Author: Clinton

For those of you who like to control their music from their Wear OS watch, today is a good day for you.  The Wear OS team, via the product forums, has announced that new features have rolled out to the Wear version of the Google Play Music app that allows for things like Shuffling music and previewing the next track to be played.

The new features impact the Google Play Music app that is installed on Wear OS devices and is rolling out now.  When you get the update (likely you already have you will be able to slide up when music is playing and enable a Shuffle feature on the playlist or album that you are listening to at the time.  Further, you will be able to swipe to see which track is next so you can decide if you want to play it or skip it.

Huawei has suffered yet another blow in their efforts to break into the US smartphone market.  Retailer Best Buy is reportedly not replenishing their current inventory of devices such as the Mate 10 Pro and will cease selling them once inventory is gone.

The news adds to what has already been a very rough start to 2018 for the Chinese manufacture in the United States.  In January both AT&T and Verizon pulled out of carrier deals with the company after being pressured by the United States government to do so.  This forced Huawei to look to retail channels like Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg and B&H Photo.  So far, only Best Buy has indicated they will not be selling the device any longer.

Microsoft has released a new update of Bing for Android that brings a handful of new features and improvements.  The new build is version 8.2.26177804 for those keeping score at home.  If you have Bing installed on your phone, you should get the OTA update over the course of the next few days.

Among the new features is the ability to sync your search history across devices on which you use Bing.  The most vivid example of this would be your Android phone and your Windows 10 PC.  If you search for something in the Bing for Android app, you can go to Bing on your PC browser and get that search history there too.

Last week I posted about the new Chrome for Android beta app.  Unlike other beta programs in the Play Store, anyone can actually download the beta version of Chrome to their phone and give it a try without having to sign up for a formal beta program.  The update brought Chrome 66 to the app and on the surface, didn’t bring a lot of changes.

However, if you dig into the flags within Chrome for Android, you will find a new Chrome Modern Design option.  Enabling this flag transforms the User Interface into a rounded, clean design that frankly makes the current Stable channel UI look really dated.

The Google Phone app for Nexus and Pixel devices has a minor update rolling out today that streamlines the sound settings of the app.  Version 18.0.187698947 is the new build for those keeping score at home and on the surface, you won’t find anything new.

The only note of change is the Sound & vibration settings found in Settings.  In previous builds, this was located directly within the app so settings were somewhat independent of the system sounds.  That has changed in this build.  Now when you tap the sound settings, you are sent to the System sound settings, providing a bit more control but also a simplified experience.

A new and much improved Keyboard Shortcut Viewer is coming to Chrome OS.  In the Chrome OS Canary Channel, which is currently running a pre-alpha build of Chrome 67, the viewer has been radically updated to a Material Design look and feel.

The find comes from long time platform evangelist François Beaufort via his Google+ profile.  François is one of the best sources for what is coming in the Canary channel and this is another great example of it.