Author: Clinton

After experimenting with it in the beta channel, then doing a bit of A/B testing, it seems that Google is finally ready to roll out bottom navigation in the YouTube app.  The update is a combination of an app update, which happened last week, and a server-side update, which is happening now.  Assuming you have the former, the later should be coming to you over the course of the next few hours.

Once you have it, gone will be the top tab navigation for Home, Trending, Subscriptions, Shared and Library.  Instead, they are all clearly identified on the bottom of the display in the streaming content app.

When it comes to multi-port USB hubs, especially those that support the 3.0 standard, it is a mixed bag.  Often you can find them at a low price but only one or two of the ports will support 3.0.  The others are only 2.0.  Or, the other side of this coin, is that you have one that supports 3.0 across all the ports but it comes at a steep price.

Enter ICZI.  The China-based manufacture has long produced accessories for smartphones and laptops and one of their latest offerings is a 4-Port USB 3.0 hub.  Not only does it support USB 3.0 across all four ports of the hub, it comes in at just under $13 on their Amazon storefront.  Recently the ICZI team sent me one of these hubs to review and after using it on my MacBook Pro for the last couple of weeks, I’m impressed.  It’s a solid performer… no, an excellent performer, with backlit USB ports and a compact, if not utilitarian design.

Samsung has begun rolling out the May 2017 Android Security update for the venerable Galaxy Note 4 and Note 4 Edge.  The update doesn’t contain any new features for the 2014 devices but will bring them up to the latest security patch for those still using it.  Both phones are running Android Marshmallow and it is highly unlikely they will ever see Nougat despite their extended support after the Note7 debacle.

The update weighs in at 345MB and it is recommended that you download the OTA update via Wi-Fi.  Once you have it downloaded, the install process will take about 10 minutes to complete and will require a reboot of the device.

Google is pushing hard to get Actions on Google built for Google Assistant and one of the best ways to do that is to throw some prize money at it.  Google has announced a new contest where the top prize is $10,000 and a trip to Google I/O 2018 for a developer who creates an app leveraging Actions on Google.

For those who are not developers, Actions is the set of APIs that are leveraged to bring Google Assistant compatibility and/or integration into apps.  Google opened up the platform earlier this year and while adoption has been good, Google of course wants to make it more widely used.  Amazon right now has over 10,000 apps that tie into Alexa and Echo and Google is significantly less than that number.  This contest should help change that a bit.

Google Photos has been getting a lot of attention in the past week.  The photo app was reported at Google I/O last week to have 500 million monthly users, had a new archive feature added, and a new photo book service where you can order a hardcover book of photos from your library.  All of this makes sense when you consider the update to the listing for the app in the Play Store.  Photos now has been downloaded 1 billion times for Android.

The update to the listing comes nearly two years to the day from when Google Photos was originally announced.  My fellow Google Top Contributor in Google Photos, Paolo Amoroso, reminded me this morning that the launch date of Photos was May 28, 2015.

Good news this morning for Canadian readers.  The Huawei P10 and P10 Plus are coming June 6th to various carriers in the country.  Both the P10 and the P10 Plus were announced back in February at MWC and both have been well received.  Reviews of the phones have been overall positive and Huawei has sold millions of units internationally.  To this point, neither phone has been in the North American market but it has been widely expected that Canada would see the phones first.  The US will likely see them too, just under a different name.  That’s not confirmed however.

For those who have not had a chance, you can read my review of the P10 to get my thoughts.  Personally, I’m a big fan of this phone and it is one of the fastest phones I’ve ever reviewed.

The P10 will be coming to Bell, Fido, Rogers and Videotron while the larger P10 Plus will be exclusive to Rogers for the initial release.