Newsletter 
If you live in Canada and if you bought a new Google Pixel or Pixel XL smartphone, you should be expecting a 261MB update any time now. The update claims to fix critical bugs and improve the performance and stability of the Pixel devices. Many Canadian users are reporting that their Pixel phones have been dropping the LTE-A signal in certain areas and are hoping that this upgrade will alleviate that problem. Bluetooth streaming has also plagued many Pixel users, so it will be interesting to see exactly what was fixed in this upgrade.
However, while the update may fix some issues, it also seems to have added two new features to the Pixel devices – “Double-tap to check phone” and “Lift to check phone.” These methods keep the user from having to pick up the phone and press the fingerprint sensor or by pressing the power button to see your notifications. Once you get the download, remember that you must go to settings and turn one or both features on before they will work. Now you simply ‘double-tap’ on the phone or lift up the device and you will see your notifications. If you want to view them, then you must press on the fingerprint sensor or press in the power button. You can see a breakdown of how the features are being explained after updating in the image below.
For those still new to the Pixel phones, the Google Pixel and Pixel XL are almost identical except for the display size (5.0-inches versus 5.5-inches), display resolution (Full HD versus Quad HD), and battery size (2,770 mAh versus 3,450 mAh.) The bulk of the rest of the specifications are the same with both devices packing 4GB of DDR4 RAM, 32GB of internal storage and the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 quad-core processor. The primary camera was rated number one by DxOMark labs with a score of 89 and consists of a 12.3-megapixel sensor with a f/2.0 aperture, EIS (gyro), phase detection autofocus (PDAF,) laser autofocus, and a dual-tone LED flash. The front-facing camera (FFC) has an 8-megapixel sensor and a f/2.4 aperture for selfies and video chatting.
