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Google introduced the Assistant SDK back in April, making it possible for third parties to build the digital companion into their devices. Sure enough, at IFA 2017 in Berlin back in August, the first Google Assistant-enabled speakers were announced, due to hit the market this fall. There are now several different options from a range of manufacturers, and they cover various use cases and price points.
Thanksgiving is a great time of year to stock up on all kinds of discounted products, but technology is usually where the best deals can be found. Thanks to Amazon's keen price reducing policies around this time of year, Google has no choice but to follow suit, and the competition is great for us consumers. Offers on Google products are available at various retailers, so let's round them up.Google Home Mini - $29 plus $10 credit/voucher - $19 (effective)Arguably the best deal around this Black Friday. It's effectively $19 as most retailers are offering a $20 price cut plus $10 store credit:
The discount madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday is almost upon us, so it's probably a good time to take a look at what Google Play is offering. There are offers in every category on the Play Store, including movies, apps, games, music, TV, and books. These deals will be available through the end of Monday 27th November in most territories.
If you're looking for a first-person view when controlling your drone, DJI's goggles already had you covered. The company has now updated its original viewer with a new version designed specifically with racing in mind. The sleek metallic black and red leather goggles are exactly what you'd expect from a product carrying a 'Racing Edition' moniker.
Last month, Spotify announced that it was turning its artist dashboard into a standalone app. Spotify for Artists offers easy access to real-time streaming data and other useful stats, as well as the ability to manage profiles and releases. It launched in October for iOS and has now made its way to Android.
Instagram has all but killed off Snapchat by this point, and it's got a lot to do with the strength of its stories and live video features. With the latest update to version 24, a new 'Request' button has been added to the comments section of live videos to be added to the stream.
Until now, the default resolution for images sent and received on Facebook Messenger was 2K. That's quite small in terms of megapixels, and anything higher you tried to send someone would be compressed by Messenger before sending. Facebook has just bumped the default image size up to 4K (up to just over 16MP) so you can now send photos of much higher quality to friends and family.
The Uber app is pretty convenient already, but there's always room for improvement. Earlier in the year, the ability to message your driver via in-app chat was added, and now Uber has a few more enhancements that it hopes will help ease the stress during the festive season.
Now that headphone jacks are being killed off, there's no choice but to look at Bluetooth alternatives. There are tons of form factors out there, but the most fashionable right now is the truly wireless earbud, which is difficult to get right and usually quite expensive. The Jabra Elite Sport is a decent option, and it's currently going for $100 less than its original MSRP.At $249 there are potentially other options out there that make more sense, but for just $149 the Elite Sport is well worth your time. The compact earbuds are designed for active use. They're light, IP67 rated, and come with a variety of wings and tips to ensure a secure fit. You can get up to 4.5 hours from a single charge, plus an additional 9 with the included charging case.You also get access to the Jabra Sport Life app, with which you can monitor your heart rate and get workout guidance. I've just started using the Elite Sport myself, and I've been pretty impressed with them so far. Several retailers are offering them for the discounted price of $149, including:
Back in the summer, we reported on key changes to Google Flights on mobile. The interface was tweaked with more powerful tools to help you save money when looking to book a holiday within a range of dates. At the time Google promised the desktop version would see a similar update later in the year, and that has now become available in the form of a beta version.
I'm not sure how many of our readers are pilots, but here goes anyway. Garmin has updated its Pilot app for Android to version 6.2, and with it come a bunch of new features. I won't pretend I know what any of it really means, but I'll try to summarise the new additions as best I can.
Smartphone leaks are inevitable, no matter who you are. But they usually happen pretty close to a device's launch date, and they're usually only specific to a single product. Last month, much to Alcatel's dismay, serial leaker Evan Blass shared an image of not one but six upcoming Alcatel phones. Now, Blass has shared higher-resolution renders of those same devices.
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- According to a statement made on the Product Forums yesterday, Google has fixed this issue in a recent update. The update to V5.2 rolling out "over the next few days" should take care of it, and anyone still experiencing the problem after this update should reach out on the relevant thread.
With any major OS release, in spite of rigorous testing and numerous developer previews, it's not uncommon for random issues to arise. Some users who've updated their Pixel or Nexus devices to Oreo have discovered an annoying bug whereby the alarm in the Google Clock app simply isn't going off. And that's a pretty big problem if it's the only alarm app you use.
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The Google Assistant on the Pixel 2 and 2 XL is more powerful than ever before, and it can help you do a bunch of things with your phone like change settings or initiate a conversation with support. Thanks to a whimsical request from a reader, we now know about one more ability the Assistant has.
You don't have to be a genius to work out that China is going to be an increasingly significant nation in the coming years, culturally and economically. More than one billion people already speak Chinese, and that's sure to continue rising. It's been one of the most requested languages over at Duolingo, which is ready to launch Mandarin Chinese in its mobile apps and on the web.
The design of Google Maps doesn't get updated very often, so when it does, it's kind of a big deal. The latest tweaks are all about adding a bit more color to the interface and making things a little easier to pick out as a consequence. What you see will also be more relevant to the mode of transport you're using, too.
There are a number of useful scanning apps on the Play Store that allow you to take photos of documents and turn them into digital copies. In fact, I wonder if proper scanners are even still sold anymore, such is the ease with which their purpose can now be fulfilled by a smartphone. Adobe Scan is one of the most popular examples of such an app, and its latest update makes it more powerful than ever.
Keeping track of what you're watching on TV is an absolute nightmare at the moment; there are just too many great series and not enough time. As with most problems we face these days, there's an app for that. TV Show Favs is a powerful tool that helps you track and manage the viewing of your favorite shows, with all sorts of useful features such as calendar integration and reminder notifications. The devs will probably be the first to admit it hasn't always been the prettiest app (Holo everywhere), but that changes with the latest update.
Google tried to create some buzz for its Daydream VR platform at its I/O developer conference back in May, even though public appetite for the tech seems to be waning. Standalone headsets were announced as the next evolution of the Daydream experience, but since then it's all gone rather quiet. We now know that HTC has canceled its plans to release a standalone Daydream headset, and is instead concentrating its efforts on China with a different standalone headset and development platform.
Like any organization set up by the Joint Development Foundation, the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) is a group of companies set up to collaborate on the introduction of a technological standard. In the case of AOMedia, its purpose is specifically to accelerate the development and adoption of a new video compression codec called AV1.