We’ve been trying to get our “junk drawers” organized, and in the process we unearthed my old Toshiba NB205 netbook. I loved this netbook, and it was a faithful companion for two years. Time took a toll on performance, and it slipped into the pile of unused electronics. It has new life, though, thanks to Neverware’s CloudReady (ChromeOS) build!
Google Play Music is offering gift subscriptions for their service at $4.99 per month. This is a savings of $3/mo for “legacy” users who had been paying $7.99 per month or $5/mo off the regular $9.99 monthly rate.
I joined Project Fi in August of this year. Project Fi is essentially a prepaid phone service for which Google acts as an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator). This is just a fancy term for a company which doesn’t own the cellular towers but merely purchases a bulk block of service from the carrier(s) and resells it.
Verizon is really going all-in on the Star Wars marketing. They already license “Droid” for their exclusive phones, and now they’re getting into the movies too, with exclusive Google Cardboard viewers for Verizon customers in BB-8, Kylo Ren, Stormtrooper, or R2-D2 themes!
Google was quite busy today, announcing two new Nexus phones, previewing a new Pixel C tablet, revealing a new Chromecast and a Chromecast Audio, plus several software updates! All good stuff, so let’s jump right in with a quick rundown…try to keep your wallet closed until the end!
I used Google Wallet for one reason: it held my loyalty cards. Unfortunately, with the new Android Pay I can’t access my loyalty cards unless I have a compatible bank card added! Wallet functioned fine without a card added, and even if I add a bank card, if it’s not a supported card I can’t access anything in Android Pay.
Once, I debated the future of Microsoft with my father. He pointed out they had a lot of great ideas, but they were so big any changes were like turning around a battleship in a bathtub. I can’t help but think that was on Google’s mind when they announced their new restructuring, though nothing explains why they renamed themselves “Alphabet”.
Google tracks everything we do. It’s common knowledge that they use web search, emails, and general use patterns to tailor advertising to their users. But Google is always looking for ways to gather even more data, and if you’re an Android user one of those tools is Google Opinion Rewards, an app that pays you to take Google Surveys.
If you apply for Project Fi as I did (back in April) you can check the status of your invitation on their site here. Unfortunately in my case, it looks as if I won’t be receiving an invitation any time soon as my status shows “Expect your invite in 12 or more weeks”.
This weekend I used some Google Play credits to grab a quick game for my phone. Immediately, I had an email from Google letting me know a game was purchased in my account with my credits. It’s not that weird, except that I had made some purchases in iTunes recently, and it took TWO DAYS to get a confirmation email!
Friday I received notification that Android 5.02 was available for my Nexus 9. I accepted the update and left it on the charger in my office before leaving for the weekend. Upon my return Monday morning, I found that update 5.02 has apparently bricked my Nexus 9, leaving it in perpetual reboot sequence, and it doesn’t look like I’m alone.
It may seem a bit macabre to imagine what will happen with regard to your Google account access when you die, but honestly, wouldn’t you rather make the decision about who gets access or what happens to your data while you are still completely in charge of your facilities? Yeah, I thought so. Here’s how to set that up.
Earlier this week Google released their newest computer which is pretty much the size of their Chromecast stick, and can honestly be mistaken for a vape pen if there was no branding all over it. The name of the product is the Google Chromebit, and it’s literally the world’s smallest computer.
Will miracles never cease? Google just announced their Gmail client now offers a universal inbox experience. Finally! Now instead of flipping between multiple accounts in the native Gmail app, you can click “All Inboxes” and view email from all your Gmail and non-Gmail accounts.
Google today announced the ability to view and manage photos and videos in both Google+ and Google Drive. Previously you were limited to managing photos and videos within Google+. While this new feature is not yet live everywhere Google’s help page details that if you delete a photo/video in Google Drive it will also be removed from Google+ (and vice versa).
In another experiment from Google that may or may not (but more than likely will) eventually kill off, the search engine is reportedly building a new service for their Gmail Pony Express. The service is being called “Pony Express‘, which will let Gmail users pay bills, as well as split the costs of items with fellow Gmail users.
Google Maps for iOS has been updated today to version 4.4.0 for devices on iOS 7 and above with the usual bug fixes as well as a couple new features that were highly requested in the Popular Navigation app’s ratings comments.
Miss the glory days of YouTube? I sympathize with you. One thing that I hate about YouTube is Ads. But not more than I hate ads. If you’ve used the web version or even on a mobile application, you’ve endured both. YouTube announced today they will be getting rid of both, somewhat.
If I had to break down my online presence by companies, I’d say I’m split between Microsoft and Google. Microsoft Onedrive is my main backup, and OneNote is just awesome, while Google handles my email, calendar and contacts. My jump from Windows Phone to Android was easy, but as Clinton Fitch points out, it’s because of Microsoft and not Google.
Siri (or Cortana, or Ok Google) often get dismissed as gimmicks, or something you use for driving or otherwise using your phone hands free. My wife Sarah, however, can attest to a situation where Siri was an absolute hero for our family — Sarah used Siri to call Poison Control during an emergency!
When I first started storing backups of photos and key files online, I signed up for Dropbox and free 2GB of storage. It became quickly apparent that was far too small, but I was too cheap to pay $100 to jump to the next level. Instead, I started using Microsoft Skydrive, now OneDrive; as of yesterday I have 121GB free!