T-Mobile Sony Xperia Z3, Z1s one step closer to Android Lollipop according to software updates page

It’s been a good few months since we saw Sony officially announce Lollipop for the Sony Xperia Z3, followed by a rollout for the unlocked US versions. The update has eluded carrier branded models in the US but by now it’s a story you’ve heard before. Carriers tend to delay the update process with the extensive testing that goes into any software update for a device operating on their network.

When it comes to the T-Mobile model, things weren’t looking so good given the phone disappeared from inventory a few weeks back. But it didn’t take long for the Z3 to return to T-Mobile’s store shelves (and at a discount no less), leaving us feeling a bit more optimistic that a Lollipop update was around the corner.

It now seems T-Mobile has recently updated their software updates page, with both the Sony Xperia Z3 and its older sibling, the Sony Xperia Z1s, showing that Lollipop has officially entered into the carrier testing phase. T-Mobile has 3 phases on their page: manufacturer development, T-Mobile testing, and then finally a completed status.

The next phase from here is the rollout and a completed status. Now that we’re one step closer, that rollout can’t be too far out. Stay tuned.

[T-Mobile]

LG G4 could launch on June 2nd according to an official (now deleted) tweet

LG and T-Mobile are teaming up to take the recently announced — but still unavailable stateside — LG G4 on a tour bus, hitting up multiple cities across the good ‘ol US of A. This cross country tour even has its own dedicated Twitter account run by T-Mobile (@G4Preview) which basically announces where they’re headed next, and tweets out photos of lucky G4 winners.

While neither LG or T-Mobile are willing to provide a launch date, the aforementioned G4 Preview Tour Twitter account may have revealed its expected launch date. In response to an inquiry from one Twitter user, the T-Mobile account said that the LG G4 will be in stores Tuesday, June 2nd.

The tweet has since been deleted, and it’s interesting that the response was to someone asking about AT&T availability — not T-Mobile. Although all major US carriers have committed to offering the LG G4 on the network when it does launch, nobody is offering up any details outside of preregistering for the device.

[9to5Google]

Android Lollipop running on 12.4% of devices according to official numbers for June 2015

With Android M becoming official last week — and available now as a Developer Preview — you may have lost sight of the most recent Android firmware version yet to hit your device: Android 5.0 Lollipop. It’s been more than 7 months since Lollipop was released, and you’d think with that with that length of time under OEM’s belts a modest number of Android devices are running the most recent firmware. Well, not so much. Anyone curious to chart Lollipop’s progress across the Android globe need look no further than Google’s newly updated Platform Version numbers for the month of June.

According to the updated numbers, only 11.6% of active Android devices (those that have recently accessed the Google Play Store) are running Android 5.0, followed by Android 5.1 at .8%. That brings the grand total of devices running Lollipop up to 12.4% (up from last month’s 9.7%). It’s not a terrible number, especially considering all of this year’s flagships are running Lollipop in some capacity. Of course, it’s 5.1 — which significantly polished up Lollipop from a usability standpoint — that Android fans are really looking forward to (at least until Android M launches at the end of the year).

There’s a bunch of other numbers you’re likely not to give a hoot about. Not unless you’re a developer looking to support older versions of Android in your apps. We always look at these Platform Distribution numbers as more of an Android report card which really isn’t so bad considering all the varying amount of hardware and carrier meddling that goes into issuing software updates on our smartphones. With the LG G4 and Samsung Galaxy S6 picking up steam, we should see these numbers jump drastically in the coming months.

Android 5.0 Lollipop now on 9% of Android devices according to distribution numbers for May 2015

Google is giving us another look at their monthly distribution numbers for the month of May. When looking at the total number of active Android devices (those that have recently pinged the Google Play Store), Android 5.0 Lollipop is now officially running on 9% of those. Not really a bad number and it’s a pretty large jump from 5.4% the previous month. This is no doubt thanks to, not only a number of flagship devices debuting with Lollipop out of the box, but continual updates to last year’s flagships as well.

Of course, as many of you were anxiously waiting for Android 5.0 Lollipop to hit your devices, we’re already looking ahead to 5.1 which can only be found on Nexus devices for the most part. With Google I/O just around the corner, it’s only a matter of time before the next major firmware version is revealed — Android M — and the process can start all over again.

[Android Developers]

According to Google’s Smart Lock page, the Nexus 6 also runs Window Phone

Smart Lock was one of the more noteworthy new features that debuted in Android 5.0 Lollipop. Adopting an idea we only saw in Motorola devices prior to Lollipop, Smart Lock is simply a convenient way to keep your Android device unlocked when it’s safe, and locked when it’s not. The feature is so important, Google even created a dedicated landing page to talk all about it. What they didn’t notice, however, is one of the featured images created for the page is actually a Nexus 6 running Windows Phone. Oops.

Now, we’re not going to run with some sort of conspiracy theory that Google will introduce a dual-boot option for the Nexus 6 in the near future. This is simply a designer faux pas in which he used the wrong Netflix screen shot when putting together the image. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a slip up, with the world going nuts over a Nexus Tablet once believed to be the Nexus 8 (the image was later tweaked to reflect the Nexus 7 2013).

Nothing too big, just kind of funny that you can find Nexus 6 running Windows Phone on one of Google’s official web pages. Ha.

[Smart Lock | via Reddit]