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:
Google is today making Reminders accessible in Google Calendar on the web after previously adding the feature to the app for Android and iPhone users. The Reminders that you create in other Google app– like Inbox, Keep, and the Google app, for example– will show up in Calendar and stay synced across apps as you make changes.
T-Mobile is adding more services to its Binge On and Music Freedom features, which allow its customers to stream video and audio content from certain apps without eating into their wireless plan’s data allowance.
“It’s a fact … Un-carrier Data is different than Carrier Data. It’s better! Nobody does data like T-Mobile!” said Legere. “Un-carrier Data is not only faster, it lasts a lot longer than the other guys… As of today, you stream unlimited music and video from over 100 providers – without ever touching your Un-carrier Data or worrying about overages—and you can stash what you don’t use for later. Try that with Carrier Data. It’s gone in a flash, and you’re getting hit with penalties—or they repossess it after a month or two. Ridiculous!”
Among the 16 total new services being added today, users can now stream audio data-free from Amazon Music, Chilltrax, ESPN Radio, OHIO.FM, PreDanz and Uforia.
And for video, services officially added to the list today include Dailymotion, EPIX, OVGuide, OWNZONES, Viki, YipTV, 120 Sports, Nickelodeon, Spike, and TV Land.
T-Mobile shared some stats about the Binge On and Music Freedom initiatives noting that users have streamed approximately 90 billion songs without using data since launch (around 210 million songs a day). It also pointed out that its users “are watching 2x more from free streaming sites on plans with limited data and have streamed over 190 million hours of video for free.”
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The addition of the new services today brings up the number of audio and video services supported by Binge On and Music Freedom to 100 total. You can view a full list of supported services on T-Mobile’s website.
Google Drive is experiencing down time for some users this morning, Google has confirmed on its app status page that tracks service disruptions and outages for the company’s various web services.
T-Mobile may not traditionally have the MLB coverage that bigger providers like AT&T and Verizon possess, but no one can argue that it isn’t trying to do everything in its power to stand out in other ways. Between April 3rd and April 10th, T-Mobile customers can sign up for a free year of MLB.TV Premium service, a $109.99 value, that features live games for the entire 2016 MLB season.
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As part of announcements at Microsoft’s Build 2016 conference today, Skype announced a new ‘Bots’ platform that it’s launching today in preview mode for developers and users in the Android app (as well as the iPhone, iPad and Windows apps).
The Waze maps app— the one Google acquired a few years back to improve its own mapping services—today announced a new features that will warn drivers when they are driving over the speed limit.
Now when you’re using the Waze app to navigate, you’ll automatically see a visual warning (pictured above) if you go over the speed limit, and you can also manually set audio warnings for reaching the limit or hitting 5, 10 or 15% over.
Big changes are coming to the community-based music streaming service SoundCloud as the company today introduces a new subscription service for the first time.
The new feature, dubbed SoundCloud Go, will allow users to listen to SoundCloud music both offline and ad-free for $10/month:
Update: The Miitomo app is now available on the Play Store.
The game is already available in Japan— that’s how Jeff managed to go hands-on in our first look video earlier this month— but today Nintendo confirmed that its first smartphone game, Miitomo, will officially arrive in the US on March 31st.
The game isn’t exactly bringing over any of Nintendo’s very popular first party franchises to Android devices, but it does feature known Mii characters and, as we noted in our review, the release feels very much like a Nintendo title:
When you first start Miitomo, it’s immediately recognizable as a Nintendo title. It feels like someone took my Nintendo Wii and shrunk it down to fit inside of my iPhone 6s. The music and sound effects, most notably, are of the characteristic Nintendo style. The Miis themselves look just like the Miis on the game-maker’s handheld and home consoles. The writing — witty, with just a hint of corniness thrown in for good measure — is classic Nintendo.
Nintendo noted in its press release today that Miitomo was downloaded over a million times in the first three days after launch in Japan and it also managed to become the #1 most downloaded free app in both the App Store and Google Play.
While Nintendo didn’t mention other countries by name today, it did say that “several other countries” will receive the title on the 31st alongside users in the US.
Check out our review of the game on our sister site 9to5Mac from earlier this month to get a first look before it officially arrives in the US and other countries on the 31st.
Google is today showing off redesigned apps for its AdWords advertising service that it says bring a completely reimagined experience based on user feedback.
Casio is today releasing its Android Wear-based Smart Outdoor Watch through the Google Store and other retailers after first announcing the device during Baselworld earlier this month.
Google is updating its Google Sheets and Slides apps for iOS today with new features that allow changing themes, filters and layouts on the fly from within the mobile apps.
For Google Sheets, the update brings the ability to view and change existing filters applied to a spreadsheet.
After announcing a deal in September to produce a Pokémon Go games with Nintendo and Alphabet-owned Niantic, the Pokémon people are today showing a little more about how gameplay will work and giving us a first look at the title coming to both Android and iOS devices.
The game uses augmented reality features to blend real world objects and locations with the gameplay, and the company today gave the run down and a look at how exactly that will work:
Google today updated the Sheets and Slides apps for Android with support for additional file formats.
To reflect the recent expansion of its Google Cast streaming platform, Google’s Chromecast app is being renamed to the “Google Cast” app. Google is also announcing some new Google Cast-enabled speakers and TVs from Vizio.
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We already knew the LG G5 would launch in early April at the major US retailers (with a free spare battery and cradle offer in tow), but today AT&T makes things official for its customers announcing a preorder date of March 21st ahead of a launch on April 1st.
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Ford today announced that its first vehicle to offer support for Google’s Android Auto in-dash system will be the 2017 Escape going on sale in May.
IDC’s latest report is out today with new estimates based on worldwide wearable shipments, and in it is a prediction that Apple Watch will hold the market lead this year and through 2020 as Android Wear begins to close the gap.
While the report shows estimates based on overall wearable shipments, which IDC says will go from 72.2 million last year to 100 million in 2016 for watch and wristband products, it also shows a breakdown of estimates for leading smartwatch platforms by operating system…
T-Mobile is expanding its Binge On initiative that allows users to stream content in certain apps without using up their data allowance, and with today’s update YouTube and Google Play Movies are now officially supported.
Uber is beginning to test a new feature that will make it easier for family and other close-knit groups to share an Uber account. That means that your family could use a single credit card for Uber across several devices, making it easy for parents to pay for their kids or other family members, for example.
Following the introduction of the TAG Heuer Android Wear watch late last year— the first of the major Swiss brands to launch a full-fledged smartwatch— TAG’s parent company says Hublot will likely be its next brand to receive smartwatch features. Bloomberg reports:
You’ll soon be able to hold video chat meetings with much larger groups as today Google begins increasing the number of participants Apps customers can have in a Google Hangouts video call at any one time. The old limit of 10 participants today gets increased to 25 users.
The change comes to Apps customers only— Business, Government, and Education— while all other Hangouts users will still have the old limit of 10 participants for video.
Google notes that it will only show “the 10 most active video call participants” along the bottom of the video chat to maintain quality, but it will switch on the fly between active users for the new limit of up to 25 participants.
All Apps customers should start to see the new participant limit increase roll out over the next few days.
Google is adding the ability to set expiration dates for access to documents across Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides apps. The idea is that you can limit a contributor’s access to a document for a specific time period, which Google points out will come in handy for companies and organizations that often share files with third-parties temporarily:
Google Maps is adding new ride options on mobile devices today as it turns the former Uber-only feature into a section dedicated to several car services. It’s launching today for Android users and coming soon to other platforms.
Google announced today that it’s bringing the “Smart Reply” feature previously only available to mobile users to Inbox by Gmail on the web.
