Category: Google

Last month during the Google event that saw the Nexus 5X and 6P announced, Google made several announcements around other services including Google Play Music.  While the big news was the upcoming family subscription service, the ability to send subscription gives was also very briefly mentioned.  That feature it appears has now gone live.

If you navigate to the Google Play Music app on your Android phone or tablet and open the hamburger menu, you will now see a “Send gift” option.  Tapping it will take you to the Google Play Music website where you can then place your gift subscription order.

Google Play Music – Free (in-app purchases) – Download Now

It looks like big changes are coming to the Google Play Store if the posts from Googler Kirill Grouchnikov are any indication.  Posts of a highly animated, Material design friendly and cleaner looking Google Play Store were posted on Mr. Grouchnikov’s Google+ account today as part of a sign off he made regarding the store and his departure to another team within Google.  In fact in his post, he makes it quite clear that the changes to the Google Play Store have been a team effort and what is coming up is very much in that same vein.

Google has dropped an update to the Google Keyboard app in the Google Play Store that should be a welcome update for users of Gesture Typing in the app.  The update brings significantly improved word accuracy & completion for those who use Gesture Type (swiping your finger across the keyboard to spell words instead of typing them) as well as those who do traditional typing on the keyboard.  The update is version – wait for it – 4.1.23043.2297020 for those keeping score at home and like to play Google Version Bingo.  The update hit the Play Store yesterday and if you are using Google Keyboard or have it installed on your Android phone or tablet, you should see the OTA update over the course of the next couple of days.

Google Keyboard for Android – Free – Download Now

Google has released an updated version of the Google Chrome browser for Android, bringing a host of updates, fixes and a few new features.  The build is version 46.0.2490.76 for those keeping score at home and it should be hitting the Google Play Store and your device in the next few days.  While the bulk of this update is fixes and other improvements, there is an improved image loading by allowing Chrome to negotiate with the web server to provide the best image over HTTP based on the bandwidth available and the device type.  Sounds geeky right?  It is and it is certainly something that developers would have to include on their sites but the key is that Google is positioning Chrome to be able to handle this without any user intervention once it is enabled.

Google Chrome for Android – Free – Download Now

While we often think of the Chromecast as a media and streaming tool, it actually has a lot of versatility when it comes to your computing needs. The most common use of course is to show a presentation from Slides via a Chromecast on your Android phone or tablet. However you can easily show the content of your Chrome browser or your Chromebook to a Chromecast device with one simple extension in Chrome.

In this How To I’ll show you what you need to get all of this setup which is pretty simple. Once you have it setup you can easily show your Chromebook’s browser or desktop and if you are on a PC, you can show a tab in your Chrome browser.

Google Hangouts has been updated today in the Google Play Store and it should be hitting your devices soon.  The new 5.0.104885319 version for those keeping score at home brings mostly bug fixes to the texting-meets-chatting app from Google.  You aren’t going to find a lot of changes in this build from a feature perspective but if you are a user of the Google Hangouts widget on your home screen…. well, it just got a little sad for you.

Google Hangouts for Android – Free – Download Now