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Dead Zebra releases Work From Home special edition Android figurine
Orders begin (and probably end) today
This year will be remembered for many things, not least of which will be the sudden spike in time most of us will have spent at home. For many, it's the first experience with the work-from-home lifestyle, and all of the ups and downs that come with it — e.g. video conferencing, no commuting, cooking lunch in your own kitchen, having to actually make your own lunch, and so on. If you want to reward yourself for surviving this wacky experience, Dead Zebra has a new Android figurine designed to commemorate the Work From Home warriors, and it's going on sale today.
Canon cameras can now back up original quality images directly to Google Photos over Wi-Fi
Leave your SD cards in the camera
Ask any pro photographer and almost all of them will say the thing they wish their cameras would do is automatically upload photos to a preferred cloud storage service just like their phones. It's not a lofty request, but few camera manufacturers have done anything to make this task a reality. However, after Canon gave up on its Irista cloud storage service earlier this year, it launched a new project called image.canon. This isn't really meant to be a storage service, at least not for the long term, but its job is to shuttle photos from your camera to another cloud service for safe keeping. Starting today, it now supports Google Photos
DJI announces OM4 smartphone stabilizer with quick-snap mount for instant setup
The latest evolution of the Osmo Mobile line
DJI may be best known for its photo drones, but the company has also had great success making gimbals (handheld stabilizers) for cameras and smartphones. Today, the Osmo Mobile line of smartphone gimbals is getting a new generation, but it will be under a somewhat new name — DJI is simply calling it the OM4. It boasts a new mounting system designed instant attachment, upgraded motors, and a folded design that's ready to use almost instantly.
Android 11 is taking away the camera picker to limit potential geotag hijacking
G Cam won't be a 100% stock replacement anymore
Android may have started with the mantra that developers are allowed to do anything as long as they can code it, but things have changed over the years as security and privacy became higher priorities. Every major update over the last decade has shuttered features or added restrictions in the name of protecting users, but some sacrifices may not have been entirely necessary. Another Android 11 trade-off has emerged, this time taking away the ability for users to select third-party camera apps to take pictures or videos on behalf of other apps, forcing users to rely only on the built-in camera app.
Android Auto music notifications move to a slick new animation in the control bar
A fair trade between convenience and visibility
Android Auto has been getting more activity lately, including big changes like a return to calendar integration, and smaller adjustments that quietly pop up from time to time. If you regularly play music or podcasts, there's a chance you've already spotted the latest change that gives new track notifications a little more animation.
Android Auto is finally bringing back access to calendar appointments
No more reaching for a phone to figure out where you need to go
When you're running late to an appointment, or even just driving around town with several stops planned, the last thing you should do is reach for your phone to look up an address. When Android Auto was announced, this seemed to be the type of problem Google was trying to solve. An imperfect solution existed through Google Assistant, but it was removed without a good alternative to replace it. But things are looking up because Google is launching a calendar on Android Auto that gives you quick and easy access to your itinerary.
Android TV is getting Instant Apps, Gboard updates, and PIN-based purchases
There's an obvious focus on convenience and simplicity
Android TV doesn't always feel like it's getting much attention, but the user base has grown substantially in recent history. According to Google, the number of active devices has grown by 80% in the last year, owed largely to adoption by seven out of the top ten smart TV manufacturers and set-top boxes from 160 TV service providers. With so many new users and a continually growing assortment of apps, Google is highlighting changes to the platform that will improve the experience for users and developers.
Google's latest smartphone has been announced and it's ready to roll out to the masses. If you've already put in an order for the Pixel 4a, or will be soon, you may also want to pick up a case so your new phone doesn't have to endure the elements alone. Google has its own first-party case, but unlike the old days, other manufacturers are collaborating to have options available right away. There will be plenty of other manufacturers with cases coming out as well, but for this list we're sticking to the Made For Pixel partners Google has featured in the store.
YouTube Music rolls out Recent Activity and external devices toggle from Play Music
Closing the gap a couple features at a time
YouTube Music still doesn't have feature parity with Google Play Music, but the list of remaining discrepancies has been dwindling. Two more items can be checked off in the last few days as the Recent Activities list appears to roll out to everybody and you can now control whether devices like wired headsets and bluetooth stereos can trigger playback.
YouTube is doing away with community-driven captions and translations
The system had become a target for spam and abuse
It's easy to forget YouTube's early days, before the professional productions and multi-million dollar brands, but things used to be very different. There weren't any high tech algorithms or automated features. Google hadn't yet implemented the impressive speech recognition algorithms that now power many of its products, which meant you also wouldn't have captions or translations unless the video creator added them manually. However, YouTube introduced a Community Contributions system to allow viewers to do some of this work for the creators. After many years of diminishing usage and a rising tide of complaints about abuse and spam, YouTube has decided to shut off Community Contributions.
Google Assistant is bringing visual and touch-enabled games to smart displays
Casual gaming on a Nest Hub near you
You can look all the way back to the launch of the first Pixel phone to find Google has been tinkering with games in Assistant. Four years later and Google's directory of voice-controlled games is brimming with activities you can use to pass the time. And since smart displays have become a substantial part of the Assistant ecosystem, Google's sights are set on some more visually stimulating experiences that involve interaction through both voice and touch.
Dropbox declares end of support for Android 4.4 KitKat and 5 Lollipop
But the app will probably keep working for a long time
It's always admirable when a developer supports older operating systems; but there comes a time of diminishing returns when the effort to keep software working on old versions becomes disproportionately expensive compared to the ever-dwindling number of decrepit devices that still use an app. Such is the situation with Dropbox, which just declared the end of support for Android 5.x and older.
Firefox now supports tab switching with a swipe in latest nightlies
One of Chrome's most beloved features is finally coming to Firefox
As we all know, not all web browsers are the same. That's generally a good thing because we want diversity and creativity to drive innovation; but it also means some of the most beloved features in one browser may not be implemented in other browsers for a long time, if ever. This has been the case for a long time with one of Chrome's somewhat hidden power user features: swiping to change tabs. But if you're a Firefox user, you can look forward to getting this awesome feature fairly soon.
New H.266/VVC video compression standard promises the same quality at half the size of H.265/HEVC
Not like you weren't already binging Netflix at work
While people always talk about how each new Snapdragon chip benchmarks or its power efficiency, some of the things that matter most are the features that are often overlooked. Someday soon, you may want a phone that supports the newly announced H.266/VVC video codec. Fraunhofer HHI says its compression can deliver ultra high definition videos at half the size without sacrificing quality.
Android 11 will finally lift the idiotic 4GB cap on video recordings
It's live in Beta 1 right now, but almost no apps support it yet.
Before phones started recording 4K footage, most people balked at the idea their videos could grow to 4GB and larger. Things have changed, of course, and it takes less than 15 minutes at 4K30p to hit that mark. You might be thinking this shouldn't matter thanks to 64-bit filesystems that can handle file sizes up to 16TB. However, an old API from the days of 32-bit Android still capped sizes at 4GB, which forced video recordings to be split into separate files at regular intervals. A fix for this was promised a while back and Android 11 Beta 1 finally delivers on this, but it's not going to matter if you're not using the right camera apps — and the Google Camera isn't one of them (yet).
Back in January, Sonos filed a lawsuit against Google, telling the story of a company that used its power to steal intellectual property and infringe on 100 separate patents. The claims even raise the topic of antitrust. The filing called for the courts to ban the sale of most Google-made products with any relationship to audio. Google is now firing back with its own countersuit aiming to shut down the initial attack.
Moment Father's Day sale offers lots of great gift ideas for up to half off
Pick up a stylish wireless charger, some camera gear, or a webcam upgrade kit
With Father's Day coming up in just a couple weeks, it's time to start shopping for gifts. Moment just kicked off its Father's Day sale with some good options that he probably wouldn't consider for himself. There are discounts on cases and lenses, of course, but you'll also find wireless chargers, camera gear, drones, and other accessories for 20%-50% off. And if you're hitting video chat hard these days for work, or just to call dad, you can even save on the Moment Webcam Set.
Google offers free Nest Hub for Nest Aware subscribers, redemption codes are now working
Offer is valid through July 31st
Read update
Google has an interesting history of giving away copious numbers of its Assistant-powered smart speakers. For example, you've probably received one or more Home Minis if you're a subscriber to YouTube Premium (and again), Google One, Spotify, or Google Fi, just to name a few. Now they're raising the stakes by offering a free Nest Hub to some Nest Aware subscribers.
Android Auto just got new Material icons in Google Maps navigation
It's never too late for a little more consistency
Google typically rolls out changes to its design language every couple years, but many of the company's apps still take months, if not years to catch up. The wireframe style icons that started popping up in 2018 have become fairly ubiquitous, but there are still a few notable holdouts. Android Auto would have been counted among them, but it looks like a new set of icons has been silently swapped in for the Google Maps navigation interface.