Chance currently writes for both 9to5Google and 9to5Mac, in addition to 9to5Toys. He has previously written for several other online publications. He uses a Nexus 5, iPhone 5s, iPad Air, Hackintosh, and Macbook Air.
Earlier today, access to Google’s variety of web services was finally restored in China, after weeks of them being offline. This evening, however, Reuters reports that once again, the Mountain View company’s services are being disrupted in China. This includes tools such as Google Search, Maps, Gmail, advertising services, and more.
Google this morning started rolling out a minor update to its Keyboard app on Android. The update bumps the app to version 3.1.19 and is pretty small. The only notable change is that the Voice Input button has been moved to the top row of the keyboard, on the right side of the auto-complete suggestions. Previously, the button was located next to the spacebar. This change is definitely useful, as many users would previously accidentally tap the voice button when aiming for the space bar.
The update is available on the Play Store now, although it is rolling out slowly.
Back in May, HTC officially unveiled the “beautifully compact” One Mini 2 phone, but with sparse details on United States availability. Early rumors pointed to the device launching in the United States on Verizon, but rebranded as the HTC One Remix. Today, Big Red seemingly confirmed the One Remix by inadvertently uploading a promo video for it to its YouTube channel. The video has since been set to private, but not without some quick eyes catching what it talked about.
Google last night started rolling out an update to Google Play Games that bumped the app to version 2.0. The update includes several new features, some of which were confirmed in the recent Google Play Services 5.0 update, as well. The update today introduces Level-up notification controls, XP rankings, and a few UI tweaks.
Photo: Associated Press
According to a new report out of Re/code, Google will be joining forces with a variety of other tech companies to fight patent trolls. The Mountain View company will join Canon, SAP, Newegg, Dropbox, and Asana to ward off the trolls. Between the six of them, the companies hold more than 300,000 patent assets. The companies aren’t licensing their patents to one another, but rather joining the License on Transfer network. With this network, the companies promise to grant licenses to one another whenever one of their patents is sold, preventing it from being used against them by a troll.
At I/O last month, Google announced that Android users would soon have the ability to mirror their device’s screen to their TV via a Chromecast. Today, thanks to an update to the Chromecast app, the feature is finally live. In a post on the official Android Blog, Google explained that the feature is still in beta and warned users not to be alarmed if it didn’t work properly 100% of the time.
Verizon today announced that it will be exclusively carrying the Sony Xperia Z2 tablet following a leak yesterday. The waterproof and scratch-resistant device will be available for pre-order from Verizon starting tomorrow, July 10th, for $600 off-contract, or $500 with a new two-year agreement.
Back in April, The Weather Channel released an entirely redesigned app for the iPhone, and today, the company has finally started rolling out a similar update to Android devices. The update totally revamps the app’s interface. Previously, navigation within the app was based around tabs, but now all your information is contained within a single interface that allows you to scroll up and down to view more information.
Photo: ibtimes.com
After warning earlier this month that Q2 didn’t “look too good,” Samsung today released its earnings preview for the second quarter of 2014. The South Korean company reported an operating profit of $7.1 billion (7.2 trillion won), missing analyst estimates of $8 billion (8.1 trillion won). This comes out to a 24 percent drop year over year (via Bloomberg).
As more and more Android Wear devices start to trickle out to the public, a somewhat major bug has been discovered by the folks at Android Police. According to users of the G Watch and Gear Live, there is currently no way to install paid apps onto the devices. Normally, Android Wear apps are installed to the watch from the user’s phone, via Bluetooth. Apps that cost money, however, are not installing on Android Wear devices.
Like it does at the beginning of every month, Google this afternoon updated its Android distribution numbers to reflect a 7 day period ending today, July 7th. The most recent version of Android, 4.4 KitKat, saw a modest increase from 13.6 percent to 17.9 percent. Jelly Bean, for the first time ever, saw a decline as a whole in usage by 1.9 percent.
Google this afternoon started rolling out an update to its Play Music app on iOS with a handful of new features. The update bumps the app to version 1.3.0.2190. Firstly, the update finally adds support for gapless playback, which means that there is no pause between the end of one song and the beginning of another. The update also adds the ability to download subscribed playlists in one tap, allowing you to listen to them without a data connection.
Sprint announced in a press release this afternoon that it will start selling the LG G3 flagship on July 18th. Pre-orders for the device will go live next Friday, July 11th. T-Mobile earlier this week made the device available for pre-order and announced that it will hit retail on July 16th. Verizon is launching pre-orders on July 10th with retail availability on July 19th.
Sprint’s LG G3 variant will be compatible with Sprint Easy Pay, which means you can get the device for $0 down and pay it off with $25 monthly payments for 24 months. Sprint is also offering a $150 reward card for people who purchase between July 11th and July 24th and register by August 7th.
As a refresher, the G3 features a 2,560 x 1,440 display, a quad-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB storage and Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box. You can check out our full review of the G3 for all of our impressions. Full press release after the jump.
Google tonight made a pair of enhancements to the Play Store for the lucky people with an Android Wear device. First off, the company has released the official Android Wear companion app for Android. This app connects with your Android Wear device (i.e. the Gear Live or G Watch) and allows you to control voice action preferences, adjust notification settings, and configure various other settings for your watch.
Image via Reuters
Update: The WSJ reports that Google agreed to block access to the email, and advised that it had not been read
According to a new report from Reuters, investment banking firm Goldman Sachs is taking legal action against Google over an email that it accidentally sent to the wrong address. The report claims that a Goldman Sachs employee was sending an email, but instead of putting the correct @gs.com ending, the employee put @gmail.com, which in turn caused the email to be sent to a total stranger.
Google today announced that a major update to Play Services is now rolled out, bumping it from version 4.4 to 5.0. Many of the details in this update were announced at Google I/O last week, but the company also broke everything down in blog post today, as well. The update began rolling out after I/O, but now is entirely rolled out to devices world-wide.
Back at Google I/O, Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects team showed off the first booting prototype Project Ara device and teased that the first units would be available to developers later this year. Today, Google announced that 100 members of its Ara Scouts program will soon be the recipients of the first Project Ara devices. In a post announcing the closure of the Ara Scouts program, Google said that the lucky 100 people were chosen based on how often they participated in the Scouts program.
Google today appears to be rolling out much wider support for its “Ok Google” command within Search. This update pertains solely to the ability to say “Ok Google” within Google Now and the search box to activate a command or search and have Google automatically detect when you say it. Previously, this feature was supported only in the US, Canada, France, and Germany. Today’s update adds support for 7 new language locales, including Italian, Portuguese, and Japanese. Google’s been testing these languages in these regions for a little while now, so it’s possible that you could have been one of the lucky testers.
The update appears to be rolling out gradually, so it may take a little while to hit your device. You also need to be on the most recent version of the Google Search
Last month, a report emerged claiming that HTC was working on a new Nexus tablet dubbed the Volantis. At the time, the device was rumored to have an 8.9-inch display and an all aluminum design. Now, the notorious leaker @evleaks has posted some confirmation of the specifications for the Volantis.
As it usually does with new releases of Android, Google has just posted the source code for the “L” release of Android. The code is viewable on Google’s Android Git repo page for all of the current a previous generation Nexus devices. This includes both the 2012 and 2013 Nexus 7s (WiFi and LTE models), the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, and Nexus 10.
Google has left a few things out of this release of source code, including binary packages and kernel source. This means that developers will not yet be able to build totally stock builds of Android “L” for those devices. This is to be expected, though, as “L” is still a developer preview at this point.
You can view the source code on Google’s Git repo here. If you’re still curious about Android “L,” read our first look here.
Hot on the heels of updating the Docs app for Android, Google has just started rolling out an update to Sheets on Android, as well. The update is packed full of changes, both feature-wise and in terms of design. The update comes just days after Google announced it was shutting down Quickoffice on iOS and Android and introduces several features formerly available in the mobile editing app.
Vine today announced that it is rolling out an update to its iOS and Android apps that add adds several new features. Biggest of all, the update introduces Loop Counts. This is a feature that will show how many times a Vine has been played. The number will update in real time, both on the web and within the mobile apps.
The Galaxy S5 Google Play Edition has been the subject of a lot of leaks lately, between it passing through Bluetooth certification, briefly appearing on the Play Store, and appearing on a Play Store support page. Now, notorious Twitter leaker @evleaks has posted a render of the device, seemingly confirming its existence, yet again. The Google Play Edition S5 looks identical to its TouchWiz counterpart, aside of course, from the software.
The Google Play Edition HTC One M8 is already available on the Play Store, so it seems a bit odd that it is taking Samsung and Google so long to release its Play Edition device for the year, but with this render coupled with all of the other leaks, the device still seems to exist and is presumably coming sooner rather than later.
Google’s Play Music All Access service may soon be getting a rebrand, at least according to a support page that appears to have been preemptively updated. First noticed by Android Police, this support page refers to Google’s streaming music service as the catchy “Google Play unlimited music subscription.” The support page in question is for a promotion currently running for the Nexus 7 that offers Google Play Music All Access.
A Google Play unlimited music subscription (previously known as Google Play Music All Access) entitles subscribers to listen to unlimited music from the song titles available within Google Play on a monthly basis.
This change is most likely to help people differentiate Google’s music streaming service from the reportedly upcoming YouTube streaming service that has been in the works for a long time. YouTube’s music streaming service will reportedly run entirely separate from Play All Access (or Google Play unlimited music subscription), so it is believable that Google would want to change the name of the service to something more recognizable. Although, we can’t say that Google Play Unlimited Music Subscription is a very catchy name.