Author: Clinton

Over the course of the past month I have been in the process of trying and slowly migrating to the Google suite of Office apps:  Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides.  It started as an experiment to see if it would hold up to the compared to Office 2013, up until now, my main Office suite.  I have to say, for my work and what I need out of these applications, they work amazingly well and the transition has not been nearly as painful as I expected it would when I started this little science fair project.  In fact, it’s to the point now that I probably won’t go back for 99% of what I need to do.  Indeed this weekend I plan on uninstalling Office 2013 from my laptop because for that 1% of the time where I need something extraordinary, I can simply use Office online.

Is it the right thing to do for you?  That’s a personal decision but here is how the migration has gone for me.

This will be the first of a multi-part series I’m writing on migrating to the Google suite of Office apps.  This first part is going to cover the setup and foundation of getting your files migrated to Google Drive, setting up for offline work and using Chrome extensions.  Part 2 is going to cover Google Docs on a desktop PC, a Chromebook and the mobile apps.  Part 3 will do the same for Google Sheets while the final part will cover Google Slides.

The personal finance, Mint for Android, has received another minor update that brings with it a new Weekly Summary Page.  If you aren’t familiar with Mint for Android, it is designed by Intuit, the same folks behind Quicken and Quickbooks.  Mint is for personal finance, allowing you to quickly add your banking, credit card, loans and investment accounts to the service which allows you to quickly and easily track them as well as your budget and spending.  This latest update, build 4.3.4 for those keeping score at home, is available now in the Google Play Store.  To use the app and service, you will need a Mint account which is free & you can sign up for it within the app itself or on the Mint website.

Mint for Android – Free – Download Now

Google has released an update to the Google Play Newsstand app that brings a new and asked for feature to the news & magazine app:  Automatic magazine subscription downloads.  As one who uses this app having migrated from the Amazon Kindle app for my magazines, it is a very welcome feature which I frankly missed after moving over.  The update is version 3.4.3 for those keeping score at home and it is available now in the Google Play Store and pretty much completes it as a news & magazine app in my opinion.  I moved to it about two months ago full time and I’ve not looked back.  I find the performance of the app to be outstanding.

Google Play Newsstand – Free – Download Now

Along with the Galaxy Note 5 launch today, Samsung also added to their edge lineup of devices.  The new Galaxy S6 edge+ is a larger, 5.7″ HD display version of the S6 edge.  Internally it is identical to the Note 5 which makes sense both from a production perspective (same components on two devices equals lower production costs) and for consumers (want a stylus or the edge component?).  Like the Note 5, The Galaxy S6 edge+ is available for preorder now and will start shipping on August 21st.  It will come with 32GB of storage for $814.99 while the 64GB will cost an eye watering $914.99.  They can be preordered from AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and retailer Best Buy.

All joking aside, the updates to the Transit App for Android are great.  The latest build, version 3.7.3 for those keeping score at home, has a lot of bug fixes for some annoying things that were in the app.  For those who aren’t familiar with it, Transit App gives you public transportation, Car2Go information and other transportation information for you where you are and how to get where you are going.  It services a long list of cities around the world and it is my go-to app when it comes to figuring out when my next bus or train is leaving for a destination (I’m one of the maybe 3 Americans who doesn’t actually own a car by choice).

Besides all the bug fixes in the release, and there are plenty, I have to give the Montreal based company a lot of credit.  They can certainly poke fun at themselves.  The release notes along are worth the update just so you can read them.  Again and again.

Transit App for Android – Free – Download Now

Google’s push to make their apps a robust communication and productivity solution is continuing.  We saw the big announcement on Monday about Google Hangouts being updated and now Google Slides has been update too.  Why is that a big deal?  This update to Google Slides brings the ability for you to present your slides to a Hangouts video call audience that you have in your calendar.  Simple and seamless presenting without having to go through the pain of a separate app or service.  This update to Google Slides is version 1.2.312.15.35 for those keeping score at home.

Google Slides – Free – Download Now