Newsletter 
Android 6.0 Marshmallow was released to the general public in late 2015, but for many manufacturers it takes some time before the updates are ready for their portfolioof devices. One such manufacturer is HTC, which have seemingly chosen this week to release Android 6.0 Marshmallow for both the 2014 flagship device, the HTC One M8, and the 2015 flagship, HTC One M9. We have been seeing reports of Android 6.0 Marshmallow released for the HTC One M8 first over the last few days and now it’s the turn of the newer HTC One M9 to receive the penultimate version of Android, 6.0. We are seeing that HTC and some of the Canadian carriers have released the over-the-air update to Android Marshmallow for the HTC One M9. It’s been made available for the Rogers, Wind Mobile, Videotron and SaskTel carriers, although customers on Bell and Telus, plus others, will have to wait a little longer before receiving their update.
For the HTC One M9, the update brings about it a number of new features as part of Android. The new operating system includes improved embedded power management features in the shape of Doze plus the operating system has the ability to suspend infrequently used applications. Doze is designed to shut down many power-consuming features of the device when it is idle, so when the handset is sitting by itself with the screen locked. Doze will shut down AutoSync, location sensors and similar when the device is not being moved, but will reactivate these features once the handset is picked up and used. Other new features include the ability to finely control application permissions, which is now embedded into the operating system rather than a manufacturer added option. Android 6.0 Marshmallow also includes Google Now on Tap, the ability to ask Google for help based on the contents of the screen. HTC have also improved the camera application as well as included the generic “performance improvements and bug fixes” across the board.
For the software update, customers should drop into device Settings, then About, then Software Update. The device will typically download a smaller update first of 130 MB or so, which is a preparation update before the full 1.3 GB update package to Android 6.0 Marshmallow is downloaded. If customers are on a limited bandwidth plan, we would strongly recommend downloading the total of 1.4 GB or so over a Wi-Fi network rather than your data bundle! At this juncture we don’t know when the update will be arriving for Canada’s other carriers but we will let you know when it arrives.