After teasing the redesign earlier this year, 1Password has finally launched a much-needed update to its Android app. Prior to this update, 1Password on Android was hideous, to say the least. The new version released today brings an entirely refreshed interface to the app that puts it on the same level as its iOS counterparts.
Google’s $35 Chromecast has slowly built up its app portfolio since it was released, and now the device looks like it will be getting another huge service implemented. According to a post on the official VideoLAN forum, discovered by GigaOM, VLC’s developers are currently working on implementing Chromecast support to its media player.
“In addition to the iOS variant, we are also working on a Windows / Linux / Mac implementation, which will take a bit longer because it’s harder.”
Chrome OS users now have the ability to download and view movies and TV shows from the Google Play Store using the newly-released Play Movies & TV app. The app allows users to manage video libraries without an internet connection, something the operating system has previously been unable to do.
The library can also be synced across multiple desktop and mobile platforms, including Windows PCs, Macs, Android phones, and iOS devies. Chromecast streaming is available to play your downloaded content on an HDTV, and the app has full support for Google’s Info Cards, which display information about the content being played.
You can grab the app for free on the Google Chrome web app store. The full description is below.
Google made a big announcement today for new content arriving for users of its $35 Chromecast HDMI streaming stick. The latest additions to the lineup include the WatchESPN app, Major League Soccer via the MLS Matchday app and MLS LIVE premium services, photos and video from Google+ apps, as well as TV and video content from the Crunchyroll video service:
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Last month, Google updated its Google+ app for Android with a set of new visually stimulating features known as Stories and Movies. While that latter launched with parity across multiple platforms, Mountain View just released Stories for iOS today. Now available to download on devices running iOS 6.0 or later, this new feature takes pictures, videos and location tags and rolls them into a stylish trip summary without the need of a third-party photo editing software.
Further maintaining the update’s photography-centric theme is the addition of a new photo editor equipped with new filters and creative tools. These should help you snap the perfect shot of your pet, baby, lunch or whatever else people are posting to social networks these days. However, if any of said items are found offensive, Google+ members can now report abusive communities directly from their iOS-powered devices. If you haven’t pulled down the update yet, head on over to the App Store and check it out.
According to a new report from Forbes, Microsoft’s rumored smartwatch is going to be compatible with not only the Redmond, Washington corporation’s own Windows Phone operating system, but Android and iOS as well (via The Verge). Other details from the report include a release date for the watch potentially slanted for this Summer, as well as battery life that lasts upwards of two days.
Microsoft has been rumored to be working on a smartwatch for quite some time, but today’s report corroborates some information that was previously assumed, and adds a few details that we haven’t yet heard. The device will apparently be a sensor-rich device (as is expected from Apple’s iWatch as well), featuring a heart rate sensor that synchronizes data to the above mentioned variety of devices.
Supposedly, Microsoft is pulling some engineers from the Kinect side of the company to make sure this feature is running 24 hours a day. Microsoft was already rumored to be working on a health rate monitor called the “Joule” in 2012, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Microsoft is taking advantage of Xbox experts to help put this product together.
The report suggests that the device may land as early as this Summer, but Forbes — as might be expected — says that the timeline is “unclear.”
Image: The Independent
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26A6-RO5MoI]
If you’ve ever been on a trip, taken tons of photos and then done nothing with them afterwards, or shot a bunch of video that is still just sitting on your phone, Google has launched a couple of new services aimed at you: Google+ Stories and Google+ Movies.
No more sifting through photos for your best shots, racking your brain for the sights you saw, or letting your videos collect virtual dust. We’ll just gift you a story after you get home. This way you can relive your favorite moments, share them with others, and remember why you traveled in the first place.
Stories will be available this week on Android and the web, with iOS coming soon …
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC1jHHF_Wjo?list=UUadEYJR8MgdLjzmFDuMuzeQ]
Monument Valley, a popular and critically-acclaimed game that was released recently on iOS, is now available for Android devices. The game, available today for $3.99, features beautiful graphics and an interesting storyline.
In Monument Valley you will manipulate impossible architecture and guide a silent princess through a stunningly beautiful world.
Monument Valley is a surreal exploration through fantastical architecture and impossible geometry. Guide the silent princess Ida through mysterious monuments, uncovering hidden paths, unfolding optical illusions and outsmarting the enigmatic Crow People.
While somewhat expensive for an Android game, Monument Valley is well worth the cost. It’s one of the best games I”ve played on a mobile device in the past year. My only complaint is that it’s relatively short — hopefully now that the game is available on both major platforms, the developers can start adding additional levels.
Not stopping at its Camera app, Google has also rolled out an update for its Android and iOS Wallet apps. While both versions aren’t identical, the biggest standout of today’s software releases is the ability to use multiple Google accounts from within Wallet’s Android app. To accommodate this new addition, Mountain View has made a few adjustments to the payment software’s UI. User accounts are accessible via a pull-down panel on the upper left-hand corner of the app, along with a slide-out section for your list of cards and bank accounts. Rounding things out is the ability to receive package shipment updates on purchases made with Wallet.
iOS users rocking Google’s mobile payment system are being treated to unidentified enhancements to the app’s loyalty programs and orders features, along with some token performance fixes. If you haven’t updated Wallet yet, you can pull down this new software from your mobile platform’s respective source link below.
(via Google Play, iTunes)
Like it did last year after inking a partnership with Major League Baseball, T-Mobile is once again offering free access to the MLB At Bat apps on iOS and Android. Tmonews points us to official confirmation from a T-Mobile support employee:
“UPDATE: As the official sponsor of Major League Baseball, we will be offering MLB At Bat 14 to our customers for free starting May 1 through the entire regular season! With our unlimited data and nationwide 4G LTE, you can enjoy all the great features MLB’s At Bat has to offer!”
That’s instead of paying for one of several MLB subscriptions that grants access to the app starting at $2.99 monthly or $20 for the entire season. There’s no word from T-Mobile with the official details yet, but we’d imagine customers will get access to all the live games and content apart from premium features available to $115/per year MLB.TV Premium subscription.
Earlier this month, Spotify updated its iOS app with a totally new, darker-themed interface. This, of course, left Android users in the dark and stuck with an older design. Today, however, Spotify has announced that its Android app has been updated with the redesigned interface.
The new interface features a darker theme with refreshed typography and rounded pictures and album art. The design is nearly identical to that found on iOS and the Spotify desktop app.
According to a report from mobile ad network provider Opera Mediaworks (via ComputerWorld), Android devices received more ad traffic than iPhones and iPads for the first time ever in the first quarter of 2014. The data shows that Android devices, including both phones and tablets, accounted for 42.8 percent of mobile ad impressions, while iOS devices accounted for slightly lies at 38.2 percent.
iOS devices still led in terms of revenue, however, receiving 52 percent of ad revenue. Android devices climbed to 33.5 percent of revenue, up from 27 percent a year ago. In terms of location, the United States still drives the most mobile ad traffic with 50.6 percent. Asia-Pacific countries were second with 23 percent, and European countries came in with 13 percent.
The sheer volume of Android devices obviously helped Google’s operating system take the crown for the most ad traffic. The IDC reported that Android smartphones made up 78% of all smartphones shipped, compared to 17.6% for iPhones. The fact that iOS led in revenue, however, still shows that iOS is still the more enticing operating system for developers and advertisers. For now.
Android is all about options, and that means the freedom to completely rip off an iOS feature (albeit an iOS feature that was inspired by various other sources, including Android itself). Quick Control Panel presents your most-used apps, along with toggles for data, WiFi, Bluetooth, Speaker, and Orientation Lock. You can adjust the brightness of your device’s screen, and the volume of both calls and media. It even displays your music when playing, allowing you to skip or pause.
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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.
[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.
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.
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.
http://vimeo.com/91475918#at=0
Dropbox is introducing its latest product today, a photo and video management app called Carousel that integrates many of the features from the photo storage service Snapjoy acquired by Dropbox back in 2012.
The company unveiled the app at an event today in San Francisco as a gallery to store and share all of your photos and videos. The app is built for quick and easy sharing of one or multiple photos to phone contacts or email addresses (even if the recipient doesn’t have a Dropbox account), allowing you to get around the upload limitations usually associated with sharing photos. With everything backed up in full resolution directly to Dropbox, it essentially becomes a standalone app to manage just photos and videos that you want to store in Dropbox.
With Dropbox, we built a home for your photos and videos but never gave you a great way to experience them. We’d like you to meet Carousel, the newest member of the Dropbox family. It’s a gallery that houses your entire life’s memories. Even more, Carousel lets you share and relive these memories in private conversations with friends and family.
Carousel is now available as a free download on the App Store for iOS and the Play Store for Android.
[tweet https://twitter.com/carouselapp/status/453949761830154240]
The company also made some other product announcements today including news regarding versions of its Mailbox app for Android and Mac OS X.
Vine has just released its ‘biggest update yet’ to the Play Store, bringing one-on-one video messaging to the service for the first time. Analogous with Twitter DM’s, Vine’s VM’s work in the same way — hosting private conversations outside of the main stream. As you might expect, conversations can include short video clips as well as text messages.
Yesterday we got a look at a beta version of the upcoming Gmail app for Android which includes new Travel, Purchases, and Finance categories in addition to the Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums categories currently available. Also present is a pinning feature for making emails of your choosing remain at the top of your inbox as well as a “snoozing” feature that allows you to delay an email for a set amount of time much like hitting snooze on your alarm clock. Within a slightly tweaked UI you’ll also notice a new toggle at the top of your inbox that allows you to switch between showing pinned emails and having them return to chronological order.
Our sources had previously told us about this update but without confirmation. We sat on the story. Now that we have some confirmation that this is coming, we can discuss the whole of what we’ve heard.
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Back in December, the the USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced that a next-generation of USB connectors was under development. The new standard, dubbed “USB Type-C,” introduces a new design, a smaller overall footprint, and usability enhancements such as a symmetrical, reversible connector that doesn’t require users to worry about orientation when plugging in (much like with Apple’s Lightning connector.) It will also allow manufacturers to create thinner and sleeker product designs and scale for future USB performance standards with a transfer speed up to 10Gbps. Today we get our first look at what the cable and connectors will actually look like with a rendering courtesy of Foxconn (via TheVerge).
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Dish and The Walt Disney company announced today that they have reached a multi-year distribution deal that will see Dish subscribers gain access to a ton of Disney content including its ABC and ESPN networks. That means if you subscribe to Dish, you’ll now be able to access the WATCH ABC, WATCH ABC Family, WATCH Disney Channel, WATCH DisneyXD and WatchESPN apps through your computer, smartphone, tablet and other connected devices like game consoles and set top boxes. The deal will also see Dish launch a number of Disney and ESPN networks while pending litigation between the two companies comes to an end:
The agreement will result in dismissal of all pending litigation between the two companies, including disputes over PrimeTime Anytime and AutoHop. As part of the accord, DISH will disable AutoHop functionality for ABC content within the C3 ratings window. The deal also provides a structure for other advertising models as the market evolves, including dynamic ad insertion, advertising on mobile devices and extended advertising measurement periods.
DISH will make available Disney Junior, Fusion, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Buzzer Beater, as well as Longhorn Network and the upcoming SEC ESPN Network upon its launch. In addition, DISH, ESPN and ESPN Deportes customers will have access to the live and video-on-demand channel ESPN3… As part of the agreement, DISH will launch ESPNEWS, ESPNU, Disney Channel and ABC Family in high definition. ESPN Classic will be reintroduced as a video-on-demand channel.
For Android device users, the majority of the content is available through dedicated iOS and Apple TV apps including WatchESPN, WatchABC, and WatchDisneyChannel.
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This season will be the first that Major League Baseball uses a new expanded instant replay system that it first announced back in January. Now, the MLB At Bat app for Android devices has been updated with support for the 2014 season and the new replay system. That means that users of the app will be able to view “every decisive instant replay video clip and review explanation,” the same footage the umpires review, through the app’s Gameday feature.
A little more on the new replay system from the MLB’s announcement:
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YMD6xELI_k]
It looks like Google’s usual April Fools festivities have just kicked off as we officially roll into April 1st in Japan. Google’s first gag is the recruiting video above looking for a qualified “Pokemon Master” for the Google Maps team and comes alongside a mini-game easter egg in the Google Maps app for iOS and Android.
While the video above showing some type of augmented reality style Pokemon game integrated with Google Maps is almost certainly just for a bit of April Fools fun, an easter egg already live in the Google Maps app on iOS and Android actually lets users play a Pokemon mini-game:
As you can see in the screenshots above, small Pokemon characters are appearing scattered throughout the Google Maps app. You can tap the characters to catch them and also a view a detailed Pokedex that shows artwork, character details, and the Pokemon you still have to catch.
Those that catch all the Pokemon between now and April 2nd will go on to Google for a final challenge to crown the true Pokemon Master for the Google Maps team. To turn on the mini-game, tap the search bar in the Google Maps app followed by “Press Start.”
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