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.
Most watches have received the Android Wear 1.5 update at this point, but now we’ve spotted the first report of the update hitting the Fossil Q Founder. Still based on Android 6.0.1, the Android Wear 1.5 update contains just a few incremental tweaks…
According to a report today out of The Information, Google’s recently-formed partnership with Fiat Crysler to make 100 self-driving minivans is nothing more than the automobile company getting “a seat at the table” with Google. This comes as the Mountain View company struggles to find a path to actually market its self-driving technology, juggling a variety of not-so-great options that include licensing the tech to struggling automakers and entering the ridesharing business…
First announced at Google I/O 2016, Google has today released version 3 of its Google Cast SDK to developers. The new SDK significantly reduces the code required to add Cast support to your app, provides UI widgets that comply with the Cast Design checklist, a Cast notification and lockscreen controller on Android, and more.
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HP has today launched the latest version of its lower-end Chromebook, the HP Chromebook 11-inch G5. At first glance there might not appear to be anything special about this laptop, but there are a couple of standout features: the laptop offers more than 12 hours of battery life, and there’s also a model that includes a touchscreen (essential for those planning to take advantage of recently-announced Android app support coming to more Chrome OS devices later this year)…
According to a report this morning out of Android Police, Google is working on an app for live support on Nexus devices. Tentatively named “Google Support,” the app — think Amazon’s Mayday button — will allow users to quickly get help with their phones. This app also reportedly features the ability to share your screen with the real agent on the other end, making getting help just that much easier…
We told you across several exclusive reports last year about not-so-new Google Glass hardware that the Mountain View company has been privately testing within the Project Aura group and with external clients, but we were also the first to tell you that the device is internally known as “Enterprise Edition”.
Now, public-facing support pages we discovered on Google’s servers confirm the “Enterprise Edition” moniker as well as reveal regulatory and warranty information for the device…
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Boston Dynamics is still owned by Google/Alphabet as of today (as far as we know), and that means that the company’s latest developments are still relevant here at 9to5Google. That’s probably going to change soon, but for now, the latest creepy and unnerving robots that the company shows off in its videos are still attributable to the Mountain View company. The latest is a miniature version of its Spot robot with the addition of a giraffe-like neck. Yep, it’s not getting any less creepy…
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We know that Samsung has slowly begun investing more into its own Tizen OS platform as of late (and recent rumors suggest that it could begin moving in that direction even more). But now it appears that yet another Android OEM has begun building its own mobile OS: Huawei. The Chinese company “doesn’t want to be on the crutch of Android,” according to a report today from The Information, although people familiar with the project say it’s still early days…
Google has today announced that the latest version of its photo editor Snapseed is now rolling out to iOS and Android users. The latest version packs a slew of useful features, such as a new blue filter and the addition of white balance in the RAW editor on Android…
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I remember back in the day when VLC was just the necessary media player for pretty much any Mac owner. Since then, the free and open source cross-platform multimedia player has expanded beyond Mac and PC to mobile devices running Android and iOS. Today, the VideoLAN organization has pushed out VLC for Android 2.0, and it’s probably the app’s biggest release since its first out-of-beta release in February of last year…
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Energy companies in California are set to move customers over to Time of Use plans over the next couple of years, and that’s going to mean that you — the California resident — will be paying for energy based on its exact price at any given moment. Some times of the day are cheaper than others. This is great for some, but it’s going to mean that many are going to have to more closely monitor their energy use if they want to stay in budget.
Nest today has announced that it is bringing a feature, called Time of Savings, to the Nest Thermostat to help you manage your Time of Use energy usage and keep your costs to a minimum…
At CES earlier this year, Huawei’s budget brand Honor launched its budget Honor 5X handset. Us and many others agree that the 5X is a great phone for the price, but suffers greatly in the software department. Now, Honor has announced a similarly-affordable phone dubbed the Honor 5C in Europe, and it starts at £149 (or about $220)…
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Sprint has announced today that it’s bringing yet another cheap budget offering to its two prepaid carriers: the LG K3. The phone sports pretty modest specs for the price (something that we’ve been able to say more and more these days), and even ships with Android Marshmallow. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re on a budget this is a pretty decent option…
In case you didn’t hear, Google is planning to launch a couple of new messaging apps in the “summer”: Allo and Duo. The former is a familiar messaging app that builds in support for some of Google’s machine learning and AI technologies (and some more quirky new features), and the latter is a super-simple one-to-one video calling app that boasts speed and encryption.
Now, with the apps’ launches coming just around the corner (“this summer”, Google says), Google has given both a new updated icon…
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The CEO of Google’s parent company, Larry Page, once invited Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey to Google’s campus to make him an offer for Twitter. That’s according to a Vanity Fair article, which says that Page “sat eerily close to Dorsey” and “whisper[ed] his acquisition pitch into his ear”…
Magic Leap isn’t part of Google, but Google put enough money — more than $500 million — into the startup early on that it might not be around if not for the help of the Mountain View firm. So far, Magic Leap has been amazingly secretive in its progress toward developing the next generation of augmented reality and mixed reality — so much so that almost any glimpse into the company’s projects is notable.
Today, the company has announced that it is working with LucasFilm and ILMxLAB to build immersive Star Wars experiences based on its tech…