Apps and Updates

1,636 'Apps and Updates' stories June 2013 - May 2016

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Nintendo claims non-Mario games chosen for mobile launch to broaden appeal of brand

Ben Lovejoy May 3 2016 - 4:56 am PT

Many Nintendo fans were disappointed when the company chose to launch a new game Miitomo for its first move into mobile, rather than the popular Super Mario series. The company later revealed that it will be bringing existing Nintendo game franchises to iOS later this year, but again, no sign of Mario. Instead, we can expect Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem.

Engadget notes that Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima has offered some explanation for the decision.

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Hands-on with Google Keyboard 5.0 [Video]

Stephen Hall May 2 2016 - 3:21 pm PT

Google just released the biggest update to its stock Google Keyboard in quite some time, and it’s rolling out on the Play Store now. If you haven’t had a chance to try it out for yourself quite yet, we put together this quick video rounding up the biggest new features. Among them are a one-handed mode, new emoji suggestions, and the ability to show key borders…

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Google Keyboard 5.0 rolling out w/ one-handed mode, adjustable key height, more [Gallery]

Abner Li May 2 2016 - 11:12 am PT

A major update to Google Keyboard is now rolling out, marking the first since June of last year. Version 5.0 features various design tweaks, a ton of customization, and many new features like a one-handed mode and the ability to adjust keyboard height.

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eBay refreshing mobile apps with updated design + speed improvements

Greg Barbosa May 2 2016 - 10:00 am PT

eBay has begun rolling out major UI and overall app improvements to its mobile applications today. Most notable will be both iOS and Android apps seeing a redesign of the main navigation menu. Previous versions of both mobile apps utilized a custom navigation menu: a mix between a top navigation bar and hamburger menu. The app update rolling out from today utilizes standard UI navigation elements for both iOS and Android. Android will be seeing the update released today, and the iOS update will be available in the coming days.

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YouTube is testing Material Design on the web and here’s how to enable it [Gallery]

Abner Li May 1 2016 - 6:50 am PT

Most, if not all, of Google’s Android apps have received a Material redesign. With the Chrome OS update rolling out, YouTube on the web is the next and one of the last major products to get Material Design. Google appears to be A/B testing (via Android Police) the update with a small set of users, but it is quite easy for anyone to enable. Here’s how to do it…

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This week’s top stories: Galaxy Note 6 leaks, Huawei P9, HP Chromebook 13 & hands-on w/new Android phones

Jordan Kahn Apr 30 2016 - 9:37 am PT

In this week’s top Google stories: new Android device news surrounding the Galaxy Note 6, the death of the Nexus 9, Huawei’s upcoming P9 flagship, and more. And we went hands-on with LeEco’s new Snapdragon 820-powered Le Max2 w/ 6GB of RAM, the BlackBerry PRIV running Android Marshmallow, and the Oppo F1 Plus in this week’s top videos.

In addition, HP and Google launched the impressive new Chromebook 13, and a handful of notable Google and Android app updates arrived as well as news of a completely overhauled design for Instagram in testing.

Head below for all of the quick links to this weeks top stories, videos and more.

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Chrome 51 Beta improves login experience on other sites, renders pages more efficiently

Abner Li Apr 29 2016 - 11:22 am PT

With Chrome 50 fully rolled out to browsers and Android, version 51 is now in the beta channel. One of the key features in this version is a new API that improves the website login experience and a more power efficient way to render a page.

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New Google Trips app is a smart assistant for your vacations, currently in beta testing

Abner Li Apr 28 2016 - 2:13 pm PT

Update: You can now grab the Google Trips APK from APKMirror.

One of Inbox’s most convenient features are Travel bundles that organize reservations and other related emails in an easy to read manner. Google is now testing (via Androidworld) a Trips app that organizes every aspect of your travels and offers useful suggestions.

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OnHub router gains home automation capabilities with new IFTTT integration

Abner Li Apr 28 2016 - 11:33 am PT

In an interesting update, Google’s OnHub routers now has integration with automation service IFTTT. If This Then That allows users to easily initiate a command that is set off by pre-programmed action. OnHub’s IFTTT channel is already live with an OTA update rolling out now.

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PBS Kids Games app debuts with free educational content, no in-app purchases

Zac Hall Apr 28 2016 - 6:48 am PT

Smartphones and tablets can be great educational tools and sources of entertainment for kids, but finding appropriate games and content can be tricky sometimes. PBS is helping make that easier with its new PBS Kids Games mobile apps for Android and iOS.

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Google Photos for Android drops FAB for a search bar in latest update

Abner Li Apr 28 2016 - 1:21 am PT

Update: According to a post on Google+, this update adds the ability to customize automatically created movies with your own music, photos, and videos. It’s also now possible to rename or delete device folders and manage photos on SD cards.

Rolling out to users now, version 1.19 of Google Photos brings quite a few design tweaks to the Android app. The biggest change replaces the floating action button (FAB) with a search bar that is reminiscent of a recent A/B test to Play Music.

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Google app now uses Chrome Custom Tabs to open search results

Abner Li Apr 27 2016 - 3:55 pm PT

After its most recent update, the Google app now opens search results as Chrome Custom Tabs. This feature has been a long time coming, but it appears that pages suggested by Google Now still open up in the default browser.

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Google Calendar

Google Calendar update lets you ‘find a time’ for a meeting with your coworkers

Stephen Hall Apr 27 2016 - 9:31 am PT

The Mountain View company has today launched a new feature for its Calendar app that lets you find the perfect meeting time that works for everyone. After adding the people who are attending the event, the new “Find a time” option analyzes schedules and suggests a time with no conflicts…

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Nintendo teases more mobile games coming later this year, including Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem

Benjamin Mayo Apr 27 2016 - 8:39 am PT

Having already released its first mobile game Miitomo, a bespoke social networking game, Nintendo is now teasing the next round of games headed to mobile devices. Notably, unlike Miitomo, these are going to be versions of existing successful Nintendo franchises: Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem.

Although Animal Crossing is not quite on the same podium as Super Mario, it is still major first-party intellectual property for Nintendo to release on non-Nintendo consoles for the first time. The new smartphone and tablet titles are expected to be released later this year, around October.

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Watch live streams of Samsung’s Developer Conference 2016 keynotes today [Video]

Jordan Kahn Apr 27 2016 - 6:10 am PT

Samsung is starting its Developer Conference 2016 with live streams of the keynote addresses including the opening keynote scheduled to kick things off today at 9:30am PST/12:30pm EST.

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More Pokemon Go beta gameplay appears on YouTube [Video]

Stephen Hall Apr 26 2016 - 7:51 pm PT

We told you last month when the first gameplay from Niantic Labs and The Pokemon Company’s upcoming mobile game surfaced, and now even more footage has popped up on YouTube showing the first full 9 minutes of the experience…

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Redesigned YouTube Home tab recommends videos using deep neural networks

Abner Li Apr 26 2016 - 10:45 am PT

YouTube is rolling out a redesigned Home interface for the Android and iOS app. The new design is cleaner and simpler, but also takes advantage of deep neural networks to better recommend videos for users to watch.

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Nokia is buying popular healthcare accessory/app maker Withings

Jordan Kahn Apr 26 2016 - 8:31 am PT

Nokia announced today plans to purchase Withings, maker of many popular healthcare related accessories and companion apps for Android smartphones and other mobile devices.

The company said the 170 million Euro purchase would see Withings become part of its Nokia Technologies business and help jump-start its new efforts at Digital Health products.

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Android’s popular Fenix Twitter client out of API tokens, pulled from the Play Store

Stephen Hall Apr 25 2016 - 3:12 pm PT

Update: And it’s back. It seems Twitter has extended grace and granted the developer more tokens.

Fenix is without a doubt one of the most popular Twitter clients for Android, but it looks like the app’s days are numbered (if not already depleted). Announced today on Twitter, the developer says that the app has run out of Twitter API tokens and will no longer be accepting new users (although current users of the app may continue using it of course)…

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Android Gmail app gets full Microsoft Exchange support on any device

Jordan Kahn Apr 25 2016 - 12:46 pm PT

Google is rolling out an update to the Android Gmail app that brings full support for Microsoft Exchange accounts on any device.

Full support for Exchange and the dual delivery feature allowing use of both Google Apps and Exchange simultaneously within the app was previously limited to certain Nexus Android devices. Users had previously found a workaround by installing the APK for the Gmail version with Exchange support on non-supported devices, but Google’s update will bring support for the feature to all Android users via the official Gmail app on Google Play.

Google said the feature is rolling out to all users now but that it could take a few days

Look out for the updated Gmail for Android app on Google Play.

Google Drive will now send alert notifications on the web in Chrome

Abner Li Apr 25 2016 - 10:43 am PT

In the past, the primary way of interacting with Google Drive notifications was through email. It was only recently that Drive on Android and iOS begin sending alert notifications. Starting today, Google Drive will also send out notifications on the web in Chrome.

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Android apps and the Play Store show up briefly for some Chrome OS users

Abner Li Apr 24 2016 - 7:26 pm PT

Last year, Google began letting developers test and run their Android apps on Chrome with the App Runtime for Chrome (ARC). Google appears close to officially releasing the feature by launching a version of the Play Store for Chrome OS.

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Google Play Music honors Prince by going purple, Android app testing new search bar

Abner Li Apr 22 2016 - 11:02 am PT

After a months-long wait, Google Play Music finally added podcasts features earlier this week. To pay homage to the passing of music icon Prince yesterday, the web app has since adopted a purple theme. Additionally, some users (via Android Police) are now seeing a new search bar in the Android app.

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The Weather Channel and Samsung join forces to create a new app, here’s what it looks like [Gallery]

Cam Bunton Apr 22 2016 - 6:16 am PT

Samsung has joined forces with The Weather Channel to launch a brand new weather app, designed specifically for the latest Galaxy handsets. The Weather Channel for Samsung has a whole host of really useful features and metrics, and will be available on the Galaxy Apps store for Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S7 Edge and Galaxy Note 5.

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