Author: Clinton

G Suite has a new feature rolling out to the service’s Mobile Device Management functionality that allows for admins to configure specific Android apps on devices.  The feature gives admins the ability to pre-configure the apps that are available for Android devices in their domain.  Once that app is download, it is configured and ready to go for the end user.

The feature should cut down on configuration errors by end users.  Consider the example of a VPN where users are having to typing often lengthy and odd-for-them configuration information.  In this scenario, under this new feature, that could be configured before the user installs the app and be ready for them to use it almost instantly after it is installed.

Microsoft has released a new update to Outlook for Android that brings a much improved search experience in the email, calendar and contacts app.  Version 2.2.147 landed in the Google Play Store on Friday and by now should be out to most reader’s accounts and available to for update.

The biggest change in the app is the improved navigation bar.  It is much more simple in this release, providing one-tap access to mail, calendars and to the improved search feature.  The navigation bar remains at the bottom of the display has it has for some time now but looks cleaner.

Good news today for those of you who use Fandango to get your movie tickets.  You can now use Google Assistant on your phone to find movie times near you and order your tickets all with voice commands.   You can continue to use the Fandango app of course but now you have a voice enabled option.  Sweet!

The feature only works on Assistant on your phone and while you can ask your Google Home for details, it is going to move the process over to your phone to complete it.  Hopefully it’ll get fully enabled on home at some point but as you can see after the break, the interaction with Assistant on your phone is pretty visual instead of just blurting out a bunch of movie times.

Apple is upping its game with Apple News according to a report in Digiday.  According to the report, Apple is signing deals with content providers to provide exclusive content to users of the app on their iPhones and iPads.  That content could prove to be only available for Apple News or, as with BuzzFeed News last month, will be exclusive and first on Apple’s service temporarily.

Last month, BuzzFeed News released a three-part series Future History: 1968 with the company confirming that Apple paid to have the exclusive rights to have first views of that series on their news app.

The popular multi-platform podcast app Pocket Casts has been acquired by a consortium of podcast producers today, providing the Australian company more resources to accelerate innovation.  The four companies that bought Shift Jelly, the company behind the app, consists of WNYC, NPR, WBEZ and This American Life.

In a post on the company’s blog, the company explains that nothing in the short term will change but the backing of the new owners will allow them to more rapidly iterate the app.  It will remain a paid app and will remain available on both Android, iOS and the web.

Google today announced several new improvements coming to Google Assistant on Wear OS by Google.  The updates will take a few days to roll out to everyone and will give Assistant on your watch the ability to leverage Actions from Assistant and improved voice responses.

Google Assistant on Wear OS is not new.  It rolled out with the latest generation of watches running what was then Android Wear 2.0.  Rebranded as Wear OS by Google over the course of the past few months, Google has been focusing efforts on overall improvements in the platform as well with Assistant.