Purchases on Google – helping you buy products straight from search results

Google is one of the most dominant adventurers in technology. Their reach extends to nearly every market, but the business still revolves around our beloved search engine… and the advertising within it. In an effort to make shopping more convenient for consumers and increase ad revenue, the Mountain View-based company will soon enable retailers to offer their products for online purchase straight from Google’s search results.

The new service is currently undergoing testing, but we know it goes by the name of Purchases on Google. Essentially, it will work as follows: users will be able to search for any product and get shopping results in the form of Google-styled cards. The customer can than choose to buy the suggested items using Google’s pre-stored payment credentials (Google Wallet, Android Pay and the like), all without ever leaving the search results.

Google claims they have seen a 115% increase in shopping searches on the past year alone. It’s only sensible that they see this as a natural progression to their business model. And they won’t only offer shopping results for direct purchase searches. Reports suggest these shopping cards will also appear after searching relevant information on products, such as reviews.

Of course, you would still be doing business with the original merchant; Google would just act as the mediator and charge companies per click. The service would also take into account all the usual factors, including location, nearby stores and pricing options.

As mentioned above, Google is still testing this. Some believe Purchases with Google should be arriving just in time for back-to-school season, but those are only assumptions. All we really know is it should be launching “later this year”.

I am having a hard time trying to figure out whether this is good or bad. There’s no denying getting actionable shopping results on mobile searches will make buying anything a breeze, but this could also bring negative effects (and not only because we will be more likely to spend all our cash). Google is already jam-packed with advertising! Do we need more? Sound off in the comments to let us know how you feel about Purchases on Google.

Huawei Nexus leak reveals QHD display, SD820, fingerprint scanner

A rumour that’s been widely accepted is that Google is working on two versions of its next Nexus smartphone; one made by LG and the other made by Chinese manufacturer Huawei. Perennial leaksters Evan Blass (aka @evleaks) is back again, this time bringing us what he claims is the specs list for the Huawei Nexus and if correct, this could be an impressive device.

Based on Blass’ information, the Huawei Nexus will reportedly feature a 5.7-inch Quad HD display with 2560×1440 pixel resolution, which equates to roughly 515 pixels per inch density and is slightly lower than the Nexus 6 thanks to the larger display on this year’s Nexus.

While the display is what you might expect, the processor looks to be the topic that’s most surprising; Blass claims that the Huawei Nexus will be powered by a Snapdragon 820 processor but Huawei has never used anything but its Kirin processors on its flagship smartphones. A switch to Qualcomm’s latest processor would represent a marked change over past devices but it may be one of the conditions of building Google’s next flagship.

Blass also adds that the Huawei Nexus will have a fingerprint sensor and given that its made by Huawei, it’s likely that we’ll see it located on the back of the handset under the camera, just like the Ascend Mate 7 and Huawei Honor 7. The former of these two has a very impressive fingerprint sensor – we can’t confirm about the Honor 7 as it has only just been announced – and we’d hope that the Huawei Nexus fingerprint sensor would be as impressive.

Other than this, there’s not a lot of other details about Huawei’s Nexus. The rumour that both LG and Huawei are making versions of the Nexus has persisted for a while now and past rumours have suggested that the Huawei version will be the flagship while LG’s Nexus will be available at a lower price.

Google’s latest Android M OS should be launched to the market in October or November this year and the two Nexus devices are expected to be announced at the same time. In his tweet, Blass added that the Huawei Nexus will ship in Q4 which fits in with the expected launch cycle. As we approach the likely launch, expect more details about both devices to leak out and of course, we’ll bring you all the information as it happens. For more information on Android M, head on over to our Diving Into M section.

Traitor – Valkyrie Plan is a new FPS game based on a true WWII story

Plenty of First-Person Shooter games crowd the Google Play Store, but very few of them catch our attention like Traitor – Valkyrie Plan did. It has a touch of history, realistic effects and plenty of action to keep you on your toes for hours.

Traitor – Valkyrie Plan is especially exciting because it follows a true story from World War 2, known as the “July Plot”. The game tells the story of a renegade German Army officer who turns against Hitler. The story develops after Colonel Claus is found wounded in North Africa, when he decides to become a hitman. You can imagine what happens after that… or you can just play the game and find out!

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Just like the plot, the game is very realistic by nature. The user will have access to real weapons, which he can use in an environment full of advanced graphics and sophisticated lighting. In addition, character movements and firing effects are as true-to-life as they get in a mobile FPS game.

Gamers will need to use stealth, disguise and hand-to-hand assassination. There’s plenty of entertainment packed in this nifty app, making you realize that $1.53 price-point is really nothing to complain about.

Developer PigFrog Entertainment states they have worked very hard to make this game run smoothly on Android devices, but they have also provided a test version of the game (Traitor LITE) for those who want to test its performance before forking out some cash. We think this is a worthy game, so you should at least give it a test by downloading the LITE version.

Have any of you been playing it? What do you think of it?

Traitor LITE

Traitor – Valkyrie Plan