An update to Google-owned photo editor Snapseed today adds new filters that allow users to overlay text on images in a variety of styles. Snapseed 2.8 includes a variety of fonts, colors, and other options, as well as the ability to resize photos before sharing or exporting.
Dropbox Paper has been in private beta for about a year, and now the web service is gaining a dedicated Android app as it enters public beta for anyone to try. Paper is Dropbox’s take on a collaborative word processor — think Google Docs — that’s built on a robust cloud syncing service.
YouTube Kids launched on Android and iOS last year as a portal for kid and family friendly curated videos with strict parental controls and restrictions. YouTube’s paid Red subscription service has just announced that it is adding support for the Kids app, with features like ad-free and offline videos, at no additional cost.
Google’s mapping software is the most powerful in the world, and one of its biggest strengths is in 3D imagery. Over the years Google has amassed 3D imagery around the world for a number of locations, and with a new app it’s putting that technology to use in a fun new game for kids.
Facebook has been trying to recreate Snapchat’s success on its own ever since it tried and failed to buy the social app, and the latest feature it has developed for Instagram is no different. Instagram today unveiled Stories, a new photo and video sharing feature that borrows from the Snapchat-created feature right down to the name. Unlike traditional Instagram posts, Instagram Stories are more ephemeral and disappear 24 hours after being posted…
Android apps arrived on Chromebooks with Chrome OS 53 in June, but as we noted during our initial hands-on, the developer channel was still quite buggy and not recommended for use as a daily driver. While the Play Store is still limited to three Chromebooks, version 53 has entered the beta channel with some much needed stability.
A number of rumors have suggested that Google is working on a new launcher for this year’s upcoming Nexus devices and a new leak gives a look at what we could expect. Android Police today has shared screenshots that show a significantly new look to the homescreen and launcher that could possibly launch and be limited to this year’s new Nexus devices.
Earlier this year, Google added a new section to their Transparency Report about services adopting HTTPS. With Search, Gmail, and Drive long serving pages over HTTPS, YouTube and Calendar are the latest products to offer encryption by default.
With the way security currently works, Google alerts users of new sign-ins to their account via email. The measure is a means of keeping users secure by informing them of what’s happening with their accounts in real-time. Starting today, users will be alerted of new sign-ins through notifications sent directly to their Android device.
Pokemon Go has just received its first major update since launch. Version 0.31.0 for Android and 1.1.0 for iOS removes the broken footprint functionality, refreshes the UI, and allows avatar customization with more options after the initial sign-up. Besides bug fixes and optimizations, several Pokemon stats were also changed.
Whether its at a hotel, a coffee shop, or even a friend’s house, one thing we tend to do at a new place is check the internet speeds, especially if they seem slow. It’s always nice to know what you’re dealing with when trying to get stuff done and the most reliable place to do so has always been Ookla’s speedtest.net. That site has always been a go to spot for a quick and accurate speed test, but now Ookla has released a Chrome extension to make things even easier.
Back in 2014, Google introduced add-ons to Docs and Sheets that allowed third-party apps to build extra functionality into Drive. Add-ons are now coming to Google Drive on Android with several apps, like DocuSign and Scanbot, already updated with the new seamless integration. All third-party developers will likely be able to build their own integrations in the future.
Last week Chrome 52 began rolling out and introduced Material Design on Mac. And for Chrome OS, the new version rolling out now introduces a number of updates mainly for enterprises that deploy Chromebooks. Namely, the Admin console can now display the location of Chrome OS devices and allows for more types of log-in.
As originally telegraphed earlier this year, the Play Store will now allow users to share eligible apps, games, movies, TV shows, or books with up to six people. The Google Play Family Library has a number of controls to manage sharing and is being rolled internationally over the next few days.
Finding the best Android apps can be really hard, so to help its users find the apps they want a bit easier, Google has just added eight new categories to the Play Store along with renaming two others. These new categories include options such as Art, Dating, Events, and much more. The full list follows…
Android apps have slowly been adopting bottom bars in their UI since the option was added to Google’s Material Design spec last year. Apps like Google+ and Google Photos have been prime examples of the design for a while, but recently Spotify has added the same UI to its Android application.
The official Twitter client on all platforms has predominately had a very bright theme. While white and blue are the company’s color scheme, it often makes it a hassle to read tweets at night. After a Material redesign of the Android client last month, Twitter is now updating its Android app with a night mode…
Based on Android Marshmallow, Remix OS 3.0 is now available for download. The next major version of what is essentially desktop Android was announced back in June with the Surface-like Remix Pro tablet. Features include significant updates to multiple window, increased GPU support, and the requisite stability and bug fixes.
No one enjoys getting random, unwanted phone calls, especially on their mobile phone. Thankfully Google is doing something about it, at least for Nexus and Android One users. As long as caller ID is enabled on your device, Google will now give you a clear warning if an incoming call is potentially a spam call.
While Google Maps has had several UI changes on the web and mobile over the past few years, the actual map layer has remained the same. Starting today, however, Google is making a few visual changes and additions to Maps on desktop, Android, and iOS that will help with navigation.
While the FCC is still working on E911 in the US, European carriers are beginning to roll out an equivalent service to send your phone’s location to emergency services when you dial an emergency number. Google announced today that support for this possibly life-saving feature is already built into Android as part of Play Services.
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Following its launch on iOS a few weeks ago, Prisma has just arrived on Android after a successful beta test earlier this week. If you’re unfamiliar with the app, Prisma uses cloud-computing to provide artistic effects to your photos. Unlike filters in apps like Instagram and VSCO, Prisma can identify objects within a photo and intelligently change how the filter behaves accordingly.
Google notes that Android developers are now more frequently pushing updates to their apps. To insure that the frequent fixes don’t affect user cellular plans, the Play Store has several new features to reduce and be more transparent about data usage.
The Play Books app has a special affinity for comic books with a number of features meant to improve the reading experience on mobile devices. Announced as part of Comic-Con, Bubble Zoom uses machine learning to magnify text bubbles in digital comics. Users can test this out now on select Marvel and DC volumes.