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During today's Google I/O 2019 keynote, we learned that the company's smart home products will all carry the Nest name going forward. The only current hardware that's being renamed right away is the Home Hub — it's now the Nest Hub. At the same time, it's coming to 12 more countries and the price is being permanently lowered.
The Home Hub is one of Google's hardware success stories, marrying the smarts of the Assistant with a touch screen and pretty visuals. Criticism of it could be that it's too small and can't do video calls, which is where the Google Nest Hub Max comes in. The display has been increased from 7 to 10 inches and there's now a camera for use with Duo calls and more.
With the unveiling today of the Google Nest Hub Max, you might be wondering what’s going on with the branding. Google must value the Nest name more than has previously been apparent and will be using it for all of its smart home products going forward.
Incognito Mode is seemingly as old as the Google Chrome browser itself, allowing users to search for and view whatever they like, safe in the knowledge that it won't appear in their search history. It also precludes the saving of cookies, site data, and form information. Google brought Incognito Mode to YouTube last summer, and now it's doing the same with Google Maps.
It's increasingly unlikely you won't have heard of Master & Dynamic, but just in case, it's an NYC-based startup that has looked to disrupt the high-end personal audio market in recent years. Its MH40 over-ear headphones launched in 2014 with a focus on quality materials and audiophile-level acoustics. 5 years later, the company is releasing its first set with active noise cancellation.
Collecting location data from customers' smartphones with permission is one thing, but selling it on to third parties is something the big four US carriers have faced increasing criticism for over the past year. AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile have all released statements along the lines of 'we're sorry, your data is important to us,' but legal action is now being taken.
If you live in a smaller or more obscure country, chances are you won't have access to paid apps on the Play Store. Thankfully, Google is always looking to expand support to more nations, and another batch has just been added to the list, Iraq chief among them.
The humble TV has been crying out for the right kind of innovation for a long time, but nobody seems to be able to get it right. Enter Caavo, a San Francisco startup that is currently making waves with its universal remote and entertainment hub. Today, it's introducing some new capabilities alongside a price drop.With Family Care, Caavo is adding parental monitoring tools to safeguard younger family members. You can check what's playing on the Control Centers in your home, get notifications when R-rated content is accessed, and send messages to your TVs from the new Caavo Control mobile app (iOS only for now) when out and about.
The new app will also allow you to turn TVs on and off, switch sources, tune to a channel, launch apps, and play movies, no matter whether you're in the house or not. An example put forward by Caavo for when this might come in handy is switching the TV on for your dog while you're out of the house, but I don't know how likely anyone is to do that. It could be good for helping elderly relatives when you leave them at home, though.Another useful new addition to the Caavo Control Center is Sonos integration, so you can use your TV to play, pause, skip, and so on, plus you'll also get album art displayed on the screen. At the same time as announcing these new features, Caavo is lowering the price of the hub and remote bundle to $60, which is $40 cheaper. You can grab it from Best Buy, Amazon, or directly from Caavo. You'll also require a service plan to make the most of it, pricing for which is as follows: $3.99/month, $39.99/year and $129.99 lifetime.
Some apps and websites allow you to log in using just an email address or phone number thanks to Facebook's Account Kit SDK. Until now, two-factor codes for mobile logins were sent via SMS only, but an update is adding WhatsApp verification.
You may remember that back in February at MWC 2019 in Barcelona, Energizer unveiled a boatload of phones. The most bizarre of the lot had a humungous 18,000mAh battery, dual pop-up front cameras, and it could seemingly also be used to break through glass in an emergency. In news that will shock nobody, it has spectacularly failed to reach its lofty Indiegogo crowdfunding target.
Alphabet — Google's parent company — had its Q1 earnings call yesterday amid its slowest growth in 3 years. A 17% year-on-year revenue increase has some investors concerned and Google CEO Sundar Pichai had to answer some tough questions about the company's hardware prospects. One analyst even went as far as to compare the Pixel phones with Microsoft's unsuccessful smartphone lineup.
Regular readers will be well aware by now that Google is in the process of adding a dark mode to all of its core Android apps, including Phone, Contacts, Messages, and so on, supposedly in preparation for the holy grail — a system-wide dark mode. An app of slightly lesser importance is the Google Calculator, but it's receiving the dark mode treatment nonetheless.
The Red Magic Mars from Nubia was only unveiled at CES in January this year, but the Chinese OEM has already taken the wraps off its successor. The Mars didn't fare so well in our review last month, but that's old news now. The Red Magic 3 is here with an improved spec sheet and looks that scream "I'm a gaming phone" even more so than before.
The latest update to the ever-popular Action Launcher includes a new search feature that's been a year in the making. Version 40.0 includes Action Search, a powerful new tool that serves results from the web, your apps and contacts, your in-app search history, and your settings (from both your phone and Action Launcher itself). Also included is a snazzy new app icon.
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In just a few weeks, during its I/O developer conference, Google will announce the long-awaited cheaper Pixel phones. In typical Google fashion, the 3a and 3a XL have already been the subject of full in-the-flesh leaks (more than once) so by this point we know exactly what to expect from them. As if further confirmation were needed, we're now seeing official-looking renders for the first time.
In the first Android Q Beta, a few cosmetic changes were made to the Settings app, but nothing of great consequence. Now that Beta 2 is upon us, some more meaningful changes have been included, with suggestions at the top of the Settings screen encouraging you to connect to a Wifi network and a card with information about connected Bluetooth devices.
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- Although the original press release only mentioned the OnePlus 7 Pro, we were pretty sure another model was going to be announced at the same time. A tweet published by the manufacturer refers to the launch of the "OnePlus 7 series," confirming what we thought:
The hype surrounding the next OnePlus phone(s) has been hotting up lately, with rumors pointing to two new devices being readied. Today, the company has announced that the OnePlus 7 Pro launch event will be held in NYC on May 14.
When LiveXLive acquired Slacker Radio for million towards the end of 2017, it wasn't clear what the live music streaming service would do with the app. Eventually, the decision was made to combine the two platforms and the rebranded app is now live on the Play Store.
Nobody likes to be bombarded with ads and general clutter when reading articles on the web, which is where reader mode comes in. For years we thought that Google, an advertising company, wouldn't ever sign off on such a feature for its Chrome browser on desktop. Thankfully, it looks like we underestimated Google since it's now testing a reader mode in Chrome Canary.
With One UI, the current state of Samsung's Android software is a far cry from the dark days of TouchWiz. The Good Lock suite of apps also makes Samsung's skin one of the most customizable around, and another round of updates is rolling out. The key additions are a new task switcher option and a toggle to enable or disable the rotation button in the navbar app.