Latest Articles
Google Home can start playback of video content from plenty of streaming services like Netflix and HBO. This has been a thing since shortly after Home launched, but Google's own Play Movies platform was not included for some reason. After getting some hints last week that the feature would arrive, it's now official.
The first generation Pixel phone is yesterday's news, but it's still one of the few phones assured of getting a quick update to Android P. The camera is also still one of the best available. Google doesn't sell the phone anymore, but Woot is offering it for an all-time low price. You can have a Pixel for as little as $200.
People always say "it's the thought that counts" when someone gets a bad gift. But hey, the gift kind of matters, too. That's why most stores let you return gifts. Now, the Google Store does that as well. It's not the easiest process, and you won't get the cash. Still, it's better than staring at that Home Mini you don't need forever.
We live in strange times when many phones have but one port, forcing you to choose between charging and audio. The $45 Moshi Type-C charging/audio adapter promised to let you do both, but Google just pulled it from the Google Store. In fact, it never actually went on sale. It was "coming soon" for six months, and now it's dead.If we ignore the exorbitant price for a moment, the Moshi adapter seems like a useful doodad. You plug it into the Type-C port on your Pixel or other similarly limited phone, and you've just turned one port into two. You can charge the phone over Type-C while also listening to audio with this adapter, or at least you would have if it ever shipped.
Cloud-based services like Google Docs have replaced old-fashioned word processors for some of us, but plenty of people still want to open Microsoft Word files. So many, in fact, that Microsoft Word for Android has hit the 500 million install milestone in the Play Store. That's the first app published by Microsoft (not counting Skype) to reach that number.
After numerous teases, leaks, and deleted Twitter polls, the OnePlus 6 is official. OnePlus has made a number of significant changes that its fans might not love, but the OnePlus 6 is very 2018. This device sports a screen notch, which is all the rage among smartphone OEMs. There's also an all-glass chassis, which OnePlus has resisted for years. This is still a OnePlus phone, so it comes with killer specs and a pretty reasonable price tag.
Google's mesh router launched with built-in speed testing capabilities, but a new update expands that functionality. With the aim of improving network troubleshooting, you can now test individual devices. This feature is live in the latest Google Wifi app, and you can download it right now.
There are many controversial UI decisions in the Android P developer preview, many of which appear to be geared toward phones with screen notches. One interesting quirk is a definite lack of icons up in the status bar. Android P only shows four notification icons, but Oreo shows many more.
Sprint and T-Mobile are finally trying to tie the knot, but Sprint isn't just hanging back while it waits for the deal to be done. It's still planning its own 5G network to begin deployment in the coming year. It already had an initial list of 5G markets, but it's adding to it today.
OnePlus is good enough to provide a beta channel for its phones, so you can stay on the bleeding edge. You'll also probably encounter more bugs, but such is life. There are new Oreo-based Open Betas live today for OnePlus' recent phones. They include some functional updates as well as security patches.
Some Google apps get new features tied to updated versions, but others seem to spawn new things at random intervals when Google deems it appropriate. YouTube TV is one of the latter, and today's new feature is "voice remote." You don't need an app update, but you also can't access voice remote yet unless you are chosen by the Google.
Gmail recently got its biggest redesign in years, but not all of the announced features were live right out of the gate. Today, Google has started deploying the new Gmail's "Nudge" feature, which is designed to help you reply to emails you missed or ignored like the lazy procrastinator you are.
The Opera browser has gone through many changes over the years, including the switch to a Chromium base. Opera adds a lot of things on top of Chromium including an ad-blocker and a not great news feed. Hey, you can't win them all. Opera's latest additions will probably make a lot of users happy, though. You can finally change the browser theme and toggle a night mode. There's also better control of private browsing mode.
By some measures, Android Auto is a huge success. Google's infotainment system is available in cars from dozens of automakers, and consumers will be using these vehicles for years. That's a lot of people incentivized to use services like Assistant and Maps, but Auto is inherently limited as a projected interface from your phone. The car integration tab in Auto remains barren in virtually all vehicles. Google's solution is to build a version of Android that runs on cars, which it calls Android Automotive. We now have a better idea what that could look like.
Read update
Samsung's Oreo updates have been slow to appear, but what else is new? The company promised it was almost done with Oreo updates a few weeks back, and T-Mobile said its Note 8 update was all set. However, you might have noticed your Tmo Note 8 is still running Nougat. That's because T-Mobile pulled the update three weeks ago shortly after announcing it. Oops.
Google covered a lot of ground during the I/O 2018 keynote, but the thread running through all of it was artificial intelligence. Google Photos is one of the places users encounter this technology most often, and it's getting more AI magic. The Color Pop images Google announced in the keynote are already starting to appear in the app, but it's not an on-demand feature.
Read update
- We're sorry we didn't notice this before or celebrate it with all the gusto it deserved, but the shaded white overlay that was introduced on top of the dock in P DP1 is gone in DP2, as seen in the screenshots above. Hallelujah! It was immensely ugly and we're super happy to see it go. (Thanks, AfrodanJ!)
The new developer preview for Android P is rolling out with tweaks and new features galore. It has some goodies inside that Google showed off during the keynote, as well as some improvements to the features we saw in DP1. The new Pixel Launcher (vQ-4753642) build is a bit of both. The rotation lock button is more useful, and the new app actions are available in the app drawer.
Playing games on Android usually means playing mobile games, but Valve could give you more options soon. It's launching a Steam Link app on Android, allowing you to play your PC games on phones and tablets. In addition, Steam Video is coming to Android. Did you know Steam offered video content? Well, it does.
Google has cycled through various versions of Do Not Disturb functionality going all the way back to Lollipop. It was pretty complicated back then, but DND in Oreo is straightforward—DND keeps your phone from making noise. DND in the second Android P developer preview changes Do Not Disturb mode substantially. It blocks both audio and visual distractions by hiding most notifications on your device.
During the Google I/O keynote, Google talked about the WaveNet voice engine and how it was making speech synthesis more realistic. To drive the point home, Google announced six new Assistant voices were coming to devices. We expected them to roll out at a later date, but they're already live in the Assistant settings.