Author: Clinton

At Google I/O in May, the company demonstrated what was both one of the coolest and most controversial future aspects of Google Assistant.  Using a human sounding voice, referred to as Duplex, Assistant placed a phone call on the users behalf to set an appointment.  The reaction to this has ranged from it being fake all the way around to this being the first indicator of the rise of the machines against humanity.  But the fact is that the technology is there and Google’s AI technology is stunningly powerful.  And it won’t be long before you get to try it yourself.

Google today published a video on their YouTube channel that highlights how Assistant will be able to get things done for you like setting up an appointment or reservation without you having to make the call yourself.  Take a look at the video.

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While we are months away from having this smooth of an interaction, the basic building blocks are there now and public testing has begun.

Honor, the Huawei sub-brand here in the United States, has a great promotion running now through July 4th.  The deal is on the Honor View10 and the Honor 7X, with the company offering various bundles deals on both devices through their online store.

First, on the View10, the company has setup a spin wheel that gives you the opportunity to win a discount on the phone.  You can save $25, $50, $75 or $100 if you are lucky enough to spin the wheel for that discount.  In addition to this, there are two different bundles being offered.  In both cases, the bundle is $499

1^st Bundle: Purchase the Honor View10 and receive free pair of Honor Sport Bluetooth Earphones AM61 Red

2^nd Bundle: Purchase the Honor View10 and receive a free Tripod Selfie Stick

A third Chrome 67 update has come to the Chrome OS Stable Channel today, bringing further security fixes to the platform as well as a clarification on a security patch.  The update is build 67.0.3396.99 or 67.0.3396.101 (Platform version: 10575.58.0) depending on your device.  It comes two weeks after the second update was released back on June 13.

If your Chromebook is in the Stable Channel, you can check for the update by typing chrome://help in the browser bar and then clicking the Check for update button next to your current build information.  The release of this update happened last yesterday so it could still take a while for everyone to see the update as being available.

Google Gboard, the keyboard app from the Mountain View company, has a new update rolling out that brings some improvements and new language support.  The updated build is version 7.31 for those keeping score at home and should be widely available at this point.

A few months ago, in May, Gboard gained the ability to create your own GIFs using your phone’s camera.  With this update, you can add text to your GIF.  This allows you to make them a bit more personalized.

Over the course of the past few weeks, there has been a lot of activity around Google Assistant, Google Home, and the Spanish language.  First there was the support for three dialects of Spanish, then Google Home becoming available in Spain.  Today we see all of this come together with Google announcing that Google Home now can speak Spanish.

With this update, which has already rolled out via a cloud side update, you can now configure Google Home to speak Spanish as you interact with it in your day-to-day activities or ask it to complete specific commands.  Considering that nearly 6% of the world’s population speaks Spanish, which is more than English speakers, it is a huge step forward for Google Home and Google Assistant.

Endlich! Google Pay ist endlich in Deutschland angekommen

Finally!  Google Pay has finally arrived in Germany!  It has taken much longer than most expected but the tap-to-pay app can now be used with four different banks for Germans.  Rumors had been floating for several weeks that Pay’s debut in Germany was going to happen but there was nothing official on it.  Now the Google Pay support page for Germany has been updated reflecting support for the country.

As for the banks supported, you have four available:  Comdirect, Commerzbank, N26, and Wirecard.  If you bank with one of these institutions in Germany, you can now add your cards to Pay to use them where ever terminals allow you to tap to pay.