Tag: Google

The Google My Account page found in Settings on your Android phone has a new look and feel today.  A Material Design makeover is rolling out to everyone that brings a far cleaner and easier-to-navigate design to the page.  This is a cloud-side update so there really isn’t anything you need to do to get it – just wait for it to arrive.

With the new look, the Google Account page is brighter and easier to navigate.  It is also setup it a top-tab design to get to various parts of your account so you can review specific elements, not just get one big overview.

If your Pixel 2 XL seems to have slowed down on wake-up after the June Android Security Update, you are not alone.  Yesterday Google confirmed that a bug, which was likely introduced with the update, has caused devices to take 1-3 seconds to wake up after the power button is pressed or the fingerprint scanner is used.  They also identified that the issue only impacts Pixel 2 XLs that have had the Ambient Display is disabled in Settings.

The work around to the problem is to turn the Ambient Display setting to Always On until Google can roll out a patch to fix the issue.

Google has made it easier for parents to manage their children’s phone usage by adding Family Link support on Project Fi.  Now parents can add their children to their Fi account for the same $15/month and can manage the amount of data they are allotted each month as well as when their phone can and cannot be used.

Aimed for parents who have kids under 13, Family Link is designed to help parents manage everything from sites available for their kids, to which apps can be installed, and now their phone usage through Fi.

Improved dedicated topic pages in the Google Feed in the Pixel Launcher and the Google app are now in the process of broadly rolling out to users.  The improved feature allows you to select a topic of interest in your feed and get a dedicated page to that topic along with multiple related articles.  The change is a cloud-side change and appears to be rolling out to a wide range of versions of the Google app, including the current 8.5 stable version as well as the beta build which is version 8.6.

You will know that you have received the new update when you look at your Google Feed either in the Pixel Launcher page or by opening the dedicated Google app.  Next to the topic header, if you see a > (right arrow or chevron), then you have the update.

Summer is almost here and that means that it is rumor season for the next generation of Pixel phones from Google.  The Google Pixel 3 lineup is likely a few months away from being announced but already we are starting to get loads of rumors as to what the phones will look like and now, who will be building them.

Roland Quandt of WinFuture and MobileGeekDE took to Twitter today with a rumor that both the phones in flight for release later this year are to be built by Foxconn.

Google really is going it alone: there are two Google Pixel 3 devices in the works, both based on SDM845. One has “new display hardware”, both are built by Foxconn – not HTC, LG or whomever. Launch timeframe is Aug/Sep 2018. https://t.co/CelnTfO5IB

— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) May 30, 2018

If the rumor is true, this would be a significant shift for Google by cutting out a manufacturing partner and having the phones built directly by Foxconn for themselves.

Google’s MVNO solution, Project Fi, is expanding their lineup with the addition of two LG phones and the Moto G6.  The LG V35 ThinQ and the LG G7 ThinQ will both be available for subscribers starting in June while the Moto G6 is now available for pre-order.  These three join the current lineup of phones that support Project Fi including the Moto X4 and the Google Pixel 2 lineup.

The announcement will give subscribers to the service a budget friendly mobile in the Moto G6 which will be priced at just $199 or $8.29/month for 24 months on a payment plan.  The two LG devices will serve, as you would expect, on the flagship end of the spectrum.