latest
Dead Zebra's Christmas-themed Android figurine is now available — with a catch. You can order up one Santa Claus-dressed bugdroid (sack of gifts and glassed included), but it won't actually ship until the week of Christmas, and it's guaranteed to arrive after the date itself. That gives you a full year to put it in the closet and get ready for next year.
St. Nick masks up for Christmas in Google's 2020 Santa Tracker update
Just like all the good little boys and girls
COVID-19 may have thrown a wrench into people's holiday plans, but Google's Santa Tracker is back to keep us company while we're stuck at home. And this year, Google has given it a simple modification that makes it feel very 2020: gifting a pair of purple masks to Santa and Mrs. Claus.
Waze adds tons of Santa stuff for Christmas, just in time for you to not drive to Grandma's house this year
We're still in the middle of a pandemic, guys
Waze is picking up a little bit of Christmas fun to go with the upcoming holiday season. Until the end of the month, drivers can take advantage of a new holiday theme loaded with three fun features: Santa's voice for navigation, a "Santa Mood" you can share with other folks on the road, and you can even drive around maps as Santa's present-laden sleigh.
Google's Santa Tracker and Santa's Village are both making a return this year, with a couple of new additions. This year Santa has decided to enable location sharing in Google Maps, giving you another way to follow his location come Christmas. This year's app seems mostly the same as last year's, with a minor bump in version to 5.3.0 from 5.1.4, but it's available now for your kids (or your inner kid) to enjoy.
It's the most wonderful time of the year... the time when it's almost over. But it's also that turn in the calendar when a couple of billion people look forward to celebrating Christmas, and the youngest portions of that subset start improving their behavior in an avaricious desire for more presents. Google's taking part in its yearly ritual too, indulging whimsical parents and obsessive-compulsive children with its Santa Claus countdown-slash-tracker app.
Is it Christmas time already? Not quite, but we don't have long before kids start counting down the days to Santa's visit. When they ask, Google is again ready to provide an answer.
Google Maps is one of those apps that will always have an enormous number of potential new features, so it's interesting to see the things Google is focusing on with each new release. We just saw an update to v9.2 with new navigation settings and auto-correct for searches, but there are plenty of other really interesting additions in the works. Let's take a look at some of the features we might have to look forward to. It's time for a teardown.
'Twas the first of December, when in the Play Store
Yesterday we reported on the appearance of several redesigned emoji in the keyboard Google's rolling out with Android 5.0. In the piece, I concentrated on the improved consistency brought in by the tweaks. As it turns out, there was one more change hidden in plain sight among the others, and its importance shadows all others. Google has quietly addressed a bug report that has lingered for years.
Have you been wondering how you'd keep up with Santa's comings and goings this year? I know I have been losing a lot of sleep over it, but fear not – Santa has a special place in Google Maps today only.
Santa Claus is one of the few people on this planet that can be tracked without stirring any moral outrage from anyone, and few are as equipped for the job as Google - after all, the company's been doing this for a while now. This year's version of Google's Santa Tracker has made its way into the Play Store, and you would be wise to grab it before the night of December 24th if you want to know when jolly old St. Nicholas will pay your home a visit.
Man, Google. You just can't stop screwing with Christmas, can you? First you cancel December, and now this? In a very real and totally serious bug report over on Google Code, one user is reporting a serious flaw in Android: If you use the Emoji keyboard to enter a Santa face, he looks decidedly unhappy. Emotionless at best. But, as everyone knows, "Santa should be jolly."
You've gotta hand it to the folks in Mountain View. When NORAD decides to pass Google over for Santa tracking data, the company isn't one to sit on its hands and let someone else handle Christmas. This isn't the first year that the data giant has kept you up to date on the comings and goings of everyone's favorite fat bearded man in a red suit, but this Santa tracker may just be the best yet.
When you think of the legendary icons of rock, who comes to mind? KISS? Queen? Santa Claus? AC/DC? All good answers, but only one of them is the subject of today's amazing game: Santa Rockstar. This rhythm game, a la Guitar Hero, puts you behind the reins of the sleigh, and you have only one hope to bring cheer to all the head-banging girls and boys: pick that ax like Christmas depends on it. Because it does.
You know that scene in Miracle on 34th Street where it's proven in a court of law that Santa Claus exists and is present because a snarky lawyer dumped a bunch of mail on the judge's desk? Well, poor old St. Nick would probably have a much harder go of it proving that he is who he says he is in today's modern world, thanks to your newfangled technology that's all but viciously murdered the art of letter-writing. Fortunately, Amazon has stepped up to fill this void with Amazon Santa, an app that parents can use to let their kids create a wishlist of what they'd like to receive for Christmas.