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Apr

Google I/O 2013: Google's To-Do List This Year

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Android OS, News

Last Updated: May 3rd, 2013

Google I/O is coming! We'll know about all of Google's new projects in just 2 ~~short~~ agonizingly long weeks. While we desperately count the days until May 15th, we thought it would be a great idea to take stock all of the things we've caught wind of lately.

Calling this an "I/O Preview," sounds a little too certain. I'm not predicting everything here will come out at I/O, this is just a list of everything we know Google is working on - their "To-Do" list. Just like any to-do list, Google could cross something off and release it, or endlessly procrastinate, or completely cancel something.

Apr

Google Confirms The New Play Store UI, Rollout To Phones And Tablet On 2.2+ Starts Today

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

We've been seeing leaks about a new Google Play Store UI, that we all thought was going to be released at I/O this year. Nope! The rollout starts today, chaps! According to a post over on the official Android blog, the fancy card-based UI is coming to Android phones and tablets running Froyo (v2.2) and up. Worldwide, the new version will be available "over the next few weeks.

Oh, and you should be happy to know that the ugly pattern across the Action Bar is, in fact, not part of the final release. Additionally, the blog post touts a continuous scrolling interface that will show you more recommendations as you move down the page.

Mar

Google+ Profiles Got A Huge Holo-Esque Update Today And It's Actually Kind Of Amazing

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Tomorrow, Facebook is expected to announce some major changes to its News Feed. This has been a long time in coming and many people agree that, compared to the growing competition amongst modern social networks, the News Feed is one of the oldest, stalest, and ugliest presentations of information around. Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but it could use a refresher, so we're all eagerly awaiting the chang-Oh hey look new Google+ features!

Without warning, Google launched a massive change to profiles today that beautifies the heck out of personal and business pages alike. The most noticeable change is users now have a gargantuan cover photo.

Mar

Launch Of Play Gift Cards In UK Imminent? Google Updates Help Files With UK-Specific Information

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Google, News

A mere seven months ago, we saw the launch of Google's Play Store gift cards, a much wished-for addition to the store front that made gifting the store's digital content almost as easy as it should be. Unfortunately for international users, though, the cards were only destined for the US at launch. When "redeem pages" popped up in the UK's online and device-based stores in mid-December, many thought the cards would hit retail stores in time for the holidays. Alas, the holidays came and went with nary a peep from Goog on the subject.

Now, however, we seem to have another promising development that should return hope to UK Play patrons – Google has updated its "Gift cards & Google Play balance" help files with UK-specific information.

Dec

Devs Clone The Google Now Card View UI, Plus A Bunch Of Other Awesome Interface Elements, Open Source Them All

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Development, News

While Android continues to get better about making its UI look gorgeous, there are still plenty of trends that have yet to be standardized in any meaningful way. Of course, part of that may be because they don't need to be. After all, Google doesn't want every app in the world to use the Google Now-style card view (though, so far, Google+, Search, and Currents are already among those that find inspiration from them). This leaves implementation up to developers, like those featured over at AndroidViews. Here are just a few samples of their work:

As you can see, it's not just the cards UI.

Dec

Google Offers Some Android-Centric Holiday Cheer With 'Happy Holidays' Video, Digital Cards

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Google, Videos

If you aren't quite feeling the holiday spirit yet, Google has decided to lend a hand with a few holiday-oriented offerings focused on our favorite green robot.

The official Nexus page on Google+ shared a few "Happy Holiday Cards" this evening, depicting Bugdroid hanging out with some arctic pals sitting by a fire, having a party, ice skating, and – of course – playing with Android-powered phones and tablets. To download the full-resolution cards or share with friends, just click through to the original post, linked below.

Google also published a video titled "Happy Holidays from Android" which shows how a few tablets can brighten even the loneliest robot's holiday.

Oct

Here Is Another Reason Google Continues To Shun SD Cards - Multiuser Support

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Google, News, Nexus 10, Nexus 4, Nexus 7

The lack of expandable storage in Nexus devices becomes one of the hottest and most controversial topics every time Google does a refresh and we find out that the next generation lacks SD cards entirely yet again. Couple that with the decision to limit onboard storage options to 16GB max, which is the case with the Nexus 4 at the moment and was the case with the Nexus 7 for a while, and you've got a full-blown revolt.

You may have read one explanation of Google's aversion to SD cards, which was brought up by Android engineer Dan Morrill last year: it's confusing to users to have multiple storage points, the insecure "free-for-all" area was not meant for private app data but rather for media, and essentially SD cards are the sources of all evil.

Oct

Google Search Updated, Brings New Google Now Cards And Voice Actions - Yes, You Can Set Calendar Events

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

This is why it's great that Google unbundles core apps from the OS. While it might take a considerable amount of time before the newest version of Jelly Bean rolls out to your device, current Android 4.1 users can upgrade Google Search right now and get access to the latest improvements to Google Now. The list of fun new features includes additional cards (like Stocks, News, Concerts, and Packages), as well as voice actions, including the glorious ability to add events to your calendar with via speech.

Here's the changelog:

What's in this version:
For Android 4.1+ (Jelly Bean), Google Search is faster plus:
- Google Now works with Gmail (English only)
- Flights
- Restaurant reservations
- Hotel confirmations
- Events
- Packages
- New Now cards: nearby attractions & photo spots, movies opening in theaters, concerts & more
- New voice actions: launch apps, schedule meetings & check when your next appointment is
Google Now puts you in control: at any time, adjust or turn off individual Now cards within Settings.

Jun

Jelly Bean Feature Closer Look: Google Now Can Assist You With Everything From Traffic To Sports Scores

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Jelly Bean 4.1, News

Google Now is a feature we've been eagerly anticipating for what seems like forever now. In fact, we've been seeing hints at something like it since 2010. When Apple announced Siri last year, an official counterpart from Google became not only inevitable, but necessary - iOS' speech service provided direct Apple competition to Google's mobile search engine. Today, in one of the most notable announcements at I/O, the Big G made official its answer to Siri: the aforementioned Google Now.

Google Now uses actions you've performed on your phone in the past (i.e. your locations, calendar appointments, search queries, etc.) to form an idea of your general interests and habits.

Oct

[Updated] Itching Thumb: An Amazing, Free Task Switcher - You Want This. Now.

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, Development, News

Update: Thanks to commenter Xcom923 (below), I rebooted my phone and have it working! It's freakin' awesome!

Meet Itching Thumb, an absolutely amazing task switcher that's very similar to the one found on WebOS. There's not much I can say that rivals what's shown in the video:

For those who are unable to watch the video or who are unfamiliar with WebOS, it's basically a "card" system - similar to CoverFlow (but with a customizable style). These screencaps illustrate what I'm talking about fairly well: