Google Files Go: Everything you need to know

Files Go is a storage management utility that leverages AI to declutter your phone.

If you browse the Play Store, you’ll come across a litany of optimization apps that claim to speed up your phone. More often than not, they’re just conduits for malware, and Google is now tackling that problem by introducing a service of its own.

Files Go is the company’s storage management and offline file transfer service, and it leverages Google’s machine learning smarts to declutter your phone. The app has automated filters designed to locate the detritus on your phone — age-old forwards, photos and videos that have been backed up to Google Photos, and unused apps.

Files Go then offers suggestions on how you can get rid of those files and apps to free up storage on your phone. The app itself is lightweight — coming in at just 44MB — and uses minimal system resources.

Download Files Go (free)

Google designed the Files Go app primarily for Android Go platform — with the app being one of nine Google services that come bundled out of the box. With Android Go tailored for devices running limited internal storage — usually 8GB or less — there was a need for a storage management app that could identify and delete files and apps taking up a lot of space. When you’re talking about usable storage of just over 5GB, every little bit helps.

As well as being a storage management utility, Files Go also offers seamless files transfer — similar to Lenovo’s SHAREit — and a new feature that made its debut last month also turns the app into a file manager. Here’s what you need to know about Google’s Files Go.

Declutter your phone with Files Go

First and foremost, Files Go was designed to get rid of files that are taking up too much space on your phone. Once you install the app, it goes through your gallery and analyzes the phone’s storage, serving up recommendations on what files and apps you can delete.

It does all this automatically, and one area where it is particularly useful is in deleting those annoying forwards from the likes of WhatsApp. The Facebook-owned communications service has over 200 million users in India, and its usage is ubiquitous — you won’t find a smartphone user that doesn’t have the app installed. WhatsApp has permeated into every corner of Indian society, and the app usually accounts for a large chunk of storage.

It isn’t that the app itself takes up a lot of space — if you’re active on WhatsApp and set all incoming media to automatically download, it won’t be long before your phone is cluttered with hundreds of images and videos. At least that’s the case for a majority of Indians, and Google is looking to solve that particular problem with Files Go.

Files Go has automated filters that detect these forwarded photos, and you’ll see cards with suggestions on images and videos to delete. The service also automatically detects whenever photos and videos have been backed up to Google Photos, making it possible for you to delete those files from your phone’s internal storage.

How to declutter your phone with Files Go

Use Files Go to transfer files offline

Files Go has a built-in file transfer service that works seamlessly, and it doesn’t need your phone to be connected to the internet. Like other services that offer the feature, Files Go sets up a hotspot that two devices can connect to, allowing files to be transferred between the two phones.

So if you’re looking to send a file, all you have to do is hit the Send button from the Files tab, and enter a nickname. Files Go will set up a hotspot, and the recipient will be able to see your nickname once they hit the Receive button on their device. It’s as easy as that, and Files Go lets you send audio and video files, as well as documents.

Files Go also doubles up as a file manager

Files Go also has a file browser integrated into the service, and Google rolled out an update that introduced a search option. You’ll be able to search through documents, images, videos, and audio files, and the feature works offline as well.

Although Files Go was designed for entry-level devices, its usability extends to all Android phones. There are hundreds of millions of phones with 16GB of internal storage or less, and Files Go is the ideal app to declutter your phone.

It’s lightweight and doesn’t drain your system resources; and it surfaces cards whenever it detects that your phone is running low on storage, offering recommendations on content that can be deleted.

Download Files Go (Free)

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YouTube Red’s $10 subscription is the best money I spend on entertainment every month

If you watch YouTube at all, you should be paying for Red.

The content on YouTube is great, diverse and plentiful. The pretenses for consuming that content aren’t perfect, though — wading through ads and always needing a connection in order to watch are a big negative mark on what is otherwise a fantastic service. But you don’t have to deal with those issues — you just have to pay $10 per month for YouTube Red, and get an altogether improved YouTube experience that I have become so accustomed to I can never switch away from.

(And how about that Android Central YouTube channel!)

I haven’t watched a single “YouTube Original” video that’s touted as a selling point of Red, and I’d guess that for most people that special original content isn’t a driving factor in signing up for the service. Oh no, it’s mostly about the ads. Even if you aren’t binge-watching long YouTube videos from your favorite channels, I think we can all appreciate how much better a viewing experience is without ads cutting into our content — just like most people record live TV to skip ads later, I want to skip YouTube ads altogether.

Whenever I pull up YouTube on a friend’s phone or computer, or travel to a country where Red hasn’t launched yet, it’s like stepping back into some alternate reality. Wait, I have to sit here and watch an ad for the new Honda Civic (or whatever) before I watch my video? There are banner ads popping up that I have to click away every time? Long videos cut out at inopportune times for mid-roll ads? Sure this sounds a whole lot like the definition of a “first world problem,” but once you get used to the clean, fast and fulfilling experience of YouTube without these distractions it becomes incredibly grating to deal with them again.

Sure I may be able to personally deal with some ads, but when I pull up YouTube on my phone to show a video to a friend, or want to send something to the big screen with Chromecast, I don’t want to sit there and show other people ads either. I just want to show them the cool video or song that I’m espousing at the moment.

And ad-free watching isn’t the only thing Red offers. I’ve been taking for granted the fact that I download YouTube videos on my phone and tablet to watch while I’m traveling, as well as using picture-in-picture video on my Oreo devices, not realizing that these are Red-exclusive features. People often think about saving Netflix movies or certain Spotify playlists before a flight, but I regularly download a handful of 10- to 20-minute YouTube videos as well.

Yes, there’s even more at play here: the same basic YouTube Red subscription includes a full Google Play Music subscription, plus background playback of music on YouTube as part of the (admittedly convoluted) “YouTube Music” service. I personally don’t listen to music on YouTube, but I do use Play Music and would be paying this same monthly amount anyway — and millions of people are paying that for other streaming music services.

If you think Netflix, Hulu or Spotify are worth about $10 per month, you should be paying for YouTube Red.

If you think Netflix, Hulu or Spotify are worth (about) $10 per month each, I don’t see how you couldn’t place the same value on removing ads, adding offline playback and enabling background play on YouTube, plus getting a full-fledged streaming music subscription on top of that. The argument is even stronger if you’re someone who spends any amount of money a month on renting movies or TV shows, which will cost you easily $10 per month.

It may be because I have had Red for so long, but I feel like YouTube doesn’t really market the subscription. Whenever YouTube comes up in a conversation with friends and family I always mention the Red subscription, and nobody I talk to even knows it exists, let alone have actually considered paying for it. Part of that also comes down to the muddy messaging around how YouTube Red is also YouTube Music but is also Google Play Music … the existence of which I still can’t justify.

But reading this, you now know what value Red offers — and it’s a fantastic deal.

See at YouTube

The Morning After: Virgin Galactic and Fleetwood Mac

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

It’s Friday, and we’ve got some bad news about the Mac Pro. If you need a pick me up, though, we have recommendations, including a neat VR animated short and a surprising result for Fleetwood Mac.

Boosted by ARKit.Snapchat’s iPhone X-exclusive Lenses look more realistic than usual

With its latest update, Snapchat is ready to take advantage of the iPhone X’s TrueDepth camera for more realistic Lens special effects. That should make for a tighter face-tracking fit, just like Apple’s own Animoji, and provide a way for you to stunt on everyone else who won’t have access to these lenses.

Can you keep waiting?Apple’s redesigned Mac Pro is scheduled to arrive in 2019

Apple has revealed to TechCrunch that the modular workstation is now slated to ship in 2019, rather than this year, as many expected. In the meantime, Apple has hired many of the creatives who need such a device to find out more about their workflow and design the machine to fit them perfectly — when it finally arrives, six years after the last refresh.

Put a helmet on — you gotta see this.‘Alex’s Sci-Fi World’ is a beautiful piece of VR animation

There are many impressive animated VR shorts online, but Nick Summers’ favorite is Alex’s Sci-Fi World by Matt Schaefer. It’s a neon-soaked delight that you should absolutely watch on YouTube or using a Rift and the original Quill file.

The purple dragon is back.‘Spyro’ trilogy remake announced for Xbox One and PS4

Activision and Toys for Bob have unveiled the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which reworks the first three Insomniac-made games (Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage and Spyro: Year of the Dragon) for PS4 and Xbox One. Similar to last year’s Crash Bandicoot refresh, it returns players to a world full of original levels that have been rebuilt for new-gen gaming. The Trilogy returns September 21st for $40.

Richard Branson said the company is ‘back on track.’Virgin Galactic completes first powered test flight since 2014 crash

The VSS Unity flew without a problem yesterday, shooting above Mojave Air and Space Port at up to Mach 1.87. All went well in Virgin Galactic’s first powered flight since the 2014 test that killed one of its pilots. Check out the video right here.

More indies.‘Firewatch’ and ‘Don’t Starve’ are coming to Nintendo Switch

Need more Switch games to hold you over until Smash Bros. arrives? Campo Santo announced that its Firewatch adventure will come to the console “soon,” while Don’t Starve developer Klei is bringing its game bundle to the machine next week, on April 12th.

But wait, there’s more…

• Mophie pad offers fast wireless charging for Apple and Samsung phones
• Phantom Auto’s cloud-based driver will steer if your autonomous car gets confused
• The next ‘Overwatch’ event is a Blackwatch mission in Venice
• HP’s convertible ZBook x360 features a six-core Xeon CPU
• A tweet sent Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ back to the Billboard charts
• Spotify’s challenge is to prove it’s a real business, not a fantasy

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t Subscribe.

Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.

Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? Send us a note.

Facebook wiped Zuckerberg’s conversations from people’s inboxes

Facebook recently paid for full-page newspaper adverts claiming that it had a “responsibility to protect your information,” adding that if it couldn’t, it didn’t “deserve it.” It is, therefore, slightly unfortunate that just weeks later, the site has been forced to admit that it bent its own rules for the benefit of its leaders.

TechCrunch saw evidence that the company had wiped messages from Mark Zuckerberg and other high-ranking executives from recipients’ inboxes. That’s not a power available to the rest of us, who can’t delete messages we regret sending from other people’s archives.

One user in particular contacted our sister site, showing evidence of a message they received from the CEO back in 2010. But when they downloaded their Facebook archive and went looking for the same message, it had gone missing.

When presented with the evidence, Facebook told TechCrunch that it had preemptively wiped messages from several executives in 2014. In a statement, the site said: “After Sony Pictures’ emails were hacked in 2014 we made a number of changes to protect our executives’ communications. These included limiting the retention period for Mark’s messages in Messenger. We did so in full compliance with our legal obligations to preserve messages.”

Unfortunately, Facebook never disclosed that it was doing this, and it’s another ding on the company’s currently well-dinged reputation. The chorus of questions about Facebook’s role in society has only amplified in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. With the CEO due to testify in front of congress on April 11th, and more scandals popping up by the day, it’s clear that something might have to give.

Source: TechCrunch

Facebook is struggling with the EU’s stricter privacy laws

There’s never an ideal time for your multi-billion dollar company to take center stage in one of the most high-profile privacy scandals ever seen, but for Mark Zuckerberg, the Cambridge Analytica fiasco couldn’t have come at a worse point. As Europe readies itself for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into force on May 25, all eyes are on Facebook, scrutinizing its every move ahead of the biggest web privacy shake up of our time. And it’s not done a great job of instilling confidence so far.

GDPR represents stronger, unified data protection laws across the EU. Under the regulation, organizations are held to account for the personal data they hold and collect from people, and it enshrines the “right to be forgotten” laws as the “right to erasure”. Individuals can request a copy of the personal information any company keeps on them, and find out what data is being processed and for what purpose. They’ll also get the right to data portability, which means they can take data from one company and give it to another. The law, which is largely focused on data consent, is designed to be a “one-stop-shop” for companies operating across the EU, and those in breach of the legislation can be fined up to €20 million, or four percent of annual global turnover.

GDPR has been six years in the making, so it’s not as if the legislation has snuck up on anyone. Yet Facebook still seems unsure about how it’s going to manage the changes across its entire operations. Evidently, it has to comply with GDPR within the EU, so many assumed the law would form the basis of Facebook’s global privacy policy going forward. However, in a phone interview with Reuters earlier this week, Zuckerberg said he agreed “in spirit” with the EU law, but wouldn’t confirm whether the company would use it as a standard across the world, instead commenting: “We’re still nailing down details on this, but it should directionally be, in spirit, the whole thing.”

The implication was that North American Facebook users would get a lower standard of data protection than their European counterparts – which naturally set the internet alight – but Zuckerberg was quick to refute Reuters’ claims. In a later conference call with reporters, he made it crystal clear that Facebook will “make all controls and settings the same everywhere, not just in Europe”.

The problem is, implementing a raft of GDPR-friendly “controls and settings” is not necessarily the same as adhering to GDPR’s actual principles of data control, consent, portability and erasure, leading some to question whether Zuckerberg is simply using careful wording to skirt around the issue of global GDPR compliance. Engadget reached out to Facebook for clarity on this and was repeatedly directed to a transcript of the recent call where Zuckerberg ambiguously stated, “We need to figure out what makes sense in different markets with the different laws and different places.”

And in fairness, this statement holds some truth. While Facebook has now confirmed its intention to roll out GDPR benchmarks (not just “controls and settings”) globally, some existing laws around the world do conflict with the upcoming EU legislation. How Facebook handles this remains to be seen. It’s more important than ever before that the company is completely transparent with its privacy and data policies. Muddying the waters with vague statements and ambiguous announcements only jeopardises what little faith its user base has left in it.

Snapchat Rolls Out First TrueDepth-Enhanced AR Lenses for iPhone X Users

Snapchat today began implementing Apple’s TrueDepth camera technology in its Lenses selfie feature for the first time. The silent update means iPhone X owners who use Snapchat will see augmented reality masks pop up in the app that make use of Apple’s advanced facial mapping technology to superimpose the mask onto the user’s face more realistically and track motion more accurately.

Apple first demoed the AR Snapchat Lenses at its iPhone X event last year, as part of its on-stage TrueDepth technology unveiling. Apple’s Animojis work using the TrueDepth camera. Face ID also uses its structured-light technique to project a pattern of 30,000 laser dots onto a user’s face and measure the distortion to generate an accurate 3D image for authentication.

Apple says the Face ID mathematical image data is encrypted upon generation and never leaves the smartphone’s Secure Enclave. Third-party app developers are however able to access TrueDepth’s visual face maps separately, including a live read-out of 52 micro-movements in the eyelids, mouth, and other features. At the same time, Apple explicitly forbids this data being exploited for user profiling or ad marketing purposes, but that hasn’t stopped privacy advocates and some developers from raising concerns about third-party app access to the TrueDepth Camera.

At present there are three Lenses that utilize TrueDepth, demonstrating closer tracking of facial expressions and head movement. Snapchat says the TrueDepth camera also lets it blur the background and more accurately apply small details and 3D objects, which reflect and react to ambient lighting to project shadows and add highlights. The TrueDepth Lenses only appear for iPhone X owners and more of the AR masks are likely to appear periodically in the future.

Snapchat is a free download for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Related Roundup: iPhone XTags: Snapchat, TrueDepthBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Neutral)
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Russia Moves to Ban Telegram Encrypted Messaging Platform

Russia appears to be following through on its threat last year to block access to the Telegram encrypted messaging platform.

The BBC reports today that the Roskomnadzor media regulator has begun legal proceedings to block the app in the country, after Dubai-based Telegram refused to comply with requests that it hand over the encryption keys.

Telegram was given a deadline of 4 April to hand over the keys, but the company has refused, explaining that the way the service is built means it has no access to them.

Russia’s main security agency, the FSB, wants the keys so it can read messages and prevent future terror attacks in the country. In its court filing, Roskomnadzor said the legal action was related to the FSB request and Telegram’s non-compliance with its legal requirements as a “distributor of information”.

Telegram’s lawyer, Pavel Chikov, called the Russian attempt to block the app “groundless” and said the FSB’s demand to access users’ chat logs was “unconstitutional, baseless, which cannot be fulfilled technically and legally”.

Telegram had a legal challenge to the demand dismissed in a Moscow court in March, but the platform creator Pavel Durov has said Telegram, which is widely used in Russia, will not “give up” the private data of its users.

Threats to block Telegram unless it gives up private data of its users won’t bear fruit. Telegram will stand for freedom and privacy.

— Pavel Durov (@durov) 20 March 2018

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: Russia, Encryption, Telegram
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Apple Offers Platform Puzzler ‘Starman: Tale of Light’ for Free Through the Apple Store App

While last month’s version 5.0 update to the official Apple Store iOS app introduced several significant changes to the user experience, one thing Apple has retained is its tradition of occasionally offering select paid apps for free through the app for a limited time.

Right now, users who scroll down the Discover tab should find an option to download monochromatic platform puzzler Starman: Tale of Light for free, rather than paying $3.99 to download it from the App Store.

Originally released in 2017, this serene title uses a level design reminiscent of Monument Valley, with the player encountering a series of easy to moderately difficult puzzles as they progress through each scene. Optimized for iPhone X displays, Starman currently has an average 4.8 star rating out of 769 App Store reviews, and is described in the official Apple Store app as follows:

In this visually stunning game with breathtaking architectural scenery, you guide Starman through delicate atmospheres and solve elaborate puzzles. No two puzzles are ever the same, so the challenges are always new. Soothing music and haptic feedback enhance the immersive experience further.

To download the app for free, tap on the featured app in the Discover section of the Apple Store app, tap Download now for free, and you will be redirected to the App Store’s Redeem code screen. Your free redeem code should already be entered – all you need to do is tap Redeem in the upper right corner to begin downloading the game.

The offer to download Starman for free through the Apple Store iOS app expires on July 15, 2018. Note that free app offers sometimes vary from region to region.

(Thanks, Sergio!)

Tag: Apple Store
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MIT’s wearable device can ‘hear’ the words you say in your head

If you’ve read any sort of science fiction, it’s likely you’ve heard about subvocalization, the practice of silently saying words in your head. It’s common when we read (though it does slow you down), but it’s only recently begun to be used as a way to interact with our computers and mobile devices. To that end, MIT researchers have created a device you wear on your face that can measure neuromuscular signals that get triggered when you subvocalize.

While the white gadget now looks like some weird medical device strapped to your face, it’s easy to see future applications getting smaller and less obvious, as well as useful with our mobile lives (including Hey Siri and OK Google situations). The MIT system has electrodes that pick up the signals when you verbalize internally as well as bone-conduction headphones, which use vibrations delivered to the bones of your inner ear without obstructing your ear canal. The signals are sent to a computer that uses neural networks to distinguish words. So far, the system has been used to do fun things like navigating a Roku, asking for the time and reporting your opponent’s moves in chess to get optimal counter moves via the computer, in utter silence.

“The motivation for this was to build an IA device — an intelligence-augmentation device,” said MIT grad student and lead author Arnav Kapur in a statement. “Our idea was: Could we have a computing platform that’s more internal, that melds human and machine in some ways and that feels like an internal extension of our own cognition?”

Source: MIT

YouTube’s live TV service now streams in Firefox

YouTube TV debuted in a limited number of markets and could only be accessed through Chrome. The video-sharing platform is making it easier and easier to access, though: after launching it in additional locations and rolling it out to Apple TV, YouTube is now making it possible to access its live TV service on Firefox. Google’s support page clearly shows that you can now view YouTube TV HD on either Firefox or Chrome and that the tech giant is working to bring it to more browsers in the future.

It’s not exactly a surprise that YouTube is making the service available on Firefox before Chrome’s other rivals. As 9to5Google noted, the browser recently regained some of the users it lost to Google’s browser, thanks to Quantum’s launch. Mozilla said 170 million people installed Quantum, which is twice as fast as previous versions, a month after it debuted and that 44 percent of those users came from Chrome. Google didn’t mention when YouTube TV will become accessible on Opera or Edge, but at least you now have two browsers to choose from when you want to watch CNN, Cartoon Network, MLB games and the service’s other offerings.

Via: 9to5Google, YourTechExplained

Source: Google