Category: Android

The Google Play Movies & TV app has a minor update rolling out to the Play Store that is bringing a few user experience changes.  The update, version 3.28 for those keeping score at home, has several cosmetic adjustments but nothing that is overly obvious at first glance.  But there are some detail changes that are important.

First, movie trailers can now be access by the cover art for that movie.  It use to be that there was a dedicated section within the movie’s page for trailers.  Now you will see a small banner in the cover art, “Trailer” that will allow you to watch it.  This is a bit more intuitive instead of having to scroll down to find the trailer.

Yesterday during the Google product event, a new Find My Phone through Google Assistant was demonstrated.  Using Assistant on your Google Home, it can locate your phone by ringing it, even if it is in Do Not Disturb, so you can find it somewhere in your house.  The question during the demo was when the feature would roll out to everyone?

The answer is right now.

The Find My Phone feature has gone live and now you can simply go to your Google Home and say, “OK Google, find my phone”.  It will then identify the phone you are wanting to find (if you have multiple phones) and will then ask you if you want it to ring your phone at full volume.  So long as you have Find My Phone enabled on your account and Android phone, the feature works – and well.

Screener, the app that allows you to pop your screenshots into a device frame, has already been updated with frames for the new Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.  The update came almost immediately after Google’s big event yesterday and was a server-side push to the app so no new download or OTA update is required.

If you aren’t familiar with Screener, you’ve seen it in action on virtually every screenshot provided in posts here on the site.  It allows you to take a screenshot as you normally do (Power+Volume Down) and then put it in a frame of a particular device.  It gives your screenshots a much more professional look than just the screen itself.

With all of the announcements around Google Home and Google Assistant yesterday at Google’s big product event, it is not surprising that we are starting to see new functionality come into the products.  One of the new functions that you can do with Assistant is send information that you have searched for to your phone so you can get to it while on the go.  It saves you from having to do the search again from your phone.

How it works is pretty straight forward.  On your Google Home, ask Assistant about something and then follow it up with “OK Google, send this to my phone”.  For example, “OK Google, what was the score of the Rockies game?”  Google will give you the sad loss of the Rockies to the Diamondbacks last night.  As soon as Assistant finishes, say “OK Google, send this to my phone” and the results are sent to you phone via a notification.  Tap that notification and you can get that information.

For you Amazon shoppers who are looking to get your hands on the new Google Pixelbook, you can now pre-order it on the site.  During the presentation on the new Chromebook, Google mentioned that it would be available at retailers like Amazon and Best Buy so it isn’t surprising.  In fact, the listing for the Pixelbook clearly states it is being sold by Google through their Amazon storefront.

Don’t look for any special pricing either.  The i5 equipped Google Pixelbook with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage is $999, the same price as it is directly from Google.  And while pre-orders are now available, shipping won’t happen until October 31st, just like the Google Store.

After digging into the specifications of the Google Pixel 2 phones, it was discovered that both devices support eSIM technology.  But Google was quick to point out that the new electronic SIM will only be activated and used for Project Fi customers for now.

eSIM, as the name suggests, is an electronic SIM card.  It replaces the physical plastic card that you get from your carrier, including Project Fi.  It is a reasonably new standard and the first consumer device to leverage it was the Apple Watch series 3.  That hasn’t gone as smoothly as Apple has wanted which is likely one of the reasons that Google is limiting it to just their own service for now.