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Google Play Books passes the 1 billion install mark on the Play Store

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 9 2015 - 10:09 am PT
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Update: Facebook’s Messenger has also now passed 1 billion.

Google Play Books, an app that comes pre-installed with stock Android, has now become the ninth app to pass the 1 billion install mark. It’s not exactly an amazing achievement considering it ships with most Android phones, but it’s a huge number nonetheless.

Notably, only two non-Google apps, Facebook and WhatsApp, have ever passed this milestone. As you might expect, some of the more popular Google-made apps like Google Maps and Gmail passed 1 billion at various times over the last couple of years.

Side-by-side: How Apple’s new Transit directions compare to those in Google Maps

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 9 2015 - 8:54 am PT
10 Comments

Yesterday, at WWDC 2015, Apple introduced transit directions to its native Maps application for the first time. It’s a feature that has long been in the works, and it’s still not actually coming to consumer devices until later this year. But those who have access to the iOS 9 beta can try out the feature in select cities, including New York City, San Francisco, and others.

Transit directions aren’t new, though, and you probably know that Google has offered them in its own official Maps app for many years. But since Apple split off from using the Google-powered Maps app with iOS 6, the company has been struggling to match Google’s offerings. Here, we take a look at Google’s transit directions in comparison to Apple’s new offering…
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9to5Toys Last Call: Galaxy Note 3 (unlocked) $255, Chromebooks $30 off, Father’s Day deals, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 8 2015 - 3:06 pm PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 32GB (unlocked): $255 shipped (Reg. $500)

Save up to $30 on select Chromebooks from the Google Store

Father’s Day: Tommy Hilfiger, Nordstrom, more up to 50% off, DEWALT tools & gift cards from 20% off, more

Gibson’s new Trainer Bluetooth headphones designed by Usain Bolt are available for pre-order today

Review: Mohu Channels tries to bring your TV services together, Leaf antenna goes on sale

More new gear from today:

Canon refurbished cameras w/ 1-yr warranty: T5i DSLR w/ 18-55mm Lens Kit $450, PowerShot SX510 HS $130, more

More deals still alive:

Fitbit Charge Wireless Activity and Sleep Wristband for $100 (Reg. $130)

New products & more:

Bose updates its best-sounding Soundlink Mini II portable Bluetooth speaker

LG’s G4 gets an iFixit teardown, beats all of this year’s flagships in repairability

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 8 2015 - 10:13 am PT
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This year’s Android flagships have really gotten the beating from iFixit. The group gave the HTC One M9 a 2/10 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 a slightly-better 4/10, just as two examples. But the LG G4, which many believe to be the best Android handset introduced this year as of yet, seems to have an advantage in terms of repairability as well. At least partially due to the fact that it’s one of the only handsets left that has a removable back, iFixit has graced LG’s flagship with a repairability score of 8/10.
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Nest’s plans for a Dropcam successor possibly outed by new FCC documents

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 8 2015 - 9:09 am PT
3 Comments

Nest sent out press invitations last week to an event on June 17th, and we speculated that it might mean that the company is ready to announce its first Dropcam successor since being acquired by Google in June of 2014. Now, thanks to an FCC filing that we’ve uncovered (published to the FCC website on May 28th), it seems more likely that the company is getting ready to announce the next generation of its security camera…
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UK tax authorities adopting Google Apps, offshore data storage and all

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Jun 8 2015 - 4:55 am PT
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The UK tax body, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), has completed a successful trial of Google Apps and will be rolling out the service to more of its staff throughout the year, reports The Register.

HMRC has 70,000 staff, and as such will be Whitehall’s first mass deployment of Google’s cloud services […]

David Fitton, head of public sector sales for Google UK, wrote on Linkedin: “The acceptance by HMRC that they can store official information offshore in Google data-centres represents a major change and endorsement of Google’s approach to managing sensitive information.”

HMRC said that it had “carefully considered the protection of customer information” when making the decision … 
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9to5Toys Lunch Break: 22,400mAh power bank $29, 480GB Pro SSD $200, Galaxy Tab Pro $200, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 5 2015 - 12:55 pm PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

EC Technology 22,400mAh Ultra High Capacity Power Bank $29 Prime shipped (Reg. $39)

SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB 2.5-inch Internal Solid-State Drive $200 shipped (Reg. $230+), more

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4″ 16GB Black tablet: $200 shipped (Reg. $300) | Best Buy

Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone 32GB (unlocked) GSM: $580 shipped (Reg. $800) | eBay

Motorola Nexus 6 from $499 shipped for 32 GB and $549 shipped for 64 GB (Reg. $649, $699) | Amazon

Get $50 in Google Play credit when you buy a Nexus 9 from $399 | Google Store

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 32GB (unlocked): $400 shipped (Reg. $700) | eBay

Bose updates its best-sounding Soundlink Mini II portable Bluetooth speaker with (almost) everything we asked for

More new gear from today:

Amazon Gold Box – up to 68% off iconic actors/directors collections: Clint Eastwood 22-Disc Blu-ray set $47, more

More deals still alive:

Klipsch Quintet 5-Channel Home Theater System: $160 shipped (orig. $550)

New products & more:

Microdia plans a microSD card with 512GB of storage space, release in July

Google admits it hasn’t always been clear to European users & businesses regarding its policies

Avatar for Chance Miller Jun 5 2015 - 12:43 pm PT
2 Comments
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Google has been facing legal heat in Europe for several users over how it handles and collects user data as well as its monopoly-like actions, but today the company finally admitted that it has made some mistakes. Google’s European chief executive Matt Brittin stated today to Politico that Google has failed to make its intentions well-known in Europe.


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Momentum extension keeps you on task with reminders & motivation on Chrome’s ‘New Tab’ page

Avatar for Tom Maxwell Jun 5 2015 - 6:14 am PT
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The Internet can be a double-edged sword – a window to the world’s knowledge at one end, and at the other a window to the world’s favorite cat pictures. And since on the web all sites are treated equally (save for the “deep” web, I guess) if we don’t have a strong, lasting motivation to get work done it can prove all too easy to get distracted browsing places that aren’t a valuable use of our time. While that lasting motivation must come from within, there are certain tricks and tools you can try that may just give you the boost you need to power through that next email or essay. The one I’d like to share with you today is an extension for Chrome called Momentum.

Momentum quite simply replaces the default New Tab page of Chrome with a “personal dashboard,” as the developer calls it, like the one you see above. For reference, here’s the New Tab page:
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Google Chrome aims to improve laptop battery life by intelligently pausing Flash content

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jun 4 2015 - 12:57 pm PT
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Google has been working with Adobe to improve battery life drain caused by Flash and today flipped the switch on a new Chrome feature that does exactly that. The new feature aims to detect Flash on a webpage that is actually important to the main content and “intelligently pause content” that isn’t as important. The result is to hopefully make the web experience with Flash more power efficient to improve battery life on your laptop. Here’s how it works:
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9to5Toys Lunch Break: Galaxy S6 (unlocked) $580, Galaxy Tab Pro $200, Bose Soundlink Mini II release, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 4 2015 - 12:55 pm PT
0 Comments

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone 32GB (unlocked) GSM: $580 shipped (Reg. $800) | eBay

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4″ 16GB Black tablet: $200 shipped (Reg. $300) | Best Buy

Bose updates its best-sounding Soundlink Mini II portable Bluetooth speaker with (almost) everything we asked for

Motorola Nexus 6 from $499 shipped for 32 GB and $549 shipped for 64 GB (Reg. $649, $699) | Amazon

Get $50 in Google Play credit when you buy a Nexus 9 from $399 | Google Store

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 32GB (unlocked): $400 shipped (Reg. $700) | eBay

Various HTC deals are worth taking a look at

Father’s Day Gift Guide: top picks, exclusive discounts and a $482 giveaway

More new gear from today:

 

Klipsch Quintet 5-Channel Home Theater System: $160 shipped (orig. $550)

More deals still alive:

Save 20% on GoPro’s HERO4 Black Action Camera: $399 shipped (Reg. $500)

New products & more:

Logitech’s new Anywhere 2 wireless mouse follows the design of the popular Master MX

Early Twitter investor: Google still doesn’t understand social and should buy Twitter

Avatar for Tom Maxwell Jun 4 2015 - 9:16 am PT
1 Comment
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Okay, we know what you’re probably thinking – that of course he’d want Google to buy Twitter, as he’s a shareholder, and a particularly large one in Twitter, at that – and as such has a large financial interest in its success. But Chris Sacca, who has worked as the Head of Special Initiatives at Google, is a smart guy with early investments in a lot of now-successful companies including Uber, Instagram, Bitly, and many more. And he thinks that Twitter and Google would be mutually benefited if they were married together as one.


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Google Opinion Rewards question suggests the future launch of a “Google monthly movie pass”

Avatar for Chance Miller Jun 3 2015 - 8:01 pm PT
3 Comments
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Google’s Opinion Rewards surveys are home to a variety of different types of questions, but Google+ user Hugo Seijas today received a question that was a bit puzzling. The question reads, “Do you have a Google monthly movie pass?,” even though Google offers no such thing as a monthly movie pass.


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Nest founder Tony Fadell talks design and habituation in newly-uploaded Ted Talk

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 3 2015 - 2:53 pm PT
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Tony Fadell, founder of Nest and current head of Google Glass, presented in March at TED2015 to share his thoughts and experience designing for Apple, Nest, and now Google. A few months after he first gave the talk, it has now been uploaded to YouTube and is open and viewable by everyone…

He doesn’t spend any time talking about Glass, unsurprisingly, but he does talk about now Google-owned Nest. He spends several minutes talking about how to notice things around you—things that have become daily pains—that have may be victim of habituation and worth finding a solution for.

It’s interesting and worth a watch:

9to5Toys Lunch Break: GoPro HERO4 Black $399, Sony Bluetooth/NFC speaker $50, Nexus 6 from $499, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 3 2015 - 12:41 pm PT
0 Comments

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Save 20% on GoPro’s HERO4 Black Action Camera: $399 shipped (Reg. $500)

Sony SRSX3 Portable Bluetooth Speaker w/ hands-free calling (refurb) $50 shipped (Orig. $150)

Motorola Nexus 6 from $499 shipped for 32 GB and $549 shipped for 64 GB (Reg. $649, $699)

Get $50 in Google Play credit when you buy a Nexus 9 from $399

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 32GB (unlocked): $400 shipped (Reg. $700)

Amazon now ships some smaller items for free even if you don’t have a Prime membership

Father’s Day Gift Guide: top picks, exclusive discounts and a $482 giveaway

More new gear from today:

Games/Apps: DmC Devil May Cry, XCOM, Remember Me $4 ea, more

More deals still alive:

Keep tabs on anything with Tile Bluetooth item tracker: $20 Prime shipped (Reg. $25)

New products & more:

Game Boy turns into a giant, Raspberry Pi-powered console that can play NES/SNES games

SoundHound releases impressive ‘Hound’ voice search app, check out this demo (Video)

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 3 2015 - 7:40 am PT
2 Comments

SoundHound’s first app is known as one of the best offerings when it comes to recognizing sounds. You could hum a song and the app could, fairly reliably, tell you which one you were humming. Now, the same company has released a new app, called Hound, which attempts to usurp the Google Now throne with some really impressive voice assistant technology…
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9to5Toys Lunch Break: Nexus 6 from $499, Nexus 9 w/ $50 Play Store GC, Galaxy Note 4 (unlocked) $400, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 2 2015 - 11:18 am PT
0 Comments

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Motorola Nexus 6 from $499 shipped for 32 GB and $549 shipped for 64 GB (Reg. $649, $699)

Get $50 in Google Play credit when you buy a Nexus 9 from $399

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 32GB (unlocked): $400 shipped (Reg. $700)

Daily Deals: Logitech MX Wireless Laser Mouse $28, Bluetooth headphones or earbuds $20, more

USB Power banks: Lumsing 6,000mAh $11 Prime shipped, Omaker 15,600mAh $20 Prime shipped

Keep tabs on anything with Tile Bluetooth item tracker: $20 Prime shipped (Reg. $25)

Father’s Day Gift Guide: top picks, exclusive discounts and a $482 giveaway

More new gear from today:

Xbox One bundle/controller & refreshed Playstation 4 consoles leak ahead of E3

More deals still alive:

Headphones: Jabra Move Bluetooth on-ears $70 Shipped (Reg. $100), more

New products & more:

SanDisk details new portable USB C solid-state drives for MacBook and high capacity flash drives

GoPro’s new HERO+ LCD brings a touch display to its entry-level action camera

‘Blocks’ has a new modular smartwatch prototype w/ Snapdragon 400, crowdfunding to begin in ‘summer’ [Gallery]

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 2 2015 - 10:04 am PT
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We first told you about the Blocks modular smartwatch earlier this year when we reported that the company had been in talks with Google about a potential partnership with the Ara team for cross-platofrm modules. A few months have passed since Blocks demoed their prototype at CES in January, and today they’re out to show the world the latest developments — and in just a few months, it looks like they’ve come a long way…
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Chrome OS update brings credit card info autofill, physical keyboard autocorrect, more

Avatar for Chance Miller Jun 1 2015 - 8:01 pm PT
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Google this evening has started rolling out an update to the stable channel of Chrome OS that bumps it to version 43.0.2357.81. The update brings a handful of new features that are certain to please Chrome OS users. First off, Chrome OS can now autofill credit card information from Google Wallet to browser fields that ask for such information. Other browsers, such as Safari on OS X, offer features similar to this.


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Google shares updated diversity data, says it still has ‘a long way to go’

Avatar for Chance Miller Jun 1 2015 - 2:56 pm PT
2 Comments
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More than a year ago, Google became one of the first tech companies to share data on the diversity of its workforce, and now it has released an updated version of the data. In a post on Google+, the company revealed some of the changes that it has made to improve diversity and the results of those changes. Last month, Google revealed plans to spend more than $150 million on diversity initiatives over the next year.


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9to5Toys Lunch Break: Galaxy Note 3 (unlocked) $265, Acer Chromebook 15 $336, Chromecast $24, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 1 2015 - 12:47 pm PT
0 Comments

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 32GB (unlocked): $265 shipped (Reg. $500)

Acer Chromebook 15 C910-C37P 16-Inch Chromebook: $337 shipped (Reg. $400)

Google Chromecast (refurb) $24 shipped (Reg. $35) + free movie rental, UFC Fight Pass, and more

Samsung Class 10 microSD Flash Memory Cards w/ Prime shipping: 16GB EVO $7 (Reg. $15), 32GB Pro $18 (Reg. $37)

Kindle for Kids Bundle: Kindle e-reader + kid friendly cover + 2yr. warranty $99 shipped ($140 value)

GoPro’s new HERO+ LCD brings a touch display to its entry-level action camera

Father’s Day Gift Guide: top picks, exclusive discounts and a $482 giveaway

More new gear from today:

Daily Deals: Samsung 55″ Smart HDTV $800, Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard $27, more

More deals still alive:

PlayStation Plus free games for Junes: Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes, more

Xbox Live free games for June: Massive Chalice, Just Cause 2, Thief, more

New products & more:

Splatoon for Wii U inks the scene with colorful gameplay and an exclusive bundle

Google ditches the Google+ link on its many web properties, hides it in the app menu

Avatar for Stephen Hall Jun 1 2015 - 9:31 am PT
5 Comments

 

Cue the “Google+ is dead” jokes, and the following “was Google+ ever alive?” remarks.

Google has today removed the link to users’ Google+ profile from the top its many web properties, most notably its front search page and Gmail web app. Previously, names appeared with a plus in front like “+Stephen” and would link to your Google+ profile. From today, it looks like Google is making the name label no longer a link, and moving the “+Stephen” Google+ link to the app drop-down menu…
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OnePlus One drops to $249 this week with flash sales

Avatar for Tom Maxwell Jun 1 2015 - 8:25 am PT
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We can’t be sure whether or not this was what OnePlus meant when they said they’d “shake up the industry” on June 1st, but either way the company is holding flash sales on the OnePlus One at different times today through this Sunday, June 7th.

Here’s the full schedule of the next times the sale will go live:

June 2 – 2:00 GMT (10 pm EST -1 day)
June 3 – 12:00 GMT (8 am EST)
June 4 – 2:00 GMT (10 pm EST -1 day)
June 5 – 12:00 GMT (8 am EST)
June 6 – 2:00 GMT (10 pm EST -1 day)
June 7 – 12:00 GMT (8 am EST)

During the flash sales (devices may go fast, so you’ll have to be quick) OnePlus is offering the 16GB Silk White OnePlus One for $249 and the 64GB Sandstone Black model for $299. That’s a pretty good steal for a solid alternative to the Nexus 6, which was priced unusually higher than its Nexus predecessors.

OnePlus long ago confirmed that they were working on the OnePlus 2 and said it was slated for “sometime in 2015,” but that’s all we know about that device.