-core MTK 8161 SoC really show what they are capable of when left in standby. In our tests, the Lenovo TAB 2 A8 only lost 5-6 percent battery life per day while in standby with WiFi and notifications turned on. We made down to 22 percent after 14 days before finally deciding to top of the battery.

Size: As mentioned above, bigger isn’t always better. The TAB 2 A8 is just the right size for web browsing and media consumption while at home or on the go. The tablet is small enough to fit into any bag, yet big enough that it’s worth lugging around if you’re planning to do some reading or movie watching.

Gallery

The Not-so-good

Display: The size of the tablet’s display is just right, but we are a bit disappointed that it’s limited to 800×1280 pixels. A 1080p panel would have been a lot more enjoyable on the Lenovo TAB 2 A8′s 8-inch form factor, but we’re sure that it would have bumper the price tag up $15-25.

Performance: Let’s be honest, you can’t expect great performance from a $119 tablet. The Lenovo TAB 2 A8′s 1.30GHz quad-core MTK 8161 SoC and 1GB of RAM are good for casual gaming and media playback, but don’t expect to have a flawless experience if you load up Dungeon Hunter 5 or  Need for Speed Most Wanted.

Design: I’ll be honest: The Lenovo Tab 2 A8 isn’t a looker. The soft touch blue polycarbonate offers a solid grip, but the case feel hollow and flimsy. We know that every device goes through a design process, but it feels like Lenovo’s design team didn’t put any effort into the looks of the Tab 2 A8 once they figured out what size the frame needed to be to fit all the internal components.

Final Words

The Lenovo TAB 2 A8 does have a few issues, but its faults are outweighed by the overall experience that the tablet offers. You could easily find a better-looking tablet with far better performance, but do you really need to? The TAB 2 A8 is perfect for casual gaming, web surfing and media consumption. Add in the $119.99 sticker price and the Lenovo TAB 2 A8 easily places in the Top 5 Budget Tablets list of 2015.

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For those keeping track, Google actually skipped the month of July when it comes to showcasing the latest Android distribution numbers, but it’s back again this month to show that Android Lollipop has not stalled in its adoption.

For August 2015, of which closes out Google’s 7-day recording period that ended on August 3 of devices that access the Google Play Store app, Android’s Lollipop variant (Android 5.0 and Android 5.1) had settled on 18.1 percent of devices. Breaking it down a bit more, Android 5.0 is currently on 15.5 percent of devices, while Android 5.1 is currently enlisted on 2.6 percent. That’s up from 12.4 percent in June.

Android 4.4 KitKat still managed to pull in the highest percentage at 39.3 percent of devices, and it actually saw an increase from the 39.2 percentage it held back in June. Jelly Bean, Android 4.1 through Android 4.3, showed up on 33.6 percent of devices, which sees a considerable drop down from 37.4 percent back in June. Android 4.0.3 – 4.0.4 saw a result of 4.1 percent of devices, another drop from the last recorded period.

All in all, it’s good news for the latest version(s) of Android, with Lollipop continuing to take over more devices.

Which version of Android are you running on your daily driver?

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Are you looking forward to the new Moto X Pure Edition? I’m personally waiting with money in hand. Buying it is the easy part come September, but figuring out how you want it customized will be tough. As with previous models, it will come with Moto Maker customizations so you can create your own unique device.

Thankfully, the options have been leaked in a neat infographic. The accents and frame are going to be anodized metal, with different colors available. The front lens will be black or white as usual. And the rear will have plenty of options, like leather, wood, and CSR patterns. I’m pretty excited about the charcoal ash wood option; it seems like it’ll be really nice.

When the device launches, how are you going to build yours? Let us know your choice in materials in the comments!

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