Category: Google

Earlier today I wrote that Android Pay has been released by Google and is starting to roll out into the Google Play Store.  I’ve downloaded the app and wanted to give you a first look at it.  For those of you who have used Google Wallet in the past, you will find a lot of similarities.  The new Android Pay app allows you to make purchases at retailers using your NFC enabled Android phone or tablet.  If you are not seeing Android Pay in the Play Store yet, give it time.  It will be there and when it is, you will also have to update Google Play Services on your device for it to work.

After months of waiting and a few days of activity around the Google Wallet app, Google has formally launched Android Pay.  The new service, which was announced this summer at Google I/O, brings terminal payment, credit card management and gift card management to Android phones and tablets with NFC capabilities to dozens of retailers in the United States.

Today, we’re beginning to roll out Android Pay — the simple and secure way to pay with your Android phone at over one million locations across the US. Android Pay also stores your gift cards, loyalty cards and special offers right on your phone.

Android Pay is aimed directly at Apple’s Apple Pay solution and allows users to safely and securely pay for purchases from their phones without ever having to pull out a credit or debit card from their wallet.

If the title of this post wasn’t clear, let me solidify it for you.  I love Google+.  I appreciate that it is a somewhat dying (at least in the eyes of Google), stepchildish social network that is the butt of many jokes (“the only people who use Google+ are people who work for Google”) but it continues to be a key part of my day.  There are a lot of reasons why, which I will share, none of which may be applicable to you.  I’m not here to try to convince you to use the service.  I look at all of the technology and services we use and I say the same thing to anyone who asks the question of which is better:  You have to find the one that works for you.  It could be an iPhone or a Nexus 6.  It could be Facebook versus Instagram.  It could be Google+ versus Facebook.  There is no right answer here and I’m not going to try to tell you otherwise.

What I am going to do is tell you why Google+ continues to grow as a part of my everyday life.  It comes down to content and community.

It is pretty much a given that Android Pay is just days away and Google continues to prepare apps and devices for that eventuality.  The latest is a completely new Google Wallet app for Android phones and tablets.  Now to be clear, this is a completely new and separate build of Google Wallet that is available today – and is still available.  That’s right, if you use the link below to download Google Wallet you will have this new build and the old Google Wallet app.  Why would Google do this?  Think Android Pay.

Confused?  Don’t be.  Let me explain.

Google Wallet (NEW) for Android – Free – Download Now

A day after T-Mobile announced they were releasing security updates for the Nexus devices on their network, Google has now published the Factory Images for the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 7 (2013) Wi-Fi and Nexus 9 on the Android developer site.  The images are available for anyone to download and install assuming they have root access to their device and are familiar with the procedure.  Those who had rather not go through the process can simply wait and the update will be coming to the devices in the coming days via OTA.   The build number, for those keeping score at home, is LMY48M and is an update to Android Lollipop as you would expect.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about Google moving the Google Hangouts traffic to a new domain, as part of an effort to increase security and performance.  Now the company has indicated that Google Calendar traffic will be doing the same.  Over the course of the next few weeks, Google Calendar traffic will start traversing calendar.google.com in what the company indicates is primarily a security improvement.  Today when you want to see your calendar online you go to http://www.google.com/calendar.  When this rollout happens, you can still go there but will be redirected to http://calendar.google.com.