Tag: App Update

The official Formula 1 app for Android has received a nice update this week ahead of the start of the 2017 championship in a few weeks time.  The update brings a significantly improved UI to the app with bottom navigation buttons and a brighter overall look to the app.  All of the content that you have had in past seasons is still there but there are a load of new notifications you can sign up for within the app, including the current pre-season testing that is going on in Barcelona.

The Formula 1 app is a subscription-based app.  For free, you get live timing at each race, post-race interviews, video highlights and standings.  The $2.99 per month subscription gets you access to all of that plus timing & scoring for all sessions (practice & qualifying), in-car audio, in-race commentary and full 3D maps that you can view the race in action.

The latest update to Microsoft Word for Android is rolling out in the Play Store, bringing support for PDF file viewing within the productivity app.  Now if you have a PDF file stored on your OneDrive or Google Drive account (or locally on your phone or tablet), you can have that file opened in Word instead of another app.  For readers who are heavily into the Microsoft app ecosystem, this will be welcome news as they won’t have to switch between different apps to view the file.

It should be noted that PDF support in Word is read only.  You cannot edit them and would need another app to do that for you.

Microsoft Cortana, the digital assistant named after the Halo character, has been updated for Android with a handy new Lock Screen feature.  The update is rolling out to users now and once it is to your phone, you can go into settings in the app to give it Lock Screen access.  Once done, you will be able to swipe to access Cortana and all of your information like weather, schedule and other information.

For those keeping score, the updated build is version 2.5.  If you haven’t installed Cortana on your phone yet, when you go through the initial setup process, you can give it access to your Lock Screen.  One thing to keep in mind that, unlike Google Assistant, you can’t speak to Cortana from the Lock Screen.

Let’s all take a moment and give Microsoft applause.  One of the most requested features from users of OneDrive has finally, finally made it into the app for Android.  You can now select multiple files with a single swipe on your phone or tablet.  The new feature is in the latest build of the app for Android, version 4.10 for those keeping score at home.  Once you have the update installed, if you are viewing your files or photos in tile view, you can use the new multiple file selection.  Just tap and hold the first file or photo you want to select. When you see the blue checkmark on that file, swipe across your phone’s screen to select multiple files.  Don’t lift your finger!  You have to tap-hold-swipe all in one motion.

Microsoft has been working hard on a lot of their Android apps lately, working to implement features that users have requested in them.  This is the latest example of it and users of OneDrive will be happy campers today.

In the latest update to the Google+ app for Android, Google has quietly removed the menu link to Google Spaces.  It could be the first indicator that the carcass of yet another social networking attempt by Google is about to be thrown on the pile.  And frankly, it wouldn’t be all that shocking.  The change can be found in the 9.6.0 build of Google+ for Android and if you open up the menu using the hamburger menu or a swipe from the left side of your screen, you’ll see that there is no link to Spaces.

The idea behind Spaces was never fully articulated.  It was somewhat like Circles in the original Google+ but it was also aimed to allow you to create a “space”, invite friends so that you could discuss the space’s defined topic.  You could also share videos, images, texts and other media.  In theory, a pretty cool idea but Spaces never really took off.

Big changes are coming in the latest update to Google Sheets for Android, web and iOS.  There are some nice formatting options that are coming to the app but probably the bigger news is that the Android app will have mouse support for the new breed of Chromebooks that run Android apps.

From a formatting perspective, Sheets will now have the ability to rotate text (this is found under Format>Text rotation) to make your spreadsheet cleaner and more visually appealing.  For example, you could rotate column headers 90-degrees so that they are vertical instead of wide across the column top.  This means you can make those columns more narrow.  Add to that, finally, the ability to format numbers in Accounting style.  This is one of those “why wasn’t it there before?” features but hey, it’s here now.  Under Format>Number>Accounting, you can change your numbers into this format for easier and more consistent reports on budgets and other financial spreadsheets.

Rounding out the formatting updates are new border styles.  There are several new border styles in the app that have various thicknesses and double borders.  These are all found under Toolbar>Borders>Border styles.

The big changes though and probably the more exciting ones for most are the changes to the Android (and iOS app) app for Sheets.