Author: Clinton

In a move that is similar to the cut Apple made for iOS developers, Google has announced that they will be dropping the percentage they keep on in-app purchases.  Starting January 1, 2018, in-app purchases will have a 15% commission rate to the Mountain View company, a drop of 50% from the previous 30% rate.

For developers, this means that they will be able to keep more money when you make an in-app purchase in their app.  Ultimately it is good for developers who will be able to stay funded to further development.  For Google, that means having top-shelf apps in the Play Store.

After several months of waiting, the new Harman Kardon Invoke smart speaker will be released this coming Sunday, October 22nd.  The speaker is powered by Microsoft Cortana and is the first dedicated Cortana smart speaker to hit the market.  It will be priced at $199 and will be available through a variety of retailers.

Microsoft Cortana has 148 million active users today and that number is expected to jump with Invoke.  The personal assistant, named after the personal assistant in the Halo franchise, has been a staple of Windows 10 since inception while the Android and iOS versions have been available for some time now.  In fact, on Android, you can make Cortana your default personal assistant.

Android Pay support has been increased yet again, the second time this month, with the addition of 34 financial institutions today.  That brings the total number of banks, credit unions and other financial houses up to nearly 1,100 supported here in the United States.

As has been the case for most of 2017, the new financial institutions tend to be more on the regional or local bank side but there is a big name in this round, Charles Schwab Bank.  This was one of the last big-bank holdouts in supporting the tap-to-pay service.

A quick heads-up for readers who use Chrome OS.  You have a new update rolling out.  The new build is version 61.0.3163.123 (Platform version: 9765.85.0) and according to the release notes, will be rolling out to a majority of devices starting today.  As always, you can check for the update manually by typing chrome://help in the browser omnibar and tapping the “check for updates” button.

The update does not specifically call out any new features or fixes.  Rather, it is a bug fix and security update for the platform.  Over the past few months it has become common practice for Google to release a major update at the beginning of the month then one of these smaller, fix oriented updates around mid-month.

Google has updated their Update your Android Version support page with dates and information on the new Google Pixel 2 lineup.  When the devices were launched last month, Google made it clear that both of the second generation Pixel devices would be receiving major Android updates for three years.  The update of this support page confirms it.

Both of the devices will get major Android updates, minor security patches and phone support through October 2020.  That means that these devices, which launched with Android Oreo, will also see Android P, Android Q and Android R before they are out of support.

The update is a change of course from the first generation of Pixel devices and previous Nexus devices.  Those devices received 2 years of major updates and 3 years of security updates.  That means that the original Pixel and Pixel XL will see Android P, but that will be the end of major updates from Google.

Google Text-to-speech, the underlying engine for converting on screen text to speech has been updated.  Version 3.13.3 is now rolling out and with it comes support for Filipino and Greek languages.

Chances are that the majority of readers have never leveraged the TTS engine but it is a critical application for those with visual impairments who need the text on their device display’s read aloud to them.  Setting up of the engine is done in Settings>Accessibility and powers Google’s TalkBack feature built into Android.