Google Safe Browsing comes to Android and Google Chrome in latest Play Services update
Google Safe Browsing currently protects over a billion users on the web by blocking tons of malware, social engineering, and bloated software. It’s been available on desktop platforms for years, but now Google is bringing that extra layer of security to mobile devices, too.
Google Play Services 8.1 brings support for Safe Browsing, and the first app to support it is, of course, Google Chrome. It’s on by default, and just like on the desktop version of Chrome, if you try to visit a malware-infected site with Safe Browsing on, Chrome will block the website and prompt for your permission before going any further.
While Chrome is the first official browser to support this, I’d imagine we’ll see other third-party apps and OEMs start to bake it into their own web browsers, too.
source: Google Security Blog
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Google Hangouts finally supports Apple watch
The latest update for Hangouts on iOS won’t tell you this, but Google’s instant messaging app will play nicely with your Apple Watch now. What the change log does say, however, is that you can now reply to notifications in-line — but that means following up via Apple’s wearable is an option. You can pick from a handful of pre-written responses, but those don’t include canned messages for telling your coworker to bring funky-flavored KitKat bars from Japan to CES. No, that’s where using voice dictation comes in, silly. If your iOS gizmo hasn’t updated yet, we’ve got you covered at the source link below.
Source: iTunes
Google Photos update helps free up precious phone storage
Running out of storage space on a phone is a major pain point that affects millions of Android users across the world. Google understands that, and has come up with a simple solution that helps free up storage space on one’s phone.
Google has pushed a major update for Google Photos, which introduces two new features to the gallery app. While one feature helps free up space from your phone’s internal storage, the other allows users to downgrade previously uploaded “Original” images to “High quality”.
First up, Google has introduced the “Free up space” feature, accessible from within the app’s settings menu. Simply activate the feature and Google Photos will remove from your device copies of photos and videos that have already been backed up on the cloud. Alternatively, Google can keep a close eye on when phone’s storage space runs low, and then proceed to remove backed up copies of photos and videos that are older than 30 days.
Users can still access their entire media collection from within the Google Photos Android or iOS apps, or using the web app, as long as they are connected to the internet.
Version 1.9 of the Google Photos app also introduces a simple way to downgrade all your original quality photos, which you have uploaded before, to compressed high quality photos. Before this update, users had no way to have their previously uploaded photos get compressed to the smaller “high quality” standard. Do keep in mind that storing original quality photos still count against your storage space, whereas high quality photos have free unlimited storage.
Apart from adding these two features, the updated Google Photos app fixes a bug that prevented users from deleting photos stored on the microSD card, resulting in a frustrating experience for users who would continue to see photos in the gallery despite having deleted them.
Previous updates to Google Photos added features such as Chromecast support, labels and sharing, etc. The gallery app was originally released in May 2015, and has since surpassed 100 million active users, a metric that’s even more relevant than app downloads.
The latest version of Google Photos for Android is already rolling out, and is coming soon to iOS.
Google plans on attempting to end fragmentation in Android by controlling the hardware
Fragmentation in Android is a huge problem. As I mentioned in my things Android should steal from iOS article, fixing fragmentation was a big part of it. Google agrees and plans on fixing the situation by co-developing new chips and other sensors.
Google has reportedly talked to some microchip makers about developing chips based on Google’s own preferred designs. The main reason for this is to make Android a little bit more like iOS. They figure that if they can control the hardware and the software, Android will be a much simpler OS to update and keep control of.
In theory, it should work pretty well, Apple is doing a great job at it. However, Android has many other manufactures using it, while Apple is the only one using iOS. I’m sure any sort of effort to uniform the updating process will be beneficial to Android users, but I just don’t see it ever being as easy as how Apple makes it seem.
Source: The Information (1), (2)
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Over a dozen Google Play apps discounted for Halloween, mostly games
Halloween is but a day away, and to celebrate the season several developers are slashing down their apps on Google Play to as low as $.49, with the majority hovering around the $.99 range. Considering that some of these apps price as high as around $7 normally – there’s some great deals here.
Most of these are games not apps, though there are a few fitness apps thrown in, many of which have a game-like twist, such as Zombies Run.
- Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies – $1.99, was $6.99
- Left in the Dark – $.99, was $4.99
- Zombies, Run! 5k Training – $.99, was $1.99
- The Walk: Fitness tracker game – $.99, was $2.99
- 7 Minute Super Hero workout – $.99, was $2.99
- Forever Lost: episode 1 – $.99, was $3.11
- Greedy Spiders 2 – $.49, was $.99
- Vampires: Todd and Jessica – $.99, was $4.99
- Dark Arcana: The Carnival – $.99, was $4.99
- Nightmares: Davy Jones – $.99, was $4.99
- Mystery of the Opera – $.99, was $4.99
- Abyss: Wraiths of Eden – $.99, was $4.99
- Twin Moons – $.99, was $4.99
- Fairy Tale Mysteries 2 – $1.99, was $4.99
- Grim Legends 2 – $1.99, was $4.99
- Time Mysteries 2 – $.99, was $4.99
- Deadly Puzzles – $.99, was $4.99
In addition to the games available through this sale, Amazon also has its own offer for those interested. And for those that aren’t necessarily looking for just sale items, be sure to check out Joe’s list of best horror games, and his list of best apps with Halloween in mind.
What do you think of the apps listed above, any of them you’d recommend? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Microsoft Arrow Launcher out of beta and into the Google Play Store
I happen to be a fan of what Microsoft has been putting up in the Google Play Store. This is because they are obviously not trying to imitate what is done in their own platforms, and these apps actually happen to offer unique abilities to Android users (unlike what Apple has been doing). Today the Redmond computer giant introduces a new app that some of you may actually be familiar with – Arrow Launcher.
I checked out Arrow Launcher myself back when the beta was made available, in July. The launcher is optimized for the Android experience, but it is unlike vanilla Android… or most other third-party launchers, for that matter.
The whole point of Microsoft’s customized UI is that it tries to offer a smarter experience that adapts to your own usage habits. It gets rid of all the extra fluff and tries to put all your information front and center. You will notice it really has no home screen. The UI consists of three sections: People, Apps and Notes & Reminders.
The People section unites your contacts and messaging services, so all your recent numbers, messages and email addresses will be readily available here. You can also dial your own digits or find people.
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I would say the Apps section is actually among the most interesting, as it puts together all the apps that really matter in a single place. You may not like it if you prefer your neat, alphabetically organized apps, though. And all the way to the right you can easily find a simple note and reminder section for easy task jotting.
The app was a bit less polished back when I experienced it, though. Other features include widgets, page rearrangement, a customizable dock, icon pack support and more. Some of these were already there, while others have been added in.
Want to give Arrow Launcher a try? Just go over to the Google Play Store and get installing. It’s also a free application, so you have nothing to lose.
Google turns to new RankBrain AI to improve search results
Although Google has expanded to so many areas over the years that a larger, parent company Alphabet had to be created to handle things, at its core Google is still a search company. As important as search is to the company, Google is turning to artificial intelligence solutions to help in maintain a competitive edge. The use of AI inspired machine learning is not new to Google which is actually one of the largest investors in AI research, using it in products from videos to speech to translation. Now a new system called RankBrain is being tested with search functions.
Google has been testing RankBrain for several months now by letting it try to interpret a “very large fraction” of the millions of queries the search giant processes. One of the primary types of search that RankBrain is used for are the 15 percent of queries that Google’s systems have never encountered before. These are ambiguous for existing algorithms and may include unique words or phrases that require some interpretation. RankBrain is able to process this input and make a guess at meanings.
Even though RankBrain is new to the search scene for Google, it has already risen to become the third highest contributing tool in determining the results displayed on a Google search page. The faster than expected effectiveness of RankBrain was described as “having gone better than we would have expected” according to Google senior research scientist Greg Corrado.
A sign of how important AI is to Google’s future efforts can be detected by looking back at Sundar Pichai’s comments during the company’s recent earnings call. Pichai noted that “machine learning is a core transformative way by which we are rethinking everything we are doing.” Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt wrote a piece last month extolling artificial intelligence solutions and how they will make the world better.
Even as Google brings the power of AI to bear on their core search business, other companies are expanding their use of machine learning as well. Both Microsoft and Facebook are actively working on deploying these systems to help power their businesses.
source: Bloomberg
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Google’s ‘Meet the Google app’ videos show how useful the Search app has become
Using Google’s Search app might be second nature to some of use, but, now and then it learns some new tricks. Google has posted some videos that show off the app’s ability to link web search requests to other apps such as the Calendar app and Google Maps among others.
The ‘Meet the Google app’ videos cover three themes, Breakfast, Halloween and Moving (house), and they are pretty good at showing off the things that Google does better than anyone else. You check out the videos below, and if you haven’t used Google Now in a while, it’s a great time to see what it can do.
Click here to view the embedded video.
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Porsche Chooses CarPlay Over Android Auto Due to Google’s Data Collection Policy
Porsche has announced that its forthcoming 2017 Porsche 911 Carrera and Carrera S will support Apple’s CarPlay platform. According to Moto Trend (via AppleInsider), Porsche selected CarPlay over Android Auto because under the agreement of partnering with Google, certain amounts of data would have been sent to the search giant.
Some of this data would have included vehicle speed, throttle position, and engine revs, all points of information that would constantly be flowing back to Google’s headquarters each time a driver gets in the car. Comparatively, all Apple’s CarPlay requires to know is whether the car is accelerating while the system is being used.
There’s no technological reason the 991/2 doesn’t have Android Auto playing through its massively upgraded PCM system. But there is an ethical one. As part of the agreement an automaker would have to enter with Google, certain pieces of data must be collected and mailed back to Mountain View, California. Stuff like vehicle speed, throttle position, coolant and oil temp, engine revs—basically Google wants a complete OBD2 dump whenever someone activates Android Auto. Not kosher, says Porsche.
Porsche’s reasoning behind the decision points to not wanting to share the information with Google that could include the ingredients to its “secret sauce that makes its cars special,” along with the fact that Google is reportedly building its own car at the moment. A few other vehicle manufacturers have announced support for CarPlay, but the service is just this year beginning to see a wider release despite being announced — as “iOS in the Car” — over two years ago.
Google Keep brings Evernote-style productivity to iOS
Google’s note taking and to-do list app, Keep, has been available on Android devices and the web for quite some time. Well over two years, in fact. Looking to offer the productivity software to the Apple faithful as well, Mountain View announced today that Keep is available for iOS. This means that all of the app’s handy tools like location-based reminders, shared lists and quick search and filtering are ready for your iPhone or iPad. And if you’re already using an Android Wear device with iOS, Keep plays nice with those wearables, too. The goods are available over at iTunes now, via the source link down below.
Source: iTunes
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