Snapchat, the don’t-call-it-a-sexting-app picture and video communication app of youth ages 14-35, has received a major update today which will include a change in the mechanism for viewing content, as well as a new way to add friends. There’s also a fun—but less functional—change to Snapcodes, those QR codes that make it easy to add friends using just your camera…
Sprint has been working with Google to expand support for Google Wallet on its devices and has added the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4, and Samsung Galaxy Note 2 to the list of compatible devices.
Both the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 are widely considered leading Android smartphones currently so this should create a solid platform of support for Google Wallet.
Google Wallet allows users to make purchases by placing their phones near receivers built for NFC (near field communication) and supports Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.
(via AndroidGuys)
Twitter just announced on its blog that its Android client will get an update today with enhancements made to “discover, search and notifications.” The update does not appear to be live, but it will be available here when it is.
Included in the update is a new “Activity” stream within the Discover tab. The blog post explained:
With this update, you can see Activity on Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android. Activity is a stream of updates that shows which Tweets are favorited or retweeted by the people you follow and which accounts those people follow or add to lists… Activity appears below the redesigned stories in Discover. Now you can tap any story once to see Tweets about a particular trend or news article. You can then read the entire story or join the conversation by replying, retweeting or favoriting related Tweets.
Improvements to search include suggestions for spelling and related terms, and autocomplete for first and last names in the Connect tab.
The update also brings push notifications for Interactions like retweets, favorites, and follows, and settings to manage them. You will be able to get all these new features when the update lands on Google Play shortly.
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Google just announced on its Official Google TV Blog the “big announcement” for tomorrow. The Google TV crew announced an all-new YouTube app for the Google TV platform. The app features a smoother experience and bug fixes. The big feature here, however, seems to be a new feature called “Discover” that lets users view YouTube channels by different categories (as seen above).
The YouTube app will also gain the new channels that the desktop version of YouTube has seen. From there, you can navigate through users’ videos, favorites, and subscriptions.
When viewing a video, you can use the up and down arrows on your Google TV’s remote to navigate to the information screen. On the information screen, you can interact with a video by giving it a thumb’s up, adding it to your favorites or playlist, and leaving a comment.
The update should roll out to every Google TV user in the next few days from the Android Market. Oh, and I have to say that I am disappointed. Google overhyped this announcement.
According to a report from Bloomberg, three of the largest mobile carriers in the US are getting ready to make a $100 million investment in NFC enabled payment system ‘Isis’. This is seen as a move to take some of the $240 billion a year (according to Juniper Research) mobile payment market from Google and, specifically, Google Wallet.
While Isis won’t begin testing the technology until next year, they have already signed up Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. Google Wallet has been up and running on Android devices since May but is only available through MasterCard and Citibank with MasterCard Paypass. Having support from Visa, the “world’s largest credit card network”, will certainly give Isis an advantage in the U.S. market.
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