Android

Google today announced that a major update to Play Services is now rolled out, bumping it from version 4.4 to 5.0. Many of the details in this update were announced at Google I/O last week, but the company also broke everything down in blog post today, as well. The update began rolling out after I/O, but now is entirely rolled out to devices world-wide.

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Back at Google I/O, Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects team showed off the first booting prototype Project Ara device and teased that the first units would be available to developers later this year. Today, Google announced that 100 members of its Ara Scouts program will soon be the recipients of the first Project Ara devices. In a post announcing the closure of the Ara Scouts program, Google said that the lucky 100 people were chosen based on how often they participated in the Scouts program.

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Last month a NVIDIA-made gadget passed through the FCC. Originally believed to be a follow up to the Android-powered Shield, this may not be the case. A recent filing by the Global Certification Forum has outed a device referred to as the “Shield Tablet” with NVIDIA listed as its manufacturer. While the GCF listing doesn’t reveal much else, rumor has it that the tablet will feature a 7.9 -inch 2,048 x 1,536 display, a Tegra K1 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.

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Google today appears to be rolling out much wider support for its “Ok Google” command within Search. This update pertains solely to the ability to say “Ok Google” within Google Now and the search box to activate a command or search and have Google automatically detect when you say it. Previously, this feature was supported only in the US, Canada, France, and Germany. Today’s update adds support for 7 new language locales, including Italian, Portuguese, and Japanese. Google’s been testing these languages in these regions for a little while now, so it’s possible that you could have been one of the lucky testers.

• English (now supports all accents / dialects)
• Spanish (Spain and Mexico only)
• Italian
• Portuguese (Brazilian only)
• Russian
• Korean
• Japanese

The update appears to be rolling out gradually, so it may take a little while to hit your device. You also need to be on the most recent version of the Google Search

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Following the WiFi-only model launch of its new Galaxy Tab 4 series in May, T-Mobile announced today that the LTE version of the 8-inch model will arrive on July 23. Previously Samsung said that LTE models of the device would become available through US carriers this summer. 
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Last month, a report emerged claiming that HTC was working on a new Nexus tablet dubbed the Volantis. At the time, the device was rumored to have an 8.9-inch display and an all aluminum design. Now, the notorious leaker @evleaks has posted some confirmation of the specifications for the Volantis.

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWsKgblN0oA]

You know what’s better than one music video? Six music videos playing at the same time! Google’s Creative Lab has put together an interactive virtual media box called the Cube that lets users mix up to six simultaneous videos while jamming to a single track. Supported by Chrome and most modern Android devices, would-be DJs can use their mouse or finger to cycle through different video sequences while a song plays in the background.

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If you have an Android tablet and would like to try out a pre-release version of Microsoft’s Office for Android tablet app, The Verge reports that the company is looking for beta-testers.

Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the company is currently preparing a private beta test for the Office Android tablet version, and is accepting participants through a special pre-release program …

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Samsung, HTC and Motorola are likely to be looking a little nervously over their shoulders as Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi more than doubled its year-on-year sales. The company announced (via TNW) that it sold 26.1M phones in the first half of this year, more than it sold in the whole of 2013.

These are impressive sales for a company which sold its first smartphone just three years ago, and whose sales were initially limited to China. Its growth has been fuelled by expansion into Singapore, Malaysia, India and the Philipines, with the company now eyeing up Latin America as its next market … 
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A Nielsen study (via TechCrunch) reveals that while we all spend much longer using mobile apps than we did two years ago, and we may have many more apps installed on our phones, the average number of apps we actually interact with in any given month hasn’t changed nearly as much.

While time spent using mobile apps climbed from 18h 18m in 2011 to 30h 15m by the end of last year, the total number of apps actually used only increased from 23.3 to 26.8. So we’re spending more time using pretty much the same number of apps … 
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As it usually does with new releases of Android, Google has just posted the source code for the “L” release of Android. The code is viewable on Google’s Android Git repo page for all of the current a previous generation Nexus devices. This includes both the 2012 and 2013 Nexus 7s (WiFi and LTE models), the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, and Nexus 10.

Google has left a few things out of this release of source code, including binary packages and kernel source. This means that developers will not yet be able to build totally stock builds of Android “L” for those devices. This is to be expected, though, as “L” is still a developer preview at this point.

You can view the source code on Google’s Git repo here. If you’re still curious about Android “L,” read our first look here.

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Hot on the heels of updating the Docs app for Android, Google has just started rolling out an update to Sheets on Android, as well. The update is packed full of changes, both feature-wise and in terms of design. The update comes just days after Google announced it was shutting down Quickoffice on iOS and Android and introduces several features formerly available in the mobile editing app.

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAIMnAaXIMg]

Earlier in the year we received word that Google Voice was getting the axe and its features were being rolled into Hangouts. Although it wasn’t openly discussed last week during Google’s I/O keynote, further exploration of the developer preview of Android’s L version has reinforced what we were told almost four months ago.

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Despite its highly successful and highly publicized Kickstarter campaign, OUYA hasn’t really caught on as a serious gaming platform. As other TV-friendly Android-based gaming platforms like Fire TV and Android TV start to take shape, the crowdfunded console needs a competitive edge to make its brand more appealing. Aware of this, OUYA is testing a new all you can eat subscription model with a $60 per year cover charge.

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Google recently revealed its plan to deep-six Quickoffice, so updates for apps like Docs are pretty much a given. The latest version of Mountain View’s word processing application introduces a cluster of new features, including support for Android L, which should make early, early adopters smile. Other noticeable changes in software version 1.3.251.9 include a redesigned  interface more in line with Google’s Material Design language, along with the ability to create and edit Microsoft.docx files.

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