Google

Following an update to Google Keep earlier this afternoon, Google is now rolling out an update to its Play Newsstand app, which was released earlier this year as a replacement for Currents. The update makes some design tweaks, as well as enhances how you can organize your sources.

First off, the My News and My Magazine categories have been merged into a new My Library section. There is also a new Read Now category bar at the top of the interface that autohides and allows you to easily swipe between categories. Finally, the action bar now changes colors depending on what section you are in (News/Business/Sports/etc).

The update is rolling out now, although it is a staged update and may take a while to hit your device. Keep an eye on the Play Store.

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Earlier this year, HTC announced a new HTC Advantage program that offered premium support to its customers at an added cost. According to a new report, Google may soon launch something of its own that offers a premium Android support and sale experience. Android Police reports that Google is planning to launch a new “Android Silver” program that will work with customers to help solve issues they have after they purchase an Android device.

According to the report, Android Silver will only be compatible with select devices, chosen by Google. The qualifications for the program are stringent and include the fact that a device “run the latest version of Android with no or very limited customizations” in order to qualify. Google will only support 5 handsets at a time and they will not be ones sold be Google. Instead, the company plans to focus strictly on carrier partnerships for Silver.

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Google continued its April Fools tradition with a long list of pranks yesterday, one of which included announcing a new “Shelfies” feature for Gmail that let users snap and share selfies to use as background in Gmail. The feature, which was completely functional within Gmail yesterday, was clearly just a bit of fun for April Fools day, but Google announced today that it will actually stick around as a new custom theme sharing feature.

While Gmail has allowed users to create custom themes since 2012, it will now provide an option to “Share your theme” within settings. The Gmail team will also be sharing some of its favorite themes shared by the community through its Google+ page. Here’s how it works:
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As Business Insider points out, Google has ranked quite well in Greenpeace’s “Clicking Clean: How Companies are Creating the Green Internet” study. Google scored an “A” in ‘renewable energy deployment & advocacy’ and a “B” in ‘energy transparency’, ‘renewable energy commitment & siting policy’, and ‘energy efficiency & mitigation’. Facebook and Apple both averaged well in the same categories, while Amazon, Microsoft, and Twitter all scored poor to dismal ratings in each category. Full report card below:
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As it does at the beginning of every month, Google has just updated the Android Distribution data to reflect data collected during a 7-day period ending on April 1, 2014. Notable this time around is that Android 4.4 KitKat usage more than doubled, rising from 2.5 percent last month to 5.3 percent. Of course, that’s still a very small percentage of the total user base, but growing by double in a month signals that KitKat updates are finally starting to make their way to the masses. 

With the rise in KitKat usage came a slight decline in Jelly Bean numbers from an even 62 percent to 61.4 percent . Ice Cream Sandwich declined to 14.3 percent from 15.2 percent last month, while Gingerbread continued to slow demise, going from 19 percent to 17.8 percent.

With this new data, 81 percent of all devices are now running a version of Android 4.0 or greater. This seems respectable, but it’s important to note that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was originally unveiled all the way back in 2011. So it’s apparent that Google can still do even more to improve the Android update progress. But things are improving and that’s what matters.

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Back in December, Google updated the Play Store app on Android with a new activity feed that was a stream of Play Store activity, connected via your Google+ profile. This afternoon, Android Police has discovered that the activity feed is now live on the web version of the Play Store, as well.

The My Play Activity page is accessible via the navigation sidebar on the online Play Store. The feature is still rolling out at the moment, so the page only loads sporadically. It could take a little while to hit your profile. Once you load it, you will be able to see a stream of all your recent Play Store activity, including +1’s, rates, and more. As the feature continues to rollout, you will be able to access other people’s Activity Page via Google+, which will be great for discovering new apps and content.

The My Play Activity page is rolling out slowly and is accessible at the link below. You should be able to refresh it a few times and get it to load. The link in the sidebar should propagate to everyone soon, as well.

Link: My Play Activity

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Just weeks after the device became available in the UK (among others), Google has already started rolling out more UK-centric channels to the Chromecast. Joining the BBC iPlayer app, BT Sport has just announced that it too is planning to add Chromecast support for its channels in the coming weeks, as well.

As you would expect, you’ll have to be a BT customer in order to access the sports coverage. BT Sport is one of the largest sports providers in the UK. It has exclusive live TV rights to the English Premier League, in addition to owning the UK ESPN channels and broadcasting a plethora of other sports.

There’s no official release date for the BT Sport rollout on the Chromecast, but it is certainly great to see Google working so diligently to bring UK content to the Chromecast. This news comes just days after Google also added Vudu, Crackle, and Rdio support to the Chromecast. The open SDK is certainly paying off.

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Amid all of its April Fool’s day jokes, Google has done one legitimate thing today. The company is holding another sale on the Play Store that cuts the price of official Nexus device cases by 25 percent. Google’s cases are notoriously overpriced, so this is certainly a great deal.

Not every accessory qualifies for this deal, but most of the popular ones do. The Nexus 7 sleeve will now run you $22.49, while the case and folio for the device currently cost $37.49, as does the QuickCover for the Nexus 5. The Nexus 5 bumper is on sale for $26.24.

• Nexus 7 Sleeve – $22.49
• Nexus 7 Case – $37.49
• Nexus 7 Folio – $37.49
• LG QuickCover for Nexus 5 – $37.49
• Nexus 5 Bumper Case – $26.24

Those cases are still somewhat pricey for what you get, however, and many accessories for the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7, are a lot cheaper on Amazon. For official LG and Google accessories, though, you can’t beat 25 percent off. 
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Richard Branson and Tony Fadell

Okay, so Maps isn’t the only Google property kicking off April Fool’s Day on March 31st this year.

Tony Fadell, most known for his role in designing Apple’s iPod and current head of now Google-owned smart appliance company Nest, and Virgin’s founder and chairman Richard Branson have teamed up in an imaginative and rather convincing spoof video announcing a pretend partnership for a product called Total Temperature Control.

The idea is that every seat on Virgin’s airline has its own Nest smart thermostat to control the seat’s environment. It’s almost believable enough until it’s revealed that temperature options include destinations… see for yourself below.

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Photo: Reuters

Pieces in the NY Times and the WSJ suggest that the real target of Apple’s second courtroom patent battle with Samsung may be Android.

Some features in Samsung devices that Apple objects to are part of Google’s Android operating system, by far the most popular mobile operating system worldwide, running on more than a billion devices made by many manufacturers. That means that if Apple wins, Google could have to make changes to critical Android features, and Samsung and other Android phone makers might have to modify the software on their phones …

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Since its release, Google Now has added a plethora of features, such as improved traffic capabilities, voice commands, and much more. According to a new report from Android Police, the service will be receiving yet another new capability in the near-future that will help you remember to pay your bills.

According a person familiar with the matter, Google Now will soon add an interface that will remind you of upcoming bills, including how much they will be for. The feature, which will be integrated into the classic Google Now card interface, will also include a link to easily pay the bill online.

The screenshot below is a mockup of the interface based on the available information. The latest update to the Search app also includes hints at this feature, some of which were used to help make the mockup. As you can see, the card shows the amount due, the minimum payment, and any other information.

Android Police says the source for this feature is very reliable and that their “confidence level” with this report is a 9/10. It’s unclear when this feature will launch, but given that there is already code appearing the Search app, we shouldn’t have to wait too long.

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via <a href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/statuses/449194998102118400" target="_blank">Twitter</a>

Following the block of Twitter in Turkey by the nation’s prime minister earlier this month, Turkey’s telecommunications authority is now taking steps to block YouTube in the nation, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The move came just hours after a leaked recording published on YouTube purporting to show a conversation where Turkey’s foreign minister, spy chief and a top general appear to discuss scenarios which could lead to a Turkish attack against Jihadist militants in Syria.

This comes just days after Turkey requested that Google remove videos from YouTube that criticize the Turkish government. Google responded by refusing to accommodate the government of Turkey’s request.

Yesterday, a Turkish court ruled that the ban against Twitter should be lifted within 30 days while many users were already using DNS workarounds to access the service.
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This afternoon at its Cloud Platform event in San Francisco, Google announced that it is cutting the price of almost all of its cloud-computing services. The overall pricing structure has been simplified as well, with many of the charges eliminated and the base prices simplified.

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In a blog post on the official Gmail blog, Google has just unveiled a new design for the promotions tab within the web Gmail interface. The promotion tab was originally introduced last year when Google switched to a categorical tabbed design. Currently, the promotions section looks the same as the other categories within Gmail, but with this change, the design will switch from being list-based to a grid. instead of just subject lines, the grid view will pull in images from the email and make it easier to see exactly what the message is promoting. The grid view also makes it easier to scroll through a lot of messages by introducing infinite scrolling.

Promotional mail has a lot of images, from pictures of snazzy new shoes to photos of that rock-climbing gym you’ve been wanting to try. But right now, those images are buried inside your messages—and with only subject lines to go on, it can be a challenge to quickly pick out the deals and offers that interest you most. To help you find what you’re looking for faster, you can now sign up for a new field trial for Gmail that lets you view the Promotions tab in a more visual way.

To sign up for the grid view, head to g.co/gmailfieldtrial and if you’re selected, you’ll have the option to switch between the grid a list views with ease.

LG has posted an image of its upcoming smartwatch on Twitter, perhaps trying to deflect attention away from the Moto 360. The watch will run on the Android Wear platform, but unlike Motorola, LG has opted to use a traditional square screen for the ‘G Watch’.

Other than teasing that the device is ‘coming soon’, LG is still reluctant to release detailed specifications about the device. However, the Wall Street Journal is reporting some more concrete technical specifications according to ‘a person familiar with the matter’. The Journal says that the device will feature a 1.65 inch display with a resolution of around 240 pixels per inch.

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After spending about a month and a half in the beta channel, Chrome is rolling out Google Now notifications to all Chrome users. To activate the feature, Google says to sign in with the same Google account used on Android (or iOS).

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Adding to the capabilities of the Chromecast HDMI streaming stick, Google is out with a new app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users called Photowall that lets you turn your Chromecast-connected TV into a live, interactive photo frame.

Google’s Photowall app allows you alone or a group of Photowall users to beam not just one photo, but an entire collage of images to your TV through your Chromecast. The app includes the ability to doodle or annotate images before beaming to your big display as well.

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Photo via the Sunday Times

Last week it was Apple Design VP Jonathan Ive. This week, the Sunday Times is talking to Google’s Tony Fadell (paywall) about his work at Nest, which was acquired by Google earlier this year, the future of his career, and more.

A few choice quotes have been highlighted by Rob Richman. In one, Fadell refutes the idea that money ($3.2 billion to be exact) was the driving force behind the Google buyout, saying that both companies working together can produce much bigger results than they could alone:

This was not a financially driven transaction. When you marry for money, it almost never works. We both believe we have something special and we know what it takes to make it happen around the world.

Regarding privacy and whether Nest would turn over its user data to Google, Fadell said:

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Earlier this week, Google made a backend tweak to the Google Search app for Android that added the ability to take a picture or video with Google Now by saying “Ok Google, take a photo.” This afternoon, the company has added another new voice command, this time relating to Google Music. Starting today, you can now say “Ok Google, play some music” and an “I’m feeling lucky” radio station will start to play via Google Music. The I’m feeling lucky station provides a constant stream of music based on your listening history.