holidays Stories December 29, 2015
According to a new report by analytics firm, Flurry, more Android phablets were activated than any other sized Google-powered smartphones. In fact, if the companies app-tracking tools are accurate, half of all Android activations over the holidays were large-screened mobiles…
holidays Stories December 22, 2015
It’s a little over two years since Motorola launched Spotlight Player, an app that could be used to view a 360-degree interactive animation. Initially limited to the Moto X before being rolled out to other Android devices, you move your smartphone up, down, left and right to choose which part of the scene to view – and can also view through Google Cardboard.
Google held onto the team when it sold Motorola to Lenovo, and it has now launched Special Delivery, a holiday-themed Spotlight Story from Aardman Animations, the creators of Wallace & Gromit. While you have to pay for some stories, this one is free as a holiday gift from Google …
holidays Stories December 15, 2015
We only have about one week to go before your holiday shopping is officially too late. And although Black Friday weekend and Cyber Week have all come and gone, that doesn’t mean retailers have given up on trying to persuade you to part with your hard-earned cash…
holidays Stories December 14, 2015
Google Search results get Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanzaa decorations in time for holidays
Google regularly celebrates holiday seasons by launching special little easter eggs, games and decorations across its services. This year, if it wasn’t for the Santa Tracker and Spin the Dreidel game, you’d think Google was under the impression it was Star Wars season. Turns out, that’s not the case.
Barry Schwartz spotted that Google has indeed decorated its search results in time for the holidays. Simply head to Google.com and search for ‘Christmas’, ‘Chanukah’ or ‘Kwanzaa’ and you’ll see the following imagery along with the relevant search results. All three holidays are celebrated with traditional imagery like the Menorah, Christmas Tree and the aforementioned Dreidel. (As a side note: Searching for ‘Dreidel’ or ‘Menorah’ also brings up the Chanukah decorations in Search).
While the holidays get a brief hat-tip, Star Wars has undoubtedly been the biggest focus for Google’s design team this year. With its movie franchise tie-in, Google themed virtually all of its services and launched some Star Wars editions of the Cardboard VR sets, while Motorola and Verizon teamed up to launch Star Wars DROID Turbo 2 handsets.
holidays Stories December 3, 2015
We’re well in to holiday shopping season now. Assuming you’ve picked up some of our recommended Android phones, smartwatches and Chromebooks, there are still some great novelty items out there for the Android fan in your life. Whether you’re looking for collectibles, clothing that shows off your allegiance to all-things Google, or something fun, we’ve got you covered with our list of the best little items to buy for Android fans…
holidays Stories November 6, 2015
After many years of people trusting Google Maps far too much and accidentally driving across town to a store that ended up being closed, Google has finally added the ability for companies to designate holiday hours on Google Maps. Whenever you open up the Maps app and click that little drop-down to see hours for the week, you’ll now see a designated section for these special hours. And if a company hasn’t provided these, you’ll see a warning suggesting that the normal hours might not be right… expand full story
