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Google Drive now merges duplicate files, keeps older copy in revision history

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Assumably knowing that a common way people use Google Drive is by downloading a file, editing it locally, and then re-uploading, Google has today announced a subtle but useful change to how duplicate files are handled. Files with the same name will now automatically be merged, with the older copy still viewable in revision history…


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Google Classroom gains annotations & email summaries, Forms adds support for images

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Google has made huge inroads into the education market thanks to Chromebooks and Apps with features specifically aimed at schools. In time for the new year, Google Classroom is getting a bunch of new features, like annotations and email summaries for parents. Additionally, Expeditions has more virtual field trips and Forms finally supports adding images.


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Third-party feature add-ons are now available in Google Docs and Sheets for Android

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Back in 2014, Google introduced add-ons to Docs and Sheets that allowed third-party apps to build extra functionality into Drive. Add-ons are now coming to Google Drive on Android with several apps, like DocuSign and Scanbot, already updated with the new seamless integration. All third-party developers will likely be able to build their own integrations in the future.


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Google Arts & Culture app adds Cardboard features and Art Recognizer on Android, iOS

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Last year, Google introduced an Arts & Culture app to showcase its collection of digitized art and other projects. The Google Cultural Institute is releasing an updated version of the app that is more feature-rich with a Google Cardboard VR component and a new Art Recognizer tool in select museums.


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Android co-founder Rich Miner is starting an education-focused project within Google

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Update: GV has reached out to inform us that Miner is starting a new project — not company — inside Google.


After founding Android with Andy Rubin, Rich Miner joined and has been at Google’s venture capital arm as a general partner. Now, he is reportedly planning to return to Google proper and launch (via Fortune) an education-focused company. Clearly, the project reflects Google’s increased interest in making products for the education market…


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Google Now on Tap update adds app translation, barcode/QR scanner, and more

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Building on a new text selection and search feature introduced last month, an update to Now on Tap adds the ability to translate foreign languages found in any app. On Tap can now also read QR and bar codes, as well as suggest interesting articles and videos as part of a new Discover feature.


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PSA: No, it’s not just you — Google Calendar is down

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Update: It looks like service is being restored for some.

We’ve received a slew of reports this morning that Google Calendar — an app that is completely invaluable to the daily lives of many — is currently experiencing some extended (but, thankfully rare) downtime. Google has confirmed on its Google Apps status dashboard that many users of Google Calendar are seeing a “Server Error” page.

Problems were initially recognized at around 8:47 AM CT, and seem to be continuing almost as hour later with Google “continuing to investigate this issue” as of 9:35 AM. Additionally, we’ve spotted scattered reports of Hangouts being down for some, although the Google Apps dashboard is not showing any issues as of the time of this writing.

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We’ll update this article when the service is back up.

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Google’s upcoming Allo and Duo apps just got slightly redesigned icons

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In case you didn’t hear, Google is planning to launch a couple of new messaging apps in the “summer”: Allo and Duo. The former is a familiar messaging app that builds in support for some of Google’s machine learning and AI technologies (and some more quirky new features), and the latter is a super-simple one-to-one video calling app that boasts speed and encryption.

Now, with the apps’ launches coming just around the corner (“this summer”, Google says), Google has given both a new updated icon…


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Google Calendar on Android will now tell you when you’re free for an event

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In April, Google Calendar for Work and Education received the ability to “find a time” when your coworkers are free for a meeting. Now an update to the Android app adds a similar “when you’re free” feature to all personal Google accounts when scheduling an event.


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Google Springboard is essentially Google Now for work, Sites receives a major revamp

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Over the past few months, Google has rolled out several new features powered by machine learning. Announced at an enterprise event today, Google Springboard allows users to search through Google Apps and acts as a day-to-day work assistant, providing “useful and actionable information and recommendations.” The company also announced a major revamp to Google Sites.


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You can now quickly rotate images in Google Photos with a keyboard shortcut

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If you — like me — have enabled auto-upload to Google Photos on pretty much all of your devices, you’ve surely noticed that some photos just don’t arrive on the site with the correct orientation sometimes. The Google Photos editor — which also has filters, brightness control, etc. — is an easy fix for this (it only take a few clicks), but now Google has made rotating photos in the app even easier with a quick keyboard shortcut that you can use when viewing any photo…


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Google Translate adds Tap to Translate chathead on Android, iOS gains offline mode

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Google Translate is getting a bevy of new features today that will make translating on mobile easier. Android gets a new feature that will get rid of the need to manually copy and paste into the Translate app, while iOS finally gets an offline mode. Additionally, the Word Lens instant visual translation feature now works on both Simplified and Traditional Chinese.


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