Google recently pushed out an update to its Clock app, and this one’s a game changer. You know the clock widget that lets you put analog and digital clocks on your home screen? Until now, dragging it around and resizing the widget simply changed its alignment. Now, when you resize the widget, the clocks themselves actually change size too…
Facebook has been busy testing new versions of its Material-inspired Messenger in recent weeks. Three weeks ago, the Material Design refresh started showing up for a handful of users with an account-switching feature and new FAB (floating action button), while others last week reported a fresh new blue lick of paint.
More recently than that, it seems some Messenger users are seeing the inclusion of a new feature. Or rather, the return of an old, discontinued feature.
According to the latest U.S. smartphone market share numbers from Parks Associates, Apple is still well in the lead compared to competing manufacturers, holding a beefy 40% of the smartphone market. But the latest figures also show that Android OEMs are gaining ground on the dominant Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker. Now, Samsung holds around 31% of the market and LG is next in line with 10%…
Samsung’s Galaxy S7 is set to be announced later this month, but it looks like by the time that happens there won’t be anything new to learn about the phone. We just saw actual photos of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge yesterday, and thanks to several previous leaks, we know a lot about the phones’ specs. Now, via a forum poster over at SamMobile, we have our hands on the official set of wallpapers for the unannounced phone…
Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.
[tweet https://twitter.com/9to5toys/status/695270990838919169 align=’center’]
[tweet https://twitter.com/9to5toys/status/695278077694320640 align=’center’]
Google has today launched the latest update to the Android Wear OS, bumping it from version 1.3 to 1.4 (the companion app got an update in November, which tipped us off that this firmware update was on the way). Among other features, this version of the OS enables support for the speaker hardware that was previously discovered on the Huawei Watch and the ASUS ZenWatch 2…
Apple has some good news for all of the Apple Music users on Android. The company has just released an update to Apple Music in the Google Play Store that allows users to download songs to an SD card so that they may store even more music for offline listening.
It wasn’t that long ago that rumors predicted that Google was planning to bring a new podcasts feature to its popular Play Music app. This would see Google add yet another media platform to its already large list of options available in the Play Store. With it already offering books, movies, music downloads and streaming, apps and games, it would mean Google would now offer virtually every kind of popular media. Popular podcaster, Bill Simmons confirmed the move on Twitter before taking down his tweet earlier today.
Thanks to Android Police, we now have a good idea as to what the podcasts user interface will look like and the features it’ll bring along with it…
A few weeks back, Samsung opened up an Android Marshmallow beta testing program for specific carrier models of the Galaxy S6 Edge, S6 Edge+ and the Galaxy Note 5. While we’re undoubtedly still some time away from seeing the OS update land officially for those carrier-locked devices, Samsung has started pushing out the beta-testing software to some users.
Unlike most routers that remain static after you purchase them, Google’s line of OnHub routers are meant to receive software updates and new features. While it launched without the standard feature of a guest Wi-Fi network, an update rolling out this week to both models remedies that…
![Chrome - Material Design [header]](https://9to5google.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2016/02/mdc-header.png)
Material Design has undoubtedly been Google’s most significant effort in showing its renewed commitment towards design.
Despite being born on (and around) the web, however, it took almost a year and a half for Google to finally start updating its beloved Chrome browser to the new language.
As first spotted by The Next Web, a few screenshots posted within a recently-filed Google Code request show that the yet to be released version 50 of Chrome OS is being tweaked to reflect the changes, taking a few steps further from what we saw with v48…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Google has just posted the new factory images with February’s security patch for Nexus devices. The images are still based on Android 6.0.1, so don’t expect anything besides security fixes. There’s also a new factory image for the Pixel C…
After a voluntary recall of the first SHIELD Tablet, NVIDIA came back last fall with a refreshed and cheaper SHIELD Tablet K1. The K1 is receiving an update today that addresses bugs and adds back hardware functionality, while the original SHIELD Tablet is finally getting updated to Marshmallow.
Yahoo today announced that it’s revamping the way it aggregates news content and in the process launching redesigned commenting, news discovery, and notification features to users on Android, iOS, and through its Yahoo homepage on the web.
Sage LaTorra, a Test Engineer at Google, just told the world about an awesome little Easter egg he added to Google Hangouts. He’s one to often use the shrug emoji, so it makes sense that this was a priority for him. As of now, all you have to do to add a “shruggie” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ to your Hangouts message is add the command “/shruggie” to the beginning…
Spotify recently added new Video and Audio Shows, and this week the update has been rolling out to Android users. It’s an interesting move for a streaming service that has long been dedicated to being the best at music (and it’s still the leader in this space by far), but I think this update will come as a delightful value-add for those that have shifted to using Spotify as their main avenue of media consumption…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Google has today added a new type of card for YouTube creators to add to their videos: Donations. The donation card makes it really easy for viewers to give money to non-profit organizations, and they’re private and tax-deductible just as you’d expect…
With January coming to a close, Samsung has released their security update for this month just in time. This is continuing on the company’s promise to provide monthly security updates for its Android devices.
According to a report this morning from The Wall Street Journal, Spotify is getting ready to finally launch its video content offerings. The rollout is set to start with the Android app getting video by the end of this week, but the iOS app is following suit by the end of next…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Samsung is historically a little behind its Android-making competitors when it comes to rolling out major software updates for its smartphones. So it’s no surprise to see that Marshmallow hasn’t yet officially landed on any Galaxy series devices. If a leaked roadmap is anything to go by, that could be about to change…
Following the official launch of OxygenOS 2.1.4 for the original OnePlus One, the manufacturer is now pushing out a new software update for its latest phone. OnePlus announced via its official forum that OnePlus X owners should start to see the OxygenOS 2.2.0 update hit their phones from today.
It’s an incremental OTA update, meaning not everyone will get it on the first day, but you will get it over the air, and won’t have to install manually using any flash tools.
The update includes the following:
While having the manual camera controls is a nice new addition, it sadly isn’t a virtual button that magically improves the camera sensor. So the camera won’t suddenly become incredible, it’ll just be easier to adjust brightness/exposure levels and focus, hopefully making it more bearable.
If you don’t see the update land on your phone immediately, be patient, it should arrive over the coming days/weeks.
When OnePlus launched its second smartphone last year, it opted to do so without the Cyanogen-based operating system found on its first smartphone, the OnePlus One. Instead, it had been developing its own UI called OxygenOS which ended up being the out-of-the-box operating system for both the OnePlus 2 and OnePlus X.
Today, the manufacturer has announced that it has finished building a custom version of OxygenOS for the original OnePlus smartphone, and it’s available to download now…
SwiftKey has updated the beta version of its popular keyboard app to include in-depth, personalized and visualized stats for all its users. Using SwiftKey Stats in the SwiftKey beta app for Android you can now see more than just the usual set of statistics. It looks at your typing habits, and brings you a pretty fun look at your most-used emoji, topics and more.
If you’re intrigued and want to try it for yourself, you can download the beta for free from the Play Store. Once installed, go through the set-up process and then sign in to your account. As soon as you start typing, the app starts collecting information and will be able to give you your stats.
Feature Request is a new regular 9to5Google series where authors offer their opinion on how to improve popular hardware or software products.
I think most of us who have used it are aware that Android Wear isn’t exactly a complete platform yet. It feels a little beta-ish. And that’s okay for now. One of the best things about Google’s software efforts is that we get to go along for the ride as it publicly experiments and launches new features. It’s not a case of waiting for months, or years, for it to secretly ‘perfect’ its product before telling us we’re ready for it.
Android Wear is still young enough that there’s plenty Google could change without upsetting the apple cart too much. One feature I think should be implemented soon (this year if possible) is a Force Touch-like technology. In other words: Android Wear should have a deeply engrained system to take advantage of pressure-sensitive touchscreen displays…
