Google launches Lightsaber Escape, an browser game that turns your phone into a lightsaber
Google’s latest Chrome experiment involves your computer, your smartphone, and a lightsaber, and it’s as cool as it sounds.
The browser-based game links your desktop (or laptop) with your smartphone, and allows you to play the game by using your phone as the hilt of a lightsaber. It’s an extremely unique way to play a game, especially one that’s based in a web browser.
You can see everything in action below, or follow the link to get your personalized address to start playing.
source: Chrome
Click here to view the embedded video.
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Google’s Now on Tap adds flight status, shipping and tracking info, and better news
Google is bringing more new features to Now on Tap, adding in some extra information related to your flight status, stuff you bought online, and some better related news.
First up is the flight information, which will allow you to check a flight status from within a text message without having to launch a separate search. Then you can hop right back into the text message without losing your spot.
The second feature should be extremely helpful for anyone doing their holiday shopping on the internet; you’ll be able to use Now on Tap in a confirmation email to see when your packages will be delivered to make sure they’re here before Christmas.
News articles are getting some treatment, too, and now you can use Now on Tap to find related articles on whatever it is you’re reading about. Should be helpful if you’re reading about a certain celebrity or topic that you need to dig more into.
You should see these features hit your device over the next few days.
source: Inside Search
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Templates head to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps
Google brought templates to the web versions of Docs, Sheets, and Slides a few months ago. Now the company is ready to bring them to the mobile apps of each. Business letters, proposals, and meeting notes are among the templates in Docs. To-do lists, calendars, invoices, and expense reports are available from Google in Sheets. And you can use Slides to make pitches, reports, and studies. These templates and more are heading to each of their respective apps for Android.
Get a head start, on-the-go, w/Docs, Sheets, & Slides templates, now on Android, iPhone/iPad https://t.co/vKbnxXCK7K pic.twitter.com/1fHIWSbKqy — Google Docs (@googledocs) December 15, 2015
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Play Store Download Link (Google Docs)
Play Store Download Link (Google Sheets)
Play Store Download Link (Google Slides)
Source: Google Docs (Twitter)
Come comment on this article: Templates head to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps
Google debuts designer watch faces for Android Wear
With companies like TAG Heuer and Fossil now investing in Android Wear, Google knows how important it is to keep smartwatches looking stylish. As such, the company has revealed a set of fashion-centric watch faces for Android Wear devices, as part of a partnership with nine different brands. This includes designs from Asics, Harajuku Kawaii!, Mango, Melissa Joy Manning, Nicole Miller, Ted Baker, Vivienne Tam, Y-3 and Zoe Jordan.
Best of all, if you’re into any of them, they’re free to download to your Android wearable — which you can do via the Play Store. As for people with an iPhone, don’t worry: Google says that, in the coming days, these new watch faces will be also be available through the Android Wear app for iOS.
Source: Google
Google’s latest web game lets you use phone as a lightsaber
As we march ever closer to the theatrical release of Star Wars: the Force Awakens we continue to be inundated with various Star Wars themed commercials, apps, and products. The mobile world isn’t immune either, as we’ve seen several new Star Wars games recently, as well as a SW-themed version of Google Cardboard and some cool Star Wars wallpapers from Verizon. And now comes Google’s latest Star Wars promotional tie-in, Lightsaber Escape.
Lightsaber Escape is another one of the many Chrome-optimized web games that Google has released over the years (originally known as Chrome Experiments). In this latest game, you pair up your computer and phone to create an “immersive experience”. Your phone, of course, acts as a lightsaber with your computer simply displaying the action on-screen. While a nifty collaboration, the idea here honestly sounds a little cooler than it actually is, at least in my opinion.
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After visiting the site with your desktop, you’ll be given a link that will let you “calibrate your lightsaber” (phone). You then hold your lightsaber and then you must deal with an onslaught of stormtroopers in order to escape. The problem here is that you aren’t actually attacking them with the lightsaber (which would have been cool) but merely deflecting their blasts and bouncing them back at them to defeat them. It’s fun, but could be better. Than again, it’s not meant to be a full game, more of a “fun experience”, and you still get to control a lightsaber – hard to complain about that, right?
Nexus 6P – second opinion
Google decided to take their smartphone line in a new direction this year, by introducing not one, but two, new Nexus devices for consumers to choose between. A very smart move was the introduction of the Nexus 5X, giving folks who prefer smaller screens a Nexus option. The spiritual successor of the very popular Nexus 5 retained all that was great about the original, while of course, being updated to keep up with the times.
The availability of a smaller, and more affordable, option allowed Google to also go all out with their high-end Nexus offering, and by not having to cut any corners, what we have in the Nexus 6P, manufactured by Huawei, is a smartphone that is more than well-equipped to comfortably take on its current generation competition. We have already taken an intricate look at this device in the comprehensive review, but here, I would like to share my thoughts on this smartphone as well, in this “second opinion” look at the Nexus 6P!
Design
Anyone familiar with Huawei will know the company’s prowess when it comes to the design and build quality of their high-end smartphones, and that is seen with the Nexus 6P as well. The full metal unibody construction feels solid in the hand and looks fantastic. Despite the metal body, the Nexus 6P is also not as slippery as some other devices that feature metal builds, with the chamfered edges and flat sides contributing to the grip.
The Nexus 6P is a tall device, and is even taller than last year’s Nexus 6, but is fortunately not nearly as wide, which makes the former much easier to wrap your hands around. Of course, the Nexus 6P is still a large smartphone, and while the handling experience is a lot more manageable this time around, one-handed use may still not be particularly comfortable for some users.
The black glass visor on the back, that houses the rear camera unit and its peripherals, is also a unique design element that I really like. It is something that definitely looks much better in person than in renders or photos, and doesn’t protrude as much as you might have thought either. Overall, it gives the Nexus 6P a different look from what would otherwise be a standard smartphone design.
Display
The Nexus 6P comes with a 5.7-inch AMOLED display with a Quad HD resolution, and it is a gorgeous looking screen. I personally prefer AMOLED displays anyway, mainly due to the deeper blacks, vibrant colors, and high contrast ratios. The use of AMOLED displays also work very well with Nexus smartphones, with the screen blending in extremely well with the clean black front, and its great to see Google and Huawei stick to it with their high-end flagship.
In the case of the Nexus 6P, the display is as bright and vivid as expected, and while not everyone may be a fan of the large display size, anyone who uses their smartphones a lot for watching videos or playing games will certainly appreciate the additional screen real estate that is available.
Performance and hardware
The Nexus 6P comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, backed by the Adreno 430 GPU and 3 GB of RAM, which is the current flagship standard, and as such, performs as expected. The Nexus 6P flies through everything, and handles everything from general everyday tasks to multi-tasking and gaming with ease. There have been no instances of lag or stutter, and it is by far the most fluid experience I’ve had on an Android device this far. As powerful as this processing package may be, also making a significant contribution to the performance aspect is the stock version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow that the device runs.
One of my favorite features of the Nexus 6P has to be its dual front-facing stereo speakers, which do a great job in complementing the beautiful display and further enhancing the media-consumption or gaming experience. These speakers get extremely loud and feature fantastic audio quality, and can easily give something like HTC’s front-facing BoomSound speakers a run for its money. I am a huge fan of front-facing speakers, and still find it extremely surprising that not a whole lot of flagship devices offer them, but it’s great to see Google retain this feature from the Nexus 6.
A new addition to the Nexus line this year is the fingerprint scanner, found on the back of both the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X. Given the great experience I had with the fingerprint reader of the Nexus 5X, it wasn’t surprising to find the one of the Nexus 6P to be just as fast and accurate. Granted, its placement on the rear means that you won’t be able to unlock the device using it when it is kept on a table, but the positioning is ideal for when you are holding the phone up, with your index finger naturally gravitating to that point on the phone. The scanner is fast, accurate, and lets you wake and unlock the device in one shot, and is a great implementation overall.
The Nexus 6P comes with a large 3,450 mAh battery, and it is very easy to comfortably get a full day of use out of the device, save for the days with heavy usage that involved a lot of gaming. If you do run out of juice, the fast charging capabilities that are available means that you are also able to be back up and running in a very short amount of time.
See also: Best Android phones (December 2015)
Camera
Both the latest Nexus smartphones feature the same camera setup and image processing, and as I noted during my review of the Nexus 5X, these are excellent cameras. The camera is capable of taking excellent shots in virtually every lighting condition, with the larger pixel size making for the lack of OIS when it comes to low light or night time shots. OIS would have still been a nice feature to have though, with its absence particularly noticeable when recording video.
Camera samples from review
With the camera of smartphones being a big focus this year, and with there already being quite a few fantastic options, Google couldn’t have picked a better time to get things right with this one aspect which has historically been quite lackluster.
Software
One of the biggest reasons why I’ve been a fan of the Nexus series is because of the software experience these devices provide. The Nexus 6P runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and it is by far the best version of Android yet. Marshmallow feels extremely polished, which makes sense, given that this was what the update was about. Android 5.0 Lollipop may have introduced Material Design, and a lot of the aesthetics have been retained with the current version, but it had a lot of problems that have mostly been addressed with Android 6.0, along with a host of useful additions.
New features with Marshmallow include Doze, which allows for better battery life in standby, user defined app permissions, contextual search results with Google Now on Tap, and revamped volume controls. Of course, Marshmallow isn’t absolutely perfect, but is definitely a big step in the right direction, allowing for a smooth and snappy software experience that is practically unmatched.
Specifications
| Display | 5.7-inch AMOLED display 2560 x 1440 resolution, 518ppi |
| Processor | 2 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor Adreno 430 GPU |
| RAM | 3 GB |
| Storage | 32/64/128 GB not expandable |
| Networks | GSM 850/1900 W-CDMA 2/4/5 CDMA 0/1/10 LTE Band 2/4/5/7/12/13/17/25/26/41 |
| Software | Android 6.0 Marshmallow |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes |
| Camera | 12.3MP rear-facing camera 8MP front-facing camera |
| Battery | Non-removable 3450 mAh |
| Dimensions | 159.4 x 77.8 x 7.3mm, 178g |
Gallery
Final thoughts
So, there you have it for this second look at the Nexus 6P! Google and Huawei have built a phone that can finally compete with the best Android flagships out there with their being no corners cut with the high-end Nexus offering. This smartphone is a great choice for not only fans of the Nexus line, but Android fans in general, and if you are looking for the best Android experience that Google has to offer, look no further than the Nexus 6P!
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Google’s Fi wireless service now supports data-only devices
If you ever wished you could have Google’s Project Fi wireless service on your tablet as well as your Nexus phone, well now you can. Google announced today that Project Fi now has support for data-only devices on top of its existing phone service. Even if you have a primary Project Fi SIM card, you can request an order for a data-only SIM that you can use with a compatible tablet — it should work with any unlocked tablet that also works with T-Mobile. Confirmed compatible tablets include the Nexus 7, the Nexus 9, the iPad Air 2, the iPad mini 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S.
As with its phone plans, it’ll only be $10 per GB and the cost of any unused data will be refunded to you at the end of the month. We should note here that this service is only for existing Project Fi subscribers. According to a Google spokesperson: “Data-only support is an extension of the overall Project Fi experience. It’s for people who like having the service and want to extend connectivity to more device options.”
Source: Google
Facebook, Google and Twitter agree to delete some hate speech
Germany has long complained that major internet services don’t do enough to fight hate speech, and it now looks like those companies are going to do something about it. Facebook, Google and Twitter have all promised Germany that, “as a rule,” they’ll delete criminal forms of hate speech (such as inciting people to violence) within 24 hours. The push for action comes primarily in response to increased racism following Europe’s refugee crisis, but it’s not unexpected in light of the country’s decades-old battle with hate.
The move is slightly surprising when you consider the tendency of these services to fight censorship tooth and nail. Facebook, for instance, has denied that it recently broke German law by leaving hate speech online. However, the two sides clearly share some common ground. Facebook, Google and Twitter already have policies forbidding hate speech — to some extent, they’re just reconciling those guidelines with Germany’s policies.
[Image credit: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images]
Source: Reuters
Google’s Now on Tap gets more helpful for the holidays
With Android Marshmallow, Google debuted a super useful feature called Now on Tap – an efficient way to ping a search from any screen. It enhances the power of the search giant and gets us to the information we need that much quicker.
As it typically goes with new features, there’s lots of room for improvement. With the holidays in full swing, Google made a couple updates to Now on Tap to make it a valuable assistant during this busy time.
For instance, if we’re traveling or picking up a family member who is, we can simply toggle Now on Tap to quickly ping the flight status.
Or we can quickly check the status of gifts we’ve ordered. From the package’s confirmation email, you can toggle Now on Tap to get the tracking details.
The great thing about Now on Tap is that it overlays the search information on top of the app you’re currently using. Just dismiss the results to go back to what you were doing.
Google says it’s adding in a Share button to the results “over the coming days”. Also, the following language packages are available with Now on Tap: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Korean. Of course, more languages and features will be added later.
Source: Google Blogspot
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Google Now on Tap gets new features, now supports French, Spanish and four other languages
Google Now on Tap hasn’t taken the world by storm the way some of us had anticipated, but new features may make it more compelling over time.
Just in time for the holiday rush, Google is adding functionality to Now on Tap and support for six new languages.
If you receive a text message with a flight number, you can now long press the home button to get flight information, like arrival time or any delays. The same works for parcel numbers, potentially saving you some time and a few clicks.
See also: Google Now on Tap quick look
Now on Tap also gained the ability to show news articles for certain terms. Google offered as an example Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau and fighter Ronda Rousey. Simply hold down the button and Now on Tap will give you a few related news and the option to do a full news search.
Google launched Now on Tap for English users only, but that changes today. Users that set their devices to French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian or Korean can now enjoy Google Now on Tap.
Google’s blog post on the new feature also mentions the addition of the handy screen share button on the Now on Tap bar that we’ve first seen last week.
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