Tag: App Update

eBay has become one of the latest apps to support the new app shortcuts in Android Nougat 7.1.  The update was release last week and most users will have it by now.  If you have a Nexus device or Pixel device that is running Nougat 7.1, you will be able to long press the app’s icon and quickly navigate to items you are following, selling or watching in the shopping site as well as a shortcut to search for things on eBay.

For those of you who don’t have Nougat 7.1, you can still take advantage of the app shortcuts in the eBay app (or any other that supports them) depending on your launcher.  Users of Action Launcher and Nova Launcher, which supports them, are good options to try if you are on an earlier version of Android.

Google Docs for Android had a nice update last week that brings more document editing power to the mobile app.  The update is still rolling out so it may be another day or two before you see it.  Once you do have it, you will find that you can now edit the headers and footers of your documents from within the app.  You can also now drag-and-drop text in a Docs file.

In addition to manipulating text, you can also manipulate images that you have inserted into your Docs file.  You can resize, rotate and move images within the file as well as adjust the text wrap around that image.

Google Maps has rolled out a new feature that gives you an idea of how difficult parking will be once you get to your destination.  The new feature is a behind-the-scenes update so if you have the latest build of the Maps apps installed, the new feature will appear in the metro areas in which it is enabled.

Factoring in time for parking can make or break a night out, let alone making it to that big meeting on time. So in 25 metro areas throughout the U.S., we’ve introduced a new parking difficulty icon in Google Maps for Android that’ll give you a heads up on what kind of parking crunch to prepare for when you’re on the go.

This should make sure that you are on time to that dinner reservation or meeting as it builds in some time for you to go park your vehicle.

Google Translate has an update rolling out for Android that brings instant translation to and from Japanese to English.  Now you can point your phone’s camera to a book, sign or other text in English and it will instantly translate it to Japanese on your phone or vise versa.  It brings the total number of instant translation languages to 30 in the app of the 103 languages available.

Instant translations come into play best when you are in a country with a supported language and need help with signs as you navigate around a city.  Depending on the country, like Japan where the dialect is vastly different than English, that can be challenging which is where Google Translate really shines.

Netflix has made a few big changes to their Android app these last few months.  First came the ability to download movies and TV shows to your phone or tablet for viewing offline.  Now, and equally as important for some, today’s update brings the ability to store that offline content on an SD card.  The update is version 4.13.0 Build 14540 for those keeping score at home and it is rolling out now in the Play Store.  Once you have the update, when you want to download a movie or show, you will be asked where you want to store that content.  Select your SD card if your phone has one and off you go.  The content is downloaded to your card instead of your device’s main storage.

After five years of virtually no updates or improvements, the all new Google Voice experience launched today.  The new 5.0 build of the app brings a Material Design look and feel to the Android app as well as an improved Web and iOS interface.  Functionally, there isn’t much new as far as what you get with Voice.  The apps however are a big improvement.

The new Google Voice apps has the more contemporary three-tab navigation with a FAB (Floating Action Button) for various activities in the app.  The app’s tabs are for messages, Calls and visual voicemail.  The new web interface has a similar design with the different tabs being accessible on the left side of the screen.  It is a vast improvement over the clunky KitKat-style previous build.