May

Here's How To Enable The New Hangouts In Gmail, But Only If You're Ready To Lose Phone Dialing

Posted by Kyle Wiggers in Google, News, Tips & Tutorials

Google may've said during Wednesday's keynote that it planned to roll out Hangouts to Gmail users gradually, but if you just can't wait to integrate the new messaging service into your e-mail dashboard, there's a way to gain early access. Simply log into Gmail, ensure you've signed into Google Talk (if you're having trouble enabling Talk, try installing the browser plugin), click on the thumbnail associated with your account in the Talk sidebar, and select the "Try the new Hangouts" option.

If you don't see the option right now, you can trick Gmail into giving up the goods by clearing your cache and cookies.

May

Hanging Out With Google Hangouts - Google's New, Beautiful Messaging App That Doesn't Really Unify Anything

Posted by Ron Amadeo in News

The new Google Messenger is real! It's not called Babel, or Google Talk, but "Hangouts." It also isn't the unified messenger we've all wanted - maybe it will be someday, but Hangouts is strictly a Google Talk replacement - there's no SMS or Google Voice integration.

What Hangouts does have going for it is that it is really pretty. It supports group messaging, pictures, video chat, and even has read receipts! Hangouts completely replaces Google Talk, so if you have a fondness for the past, say your goodbyes before you update. Let's take a look:

The Hangouts List

This is the "front page" of Hangouts.

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.

Feb

Stock Android Isn't Perfect: Jelly Bean 4.2 Edition

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Features, Jelly Bean 4.2, Stock Android Isn't Perfect

Last Updated: February 7th, 2013

A few months ago I wrote "Stock Android Isn't Perfect," an article where I turned my usual harsh UX critique on stock Android, instead of just picking on TouchWiz and Sense all the time in my reviews. The article went over pretty well, and even got a few responses from Googlers! I didn't cover everything that was wrong with Android, though, and there have been a bunch of updates since the original article, so it's about time I wrote a sequel.

So we're officially making this a series now, and it'll serve two purposes: One, there's a new version of Android out, and more things to complain about; and two, to give credit where it's due, because, since I wrote that article, a lot of things have been fixed.

Jan

Android: A Look Back To 2012, And A Look Forward To 2013

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Editorials, News, Rumors

Last Updated: January 7th, 2013

Happy New Year! It's that time again; with the new year comes our new annual prediction post. I tackled this last year, and rather than do a bunch of crazy, pulled-from-thin-air predictions, I ended up with a link-filled research-fest for the year. It worked out pretty well, so that's what's on the docket for today. First though, I'll take a look and see just how many of last year's predictions and rumors came true, and provide some updates for the more important topics.

A Look Back To 2012

What a crazy year. 2012 brought us two versions of Jelly Bean: 4.1 and 4.2. We saw a complete transformation of Google Search with the Knowledge Graph, Google Now, voice output, and Google Goggles integration.

Oct

ice-cream-sandwich-launch-announcement-confirmed-by-android-developers-youtube-channel

[Getting To Know Android 4.0, Part 2] Google Talk Gets A Facelift

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Features, Getting To Know Android, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Last Updated: August 10th, 2012

Google Talk is one of my favorite parts about Android. If you have other Googly friends, between Android, Gmail, and G+, they are almost always available. In Android 2.3.4, Google Talk got a big upgrade in the form of voice and video chat.

There will be many similarities to the to the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Gmail, which was the subject of Part 1 of this series. So go read about it or risk falling behind the rest of the class. Just like that article, Gingerbread is on the left, Ice Cream Sandwich is on the right. The ICS pictures are all from the emulator, which has the occasional rendering issue, so don't judge too harshly.

Oct

Motorola Photon 4G OTA Update Rolling Out Now, Brings Google Talk With Video Support, Bug Fixes

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Sprint

A minor OTA update is currently rolling out to the Motorola Photon 4G that brings a few bug fixes and one notable feature: Google Talk with Video support. Other than that, it's a pretty bland update:

Lapdock support
Enhancements to image appearance when pictures are taken in panorama mode
Forwarded messages are properly identified as being forwarded
Improved audio quality with car speakers when connected to a car charger and audio
Introduction of international roaming 3G UMTS hotspot functionality for a single Wi-Fi enabled

While this update doesn't bring a whole slew of game-changing features, I'm sure it's still a welcome one for Photon owners.

Jun

T-Mobile Appears To Be No Longer Blocking gTalk Calls Over 3G - Is It Working For You?

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Google, News, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju), T-Mobile

When the new Google Talk with voice and video calling was launched, those of you on T-Mobile who wanted to place calls on 3G quickly found out that it wasn't at all possible. Rather than connecting you to your dog for an afternoon chat, the application stubbornly insisted on only operating through a Wi-Fi connection. At Google I/O 2011, I was able to dig up some more technical details surrounding this limitation, even further upsetting hopeful customers. Bummer.

The light at the end of the tunnel appeared out of nowhere today, when reddit user ep311 was suddenly able to call a friend from his Nexus S running Android 2.3.4, all on 3G while driving home from work.

May

PSA: AIM and Google Talk Can Now Talk To Each Other; All 9 AIM Users Are Essited

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Google, News

Last week, TechCrunch posted a little announcement that got all 9 people who still used AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) very excited, as all their buddies had already left the dying empire and migrated to Google Talk, and AIM was starting to get kind of boring without them. AOL to the rescue - the company (or whatever is left of it) quietly announced that starting sometime this week, AIM and Google Talk users would be able to become BFFs again, all without switching away from their respective clients.

As of this morning, the integration of the 2 networks is a go.

AIM users can now add their Gtalk buddies by their Gmail email account - for example, What_Would_We_Do_Without@gmail.com.

May

[I/O 2011] From The Horse's Mouth: The Situation With Google Talk And Its Support For Voice/Video Chat And Multiple Accounts On Various Devices

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Gingerbread 2.3, Google, News

While roaming around Google I/O and looking for answers to numerous questions you guys posed, I ran into Wei Huang, the tech lead on Google Talk for Android. Yup, the same guy who announced video chat two weeks ago on the Google Mobile blog. Here are some questions I had for Wei, echoing many of you guys:

Is video chat coming to other devices than the Nexus S and if so, when?
It's understandable why the Nexus One has no video chat (although 1-way video chat would still be better than none), but why did it receive no voice chat with the Android 2.3.4 upgrade?