Along with the flurry of announcements from earlier this afternoon, Google updated the Play Store to feature a couple of new controls to manage your long list of apps. Google introduced the ability to install apps from the desktop in 2011 when the Android Market was kicking, but now users can update and uninstall their apps from the Play Store. Nifty, right? The new feature is only available for third-party apps, not carrier and OEM specific apps, which makes sense. The feature is available on the My Apps page, where you will find an update button and trashcan for deleting apps. Google also pushed Chrome for Android out of beta this afternoon. It is available on the Play Store for Android 4.0 devices or later. Do you like what Google showed off today? Check out the other announcements.(via TechCrunch)
It would not be too far-fetched to claim Google TV is a lackluster affair— even after it has been on the market for close to two years. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said one of the issues with Google TV is that it is not embedded in enough set-top boxes. That could be the problem—or maybe it is just the software. I guess that is up-to personal interpretation. However, at this year’s Google I/O conference, we may get a closer look at a totally revamped Google TV platform that could change the direction of the platform.
Clayton Morris of Fox News,who cited “people familiar with the keynote,” reported that Google would announce a slew of updates for the platform. Morris pointed to the biggest announcement being a joint live TV, DVR, and Netflix interface that will allow you to see all of your content in one place. It is said to let you watch the content you want anywhere without having to dig to find it. Other features that will be shown-off include an AirPlay-like interface for watching content between the smartphone and TV, with a focus on getting third-party apps on the Google TV platform. It should certainly be interesting, along with the tablet and Jelly Bean news expected to unveil.
Last December, Schmidt made some bullish comments. He claimed Google TV will be “embedded in the majority of new TVs by summer of 2012. ″ Time is certainly running out on that promise, Mr. Schmidt. In February, GigaOmsaid Google TV device sales only looked to be in the 500,000 to 1 million-unit range. Ouchies. Google also launched a new Google TV website design this evening:
In February 2011, Google pushed a small change called “Panda” to its search engine-ranking algorithm. The change is allegedly great for most publishers creating high-quality content, but for smaller sites, which in some cases have a large amount of ads, they have seen some problems with their content not showing up (or high) in search results. The Google Webmaster team published a blog post late this afternoon explaining what the algorithm is looking for, and what some publishers could correct. The explanation may help some sites get the ranking they believe they deserve. Google said the change only affected 1 percent of queries, but this could be worth noting for some of you. The biggest thing Google seems to be encouraging is to continue making high-quality content, and not trying to game the algorithm.
We’ve been hearing from many of you that you want more guidance on what you can do to improve your rankings on Google, particularly if you think you’ve been impacted by the Panda update. We encourage you to keep questions like the ones above in mind as you focus on developing high-quality content rather than trying to optimize for any particular Google algorithm.
One other specific piece of guidance we’ve offered is that low-quality content on some parts of a website can impact the whole site’s rankings, and thus removing low quality pages, merging or improving the content of individual shallow pages into more useful pages, or moving low quality pages to a different domain could eventually help the rankings of your higher-quality content.
Facebook added another location feature to its iOS, Android, and mobile web apps this weekend. TechCrunch reported that Facebook’s engineers have shown off a new app on their mobile platform called “Find Friends Nearby.” It allows users to easily add each other on the social network. Find Friends Nearby also makes it easy for people at a certain location or event to fire up the app, and then quickly add each other, which gets rid of any need for having to search for names. A screenshot of the web app version is below:
Find Friends Nearby requires both users to log into Facebook and the FFN platform. If both users are logged in, they can then click a button to quickly add each other. It sounds like the perfect app for a social event where you are meeting a ton of new people. If only this was available for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
Find Friends Nearby’s functionality is not to be confused for what Apple does with its Find My Friends app (but there is a third-party app that works similar and uses FB integration). FFN is not supposed to track your friends, but it is rather intended to make and add new ones. FFN’s functionality looks partly fueled by the technology that was once behind Glancee, which is a startup that was acquired by the folks in Menlo Park in May. Glancee was an app that helped people discover folks with similar interests, but Facebook quickly shut it down. Now, its technology looks rolled into Facebook’s FFN; although, the Glancee team and technology could be used for something very different—you never know.
Facebook engineer Ryan Patterson, who helped build FFN, responded to TechCrunch to help clear a few things up:
I built Find Friends Nearby with another engineer for a hackathon project. While it was originally called ‘Friendshake’, we settled on ‘Find Friends Nearby’ for launch (the URL was a little bit of a homage to the previous iteration).
For me, the ideal use case for this product is the one where when you’re out with a group of people whom you’ve recently met and want to stay in contact with. Facebook search might be effective, or sharing your vanity addresses or business cards, but this tool provides a really easy way to exchange contact information with multiple people with minimal friction.
After a worried investor voiced his concerns about the health of Google’s CEO Larry Page this morning, Page confirmed to employees this afternoon that nothing is seriously wrong, according to theThe Wall Street Journal. Page also assured his staff in a memo that he would “continue to run the company.” This definitely clears things up, because investors began to worry after Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told attendees at the company’s annual investors meeting that Page would not attend the Q2 financial earnings call and Google I/O conference next week due to the chief losing his voice. We are certainly glad nothing serious is happening with the 39-year-old. Check out Schmidt announcing the news about Page this morning:
The 2012 Olympic Games being held in London this July has been given its own official game, dubbed “London Games”, and it is available on the App Store and Google Play this evening. Based off 12 venues that will be used at the Olympics, the game allows players to take part in nine events. A few events include swimming, kayaking, and archery in three different modes: training, competition, and challenge. Just for kicks, you can even build your own athletes with over 220 items. The game also features support for eight languages worldwide.
Two new pieces of news about the rollout of the Samsung Galaxy S III in the United States developed late this afternoon. The first bit concerns the nation’s third-largest carrier, Sprint, which just revealed some shipments of the Galaxy S III might be delayed. The device is set to start shipping June 21, butthe Now Networksaid in a community post that it is “optimistic” and should be able to fill 16GB orders this week. Sprint also said the 32GB model would ship sometime next week for those who pre-ordered —a sure bummer for others who have been eagerly waiting to get the device. (via PC Mag)
We are optimistic that we’ll be shipping all Samsung Galaxy S III-16GB pre-orders this week and that they will be delivered by June 21 as anticipated. There is a chance, however, that we may be a day or two late. We anticipate shipping all Samsung Galaxy S III-32GB pre-orders next week.
Furthermore, T-Mobile provided more information this afternoon on the rollout of the Galaxy S III on its network. Android Community reported that T-Mobile is seeing a high demand for the new smartphone. In return, it will go through with its original June 21 launch date for 29 select markets, while pushing the launch date back for every one else. The 29 markets include: Expand Expanding Close
In wake of today’s announcement about Mountain Lion becoming available in July for $19.99 to consumers, Google released a small update to Chrome for Mac (viaThe Next Web). The update adds stability for developers running Mountain Lion. It also provides the newest version of Flash Player (version 11.3).
The Stable channel has been updated to 19.0.1084.56 for Mac. This build contains a new version of Flash Player (11.3), in addition to more patches to support transitioning to OSX Mountain Lion.
You can download the latest version of Chrome for Mac here.
A tablet out of Google’s Nexus program has been rumored to launch for quite a while, and the consensus is that it is going to be announced at this year’s Google I/O between June 27 and June 29. An unnamed Asus representative confirmed toAndroid Authority at Computex this week that Asus and Google partnered to manufacturer the 7-inch tablet. It will be announced by the end of June. With that time frame, Google I/O sounds like the most likely place that the Nexus tablet will be announced.
The representative was not able to offer any information on pricing or specs but said the tablet is going to be “awesome.” The Nexus tablet has been rumored to cost between $150 and $200 to compete with Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire that now has more than half of the Android tablet market share.
As for the operating system that the tablet will feature, all signs point to the next version of Android called “Jelly Bean.” We will cover I/O live at the end of the month, where we hope to learn more about this supposed “Fire killer.”
Are you ready for an Android fun fact? In a tweet that shot down rumors about him leaving Google to join new startup Cloud Car, Android boss Andy Rubin revealed there are now 900,000 Android devices being activated on a daily basis. That is a 200,000-unit increase since December.
Today is Yang’s last day as deputy general counsel at Google. Soon, he’ll be Pinterest’s head of legal, a PR rep for the company confirms.
What will Michael Yang be doing?
But Pinterest faces a serious legal challenge in its future: a huge portion of the content hosted on the site is copyrighted content, posted without the consent or even knowlege of the copyright owners. Expand Expanding Close
We reported yesterday that Foursquare 5.0 made its way to the iTunes App Store for iOS devices. Today, the new version of the social check-in app is now available on Google Play for those who prefer Android. The new version of Foursquare features a more streamlined user-interface that gets rid of a lot of clutter that the app once featured. Furthermore, Foursquare on Android now features a revamped Explore tab, which allows you to search several categories like restaurants for new, exciting locations. It will also show you popular locations based on where you are currently located. There is even a new tab to check out what your friends are up to—among other things. Of course, the revamped app also features the traditional Foursquare check-in feature, which something we hope is never lost from the service. With this update, Foursquare could now be a great replacement to Yelp or Google Places.
Sony’s SmartWatch went on sale in the United States during April on its online store, and now the Bluetooth-enabled watch has hit Verizon, with a few accessories (viaEngadget). The SmartWatch is now available at Verizon retail stores and online for $149. The few accessories include a white watchband for $19.99 and new chargers. For those unfamiliar, the SmartWatch offers a small 1.3-inch OLED display that showcases email, text messages, calls, and more. It pairs to devices featuring Android 2.1 and higher, letting you get a ton of information on your wrist at a glance. We played with the watch at Sony’s offices in New York a few months ago. While we were impressed, the OLED screen is pretty lacking. Have any of you tried this? Let us know your experience in the comments below.
Matching the price of a refurbished Kindle Fire, Amazon Local is offering a new Kindle Fire today for only $169. That is $30 off the original price of $199, which makes it a good deal. For those located in the United States (sorry everyone else), you can pick up the voucher today from Amazon Local, and then redeem it by June 15. Better yet—the $169 purchase comes with a $5 Amazon Video credit (limit one per customer)!
The reason most people do not like when a larger company—like Google—acquires a smaller company is that the smaller usually begins to shut down services. We have seen it happen a ton, and Google’s acquisition of Meebo is no different. Just after the acquisition was announced earlier this week, Engadget reported that Meebo would begin shutting down a number of its services starting July 11. Among the features being axed are Meebo Messenger, Sharing on Meebo, MeeboMe, and all the mobile apps that Meebo makes available. The closing down of services is most likely happening because the Meebo team is set to work on Google+ features.
Meebo did state that they plan to keep its Bar product alive for a few more months, and it will make chat logs and history available for download. Is anyone upset?
Google Wallet is certainly an impressive piece of technology, but only coming pre-installed on one carrier in the US, it’s not exactly off to the greatest start. In hopes of revamping the service, Google has begun work on Wallet 2.0, reportsThe Verge. The revamped service will allegedly featured a more cloud-based architecture, which will be helped by Google’s recent acquisition of TxVia. Currently, Google Wallet only comes pre-installed on the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus on Sprint. For Google Wallet 2.0 to really take off, it would make sense for Google to get a few more partners on board. However, the other three major carriers are attached to their own mobile payment product, called Isis.
But, Google may not be partnered with the Now Network for too much longer. According to a new report out today from the NFCTimes, Sprint is currently working with partners to launch its own mobile payment service — allegedly called “Touch”.It’s not exactly clear if Sprint plans to drop Google Wallet, but offering their own service would give them more control, and it wouldn’t make sense for them to hold on two both platforms. We’re sure more information will come soon.
As for more on Google 2.0, that will most likely be discussed at this year’s Google I/O conference, taking place from June 27th – 29th in San Francisco.
For those looking to watch this year’s Olympic games, but do not have a cable subscription or just like the feel of YouTube a little better, the International Olympic Committee has you covered. AP reported that the IOC would live-stream over 2,200 hours of the Olympics on to YouTube for those across Asian and in Africa. According to the report, the streaming is primarily for countries that the IOC does not have rights to broadcast in, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand, and Singapore. The program will run from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. London time with 10 streams of different events. Viewers in 64 territories can check the games out on the Olympics channel when they begin July 27.
In its bi-monthly report, Google posted some impressive numbers on Ice Cream Sandwich and bragged its latest mobile operating system was installed on 7.1-percent of all Android handsets. Ice Cream Sandwich was released on the Galaxy Nexus last fall, and the Roboto-filled OS now seems to be making some headway on the charts. Google’s second oldest version of Android, Gingerbread, still leads the way, however, with 65 percent of Android’s user base. It is worth noting that Gingerbread also saw a bit of growth during the last few weeks. We cannot wait to see where Ice Cream Sandwich heads before the release of Jelly Bean. Hopefully, we will hear more information on Jelly Bean at this year’s Google I/O happening from June 27 to June 29. In the mean time, you can check out the graphs after the break for the full breakdown.
Google began selling its popular Galaxy Nexus (HSPA version) last month directly on the Google Play website for a cool $399. Fast forward to today, Google announced that accessories for the Galaxy Nexus are now available on the Play store too. The accessories that Google opened for sale include a $54 Vehicle Dock, $49 Portrait HDMI Portrait Desktop Dock, and a $54 Desktop Dock with Pogo Pin. Check out the listing here for more information.
With the hopes of taking on Apple’s iTunes, South Korea-based Samsung launched its Music Hub product today. Music Hub offers 19 million streaming music selections to Galaxy S III customers, along with 100GB of storage space to match songs in the cloud for those who choose to pay—much like Apple’s iTunes Match offering. Samsung’s matching service will run for £9.99 a month; however, you can still access the 19 million songs without paying to browse. Interestingly, a lot of the Music Hub technology comes from Samsung’s acquisition of mSpot earlier this month. New Galaxy S III owners can register for an account upon setting up their new device to get going. You can go past the break for all of the juicy details.
Samsung’s long-awaited Galaxy S III officially launched worldwide today in 28 countries. The Galaxy S III unveiled earlier this month as a successor to the popular Galaxy S II. The smartphone features top-of-the-line specs, including a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED (1,280-by-720 pixel) display, 8-megapixel rear-camera, 1.9-megapixel front-camera, 1.4 GHz Exynos processor, and Android 4.0. While it may not be as exciting as the HTC One X and others, the Galaxy S III is definitely destined to be a hot-seller. The 28 countries include most of Europe and the Middle East; however, there is still no word on a U.S. release date, which is most likely coming soon. Samsung said the Galaxy S III should make its way to at least 145 countries by July. Who is picking up this Exynos beast?
Apple’s Retina Display featured on both the iPhone and iPad is one of the hottest displays on a handset to date, and it is one of the key selling points for both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Originally manufactured by LG, the display features a 326 PPI pixel density on a 3.5-inch display with an 800:1 contrast ratio. The eye cannot even make out the individual pixels, but the Retina Display is now being trumped. LG has announced a new 5-inch smartphone screen featuring a full 1080p HD resolution, a 440 PPI pixel density, and a 16:9 aspect ratio. Can you imagine HD movies on this display?
Such a high quality display is causing a few red flags to be thrown up. The first is battery life. This display has to drain that sucker fast by requiring a lot of power for so many pixels. Second is the need for a GPU that can power something that high. Do not be mistaken, though. This has to look amazing.
According to LG, the display will be available by Q3 and should be ready to ship in phones shortly after—ideally before the holidays. We are excited to get our eyes on this bad boy to check it out. You can peruse the full press release (via Engadget) after the break for all the juicy details.
Google posted a new page on its Transparency Report that details content the company has been forced to remove from its search engine (via The Verge). The information is interesting, because it gives us a look at how often Google is asked to remove something for all to see. During this past month, the team in Mountain View, Calif., was forced to remove 1,246,713 links from its pages, and non other than Microsoft is leading the requests. The Redmond, Wash.-based Company requested that Google remove 543,378 links this month, followed by a British recording company and NBC Universal. As you can see in the graph below, the number of takedown requests served has increased dramatically over the last nine months—ever since Google started keeping track in July of last year. So why is Google publishing the data now? The company said, “As policymakers and Internet users around the world consider the pros and cons of different proposals to address the problem of online copyright infringement, we hope this data will contribute to the discussion.” The takedown requests by the record labels are not surprising, but Microsoft leading the pack certainly is.
