Google surprised everyone earlier today with the very first preview release of Android N — the next operating system update for Android devices — which anyone savvy enough with the right hardware can try out now for free even before Google’s upcoming I/O developer conference. Included in the first preview version of Android N are many new features that catch Google’s mobile OS up with Apple’s iOS 9 like split-screen apps and picture-in-picture mode. Like Apple, Google’s even launching a public beta program for consumers soon. Check out the full details at 9to5Google and see how each feature compares between Android N and iOS 9 below:
Google Photos already lets users backup and view an unlimited number of high-resolution photos and videos for free, and Google recently added a button that lets users manually purge downloaded content to make room for more free storage. There’s a new update awaiting Google Photos users today that adds support for the latest software and hardware features on iPhones and iPads.
If you have the YouTube app installed on your phone, then you’ve likely run into the dreaded ‘Open this page in “YouTube”?’ message when visiting YouTube in Safari. While it’s understandable that Google would like you to view content via its official app, it starts to get annoying after encountering the message for the umpteenth time.
One surefire way to eliminate the prompt is to uninstall the YouTube app altogether, but that’s a bit on the extreme side of things. Fortunately, there is a way to easily bypass the request, as we’ll show you inside. Expand Expanding Close
Great news for content creators wishing to manage their YouTube videos on the go. YouTube Creator Studio, the mobile app version of YouTube’s Creator Studio platform for managing video content, has received a notable update.
The 1.7.93 update, released today, now allows users to watch videos directly inside of the Creator Studio app. In previous versions of Creator Studio, users were forced to open the YouTube app or a Safari browser to watch their content. Expand Expanding Close
There have been many attempts at mobile wallet products over the years, from letting your phone simulate a swipe of your magnetic strip through NFC-based replication of contactless cards to the laughable CurrentC that relies on scanned QR codes. Over on Android phones, there’s Google Wallet, Android Pay and Samsung Pay – along with a whole slew of smaller competitors.
But for iPhone users, Apple Pay is the undisputed champion. Security is unrivalled. Your card details are never stored at all, replaced with a unique Device Account Number. That number is stored in the Secure Enclave. And a one-time code is generated for every single transaction.
Convenience too is maximized. iPhone users need only hold out their iPhone with their thumb or finger on the Touch ID button, while Apple Watch owners simply raise their wrist to the reader. I didn’t think there was any way to improve on it, but Google may be about to prove me wrong with its Hands Free service …
Google today has rolled out an update to Google Maps on iOS, bringing the app to version 4.16 and introducing a pair of new features. The update adds detour/pit stop support to the app, as well as adds support for 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
Today Google pushed a long-awaited update to its YouTube app, which adds support for the iPad Pro. As you might imagine, the additional resolution makes the app look much more at home on Apple’s super-sized tablet than before. Unfortunately, outside of a few additional bug fixes, no other big features made the cut for today’s update. In other words, support for key features like Split View, which makes it possible to enjoy true side-by-side multitasking, and Picture and Picture mode are still missing in action.
On Wednesday, Google released their aptly named UI testing framework, EarlGrey. Having been using the framework in a few of their current iOS apps already for functional testing, it’s good to hear that the product has been validated before an initial public release.
Civil rights organizations have expressed strong support for Apple’s resistance to a court order instructing it to create special firmware that would allow the FBI to break into an iPhone – with tech companies doing the same, albeit in a weaker fashion.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) posted a statement in which it said that it applauded Apple for standing up for the rights of its customers, and would be making its views known to the court.
Essentially, the government is asking Apple to create a master key so that it can open a single phone. And once that master key is created, we’re certain that our government will ask for it again and again, for other phones, and turn this power against any software or device that has the audacity to offer strong security […]
EFF applauds Apple for standing up for real security and the rights of its customers. We have been fighting to protect encryption, and stop backdoors, for over 20 years. That’s why EFF plans to file an amicus brief in support of Apple’s position.
The Verge notes similar support from both the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Amnesty International …
Following the release of its Q4 earnings earlier this week, Alphabet saw it stock prices surge to upwards of $800, increasing by 8 percent thanks to its strong earnings report. This jump on Alphabet’s part caused the company’s market capitalization to increase as well, rising to over $540 billion. This increase meant that Alphabet surpassed Apple to become the world’s most valuable company. Two days later, however, Alphabet’s stock has fallen back down, giving the crown of the world’s most valuable company back to Apple.
Alphabet’s just-released Q4 earnings has seen its stock price rise in after hours trading, resulting in the Mountain View-based company passing Apple to become the most valuable company in the world. The company’s market capitalization was $517.6 billion at close, and while the price is still fluctuating after hours, Alphabet’s market cap will be over $540 billion tomorrow if these prices hold…
Google has finally launched a full-fledged iOS app for users of its AdWords advertising service. The AdWords app arrives today as the first official iOS app for the service and it’s available for both iPhone and iPad users now.
Google’s Chrome browser for iPhones and iPads is getting a whole lot faster and more stable today with its latest update. That’s because Chrome is now using Apple’s WKWebView rendering engine on iOS. Google says this update will reduce Chrome’s crash rate by 70% so the browsing experience will see fewer interruptions for various reasons.
The lawsuit between Oracle and Google is inadvertently revealing some confidential information about the companies. It has already been disclosed that Google paid Apple a $1 billion fee in 2014 to keep Google as the default search provider for iOS Safari, as well as a revenue sharing agreement where Google gives a substantial portion of the iPhone search ad revenue to Apple.
Another lawyer from Oracle has also stated that Google has generated $22 billion in profit and $31 billion in revenue from Android in its lifetime, via Bloomberg. Although any number in the billions is impressive, it pales in comparison to Apple’s mobile platform profiteering. As highlighted by Quartz, Apple made more revenue from the iPhone in one single quarter, raking in $32 billion dollars worth of iPhone sales from July – September.
Earlier this evening, the Oracle vs. Google lawsuit revealed Android’s revenues and profits for the first time. The same case has now revealed that Google paid Apple $1 billion in 2014 as part of its ongoing deal to be the main search provider—as in the one that resides in the search bar by default—on iOS devices.
With iOS 9 being out for nearly five months now, you would’ve expected all the top video apps to already be including picture-in-picture for the iPad. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case with YouTube and a few others. If you’re feeling the hurt from not being able to catch up on your favorite YouTuber’s latest videos while multitasking around your iPad, then check out CornerTube, a new YouTube utility app focused on PIP. CornerTube lets users quickly jump into videos on YouTube, all the while enabling that missing PIP feature. It gets even better once you start utilizing the included Today widget in Notification Center and Action extension in other apps.
Apple has finally managed to secure a sales ban over some Samsung phone features that infringe on its patents and intellectual property. However, the victory is effectively meaningless despite the milestone in its continuing patent litigation suit with Samsung in ever-longer court battles.
Apple’s ban resides over three features encumbered by its patents: the controversial ‘slide to unlock’ patent, predictive text technology and autocorrect. Getting a ban is a huge symbolic achievement, but the effect it will have on day-to-day business of the two companies is minor. The ban is effectively useless as FOSS Patents explains …
The NFL is said to be looking at Apple, Google, Amazon and Yahoo as platform partners for streaming its Thursday night football games according to SportsBusinessDaily:
The league also sent RFPs to several digital companies, like Google, Yahoo, Apple and Amazon, to stream the entire Thursday night schedule on a non-exclusive basis, sources said. The league’s initial plan would have the digital streams serve as a simulcast of the television production — with the same ads and in-game production features. The league expects bidding to start in the low $300M for the television package, with a nominal escalator in year two, sources said.
Yahoo, who is expected to bid, paid $15M to exclusively stream one game this season according to the report so the deal would be a big one. Because the streaming deal would be non-exclusive, the prices would be much lower on a per-game basis. More importantly, the deal would hopefully be the first step into the much larger goal of streaming the whole NFL Season.
Google has once more posted its annual Year in Search video, covering topics as diverse as the refugee crisis, the blue/gold dress, Cecil the lion, female engineers, the discovery of water on Mars, gay marriage, Star Wars and more. It also posted the top ten search terms for a range of categories, with Apple taking three out of the top four slots in consumer tech …
Google today has announced an update to its Google Play Books app on Android and iOS that brings with it a new feature called “Night Light.” The update will rollout soon to users via the App Store for free.
Google’s Project Fi service will now work on tablets including iPads and other compatible data-only devices besides phones. There are no extra fees to add devices to a Fi plan and data only costs $10 for every 1GB you use. That varies from many mainstream carrier plans with charge monthly rates for data access.
Last week, I wrote an article called The Top 10 Android Features Apple’s iOS 10 Should Steal, and — surprise — it turned out to be somewhat controversial. Over 120 comments reflected a wide range of opinions on the future direction of Apple’s mobile operating system, with most commenters agreeing that iOS should take some inspiration from Android, but only for the specific features they personally liked. Unfortunately, in keeping with our increasingly polarized society, a few particularly caustic Apple fanboys decided to go crazy, personally attacking fellow commenters who liked the ideas, the author who dared to suggest them (“poor old me“), and the very concept of taking any ideas whatsoever from Android.
On one hand, I understand where the fanboys are coming from. Some people just love whatever Apple releases and does, no matter what. Others are so emotionally or financially invested in Apple that any suggestion of potential improvement is perceived as an attack on the company’s well-being. But it’s hard to sympathize with people who freak out when Apple’s described as anything less than perfect. Walt Mossberg called out “cultists” for this behavior in his article, “It’s Not a Church, It’s Just an Apple Store,” naming it the Doctrine of Insufficient Adulation. Demanding unyielding praise is nonsensical, and ultimately unhealthy for the Apple community as a whole. Simple statistics suggest that under 0.05% of our readers fall into cultist territory, but they’re abrasive enough to turn off the other 99.95% of readers we care about.
It’s important to understand that these hard-core fanboys aren’t just a tiny minority of all iOS users — they also have fringe views relative to the general population. Reasonable people can debate the precise numbers, but Android currently powers roughly 4/5 of the smartphones out there. It’s easy to credit aggressive Android device prices, but it’s clear that Android has features that appeal to people, too. From my perspective, it’s perfectly reasonable for iOS users to want some of Android’s features — especially if they don’t want to switch to Android devices. Yes, Apple’s a great company, and yes, iOS is a great platform, but they’re not perfect. Even if you don’t like Google, there’s room to learn (and borrow) from Android…
Earlier this week, I wrote about the surprisingly good Motorola Moto G (2nd Gen) phone I was testing at our publisher’s request, and though I wouldn’t switch from iOS to Android, the experience made plain that even a sub-$100 Android phone is competent enough today to serve as a more capable alternative to a $199 iPod touch. I’ve since been testing the $180 Moto G (3rd Gen), which is still less expensive than the lowest-end iOS device, but is faster than its predecessor, and includes still cameras rivaling Apple’s flagship iPhone 6s models. Contrary to Apple’s marketing, Android devices aren’t all bad, and $100-$200 options from major manufacturers are now delivering much better overall value than Apple’s sub-$200 devices.
Google has spent the last few years really closing Android’s overall user experience gap with iOS, while adding and polishing some features that are either Android-exclusive — or markedly better on Android than iOS. So just like Google borrowed elements of iOS to improve Android, Apple should be doing the same. Here are the top 10 features I’d pick for iOS 10 to clone…
