Google has started notifying users of its Play Store about a $19 million settlement it reached with the FTC in September. The company is being required to pay out refunds for in-app purchases made by children on their parents’ credit cards after one of Apple’s lawyers brought the case to the FTC’s attention.

Users will have until December 2nd, 2015 to log into their Play Store accounts and mark any in-app purchases that were made by a minor in order to qualify for a refund. The total refund isn’t limited to $19 million, as that number serves only as a minimum required by the FTC.

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Image via @<a href="https://twitter.com/rajananandan/status/542213782395555840" target="_blank">RajanAnandan</a>

Google announced during its Great Online Shopping Festival 2014 tonight that it will officially launch the Chromecast streaming device in India. The HDMI dongle will be available through online retailer SnapDeal for Rs 2,999 later tonight—a bit higher than the $35 price in the States.

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YouTube for Android has finally been updated with a Material Design interface for devices running Lollipop. The entire app has been redesigned, from the “What to Watch” screen to individual channel and video pages.

Aside from the new design, the updated app also includes many new filter options for searches, allowing users to find videos that meet specific criteria. For example, you can now search only for videos that are available in HD, or have closed captioning enabled. You can also search for live streams.

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Verizon and LG have partnered on a new version of the G3 which was unveiled today for World AIDS Day. The (PRODUCT)RED G3 features a “Blaze Red” body, but is otherwise exactly the same as the black and white models launched earlier this year.

For the uninitiated, the G3 includes a 5.5-inch display, 13 MP rear camera, and Android 4.4 (with Lollipop rolling out for it now). 9to5Google‘s Dom Esposito reviewed the device in June, calling it “the closest thing on the market to a no-compromise smartphone.”

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Google has updated Play Services for Android with several new developer features for its Maps, Fit, and other APIs. Developers incorporating Google Maps into their apps will find a new toolbar available to users that allows them to instantly get directions or open a map in the Google Maps application from within a third-party app.

An additional “lite mode” has been added that allows developers to include a static map image in locations that would normally make it impractical or impossible to manipulate the map. These “lite mode” maps can be tapped to open in the Maps app.

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Earlier this year Google announced the Project Tango tablet with “advanced vision capabilities” that would be coming at an undisclosed date in 2015, with a development kit coming near the end of this year. Now, as noted by Android Central, the tablet has finally popped up on the Google Play Store. It’s not showing on the store’s Devices page just yet, but the listing is accessible if you have the link.

At the moment shoppers won’t be able to buy the prototype tablet which includes an NVIDIA Tegra K1 CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. It also comes with a motion tracking camera and integrated depth sensors.

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Google-owned robotics lab Boston Dynanics has debuted new video of its 6’2″ Atlas robot, also known as “Ian.” The hulking mass of metal, which weighs a whopping 330 lbs, has been programmed to recreate a key scene from the 1984 film The Karate Kid.

Ian is part of an ongoing robotics project that seeks to create automatons that can replace humans in hazardous roles like firefighting. Ian has already demonstrated a variety of abilities, including traversing difficult and uneven terrain, carrying objects such as firehoses, and even to get into a car and drive it. It can also use both its hands and feet to climb over the most treacherous obstacles.

Video below:

Google and LG have entered into a new agreement that will see both companies cross-licensing technology patents and products that covers all existing patents as well as any filed during the next decade. Google says the point of this agreement is to ensure that both companies can focus on innovating rather than worrying about who owns which technology.

Earlier this year Google created a similar agreement with Samsung in an attempt by the Mountain View-based corporation to forge tighter bonds with its Android handset makers while enabling them to take on competition from Apple.

The full press release from Google and LG is included below:

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Back in February, Apple and Disney teamed up on a new app called Movies Anywhere that allowed iOS users to access their library of purchased movies—whether bought on the iTunes Store, DVD, or other media (with the appropriate redemption code in the box).

Today, Disney has launched the same service for Android users. Movies Anywhere owners will now be able to access their movie library featuring titles from Disney, Pixar, and Marvel from any of their devices. Because this is a cross-platform solution, movies previously purchased on the iTunes Store will now be available to users on Android devices, and iOS users will be able to watch Disney movies they’ve purchased from the Google Play Store.

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In July, Google’s webspam team leader Matt Cutts announced that he was taking some time off from Google to spend time with his family. Originally he planned to take just a few months off and return in October, but a note added to his original blog post indicates that he now plans to extend the break into 2015.

Cutts says that he checked in with Google’s webspam team to make sure that everything was running smoothly, and when he found that the team was operating fine on its own, he decided that he would take some more personal time.

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Larry Page recently sat down for an interview with the Financial Times that covered a wide variety of topics regarding the past, present, and future of Google and Page’s vision for the company. The executive wastes no time in confessing that he believes Google may be expansive enough that it’s time to consider a new mission statement.

When Page and his co-founder Sergey Brin created Google, their mission statement was simple: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Since then, the company has evolved into something beyond just a search engine, with a hand in everything from smartphones, to laptops, to robotics research, and even stuff that sounds like it came straight out of science fiction.

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Android co-founder Andy Rubin is leaving Google, according to the Wall Street Journal. Rubin joined Google when the company bought Android and most recently headed up the new robotics division. That division will reportedly remain intact under the leadership of James Kuffner, who is currently a member of that team.

The change was confirmed by CEO Larry Page. The Wall Street Journal reports that Rubin is planning to launch an incubator for startups that focus on creating high-tech hardware.

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Skim Mode control (Click for animation)

Google has pushed an update to the Play Books application for Android that includes an all-new ‘skim’ mode that makes it easier to quickly flip through a book. Google says the feature is designed with reference books in mind, allowing readers to quickly flip through the book to find specific sections, notes, or highlights.

The update also includes support for quick bookmarking that makes it easier to quickly jump between different sections of a book. Of course, the focus on reference materials fits nicely with the app’s existing notes and highlighting features, which can be browsed more easily in the new version.

You can grab the updated Google Play Books app for free from the Play Store.

Microsoft hasn’t officially announced its wearable device, but it seems the company has accidentally published its desktop syncing client to the Mac App Store early. Whoops. The device is called the Microsoft Band (possibly Lumia Band, according to some currently non-functional support URLs).

The Microsoft privacy policy for the app lists some of the Band’s features: “Microsoft Band sensors help you keep track of things like your heart rate, steps, calories burned, and sleep.” Links in the document claiming to lead to a page with additional data, such as a list of sensors, currently lead to a 404 page.

Other key feature include the ability to get phone notifications on the Band, create reminders using Cortana, and more:

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Version 3.5 of the Google for Android application includes a new API that developers can take advantage of to activate “Ok Google” functionality within their own apps. According to the Android developer blog, software makers can add a few lines of code to their app to enable users to search it using a global voice command.

Once the feature has been integrated into an app (Talon, for example), users will be able to say things like “Ok Google, search for 9to5google in Talon” to trigger a search for that term within Talon.

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