Category: Google

Google continues to push the Google Play Newsstand app as your single source for news and information about topics you care about as well as a magazine reader.  The latest update add something simple but important for those who start their day with this app:  Local weather.  Now when you open up the app, at the top in the Headlines section you will see the local temperature as well as the forecast high and low for the day.  You will also see an icon next to the temperature to indicate if it is sunny, raining, snowing and other weather conditions.

The updated version of the app is in the Google Play Store now and it is version 3.4.6 for those keeping score at home and if you already have the app installed on your phone or tablet, you should see the OTA update shortly.

In addition to the weather information, Google has also improved the article layouts in the app to improve loading speeds and performance.

Google Play Newsstand – Free – Download Now

Last week I posted that Google Play Music would be introducing the Family plan for subscribers “soon”.  Soon appears to be today.  In the latest update to the Android phone and tablet apps, you can now sign up for the family subscription.  If you are a family with lots of music lovers, this will be a great plan at only $14.99 per month for unlimited streaming and downloading for up to 6 members of your household.  Keep in mind that a single subscription is $9.99 per month so basically for $5 you getting 5 additional accounts.  Plus, that subscription also gets each member access

Google Play Music Family Plan

to YouTube Red, the ad-free version of that service, which is valued at $9.99 per month.  It is a very competitive offering in a landscape full of streaming music services. To sign up your family members, you will need to have their email addresses that are associated with their Google accounts.  This is usually their Gmail account but it could be different.  You can designate those who have account rights as well as those who are required to get permission for making purchases.

One thing to note, if you are currently trying out Google Play Music via a trial (if you took advantage of it after buying your Chromecast for example) and subscribe to the family plan, your trial plan ends immediately.  That may not be that big of a deal for some but keep it in mind.  The trial is for individual users only.

Also, if you want to sign up for the Family plan, currently you can only do it from your Android devices.  The web-based Play Music site does not allow you to sign up.

The latest version of the app is 6.2.2221U for those keeping score at home and it is out in the Google Play Store now.  If you have the app installed on your device(s) then you should see the OTA update for it at any point over the next couple of days.  If you haven’t downloaded and tried it yet (you can try it free for 30 days) now is a good time to do so and see if it is right for your family.

Google Play Music – Free (In-App Purchases) – Download Now

There are times when you write something for your site and 2 hours later another new thing for that subject comes out in the news.  BUT it is good news and fits in line with the whole point of my Google Plus is not dying post earlier.  Google’s Luke Wroblewski has posted on his Google+ that there are several key updates being rolled out to the Google Plus web version over the course of the next few days.  Some of these changes were minor but others are kind of a big deal.

Here is the list of changes that Luke outlined in his post:

• Visible links to categories on Community pages
• Auto-play of animated GIFs (with a setting to turn on/off)
• Ability to pin posts within Collections
• Clearer indication of notifications on the home stream
• Warning to ensure you don’t lose new posts when changing pages

If you don’t see these in your Google Plus on the web, don’t panic.  It may take a day or two to show up.

If you are one of the people that look at Google Plus, seeing all the changes and left scratching your head, you are not alone.  By a long shot. The little social network that could, which was aimed squarely at meeting Facebook head-on, has seemingly been not only revived from the brink of death earlier this year but actually thriving.  And even more importantly, Google seems to be paying attention to it.

I know, I was just as shocked.

For those who don’t use Google Plus or have not looked at it in a long time, let me give you a bit of background.  While never coming out fully and saying they were killing Google Plus, the Mountain View company left plenty of hints and suggestions that their attempt at being a social network was ending.  Bits and pieces of the service like Google Photos and profile integration were moved out of the service and even some of the single sign-on features were starting to disappear.  It seemed that Google had other interests in mind and had conceded the social network space to Facebook, Instagram and others.

But then a curious thing happened just last month.  Google with a reasonable amount of fan fair announced a completely revamped Google Plus experience was coming and, in fact, users could try it immediately.  The move was to focus the service on Communities, collections of fellow users with common interests around a subject (like Formula 1 for me as an example), and would be  tweaking and improving it over time.

Now why would you spend any amount of time, resources or money on something that is supposedly dead?  What you have to keep in mind though is that Google never said they were killing plus.  It was assumed by many blogs and tech writers based on other things the said.  That is where it went off the rails.

Harry Potter fans, rejoice.  For the first time and some would say a bit too long, the entire book series and movies from the popular series are now available from Google.  You can pick up any of the 7 books for $8.99 each while the 8 movies for as low as $9.99.  All of the motion picture sound tracks are available too so you can complete that collection too.

There have been a few books, movies and shows missing from Google and certainly the J.K. Rowling wizard adventure series has been one of them.  With the books at a reasonable price of $9, you won’t break the bank (nor will your kids) getting all of them and with all of them available before the holidays, they make a great gift too.

Harry Potter in the Google Play Store

It was a long time coming but earlier this week the Google Photos team updated the app and service so you can share photo albums with others.  The idea is that if I share an album with you, you will be able to see the photos without having to be a user of the service or even an Android user.  It also gives you the ability to allow people you share with to add their photos to the album which are uploaded to your photos library.  When Google previewed this back in September, it was a feature that I personally had keen interest in seeing as I use Google Photos and Android while my wife is an iPhone user.  Now we can share albums of our events without having to do the USB stick drive swap.

To share an album in Google Photos for web, just open up the album you want to share and tap the Share icon in the upper right corner.  There you can select those you want to share it with anyone by getting a link to the album (so you could send it via email) but I can also share that album with Google+, Facebook and Twitter too.  You can also select if those you are sharing with can upload photos to the album.

Sharing on Google Photos for Android is just as easy.