Tag: iOS

After making its debut on iOS some months ago, Google Gboard is now starting to roll out to Android users.  The update is coming to Google Keyboard which, along with the name change, comes with some outstanding features and customizations to the keyboard app.  The update has just started rolling out to the Play Store so it will be a few days before everyone sees it.  Once you do, you will see why all our iPhone friends have loved this app.  It has a GIF keyboard, emoji keyboard, Google search built in and is highly customizable with themes and other things to make your typing life easier.

To be clear, the updated is version 6.0 for those keeping score at home but really, you’ll know you got it when you see Gboard as an update option in the Store app.

As expected, Google has gone through a rebranding exercise on the Google On app.  With the introduction of Google Wi-Fi in October, and now with that product shipping, the question wasn’t if the Google On app would change but rather would that change be a completely new app or, worse, a separate app.  Thankfully no.  Google Wifi is the name of the Google On app now, allowing you to control your entire Wi-Fi network, including your Google OnHub and Google Wi-Fi products.  The update is rolling out into the Play Store now and if you have Google On installed, you should see the update hit your devices over the course of the next 2-3 days.

At first glance, the UI for Google Wifi doesn’t look all that different than the previous one from Google On.  However, there are a lot of changes including the three tab navigation at the top of the app which gives you information, your network information and shortcuts to quick tidbits of information respectively.

Love them or hate them, Apple does produce some awfully nice wallpapers for their iPhone, iPad and MacOS lineup.  As some of you may know, the beta for iOS 10.2 has started rolling out to those testing it.  In that beta are three new simple but beautiful wallpapers that you can now download to your phones here on the site.  All three are similar, featuring a stark black background with a blue, orange or pink semi-transparent stone in the middle.  They look great frankly and now you can add them to your Android phones.  Because, why not?

I’ve put thumbnails of each image after the break so for those who aren’t interested, you can move along.  For those who are interested, click on to get to them.

Pandora has announced a big change to their subscription tier and their free tier for its users.  The great thing is, all these new features will remain at the same current $4.99 per month subscription fee.  First, the change brings a rebranding of sorts to the pay service.  Pandora One will now be known as Pandora Plus and will be rolling out to users in the coming months.  with this roll out, exiting One customers will be moved to Plus and when it happens, they will get unlimited skips of songs as well as replays.  In One you are limited to the number of skips and repeats per hour.

Microsoft and their mobile devices, Microsoft Lumia, were in the news again this week and not in a good way.  The company has all-but confirmed that they will be killing off the devices and brand by the end of 2016.  As a long time H/PC, PocketPC, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone users (I started this site back in 2004 writing about Handheld PCs and PocketPCs), it is a shame to see a company with the resources of Microsoft so utterly screw up their mobile strategy around devices.  There are a lot of reasons for this of course and I could spend a lot of digital ink on it.  But the bottom line is, from a device perspective, Microsoft made a long series of major missteps that has led to where we are today:  Virtually no Windows powered phones.  Sure there is the new HP Elite X3 but at the price point it has ($799), it will see very few and really, it’s aimed at the enterprise anyway.

But to suggest that Microsoft’s mobile strategy is dead because their phones are dead is a bit of a stretch and dare I say, false.  Their strategy is very much alive and well across both Android and iOS and proves that you don’t necessarily have to have phones in the mix.  Microsoft’s focus has been pretty clear for the last two years.  First, they want you using Microsoft services on whatever devices you want to use.  Second, they want you to have the apps to make you productive and give you near the same level of functionality as you have on the desktop.  These two things not only make up a mobile strategy but it makes a pretty solid one.

The Google Apps team have announced some new editing features for both Google Docs and Google Sheets.  These new features are coming to the apps on both Android and iOS and should be rolling out to devices over the course of the next few days via an OTA update.  Both features are aimed at bringing more desktop-like editing features to the mobile device so you don’t necessarily have to be at a Chromebook, PC or Mac.

For Google Docs, you can now edit documents while you are in Print Layout view within the app.  To edit the doc, just tap on the edit pencil icon and you can make your edits without having to leave Print Layout view.