Google Play audiobooks get Bookmarks, Smart Resume, and more
Audiobooks have been available to download and listen to on Google Play for just about two months, and now Google’s aiming to make your listening experience even better with a few new tricks.
First on the list, you’ll find a new feature called “Smart Resume.” Pausing an audiobook in the middle of a sentence and then resuming your playback a couple minutes later can be a jarring experience, but with Smart Resume, your audiobook will automatically go back to the beginning of a sentence or word so the transition process back into your story is much more seamless.
Also new to Google Play audiobooks are Bookmarks. If there’s a line or paragraph of a title that you find particularly captivating, you can tap the Bookmark icon so you can easily return to that spot whenever you’d like.
Google already allows you to control the playback speed of audiobooks, but you now have much greater control over this – including the ability to speed things up to 3x or slow down by as much as 0.5x.
Lastly, Google’s expanding its Family Library feature to 13 additional countries (including Germany, Russia, Spain, Mexico, and others) and adding audiobooks as an option for Google Home’s new Routines feature that just launched earlier this month.
All of these new features are rolling out to Android and iOS users starting today, so be sure to keep an eye out for them!
Download: Google Play Books (free)
Apple to Launch Revamped Apple ID Website That Lets Users Download All Their Data
Apple will soon introduce an updated website for managing Apple IDs, which will allow Apple users to download a copy of all of their data stored by the company, reports Bloomberg.
Customers will be able to download data like their Contacts, photos, music preferences, Calendar information, and more. The site will essentially let users download all information stored across Apple’s apps and services.
Apple also plans to allow customers to use the site to correct personal information, disable their Apple ID account, and permanently delete an Apple ID.
At the current time, there is no way for users to download their data or delete their accounts without directly contacting Apple.
Apple is making the change to comply with the European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation, which goes into effect on May 25.
Apple plans to release the new web-based privacy tools in Europe in early May, with an expansion to come to other countries at a later date.
The iOS 11.3 update, released this morning, also has privacy improvements in the form of new privacy splash screens that are displayed within each of Apple’s apps when you open them for the first time to explain what data Apple collects and why.
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