Author: Clinton

At the Google event last month we heard the announcement that Spotify would be updating their app and supporting Chromecast casting.  That update has happened and it is now available in the Google Play Store.  The update is version 3.8.0.800 for those keeping score at home and not only includes support for Chromecast but also supports the music streaming service built into 2016 BMW 7 Series cars.

Spotify for Android – Free (In-App Purchases) – Download Now

Google Hangouts has been updated today in the Google Play Store and it should be hitting your devices soon.  The new 5.0.104885319 version for those keeping score at home brings mostly bug fixes to the texting-meets-chatting app from Google.  You aren’t going to find a lot of changes in this build from a feature perspective but if you are a user of the Google Hangouts widget on your home screen…. well, it just got a little sad for you.

Google Hangouts for Android – Free – Download Now

We are currently in the Great Google Disruption of 2015.  Well, okay, that’s a bit of drama but there are several service from the company that are degraded.  The most notable is Google Drive where people are able to log in but they don’t see any files or folders.  Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides are also impacted by the outage which started at 10:55 AM Pacific.  There is no word on what the issue is or when it will be resolved.

For those who want to keep up with such outages or other service impacting things from Google, there is a single site that is the place to go for information:  The App Status Dashboard.

For those of you who are waiting for your invite to come up to order a OnePlus 2, there is good news coming on Monday, October 12th.  For one hour on Monday, OnePlus will have an open sale on the OnePlus 2, the latest offering from the company.  Orders are limited to 2 devices in that hour long sale (although there is no mention of limits to orders you can place) and the sale does not require you have an invitation.  In fact, be clear on this folks:  The price won’t be discounted.  You are just getting the opportunity to buy the OnePlus 2 instead of waiting in the invite queue.

The Google Play Store has just launched a .10 Cent sale on a dozen games for Android phones and tablets.  The games feature multiple titles for Chillingo but also have a few from Electronic Arts.  If you have wanted to pick up a few games to try out, now is a good time for sure.  There is no word on how long the sale will be lasting so if you want pick up any of the games listed after the break, better jump on it now.

Google Play Store .10 Cent Game Sale

Google is rolling out a new update to the Google Drive for Android app that will add the ability for users to request permission to access a file or folder on your Drive account.  Today you can easily share content on your Drive by sending a link to someone via email, Hangouts, etc.  As Google puts it, “This release adds the ability for people using the Drive Android app to request access to Drive content links―received via email, Hangouts, etc―to which they don’t already have access.”

Google Drive for Android – Free – Download Now