Category: Google

Yesterday I posted about a security fix that was released for the Chrome browser for Windows, Mac and Linux.  As I suggested in that post, an update to Chrome OS shouldn’t be far behind it and this morning, it is now out.  The update is build 48.0.2564.116 (Platform version: 7647.84.0) and it is available for all devices that run the platform.  As was the case yesterday on the browser, the Chromium team is not releasing full details of everything that was addressed in the update until a majority of devices have the update installed.  Once that happens, usually in a week or two, you can go to the Chromium blog to get the gory details on what was fixed.

Google has made a change to the Google Contributor program that will benefit those who use the service.  If you aren’t familiar with it, Contributor allows you to enjoy a more ad-free web by contributing an amount each month to site you enjoy visiting.  ClintonFitch.com participates in Google Contributor and for those in the program, about 95% of the ads on the site are hidden when you visit.  You can get more information about joining by clicking the banner at the top of any page on the site or this link – and thank you!

Yesterday there was a lot of news floating around Gmail and the new Gmailify feature.  First things first, what is Gmailify?  This is a feature that allows you to take your non-Gmail accounts like Hotmail and Yahoo and give them Gmail-like features such as spam filtering, Google Now cards and other features that up to this point have been Google only.  It is a pretty slick feature, especially if you have an email account other than Gmail.

With this update comes a new Android version of the app which will allow you to fully enable this feature.

In a post made this morning on the Google Translate Blog, the service announced that 13 new languages have been added to the service.  That brings the total number of languages to 103 and makes the app and service the closest thing to a Star Trek-esque Universal Translator out there today.

In 2006, we started with machine learning-based translations between English and Arabic, Chinese and Russian. Almost 10 years later, with today’s update, we now offer 103 languages that cover 99% of the online population.

It is exciting to see the growth of this service that allows people across borders and language barriers to easily and quickly communicate.

Google has released an update to their utility app Google Clock.  As the name suggest, it allows you to have a clock and date on any of your home screens on your Android phone or tablet via a Widget.  These very widgets are the main focus of this update to the app which is now up to version 4.3 for those keeping score at home.  In previous builds, the Widgets for the app were pretty rigid.  You couldn’t really resize them well, especially if you wanted a small clock.  That’s changed with this update as now the Widget is very flexible on sizing and layout.  You have two Widgets as you did previously:  One for an analog clock and one for a digital clock.

The social and community site Google+ continues its resurgence and today another update to the Android app for the site has been released.  Like many of the releases for the app over these past few months, this one is chock full of changes which most users will appreciate almost immediately.  The news originally came from Google’s Luke Wroblewski on his Google+ page where he outlined the changes in the release which has rolled out to the Google Play Store already.  You will be looking for version 7.2.0 for those keeping score at home and if you already have the app installed, an OTA update should be coming your way very soon.