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Apps articles
Google Hangouts arrives for tablets
When Google Hangouts launched last week amid the Google I/O fanfare, one thing that was notably missing was support for tablets. We all know that Android tablets do take a bit of a flogging, but the reality is there’s quite a number of them, and some are quite well loved. Whether it was an oversight [...]
Instant Upload renamed to Auto Backup
After taking a few videos of my kids tonight I went into the gallery app and was greeted with a new folder called ‘Auto Backup’. This folder appears to have replaced the ‘Instant Upload’ folder, and given the photo announcements from the Google I/O Keynote I wouldn’t be surprised if this is related to those. [...]
Hangouts for tablets in the works, SMS might be too
At Google I/O this year, Google unsurprisingly launched its unified messaging services Hangouts. Users of the new service have quickly discovered two shortfalls – one, Hangouts doesn’t work on tablets just yet. The second, however, was that contrary to early rumours, Hangouts does not integrate SMS or MMS. Dori Storbeck, Google+ Community Manager for Hangouts, [...]
Google releases Field Trip application to 80 more countries including Australia
Released in September last year as a US only release, the Field Trip app from Niantic Labs – the team behind Ingress – is a location based app which provides notifcations when you are near certain points of interest from categories such as Architecture, Historic Places & Events, Lifestyle, Offers & Deals, Food Drinks & [...]
Google Play Games, now syncing your progress across devices
Cross device sync of game progress, leaderboards and achievements is long overdue on a platform as powerful as Android and now it’s here. The Google Play Games platform was announced very early this morning Australian time during the Google I/O Keynote and there’s already over a dozen games on the play store that have integrated [...]
Google announces – Google Play Education
At the keynote for Google IO this morning a new initiative announced was Google Play Education. The new initiative seems to be aimed at introducing Google products and services to educational institutions. Google has already integrated into educational institutions who are currently using the Google Apps for Education service and looks to further this integration [...]
Google Hangouts released, comes as a surprise to no one
Amongst the other things being announced overnight at Google I/O was something we’d certainly anticipated and lusted for, the much-rumoured update to Google’s messaging platforms that would unite them all under one brand — Hangouts. This morning, Hangouts is live on the Play Store and you can update to it right now. The new, stand-alone [...]
Google Play Books updating – Ability to upload and read your own ePub and PDF files coming
Google Play Books has been with us for a fair while and as an avid reader I have been disappointed so far to discover that we have so far been unable to read our own PDF or EPUB files. It looks as though the latest update to Google Play Books is about to change that [...]
Coming this winter: redesigned Google Maps for Android
Come this winter, it’s not just iOS that’s going to have the nicest looking Google Maps application, Android will finally get a slice of the key-lime pie. At Google I/O it has been announced that Google Maps is getting a redesign and a feature overhaul which will launch this winter. The new Google Maps make [...]
Google Search App Update with Reminders
While you were sleeping the Android team went and updated the Google Search app for you. They’ve added some new features which are quite useful, especially if you like to use your voice to do stuff. Reminders Send Emails Upcoming things you like – seems unavailable in Australia at the moment. Real time public transit [...]
Google Music All Access: music subscription service with personalised ‘radio stations’
Just as it was previously rumoured today, Google have indeed announced a subscription service for Google Play Music and they’re calling it “All Access”. Sadly, it’s US only for the time being — just like that Galaxy S4 — however, other countries are on the roadmap for launch. It costs $9.99/mo and gives you access [...]
Google Play Store hits 48 billion app installs, huge revenue increases
Google’s Hugo Barra took the stage at Google I/O to announce some pretty amazing stats for the Google Play Store. Those can be broken down into the following: 48 billion app installs 2.5 billion installs in the last month More money paid out to developers since the start of 2013 compared to the whole of [...]
Developers already integrating Google Play Games into their apps (updated: more!)
Google I/O isn’t even underway yet, and Google Play Games still hasn’t been given it’s official titled or been unveiled at all, but developers are stating that they’ve integrated the service into the games already. One game is Euphloria HD which states in its changelog that “Google Play Games achievements have been added!“. What exactly [...]