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How to enable the Google Chat tab in Gmail for Android
It's now enabled for free users, but not on by default
Google would be very happy if you used its Chat application, so pleased that it's pushing it beyond the boundaries of its actual app. Last month the tool became available to regular users (who don't pay for access to Google Workspace), and now its integration with Gmail is available to them, too. But it isn't turned on by default, so if you'd like to use it, you have to go digging in the settings menu.
Google has been on a roll recently with its digital wellbeing initiatives, releasing Family Link for parental controls, various apps to view and manage your usage, and a Focus Mode for pausing apps you find distracting. Now it's continuing the trend by releasing 3 new apps, the most notable of which asks that you literally put your phone in an envelope so you can't use it.
Choosing which songs to listen to can be a bit of a hassle. You might enjoy a certain song, but listen to it too much and you'll get tired of it. Spotify's new experimental app, dubbed 'Stations by Spotify,' is a way to just sit back and listen to music without any fuss. It's supposed to be exclusive to Australia, but we've got the APK and it runs just fine here in the US.
When you take that metaphorical first step onto your Android homescreen, the Google search bar is the first thing you see. It floats atop the screen like a banner, saying to the world: "Google made this, also tap on me because I do stuff."
There comes a time in every person's life when he or she needs to access a certain web page and doesn't have an internet connection. Those are troubling times that normally require the individual in question to stay strong and maintain composure until a connection is once again available, but thanks to a new experimental option in the Chrome Dev build for Android, that struggle may be coming to an end.
Some major changes for the YouTube Android app appear to be coming down the pipeline. Several readers have reached out to us with screenshots and video documenting substantial tweaks they noticed when firing up the app.
The share button inside YouTube is unlike the icon used in virtually every other Android app. Rather than the usual set of three connected dots, we see a horizontally flipped version of the reply symbol in Gmail. Well, Google isn't yet changing the iconography, but it does seem to be testing out a new location.
In March we covered work the Chromium team has been up to that changes the way most visited websites appear on Chrome's new tab page. Instead of a grid of (largely blank) thumbnails, the browser can display large icons instead. At the time, users had to force the feature while running Chrome Canary. Now you just have to toggle "Enable large icons on the New Tab page" at chrome://flags/#enable-icon-ntp.
SwiftKey Introduces Greenhouse Initiative To Experiment With New Ideas, Debuts Clarity Keyboard Beta
The SwiftKey folks regularly inject new features into their popular third-party keyboard, but there are only so many changes they can make without alienating existing users. So the company has created a new space where it can conduct experiments safely. It's calling this initiative SwiftKey Greenhouse.
Chrome may be one of the most popular web browsers out there, but its new tab page still manages to look like an unfinished product much of time. That's because the browser takes screenshots of your most visited webpages and lists them in a 4 x 2 grid, only sometimes it doesn't have a screenshot to work with. In those cases, it leaves the square blank.
is back with another round of leaked screenshots. We shared the reported experimental Gmail images last week, which showed a radically different interface from the one we've grown accustomed to. Those images, and these new ones, allegedly come from early test builds, so whether they reveal much about Google's future plans remains to be seen. Nevertheless, here are the new calendar screens, the last of which shows the name "Timely" at the top, apparently Google's internal name for the Calendar app that ships pre-installed on devices.
There's a new version of Gmail making the rounds at Google, if a couple of leaked screenshots from Geek.com can be believed. Those shots describe a radical user interface change and a handful of new features. Whether they're real and/or final or not is up for debate - even the report notes that the organizational features are mostly experimental at this point.
The Xperia E, Sony's low-end Jelly Bean-powered smartphone which was announced back in December may have another trick up its sleeve yet. The manufacturer is offering owners of the device the chance to test out Mozilla's fledgling Firefox OS on the device via a downloadable ROM. Meant for "advanced developers," the ROM comes with a few warnings from Sony, chiefly that you should know what you're doing before you get started.
The Galaxy Nexus variant on Sprint might actually have a chance of being officially supported by Google in AOSP after all, which would be a big step in the right direction for carrier-branded Nexus devices.
Earlier this evening, CyanogenMod's Google+ page published an announcement that read "Who says Everest is in Nepal?". That's right – the Motorola Xoom 3G (GSM) variant has joined the list of CM-supported devices, getting its first experimental build dated 10-17.
Moments ago, CyanogenMod's Google+ page announced that Sony's Xperia T, the flagship device we first covered during IFA 2012, is joining the CyanogenMod device roster, offering a link to the device's Gerrit code review page and a quick James Bond reference.
Hey Note owners - ready for CyanogenMod 10 on your device? Good, because the first nightly builds for both the 3G and Wi-Fi versions hit get.cm just a bit ago. Both are labeled as "experimental," so if you're looking for something super-stable, this isn't the ROM for you. If, however, you like to live on the edge and/or have been waiting for some CyanogenMod action, head to the appropriate link below and give it a flash.
One of the most powerful tools in all of the modern desktop browsers is the ability to add extensions. Extensions allow the browser to do things that it can't do on its own - everything from simple tasks to advanced options. When it comes to desktop extensions, the limits are generally left up to the mind of the creator.