Author: Clinton

The Weather Channel app for Android has received another major makeover in the latest update, bringing a clean and more material design look to the popular weather app.  The updated version is build 6.0.0 for those keeping score at home and it has rolled out to the Google Play Store.  In the new user experience, information is far easier to get to as it is now a simple swipe up and down in the app to get information about current conditions, what you can expect for the day and forecasts.  Radar images have seemingly improved dramatically as well in this update as they are far less jittery than in previous builds.  If there is a weather advisory in your area and you have signed up with the service, the Weather Channel app can send you a notification and it will be highlighted in the app itself when you first open it.  Tap that banner and you can get more information about that weather event.

Weather Channel – Free – Download Now

Google continues to push the Google Play Newsstand app as your single source for news and information about topics you care about as well as a magazine reader.  The latest update add something simple but important for those who start their day with this app:  Local weather.  Now when you open up the app, at the top in the Headlines section you will see the local temperature as well as the forecast high and low for the day.  You will also see an icon next to the temperature to indicate if it is sunny, raining, snowing and other weather conditions.

The updated version of the app is in the Google Play Store now and it is version 3.4.6 for those keeping score at home and if you already have the app installed on your phone or tablet, you should see the OTA update shortly.

In addition to the weather information, Google has also improved the article layouts in the app to improve loading speeds and performance.

Google Play Newsstand – Free – Download Now

Google has rolled out another update to the Chromecast app for Android phones and tablets that brings a new Offers page off the menu.  The updated version is 1.13.13 for those keeping score at home and has been published to the Google Play Store.  That means that if you have the app already installed on one of your Android devices, you should see the OTA update at any point now.

Functionally you are not going to see much difference between this update and the previous version except this new Offers page.  As you may know, when you buy a Chromecast (and they are on sale – 2 for $55 & $20 in Google Play Store credits) you will receive various offers from Google and other companies that you can use with it.  These offers vary from time to time (generally every quarter they change a little bit) and range from free movies to trials of services (like Google Play Music).  Previously finding these offers was tricky and the fastest way I found was by going to the Offers website – not exactly handy while you are on-the-go.  Now all you do is tap the menu button in the upper left corner and tap on Offers.  There you will see all of the current offers available and you can tap on any one of them to get the details or to sign up.

If you are considering getting a Chromecast, take a look at my review.

There are times when you write something for your site and 2 hours later another new thing for that subject comes out in the news.  BUT it is good news and fits in line with the whole point of my Google Plus is not dying post earlier.  Google’s Luke Wroblewski has posted on his Google+ that there are several key updates being rolled out to the Google Plus web version over the course of the next few days.  Some of these changes were minor but others are kind of a big deal.

Here is the list of changes that Luke outlined in his post:

• Visible links to categories on Community pages
• Auto-play of animated GIFs (with a setting to turn on/off)
• Ability to pin posts within Collections
• Clearer indication of notifications on the home stream
• Warning to ensure you don’t lose new posts when changing pages

If you don’t see these in your Google Plus on the web, don’t panic.  It may take a day or two to show up.

One of the big additions to the Google Now launcher and Android Marshmallow has been Now on Tap.  With this new feature, you can tap and hold the home button on your Android phone or tablet and get contextual information about what it is you are reviewing on your device.  The idea and first implementation was around Google Chrome so if you were viewing a website, you could get more granular information about that site.

The good news is that Google is expanding Now on Tap and it works in the Google Play Store app on your phone or tablet. If you are in the Play Store app and looking at an app, tap and hold your home button to pull up the Now on Tap information.  The context you get will vary from app-to-app.  For games I generally found that you would get links to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.  On some developers I also got a link to the developer’s site to check out the app or others they may offer.

Harry Potter fans, rejoice.  For the first time and some would say a bit too long, the entire book series and movies from the popular series are now available from Google.  You can pick up any of the 7 books for $8.99 each while the 8 movies for as low as $9.99.  All of the motion picture sound tracks are available too so you can complete that collection too.

There have been a few books, movies and shows missing from Google and certainly the J.K. Rowling wizard adventure series has been one of them.  With the books at a reasonable price of $9, you won’t break the bank (nor will your kids) getting all of them and with all of them available before the holidays, they make a great gift too.

Harry Potter in the Google Play Store