Google Image Search helps you surf shots of your favorite people, places and things as well as research products, destinations, dishes and styles. Now on the Google app for Android and mobile web, we’re adding relevant badges to images indicating what else you can discover with a single tap. These badges will help you uncover images where next steps or more in-depth information is available—everything from bags to buy, to recipes to try.
Now in the bottom lefthand corner of the image, you’ll see a badge that categorizes the image you’re viewing, as well as text to help clarify the action you can take. So for example, if you look for "cupcakes" in Image Search, you'll see badges for both video and recipe results. For other queries, you may also see badges for products and GIFs as well.
We hope this new feature will help you jumpstart your journey of visual discovery—connecting you with the right info and sites to suit your needs.
Police are confident that 59-year-old John Burns has a connection to at least 19 arsons on Sharon’s west side. All of those fires have happened since the beginning of this year.
At this point, he is only charged with one count of attempted arson and one count of causing or risking catastrophe. ... Over the past two years, the total number of fires in Sharon is estimated to be near 30.
BLU is one of many low-end phone manufacturers, known for its dirt-cheap unlocked Android phones. But back in November, a security firm discovered spyware on some BLU phones sold in the United States, prompting Amazon to stop selling the affected devices until the issue was resolved.
But it looks like BLU is, once again, in trouble with Amazon. The retailer is ceasing sales of some BLU devices (there are still some available for purchase, at the time of writing) following an announcement from security firm Kryptowire at the recent Black Hat security conference.
Google and Apple have removed hundreds of financial trading apps from their app stores following an investigation suggesting that thousands of people may have been scammed – many of them seniors. Some have reportedly lost their entire life savings.
The action follows an investigation by a newspaper and a review by a securities & investment body …
Sometimes it’s the little things that are the most frustrating, and you can say that about Android quite a lot, unfortunately. One of those issues which users have complained about for years is the lack of a Bluetooth battery indicator in the OS, but it seems that Google is finally delivering on that feature in a future version of the OS.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.
Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the widgets, which include ratings and pricing info.
Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.
The Nintendo Switch Online app is Nintendo's try at an online service for the Nintendo Switch that allows players to communicate, but instead of building it into the Switch, it is actually a separate app for your Android device.
What would some of the most iconic items of recent pop culture look like if they were real, enormous, and left to rot away? Filip Hodas explores the possibilities in his cool illustrations. (more…)
EyeEm announce the finalists for their 2017 awards, and among the many standouts, the Outdoors category is especially impressive and competitive. (more…)
The story varies depending on the source—momma being killed by a trap, run over by a car, lawnmowered, etc—but in all cases the result is this video of a pile of baby hedgehogs suckling on a cat.
Kids Pass is a service that offers discounts on family activities in the UK; their website makes several common -- and serious -- security problems that could allow hackers to capture their users' passwords, which endangers those users' data on other services where they have (unwisely) recycled those same passwords.
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Street artist Tom Bob has made it his mission to turn a world full of drab and unremarkable little corners into charming moments with his brightly-colored re-renderings. (more…)
While this isn't live now in any version of Chrome from stable to Canary, work is underway to improve the way notifications through the app that originate from websites are handled on Android O by giving them individual channels.
Currently, with all Chrome versions (59 stable to 62 Canary), the app offers 5 different notification channels: Browser, Downloads, Incognito, Media, and Sites. These let you assign different importance levels and choose how each type of notification is handled by the system.
Wink is a name that's decently well-known in the smart home space. Previously owned by the ill-fated Quirky, the home automation company got pawned off to Flextronics. Now, Wink will be joining i.am+, the firm founded by entertainer will.i.am. The sum of the acquisition is unknown right now, however, i.am+'s PR has confirmed the purchase.
This news first made the rounds when Wink itself started sending out notices to customers. You can see the email below.
Google has a tendency to create multiple products that end up competing with each other, to some degree. Android and Chrome OS, Google's handful of messaging clients, the list goes on. But two of Google's subscription services, YouTube Red and Google Play Music, will soon merge into one offering.
The merge was confirmed during a panel session at the New Music Seminar conference in New York, by YouTube's head of music, Lyor Cohen.
Plenty of Android apps are distracting, but some can be helpful at keeping you productive, too.
"Get off Instagram and stay off Twitter" has become my mantra as I work in silence at home, with every distraction at my whim and no one around to hold me accountable. Frankly, this is the perfect time for AI to come into play and save me from myself, but until I can command something like Google Home to keep me in check, I'll have to rely on a series of apps.
I see you, those of you placing your smartphone in front of you, right next to the keyboard so that you can glance at notifications throughout the workday. You thought you had everyone in the office fooled by putting it on silent mode. Don't feel bad: I'm the same, which is why I want to share my new routine with those of you who are just as glued to their smartphones as I am.
Employ a to-do list
Trello is an incredibly helpful tool if all you need to do is get what's inside your brain dumped out onto a project management board.
I start off every morning by peeking at my paper to-do list from the afternoon before. From there, I make any adjustments as I pore through email. Some people like to use Google Keep for its long-running to-do list feature, but I prefer the pen and paper method for the sheer fact that I like to doodle.
Then, I head into Trello, a robust project management tool that helps me organize my tasks for the week and offers satisfying visual feedback when I complete a project. The free version is limited in its functionality and only lets you choose one plug-in, but you can access your boards from a smartphone or browser.
Develop a routine
I respond well to bright colors and positive reinforcement, so Fabulous was a natural fit for ensuring I stuck to a consistent routine of daily check-ins and timely breaks. The app offers coaching based on research conducted at Duke University to help with common habits like drinking water and developing a nighttime routine. You might find you prefer its gamification elements if you're a fan of immediate feedback, though you'll have to pay a monthly membership fee to unlock all of its useful features.
If you like the idea of making a game out of developing a daily habit but would rather not spend any money, try out the personalized RPG called Habitica. Or check out our suggestions for other helpful, habit-forming apps.
Stay on task
Perhaps the most important part of the workday is how much you get done within a set period. My favorite app to use is Forest, which lets me "grow" a tiny forest based on how long I stay productive throughout the day. With every marathon of productivity, the app produces a virtual tree for me to plant in my forest. Each tree also garners me points, which I can then redeem to help plant a tree through Trees for the Future. The app silences my notifications and keeps me from going to the Android home screen, while the accompanying Chrome extension is useful for blocking Twitter and Instagram during peak hours.
For those of you who like more bells and whistles with apps that keep you on task, Brain Focus Productivity Timer has favorable ratings in the Google Play Store and receives consistent updates. The app lets you pause and resume work sessions and color code them as you need, and it disables Wi-Fi and sounds from catching your attention. If you spring for the pro version, you can unlock additional calendar integration, widgets, and compatibility with Android Wear.
There's one other app I use to stay on task — the task of sleeping, that is. I thought I could get away with an app that tracks my progress, but it doesn't penalize enough for me to care. SleepTown does, however, and it's a bit like Forest in that it requires me to do what I've set out to do, with great consequences if I don't.
SleepTown helps with keeping me off my phone after a certain hour. Like Forest, the more often I avoid picking up my phone after I'm supposed to be sleep, the more houses I build to add to the suburb of SleepTown. The app requires that you pay 99 cents to unlock the ability to save the houses to your town, but I'm finding the small price worth the utility.
How do you stay on track?
While researching for this article, I came across a vast number of methods for staying focused, including a helpful explainer from Lifehacker and this list of online tools. Or, you can take Wired's advice, and avoid push notifications entirely.
How do you stay on task? Do you even bother using your smartphone? Leave a comment and let us know.
The USB 3.0 Promoter Group, the collective who develops the standard, has announced that USB 3.2 will introduce “multi-lane operation.” What does this mean? Data transfer over USB-C will be twice as quick, assuming you have a compatible device and cable…
Farewell, Flash. Adobe's once-dominant multimedia format that powered so many restaurant websites and early interactive web games will be mothballed at the end of 2020, the software company said Tuesday.
The UK -- like most countries -- excludes "inactive workers" (students, new parents, people who don't want a job) from its unemployment figures, but "inactive" is such a slippery concept that it can paper over huge cracks in the labor market.
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Around this time last year, Lenovo-owned Motorola announced the Moto Z/Z Force – the first two phones that ushered in Motorola’s modular ecosystem with Moto Mods. The Z/Z Force proved to be rather successful entries in Motorola’s lineup, and succeeding those two phones this year is the Moto Z2 Force.
more…
Buoy and Canoe were in bad shape when they were rescued, but they bounced back thanks to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center. Watch this heartwarming footage of the pair getting released back into the ocean. (more…)
The scene: a kitchen table. It could be anywhere. A pet bird, possibly a cockatoo, stands next to box made of woven fibers. It flips open the lid of the box, revealing a kitten resting inside. The bird sees something in the box (a loose strand of fiber?), and when it makes an exploratory nip, the kitten boops the bird on the beak. The bird flips the lid back on the box, trapping the kitten inside. The gif ends.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so.
