Fitbit Public Preview adds food & water logging, more as app redesign comes to free users
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Google deal with LyricFind makes finding song lyrics a pleasant experience again
If you’ve ever Googled for song lyrics, you know what a messy experience it can be – half the sites proving to be just links to other sites, others looking really sketchy. For those in the US, though, things should be much simpler. Google has licensed lyrics from LyricFind, which in turn licenses them from labels, so that a search for a song title with ‘lyrics’ on the end should generate an immediate link.
Of course, Google is arriving rather late to the party …
WhatsApp is testing a quote feature in its Android app’s beta program
Messaging apps are among the most important — and indeed most used — by millions and millions of users every day, so it is only logical for them to implement new features as they evolve.
WhatsApp, despite being used by over a billion users, has remained a fairly simplistic chat app over the years, but things seem to be changing…
Betas will now appear in Play Store search, localized suggestions for Brazil & India, more
The Play Store is adding a few features for both developers and users. Betas are now easier to find and join from the Play Store with Google even highlighting beta apps in a new Early Access section. The store also has new smart collections for tasks that require a combination of apps.
Google is currently working on bringing ‘Gboard’ search features to Android
After announcing Gboard for iOS, the team behind it had a chat on the curation site Product Hunt to discuss the new keyboard. When asked about Android support, product manager Bri Connelly said Google is currently working on porting over the features.
Google testing black links instead of blue in search results
For many, many years, whenever you search for anything on Google, chances are that you see a sea of blue unread links fill your web browser. Unless you’re in China, that is, in which case you see red ones.
Still, blue web links have been a feature within Google Search for a long time. So it comes as something of a minor shock to see that the company is now testing a new color: black.
Google focusing on search, AI, and more in Founders’ Letter from Sundar Pichai
Every year, Larry Page and Sergey Brin write a Founders’ Letter to inform stockholders of recent developments and their vision for the future. For 2016, Page had recently-anointed Google CEO Sundar Pichai write the letter as a majority of ‘bets’ are under his purview. The letter focuses on six main areas.
Google Photos for Android drops FAB for a search bar in latest update
Update: According to a post on Google+, this update adds the ability to customize automatically created movies with your own music, photos, and videos. It’s also now possible to rename or delete device folders and manage photos on SD cards.
Rolling out to users now, version 1.19 of Google Photos brings quite a few design tweaks to the Android app. The biggest change replaces the floating action button (FAB) with a search bar that is reminiscent of a recent A/B test to Play Music.
Canada ends investigation into anti-competitive search and ad practices by Google
With imminent troubles looming in Europe, Canada just closed its three year investigation into anti-competitive practices involving Google’s search and advertising business (via The Verge). The country’s Competition Bureau ultimately “did not find sufficient evidence” that Google’s practices harmed local rivals.
Google launches ‘Voice Access’ app in beta, lets you control your phone with your voice
After first planning to launch the app during Google I/O 2015 and changing its mind at the last minute, Google has finally launched Voice Access in beta, a new accessibility app that allows users to control their phone using their voice. With Voice Access, you can use a wide variety of voice commands like “open Chrome” to bring up the browser or “go home” to go to the home screen…
Google tests Chrome notifications in Mac OS X notification center, removes merged tabs on Android
Chrome 47 removed the rarely used notification center from desktops last year, but many Mac users have long wondered why the browser doesn’t use the native OS X center for notifications. Now, it appears Google is actively working on adding that feature and a preview is available in the Canary channel. Additionally, Chrome Dev for Android has removed merge tabs and has a redesigned bookmarks widget…
Google can now play animal sounds directly from search
Very often, Google realizes that there’s a common search query that it can make more convenient for users by adding its own content directly to the search engine. The perfect example was last year, when Google effectively sherlocked dozens of lyrics-dedicated websites by adding its own lyrics directly to the top of search results for many songs. I don’t think as many websites are going to feel the brunt of this change, but Google has now added animal sounds to Search…
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Latest Nova Launcher beta introduces ‘Night Mode’, more search bar choices
Nova Launcher is easily one of the best launchers available for Android right now. That’s mostly thanks to the fact that you can change virtually any part of the Android user interface. Whether you want to download custom icon packs, change their size, change the home screen, folder or app drawer layout, it can do virtually anything. And the latest beta version adds a couple of new, welcome additions.
Google shows off redesigned AdWords experience, currently invite-only
Google is today showing off redesigned apps for its AdWords advertising service that it says bring a completely reimagined experience based on user feedback.
Google somehow got through China’s firewall for nearly two hours last night
For a brief spell last night, uncensored Google search was alive and kicking within China’s borders. For roughly 105 mins, according to the South China Morning Post, residents inside the People’s Republic had free, unrestricted use of Google’s popular search domain.
First look at gameplay from the upcoming Pokémon Go Android game
After announcing a deal in September to produce a Pokémon Go games with Nintendo and Alphabet-owned Niantic, the Pokémon people are today showing a little more about how gameplay will work and giving us a first look at the title coming to both Android and iOS devices.
The game uses augmented reality features to blend real world objects and locations with the gameplay, and the company today gave the run down and a look at how exactly that will work:
You can now add a shortcut to your homescreen to quickly access weather info in the Google app
Google is rolling out a new feature that allows users to more easily access one of the most commonly searched terms. With this rollout, if a user searches for the weather in their location or another location, Google will ask if that user would like to add a shortcut to their homescreen to “access weather instantly from your homescreen.”
Google is giving another ranking boost to mobile-friendly pages
Google announced in April of last year that it tweaked search results to give a ranking boost to sites that offer mobile-friendly versions, and now the Mountain View company is prepping to give even more ranking weight to these sites. The company is planning a change that “increases the effect of the ranking signal” for mobile searches to put even more mobile pages on the top…
Screen-dimming app f.lux is now availble for beta testing on Android
Update: f.lux is now available in the Play Store.
There are many apps that change the color temperature of a screen throughout the day. Many of these apps claim to help users sleep by limiting exposure to blue light at night that can distort the natural circadian rhythm. One of the first and most well-known entrants to this market is f.lux. They have finally released a beta for Android and it is available for testing.
Android N Dev Preview walkthrough [Video]
The first Android N dev preview just dropped earlier today, and to say that Google’s launch timing surprised us is something of an understatement. Still, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get it installed on our devices and see what’s what in the next version of Android.
Here’s everything that’s new in the first Android N developer preview [Gallery]
Today marked the release of the first Android N developer preview, and factory images are now available if you want to install the update on your device. If you’re anything like me, though, you would rather not completely wipe your daily driver (Nexus 6P, in my case), just to get some hands-on time with some buggy software. That’s why we’ve compiled this huge list of new features and a gallery of Android N screenshots for your perusal…
Latest Google app beta adds OCR image recognition to Now on Tap
For all the features the Google app has added, it still does not have any image recognition capabilities. Google Goggles from 2010 could recognize book covers, landmarks, and even solve Sudoku, but was ultimately discontinued due to a lack of use. However, Now on Tap has gained some of those features in a recent update.
Google searches for ‘How to move to Canada’ spike in response to Super Tuesday results
It goes without saying that the American people aren’t exactly ecstatic about the prospective options for the US presidency, but just how unexcited are they? In response to the Super Tuesday results, which showed both Republican frontrunner Donald J. Trump and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton both winning 7 of 11 states, it looks like many Americans are looking for a way to jump ship. And by jump ship, I mean head north to Canada…
How-To: Make email links default to Gmail in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox on OS X
I’ve never been a big proponent of the stock Mail application in OS X, so I generally find myself relying on Gmail inside a browser for all of my email needs. In fact, I don’t have any accounts configured inside of the Mail app at all. With this in mind, I get frustrated when I accidentally click a mailto link while I’m using Chrome. Doing so forces the Mail app to open, which wastes time.
Wouldn’t it be better if you could configure Gmail to be the default mail client inside of Chrome or another browser? In this video tutorial, I’ll show you how easy it is to configure Chrome, Safari, and even Firefox to use Gmail as default.
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Play Music for Android will now show related YouTube videos in search results
A Google Play Music update is rolling out that allows users to search for music-related YouTube videos from within the app. The video search feature is available to all Play Music users, including those who don’t subscribe to the streaming service.