Google last night started rolling out an update to Google Play Games that bumped the app to version 2.0. The update includes several new features, some of which were confirmed in the recent Google Play Services 5.0 update, as well. The update today introduces Level-up notification controls, XP rankings, and a few UI tweaks.
Google today released an iOS app for its AdWords Express advertising service. The app, which is available for only Google’s automated AdWords Express advertising service aimed at small businesses, allows users to view stats from advertisements created with the service, edit the advertisements, adjust budgets, and get notifications related to campaigns directly from within the iPhone or iPad app:
AdWords Express helps you reach new customers on Google. Create your ad in less than 15 minutes, and only pay when potential customers click your ad to visit your website or give you a call. Stay connected to how your ad is doing — all from your mobile device.
– See how many calls, clicks and views your ad is getting
– Edit your ad text or adjust your budget anytime
– Get notified with important messages in your account
– Have questions? Call us at 1-855-235-8904 for free setup help
The app is free to download, but you’re required to enter billing information to pay for your ads.
Google already had an AdWords Express app available for Android users, but it doesn’t yet have mobile apps for its full-fledged AdWords service. On the flip side of the AdWords business, last year publishers got an official AdSense iPhone app from Google for monitoring advertising and revenues.
The Google AdWords Express app is available on the App Store now for iPhone and iPad.
iPad screenshots below:
Just as Nike’s dismantled FuelBand team continues heading to Apple and Android Wear devices official hit the market, Adidas thought it would be the perfect time to introduce its own FuelBand-like fitness tracking wearable. Today the company introduced FitSmart, a wrist worn fitness tracker that pairs with the company’s miCoach fitness apps for mobile devices including iOS and Android.
The device packs in a heart rate sensor, accelerometer, and is capable of tracking the usual fitness metrics including calories, pace, distance and stride rate. The company says the Fit Smart will offer up to five days on a single charge with its 200mAh battery, but that estimate includes only a 1-hour workout per day.
Designed for running, training and fitness, FITSMART is unlike many of the activity trackers on the market today as it measures heart rate response to physical activity and then guides the user train at the right intensity for the best results… Intended for those seeking meaningful guidance and feedback, FIT SMART works with an all-new mobile app experience aimed at helping people set and reach weekly goals, as well as commit to longer term training plans. Weekly goals are a key feature update in the August release of the popular miCoach Train and Run app. and, uniquely combine the effectiveness of heart rate based training with the flexibility and motivational benefits of short-term attainable goals.
It weighs 58 grams, has a silicon strap, and uses a 17×11 LED light array as its UI. That includes “at-a-glance visual guidance on the user’s current workout intensity presented in color zones: blue, green, yellow and red.” Adidas also notes the Fit Smart will use vibration and visual indicators with the LED display to “provide feedback and coaching so the user can make the most out of every workout.”
The Adidas Fit Smart is arriving for $199 late August at Best Buy in the US and in markets around the world on August 15th through adidas.com.
The official Dropcam companion app has been updated with an all-new activity feed, customizable activity categories and alerts, and fast mobile setup. Dropcam users can now view and filter recorded video based on activities, manage labels and alerts for activity categories, and setup Dropcam Pro wirelessly using an Android device.
Devices supporting wireless mobile setup are the Nexus 5 and all Samsung devices running Android 4.3 or later. The new version of the Dropcam app also has a more polished design, performance improvements and bug fixes. The update is available now through the Google Play Store.
Dropcam is a cloud-based Wi-Fi video monitoring service based on a wireless security camera. The company was acquired by Google-owned Nest for $555 million last month.
The full changelog:
What’s New
In addition to a more polished design, performance improvements and bug fixes, this version features:
– An All-New Activity Feed:
View and filter recorded video by the activities you care about
– Customizable Activity Categories and Alerts:
Manage labels, colors and alerts for all of your activity categories
– Fast Mobile Setup: Set up Dropcam Pro wirelessly using your Android device.*
* Devices that support wireless mobile setup: Nexus 5 and all Samsung devices running Android 4.3 or later
Google recently updated its desktop version of Maps with a new feature that lets users measure the distance between two or more points on the map. To toggle this option, right-click on a starting point on the map and select “Measure distance,” and then choose a destination to see the distance between the two points.
If you’ve been frustrated by the fact that you can’t install paid apps on your Android Wear devices, your frustration should soon be at an end. Google has just notified developers of a workaround to the problem, which was caused by a bug in the anti-piracy measures employed with paid apps …
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Google has announced a couple of much requested features for Google Drive to improve the overall image editing process within Drive’s Docs, Slides and Drawings apps. Starting today, you’ll now be able to “reset an image” to quickly undo all previous edits:
Reset an image: Unhappy with the properties and formatting you applied to your image? You can now go back to the original with the reset image button. Open your document, presentation or drawing, select an image, right-click and select ‘reset image’ from the context menu.
Also available now is the ability to replace an image. Google explains: Change the image in your document, presentation or drawing without affecting the layout and formatting of the original image. Open your document, presentation or drawing, select the image you want to replace, right-click and select ‘replace image’. You can then use our image picker to select your next image.
Look out for these new features available now in Docs, Slides, and Drawings in Google Drive on the web.
If you’re not familiar with Popcorn Time, it’s an app that allows you to stream movie and TV show torrents without any of the hassles usually associated with torrents – what you get is an interface which looks just like Netflix or Hulu. Thanks to a popular forked version, you’ll soon be able to watch that content on your TV when Chromecast support is added …
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You knew it was going to happen.
Just when you thought that Flappy Bird clones had run their course, Flopsy Droid has become the first unofficial Flappy Bird port for Android Wear devices. The app brings the bird-and-pipe experience to the LG G Watch, Moto 360 and other Android Wear devices, with the same one-tap controls as the smartphone version. The only difference is that Flopsy Droid is designed for markedly smaller screens.
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Isis chief executive Michael Abbott announced this afternoon that the mobile payment platform will undergo rebranding so that it does not share its name with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, often abbreviated as ISIS by the media. The militant group is often associated with violence and conflict against innocent civilians, and Isis wants to ensure that its brand has zero association with those actions.
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Google this afternoon started rolling out an update to its Play Music app on iOS with a handful of new features. The update bumps the app to version 1.3.0.2190. Firstly, the update finally adds support for gapless playback, which means that there is no pause between the end of one song and the beginning of another. The update also adds the ability to download subscribed playlists in one tap, allowing you to listen to them without a data connection.
Google announced today that it’s adding support for a total of thirteen new languages in Gmail. That’s up from the 58 it had previously and brings the total up to 71 languages. As Google puts it, with today’s update Gmail now has coverage for 94 percent of the worldwide Internet population.
Gmail is a universal way to communicate. No matter where you are, you can reach anyone else in the world with the press of a button. We take it for granted now, but it’s so much easier to keep in touch with people than it was in the old days of pens, paper, and stamps. But there’s still an important barrier we need to overcome to make email truly universal: language.
The new languages include:
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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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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.
Vine today announced that it is rolling out an update to its iOS and Android apps that add adds several new features. Biggest of all, the update introduces Loop Counts. This is a feature that will show how many times a Vine has been played. The number will update in real time, both on the web and within the mobile apps.
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.
Last year, Google added SMS support to Hangouts, along with several other features. However, prior to this, the company also had a similar feature available in emerging markets that let users add their phone numbers to its instant messaging platform. Similar to Google’s defunct Gmail SMS service, this was an alternative for feature phone users and people in regions with limited internet access.
Google this afternoon started rolling out an update to its Play Music app on Android that bumps it to version 5.6. While the update is not all that big, it does coincide well with the recent announcements at Google I/O this week. One of the biggest changes comes to how device authorizations are handled. You still get to have 10 devices active on your Google Music account, but now only five of them can be phones. The other five can be any combinations of tablets, computers, and other devices. This is obviously not a huge deal for the average user, but could cause issues for power users. The account switcher UI itself has also been updated.
A nice new addition to the YouTube app for Android adds the ability to access video content purchased from Google Play without leaving the app (via Android Police).
The new feature in the Android YouTube app doesn’t appear to bring any immediate changes to the way video content was handled previously, however. You’ll still be able to play movies and TV downloaded from Google Play in the Play Movies app, but now you’ll also find them listed and playable from the “Purchases” tab in the YouTube app.
Video calls through Google Hangouts just got a little easier. Today, Mountain View released an update that lets users launch Hangouts in Chrome without the need of a plugin. All you have to do is click the video call icon, give Hangouts permission to use your computer’s camera and microphone, and that’s it.
Google this morning rolled out an update to the Maps app on Android with a feature that will certainly make Google I/O 2014 attendees happy. Bumping the app to version 8.1.1, the update resolves the issues surrounding Android Wear’s compatibility with Google Maps.
Many Google I/O attendees noted that the Maps integration with the new Android Wear devices was entirely nonexistent, despite Google’s on-stage demos. Today’s update, however, adds integration between Wear and Maps like Google showed us during its keynote. With Maps on a smartwatch, you can search for a location and start navigation directly from your wrist. The watch, of course, still communicates with your phone for the data.
Now that Google has officially released the full Android Wear SDK, we expect to see a lot of apps updated with Android Wear support over the coming days and weeks. You can download the Google Maps update on the Play Store now.
From 9to5Toys.com:
For the next 48 hours, the Amazon App Store for Android is making 31 popular apps and games available for free. This package of apps would cost over $100 if purchased individually at their standard rates.
Amazon hasn’t fluffed this promo with poor titles either. Some of the best known apps include Plex, The Room Two, Slashtop Remote Desktop HD, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek.
While you’re at the Amazon App store you might as well pick up the free app of the day too. Today’s app is the “thrilling, action game,” MacGyver Deadly Descent.
If all these downloads are chewing up too much space on your phone or tablet, then head over to the Amazon Gold Box deal of the day and save up to 70% off select Sony memory cards.
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Google’s annual I/O conference is in full swing and in addition to handing out swag, the company is dishing out media kits to attendees explaining the principles of its new visual language called Material Design. In an effort to further unify Mountain View’s platforms, this animation-focused vibrant style will be used across Android, Chrome and the web. Loaded with colors and fluid animations, Material Design places a huge emphasis on content availability.
Google Now is getting a new feature today that brings slicker multi-language support to the voice search and assistant app with the ability to switch between multiple languages on the fly. Rather than having to manually select and switch between one of the approximately 50 languages that Google Now can understand, the app will now automatically recognize the speaker’s language and allow users to switch between up to seven languages on the fly. CNET has more details on the feature after speaking with Google:
You’ll have to preselect your secondary languages, but once you do that, the feature will work. Simultaneous multiple-language support is expected to arrive in the coming days to all Google Now users.
Google researchers told CNET said that seemingly simple language-recognition tasks are much harder than they appear. Yehoshua said during a recent lunchtime conversation at Google’s Building 43 here that she’s looked into how many people are aware that they can search Google by asking their phones… “Fifty percent of smartphone and tablet users in the US are aware of voice search, and one-third of those use it,” Yehoshua said. But she added that most people don’t realize how natural conversational queries have gotten with Google Now.
Google also notes in the report that it’s working on other enhancements to Google Now and tackling some of the harder issues like understanding more complex accents and cutting out ambient noise, for example, when driving.
