Google on Wednesday announced an update to its mobile Wallet application for the iPhone which now includes handy low balance alerts and another feature allowing users to set up recurring bank transfer in order to ensure there's always money to spend in their Wallet.
The refreshed application did not receive support for the bigger iPhone screens and will be going live in the App Store later today.
Google Wallet is available free of charge.
Yesterday, the Internet giant Google announced a newsworthy promotion giving its users the first minute free when placing outgoing calls through Hangouts to phone numbers in more than two dozen countries.
“The first 60 seconds is on us,” the company said in a post over at Google+. “What you say is up to you”. You can place Hangouts using Gmail and Google+ on desktop, using the Hangouts extension for Chrome, or via Google's mobile Hangouts app for iOS and Android.
Writing on the Official Gmail Blog Wednesday, Google announced immediate availability of a new email app for iOS and Android, Inbox. Available free of charge in the App Store on an invite-only basis, Inbox represents “a completely different type of inbox”. The app strives to surface the most relevant stuff that often gets buried and forgotten due to an avalanche of unwanted emails we get bombarded with.
Built by the Gmail team and “years in the making”, Inbox has been conceived to fit your life by keeping your emails organized to “help you get back to what matters”. That sounds much like Mailbox.
Jump past the fold for the full reveal.
Continuing its string of app updates adding native support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus screen sizes, Google on Wednesday issued a small update to its Hangouts messaging software for the iPhone and iPad, which now looks as you'd expect on the 4.7 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 screens.
In addition to UI support for the new Apple smartphones, Hangouts 2.3 contains no other additions or improvements. The app is available free of charge in the App Store and requires iOS 6.0 or later.
Google is on a roll today.
Minutes after issuing an updated Play Music client for iOS with a revamped Listen Now interface, mood or activity based radio station search and other goodies, the search monster announced Tuesday that updates to its Docs, Sheets and Slides trio of mobile productivity applications are now available in the App Store, featuring an all-new “Incoming” view to see all of the files that have been shared with you and a few other enhancements.
For example, the Docs editor now plays nice with external keyboards.
“We also know that it’s important to you to be able to make documents look as polished as possible, wherever you’re editing, so in Docs you can now apply headings and use shortcuts when you’re typing with Bluetooth keyboards,” the team noted.
After refreshing Google Plays Newsstand for iOS yesterday with native display support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the Internet giant Google on Tuesday pushed an update to another app, its Play Music client for the iPhone and iPad.
Taking a page from Betas Music's book, the new version of Google Play Music, available free in the App Store, enables mood or activity based search for radio stations. Jogging? Good, use the 'Running' tag to find music that matches your activity. Holding a party? The related 'Partying' should come in handy.
And because this is Google, they even let you search for 'Feeling Happy' radio stations. Other new features and enhancements are briefly mentioned right after the break.
Google Play Newsstand (formerly Google Currents), the search giant's official Flipboard-inspired software for the iPhone and iPad, received a small update Monday bringing native display support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
In addition, the new version features an improved download progress interface for offline content and contains unspecified bug fixes. Google Play Newsstand is available as a free download from the App Store.
TechCrunch reports that the search giant will also update the official Google Play Music client for iOS and Android later today with Songza-style functionality.
As you know, Google purchased Songza earlier this year. Like Apple-owned Beats, the service specializes in finding the right music to fit your mood.
With less than 24 hours left until Apple's “It's been way too long” iPad and Mac media event, the Internet giant Google in a pre-emptive strike Wednesday officially unveiled the next major version of its mobile operating system, Android 5.0, along with the newest Nexus-branded hardware devices: a Motorola-made smartphone, a HTC-made tablet and an Asus-built game console and media streamer.
“A sweet new take on Android,” Android Lollipop is actually the Android L software the search giant teased at its Google I/O conference back in the summer. Containing over 5,000 new APIs for developers, Lollipop has been designed to be flexible to support all screen sizes and devices while taking Android's customization to the next level.
Google's YouTube app for iOS has just been updated to support the larger screen sizes of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. This update, which brings the app to version 2.13, also brings along a few bug fixes and stability improvements.
YouTube's app is one of Google most popular iOS apps to have been recently updated. Gmail and Chrome were also updated in the past couple of weeks to support iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
For the second year in a row, Apple tops Interbrand’s Best Global Brands ranking, an annual report that analyzes the brand value of the largest corporations in the world. Just like last year, Google scores the second place, right ahead of Coca Cola. Valued at $118.9 billion, Apple increased its brand value by 21%, while Google, valued at $107.43 billion, increased its brand value by 15%.
“Apple and Google’s meteoric rise to more than USD $100 billion is truly a testament to the power of brand building,” said Jez Frampton, Interbrand’s Global Chief Executive Officer. These leading brands have reached new pinnacles—in terms of both their growth and in the history of Best Global Brands—by creating experiences that are seamless, contextually relevant, and increasingly based around an overarching ecosystem of integrated products and services, both physical and digital.”
For more details, have a look at the 2014 rankings, as well as the methodology used.
Google began the rollout of its latest iOS app, News & Weather, Tuesday afternoon in the App Store. The newest in Google's collection of 43 apps on iOS, News & Weather displays news headlines on a variety of topics and features a detailed weather forecast view for cities of your choice.
News & Weather, which is rolling out in multiple countries, packs quite a large amount of customization in the way of personalized content, and users' settings appear to sync with their Google account. Until now, this app was only available to owners of Android devices.
The Internet giant Google on Tuesday issued a small update to its Chrome for iOS browser, adding better support for the “Retina HD” iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus screens.
The free download also enables another interesting feature — the ability to download and open files directly in the Google Drive application, if installed on your device. Finally, this release includes customary bug fixes and stability improvements.
Google Chrome is available free in the App Store.