Stephen is Growth Director at 9to5. You can find his current work at 9to5Mac, 9to5Google 9to5Toys, Electrek, and more. If you want to get in touch, follow me on Twitter. Or, email at stephen (at) 9to5mac (dot) com, or an encrypted email at hallstephenj (at) protonmail (dot) com.
Google unveiled its new enterprise-focused Hangouts apps yesterday, but that announcement leaves the big question of what will happen to the current consumer app (which many people use every day). At least for now, Google’s Head of Product for Allo and Duo says that the current consumer Hangouts is “not going anywhere.”
Plenty of new and exciting Google products launched over the last few years have left me underwhelmed. About anyone can tell you that I was high on the Google Glass train for a while (even though I didn’t actually own a pair until it was basically dead), and I’ve written countless times about how I just can’t find any use for Android Wear (or frankly, most wearables). And other more-recent new Google products, like Daydream View, have simply sat in my drawer for months on end.
I don’t know if, until now, any single tech product has entered my life since the smartphone that has ended up being just completely indispensable and necessary. Something like (forgive my rough estimates) 75% percent of my interactions with consumer tech over the last few years have been with either my phone or my laptop. That other 25 percent has been filled with things like traditional television, tapping around on a smartwatch, playing video games, or using some kind of tablet.
With the Google Home now a part of my daily routine, though, these numbers are changing. It’s a minor shift to be sure, but I’m starting to be able to assign a noticeable percentage of my tech interactions to this new product and I’ve found myself feeling somewhat more free from my phone lately…
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Google today announced that it’s forming a new strategic partnership with enterprise software company SAP to deliver its in-memory database SAP HANA among other solutions. The partnership offers Google Cloud Platform customers more scalability, brings new G Suite integrations, and more…
Google has today announced at its Cloud Next conference in San Francisco that it has acquired Kaggle, a notably large online community for data science. The service allows data scientists to hold and participate in competitions, explore datasets, and more…
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Google Chrome’s extensions page (chrome://extensions/, if you’re using Chrome) hasn’t changed in quite a while. Now, François Beaufort, Chromium evangelist at Google, points out that the Mountain View company has added a nice new Material Design extension page in the latest dev build of the browser…
We haven’t heard anything about Google & Levi’s plans for a Jacqurd-equipped jacket since Google I/O last year, but now there’s hope that might change in the coming days. As per the schedule for SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas this coming weekend, the two companies are jointly holding a party to “celebrate” the forthcoming Levi’s Commuter jacket…
Google has today made some replacement facepads available for its Daydream View VR headset. You can pick them up right now on the Google Store for $15.
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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.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 leaks have basically turned into a pour at this point, and the latest addition to the collection is a new video showing both the front and back and phone — and a look at the “Do not leak info” sticker on the back…
I’ve had my LG Watch Style for a week now, and my thoughts are mostly positive. Like we said in our review, the Watch Style is Android Wear for those who want the basics done well, and I agree with that conclusion. It really is a basic watch, and it really does perform those basic functions better than any Android Wear watch I’ve tried.
But after a week of using the LG Watch Style (and Android Wear 2.0), I’ve been thinking about one thing that I haven’t seen people talk about. I never used most of the smartwatch apps on my previous Android Wear watches, and I never use most of the apps on my LG Watch Style. So what good does one of Android Wear 2.0’s biggest features — an on-watch Play Store — really do?
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For this week’s 9to5Rewards, we’re giving away some even more Google Pixel cases! These are brand new, straight from Tech21, and tough enough to protect your Google Pixel (or Pixel XL) from some pretty nasty drops. This week we’re giving away a total of three cases to three lucky 9to5Google readers…
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Google’s SVP of hardware, Rick Osterloh, said during a private meeting in Barcelona this week that there will indeed — unsurprisingly, considering its wild acclaim — be a second generation Pixel announced later this year. Further, Osterloh says that that the Pixel brand will “stay premium”…
A minor update to the Google Home app is rolling out now, bringing a much-requested feature (that, frankly, should have been there from the beginning). You can now view your currently-running alarms and timers in the Google Home app, as well as set a volume level specifically for them. A teardown of the app reveals some other much-requested features are in the works as well…
Acer and ASUS debuted a couple of new education-focused Chromebooks back in January, and now HP and Google have announced a new Chrome OS-running laptop to join the fun. The HP Chromebook x360 11 G1 Education Edition (yeah, that’s a mouthful) is a convertible Chromebook set to arrive in mid-April…
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Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain has been in full gear all week, and that means almost all of the biggest Android OEMs are getting together to show off their latest phones, tablets, and other gadgets. Now that things are winding down here in the last couple days of the show floor being open, let’s take a look at all the devices that were announced by Samsung, LG, Sony, Huawei and others…
The Samsung Galaxy S8 leaks have definitely picked up steam in the last week or so, and now we’re getting yet another look at all sides of the phone in a few new real-life photos…
Google has today launched yet another communication app (via TechCrunch), this time for business. It’s called “Meet by Google Hangouts,” and it’s made for high-definition video calls between as many as 30 people. It seems Google may have pushed this live by accident, since its page on the G Suite website still isn’t up. Or perhaps they would just rather keep it quiet…
Google has today updated the official list of services that Google Home supports with mention of iHeartRadio. The music streaming service hasn’t been officially available on Google Home up to this point, but now it looks like Google is rolling it out…
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