Stephen Hall

Google Allo version 14 began rolling out just yesterday, but deep in the app’s code we’ve found details on some features that are new in this version, and a few in the works for future unreleased versions of Allo. Some of these, including new zoom and blur options for quick selfies, a new Allo for web setting page, and a new Data Usage page, we’ve managed to enable ourselves…

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Google has today introduced Hire, a new tool built on G Suite that lets small businesses more easily organize and document the recruitment process. Integrating seamlessly with your G Suite-based apps like Gmail and Google Calendar, Hire can sync data across web apps so that everything you need to find and hire key talent is in one place.

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In this week’s top stories: Samsung publishes a commercial for the DeX dock that makes us want a laptop version of the device, Google Keep for Android adds undo/redo controls for text editing, and we compile a list of the best Android smartwatches.

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Hot on the heels of the leaked render of Google’s forthcoming Pixel XL 2 (or whatever it ends up being called), another report out of XDA is adding a few more details about the phone. The site claims the higher-end Pixel will have always-on ambient display features, a variety of use cases for the phone’s purported squeezable frame, a few different display profile options, and other miscellaneous features…

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As we mentioned back in March, the forthcoming major release of Android (that being O, or 8.0) is bringing support for Qualcomm’s aptX and aptX HD Bluetooth streaming protocols. It’s still not clear exactly which devices will be supporting the feature, but now we have a couple (made by Google, no less) that are confirmed to be missing out: Nexus 5X and 6P…

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Halli Labs, a company working to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve “old problems,” has been acquired by Google. The acquisition comes just a couple of months after Halli made its public debut, and Google says the group will be joining its “Next Billion Users” team.

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Google Allo’s long-awaited web client is going to be ready for primetime within a “few more weeks,” the Head of Product for Google Allo and Duo Amit Fulay said on Twitter.

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In this week’s top stories: OnePlus 5 has some real advantages over Galaxy S8, we round up the best Android phones available now, and a new Amazon Fire TV mod copies the look, feel, and functionality of Android TV.

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In what is not exactly a common occurrence, Google just released a completely new app of its own on the Play Store. The app’s called Android Samba Client, and in Google’s own words, it “allows users to mount an SMB file share in their Downloads/Files app in Android.” I’m not sure if I could word it better than that.

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Snapchat just got a pretty noteworthy update. And while the first bullet point in this update’s change log — on-demand geofilters — was introduced at the end of last month, a few of these features are entirely new. Among them are the ability to add links to your snaps, Backdrops, and Voice Filters.

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LG’s mobile payments service LG Pay hasn’t received much attention since it launched with the LG G6 earlier this year, but that might be changing in the coming months. An LG executive (via Korea Herald) said in a meeting with journalists that the service will be coming to lower-end handsets at some point next year, and will also eventually be expanding to unspecified “global markets”…

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