Category: Google

The Google Store has really stepped up in this final week before Christmas with a great bonus for those who are looking at picking up any hardware from the Google Play Store.  Now through December 22nd, you will get free overnight shipping on any purchase made from the store.  The good thing is, it is on everything in the store.  If you are looking to pick up some USB Type-C cables, cases or a new Nexus 6P or Pixel C, the free shipping applies.  That could save you some big bucks and assure you that you get that gift for that special someone in time for the holidays.

To get the free shipping all you need to do is make a purchase.  The free shipping is automatically applied and rest assured that if you are buying a gift for someone and they want to return it, they are accepted up to January 22, 2016.

But wait, there’s more!

In the latest update to Google Wallet, you now have the ability to send money to friends and family via their email address or SMS.  The update, which is in the Google Play Store and rolling out now, adds a key functionality to the app which by-and-large was replaced by Android Pay back in September.  Wallet is now more focused on sending and receiving funds from individuals while Android Pay is focused on the retail point of purchase.

The update to Google Wallet is version 12.0 for those keeping score at home and is designed for Android phones.  Prior to this update, the person you were sending funds to had to have an email address.  You can still send funds that way if you want but if you only have someone’s mobile number, you can simply send them the funds to that number.

Google Wallet – Free – Download Now

Among Apple, Android and Samsung, the race to be the contactless payment platform continues to heat up and the latest update involving Android Pay will just heat things up further.  The Android team announced yesterday that you are now able to use Android Pay for purchases within apps such as Lyft, Instacart, OpenTable and more.  Now you can configure these apps to accept your payment without having to enter in credit card numbers or hand your card over to someone.

No more pulling out your credit card while on-the-go. No more errors thanks to clumsy thumbs. Just tap the Android Pay button in the app, confirm your information, and you’re done! And just like your purchases in stores, Android Pay never shares your card details with merchants.

The ability to pay for products and services within other apps is something that Apple Pay has been able to do for some time so this update to Android Pay certainly brings it on par with iOS. Also keep in mind that this new in-app purchasing only works in the US right now.

To use this feature, you must have Android Pay configured on your Android device prior to trying to use it with another Pay enabled app.  Android Pay is a free app but it does require that your phone have NFC capability so you can make contactless payments in retailers.

For the third time in three weeks, the Chrome team at Google have released an update to the browser for Windows, Mac and Linux as well as Chrome OS.  The updated build across these platforms is 47.0.2526.106 for those keeping score at home and is available know across these platforms.  While there is one identified bug posted in the release notes, Google has once again opted to keep the details of the issues resolved restricted until the updates have propagated to a majority of devices.

Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix. We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven’t yet fixed.

That message has been a recurring theme with these past few updates to both the browser and Chrome OS.  The positive of course is that Google is being diligent about keeping them secure but it does keep us end users busy updating things.

Update: I have received confirmation that your data between your cellular/data SIM and your data SIM are pooled.  So if you have 5GB of data, that is your plan for both devices.

Update 2:  It looks like the vast majority of Fi users can now order the Data SIM.  Just go to Accounts>Your Plan and you can add it to your plan.

The Project Fi team has announced that existing customers will be able to start ordering data only SIMs for a select range of devices as soon as today.  It is something many have been waiting for from the service and once your SIM is ordered through your account, you will be able to use Fi at the same rate you do on the cellular/data plan:  $10 per month per gigabyte used.  Google has published a coverage map which is available at this link so you can check the data coverage area in your area.  This coverage map is good for both cellular/data Fi users as well as data only users.

Existing Project Fi subscribers can order their free data-only SIMs from the “Account” page on the Project Fi website. This change is rolling out gradually, you should see the option to order data-only SIMs sometime in the next couple of days.

I have reviewed my account page on Project Fi and I’m not seeing the ability to order the SIM just yet but I will update this post once I see it has rolled out as you too can keep an eye out for it.

If you are curious about Project Fi, you can read about my experience with the service including my travels here in the US.

While the vast majority of the world is still waiting for Android Marshmallow to hit their devices for the first time, that doesn’t mean that Google themselves have stopped pushing the mobile platform forward.  This week the company released the 6.0.1 update and many Nexus 5, 5X, 6, 6P, 7 and 9 owners are already seeing the update hit their devices.  The numbering convention somewhat gives it away that this update is a minor update but it is more than then monthly security updates that Google sends out for Android.  There are several new features along with a smattering of improvements and updates to Android itself.

The first and likely most visible change to most users is the new set of unicode 8 emoji that come in Android Marshmallow 6.0.1.  This brings Android on par with iOS when it comes to emoji, something that generally Google has lagged on in the past.  The new emoji include updates to virtually all of the ones in Android as well as brings a pile of new ones including country flags (to be fair, they were there before but you couldn’t access them) You can get the complete list of all emoji on all platforms over at the unicode.org site although the team over at Ars Technica have put together a specific list for Android that is pretty handy.