ClintonFitch.com

Google in the process of doing a lot of revamp work on their apps and extensions.  The Mountain View company has already moved a lot of their sites to a Material Design look and that process is set to continue over the course of the rest of this year.  That also includes Chrome itself and that means that some extensions are going to be retired.

For a long time the company has had a Chrome Bookmark Manager plug in that brought a Material Design look and feel to the bookmarks manager in Chrome.  Now that this look has moved into the built-in manager, there really isn’t a reason to have it anymore.  Google, it seems, feels the same way.

How good was the last quarter for Google’s parent company Alphabet?  They still made $2.8 billion after you factor in the recent $5 billion fine from the European Union.  If that doesn’t impress you, then perhaps 26% growth year-over-year will do the trick.

It was a monster quarter for the Mountain View company.

Overall, the company had $32.7 billion in revenue (top line number) with a bottom line revenue number of $2.8 billion.  If you take out the European Union fine, Alphabet would have made just shy of $8 billion for the quarter which would have been around a billion more than the same quarter last year.

Google Assistant has grown by leaps and bounds over the course of 2018 with more skills and actions.  Some of those have been in Android, some of those in Google Home, and expansion of both has been happening globally.  Now another new feature is available for Assistant users on Android:  The ability to make Google Duo video calls straight from it.

Now, instead of having to open up the Google Duo app on your phone, you can simply open up Google Assistant and say, “Hey Google, make a video call to…” the person you want to call.  Once Assistant confirms the contact and number, you are dropped into Duo to have your call.

After being announced for the education sector in March, the Acer Chromebook Tab 10 is finally available from a wide range of retailers.  Priced at just under $350, the tablet is powered by Chrome OS and is the first true Chrome OS powered tablet in the market.

The QXGA 9.7″ backlit LED display of the Chromebook Tab 10  renders at 2048 x 1536 which supports stylus input.  In fact, it comes with a stylus and it can be stored in the device.  Camera wise, you have a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP selfie camera.  Connectivity is handled by the 2x2MIMO 802.11ac WiFi antenna and you have Bluetooth 4.1 built in too.  Finally, it 34 Wh battery that provides 9 hours of power to the tablet.