Stephen Hall

Google unveiled the 2nd generation Chromecast a little over a year ago now, but now we’re getting a new look at what the device could have looked like had it launched in some alternate reality. A Google patent that went public last week — first filed in 2015 — shows a sleeker “media streaming device” with a Chrome logo affixed on the front and an integrated power cord…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Up to today, Nest — a fellow subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet — has only made its products available in 7 countries. Now the company has announced that its products will soon be available in four new European countries: Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain…

Expand
Expanding
Close

According to the mostly-reliable SamMobile, a hefty incoming update to Samsung’s S Health app will bring “deep integration” of services like WebMD and Amwell. The new version is also said to let you book video appointments with a doctor day-and-night…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Xiaomi launched the ceramic-bodied Mi Mix just a couple months ago, and this year at CES the Chinese company launched the same phone with a new white body. Really, that’s all there is to say about this device. It’s the Mi Mix, with its bezel-less-on-three-sides design and 91.3% screen-to-body ratio, in a new color. But you have to admit that it’s pretty…

Expand
Expanding
Close

If you’ve been following our coverage this week, you know that CES 2017 has already brought the introduction of countless new phones, laptops, accessories, and more. In the Google realm, that means we’ve seen plenty of new Android phones, Chromebooks, wearables, and more.

But CES is always a matter of finding the diamonds in the rough. There are always some impressive announcements, but the vast majority of things we’ve seen this week have been either mundane or old news. That’s why we’ve done the work for you.

Follow after the break to get a peek at our picks for the best Android, Chrome and Google-related products that debuted at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show…

Expand
Expanding
Close

A company you’ve probably never heard of, Mighty Cast, has today announced a pair of interesting new wearable devices at CES 2017. The Nex Evolution doesn’t have a full display, but rather opts for five small tappable buttons called “Mods” that can be customized to do almost anything using the companion app and light up to provide phone notifications. And the second device is being made in partnership with Niantic for Ingress, the sibling of the wildly popular Pokemon Go game.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google Tango first hit the consumer market with the launch of the Lenovo PHAB2 Pro last fall, and today marked the announcement of the second Tango-enabled device with the new ZenFone AR.

But one thing that has been holding Google Tango back as of yet has been the lack of compelling applications that take advantage of the Tango hardware. Now, Google says that dozens of Tango-enabled apps should be hitting the Play Store over the next few months.

Expand
Expanding
Close

According to a report out of Music Business Worldwide, Google is the “current favorite” among potential acquirers of the struggling Berlin-based music streaming company, SoundCloud. This comes after Spotify considered picking up the service earlier this year, a deal that ultimately died last month.

SoundCloud still needs a buyer, though, as it struggles to compete with the mainstream music streaming players like Apple and Google itself…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Hyundai has today announced at CES 2017 that its Blue Link-equipped vehicles will soon be compatible with Google Assistant. This new feature will allow owners of new Hyundai vehicles to control various functions their cars with voice commands via Google Home…

Expand
Expanding
Close

We already know that ASUS has a smartphone or two planned for CES this week, but now — just a couple days before its scheduled press event — the Taiwanese company has come out with a tweet suggesting that at least one device will be powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 835. That chipset is also expected to be fully detailed in an announcement this week.

Expand
Expanding
Close

You might already know about the Google and Chrysler mashup that’s bringing the Mountain View company’s self-driving tech to the Chrysler Pacifica minivan, but it looks like the two companies are doing more than just that together. Now, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles says it’s teaming up with Google to build a new Uconnect infotainment system based on Android Nougat…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Google had a big year. Many people may consider the Pixel phone and the company’s many hardware launches among the most standout moves that the Mountain View company made in 2016, and they would be right, but 2016 was even bigger than that. It marked the first full year of Google operating under the umbrella of Alphabet, it marked a clear shift of focus for Google towards artificial intelligence, it brought the tenth anniversary of the Google I/O developers’ conference, and more.

But now that it’s 2017, let’s take a quick look into what really stood out as Google’s biggest wins of the year. From the flurry of official blog posts that come every week to the big press events at Google I/O 2016 to the fall Google event that saw the introduction of Google’s first solely self-branded smartphone, there’s a lot to talk about. In short: Google has long dabbled in hardware and AI, but in 2016 it became plainly obvious that these two areas will shape the company’s future…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Smartwatches still haven’t proven themselves to me. I was quick to jump on the Android Wear train with the launch of the LG G Watch, but since, this Android Wear ride has been nothing more than mundane. I think one of the easiest ways to sum up my underwhelming experience is to say that this watch — the third generation of the budget “ZenWatch” line from ASUS — is almost functionally identical to the Moto 360 that launched two years ago.

That’s not to say that this watch is bad. It’s actually pretty good. It actually might be the best Android Wear device that you can buy right now. But for me, that’s not enough. It has required discipline to go out of my way for the last week to wear this thing, and I probably won’t keep wearing it every day from now on. But this review isn’t about me; don’t let me sway you if you’re dead-set on getting a smartwatch. If you are, the ASUS ZenWatch 3 might be a great option for you…

Expand
Expanding
Close

One advantage that Google Home has over the Amazon Echo is its knowledge on random trivia and facts. But Google Home has also had a leg up on Alexa since launch in its ability to converse with you about those topics in a contextual manner. For example, you can ask Google Home “tell me about nearby restaurants”, followed by the query “what about coffee shops?” and Google Assistant knows that you still want to know about coffee shops near you.

Now, it appears that Alexa is picking up some of these skills thanks to a quiet update pushed out over the last couple days…

Expand
Expanding
Close