Google

While handling some customer support, the Google Nexus Twitter account has apparently tweeted out a screenshot of a redesigned Dialer app by accident. The interface does not look all that different. The most noticeable change is that the action bar at the top of the interface blue in the leaked screenshot, whereas it is gray in the most recent build of KitKat.

Changing the action bar from gray to blue fits with Google’s recent trend of beautifying all of its apps with more color. We’ve seen more colorful Android app icons leak in recent weeks, in addition to a redesigned Gmail app and Calendar app.

Google is putting its focus back on design with the latest version of Android and at this year’s Google I/O. It would certainly make sense to introduce app redesigns at the event, too. And it looks like we can expect a new Dialer app to be one.

Nest Thermostat appears on Google support page, coming to the Play Store soon?

Chance Miller Apr 21 2014 - 2:07 pm PT

Earlier this year, Google acquired smart thermostat maker Nest for the huge sum of $3.2 billion. This led to speculation that the two companies would work together, with Google using its online retail outlet to boost sales of product. Since the acquisition, however, nothing has come to fruition between the companies, with both continuing business as normal. It looks like, however, that Google may soon start to sell the Nest thermostat via the online Play Store.

Google Glass getting Calendar Glassware, SMS for iPhone this week

Jordan Kahn Apr 21 2014 - 10:55 am PT

An iMessage sent to Glass

Google announced today that it’s about to bring SMS for iPhone and a new Calendar Glassware to Google Glass users following an update to KitKat and the introduction of new features earlier this month. First up, iPhone users will now be able to receive text messages on Glass but, as Google points out, they “won’t be able to reply from Glass due to some limitations with iOS.” The support for SMS is a feature that Glass users have long had access to when paired to an Android device.

SMS for iPhone – iOS fans, by popular demand you can now get texts from your friends on Glass. Get started by going to your iPhone’s Bluetooth settings and turning on “Show Notifications” for your paired Glass. When you receive a new text message, it will appear as a notification on Glass. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to reply from Glass due to some limitations with iOS. (Android fans, don’t feel left out – you’ve got SMS on Glass already.

You’ll begin receiving notifications as long as the “Show Notifications” option for your paired Glass is selected from Bluetooth settings. Google also announced today that it will release Calendar Glassware available in the MyGlass tab:
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Google may be working on a budget friendly $100 Nexus smartphone

Dom Esposito Apr 18 2014 - 9:06 am PT

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It would be surprising if Google didn’t unveil a new Nexus device before the end of the year. Currently, the Nexus 10 is still out of stock and Google’s Nexus 5 is beginning to show its age. If anything, we hope to see a Nexus 6 in the near future, but Google might be working on a frugal Nexus smartphone as well.

According to Chinese site MTKSJ.com (via GforGames), Google may be working with chip maker MediaTek on a budget Nexus device that could be priced as low as $100. This could really shake things up in the mobile market and would be a direct competitor to ex-Google company Motorola and its Moto G smartphone. The Nexus line is already known for its low-priced devices with high-end specifications, but a $100 Nexus device could definitely broaden Google’s mobile market share.

Google reportedly holding an internet scavenger hunt that guarantees a shot at I/O tickets

Chance Miller Apr 17 2014 - 2:24 pm PT

With Google I/O 2014, Google switched to a lottery-based system for selling tickets. This means that anyone can register for a spot in the draw, but only a select number of people will get the opportunity to shell out $900 for a ticket. This, of course, means that no one is guaranteed entry into the event. It wouldn’t be Google if they didn’t throw some fun into the process. Only this time, the fun guarantees an entry into I/O (via Android Police).

Google has placed a handful of goog.gl links throughout its Developer sites, including within images, texts, and even the source code of pages. Unfortunately, each link is only valid for one spot, and Google doesn’t remove them when they’ve been claimed. So more than likely, any link you find has already been claimed.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game swings onto Google Play

Jonathan Kizer Apr 17 2014 - 1:27 pm PT

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLN3olo7xzA]

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 — the game, not the movie itself, which is due to be in theaters on May 2nd in the US — is available right now for Android. The game is priced at $4.99, and follows the same story as the movie (so you might get a sneak peek at some storyline). Developed by Gameloft, this movie-based title may not live up to the hype surrounding the movie. Regardless of how the graphics look, the gameplay seems solid, so this Spider-Man game may well make for a nice way to kill fifteen minutes here and there.

‘Easy Unlock’ feature could soon come to Chrome OS, automatically unlocks your Chromebook if your phone is nearby

Chance Miller Apr 17 2014 - 12:54 pm PT

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Android Police has spotted a new feature in the Chrome OS dev channel that could one day allow users to unlock devices running Chrome OS by simply having their phone near the computer. The feature, which is still in a very early beta, is dubbed “Easy Unlock.” With this feature, your Chromebook could sense when your phone is nearby and Easy Unlock would automatically unlock the Chromebook, preventing the need to enter your password.

Try before you buy: Google launches home try-on program for Glass

Jonathan Kizer Apr 17 2014 - 9:53 am PT

Google is allowing potential Explorers to try Glass before they shell out the $1,500 to actually buy the device, according to a Reddit user by the name of clide. He posted various images of a home try-on kit, as well as the above email he received from the Glass customer support representatives.

Spencer Kleyweg of GoogleGlassFans called the above number and received the following information about the program:
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MLB At Bat iOS and Android apps add Chromecast support for Premium subscribers

Jordan Kahn Apr 17 2014 - 8:14 am PT

Google announced today on its Chrome blog that Major League Baseball is adding support for its $35 Chromecast streaming stick through the MLB At Bat app for Android and iOS. That means that users with the app and an MLB.TV Premium subscription will be able to stream live and on-demand video content from the app (or from a browser tab in Chrome through MLB’s site) to a Chromecast connected TV. You’ll also be able to use the phone or tablet you’re streaming from as a second-screen experience to “check scores, stats and news” while watching the game on the bigger screen:

MLB.TV is the latest live streaming service to come to Chromecast, so now MLB.TV Premium subscribers can invite their friends over to watch live, out-of-market games. While casting a game to the big screen, use your phone or tablet to check scores, stats and news from around the league. You can even choose between home or away broadcasts to steer clear of the opposing team’s announcers when your guys are on the road.

The updated apps are rolling out today for the MLB At Bat app for Android and iOS on Google Play and the App Store, but the Chromecast feature will require an MLB.TV Premium subscription to get started. Those cost $129.99/year or $24.99/month in comparison to the regular $19.99/season or $2.99 month At Bat subscription and offers “every 2014 Regular Season out-of-market game LIVE or on-demand in HD” across platforms.

Flickr 3.0 redesigned on Android, sets its sights on Instagram

Jonathan Kizer Apr 17 2014 - 8:04 am PT

[youtube http://youtu.be/aP759GdbSLA]

Flickr — Yahoo’s photo-sharing service — has been completely redesigned Android to focus on the social aspect of the service, making for a direct competitor to Instagram. The new design is similar on both iOS and Android, though the specific look and feel has been tailored to each platform; the Android app keeps a darker feel. Both apps are fast to load photos and browse the feed.

The update is out right now in Google Play. Flickr isn’t the most popular photo-sharing service around on mobile , but version 3.0 makes it one of the nicest for both iOS and Android — plus that free terabyte of storage helps sweeten the deal.

YouTube for Android updated with UI tweaks, ability to Cast live streams to Chromecast

Chance Miller Apr 16 2014 - 4:05 pm PT

Google’s Update Wednesday continues today with an update to YouTube for Android. The update bumps the app to version 5.6.31 from 5.5.27 and includes a couple of significant changes. The biggest new feature is the ability to cast live videos from the YouTube app to your Chromecast. The process works just as it does on the desktop and the quality is fantastic. Of course, this would have been very useful during the live streams from the Coachella music festival last weekend, but there’s still the second weekend with which to use it. This will also be incredibly useful for watching live streams from Google I/O on the big screen.

The Watch Later interface has also been updated to fit in with the rest of the app’s interface, as opposed to the image-heavy interface in the previous version. You can now see at least four videos without scrolling, while you were previously limited to two on the same screen.

The update is rolling out now, albeit very slowly. If you’d like to bypass Google’s staged rollout, head over to Android Police where they have the APK available for download. If not, keep an eye on the Play Store for it to hit your device.

Google adds 50 megapixel Photo Spheres, hints at Advanced Photo Mode in new Camera app

Jonathan Kizer Apr 16 2014 - 3:18 pm PT

Hints of new features have been found in the just-released Google Camera app. The APK — which was put under the microscope by Liam Spradlin of Android Police — contains references to an Advanced Camera Mode, Time Lapse Mode, and Wide Angle Mode. Additionally, Google has confirmed that the Camera app now captures Photo Spheres in 50 MP, making for a major upgrade in image quality.
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Marissa Mayer planning to push Apple to replace Google with Yahoo! as the default iOS search engine

Mike Beasley Apr 16 2014 - 2:59 pm PT

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Jony Ive and Marissa Mayer (right) eat pizza with other industry executives

Re/code reports that Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer is planning an attempt at persuading Apple to switch its default iOS search engine from Google to her company’s own offering. According to Re/code’s sources, Mayer has built what she hopes will be a convincing arguement in favor of the change.

Yahoo! current powers the weather and stocks apps and Notification Center widgets found in iOS 7 as well as a few Siri functions, such as sports, but lost out on the chance to power Siri’s web search to Microsoft’s Bing. Both Yahoo! and Bing are included as optional search engines in the Safari browser, but the default selection is Google.

Supposed Google+ app redesign shown off in leaked screenshots

Chance Miller Apr 16 2014 - 2:18 pm PT

We’ve seen a lot of leaks regarding Google apps recently, including supposed new icons for Android, new features for Google Now, and a new Gmail interface. This time around, Google+ user Yoel Kaseb has allegedly obtained screenshots of a completely redesigned Google+ app for Android.

Kaseb says the app is unstable and still an early test build, but the design appears to follow the same trends as other recently leaked Google interfaces. Kaseb has also been locked out of the APK by Google and can no longer use the interface, which does lend some credibility to the validity of the images.

Google says that it has no current plans for Fiber in New York City

Chance Miller Apr 16 2014 - 1:29 pm PT

Earlier this week, a job listing emerged regarding Google Fiber in New York City. This led many people to speculate that Google was working to launch its fiber network in the Big Apple. Fiber rollouts have been sparse so far, with the service only hitting a few markets, including Austin and Kansas City, so the idea of it launching in a city as massive as New York was certainly surprising. Although the company did recently announce a larger-scale rollout to nine new metro areas.

Google Play still tops App Store in downloads, slowly narrowing revenue gap

Jonathan Kizer Apr 16 2014 - 9:36 am PT

The Play Store continues to hold a growing advantage over Apple’s App Store in terms of sheer downloads, according to the most recent App Annie report (via TechCrunch). More importantly, Google’s mobile app store is slowly narrowing the revenue gap that exists between the two platforms. While Google passed Apple’s App Store in terms of downloads last year, a major gap remained in the revenue that both platforms generated for developers. While Android still lags behind iOS in this department, it seems that the two are slowly reaching parity. Last year’s indexed revenue for the Play Store was ranked at about 40; as the above chart shows, it’s climbed to be just above 50.

Google Play led the iOS App Store in downloads by approximately 45% in Q1 2014, up from 35% in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, the iOS App Store maintained its comfortable advantage in revenue, leading Google Play by 85%. However, Google Play continued to narrow this revenue gap. The gains for Google Play come as Android devices extended their lead in worldwide device installed base.

Google Play saw revenue growth in the United States, which helped it to close the gap. Additionally, Android saw strong download growth around the world. iOS continued its growth in the US, as well as in China — traditionally a stronghold for Android device, albeit devices without access to the Play Store. Apple’s platform also saw strong growth in Vietnam and South Africa, among other smaller countries.

The takeaway? Both ecosystems are strong, and getting stronger.

Take a look inside Google’s extremely clever 3D mapping phone

Ben Lovejoy Apr 16 2014 - 6:24 am PT

Google let iFixit open up one of its 200 prototypes of the Project Tango phone, an Android phone that uses highly-sensitive 3D motion-tracking and measurement to create automatic maps of interior locations.

The device is a really neat piece of kit, and Google believes that developers will find plenty of uses for it. For example, use the phone to scan the interior of your home before you go furniture shopping, and it will create an accurate 3D model of your home complete with measurements. Take the phone to the store with you to see exactly how furniture might fit …
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Samsung says Android is still top priority as it plans Tizen smartphones for Q2

Jordan Kahn Apr 16 2014 - 5:58 am PT

While Samsung has confirmed plans to debut phones running Tizen instead of Android, senior vice president of Samsung’s product strategy team Yoon Han-kil says Android will remain Samsung’s “main business.” The executive also confirmed in the same interview with Reuters that two Tizen smartphones will debut in Q2 with Tizen being used on devices launching only in certain markets:

““We had tried to launch (Tizen) with DoCoMo and Orange … but couldn’t because of poor market conditions. We have changed our strategy and will release the phones in a few countries where we can do well,” he said, adding that he thought Tizen would have to account for up to 15 percent of Samsung’s total smartphone shipments to become a successful platform.

Samsung officially made the switch from an almost all Android ecosystem for its mobile devices to Tizen for its latest round of Gear smartwatches. However, Yoon also confirmed to Reuters that the company plans on releasing an Android smartwatch later in the year, which will presumably be based off Google’s recently unveiled Android Wear platform.

Google’s modular Ara phones to go on public sale in Jan 2015 via configurator tool

Ben Lovejoy Apr 16 2014 - 4:52 am PT

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If you’re keen to get your hands on one of Google’s modular Ara phones, the bad news is you’re going to be waiting a while: the company has said at its first developer’s conference they won’t go on public sale until January of next year. You will, though, be able to configure your own phone using a Moto Maker style tool that will allow you to not only select your components but add customized colors and designs to them as you do …
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Android 4.4 KitKat for Google Glass now available

Jonathan Kizer Apr 15 2014 - 4:54 pm PT

Google has released KitKat for Glass, following the announcement of the update yesterday. Included in this update are various tweaks to improve battery life and performance, as well as various new features. Notably, Google removed video calls in this update, though other additions to Hangouts were made, such as the ability to send photos.

The KitKat update — known as XE 16 — requires XE 12.1 to be installed, so you’ll have to install both to get the sweet KitKat features. The update rolls out even as Google today offered Glass to anyone interested in shelling out $1,500.

The consumer version of Glass is expected to be released later this year, and the KitKat update is a major step towards bringing the platform in line with Google’s Android efforts. Further announcements are expected at Google I/O 2014.

Registration for Google I/O 2014 lottery is officially open

Dom Esposito Apr 15 2014 - 4:09 pm PT

Registration for Google I/O is officially open. The registration window will be available through April 18th, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. PDT. The event is scheduled to take place June 25th – 26th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.

Google, Android manufacturers agree to participate in “Smartphone Anti-Theft Voluntary Commitment” program

Mike Beasley Apr 15 2014 - 3:34 pm PT

Google has agreed to back a new initiative along with a host of Android manufacturers and all of the major U.S. cellular carriers that would require all smartphones manufactured after July 2015 to come with specific anti-theft features. The program is the latest attempt to prevent theft of smartphones, which some have blamed for increasing crime rates.

To this end, Google introduced the Android Device Manager application last year, allowing users to locate or wipe lost or stolen devices. Today’s agreement between the carriers and handset manufacturers essentially states that all parties will ship this type of system on new phones.

Specifically, the required anti-theft measures are broken into four kinds:

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Head of Android design Matias Duarte talks future of mobile, wearables

Jonathan Kizer Apr 15 2014 - 1:10 pm PT

[vimeo 91688685 w=700 h=365]

Matias Duarte — the man behind the design of every version of Android since Ice Cream Sandwich — recently took the stage with Joshua Topolsky of The Verge at the Accel Design Conference in San Francisco to participate in a fireside chat on topics ranging from Android, the future of mobile, design methodology, and wearables.

The video is available on Vimeo (via AndroidPolice), and includes 37 minutes of talk between the two. The beginning covers Duarte’s thoughts on design methodology, and he stresses that good design is always a middle ground between appearance, emotional appeal, and usability — perhaps a shot at iOS 7’s stark interface.
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Google debuts iPhone app for its Helpouts learning and tutorial service

Zac Hall Apr 15 2014 - 11:52 am PT