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Disney+ is the hottest video streaming service around, but being new, it lacks a lot of features. One of these is the ability to resume where you left off in a movie or TV show. Thankfully though, the option has started showing up for some users.
A few weeks ago, I reviewed the XGIMI MoGo, a device that belongs to a rare breed of portable projectors with Android TV. A more expensive version, the MoGo Pro, is now available. It keeps most of the same specs and features, but ups the resolution to 1080p instead of 540p, and raises the brightness from 210 to 300 ANSI Lumens. The result is a sharper, slightly brighter image that makes this the best Android TV projector currently available. Whether it's worth the price hike, though, is a different story.
With phones getting taller and taller, Google has grown fonder of bottom bars in its apps. The latest app to get a new interface centered around moving essential shortcuts to the bottom is Google Duo.
We already knew the Pixel 4 lineup would be getting a $200 discount this Black Friday. Even Google teased it a few days ago and promised the deal would start on November 24. Looking at my calendar, it sure seems like today is the day and the discount has already popped up at a few online retailers.Despite all the criticism (a tradition for all Pixels at this point), the Pixel 4 remains a good phone with a fantastic camera. Its mediocre battery, meager storage options, and lack of a fingerprint reader shouldn't be discounted, but when the price drops by $200, they become a lot more palatable. So if you were waiting on a deal and hoping to snatch Google's latest and greatest, you can now do so.The discount is already live at Best Buy, B&H, Walmart, and Abt. We know for a fact that the Google Store should join them, and Amazon will likely follow suit. We'll update this post once they do and if we find the offer at other retailers.
The features that owners of older-gen Pixels miss out on the most are those related to photography. Many Google Camera mods help alleviate that new-Pixel envy by bringing some exclusive options to previous-gen Pixels. We've already covered cstark27's mod, which was based on Camera 7.2.010, but now the dev is back with another team and a more recent version based on Camera 7.2.014. Don't let the minor number change fool you, though, this is a pretty major revamp with lots of goodies in tow.
It's been more than four years since Google Keep left its Floating Action Button (FAB) behind and switched to a bottom bar with multiple icons for different types of notes. Now Google is trying to bring back the FAB with a slightly revamped design.
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Android users who like living on the edge of browsing tech are waking up today to a new icon in their app drawer with a peculiar name: Clankium. Fret not, this isn't malware or spyware, it's just Chrome Canary with a new look and name.
Portable projectors have been the fantasy of entertainment enthusiasts for decades. Over the past years, the image quality, tech, and price have become better and more reasonable, but most devices either run a sloppy OS or don't run one at all. If you want a TV-centric platform on your portable projector, you should consider this XGIMI MoGo projector, which comes with Android TV and is now down from 0 to 0 on Amazon.I recently reviewed the MoGo and was pretty pleased with it overall. It has a bright image (210 ANSI Lumens), automatic keystone correction, loud speakers, and it runs Android TV 9.0 with the Play Store. It has USB and HDMI input, comes with a remote, acts as a Chromecast, and has Assistant built in. Overall, it's like having a Shield TV that's ready to go with you to any room or outdoor space.However, the image resolution is 540p. I know this sounds horrendous on paper, but for a portable projector in this price range with this brightness, you'd be hard-pressed to find better. The MoGo also needs a DC charger to fill up, and doesn't support Netflix natively. (You can find workarounds.)The thing you need to keep in mind though is that there aren't many other Android TV portable projectors, and none at this price. The higher-end MoGo Pro brings the resolution up to 1080p and the brightness to 300 ANSI, but costs $550, while Anker's Nebula Capsule II has a 720p res, 200 ANSI, and USB-C but is $550 as well.At $400, the regular MoGo was already a decent value, but at $340, it's even more competitively priced. The $60 off deal is valid until December 2 on Amazon, so you have a bit of time to consider this purchase with your Black Friday and holiday shopping splurge.Buy: Amazon
Google likes to celebrate occasions in different ways. Animations in the Google homescreen search bar, Doodles, timely Assistant commands, Easter eggs in various apps, and most recently, Duo effects. We've seen special effects in the video calling and messaging app for Holi, Valentine's, Halloween, Diwali. Now there are three new ones made for Scooby-Doo's upcoming movie, Scoob!
Lens has been making its way to many of Google's apps and services. Assistant, Photos, Camera, Images, all have already added a way to send images through Lens' smart system to detect what's in them and serve you relevant results, and now Chrome is joining the fray.
Google Home and Assistant already offer plenty of music-related commands that let you play any track, artist, album, or playlist you want. But if you have nothing in particular in mind, the options become a lot more limited. You can say "play some music," which usually continues where you last left off, though that's not conductive to discovery. With some new commands, you'll be able to trust Spotify to play recommended tracks for you without having to continue or choose anything.
With Black Friday less than two weeks away, retailers have already started discounting some items and teasing their full-blown deal extravaganza. Google is joining them today with its own early look: The entire Google Store front page has been themed with black and a list of upcoming sales is displayed below it.
In many cities around the world, Google Maps shows a 3D view of all buildings around to help you navigate and figure out what places look like without having to individually open each listing to check photos. The feature is nearly as old as Maps itself on Android, but until now, you were stuck with this rendering and couldn't turn it off. A new layer lets you toggle 3D off to enjoy a flattened map.
Student pricing is a perk offered by many services who want to hook up young users and give them a way to pay within their financial reach. YouTube already offers it for its Music Premium and Premium plans in many countries, and now it's expanding that to 14 more.
Chrome is in a perpetual interface test. Every few weeks, we discover a new flag that turns things around like putting the URL bar at the bottom or eschewing the large tab cards for a smaller grid tab switcher. Google seems ready to settle on the latter as the latest Chrome Dev and Canary use this as the default layout but with a busier look that mashes elements from the new tab page into the tab switcher, with lots of icons, bars, and toggles.
After announcing its intention to rebrand WhatsApp and Instagram to clarify that they're part of its properties, Facebook is now rolling out this change to WhatsApp. The app is also showing more signs of dark mode, which has been in the works for a while.
One of the many perks of Google Photos is its built-in "Assistant," which suggests photo collages and animations for you, makes movies and albums for your special occasions, and suggests you archive documents and receipts. The feature's name can be confounding though, as Google obviously has another Assistant that does something completely different, but this confusion will soon be fixed.
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Pixel 4 owners have had Google Camera 7.2 for a couple of weeks, but those of us with older Pixels were left behind, way behind on version 6.3 of the app. Now, users are reporting that both the Pixel 3 and 2 are getting officially updated to Camera 7.2 on the Play Store. If you haven't installed any intermediate APKs, you'll notice a huge interface change, plenty of little additional features, and a couple of drawbacks.
Launched with the Pixel 3, Top Shot is an AI feature that smartly recommends saving a better photo than the one you snapped. Until now, Top Shot required you to have Motion Photos enabled, to save the brief moments before and after the pic was taken and be able to get a different photo if needed. The feature will soon be enabled for short videos too and it'll be available on the Pixel 4, 3, and 3a.
For over nine months now, Android users have been complaining about an issue with backups to Google Drive. The phone simply stops backing up data without a warning and the only workaround available isn't sustainable, while the only potential fix requires some adb commands. Google has yet to acknowledge or address the problem.