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Google’s streaming television service, YouTube TV, has added 34 new markets in its latest expansion efforts.  The new markets bring the total number of markets where the service is available to 84, a substantial increase for the dozen markets that were available at launch.

For those who may not recall, YouTube TV is Google’s streaming television service that, for $35 per month, you get six accounts and access to over 40 channels.  You can access your account from any device even when you are not at home plus you have an unlimited storage cloud-based DVR to record shows to watch later.  The service is aimed at “cord cutters”.

The expansion into new markets is an indicator that Google is seeing success with the service and generally reviews have been positive.

Today over at Amazon you can pick up a great deal on the Acer Chromebook 14.  Right now this all aluminum chassis Chromebook is available with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage for $249.  That is a savings of $50 off the regular price and the price is good on the gold aluminum finish.

This Acer Chromebook 14 is powered by a Intel Celeron N3160 processor running at 1.6GHz and the display renders at 1920 x 1080 full HD.  As mentioned already, it has 4GB of RAM which is really handy on a Chromebook and has 32GB of storage for those things (like Android apps) that you need to store locally.  It also has a built-in battery that is rated to give 12 hours of life between charges.  Overall it is a great package and one of the higher rated Chromebooks out there right now despite it being nearly a year old.

The Chromebook 14 also supports Android apps now in the Stable channel so you have that benefit with this Chromebook too.

For those readers who administer a Google G Suite environment, take note of an announcement that Google made this week.  On February 28, 2018 the classic Google Calendar interop tool will be shuttered, meaning that you will need to be using the new tool which was announced back in July.

For those who aren’t familiar with this tool, it allows for the seamless coexistence of a Microsoft Exchange or Office 365 environment within a G Suite account in that same environment.  That means users can search across not only Google Calendar but Microsoft-based calendars for information, meeting times and the like.

In July, Google released a far more robust version of this interop tool, bringing several new features and overall stability to the solution.  That is the version that Google wants you using and, come February next year, you will have to use it going forward.

While it won’t fall in the “most exciting” app category, the Google Phone app is a solid performer and Google, like so many of their other apps, continues to make improvements to it.  The latest update to the dialer is rolling out in the Google Play Store now, bringing with it a few new features along with the normal smattering of bug fixes & performance updates.

The new build is version 15 for those keeping score at home.

Borrowing a feature from the Google Contacts app, this new version of the Phone app now has a contact clean up feature.  Now when you go to the Contacts tab within the app, a bottom pop-up will display to show you which contacts you have that are duplicated.  You can then choose to clean those contacts up by merging them.  The feature is not as robust as the one found in the proper Contacts app but will get the job done nevertheless.