Category: Google

The Google Play Store for Android has had a back-end update that brings a new pre-release section to the store.  The section of the store will allow you to register to get notified when an app in the section is released so you can be one of the first to download it and use it.  Right now the section only has three apps in it:

• The Wizard of Oz:  Magic Match
• MMX Hill Climb
• Britney Spears: American

It is pretty clear that there will be more apps to be add as the section of the store grows.

Google’s inexpensive Virtual Reality viewer, Google Cardboard, has been added to several local Google Stores around the globe for purchase.  Now Android users in Canada, France, the UK, and Germany can order the viewer from their local Google Store online so they can experience Google’s low cost entry into VR.  To this point the viewer, which essentially wraps around your phone and is made of, you guessed it, cardboard, was only available in the US.  For those that don’t remember, Cardboard began life as a freebie handout at Google I/O 2014 but earlier this year the company began selling it on their site along with some other, more stylish viewers.

The latest update to Google Street View brings a handful of enhancements to the VR-meets-map app, including a much improved handling of Photo Sphere images.  The update is version 2.12 for those keeping score at home and it is rolling out to the Google Play Store now.  In the update, you can now create a connection between photo spheres within the app and you can tap and hold to select multiple published photo spheres.  Photo spheres are automatically grouped together in the app as well so you can find them a bit easier when you are looking at a location in the app.

The Google Plus app for Android has yet another update rolling out today, the ninth such update this year.  Version 7.8.0 brings mostly refinements to the community centric app for Android and brings back quick access to other Google apps you may have installed on your phone.  In all, there are 22 bugs fixed in this update according to Google’s Luke Wroblewski as well as Quick access to Google Photos, Hangouts and Search within the app. If this seems like a blast from the past, it should.  Before Google decided to decouple other services and apps from G+, you had quick access to other Google apps before the whole Google Plus is Dead, Long Live Google Plus era we are in now.  This is back now and frankly is a great touch that has needed to come back to the new and improved app.

For those who are attending Google I/O 2016 in person or remotely, the official app for the developer event is now in the Google Play Store.  The app gives you the ability to see all of the sessions that are available and setup your schedule of those that you want to attend.  Even better, if you aren’t one of the lucky attendees in person, you can live stream the events remotely and can add those events to your Google calendar so you can tune in.

Oh, and a lot of those are going to be in VR. 🙂

If you are a user of the Google Drive app on your PC or Mac, make sure you are up-to-date.  Google has announced that starting July 1st, support for versions 1.22 and older will end.  Version 1.22 is over a year old so the cut back on support for it and older versions makes sense and falls in line with what the company has done on older version of other apps.  For reference, the latest version of the Drive sync app for PC is build 1.29.2074.1528.   To see what version you are running, open up the sync app, click on the menu (3 vertical dots) and then click about.  If you need to update, just go to your Drive folder online and in the lower left corner click on the Download for PC or Mac button.