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Google Photos finally lets you add photos and videos to an album before they're done uploading
For the impatient among us
Even though Google Photos storage won't be free anymore going forward, the service is still among the best options when you want an almost automatically organized personal media library. But Photos falls short when you do want to do some organization on the go, before uploading your files — you used to only be able to add photos and videos to albums when they were uploaded. Thankfully, that has changed. You can now add content to albums even when you're offline.
How YouTube Music uploads differ from Play Music: Everything you need to know
As it turns out, YouTube Music still can't compare to Play Music
As the Play Music library migration tool rolls out more widely in the past week, more and more people are discovering the limitations and pitfalls of uploaded songs on YouTube Music. While some are obvious—like YouTube Music sequestering away uploaded songs in an entirely separate area—there are others you may only encounter with time. While the feature has been live for months now, many people are only encountering YouTube Music's uploaded library feature in the past few days, and what you find may not exactly thrill you. Here's everything you need to know about the drawbacks (and, occasionally, benefits) of YouTube Music's cloud music storage feature.
Chrome 85 will make drag and drop uploads much less frustrating
Files you drag onto unsupported websites will no longer replace the content of the current tab
Anyone who has ever used a web browser on a desktop OS has probably come across this at some point: You want to drag and drop an image or another file onto a website to upload it, only to realize too late that the site doesn't support uploading that way — instead, the website gives way to a preview of the file you just let go of. In a worst-case scenario, you might even find all the forms you've filled in cleared. Thanks to Microsoft Edge developer Eric Lawrence, this will soon be a thing of the past: Starting with Chrome 85, a file you accidentally drop onto unsupported websites will open in a new tab instead.
YouTube Music's upload functionality is rolling out more widely (Updated)
The new service is inching closer to feature parity with Google Play Music
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When Google first introduced YouTube Music, it promised to port over all Play Music features to it. The execution has been excruciatingly slow, but it looks like we're getting there. Google seems to be in the final stages of preparing upload functionality for YouTube Music, as a support page has popped up that explains how you can add your own files to the streaming service. The feature doesn't seem to be live for anyone yet, though.
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- Google's Ian Lake has confirmed that Live Albums will work with anything using the Google Photos API, which primarily includes smart displays. Photos will definitely be updated for Live Albums by the time Home Hubs start shipping, but we don't know if we'll see support arrive before then.
One of the features people love most about Google Photos is the automatic backup of pictures and videos. The Home Hub brings that to the next level with Google Photos Live Albums, which automatically upload your photos to your Home Hub to show you a constantly-changing slideshow.
When your bandwidth doesn't oblige, sharing videos via Google Photos can be a bit frustrating. Videos are, well, large. And uploading large files can take a while, especially if you're in a congested area, on a throttled connection, or traveling. But now Google Photos has cut down the wait by uploading low-resolution copies for sharing first. And don't worry, your friends won't be stuck with blurry potatoes, those videos are later replaced with high-quality versions.
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- The director of Android TV at Google reached out to us with some more information about this particular issue. They discovered the bug late in the release cycle, and the final build for the Nexus Player should include a fix.
If you've migrated your Nexus Player onto Android O, and you've noticed networking problems or sudden data cap issues, you're not alone. Some people, including our own Artem, have found that their Nexus Players are going a bit crazy, uploading hundreds of gigabytes of data for no apparent reason.
You may recall us covering ML Manager, an incredibly easy to use APK extractor tool, earlier this month. APK extractor tools can be very useful, from simply backing up applications (perhaps ones removed from the Play Store) to uploading them to APKMirror. But for the latter, opening the site in a web browser and navigating to the upload page was still required.
At today's Google for Brazil event in São Paulo, the company introduced several new features for its products - such as audio calling in Duo. Another announcement involves new backup options for Google Photos, designed to make backing up on poor connections less tedious.
Earlier this month, Instagram began testing the ability to add a combination of videos and photos to a single post, up to 10 altogether. The feature was very broken at the time, but Instagram has worked out all the bugs since then. Starting today, the feature will roll out to all Android and iOS users.
Magically uploading every photo you take on your phone isn't a new feature these days. The major cloud storage providers all prompt you to fill their servers with shots of your lunches, vacations, and nudes. Now you can add Flickr to the list with the release of version 4.0.
Today Todoist has rolled out an update for its Android app that introduces the ability to attach files to notes natively. This includes data stored locally, along with audio recordings created on the fly. More appropriately for a cloud-based to-do list service, the app can also pull files directly from Dropbox or Google Drive. To give it a go, just hit the paper clip icon when creating a new note.
In an announcement on its official blog today, Twitter said that "photos just got more social." What has actually happened is that social just got more photos. In an update to both iOS and Android mobile apps, Twitter will allow users to tag each other in photos, with the ability to upload four photos at once starting on iOS and coming to Android and the web "soon."
Last December, Google Play Books saw an update that allowed users to upload PDF and EPUB files to their libraries from their mobile device (by way of Gmail attachments or downloads). A subsequent update to version 3.1.23, however, removed the ability to add PDFs. At the time, Google confirmed to us that the functionality was removed because it was "experimental," but we were told it would return at some point in the future.
Google Play Books update 3.1.17 is slowly rolling out, and I'm glad to report that it finally brings a feature a lot of you have been dying to see - book uploading directly from your devices. As always, we have the APK which you can install if you don't see the update just yet right below.
[Hands-On] Play Music Is Now The Template For All Future Music Services (Even If It Takes A Little While To Love)
At the start of this review, I was simultaneously excited and frustrated. Now I'm just plain excited. For a bit of context, I have been bouncing between
At the start of this review, I was simultaneously excited and frustrated. Now I'm just plain excited. For a bit of context, I have been bouncing between cloud music services since Lala was still a thing. I had one simple desire: I wanted to pay a monthly fee for unfettered access to a large library of content, but still wanted to be able to bring my own. I know that $10/month is not going to get me every song in existence, but if I can pay for most music, and then supply the rest, I'll be happy. Today, Google finally gave me what I wanted and, make no mistake, this is the model that other apps are going to follow for a long time to come. In fact, I'd be in a state of perpetual euphoria if the app itself weren't so obtuse as you're first moving in.
Titanium Backup, perhaps the most popular and powerful root backup solution available, got an update to version 5.8 today, an update that brought with it fixes, added support, and new features.
While Google's been working feverishly to build out its Play Store, bringing it to other countries and expanding its offerings, the company's music store has been lacking one crucial feature that its competitors have: library matching. Where Amazon and iTunes can scan your current collection and add the songs to your online storage, Google has, until recently, required users to upload every individual track manually. A long and tedious process. In mid-November, the scan and match feature came out for Europe, and today it arrives for US residents.