Google’s new Chrome extension is a Bookmark Manager for the modern age

Remember Google Stars, the cloud-based bookmark manager replacement that leaked in “dogfood” form back in May? It looks like it’s finally ready for the spotlight, albeit under a different and less inspiring name – Bookmark Manager.

Now available for free in the Chrome extension catalogue, Bookmark Manager replaces Chrome’s drab default bookmarks tool with a fresh card-based interface featuring bold colors and a touch of Material design.

Once installed, you can click on the star icon displayed on the right side of the address bar – a.k.a the omnibox – to instantly add a web page to your bookmark collection. Alternatively, you can simply hit Ctrl+D on Windows or Cmd+D on Mac.

In essence, the new Bookmark Manager delivers the same functions you get from the default bookmark tool, with a couple of extra niceties, like Auto Folders. This feature groups your bookmarked pages based on topic – for instance, if you have lots of pages about Google, Bookmark Manager will create a “Google” auto folder. There’s also a Google-powered search box for digging deeper into your collection.

It’s not clear yet how does this revamp fit in the larger picture. Does Google has bigger plans for bookmarks? Nevertheless, it’s good to see Google giving some attention to this long-neglected aspect of Chrome.

Check out Bookmark Manager in the Chrome extension store.

LG Display announces world’s narrowest 0.7mm bezel LCD display

LG Display is having a good year so far, having seen profits increase last quarter, and the company has just made another important breakthrough in its smartphone display technology. LG Display has announced a 5.3 inch Full HD LCD panel which has the world’s narrowest bezel – just 0.7mm. For a little perspective on just how crazily thin this bezel is, the thickness of a credit card is 0.8mm.

LG managed to accomplish this through a combination of two new manufacturing techniques. Its Neo Edge module processing technology uses an adhesive to seal the edges of the circuit board, rather than double-sided tape. This helps cut down on bezel width by removing the need for a plastic guide to attach the panel to the LCD backlight. The tight seal also helps to reduce light leakage, as well as making the panel water and dustproof.

LG’s Advanced In-Cell Touch (AIT) technology is used to squeeze the display’s touch panel inside the LCD module, helping to cut down on space requirements and also keep costs down as it requires fewer components.

Remember, LG isn’t the only company working on ultra-thin bezel technology. Sharp already has its almost bezel-less Aquos Crystal smartphone on the market. LG Display will begin mass production of its new smartphone panel in November and will be supplying customers in China first

Microsoft will launch a fitness band, and the Android app is already available (Updated)

Update: The Microsoft Band is official. The device will be available from today online and in Microsoft stores, for $199. The band’s 10 sensors will feed health and activity data into Microsoft’s new Health Cloud service. More details about the Microsoft Band here.

Original post:

Wearable tech. Depending on whom you talk to, it’s either the biggest joke ever, or an invaluable life asset. Differing opinions aside, one thing is crystal clear: it’s here to stay, and with Apple now in the game, it’s about to explode. While some companies have released no less than six devices in the past year, others such as Microsoft have stayed away, but that’s about to change.

The Microsoft Band has been prematurely outed by none other than the big MS itself, along with application information that indicates it will be compatible with Android/Google Play. The device was spotted thanks to a syncing client that was published in the Mac Store, as well as an Android app, now available in the Play Store. The apps don’t give away many details, but it seems the Microsoft Band (Lumia Band?) will have all the conventional functionality of fitness trackers, including step tracking, calorie counter and more. Given that Microsoft already published the accompanying apps, the official announcement of the device could be iminent.

What remains to be seen is how useful/original/relevant this device will be considering its about to enter an increasingly crowded market.

Perhaps the better takeaway message here lies in the story itself: multi-platform support. In addition to Android and (obviously) Windows, the Band will be compatible with Apple’s iOS. This is a dramatic step forward from the more narrow-sighted Gear wearables, where Samsung has deliberately locked them all to only run on Samsung devices, and only recent devices at that. Given that mainstream consumers have yet to buy into the whole fitness and fashion tech push, Microsoft seems to be taking the correct step in appealing to as large an audience as possible. The real question is when others will begin to do so as well, especially with some facing dire situations.

Material Design update hits Google Drive, Docs, Slides and Sheets

Google opened up sales to the brand new Nexus 6 today, it ships with Android 5.0 Lollipop, which is the first version of Android that is imbued with Material Design. No better time to push out Material Design to a handful of Google apps, this time out we look at Drive, Docs, Slides and Sheets.

The updated versions of your trio of office suite apps – Docs, Slides and Sheets – in conjunction with your Google cloud storage solution, Google Drive, will start rolling out right away and may take a few days to get to everyone.

One of the biggest changes you’ll notice, across all the properties, is the addition of an “Incoming” link in the left hand menu. This section holds all of the goodies that others have shared with you through Google’s services. Not unlike the Incoming section you would find in Google Drive on the web.

The Material Design improvements are about as good as you’d expect to see for non-Lollipop creations. The hamburger menu gets a little overhaul and there are a few nifty new animations to enjoy, including a new refresh animation.

In terms of functionality, I am very excited to see some old school keyboard shortcuts updating in the mix. Ctrl+C should work much better now when attached to a Bluetooth keyboard. A new “Make a copy” button under “Share & export” again duplicates features found in Drive/Docs on the web.

Last, Google Sheets is receiving a tiny addition that will make some of us very happy, you can now select a range of cells, by tapping and dragging, while editing a formula.

For a fresh install of Google’s apps, head on over to the Play Store – again, that was Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides getting the Material Design touches today. For those of us with the apps already installed, look out for the updates coming soon.

Are you liking all of these Material Design app updates slowly trickling through, or would you rather just wait for Android 5.0 Lollipop to get them all at once?

Huawei angers customers with no Kitkat update for Ascend Mate 2

If there is one thing that irks tech enthusiasts, it’s waiting for their device to receive the latest OS version. If there’s one thing that riles them up, it’s when OEMs or carriers announce that devices won’t be receiving an update. And if there is one thing that drives people crazy, it’s when companies announce that their relatively new phones won’t be getting updated, and don’t even provide an explanation.

Huawei had better be prepared for a world of hate in the coming days and weeks as the USA branch has just announced its Ascend Mate 2 will not be getting KitKat. No reason was given unfortunately, though the company promises that customers can “expect superior hardware with the latest software going forward.” A quick glance at the comments below the revelation offer a variable firestorm of hostility with users openly proclaiming they are through with the company to some threatening to alter their YouTube reviews to reflect the current situation.

The Huawei Ascend Made 2 was released this past July and features a $299 price tag with decent specs, including a 6.1 inch 720p display, 13 megapixel camera, Snapdragon 400, and 2GB of RAM. Given that KitKat it supposed to run on even the most low end of devices, it’s rather astounding Huawei can make this decision, all the more so when considering the phone isn’t even 6 months old yet. While it is safe to say that the more hardcore Android user will take to rooting their phone (if they haven’t done so already) and installing Cyanogenmod or Paranoid Android, the mainstream customer – arguably the target market of considering its price and specs – will simply be left out to pasture by a company claiming it wants to appeal to Americans and expand its market share.

Huawei owners, please feel free to vent your frustrations in the comments below.

Google making it easy for 3rd party apps to integrate ‘Ok Google’ search

It’s been over two years now since Google Now was first introduced with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and in that time we’ve seen it and the entire Google voice search experience improve dramatically. But what about extending voice search and the “Ok, Google” command into the realm of third party apps? Today Google announced on its developer’s blog that it is making it easy for developers to add “Ok, Google” support to their apps.

As Google says in its blog post, that means users will soon be able to bring up the “Ok, Google” Command and say things like “Ok Google, search for hotels in Maui on TripAdvisor” or “Ok Google, search pizza on Eat24”. The only catch is that your favorite app developers first need to insert a few lines of code into their apps to make the magic happen.

When Google says a few lines of code, they mean it. Reportedly all developers need to do is add the following code to their AndroidManifest.xml:

<activity android:name=”.SearchableActivity”>
<intent-filter>
<action android:name=”com.google.android.gms.actions.SEARCH_ACTION”/>
<category android:name=”android.intent.category.DEFAULT”/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>

We can certainly see how this could make searching for things a heck of a lot easier, provided enough app makers embrace it. Considering how easy Google is making things, I don’t know why they wouldn’t.

As for what devices will support this functionality? All a user will need is an Android device with Jelly Bean or higher and with Google app v3.5 or higher. Google also mentions end users will be able to enable “Ok, Google” hot-word detection “from any screen, which offers them the fastest route between their search command and your app!”

What do you think of this upcoming 3rd party “Ok, Google” feature, potentially useful? Do you think many app developers will make use of it?

Email addresses stolen from new mobile payment system, CurrentC

CurrentC, the new mobile payment system set to take on Apple Pay and Google Wallet, have already ran into a bit of controversy it seems. Early testers of the app were recently sent an email explaining that their email addresses may have been stolen.

Backed by the Merchants Consumer Exchange (or MCX), CurrentC is a brand new mobile payment system created to rival the most popular payment networks. It’s funded by Walmart, Best Buy, the Gap, and more, and aims to bypass extra credit card fees, while connecting straight to your bank account. It has recently been promoted as a more secure form of mobile payment, though this latest ‘hack’ on their serves casts a little bit of doubt on that idea.

Early adopters of CurrentC received an email yesterday, which yielded some unsettling news. The email reads:

Thank you for your interest in CurrentC. You are receiving this message because you are either a participant in our pilot program or requested information about CurrentC. Within the last 36 hours, we learned that unauthorized third parties obtained the e-mail addresses of some of you. Based on investigations conducted by MCX security personnel, only these e-mail addresses were involved and no other information.”

The email explains that CurrentC would never ask users any extremely personal information, like bank account passwords, social security numbers, or any other financial information. If users are to receive messages asking about any of this information, know that it did not come from the CurrentC team. A PR rep from the company goes on to say,

…Many of these email addresses are dummy accounts used for testing purposes only. The CurrentC app itself was not affected. We have notified our merchant partners about this incident and directly communicated with each of the individuals whose email addresses were involved. We take the security of our users’ information extremely seriously. MCX is continuing to investigate this situation and will provide updates as necessary.

The only information that the hackers have are email addresses. While this isn’t a positive situation in the slightest, at least more sensitive information was kept out of the hackers’ hands.

We’re sure we’ll hear more from CurrentC in a statement sometime very soon. But isn’t it a little ironic that, in the midst of creating a “more secure form of mobile payment”, a scandal like this happens?  What’s to come of CurrentC is unknown, but they may take awhile to bounce back and win back the trust of its early adopters.

Material Design updates rolling out for Google Wallet and Play Games

Update Wednesday is often a feast-or-famine kind of experience, but today we feast! Not only did Play Movies & TV get an update that introduces interesting new info cards and a Material Design makeover, it seems that Google Wallet and Google Play Games are all following suit with their own MD updates.

Google Play Games doesn’t seem to offer any other changes outside of the new MD makeover, which brings all the colors and icon design changes you’d expect from Google’s new design language. Google Wallet, on the other hand, does bring some minor changes including the ability to set up recurring bank transfers to your account and new low balance alerts. Neither of these updates are exactly massive, but it’s no surprise to see Google pushing its new design language to as many apps as possible with the impending arrival of Android 5.0 Lollipop.

In typical fashion, you can expect the updates to roll out over the next few days and it could be as long as a week before they reach everyone. Thankfully you can skip the waiting game by downloading the APKs for manual installation:

• Google Play Games
• Google Wallet

Google Play Movies & TV update brings Material Design and new Info Cards

A new update to Google Play Movies & TV is on its way out, bringing a new Material Design makeover and an interesting new “Info Cards” system as well.

The Material Design changes include red header bars, buttons and iconography that float above parallax images, and several other visuals tweaks. There’s also a new “Watch Now” tab as part of the makeover, which makes it easier to find movies and TV shows within the app.

As for the Info Cards? When you cast content to the Chromecast or Nexus Player, you will now be presented with Info cards on your tablet or phone as the movie/show plays. These cards will have info like what other shows various actors played on, the name of the song playing in a movie/show, and so forth. The idea is to make it easier than ever to learn more about the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff going on in your favorite movies and shows without pausing and looking things up manually.

In Google’s typical fashion, the update will roll out in stages and should reach everyone “over the next week”. As soon as we get our hands on an APK, we’ll be sure to share it.

Google will show off new Ara prototype and developer tools in January

When Phonebloks first talked about the idea of modular mobile computing last year, we all thought the idea sounded cool but not exactly feasible. And then out of nowhere came Motorola ATAP Group’s announcement of Project Ara. Since then, ATAP has become part of Google and the project has evolved considerably.

As Google marches towards a limited commercial release (expected in early 2015), Ara’s project leaders have been slowly sharing new bits of information including a report about how Ara will support hot-swappable modules thanks to a modified version of Android L. For those looking for even more info on Ara and its upcoming launch, Google has announced that it will have plenty of new details at the next set of Ara developer conferences in January.

THE FACT THAT GOOGLE IS PRESENTING ITS ARA CONFERENCES TO SO MANY DIFFERENT REGIONS MAKES IT CLEAR THAT THEY TAKE THIS PROJECT SERIOUSLY

There will actually be two different conferences with the first one taking place on January 14th in Mountain View, with satellites in New York City, London and Buenos Aires. The second conference for the Asian market will be held on January 21st in Singapore with satellites in Toyko, Bangalore, Taipei, and Shanghai. Google says that the content of the conference will be identical with leadership from the project showing off the latest Ara prototype(s) and there will also be talk about the “major changes and advances” to the tools it will provide to module makers. In addition, Google will also highlight its commercial plans for the project as well.

The fact that Google is presenting its Ara conferences to so many different regions makes it clear that they take this project seriously and are keen on attracting developers from all across the globe. For those interested in attending, you’ll ned to pay a $25-$200 fee and the deadline to apply is November 26th.

While we wait for the latest Ara news in January, Phonebloks hopes to tide us over a bit by providing us a new video that shows off work being done at NK Labs, a contractor involved with the Ara Project. Even more exciting, a new prototype called Spiral 2 can be seen in the video:

What do you think of Ara, excited for the initial release or still think this project is too ambitious to ever be successful?

Buy a Nexus 6 and get 6 months of free Google Play Music All Access

Today is the day that the Nexus 6 is supposed to go up for pre-order, though the phone’s listing currently says “out of inventory” after going on sale for less than a minute in the US. It’s (hopefully) likely the phone will return to stock sometime later today (surely that one-minute window didn’t deplete their entire stock…) and for those who are able (or who have already been able) to snag a pre-order, Google is throwing in a nice little bonus: 6 months of free Google Play Music All Access.

In order to qualify for the promo, you need to order a Nexus 6 between now and December 31st. You also will need to redeem the offer by the end of January.

Six months of free access is certainly an appealing offer, representing a $60 value. That said, Google likely reasons that this long period will be enough time to hook users to the service and keep them on for good. It’s also worth mentioning that the offer is only good for new subscribers that haven’ t had service on a paid or trial basis for at least 12 months.

Anyone planning on picking up the Nexus 6, what do you think of this offer?

Nexus 6 is now available for pre-order in the Play Store, ships from November 21

Update: According to several reports on Reddit and throughout the web, many folks saw the device listed and were able to pre-order, but now it seems that the device is listed “out of inventory” for everyone (or at least just about everyone). Considering how short the ordering window was, it was very possible that there was a glitch or that the page’s pre-order status wasn’t supposed to go live yet. Either way, we’ll keep you updated as we learn more about the Nexus 6’s ordering status. Anyone have success pre-ordering the Nexus 6?

Google is trying a different approach this year in putting the Nexus 6 up for sale. For the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 5, Google simply opened the virtual doors of the Play Store and hoped for the best. The digital stampede that followed frustrated and disappointed tons of users, and naturally, all fingers were pointed towards Google.

For the Nexus 6 and the Nexus 9, Google is using a pre-order system. The device is now available for pre-order in the Play Store (though only for US customers reportedly) starting from $649. Redditors who managed to complete their order report the shipping date is November 21!

• Nexus 6 32GB Midnight Blue – $649
• Nexus 6 64GB Midnight Blue – $699
• Nexus 6 32GB Cloud White – $649
• Nexus 6 64GB Cloud White – $699

Note that the listings don’t seem to be available to all users. Some users are seeing “out of inventory” messages.

While the Nexus 6 is a very attractive device, the relatively high price tag (compared to the Nexus 5, which remains available in the Play Store) will probably limit its appeal and prevent the buildup of overwhelming demand. Hopefully, the Nexus 6 will remain in stock for more than a few hours and the Play Store won’t buckle under heavy demand like it happened in the past.

Google is throwing in six months of free access of Play Music access to every Nexus 6 buyer. More details here.

Are you ordering a Nexus 6 today? Are you waiting for it to go on sale from retailers? Or are you skipping it altogether?