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’s Pixel smartphone definitely isn’t perfect, but it’s still a fantastic option for Android fanboys and normal people alike. Earlier this month we told you about one hardware defect affecting some users (which Google seems to have actually recognized now, thankfully), and now it seems like another unrelated issue is popping up for even more people. This time, it looks like there might be something wrong with the Pixel’s audio output…
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9TO5TOYS PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2016: Amazon’s Echo Dot changes your life for $40
It’s “sweater weather” in NYC today as Google says (some disagree), and that means the Mountain View company is channeling its whimsy and giving away some machine-knitted mini-sweaters to promote the Pixel (which, I might add, is great as a gift for normal people). To complement the occasion, Google is also offering some discounts on sweater- and holiday-themed Live Cases…
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9TO5TOYS PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2016: Amazon’s Echo Dot changes your life for $40
I’ve been using my Google Pixel for more than 2 months now (check out my full review in case you missed it), and I have to say it one more time: This is easily my pick for best Android phone of the year. If you’re looking to buy a phone for a friend or a loved one, I can’t recommend the Pixel enough…
Being a Project Fi subscriber has its perks. If you’re not getting a free $10 Play Store gift card around the holidays, you’re getting access to a referral program that awards you a $20 bill credit. Now, Google is launching yet another perk exclusively for Fi subscribers…
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If you have an Android Wear watch (or an Apple Watch, for that matter), you might have heard of Facer. It’s one of the most powerful apps for creating custom watch faces for your smartwatch. Now, the app is getting a significant update to version 3.0, bringing support for Tizen smartwatches like the Samsung Gear S2 and Gear S3, more Android Wear watches, and more new features…
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Google has announced today at a small press event in San Francisco, California that its self-driving car project is spinning off into its own company and getting a new name: Waymo. This news follows a report from earlier today that Google has backed off plans for radical self-driving cars in run-up to its launch…
Google Allo passed 1 million downloads just a few days after its launch, on September 24th. It then passed 5 million downloads only four days later, on September 28th. Now, almost 3 months since that landmark, Allo has passed 10 million installs on the Google Play Store. This means that, in the last 11 weeks, Allo has amassed the same number of new installs as it did in its first week.
Google chairman Eric Schmidt represented the Mountain View company in an agreement signed with the Cuban government’s telecom monopoly ETECSA today, which will hopefully provide residents of the island faster access to Google’s sites and services through the Google Global Cache network (via Reuters).
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Update: Google says “We’re excited to bring Android Pay to Canadians, however it is currently not available in Canada.” Obviously, however, plenty of people are having no problem adding a select few cards using unmodified APKs, as I detailed below.
We tore down an update to the Android Pay app back in October which revealed forthcoming support for Interac, a network for processing debit payments across most major banks in Canada. Now, some Canadian users are reporting that the payments service suddenly started working with some cards this morning…
I’ve talked about this time and time again, but it seems today Google is giving me another opportunity: smartwatches just aren’t compelling. I haven’t always been this skeptical (many will know that I was on the “wearables are the next big thing” bandwagon for quite some time), but they’ve become little more than a way for smartphone makers to upsell you on an add-on. I don’t entirely hate them as products, but they’re not going to become — at least in their current form — anything close to a fundamentally useful new computing platform the way smartphones did.
And Google just so happened to announce its new “Magic Minute” marketing campaign for Android Wear today, and it only further proves to me that these watches just don’t have anything close to a killer app. In this new campaign, Google has enlisted a bunch of popular online figures and YouTubers to make one minute videos showcasing their use cases for Android Wear. But really, they’re videos showing some really cool things that they already do in real life without a smartwatch, and they are using their Android Wear watch to… time themselves.
Google is giving its usual employee holiday gifts to charity this year, the Mountain View company has confirmed. This follows last year, when Google gave all of its employees the option of either the company’s Nexus 5X smartphone (in any color) or a donation to charity.
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If you actually use Google’s new messaging app Allo, then you’re probably on the technologically-savvy side. And if you’re on the technologically-savvy side, you likely have at least one bone in your body that appreciates Star Wars. So I guess this new mashup between Allo and the forthcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story film makes sense. Google seems to think so.
If you’re reading this site and haven’t heard the name TouchWiz, I’d be surprised. That’s Samsung’s moniker for its Android “skin,” the modifications it makes both visually and functionally atop what is Google’s most pure version of Android. TouchWiz definitely has a name for itself, and it’s not a good one. It has gotten better in recent years, but TouchWiz has long equated to laggy UI, ugly design, and not-much-more-than-a-gimmick software additions.
Now, it appears, Samsung is officially moving on from the baggage-carrying TouchWiz branding.
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I somehow missed this one when it was popular, but Rockstar Games, the same studio behind Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, is releasing its classic game “Bully” today for Android. This one is specifically dubbed “Bully: Anniversary Edition” as it marks the 10 year anniversary of the game’s original release on the PlayStation 2.
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Just last week we told you that Android Pay became available in New Zealand, and now the service’s world tour continues. Today, the Mountain View company has announced (via its official blog) that the payments platform is now available in Ireland as well.
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 Ireland, helping you pay simply and securely with your Android phone.
Google today began pushing out the latest release of its new Duo video calling app, version 5.0. While Google has become notorious as of late for giving its apps huge version bumps and few actual changes, this one — which officially only has “bug fixes” — brings just a little bit more than you might expect…