Author: Clinton

Google PhotoScan, the app for scanning older photos to save digitally, has a new update rolling out that brings several improvements.  The new build is version 1.5 for those keeping score at home and is rolling out into the Play Store today.

The first change that users of PhotoScan will likely appreciate the most is the automatic saving of scanned photos to your Google Photos account.  Previously, when you scanned a photo, it was saved to its own library on your phone and you had to then manually sync that library with Photos.  Now when you scan a photo, it is automatically saved to your Google Photos library, eliminating the manual step.

Google Assistant is finally coming to tablets.  The news came from Google today in an announcement that also indicated that the personalized assistant will be coming to phones running Android Lollipop (version 5.x).  To this point, Google Assistant has only been available on phones and only on devices running Android Oreo (v8.x), Android Nougat (v7.x) and Android Marshmallow (v6.x).

The first step in getting Assistant to tablets will be an update on the cloud side from Google and then, likely, an update to Google Play Services.  Once the update rolls out, users will be able to long press the Home button/icon on their phone to active Assistant just as they do on their phone.  It is likely just a matter of users doing the long press of Home until they see the Assistant opt-in page pop up.  It should also be noted that this addition of Assistant to tablets will only be for US English devices.  If you have your tablet set to another language, even an English variant, you will not be getting updated.

Google+ has a new update rolling out for the community network on both Android and iOS.  The update brings a new advanced search function to the apps, much like the search functionality of Google Search itself.  In this new update, you will be able to use search operators to do specific searches within Google+

Google has already built a guide for these new search functions on the support site which will outline in detail how they can be used.  Some of these new functions include:

• From:  To identify a post from a G+ users
• Has:  Has an attachment such as an image or Google Doc file
• Before:  Before a specific date
• After:  After a specific date
• Commenter:  Search for a specific commenter on a specific post

As you can see, you can get quite specific in your searching to pinpoint a specific post or person.

Google Lens began a general rollout less than a month ago and at the time I said it felt futuristic and had a huge amount of potential.  Indeed, looking back on 2017, I thing that Lens could be one of the most significant product releases by Google for the year – or will prove to be in the coming 12 months.

Google’s Rajan Patel, the lead engineer for Google Lens, took to Twitter yesterday and highlighted some of the areas in which we are going to see Lens improve and grow in the coming months.

Shopping (apparel, home goods, etc) in the works. Natural world (flora and fauna) improvements coming. Team just sent me an amazing new OCR model. Experimental AR experiences coming as well…

— Rajan Patel (@rajanpatel) December 9, 2017

Before readers get too excited, it should be noted that Mr. Patel gave no indication on when we will see these new features and functionalities within Lens.  That said, it is exciting to read that Google is thinking about where to take the app & service next.  Truly exciting stuff!

Today over at Amazon you can pick up a great deal on the Acer Chromebook 14.  Right now this all aluminum chassis Chromebook is available with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage for $249.  That is a savings of $50 off the regular price and the price is good on the gold aluminum finish.

This Acer Chromebook 14 is powered by a Intel Celeron N3160 processor running at 1.6GHz and the display renders at 1920 x 1080 full HD.  As mentioned already, it has 4GB of RAM which is really handy on a Chromebook and has 32GB of storage for those things (like Android apps) that you need to store locally.  It also has a built-in battery that is rated to give 12 hours of life between charges.  Overall it is a great package and one of the higher rated Chromebooks out there right now despite it being nearly a year old.

The Chromebook 14 also supports Android apps now in the Stable channel so you have that benefit with this Chromebook too.

Today’s Deal is on the fantastic phablet from Huawei, the Huawei Mate 9.  Today on Amazon you can pick up the 5.9″ phone with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage for $399.  That’s $200 off the original $599 price tag ($100 its regular price now) and is the same price that Huawei was selling it back on Black Friday and Cyber Monday The price is available on either the Moonlight Silver or Space Grey colors available for the phone.  I reviewed the Mate 9 earlier this year and it is an outstanding device with an awesome display, great battery life and excellent cameras.  At this price, it is well worth considering.

So what does $399 get you in the Huawei Mate 9?  A lot frankly.  It is a 5.9″ phone running Android Nougat, an octa-core processor running at 2.4GHz and Leica optics dual-camera setup shooting at 20MP and 12MP respectively with OIS.  The front facing selfie camera is 8MP shooter.  You also have 64GB of built-in storage that can be expanded up to an additional  256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  Finally, it comes with a US warranty so you are not buying an international version of the phone.

Another key consideration is that Huawei is in the process of rolling out the Android Oreo update (their EMUI 8.0 variant) to the phone.  While it will ship with Nougat, you should be able to upgrade to Oreo more-or-less right out of the box.