Tag: Android

Microsoft is in the process of rolling out a new integration between their personal assistant, Cortana, and the Skype messaging client.  The new integration essentially makes Cortana a chat-bot inside of Skype, allow it to give you suggestions for replies to messages, get weather and news information, as well as facts and other information.  In order for it to work, you have to give Cortana various permissions for Skype and since it is rolling out now, not everyone is seeing it just yet.

If this sounds familiar as an Android user, it should.  Essentially Microsoft is replicating what Google has done with Allo and Google Assistant which, for Windows 10 PC users and those who are heavily in the Microsoft ecosystem, this is great news.

The experimenting with the layout of the Google Play Store continues as Google trots out yet another new look & feel for the app.  The latest update brings a new top level sliding navigation to reach different parts of the Play Store as well as a slightly condensed menu.

The top navigation, in my opinion, is quite nice.  All of the major areas of the store are now in a sliding navigation bar at the top of the screen, which makes finding specific areas of the store much easier.  This new navigation bar can be slid left to right and then you tap on the area you want to see.  Those areas include For You, Top Charts, Categories, Editors’ Choice, Early Access, and Family.

Previously, to get to these areas, you either had to find it on the menu (depending on which flavor of the store you had on your phone or tablet) or you had to scroll down to that section on the main page.  Neither was a great user experience and this new navigation bar greatly simplifies the process.

While it is unclear if the rest of the world will see the Xiaomi Mi MIX 2, one thing is certain about this new phone.  It is stunningly beautiful.  The Chinese manufacture pulled the covers back on the replacement for last year’s Mi MIX 2 today in Beijing and it features a near bezel-less 5.9″ display and an eye watering 6GB of RAM.

The Mi MIX 2 features an 18:9 ratio screen that renders 1080 x 2160 on the 5.9″ display in an all aluminum chassis.  It is powered by the Snapdragon 835 octa-core processor and coupled with 6GB of RAM.  Storage will be between 64GB, 128GB and 256GB options.  It has a 12MP rear camera and a 5MP selfie camera and is powered by a 3400 mAh battery.  All impressive specs no matter how you look at it.

SwiftKey, the powerful keyboard app that introduced Artificial Intelligence learning in a keyboard app, has a new update rolling out in the Play Store.  The update brings the normal set of behind-the-scenes updates and performance improvements but it also brings new languages.

In all, 7 new languages have been added to SwiftKey, bringing the total number of supported languages up to 205.  Here are those new languages.

• Bislama
• Limburgish
• Lower Sorbian
• Makhuwa
• Nuosu
• Silesian
• Venetian

In addition to the new languages, transliteration support for Sinhala & Dhivehi has also been added in this update.

Home Depot, the nations largest home improvement chain, will be coming to Google Home and Google Express.  In a press release, the company announced that customers will be able to shop via Google Home and have their orders shipped to them via Google Express, Google’s shopping service.

“We’re focused on delivering convenience and value as we continue to invest in best-in-class interconnected experiences for our customers,” said Online President and Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Hofmann. “Google has been a key strategic partner for us over many years and we’re excited to take our relationship to the next level with the Google Assistant and Google Express.”

The addition will mean that Google Express will offer shopping and free shipping from over 20 retailers by the end of the year.  Remember that Walmart is also coming to Google Express this month.

A new and significant update to Microsoft Cortana for Android, Microsoft’s personal assistant for the platform, is now rolling out in the Google Play Store. The updated build is version 2.9.4 for those keeping score at home and brings handful of new features and improvements.

First, Microsoft has made it easier to sign in and to sign up to use Cortana in the app.  You can quickly sign up with your mobile number to get going in the app more quickly.  Second, you can now create a new list (think shopping list for example) and edit list items within the app.  This was a big miss for Windows 10 users as you had to create the list on your PC and then let it sync with Cortana.