Google today shared some stats on its recently released Inbox email app experience, an alternative to Gmail that provides a unique Gmail meets Google Now take on email for both desktop and mobile users. It’s also opening up invites to all for a 24 hour period starting today.
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Rolling Stone magazine is making some of its archived issues available in the Google Play Newsstand app, with three or four major stories from each issue available for free. The move is being made in partnership with Google as a means of promoting the app, reports Fast Company.
Google Play’s global head of marketing Brian Irving says he views the Rolling Stone partnership as a way to demonstrate the possibilities of Google Play’s Newsstand, which he argues is better suited for content discovery than Apple’s Newsstand, due to features like customizable themes and key word searches.
Gus Wenner, son of Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, said there was enormous interest in archived stories when properly promoted …
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Microsoft announced today a new app for its Outlook email service on Android. The app [Google Play, Free] is based on the Acompli software that the company purchased in December for $200 million. The app includes “email triage” features found in the old app as well as new features to help appeal to a wider audience, such as the ability to toggle threaded conversation views.
The Outlook Android app will also support mail from third-party services beyond Microsoft’s. Gmail, iCloud, and Yahoo email accounts can be plugged into the app, and attachments can be added to messages from cloud services like Google Drive and Dropox. Check out the video below …
Google announced this evening in a blog post that Chrome 41 Beta for Android is now available. The update is rolling out to users via the Play Store now, according to the company, and bumps the app to version 41.0.2272.34.
While relatively minor, the update does add the ability to pull-to-refresh “most” webpages, a feature that will make the web browsing experience a bit more seamless and similar what users are used to in other apps.
Google today has unveiled a newly designed search page for move-related queries in Chrome for Android and the official Google Search app. The update presents the results in a fashion similar to what you see when you search for content in the Play Store.
Twitter announced last November that it had a number of new features on its roadmap for this year, and today the social network says two of those features are starting to roll out to users. Starting this week Twitter will start allowing users to capture and share videos right from the camera in the mobile app, and direct messages will soon support group chatting for the first time. Here’s how the new video and group direct message features work:
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Twitter this evening has announced in a blog post that it is rolling out a new “While you were away” recap feature to its mobile apps. Starting today on iOS and “soon” on Twitter.com and Android, a “While you were away” banner will appear in your feed, showing you the top tweets that you missed since you last opened the app.
Google has—as it very often does on Wednesdays—released a slew of updates across many of its first-party apps. Today’s updates are hitting the official Google+ Android app as well as the Docs suite of Android and iOS apps.
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luIPSeECLC4]
The British Broadcasting Corporation has announced that its BBC News Android app is being updated, with a lot more video, local news, ‘most popular’ links and–most interestingly of all–users able to add their own personalized news feeds.
In addition to pre-existing sections – including Top Stories, UK and Politics – users will be able to add specialised feeds of their choice, for example: Apps, Taylor Swift, Genetics, and Oban.
A new ‘My news’ section allows users to enter keywords which will be matched against tags entered by journalists to populate the personalized feed.
The BBC says that the UK version of both Android and iOS apps will be rolled out this week, with global editions to follow.
The Beeb and its fans tend to be somewhat conservative, with protests every time it changes something, so this time it’s taking a preemptive strike, aiming to soothe the likely objections.
“We know we have got a very large number of people who used the existing app and they really like it,” said Robin Pembrooke, general manager of news products at BBC Future Media.
“It will be a big change for a number of people, so we are trying to provide a warning up front. We’ve got easy guides on how to use the new app, and there’s in-app tips to help people use it.”
The current versions of the app is a free download from the Play store, then watch out for the updates.
Instagram users on Android could soon be using pre-release versions of the photo sharing app before updates hit the Google Play Store.
Instagram is currently inviting testers on Android to take pre-release versions of its social app for a spin through its beta program for users. The social network shared a Google Group found here where potential testers can apply to test and give feedback for versions of Instagram currently being developed.
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WhatsApp is one of the most-used messaging apps in existence, and today countless users of the service have taken to Google+ and Twitter to report that they’re being banned from the service for 24 hours. The common denominator between those reporting the ban seems to be the use of third-party WhatsApp clients on Android, specifically a popular one called WhatsApp+.
NBCUniversal announced today that it will offer a free live stream of Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1 to all desktop and tablet users to promote its TV Everywhere service. For smartphones, Verizon has exclusive rights to stream the event to users through its own mobile app.
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You might not have heard of it, but Google has a first-party app on the Play Store called Field Trip that basically serves as a guide to all things located in your vicinity. The Mountain View company just recently released a new version of the app, bringing to it Material Design and a flurry of other improvements.
While the app used to sport a vintage look and feel that made it somewhat unique, the new version goes the opposite direction and simplifies the entire experience. In addition to the redesign, Google says that the new version comes with new content from “hundreds” of publishers and performance improvements.
Here’s the full change log:
V2.0.5
* New sleek & modern design.
* Easier to discover and browse more cool stuff around you.
* New content from hundreds of publishers.
* Performance improvements.
You can get Field Trip on the Play Store for free.
Google is today rolling out Chrome 40 for iOS and with it bringing Material Design to Chrome users on iDevices, OS X Handoff support, and optimizations for iOS 8 and the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
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It appears that Google could soon release its promised redesigned Calendar app for iPhone after first making the announcement and releasing the app for Android last November. The Next Web this morning shared a handful of leaked screenshots that provide a first look at Google Calendar for iOS, including info cards that indicate Gmail, Photos and Maps integration will be key features of the app.
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Logitech has announed a new API for developers that will allow them to integrate their software with the many smart home devices supported by the Harmony system. There are currently over 270,000 different automation products and services that work with the Harmony API.
The API will enable the creation of new control platforms that let users carry out automated tasks using voice control, gestures, and more. Many developers have already been granted beta access, and others who would like to give the system a try can request access by emailing the company. The full press release is available below.
Logitech Harmony Opens Largest Library of Home Entertainment and Smart Home Products to Developers
New Harmony API Empowers Developers To Build Exceptional Home Control Experiences
NEWARK, Calif. — Jan. 14, 2014 — Today Logitech (SIX: LOGN) (NASDAQ: LOGI) announced the availability of a new Harmony API that allows developers to leverage the vast Logitech Harmony platform of more than 270,000 home entertainment and automation devices to create smart home experiences. Select companies and products including SmartThings, IFTTT, Ivee, Myo armband, Playtabase, and UCIC, creators of the Ubi, have already begun development using the API to bring new home control experiences to the Harmony home.
“We know that entertainment is critical to the smart home experience, and will be a main driver for mass adoption of smart home products,” said Mark Spates, head of the smart home platform for Logitech Harmony. “By opening our platform to developers, we’re giving developers the ability to create complete smart home experiences that include the living room, knowing that their entertainment component will offer the same flawless experience that consumers have come to expect from Harmony.”
The Harmony API gives developers access to some of Harmony’s most powerful features — one-touch Activities such as “Watch a Movie”, “Play Games” and “Listen to Music”. Imagine starting your favorite movie with a wave of your arm, or turning on your TV, media player, and sound system while simultaneously lowering the lights all by saying a single word. Using the API, developers are already working to add voice, gesture and motion control to the Harmony smart home control experience.
Availability
The Harmony API is available now and can be found at www.myharmony.com/developer. To learn more, please visit www.myharmony.com, or read our blog.
About Logitech
Logitech is a world leader in products that connect people to the digital experiences they care about. Spanning multiple computing, communication and entertainment platforms, Logitech’s combined hardware and software enable or enhance digital navigation, music and video entertainment, gaming, social networking, audio and video communication over the Internet, video security and home-entertainment control. Founded in 1981, Logitech International is a Swiss public company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (LOGN) and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (LOGI).
Adobe has been working to bring Photoshop Lightroom from the desktop to mobile over the last year, and today the image editing app is landing on Android for the first time. Lightroom Mobile for Android joins the company’s existing creative apps for Android including Photoshop Express, Photoshop Touch, Adobe Revel, and more. Check out our hands-on with Lightroom for Android below for all the details on Adobe’s latest creative app for mobile users…
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VLC this week has released the first preview build of its app for Android TV. VLC is one of the most popular pieces media playback software available and is loved for its support of a variety of media types and formats. The app was supposed to receive Chromecast support back in June of last year, but that never officially materialized. Android TV availability, however, may make VLC even more appealing to media lovers.
After a relatively quiet Update Wednesday, Google this evening has picked things up by rolling out an update to Google Maps on Android, bumping the app to version 9.3. The update is not chock full of features, but there are certainly a few things avid users of the app will appreciate.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2fC7yrj984]
Google announced today that it’s releasing mobile apps for its Google Classroom service for both Android and iOS devices. The company officially launched Classroom to its Apps for Education customers in the US during the summer offering them a web-based platform for planning lessons, handing out assignments, and working alongside students. Teachers and students will now be able to access those features from mobile devices through the new apps and Google is also adding a could of new features to the platform.
In addition to a new teacher assignments page and archiving functions for Classroom, Google notes that the mobile apps will let users snap a photo to share or attach to assignments, share content from other apps, and access content cached for offline viewing.
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Google has announced that it will shortly be rolling out a new version of its Google Translate Android app, with two significant enhancements.
First, it is replacing the existing camera-based text translation with the far slicker Word Lens system. Google acquired Word Lens back in May of last year with this upgrade in mind. If you haven’t ever tried it, this was the app that brought home to me the truth of the Arthur C Clarke saying that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
The near-instant augmented reality translation of signs and menus from any one of French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish–without needing an Internet connection–still makes me boggle every time I use it …
Adding images to cells in Google Sheets isn’t anything new, but a new update rolling out today allows you to add images to header cells as well. While you’ve normally been restricted to simple text in these cells, you can now spice things up a bit by adding branding or a logo. Here’s what it looks like:
In case you don’t know how to make a row a “header” row in the first place, it’s a simple as clicking on a cell in the top row, clicking “View”, hovering over “Freeze rows”, and selecting “Freeze 1 row”. To add an image, you need to head to the “Insert” menu, and after selecting the image you would like, you can resize it and move it around as you see fit.
It’s a pretty minor update, but you can’t complain about new features.
https://twitter.com/googledrive/status/555034160624975872/photo/1
Facebook shared its latest safety initiative today with a new feature focused on rescuing missing children. Through a partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Facebook will now include AMBER Alerts in the timeline of its users boosting exposure of the critical information needed in such cases.
When local or state police determine that a case qualifies for an AMBER Alert, the alert is issued by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and distributed through the Facebook system with any available information, including a photograph of the missing child, a license plate number, the name and description of the child and suspected abductor.
For several months we’ve followed the U.S. government’s attempts to work around encryption in chat apps, even taking the hyperbole to an illogical extreme at one point, but we haven’t yet seen similar threats from other nations… or at least, we hadn’t until today.
British prime minister David Cameron said today that unless the government is given backdoor access to encrypted messaging services, he’s just going to outlaw them:
