Tag: Android

The latest update to the popular Transit App for Android has brought a much requested and desired feature by users:  Transit Maps.  Now when you are in a location with a public transportation system, not only do you get the bus, subway and train schedules near you, the display also includes the map of those routes so you can see where they go.  Even better, the team at Transit App has made the routes color coded to those of the city you are viewing.  So, for example, the A Line in Denver leads from Union Station to Denver International Airport and is designated as a light blue on any Denver RTD map.  In Transit App, the line is in the same shade of blue and it shows you exactly how it goes from the city center to the airport.

A small but important update is currently rolling out for the Project Fi app.  The update brings the ability for users to chat with Project Fi support, not just an email or phone call from within the app.  Fi users have been able to chat with support but, to this point, it has only been through the Fi website.  This update gives you all three modes to contact the Fi team to get help or get questions answered.  As a Fi users, I’m glad to see this update as I there are times where having a chat session is faster than an email or phone call, especially if I’m on-the-go.

To access this new option, just open the Project Fi app, swipe over to the Support tab and tap on Chat.  Easy-peasy.

Earlier today I posted Today’s Deal on the Asus C201 Chromebook over at Amazon.  That post generated a couple of comments and questions around just which Chromebooks are going to see the Chrome 53 update that will bring Android apps to them.  For the record, the C201 is one of the Chromebooks that will be able to run Android apps when it is released later this year.  But what about the others?  Fortunately the Chromium team at Google have put together a comprehensive list.

To be clear, this list was originally posted by the Chromium team back in May and there have been some additions of newer Chromebooks that have hit the market.  It is likely that most new Chromebooks that meet the minimum specifications will be added to this list so bookmark this link for the most up-to-date list.  After the break I’ve posted the most recent update to the list from the Chromium team.  It’s searchable so just Ctrl+F to find your Chromebook in the list.

The Google Search team has added two fun games to Search that you can start playing immediately without any downloads.  On your Android phone, type in Solitaire or tic tac toe and you can immediately start playing the classic games right from within the Search results.  The new additions are just the latest in a series of app-like functionality within the Search app.  Previously information on the US election was added and more recently, detailed information about the Olympics in Rio were just a search away.  Games are nothing new either. You have been able to search flip a coin and get a coin toss from within search results too.  Now you have two more to play.

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai took to Twitter last night and provided an important update to everyone:  Google Duo has hit the 5 million download mark.  The new video calling app was released the same day as Android Nougat and frankly is a pretty refined experience versus other video calling solutions.  Duo gives you a preview of who is calling before you even accept the call.

Google Duo now over 5M Android downloads in a week! https://t.co/ctwn131gYq

— sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) August 25, 2016

While 5 million isn’t exactly huge when you compare it to the hundreds of millions of Android phones and iPhones out there, it is significant in that there is some excitement around this new video app.

Today’s deal over at Amazon is on a great little Chromebook.  The Asus C201 has an 11.6″ display, 4GB of RAM and 16GB of storage and is currently down to $159.99 for the Navy Blue model.  Equally as important, when the Chrome OS 53 build is made public, the C201 is going to be able to take full advantage of it and run Android apps.  That makes this deal a bit sweeter.

The C201 is powered by the Rockchip rk3288 processor that runs at 1.8GHz and the 11.6″ display renders at 1366×768 and is an LED display.  Like most other Chromebooks, you have 3 USB ports (2x USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0), an HDMI port, a SD Card Reader and a 3.5mm headphone jack.  Overall, a solid package.