Google Play Music family plan launches today in 6 countries
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The Google Play Music family plan was announced at the end of September and promised to bring a package that would allow 6 family members to get access to all of Play Music‘s subscription goodies for one low price of $14.99 USD a month. It’s an incredibly good deal, especially compared with other music streaming options out there, and some of you are going to be able to start enjoying its benefits from today.
Google has just announced the family plan service is going to launch today in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, France and Germany. If your country hasn’t been named in the initial six, don’t be alarmed – Google promises that it’s going to be available in more countries in the near future. For those that are in the US, for your family plan subscription fee you’ll also get access to YouTube’s new subscription service, YouTube Red – presumably this will also roll over to other countries whenever YouTube Red is available more widely.
Personally, I’m super tempted to move from Spotify to this new Play Music family plan. The only thing stopping me? The thought of having to migrate my playlists between the two. First world problems…
Are you signing up for the Google Play Music family plan?
Source: Android Official Blog
The post Google Play Music family plan launches today in 6 countries appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Google simplifies Drive search to be snappy
Google Drive is turning four years old in April, and if you’ve been with the cloud storage solution since its inception, a huge amount of files are stored right now. But, of course, you could’ve joined Google Drive last week and filled your space in the cloud with hundreds of pictures or something else. Regardless of how long you’ve been using Google Drive, Google wants search to be as easy as possible. Files need to be stored and identified quickly for users to feel most productive.
These are the new ways to search in Google Drive:
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Narrow your search to a file type from the search box on Android, iOS, and the web.
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Open advanced search instantly from the search box.
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Access recent files or search Drive from the home screen using 3D Touch on iOS.
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Search Drive using the iOS search bar without opening the Drive app.
Google will be rolling out the new features across all platforms in the coming weeks.
Source: Google
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Families can share the wealth of Google Play Music today
Back in September, Google announced that a family plan offering would be created for Play Music. The family plan gives up to six people simultaneous access to Play Music’s catalog of 35 million songs for $14.99 per month. At that time, the company only said that the family plan would be made available before the end of 2015. Today, Google is going live with Play Music’s family plan. And YouTube Red, for those in the United States, is included at no extra charge for all family plan accounts.
Google will allow customers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Australia to sign up for Play Music’s family plan this week.
Source: Google
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Google squashes irritating MMS bug with Android 6.0.1
A few days ago, Google began rolling out the Android 6.0.1 update for Nexus smartphones and tablets. Unfortunately, at the time of release, it wasn’t clear what exactly the upgrade bundled aside from compatibility for the brand new emoji set.
We now know that this version of Marshmallow also transports a much-needed patch for the incredibly annoying Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) bug, which caused picture messages to unsuccessfully download from servers.
It’s certainly nice to see Google take user feedback on board and create a fix for the issue in such a short time frame. If you haven’t received the upgrade yet, you could always flash the firmware onto your device. For more information on how to do this, click here for our guide.
Source: Google
Via: Android Police
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Google: We have proof that our quantum computer really works
Google announced a breakthrough in the field of quantum computing Wednesday. The company thinks it’s found a quantum algorithm that solves problems 100 million times faster than conventional processes. If confirmed, this discovery could not only lead to iRobot-style artificial intelligence but also advance the US space program by light years.
Back in 2013, Google and NASA went halvsies on a D-Wave X2 computing system. The D-Wave is supposedly the world’s first functional quantum computer, though experts both within and without the company have never been able to conclusively prove that the machine actually taps into the quantum realm to produce its calculations. That is, until now.
Google’s announcement Wednesday centers on “quantum annealing“, a technique that determines the global minimum for a given function when presented with a set of potential solutions. In English, it figures out the best (ie most efficient) overall course of action to complete a task when given a set number of options. Scientists have been working on quantum annealers for a while now, though the two primary techniques, “simulated annealing” and “quantum monte carlo” are both just simulated systems running on conventional hardware. The D-Wave system, on the other hand, is hard-coded to run the quantum annealing algorithm on its quantum array.
The company recently tested the new QA algorithm in a proof-of-concept trial against conventional systems running the simulated annealing and monte carlo methods. The results are more than impressive. As you can see from the graph above, Google’s method beat out the other two quite handily, solving a function with 1000 binary variables up to 100 million times faster.
Google qualified these results as “intriguing and very encouraging” in its announcement, though the company has a long way to go before this research is ready for the consumer market. But once it is, hoo boy, get ready for a technological revolution. With it, AI researchers may be able to develop smarter, more responsive computer learning systems, NASA could use it to simulate rocket launches (or entire space missions) — heck even the mundane material sciences could get a boost from this technology.
Via: MIT Tech Review
Source: Google Research
Google Play Music’s family plan goes live this week
Back in September, Google announced that it would offer a family plan for its Play Music subscription service, and today it’s finally launching. Just like Apple Music, $14.99 every month will get you and up to five additional family members access to the Google Play streaming music library. That includes access to 35 million songs on demand, ad-free playback (naturally) and the ability for each family member to stream simultaneously on their own devices.
This ends up being a better deal than Spotify if you want to get more than two people on the same plan. Spotify charges $14.99 a month for two family members and lets you add on additional users for $5, while Google and Apple both keep you at a flat $14.99 even as you add more people. In fact, Google Play Music has quietly become one of the best deals in streaming music. Beyond access to Google Play Music, a subscription will also get you the benefits of YouTube Red and will unlock the full features of the just-launched YouTube Music app. That’s a pretty impressive deal for $14.99.
Google says that you should be able to sign up for a family plan on Android this week, and it’ll work across Android, iOS and the web. We don’t expect signups in the iOS app to go live (as Apple would take its 30 percent cut of that subscription revenue), but it seems logical that you’d be able to sign up over the web. We reached out to Google to check on that last point. If you’ve been waiting for this subscription option, just keep your eyes peeled — users in US, Canada, the UK, Australia, France and Germany can sign up this week, and more countries should be added soon.
Source: Google
[Deal] Nexus 5X gets discounted $50 on the Google Store and Amazon
Only one month after its launch, the Google Nexus 5X has already begun showing deals. Through the end of the year, one can purchase the Nexus 5X at a discounted price on either the Google Store or Amazon.
The Nexus 5X was already an affordable device, but has now become even more affordable. Both the Google Store and Amazon are running the same $50 promotion, which will apply for both the 16GB and 32GB versions. The 16GB model now costs only $330, down from $380, and the 32GB version now costs $380 rather than the original $430 price tag. In addition, Best Buy is running a similar promotion on the handset. All prices are for the unlocked version, which are not linked to any carrier or contract agreement. Not a bad deal if you ask me. Our review of the Nexus 5X is coming soon, but for now, you can check out the specs overview here.
[Google Store] [Amazon]
Come comment on this article: [Deal] Nexus 5X gets discounted $50 on the Google Store and Amazon
Google claims to have proven that its D-Wave machine has quantum compute capabilities
Google has just published a paper which it claims proves that its controversial D-Wave quantum computer really can tap into quantum physics to solve problems. There have previously been some questions raised about the actual capabilities of the D-Wave sold to Google, but the company now appears to be much more confident about what it can do.
Google has been running a couple of tests on its D-Wave 2X computer, pitting it against a more typical computer chip. The results found that the D-Wave’s quantum annealing (solving optimization problems) is considerably faster than simulated annealing, suggesting that the machine may actually have, at least some, quantum compute abilities.
We found that for problem instances involving nearly 1,000 binary variables, quantum annealing significantly outperforms its classical counterpart, simulated annealing. It is more than 108 times faster than simulated annealing running on a single core. We also compared the quantum hardware to another algorithm called Quantum Monte Carlo. This is a method designed to emulate the behavior of quantum systems, but it runs on conventional processors. While the scaling with size between these two methods is comparable, they are again separated by a large factor sometimes as high as 108.
The test results can be achieved 100,000,000 (100 million) times faster on the D-Wave when compared to a single core quantum simulation running on a traditional chip. A very compelling result.
However, Google will have to wait for a peer review of the results before truly celebrating and questions have already been raised about the experiment. Apparently, an alternative algorithm or exploit in the simulated D-Wave annealing algorithm could have been used on the conventional computer that may have allowed it to win. However, Google has its own quantum computer design efforts underway that should remove this bug, meaning that this shortcut probably won’t be available in the future anyway.
“building a quantum computer is really, really hard, so first of all, we’re just trying to get it to work and not worry about cost or size or whatever,” – John Martinis, head of Google’s quantum hardware program
The D-Wave has long come in for criticism from some in the field, with suggestions that the company oversold the machine’s capabilities. Previous research attempts have been unable to prove exactly whether the computer was making use of quantum effects or not, but Google’s results could help settle some of the debate.
Eventually, quantum computing could lead to major performance boost for some data heavy tasks, ranging from image recognition through to artificial intelligence. There is still a long way to go before commercial viability and uses are realized, but Google’s results suggest that we are on the way.
Google Play Store bids the Nexus 6 farewell
You read that right: The Motorola-made handset is no longer sold through Google’s online shop. Droid Life has discovered that the Nexus 6 has been taken out of the Play Store, a little after a year since the phone was launched. As always, though, you don’t have to permanently say bye-bye, au revoir, adios or sayonara to the model, since there are a lot of third-party sellers out there — a cursory search on eBay shows us tens of thousands of Nexus 6s for sale. If you’d rather not trust an online seller, well, there’s always Google’s newer phones: the LG-made Nexus 5x and the bigger, Huawei-manufactured Nexus 6P.
Source: Droid Life
Nexus 5X now $60 off: Google Store, Amazon, Best Buy!
Google is in the giving mood! After a brief price break for Black Friday, the Nexus 5X is back on sale, this time for a decidedly longer duration. From now until December 30th, the Google Store has taken $50 off the price tag bringing the 16GB model to $329 and the 32GB model to $379. Amazon and Best Buy are also in on the sale and have reduced their product prices as well!
Another potential present for smartphone shoppers at the Google Store is an extended return window. Purchases made from December 8th through December 25 can be returned through January 22, 2016. This applies to everything however, not just the Nexus 5X.
Notes on the Nexus
The Nexus 5X, made by LG Electronics, is the smaller of this year’s two Nexus smartphones, the other, pricer yet more powerful and potent being the Huawei Nexus 6P. Just as with Black Friday, it is only the LG variant which has received a discount, however those customers who went shopping the day after Thanksgiving ultimately got the better deal as said sale was for $80 off.
In our official review, we concluded that:
There is no doubt that the Nexus 5X is a worthy successor to the Nexus 5, but this device faces far harder competition that anything seen by the Nexus 5. While aspects like the really good fingerprint scanner, a far improved camera, and smooth performance are fantastic to see, it isn’t that difficult to find a worthy alternative either, depending on your needs.
Nexus 5X
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While everyone can appreciate a good deal, we suspect this prolonged price point might have to do with a sales trend favoring the Huawei Nexus, which was sold out upon its release at the Google Store. The Nexus 5X on the other hand, was readily available from day one.
Seeing Overseas
The retail prices of carrier Nexus 5X units in Japan is so expensive they are higher than the 6P hardware.
This sale is not limited exclusively to America however, as it appeared this morning here in Japan where the device – like in other territories – is significantly more expensive than it is in the United States. The return window component is also present, as it is in Google Stores around the world.
In Japan specifically, this is a rather surprising development given that Christmas is not observed here and relegated to a decorative event with a pretext for dating. Google is thus assuming citizens are going to be purchasing presents, though with New Years coming up – a holiday that is a major family event here – the gesture is still applicable.
To buy or not to buy?
Will this price break on the Nexus 5X encourage you to do some smartphone shopping? Is it a better value at the new reduced cost, or would you still preferentially prefer a a Nexus 6P? Leave us your comments below and be sure to let us know!
AIVAnet 