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Google Maps will help you navigate the holiday season with some handy new tools
Avoid the crowds and get your shopping done with ease
Google Maps recently became the third app to hit 10 billion installs on Android devices after Play services and YouTube. With the holiday season fast approaching, now Google is adding a few handy new tools to one of its most useful apps in order to help billions of users stay safe, plan ahead, and have the perfect holiday with friends and family.
You can now hide holidays that won't give you time off in Google Calendar
New options for customizing how public events are displayed
Google Calendar is excellent at managing your personal meetings and appointments, but by default, it also keeps track of the holidays in your region. In addition to public holidays, Google also shares other occasions, so you don't have to search "Father's Day 2021" every few days until you finally memorize the date (it's June 20th). A new toggle for holidays is finally coming to Calendar, so you can declutter your view without disabling the feature altogether.
Color in a sledding penguin with new Google Duo doodle drawings
Plus, become a reindeer or tree with new holiday-themed face filters
Those video chats with your kids and their friends or relatives — via your phone or tablet, of course — are about to get plenty more festive with new AR face filters and some new color-in drawings to doodle on. The new doodle-able drawings are courtesy of Google Duo's relatively new family mode where the drawer can create works of art and the recipient can watch as they see it come to fruition, live on the line.
It's only been a few weeks since Duo added three fun Scooby-Doo effects for its video messages, but that's not reason enough for the team to rest on its laurels. In order to earn their candy-filled stockings and gifts under the tree, they had to give us a special holiday-themed effect and now it's live in the app.
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In time for the holiday season, Google today announced that it's flipping on the Nest Hello winter ringtones. Just like during Halloween, you have a number of options to choose from in the Nest app to bring the festive spirit to everyone visiting your home.
The Android faithful will know that Andrew Bell's Dead Zebra has long made various Android vinyl figures. They look like businessmen, skeletons, astronauts, and all kinds of neat stuff. Never before has there been a holiday ornament version, though. Dead Zebra will sell you a special edition Android mini ornament tomorrow (December 12).
Back in the summer, we reported on key changes to Google Flights on mobile. The interface was tweaked with more powerful tools to help you save money when looking to book a holiday within a range of dates. At the time Google promised the desktop version would see a similar update later in the year, and that has now become available in the form of a beta version.
Pokémon GO players have been salivating at the notion of gen 2 monsters showing up in the game, but the holiday update isn't quite so grand. Okay, it's a lot less grand. There are a handful new Pokémon, which can only be hatched from eggs. Oh, and Pikachu has a new hat.
'Tis the season to shop, and Google hopes you'll use Android Pay to do it. For users in the UK, Google is sweetening the deal with virtual crackers. Well, not only virtual crackers (it's a regional thing). The crackers might come with gift cards worth up to £500. If you don't live in the UK, your consolation prize is a series of holiday animations in the Android Pay app (they get those in the UK too).
The holiday season is upon us, and for many that means Christmas trees, candy canes, and other related whatnots. This year, why not spruce up your wrist with a nice holiday-themed watch face? Don't look at me like that, just because you're that nerd with a smart watch doesn't mean you can't be festive. Here are five Christmas watch faces that are worth checking out.
The ugly Christmas sweater phenomenon seems to be yet another case of public trends where the fundamentally undesirable is somehow turned into a nouveau fashion statement, like Uggs or Hummers. While an intense examination of the psychology behind their resurgence would be an interesting application of our time, I'm not paid to write about wooly jumpers. If all you want for Christmas is an Android avatar with a tasteless sweater, then check your Androidify app for the latest update.
Sometimes I wonder if Google has an official Department of Whimsy where things like the never-ending doodles, Android mascots, and Santa Tracker are studiously maintained (and the inbox still overflows from bitter Google Reader fans). If so, then the DoW's biggest yearly project has just begun with the timely update to the Google Santa Tracker app. The latest version is now available for Android phones, tablets, and Android TV devices, complete with all kinds of kid-friendly goodies.
I'm already a fan (and subscriber) of Project Fi, Google's experiment in being a wireless carrier, but photos popping up across Google+ suggest that the service just got a little more awesome.
It's Father's Day. If you have a dad and you appreciate him, go have lunch with him. If he's too far away, call him on the phone, like people used to do before things like touchscreens and smartwatches and Taylor Swift. Don't send him a text message or IM that says "Happy Father's Day" - that's just so tacky. It's the communication equivalent of a last-minute drug store gift card.
A Hulu Plus account goes for $7.99 a month, so that's how much it looks like you can save through this deal for what I assume will be a limited time. Though you will probably still have to start paying if you want access to more than just the most recent episodes.
Last year, we put out a gift guide with all of our recommendations for the holiday season, but we made one mistake: we released it on December 20th, just five days before Christmas. What were we thinking? I honestly have no idea. This year, we decided to try to be a bit more helpful and put something out at least a couple of weeks ahead of time. You're welcome.Without further ado, here is the Android Police Holiday Gift Guide for two-thousand fourteen. This is the stuff you (and/or someone on your list) want. Let's go.
Jewish holidays follow the Hebrew calendar, so their dates appear to move around each year. Now Google Calendar should be better able to help keep track of them. Google has rolled out the ability to select the Hebrew calendar in the web version of Google Calendar. This will enable users to see Hebrew dates alongside their usual ones.
The Ultimate List Of Easter App And Game Sales On The Play Store [Continuously Updated]
The Ultimate List Of Easter App And Game Sales On The Play Store
Whether Easter to you involves bunnies, crosses, or just heralds super cheap chocolate at the store on Monday, the one thing we can all agree on is that inexpensive apps are cool. A wide array of developers share this belief and, to celebrate your preferred reason to consume candy, have offered steep discounts to their Play Store submissions. Continuing our lengthy tradition of rounding up stuff for you to buy, we've assembled a big list of things to save money on. Let's not beat around the bush, but get right to it.
If you've finished all your holiday shopping and want to relax by getting something fun for yourself, there are plenty of apps and games for sale in the Play Store to occupy your time. Just like our list of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals last month, we've put all the on-sale offerings we can find into one big, easy-to-look-at list for your convenience. From The Adventures of Tin Tin to SwiftKey 3, any Android user should be able to find something enjoyable on our list. Just click the app or game's name to be whisked to the Play Store. Of course, if you find something we've left off the list, just let us know in the comments below.
Smack in the middle of the holiday season, Gameloft has cut prices on just about all of its paid games in a "Holiday Frenzy." If you've got a couple dollars to spare and some time to kill, Gameloft likely has something you'll enjoy, slicing prices on everything from The Adventures of Tin Tin to Wild Blood down to a mere $0.99. Conspicuously absent from the sale is Modern Combat 4, but the 12 other deals make up for its exclusion (though this writer posits that the game may just be worth its $6.99 price tag).