Author: Clinton

The Google Phone app has a nice update rolling out this morning that brings some new features.  The update is build 10.1.161735957 for those keeping score at home and who like to play Google version bingo and it is rolling out to the Play Store now.

The big new feature in this update to the Phone app is emergency location information.  If you call 911 here in the US, you will be shown in the app (via Google maps) where you are calling from so that emergency services can find you faster.  It helps you see where you are faster which means help can get to you faster.

If you use the Pixel launcher or the Google app on your Android phone, you will have noted a few changes recently to the feed in apps.  The feed, which rolled out with the Google Now launcher, has slowly been improved to provide you more accurate or interesting information to you based on your habits.  Today, Google has pushed the big red button and with a server-side update, everyone’s feed is now showing these improvements.

Inside the Google app, you will see a much improved lists of articles and topics that are potentially of interest to you.  They did this by heavily leaning on Artificial Intelligence to bubble up things that you may find of interest based on other articles you have read or other interactions with Google along with local information on events happening around you.

Microsoft has a new update rolling out to Arrow Launcher in the Play Store that is bring some nice improvements to the launcher.  The update is version 3.7 for those keeping score at home and this build has been in beta for a few weeks with testers.  The update has some good improvements around contact management (or as Microsoft calls it, People) as well as some other fixes.

The People card on the Utility page in this update will now allow you to choose between multiple actions for contacts and Arrow can now deal with merging and de-duping of contacts within the contacts on your phone.  The multi-action feature is a long requested one of the launcher.

An update for Chrome OS is currently rolling out to the stable channel.  The update is build 59.0.3071.134 (Platform versions: 9460.73.0, 9460.73.1) for those keeping score at home and should be hitting devices over the course of the next few days.  Unlike similar releases over the course of the past few months, Google did not indicate any specific devices this update would not be coming to this week.  Rather, they simply indicate “most devices” will see the update.

To check to see if the update is coming to your Chrome device, go to chrome://help in the browser on your Chromebook or Chromebox and check for the update.  If it is available to your device, it will start downloading and after a restart, will be installed.

Google Keep, the lightweight, cloud-based note taking app, has an update rolling out for Android users.  Version 3.4.803.02 doesn’t bring a massive amount of changes but it does bring the ability to undo & redo text editing controls to the app.  Now when you are editing a note and adding text, you have the ability to more quickly edit your notes with this new feature.

The feature is only available when you are editing a note and if you change notes or close and reopen the same note, the cache for being able to undo/redo is emptied so it won’t be available.

If you haven’t tried Google Keep, it is a free app (and is available on the web at keep.google.com) designed for lightweight note taking and editing.  Keep isn’t going to give you the flexibility of apps such as Evernote or OneNote, but if you need a quick note taking app that leverages cloud storage, it’s one to consider.

Today, Sprint here in the United States has become the first carrier to sell the Blackberry KEYone.  The announcement came from TCL, the company who licenses the Blackberry name, with the price starting at $22 per month for 18 months.  Outright, the phone is $528.

The KEYone drew a lot of attention when it was announced back in January with its keyboard and after a couple of delays, it is finally available for ordering.  The GSM version of the phone is $619.99 on Amazon.