Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac. He covers Google for 9to5Google.com, the best gadgets and deals on 9to5Toys.com, and delivers a weekly roundup of EV and solar news on Electrek.co. Sometimes he makes weird electronic music as one half of Makamachine.
Contact Jordan with news tips and long-winded complaints:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q0yZomXuSw
Google today announced Google Cast for audio, which the company says takes advantage of Chromecast tech to send audio to third-party hardware like speakers, A/V receivers, and sound bars. The feature will allow users to tap a “cast” button from within music and radio apps on Android, iOS and the web to stream audio to Google Cast enabled speakers.
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One of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s favorite terms to throw around during earnings calls and keynote presentations is “Customer Sat,” but the latest from the American Customer Satisfaction Index has Apple down compared to last year while Samsung continues to rise despite declining sales.
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Google made an announcement today on its Google+ page for its Self-Driving Car Project revealing what it called “ the first real build” of its self-driving vehicle. It gave a first look at the prototype vehicle back in May.
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DirecTV announced a partnership with Fox Networks today that will see its subscribers gain access to content in Fox Now, FXNow, and Nat Geo TV apps on Android in addition to other platforms.
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Samsung focused blog SamMobile today posted the videos above and below showing off an upcoming Android 5.0.1 update for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note Edge, and Galaxy S5 LTE-A.
The update is mostly bug fixes, according to the report, but it also has a few notable new features including slow and fast motion video recording functions.
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Google Maps is today releasing imagery of iconic holiday window displays from retailers in London and New York, allowing users to get a Street View-style experience of the elaborate Christmas and holiday decorations that a few big retail stores are known for.
The Street View Windows Displays include Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, and Bloomingdale’s in NYC, and Liberty and Selfridges in London.
Half the fun of holiday shopping is seeing the lavish, seasonal displays in the windows of shops and department stores as you pass by. Starting today, with Google Maps Business View, you can see decked out displays in New York and London—without braving the cold weather, lugging bags around or fighting for sidewalk space with fellow shoppers. Now grab your virtual reindeer because we’re off to our holiday window tour!
The feature is yet another way Google is attempting to promote its Google Maps Business View feature, which allows businesses and others to add the indoor virtual tours to Maps to complement the Street View imagery it has long offered for navigating outdoors.
Earlier this week Google added a virtual, 360-degree tour of The Colbert Report studio ahead of the show’s final episode.
McDonald’s is testing Bluetooth beacon-based offers in at least some of its locations as it pilots beacon platform Piper that works with both Android devices and iOS devices using Apple’s iBeacon framework.
Piper announced today that it’s testing its beacon platform in McDonald’s franchises in Columbus, Georgia and pushing deals out to users that download its mobile app that sends location-based offers when users come in contact with its beacons.
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Yahoo announced an update to its Yahoo Android app today that adds local news, commenting, and UI tweaks to the company’s app for accessing news and other Yahoo services.
Want to know more about what’s going on around you? Today we’re bringing local news to your fingertips with the Yahoo App. As you move around the country, you’ll be able to see what’s going on in your area.
In addition to local news stories for users in the US, readers now have the ability to comment on articles:
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With Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report officially coming to an end tonight and host Stephen Colbert moving on to “The Late Show” next year, Google today added a virtual, 360-degree tour of the show’s studio to Google Maps.
Google is promoting its Google Maps Business View feature, which allows businesses and others to add the indoor virtual tours to Maps to complement the Street View imagery it has long offered for navigating outdoors.
The series concludes tomorrow, but you can still feel like you’re in the audience (or relive the good ol’ days) with a brand-new virtual tour of the studio. And the show has created an interactive experience with the Business View imagery that lets you explore and remember some of your favorite moments from the show. And for those who want to tour more entertainment and news studios, check out our Views gallery.
As always, Google reminds that Business Views feature is available across platforms in Maps whenever a “See Inside” marker appears over locations. Google says it has already added indoor imagery for hotels, restaurants and retail locations in over 30 countries.
Google today announced that it’s adding new shortcuts for its Google Drive web apps— Docs, Sheets, and Slides— to the App Launcher feature accessible from the upper right corner of most its web services (pictured right). The new shortcuts join services like Search, Mail, Calendar, and Drive that were previously accessible from the App Launcher.
For regular users, Google is adding Docs to the main section of the App Launcher and making Sheets and Slides shortcuts available by opting in when visiting the apps:
And the next time you visit sheets.google.com or slides.google.com, you’ll see the option to add Sheets and Slides to the launcher as well. Remember that you can always rearrange the icons to your liking by just clicking and dragging them around… One note–if you’ve already customized the arrangement of your icons, you’ll need to visit docs.google.com and click “Add a shortcut” in the App Launcher to get the Docs icon to appear.
For Google Apps users, Google will put Docs, Slides, and Sheets shortcuts in the App Launcher by default and bump Groups and Contacts into the “More” section of the launcher.
Apps users can expect the change to kick in early next month.
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Yahoo announced an update to its Weather app today that brings the high-quality animations for weather conditions it first launched in its iOS app earlier this year to Android.
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Google announced today that an update rolling out to its Google Drive Android and iOS app will allow users to search for files using the Google app with voice commands, access Google’s My Maps feature, and more. iOS 8 users will also now be able to upload files from other apps following today’s update.
On Android, you can now search for files in Drive from the Google app. For example, you could say “OK, Google — search for holiday letter on Drive” to get to your files without opening the app and typing keywords.
The ability to upload files from other apps into Drive is limited to iOS 8 users, and the Google My Maps integration is limited to viewing and sharing the custom maps currently.
For creating custom maps with Google My Maps, you’ll still need the desktop app. Earlier this month Google integrated the My Maps custom maps creation tool into the web version of Drive.
The updated Google Drive app for Android is rolling out over the next few days.
Instagram announced a few new features rolling out today including the addition of five new filters, slo-mo video uploads, and real-time comments.
The five new filters arriving today include Slumber, Crema, Ludwig, Perpetua, and Aden (pictured below). Instagram said the new filters are “more subtle” and take advantage of “higher image quality, while still giving you a simple way to capture the mood, tone and feelings of the moment.”
Inspired by the photography, art, fashion and design of the global Instagram community, we’re releasing five new filters that we believe are our best yet… They soften and subtly shift colors to achieve the look and feel you want for your each photo… To make it easier to choose between filters, we’ve updated how they’re displayed. When you go to apply a filter to your photo, each filter icon on the bottom now displays a blurred preview of your photo with its effect applied. This lets you see at a glance how your photo will appear with each filter applied.
In addition to the ability to upload slo-mo videos shot on your Android device, you’ll also no longer need to refresh to see new comments as Instagram said they will now appear in real-time following today’s update.
Other new features arriving today include “the option to adjust your photo’s perspective using the adjust tool” and the ability to customize the app’s filters tray based on your preferences via a new manage button.
The new features will arrive for users today in the latest version of the Instagram mobile apps.
Google announced today that it’s now officially supporting ODF files in Google Drive allowing users to import all three major ODF file formats. That includes .odt files for documents, .ods for spreadsheets, and .odp for presentations, the file types used by applications like Open Office and others supporting the open platform.
Alongside announcing the new feature, Google noted a few other improvements headed to at least the web version of the Drive apps:
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T-Mobile announced its latest Un-carrier initiative today with a new “Data Stash” feature that allows customers to bank unused data and carry it over month-to-month for up to a year.
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T-Mobile announced today that it’s now selling Google’s latest HTC-made Nexus 9 tablet for $0 down or $600. As noted by T-Mobile, this will be the first place you can officially get the LTE version of the Nexus 9 through a US carrier. However, Google Play will also soon be selling the LTE Neuxs 9.
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Google announced today that it’s adding the Google Maps lane guidance feature it rolled out to select locations earlier this year to additional countries just in time for the holidays. Google said today that Maps now includes lane guidance for highways in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, and Ireland.
When you’re in the turn-by-turn navigation mode, we can now make sure you don’t miss your next turn or exit by showing you which lane to stay in or move to so you’ll never find yourself darting across traffic at the last minute — or worse, driving for miles down the wrong road. When you approach a junction or exit with multiple lanes, voice guidance will suggest which lanes are best for your route. You’ll also have easy access to alternate routes while you’re navigating, so you can choose the best drive for you.
Google first announced the feature back in May, which offers real-time info to help drivers prepare for upcoming turns or necessary lane changes, and it’s been rolling out to select countries and locations since.
The lane guidance feature is available through turn-by-turn Navigation in the Google Maps app on Android and iPhone.
Google today announced some updates for its Google Cardboard virtual reality experience that it says is now in the hands of around 500k people since launching in June (not including unofficial versions). The main updates include new SDKs for developers building experiences on Android and Unity and a dedicated section for virtual reality Cardboard apps in the Google Play store.
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Google announced today that it’s making its custom map creation tool called Google My Maps available to users inside of Google Drive. That means that that custom map tool will appear as a Drive app alongside the usual Google Doc, Sheet, Slides, Drawings, etc (as pictured above).
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Instagram announced today that it’s now at 300 million monthly active users, up from 200 million users that it announced approximately nine months ago. The company is announcing the new milestone on its website alongside other update user stats.
In addition, Instagram is today rolling out verified badges for brands and public figures while announcing it’s making a “significant effort to remove spammy and fake accounts”:
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After announcing its Oculus-powered Gear VR earlier this year, Samsung’s new virtual reality experience for its Note 4 smartphone is now available to order through its website and other retailers in the US.
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Yahoo announced today that it will be hosting its first ever developer conference, The Yahoo Mobile Developer Conference, early next year in February. Yahoo confirmed it plans to use the event to unveil a new suite of developer tools for mobile apps that will “help developers better understand their users and improve, grow and monetize their apps.”
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Sonos is today rolling out software update 5.2, previously in beta, and with it includes an updated Sonos Controller app for Android that brings multi-account support and other new features.
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I first got my hands on Pinć (pronounced Pinch) last month when the company gave me a tech demo of its still-in-development VR headset/smartphone case that utilizes Minority Report-style user interfaces. The company initially opened up preorders for the $99 accessory for iPhones, but today it’s making the Android version official by offering Android devs the same opportunity to preorder the hardware ahead of an official launch next summer.
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