Tag: Google

The stage is set for the world to finally see Google’s new messaging app, Google Allo, this week.  Wednesday in fact if you take in consideration the leak from Evan Blass over the weekend and Google’s own words.  On Saturday, Evan Blass tweeted that we would likely see the new messaging app this week.

Hello, Allo (launches this week).

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) September 18, 2016

Given Blass’ outstanding recording when it comes to such things, it is hardly for me to question that this will happen even if it is a leak-meets-rumor.  But for me, my money is on Wednesday of this week.  Why?  Google’s own words.

Last month eBay had the Nexus 5X down to $239.99 and it has returned at this great price.  Currently the 32GB model of the Nexus 5X is down to $239.99, a savings of about 40% over what you can pick it up from Google directly. Right now both the Carbon and Quartz colors are in stock.

Obviously with the new Marlin and Sailfish Nexus devices on their way, we can expect to see the prices starting to drop on the 5X and 6P but these are still solid devices.  Plus, as you probably already know, the 5X is upgradable to Android Nougat.

As a reminder, the specs of the Nexus 5X are pretty impressive.

A couple of weeks ago, a new feature rolled out in Google Plus (G+) that allowed you to leave images in comments on posts.  This was very well received by users on the social platform as it gave a bit more of a personalized response to something (with an image or a GIF) instead of just text.  Now the Google Plus team has expanded that a bit further.  In the latest update, version 8.7 for those keeping score at home, you can now view those images in the replies in full screen and yes, you can save them to your phone to add to that awesome meme or GIF library.

In other words, the images in comments are treated and act like images in an original post on the site.

Google’s new video app, Google Duo, has been out about a month now and while the 10 million downloads are okay, it isn’t exactly setting the world alight.  If you haven’t tried it out, it is a great video experience.  To help get awareness of the app up and to show it in action, Google released a series of 10 adverts for the app and some of them are really good.  My favorite, which you can find after the break, is something we can all related to:  A lost sock in the laundry.

The range of videos are centered around things that go together.  Like a pair of socks.  Or salt and pepper.  Or Peanut Butter and Jelly.  You get the idea.  Duos

It took a bit longer than expected but Google has finally released the factory image and OTA image for Android Nougat for the Nexus 6P.  With the release of these images, it means that 6P owners can expect to start seeing Nougat drop onto their devices over the course of the next few days and weeks.  The update is a big one at over 900MB so you will want to make sure you phone is connected to Wi-Fi and fully charged before you start the update process.  All in, it will take about 30 minutes from download to install to reboot.

As for why it took this long to get the update out is a point of speculation.

If you are a heavy user of Hangouts and use Chrome or Chrome OS, there is a new extension and app for you to check out.  Last week Google announced that a new, Android-like Chrome extension for Hangouts would be coming out with the aim to improve performance and the overall look and feel of the UI.  Achievement unlocked as both the extension and the app look far better than the old style and both perform exceptionally well.

The new extension can be found in the Chrome Web Store which allows you to run Hangouts while you are using your Chrome browser regardless of platform.  This is what the majority of users will want, especially Chrome OS users, as the browser tends to stay open all the time.