When Android O’s third Developer Preview started rolling out earlier this week, we found a decent amount of user-facing changes made to the operating system including some minor UI tweaks to the Google Camera app, as well as a pretty useful new feature.
CAPTCHAs are a particular nuisance on the web, and even more so on mobile devices with smaller displays to read and type. However, they are a necessary annoyance, with Google now bringing it to Android as part of Play Services.
This year, as a way to celebrate Pride and to help people navigate to events and parades, Google Maps will be displaying different Pride festivities happening in 35 cities around the world…
Playing video on an Android device is generally done through an application dedicated to that purpose. YouTube, Vimeo, and most other video services have their own applications so you don’t have to play things through the browser. Some videos, though, need to be played through a browser. Now, Chrome for Android is quietly adding a new feature that makes watching those videos feel a bit more native.
One of the benefits of using Google Maps is being able to easily navigate cities that might be unfamiliar. For the most part, though, Maps and other GPS technologies only help you navigate public and some private streets and roads, but becomes useless when you enter a building. However, slowly but surely, Google Maps has been adding internal specs for public buildings, and now it appears to be adding the layouts of major subway stations.
Following yesterday’s release to Mac, Windows, and Linux, Chrome 59 is now rolling out to Android. Google notes faster page loading and less memory usage in this version, as well as other stability fixes and security patches.
Without actually announcing anything, the Facebook application on the Google Play Store has been updated to also work on Android TV. Don’t get too excited just yet as the application on your big screen won’t actually resemble the news feed found on the web or on your phone. What Facebook does bring to Android TV are all of the different videos that you see plastered around the social network…
Google Photos is easily one of the company’s best services and it continues to grow in popularity every day. Now, that popularity is really showing, with Google Photos for Android becoming the latest app to hit over a billion installs.
Chrome 59 is rolling out now to Mac, Windows, and Linux with a number of developer-focused features and security fixes. The biggest addition is support for native macOS notifications and full support of the animated PNG format.
For those not in the Beta Program running the latest Android O developer preview, the June security patch is now rolling out. Still on 7.1.2, this update features minor bug fixes and a number of security patches for Google Pixel and Nexus devices.
Face swap applications caught on in a big way over the past year or so, and today Microsoft is jumping into that arena with a new option that ditches the biggest issue with all the others — it has no ads.
Google Photos recently rolled out the ability to create Photo books, as well as an archiving function to clear away clutter from the main image feed. In version 2.16, the latter feature is gaining some smarts with Assistant now suggesting pictures to automatically archive.
As development continues on Android O, more Google apps are beginning to support picture-in-picture mode. Play Movies & TV is the latest, with version 3.26.5 (via Android Police) adding it to devices running the developer preview.
OnePlus is pretty good about always working on updates for its smartphones and keeping its customers in the loop through betas. Today, the company has released yet another beta update for the OnePlus 3/3T and included in it are quite a few nice additions.
Google Drive is full of powerful tools, and Sheets is one that many rely on as an alternative to Microsoft Excel. Today, Google is debuting several new features for Sheets that are bound to become incredibly useful to its users.
Following Russia last week and Canada just yesterday, Android Pay is on a roll with its international rollout. Now in its 13th country, Google’s mobile payment service is going live in Taiwan with support from some local shops, applications, and bank partners.
The latest Gboard beta is now rolling out and with it are a number of improvements to the marquee search feature. Built-in search gets a revamp with more actions on cards, multiple search results, and quicker access to GIF search.
Debuting on Google’s first wholly-made phone, the Pixel Launcher has not received a significant update since October. Rather, there have been minor tweaks and continuing in that line is a slight change to the Google Search pill.
Google has announced a slew of new security features for Gmail, including early phishing detection based on machine learning, unintended external reply warnings, and other defenses against new threats.
As widely rumored, Android Pay is finally available in Canada beginning today. Google’s payment service is now available in its 12th country, with support from a number of local retailers, apps, and banks.
Microsoft is launching a new task management app for Android today called Planner. Previously available as a web app only, Planner works with eligible Office 365 accounts for organizing tasks visually and collaborating across teams.
Google Search is now better at understanding art and surfacing relevant information. In partnership with the Arts & Culture team, there is a new interactive Knowledge Panel, while Street View in museums is using machine learning to recognize paintings.
A lot of Google’s awesome software is free, and the company made a lot of photographers happy last year when it dropped the price tag on its $150 collection of photo editing tools, the Nik Collection. Today, however, Google has revealed that it will no longer be providing updates to that suite.