Category: Google

The Chrome team at Google has released an update to Chrome OS, the platform for Chromebooks.  The latest update, build 45.0.2454.85 for those keeping score at home, contains a long list of fixes and improvements including 29 different security fixes.  While a full blog post by the Chromium team is expected later today, the initial post on the Chrome OS Release blog has the highlights.

If you have a Chromebook, you should receive the update to build 45 of Chrome OS automatically.  You can of course manually check by going to Settings>About Chrome OS and tap the Check for Updates button.

In addition to the six new smartphones that Acer announced today at IFA 2015 in Berlin, the company also announced a brand new 11″ Chromebook, the R11.  The Chromebook R11 is the first fully convertible Chromebook from Acer and sports an 11″ 1366 x 768 LCD display and is powered by an Intel Celeron processor.  The R11 will be able to have up to 4GB of RAM and 32GB of on-board storage depending on the configuration you purchase.  As for price, the Chromebook R11 will start at $299.

Google has released an update to the Google Play Music app for Android that brings several fixes to the streaming music app as well as support for Android Wear.  The update is build 6.0.1984S.2219729 for those keeping score at home and like playing Google Version Bingo and it is rolling out to the Google Play Store now.  The update will benefit everyone, especially if you like to stream radio from the app so it is worth taking the time to pick up the update.

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

As everyone has seen by now, Google announced today a new logo and “G” icon for their branding as part of their effort to reflect the different ways the Google services are used.  One key question around the announcement was when we would start seeing that new look on Google Apps for Android.  Apparently, in a matter of hours.

Google Maps is the first Google app for Android that has received the new look and it is part of the new 9.14 build that I wrote about earlier.

Over the course of the past few weeks it seems every team within Google has been pushing out updates to their respective apps. Google Maps is no exception. Last week we saw a minor update roll out, version 9.13 for those keeping score at home, and it looks like version 9.14 is just around the digital corner.

The updates to Google Maps 9.14 really focus on the navigation user experience when you first look for a location and the inclusion of Popular Times. Popular times provides you a chart of when a business tends to be the most busy. It is something Google has been working on for a while now and it is slowly rolling out across their services.

Google Maps for Android – Free – Download Now

The new Navigation UI is certainly something you will notice and I think likely will appreciate.

Google has officially launched Android Wear for iOS, bringing the option of Android based smartwatches to iPhone users.  The release was announced on the official Google Blog and for those who have an iPhone running iOS 8.2 or higher, you now can sync your LG Watch Urbane with your iPhone and get all the features and functionality that you can on an Android phone.  It’s a big move for Google and it gives iOS users an alternative to the AppleWatch.

Interestingly, the integration of Android Wear and iOS is currently only available on the LG Watch Urbane which means that users of other devices won’t be able to sync up with an iPhone.  Google states in the post that further watches will support iOS.