Category: Google

If there is one thing that I genuinely miss about the iOS ecosystem it is family sharing.  Back in the day when I was running around with an iPhone and iPad, the ability to share apps and music purchases with my family and regulate what apps my kids were buying was a huge help.  It is one of the things I wish Google had with the Google Play Store and indications are my wish is about to get answered.

Several sites have done a tear down of the latest APK for Google Play Store for Android and indications are that Family Sharing is coming to Android.

While much of the tap-and-pay focus in Android has been on Android Pay, that doesn’t mean that Google has given up on Google Wallet.  While the latter app has morphed into more of a send a payment to a friend app, Google continues to work on it and add new features.  The latest update that was released yesterday, version 11.0-R234-v13 for those keeping score at home, gives you the ability to add multiple bank accounts to the app.  It is a nice addition that comes with other improvements to the app.

Google Wallet for Android – Free – Download Now

While much digital ink has been spilled this week on the changes coming to Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service, there is one element of this announcement that I haven’t seen much discussion on in the course of these writings.  That’s not to say it isn’t out there, just not much of it.  That element is the view that the announcement was nothing short of a victory of Google and the Google Drive service.  It is a victory without them having to “dive to the bottom” on pricing to win.  They simply stayed the course and let Microsoft figure out that giving away unlimited storage is unsustainable.

For those who somehow missed what I’m talking about, earlier this week Microsoft announced big changes coming to OneDrive:

• The Free account goes down from 15GB of storage to 5GB and the 15GB “Camera Roll” bonus (you got it when you sync’d your photos with OneDrive) is eliminated
• Office 365 subscribers now get 1TB of storage, not unlimited
• the 100GB and 200GB storage accounts are going away to for new subscribers (if you have one of these you can keep it) and is replaced with a $1.99/month 50GB account.

These changes fly in the face of the much hyped “unlimited” storage offer that Microsoft made just last year and has angered plenty of people because, until this change, OneDrive was really the best value out there when it came to cloud storage.

That has now changed and Google Drive is certainly looking to be one of the more attractive mainstream cloud storage offers out in the market.

Google continues to improve the Google Drive mobile experience with their latest update bringing mobile notifications to file shares and the ability to share files with those who don’t have a Google account.  The updated version is currently rolling out to the Google Play Store so you may not see the update on your device for a day or two.  Once you do however, many of the share notifications that you could only get via email are not on your Android devices themselves.  It is just the latest in a long series of updates where Google continues to improve their apps on Android and slowly eliminating the need to go to various website to be productive.

Google Drive for Android – Free – Download Now

If you are using a 1st generation Chromecast and are a Spotify customer, good news is coming your way today.  The latest firmware update to the 1st Gen Chromecast brings support for the music streaming service casting, something that the 2015 Chromecast users have enjoyed for a couple of weeks now.  Google made it clear that the update would be coming and it appears that it is finally here.  The update is rolling out to now so you can check your Chromecast app and see if it is available to you.  If so, reboot your Chromecast and the new firmware will be applied.

You install a new app on your Android phone and suddenly, stability is out the window.  While it doesn’t happen often, there are times when you have a misbehaving app that is just creating havoc on your ability to use your phone.  Sometimes it is to the point where you can’t even get your phone to a point where you can deal with the misbehaving app.  For such circumstances Google has built in a Safe Mode into Android that allows you to boot your phone into a mode where all 3rd party apps are disabled, giving you the opportunity to deal with it in a stable environment.  Getting into Safe Mode is pretty easy and you should only use it in a situation like I’ve described above.  In this How To I’ll show you how to get into Safe Mode on your Android devices.