9to5Google

In recent Android versions, safety and privacy have been forefront in the majority of changes made, though are still ways that others can see your Android device’s location without acting in a malicious way. This guide will bring you through several location-sharing features and how to configure or disable them entirely, letting you take control of who can see your Android phone’s location.

Google has today announced that its mobile payments service, Android Pay, is now available in Belgium. Belgium is the 10th country in the world to bring support for Android Pay, and Google says that you’ll be able to use it at most of your favorite retail locations…

Whether you’re doing your daily shopping or heading for a night out, your Android phone is all you need as you walk out the door – thanks to Android Pay. Starting today, Android Pay is available in Belgium, helping you pay simply and securely with your Android phone. It’s the 10th country in the world to benefit from Android Pay.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google is planning on tapping into its Project Tango technology to offer superior interior 3D mapping of buildings and a new revenue stream through virtual reality apps using the platform, Bloomberg reports.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Announced last year, YouTube’s 360-degree videos are one of the easiest source of content for VR headsets, like Cardboard. Today, Google is announcing support for live 360-degree video streaming, as well as support for spatial audio.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Bluetooth beacons usually only broadcast public one-way signals. By allowing secure and private communication with users, the Eddystone-EID opens up a variety of new use cases for beacons. Along with the new secure open beacon format, Google is announcing a number of new hardware partners that will make compatible devices.

Expand
Expanding
Close

In light of today’s appalling events in Brussels, as well as recent violence in Turkey, Google is offering free calls using Hangouts and Google Voice to the two countries. The company has done the same after similar events in France and is rolling out additional emergency resources via Google Now and Search to those in Brussels.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google has announced a new philanthropic partnership with NetHope aiming to help Syrian refugees in Germany get reconnected by making 25,000 Chromebooks available to nonprofits. The goal — as described on the Project Reconnect home page — is “to help refugees as they strive to rebuild their lives, by facilitating access to education and information resources on the web.”

Expand
Expanding
Close

I already love the Huawei Watch (and so does Dom), and now I think I love it even more. Today, the Chinese OEM has announced that new buyers of company’s Android Wear smartwatch are getting an extended manufacturer’s warranty. Originally just 12 months, the Huawei Watch is now eligible for an additional 12 months of coverage if you buy direct from Huawei…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Google puts a lot of effort into making the world’s knowledge organized and accessible, and in particular it has a record through its Crisis Response project of making certain information more accessible during times of disaster. Today it released a blog post detailing how it’s doing more to help people be prepared.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Huawei has started sending out invitations to an event on September 2nd in Berlin, Germany. The invites fit in perfectly with previous speculation that the Chinese manufacturer would use IFA as its platform to launch a new smartphone. What’s interesting about these invites is that they seemingly hint at the name of the upcoming device.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Google today announced in a blog post on its AdWords blog that it is rolling out new 360-degree video advertisements to help advertisers “engage their audience in an entirely new way.” The feature is currently supported in Chrome and on Android and iOS. Users can navigate through the 360-degree video by either dragging their mouse or tilting their phone up, down, left, and right. Google originally unveiled 360 video support earlier this year.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google has just announced a new beacon technology called Eddystone along with APIs that will together make it easier for devices in close proximity to communicate. Essentially, these technologies will make it as easy for devices to communicate as it is to turn to a person next to you and talk in the real world.

Expand
Expanding
Close

In a world where we’re increasingly reliant on our phones to navigate the world, online reviews can make or break local businesses. Lawsuits regarding negative reviews show up in the news at least a couple times every year, and these review pages are increasingly becoming the battleground where individuals protest against businesses partaking in practices they disagree with. On the other hand, however, a good rating online can entrench and create a moat around a business for years to come. That’s why Google now allows advertisers to include their Google reviews in their AdWords ads.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Google has launched a new website that will offer monthly updates on its driverless car project including reporting accidents the vehicles have been involved in.
Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=https://youtu.be/7IaYJZ2Usdk?list=PLbsGxdAPhjv_tgCNWGaGvSnlIMZNkmnrM]

YouTube is adding support for 360-degree video uploads alongside a new viewing experience for the video format on both mobile and the web.

Users viewing the 360-degree video (like the one embedded above) will be able to do so by dragging with their mouse in Chrome on the web or by physically moving their Android device (and soon iPhone and iPad) in the mobile app:
Expand
Expanding
Close

Google is constantly bringing new imagery to its Street View feature in Maps, and this week the search giant is highlighting new additions from around Belgium. In what it describes as “some of the best of Belgium”, the new Street View data shows off five different locations including the inside of a castle and a World War II memorial.
Expand
Expanding
Close

LG announced several features of its new G Flex 2 smartphone at CES 2015 last week, including a full HD 5.5-inch dynamically curved P-OLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with Octa-Core 64-bit capable CPUs, 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with dual LED flash, 3,000 mAh battery and Android Lollipop. But one important piece of information that LG has withheld to this point is how much the G Flex 2 will cost…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Spanish newspaper websites have seen their web traffic drop by an average of 10-15% after a law they lobbied for drove Google News out of the country. The figures were shared with GigaOM by web analytics company Chartbeat, which tracks around 50 Spanish news sites.

The law required Google to pay a fee for every story excerpt it displayed in search results, leading to the company – which generates no income from the ad-free Google News service – to close the service in Spain. Publishers clearly realized the implications right away, making a forlorn plea for the Spanish government to somehow ‘force’ Google to re-open the service … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

While the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop is only now beginning to roll out to Google’s own Nexus devices, it seems that Android 5.1 could already be in the works. Dutch site AndroidWorld has reported today that Google software engineers Romain Guy and Chet Haase were spotted using a Nexus 5 running Android Lollipop MR1 at the annual Devoxx conference in Belgium.
Expand
Expanding
Close