August 21st 2017

It has been nearly 99 years since the last total solar eclipse swept across the United States of America, and today sun will disappear again, covering the country in darkness for around two minutes.

On the Pacific coast, the eclipse will begin at around 9am and finish at around 11:40am, reaching totality at about twenty past 10. On the East coast, the eclipse will start at 1:15pm, end at around 4pm and peak at around 2:40pm. This is also the time that Google has chosen to reveal their latest operating system: Android 8.0

The tech giant has created a countdown page, showing the time remaining until the solar eclipse, and also until their big reveal. They´ve also named a town which will experience a total solar eclipse as Corvallis, Oregon, showing the start end and peak times for the astronomical event. Plus, Android have provided ways to watch the eclipse via NASA´s Live Stream or to tune into their Android O reveal (EST 2:40pm).

Site visitors are also introduced to the Google Assistant via the page, which given prompts for questions to send to the bot and get instant answers. Google has been smart in adding this feature, it´s a clever way of creating hype about the already trending and popular event of the solar eclipse, as well as showing off their smart tool which will be coming soon to Android Marshmallow and Nougat phones.

Scrolling even further down, the user is invited to ´Join the Megamovie´, a project which will gather footage from over one thousand volunteers to create a collective video showing a continuous view of the solar eclipse as it draws across the sun and covers the entirety of North America.

There has been much speculation about Android O and its release, particularly about the name, as always with a new Android operating system. Fans and techies are fairly certain now that the new release will be named Oreo, after the tasty black and white cookie favorite. Although this hasn´t officially been confirmed by Google, they have said they will be introducing some ´super sweet new powers´ and internet rumors have also pointed out that an Oreo’s dark exterior next to the white lining closely resemble a total solar eclipse.

NOS Apps published a blog here on the possible new features of the upcoming Android 8.0.

It´s rumored to include:

• Smart Text Selection
• Improved Keyboard Control
• Adaptive Icons
• Connectivity Enhancements
• Management of Cached Data
• New Entrepise Features
• Automatic Address Recognition and Opening in Google Maps
• Improved Gestures

At NOS Apps, we’ve already started to update our applications so that they are Android 8 compatible, so our users will be ready when Google starts to roll out and will be able to transition smoothly and continue using their applications.