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Your Chromebook will get even more delightful system sounds
Google explains how it came up with the new battery sounds and teases more to come
Chromebooks have slowly but surely become a vital alternative to MacBooks and Windows laptops for many people. After building a solid foundation over the years, Google has recently started focusing more on quality-of-life improvements like the Phone Hub and the new Material You-style ChromeOS interface. Another often overlooked area that ChromeOS has improved in is sound design, and as Google teased in a blog post, there is more to come.
Google One is hiding its 200GB plan in favor of AI-powered premium tiers
Google only shows 100GB or 2TB for many, nothing in between
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Google One just celebrated 100 million subscribers this week along with introducing its new 2TB AI plan with Gemini Advanced. In the midst of the festivities, the company tried to sneak in a change to its plans that means a big disadvantage for those who are only interested in a little bit of storage. It looks like Google removed the $3 per month 200GB plan, making you jump right to 2TB if you run out of storage on your 100GB plan.
Mozilla is best known for its free and open-source Firefox, one of many great browsers out there. In a world where Firefox’s market share is steadily shrinking and hinges on Google’s money to stay afloat, the company has long been looking to diversify its income with other side projects like Pocket or Firefox Monitor. With a new interim CEO at the helm, Mozilla decided to change its strategy again and hone in on what it’s best at: focusing on Firefox, and sprinkling in some AI along the way.
Authy just decided to kill its desktop apps early
The popular 2FA service will only be available on mobile starting in March
One of the most popular two-factor authentication services, Authy, will get less unique in the near future. Twilio, the company behind the 2FA app, already announced that it was getting rid of the service’s desktop apps, but now the shutdown date has been moved forward to March. The Authy desktop versions were initially slated to be discontinued in summer.
How Google Maps shut down scammers and fake reviews with AI in 2023
Google has a new algorithm that catches fakes and spam faster
Google Maps is a big trove of information and data that many people rely on. This makes it a valuable target for scammers, spammers, and for nefarious fake reviews, leading to a constant battle between Google and those bad actors. Thanks to the help of AI, Google thinks it’s coming out on top. The company shared what advances in machine learning it made to improve Maps for everyone in 2023.
Change this setting if you share your primary Google Calendar
Gmail events won’t show up for everyone by default, and this is the fix
Google Calendar is a great tool to organize your life. If you’re anything like me, you’ve long ditched paper calendars and entered all of your various appointments right into the calendar app on your phone. As long as you don’t need to share your calendar with anyone else, the process is as smooth as it gets. But once you introduce calendar sharing to the mix, there is one vital thing you need to watch out for, as I’ve painstakingly learned.
The Nothing Phone 2a is launching on March 5
It's only coming to the US as part of a limited 'Developer Program,' though
Nothing has just announced that it will launch its latest smartphone, the Phone 2a, on March 5 at 6:30 am ET. In contrast to its flagship Phone 2, it looks like it won’t see a wide US launch. It will only be available as part of a limited “Developer Program” statesides. Besides the announcement, the company hasn’t revealed anything about the design and specifications, though you can watch the full 10-minute of the company talking about the ideas and goals behind its first budget phone.
Beeper Mini’s saga continues with possible FCC investigation
An FCC commissioner is concerned about accessibility gains provided by Beeper Mini
Beeper Mini, the app that brought iMessage to Android phones for a short blissful week, might cause an FCC investigation into Apple. The company quickly blocked Beeper’s workaround to enable iMessage outside its walled garden, and FCC commissioner Brendan Carr wants the agency to look into possible violations of FCC rules committed by Apple in the process.
This small YouTube Music redesign improves casting
A bottom-based card shows your casting targets in a denser list
YouTube Music is constantly improving with interface tweaks and some quality-of-life additions, and it shows — over the years, it has become a viable competitor to Spotify for many. The latest tweak to the music streaming service is aimed at improving and standardizing the casting interface across Android and iOS, though the change isn’t live just yet for everyone.
Google preps powerful cross-device features for Android
You may soon share your internet connection and calls across your Android devices
Google is slowly building an Apple-like ecosystem of its own, with Android phones and Chromebooks tightly integrating to share internet access, notifications, and even messaging apps through screen streaming. People who have multiple Android devices, like a phone and a tablet, are left out from this integration, at least right now. It looks like this is about to change with an update to Google’s cross-devices services.
F-Droid just learned a vital trick from the Play Store
The open-source app store can now install updates fully in the background
Android has supported alternative app stores since its inception, but for the longest time, they haven’t been treated as equal citizens compared to the Play Store (or Android Market in the beginning). Google has been working on improving support, with an API that allows for unattended, hands-free updates representing a vital advancement introduced in Android 12. One and a half years later, one of the most popular distributors of open-source apps finally added support for this API.
Why, Google? Gemini has 3 different shortcuts on your phone
Yep, those are three shortcuts to the same thing
Google rebranded Bard to Gemini this week along with bringing it to Android phones. The company left no stone unturned in the process, renaming a whole bunch of other AI services to Gemini, too. The new AI chat tool is also slated to replace Assistant on Android phones in the future, and it’s already possible to make it your default voice assistant on the operating system. When you go that route, you could end up with up to three different shortcuts to Gemini on your home screen, though.
Google Gemini: Everything you need to know about Google's next-gen multimodal AI
Google Gemini is here, with a whole new approach to multimodal AI: Here's what you should know.
Gemini is slated to become a central part of Google's identity. It's the new name for Google's experimental ChatGPT competitor Bard and the underlying large language model powering the answers. It's also replacing Duet AI in Workspace as well as Google Assistant on your phone, with its longer and more powerful AI-generated answers providing you with richer information. As you can see, Gemini is a sum of different products, which makes it rather complicated to explain. We're here to help you understand what it is, how it works, and what you can expect from it.
Google dropped the first Android 14 QPR3 beta on February 7, 2024. It’s available for testing now and will likely go live as the June Feature Drop in the middle of the year. While there aren’t all that many changes compared to Android 14 QPR2 on the surface, there is a lot going on under the hood. There are even some features that may only come out in Android 15, so let’s dive into everything that’s new.
Android 15 could add an easy mode for people who struggle with tech
The upcoming 'easy pre-set' focuses on legibility and ease-of-use
Let’s face it: phones have become increasingly complex over the years, and not everyone wants to deal with all the features their handset offers. Some people may even have impairments that prevent them from easily taking advantage of all the best bells and whistles of Android. That’s where a new “easy pre-set” may come in, which was spotted under development in the new Android 14 QPR3 beta.
Google remembered that chat bubbles are still a thing on Android
The floating chat windows might see a renaissance on big screens
A long time ago, Facebook Messenger introduced a feature called chat heads, which moved your conversations into floating bubbles that sit on top of other content you see. The concept proved so popular that Google added a native version of it in Android 11, long after Facebook gave up on it more and more. Since then, the system-wide Chat Bubbles have languished as a little used option, but with Android 15, this could change again — at least for Android devices with big screens.
Google’s Password Manager will make switching to it easier on Android
Password imports are about to get easier
Over the past year, Google has been improving its Password Manager to be a viable alternative to some of the best third-party password managers out there. To make the switch to the Google Password Manager as easy as possible, the company is working on a new, integrated option to import CSV files with login credentials from other tools.
A wild Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a (5G) update appears
Google is fixing some last remaining bugs on the 2020 Pixel phones
Google may offer seven years of software updates on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, but this policy is brand-new. Older Google phones don’t benefit from this generous support window. This is also true for the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a (5G), both of which were released in 2020 and aren’t updated by Google anymore since late 2023. Google usually still provides at least one last bugfixing update after that official cutoff date, though. This week, one such update is rolling out to the Pixel 5 and 4a (5G).
This exploit can bypass Android's parental controls for web browsing
A hidden browser makes it possible to surf the web freely without parental restrictions
Not all content on the web is safe for children. Google’s parental controls, part of Family Link, are a way to reduce exposure to potentially harmful content on children’s Android and ChromeOS devices, with parents in control of what apps and websites kids can visit. A recently discovered exploit might make it possible to fully circumvent any browsing restrictions thanks to a hidden browser, though.
Google's Password Manager makes family sharing official
You will soon have the option to share usernames and passwords with your Google family members
While Netflix and other streaming services are cracking down on password sharing with friends, you’re still fine to share your login details with household members. Some good alternative password managers out there like 1Password make this process simple with dedicated secure sharing options, and Google is now finally stepping into the game as well. The company has announced that you will soon be able to directly share login details with your Google family group.