It’s been a long time coming for voice calling in WhatsApp. The company decided on an extremely dragged out rollout of the much-anticipated feature, but now it appears that anyone using the latest version of WhatsApp for Android has access to calling as many friends as they would like…
HTC’s VP of Product Management Mo Versi announced on Twitter this evening that the AT&T HTC One M7 will finally receive Android 5.0 Lollipop beginning tomorrow, March 31st. Versi, in his tweet, confirmed that HTC has received approval from both AT&T and Google for the update after delays early on.
AT&T HTC One (M7) Owners! Great news, we've received technical approval on Lollipop OS. OTA will start tomorrow. Thank you for your patience
— Mo Versi (@moversi) March 30, 2015
Google announced today that a new version of Gmail is now available, featuring several notable enhancements. First up, you’ll notice that the new version brings the oft-requested ability to view all of your mail in one place; just tap “All inboxes” and you’ll get a look at all of your email across added accounts. This is probably the most monumental change here, but there are a few other minor updates as well…
These days, many of us have more than one email address. If you’re a student, you may have one account for school, one for a campus group you lead, and one for your blog. If you’re a parent, you might have one for family and one for your business. However many email addresses you have, today’s improvements to the Gmail app for Android make it easy to manage all your mail from all your accounts (yes, even @yahoo and @outlook) while you’re on the go.
Messages from Yahoo, Outlook.com and other IMAP/POP accounts now have the familiar stacked conversation view (as has previously been available for Gmail conversations only), search has been updated with better auto-complete, and the app also has some nifty updated animations. Finally, you’ll find larger attachment previews and the nifty ability to “save to Drive with a single tap.”
You can grab the Gmail app on the Play Store for free as usual, and you should start seeing the update rolling out if you haven’t received it already.
Sundar Pichai recently said in a Forbes interview that Google was going to start focusing on the core parts of Google+ (namely, Hangouts, photos, and the Google+ stream) as being three independent areas of interest. One of the first big steps towards this goal, positioning “Photos” as being its own standalone product accessible across Google services, has finally started happening today: You can now view your Google+ photos under a new “Google Photos” section in Google Drive…
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T-Mobile has today unveiled what it hopes will be the next-generation of network maps, breathing new life into the carrier coverage maps of old. T-Mobile says that its new “Next-Gen Network Map” is the industry’s first crowd-sourced map, and reflects “near real-time customer experiences.”
Plex today has pushed an update to its Android app that bumps it to version 4.0. The update continues to improve the user interface of the application. Plex for Android gained a few Material Design inspired qualities with its last update, but with today’s 4.0 update, the design has been significantly enhanced.
OpenTable announced today that it’s bringing its Pay with OpenTable feature to Android users allowing those booking reservations to also pay for meals using the app.
For participating restaurants, you’ll now be able to pay your check with a few taps inside the OpenTable app after adding your credit card.
“Millions of diners use our apps to discover and book the perfect table,” said Jocelyn Mangan, OpenTable Senior Vice President, Product Management. “We’re excited to provide Android users with a payment experience that is intuitive and integrated into the OpenTable app they know and love.”
The feature is only available in select cities and restaurants in the US, but OpenTable is always adding new additions to the list of supported locations.
The Pay with OpenTable feature is available through the latest version of the OpenTable app for Android on Google Play.
More than 4 months after the update started rolling out to Nexus devices, AT&T has finally announced this morning that it is pushing Android 5.0 Lollipop to its Galaxy Note 4 variant. Earlier this month, Sprint also began rolling out Lollipop to its Note 4 model. The update for AT&T users comes in at 1.16GB and is based on Android 5.0.1.
Amazon has today announced that a bunch of new features are heading to the company’s Fire TV media streaming device. Coming as an over-the-air update in “the coming weeks,” the new software features expandable USB storage, the ability to connect to WiFi connections that require web authentication, private listening on Fire TV, a new hidden PIN entry screen, the ability to search Prime Playlists, new shortcuts, and more.
Some of these features are coming to the company’s more compact Fire TV Stick device in a couple of weeks, too. While expandable USB storage and private listening seem to be only coming to the standard Fire TV due to hardware restraints, the new WiFi features, Prime Playlists, hidden PIN entry screen, and shortcuts seem to be coming to the Chromecast-competitor as well.
Additionally, Amazon has also announced today that the Fire TV Stick is coming to a couple new European countries—UK and Germany— on April 15th.
SEATTLE—March 24, 2015—(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today announced new features are coming to the best-selling Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. These features will be delivered as part of a free, over-the-air software update in the coming weeks. Amazon also announced today that Fire TV Stick is now available in the UK and Germany, joining the #1-selling streaming media box, Amazon Fire TV.
“Customer response to Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick has been overwhelming—we’ve been working hard to build more of both as quickly as possible, and we’re excited to be adding new features we think customers will love,” said Peter Larsen, Vice President, Amazon Devices. “In the UK and Germany, Fire TV is already the best-selling streaming media box on Amazon, and we’re thrilled to be bringing our fastest-selling Amazon device ever—Fire TV Stick—to the UK and Germany. We think millions of customers in the UK and Germany are going to love this product.”
New features coming as part of the free, over-the-air software update include:
- Expandable USB storage on Amazon Fire TV—You can now use a connected USB mass storage device to expand your Fire TV storage for downloaded apps and games—this enables you to have more games downloaded for easy access.
- Connect to your hotel or dorm room Wi-Fi with captive portal support out of the box—Take your favorite movies, TV shows, games, and more with you away from home—Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick are the first streaming media devices to enable you to connect to Wi-Fi that requires web authentication—this includes Wi-Fi at most major hotels, as well as some universities.
- Private listening on Fire TV—Enjoy favorite movies and TV shows after the kids go to sleep, without worrying about waking them up. Support for wireless Bluetooth headphones to Fire TV lets you listen to your movie, TV show, or music without bothering others in your household.
- Browse and search Prime Playlists—Prime members can now take advantage of hand-crafted Prime Music playlists directly from Fire TV and Fire TV Stick—there are hundreds of expertly curated Prime Playlists to choose from based on your mood, activity or even artist or decade of choice.
- Hidden PIN entry—With the new PIN entry screen that hides the numbers selected, you can now make sure your kids (or freeloading friends) can’t see your device PIN as you enter it on-screen to confirm a purchase on Fire TV or Fire TV Stick.
- New shortcuts—Quickly put your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick to sleep or enable display mirroring by pressing and holding the Home button on your remote.
Fire TV and Fire TV Stick are available for purchase at www.amazon.com/firetv and www.amazon.com/firetvstick. Fire TV Stick is available to order starting today in the UK and Germany—it will start shipping on April 15. Learn more at www.amazon.co.uk/firetvstick and www.amazon.de/firetvstick.
Android 5.1 has slowly begun rolling out to Nexus devices over the last couple of weeks (and has been seen on Android One devices since February), but Google has today posted the factory image for the Nexus Player. Previously, Google updated the download page with links for the Nexus 5, 2012 WiFi Nexus 7, and the Nexus 10, and now you can manually update your new Nexus-branded Android TV set top box as well if you’d like.
Hit up Google’s developers site to find the Nexus Player’s Android 5.1 image, with build number LMY47D.
Android Auto is here at last. Google’s mobile platform for integrating content like maps, music, and more from your smartphone to the head unit in your car is now live as the Android Auto app has officially hit the Play Store for download. The new app comes as Google announced via Twitter that Pioneer’s support for Android Auto is now live in three countries…
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If you’re one of the unlucky few who’s still dependent on an old non-Google Play Edition HTC One (M7), a new Tweet today from HTC’s Mo Versi is not going to be the best news you’ve heard. According to the VP of Product Management, the One (M7) has received its last official software upgrade with the first version of Lollipop and won’t be getting Android 5.1.
@kennymaclean Only the GPE version of M7 will receive 5.1. Our target is early April. Thanks.
— Mo Versi (@moversi) March 18, 2015
That said, if you do have the Google Play Edition of the One (M7), this is great news. Not only will you be getting the update, but Versi says that it should be rolling out in early April.
In case you missed it, Wednesday was a huge HTC news day. The Taiwanese company came out to announce its Uh Oh protection plan, revealed that its M9 flagship will be hitting stores in the United States from April 10th, and Upleaks says the HTC One “M9+” should be coming out sometime in the next month or two.
Update: Mo Versi says to “Stay tuned.”
I heard you all on M7 5.1 for Carrier versions. Many of the fixes are already in our current SW, but understand your concerns. Stay tuned.
— Mo Versi (@moversi) March 20, 2015
Google tends to push several updates to its apps in the middle of the week, and this week has been a particularly eventful one. Updates have landed over the last 24 hours for several apps in Google’s Android inventory, including Inbox, Google Docs (Sheets and Slides, too), YouTube, Quickoffice, Google Maps, and Google Play Music.
After plans of a beefed up protection plan leaked yesterday afternoon, HTC this morning came out to officially announce its “Uh Oh” free replacement service for the HTC One M9. But the announcement livestream that the company planned is still happening at 9 AM PST, and you can find the video embedded below for your viewing pleasure…
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HTC updated the hardware of its Dot View case for the recently announced HTC One M9, but the app that powers the case has also now been updated—meaning that users of the HTC One (M8) Dot View case will also be able take advantage of some sweet new features.
The update packs the ability to play games on Dot View, notably one called “Dot Breaker” that looks a lot like the brick breaker games of old. You can also use Dot Message, which will display a message made of dots scrolling across the screen. Finally, the update packs new animated themes, a “special surprise” on your birthday, and a few practical enhancements to make the overall Dot View experience better: You can now control the flashlight and voice recorder, snooze alarms, and more.
Here’s the full changelog:
More interesting:– Play games on Dot View– Display a scrolling message on Dot ViewMore appealing:– Try the new animated themes– Receive a special surprise from Dot View on your birthdayMore practical:– Turn on your speaker during a phone call– Control the flashlight and voice recorder– Snooze alarms– Enjoy more notification icons
We’ve received a couple of tips this morning that Android users are now suddenly able to send Hangouts messages via Google Voice Search (a feature which is often mistakingly referred to broadly as “Google Now”). It’s not clear when this long-awaited feature began to roll out, but it seems to be a change that Google is making on the server side…
Chainfire has announced this afternoon that the first two models of the Samsung Galaxy S6 have been added to the CF-Auto-Root repository. Specifically, you’ll find that CF-Auto-Root for both the SM-G920T and SM-G925T are now available, otherwise known as the T-Mobile Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. CF-Auto-Roots for other devices in the S6 family are surely imminent…
As per Chainfire’s Google+ post:
Either way, the first CF-Auto-Root’s for the S6 family are up: SM-G920T and SM-G925T – the T-Mobile US S6 and S6 Edge.
Only very minor modifications were necessary [to the existing CFAR script]. The S6 CFAR has been tested on a real device, and root was achieved. Further information? I have none, I wasn’t there in person.
All completely expected, but perhaps nice to know regardless.
Before actually rooting though, consider that KNOX will likely be tripped, and there’s a good chance untripped KNOX will be required for phone based payments.
If you want to download the CF-Auto-Root, be sure to head over to the repository: http://autoroot.chainfire.eu/. It’s probably not going to be useful for many yet, because the Galaxy S6 hasn’t even shipped for most. And in the case that you don’t have any need for a root at all, you’re probably in the majority.
Motorola has today pushed out an update to its Motorola Gallery app, bringing a host of improvements across the board. On all devices, the app features an improved Camera Roll view with better sorting, a new app icon and Material Design enhancements, and quicker access to photo cropping. Also, you’ll find that the the app’s “Highlight Reel” is now available for both variants of the Moto X and the Droid Ultra.
As per the app’s description on Google Play:
For all devices:Improved Camera Roll view with sorting by event and timeNew app icon and material design enhancementsQuicker access for cropping a photoStability and performance enhancementsFor Moto X (1st Gen.), Moto X (2nd Gen.), DROID Ultra family and DROID Turbo only:Highlight Reel now available for Moto X (1st gen), Moto X (2nd gen) and Droid UltraMore free music downloads to personalize Highlight Reels
Cyanogen recently gave itself a rebrand, and now the company has come out to share the new boot animation shipping with its upcoming Cyanogen OS 12. It’s definitely sporting the company’s slick new logo which, according to Cyanogen, “celebrates space, with minimal letterforms that don’t quite connect, giving the logo a sense of motion and a feeling of inherent energy.”
Android Wear is about to receive a very notable software update, and sources who are reportedly familiar with the smartwatch operating system’s roadmap (via The Verge) say that that it’s going to include support for WiFi among several other new features.
It looks like Google might be moving Android Wear to be more app-centric…
The rollout of Android Lollipop continues today, as various reports on Twitter and elsewhere have confirmed that the latest major update to Google’s mobile operating system is now hitting the HTC One (M7) for T-Mobile. A couple of days ago, HTC’s Mo Versi confirmed on Twitter that the company had received approval for the update and that it would be rolling out over-the-air on Tuesday. But now, a day early, many users are already receiving the update.
@moversi Finally getting Lollipop On T-mobile HTC One M7!! pic.twitter.com/CSVBqT4Gei
— JIm (@JDWUe) March 9, 2015
HTC announced in February that it had missed its 90-day goal for bringing Lollipop to owners of the HTC One (M7) and (M8) (with the obvious exception of the Google Play edition which got the update in early December). In mid-February, the update started rolling out to those using the HTC One (M8) on T-Mobile, and now about a month later, those who have the HTC One (M7) are seeing the update.
HTC One (M7) T-Mobile Owners! We've received technical approval on the L OS and OTA will start on Tuesday. #htcadvantage
— Mo Versi (@moversi) March 7, 2015
Google rolled out an update to the Drive Android app earlier this week, and as usual, what it touted in the change log wasn’t all that changed. Android Police has dug deeper into the APK update file and noticed some changes that hint at major new features coming to the app. First off, it appears that Google Drive will take over the task of backing up photos and videos for users, a responsibility that has been held by Google+ since its inception.
Google this morning has released a major update for Gmail on iOS. The update bumps the app to version 4.0 and packs a handful of new features. First off, Gmail on iOS now supports the ability to archive and reply to messages directly from a notification, a feature many have been requesting since iOS 8 launched.
Google announced a couple of weeks ago that it had acquired some technology and IP from Softcard, and today the company has taken to its website to announce that the service will be getting shuttered completely as of March 31st.
This news comes after rumors started spreading that Google would be re-introducing its payments service at Google I/O under the name “Android Pay“. Google’s Chrome and Android lead Sundar Pichai confirmed the existence of such a service earlier this week at Mobile World Congress.
The update, seen on Softcard’s website, reads:
Important News! We are pleased to let you know that Google has acquired technology from Softcard to power the next generation of mobile wallets.
What does this mean for you? As of 3/31 your Softcard app will no longer work. You can continue to use the Softcard app until 3/31. After that your Account will be closed.
To keep using a digital wallet app download Google Wallet now.
For more information read our FAQs.
For those that still use Softcard, the company recommends that you head over to Google’s website to download Google Wallet.