Author: Clinton

A small but potentially life saving update has been made to Google Search around earthquakes.  Now you can type in “earthquake” or “earthquake near me” in Search and get instant information about the magnitude of the temblor, its epicenter and survival information all at the top of the search page.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that approximately 500,000 earthquakes occur around the globe each year, 100,000 of which can be felt. Now people who feel the effects of an earthquake can ask Google directly about the disaster and get timely information to help them stay safe.

In the event of an earthquake, searches for “earthquake,” “earthquakes near me” or similar queries will give you an at-a-glance summary about the quake, right at the top of the search page.

With many of us living in earthquake active areas, this type of information can be not just handy but potentially life saving.

The latest update to Google Inbox is currently rolling out in the Google Play Store and with it comes Direct Share support.  For those who aren’t familiar with it, Direct Share is a feature in Marshmallow that allows your most frequently used contacts to show up in the Share pane of an app.  This is something that several apps have been rolling our recently including Google+, Whatsapp and Hangouts.  Now if you have Inbox installed and you want to share something (say a website), you can use the share function in your browser and share it directly to a contact using Inbox.

Microsoft has rolled out a sizable update to their launcher app, Arrow Launcher, that brings some much needed support and improvements.  The update, version 2.0 for those keeping score at home, brings native Office 365 support.  This means that users of the launcher will be able to view files from their Office 365 account without actually having to launch the Office app on their phone. Further, for documents on your phone, you can upload them from the phone to your Office 365 account (OneDrive).  It is a really nice update and while the lack of Outlook support for the calendar in Arrow remains an issue, this is a huge step towards fully “Microsofting” your Android phone.

Signal Spy, the great helper app for Project Fi users, has been updated and now also supports U.S. Cellular.  As readers will know, Project Fi has started rolling out support for U.S. Cellular as part of the MVNO (joining T-Mobile and Sprint) so it can seamlessly move you from any of the three carriers to another for better data and call quality.  Signal Spy, which allows you to monitor your connections and manually force them to change, now supports U.S. Cellular too.

Today over at Amazon, there is a great deal on the RavPower 20100mAh power pack.  This external battery for your devices comes with two USB Type-A ports, one of which supports Quick Charge 2.0 technology, and one USB Type-C port to cover all of your charging needs for your devices.  The pack normally is $79.99 but today it is just $41.99, a savings of 48%.  The great thing about this pack is the fact it can be used on any of your Type-C devices including a Macbook or a Pixel C.  It isn’t just for phones or smaller tablets.

So if you are super paranoid about Google knowing everything about you, this post may not be good for your blood pressure.  If, however, you like being able to see your activity using Google products and services on any give day, the new My Activity site is for you.  And frankly, it is pretty darn cool.  For each day you can see a breakdown of the apps, services and other content that you have done on any given day.  It is literally a minute-by-minute breakdown.   You can see your search history, the website you have visited, the apps you have used, the YouTube videos you have viewed.  You get the idea:  If you give Google access to this information, it is in there in impressive detail.