Tag: App Update

After spending the past couple of weeks in beta, the rebranded Microsoft Launcher is now available for download in the Play Store.  This is what was formerly known as Arrow Launcher and this update, version 4.1 for those keeping score at home, brings a lot of polish to the already impressive launcher.

From a features perspective, you aren’t going to find a lot of new things in this update.  Outside of the new “Continue on PC” feature, which requires the upcoming Fall Creators Update on Windows 10, you won’t find a lot of new stuff.  Instead, there are a lot of refinements to the launcher.  For example, the Utility page now has a top banner with a greeting, the weather and the number of events you have on your calendar for the day.  Also, the Utility page has more clearly defined cards and they can now be themed both in colors as well as if you want the cards Light, Dark or Transparent.

When the Google Pixel 2 lineup was released a couple of weeks ago, the new phones, like the first generation, were announced to have free uploading of original quality photos to Google Photos.  For those not familiar with Google Photos, original quality photos normally count against your Google Drive quota (which is leveraged by Photos) but compressed, high quality photos, don’t count against it.  Normally for photos under 16MP high quality is a great option because it is pretty lossless.

After the release of the Pixel 2 phones, it was noticed that the original quality uploading for free ended in 2020.  It cause a lot of confusion:  What happens to my photos I’ve uploaded already?  Do they get deleted?  Do they get compressed?  Thanks to an APK tear down by the Android Police team, we have a clearer answer.

The Google Play Movies & TV app has a minor update rolling out to the Play Store that is bringing a few user experience changes.  The update, version 3.28 for those keeping score at home, has several cosmetic adjustments but nothing that is overly obvious at first glance.  But there are some detail changes that are important.

First, movie trailers can now be access by the cover art for that movie.  It use to be that there was a dedicated section within the movie’s page for trailers.  Now you will see a small banner in the cover art, “Trailer” that will allow you to watch it.  This is a bit more intuitive instead of having to scroll down to find the trailer.

Screener, the app that allows you to pop your screenshots into a device frame, has already been updated with frames for the new Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.  The update came almost immediately after Google’s big event yesterday and was a server-side push to the app so no new download or OTA update is required.

If you aren’t familiar with Screener, you’ve seen it in action on virtually every screenshot provided in posts here on the site.  It allows you to take a screenshot as you normally do (Power+Volume Down) and then put it in a frame of a particular device.  It gives your screenshots a much more professional look than just the screen itself.

gPlayer Pro, the Google Play Music app for Windows 10, has a significant update rolling out this morning to users.  The update is build 1.0.9.0 for those keeping score at home and with it comes a lot of improvements around playlists.

Playlists and Radio playlists are now like the web version of Google Play Music in gPlayer Pro and you have access to the recent and your own playlists in the app.  Access to publicly created playlists is now also supported in this version as is the ability to subscribe/unsubscribe from public playlists.

The Microsoft Band app, the Android app which supports the company’s now defunct fitness tracker, has received a surprise update today that owners of the Band 2 will certainly appreciate.

Sync problems have plagued the Band 2 for a couple of months now and while Microsoft did say they found the source of the issue early on, it has taken them a long time to address it both in the Android app and in their Windows 10 app.  The new update for Android is build 2.3.31002.0 for those keeping score at home and it is rolling out to the Play Store now.