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The latest news on all your favorite apps.
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Google Inbox will remind you to unsubscribe from unread promo emails
Google has made email a much less tedious, junky affair for a lot of us, and it's about to take another step to helping us clean out our inboxes. According to a report over at Android Police, users of Google's Inbox app will start seeing new tips that will prompt them to unsubscribe from any promotional emails that haven't been opened in a month.
Sling TV now streams directly on your 2017 Samsung smart TV
If you bought one of Samsung's 2017 smart TV models, you can go ahead and ditch the device you're using to pipe in Sling TV. The live TV streaming company announced today that its app is now available directly those models, which will nix the need for separate streaming gadget or set-top box. You'll need to have either a Sling Orange or Sling Blue subscription, though there is a free 7-day trial period if you're newly signing up. You'll also need to install the app on your set by searching for "Sling TV" in the Samsung Smart Hub and then log in to your account in order to get started.
Microsoft's Mixer app relaunches with more streaming features
Microsoft's revamped Mixer app is coming out of beta. Back in October the company announced it was working on redesigning the livestreaming app to make it easier to find new and relevant gaming broadcasts. Features included a reworked Trending section, a featured streams carousel and better filters, among others. The team has completely pulled apart Mixer's existing underlying framework to rebuild it on a brand new code base, which means updates and bug fixes should come faster than ever.
Google finally integrates Duo on Android call screen
Google has been planning to integrate its Duo video chat on Pixel, Nexus and Android One phones for a couple of months. According to a report at Android Police, the company is rolling out Duo video chat in the ordinary phone dialer app, which basically makes the app a kind of Android Facetime. Engadget has also confirmed the feature.
You can now pre-order apps for Apple devices
Apple has launched a simple new feature that makes it even easier to get the apps you've been waiting for. The company announced a new pre-order function that lets developers make their future releases available on the App Store up to 90 days in the future and have them automatically download to devices when they launch.
Google app experiments push the limits of phone photography
Google doesn't want to limit its photographic prowess to its own phones -- it just released an initial batch of "appsperiments" that use the company's knack for computer vision and other technologies to test the boundaries of phone photography. Storyboard for Android is arguably the highlight. The app uses object recognition and style algorithms to automatically grab interesting frames from a video and drop them into comic-style layouts with appropriate filters. You could summarize an event just by recording one video, rather than remembering to take gobs of photos.
Apple is reportedly buying Shazam and its music identification tech
In a bit of Friday afternoon news, TechCrunch reports that Apple plans to buy Shazam, the company behind the popular audio identification software and app. Apparently, the site's sources indicate the deal could be announced Monday, but it's quick to note the timing on these things isn't always solid. As you can imagine, rumored terms of the deal, including a sale price, aren't reliable just yet. The acquisition would give Apple ownership of the music, TV and movie identifying tech and a group of features it could easily take advantage of with its own products.
Plex on Android now works more like a 'real' DVR
Plex recently turned your devices into virtual DVRs through its live TV update, but there have been limitations: you couldn't timeshift to replay an important moment, and watching a show while it recorded required a second TV tuner. Not much of a replacement for a real DVR, is it? The situation just got much better, however, as Plex has updated its Android app with support for both timeshifting and, as you might expect, watching a live show while in mid-recording. If you missed a crucial play in the big game or just want to repeat what someone said, you can skip back just like you would with a conventional DVR.
Google shuts down Chrome ‘apps’ section on Mac and Windows
Way back in August 2016, Google announced that it would be shuttering the apps section in the Chrome Web Store. As the company had stated in a blog post, this was one step in a process to shut down standalone Chrome Apps that nobody really downloaded from their browser anymore. Today Google followed through: Chrome browser users can no longer access or install apps from the Chrome Web Store.
HQ's live trivia is coming to Android in time for the holidays
Since launching in August the HQ app has been attracting hundreds of thousands of players to its twice-daily live trivia games, but so far they're all playing on iPhones. Now, a tweet indicates that Android users will be able to get in on the action soon, since "HQ has a nice little stocking stuffer coming your way." The game came from two Vine co-founders and has seen as many as 400,000 people logging on at 3 and 9 PM ET to try and win cash prizes of up to a few thousand dollars by answering trivia questions. We've seen some attempts at this before, including NBC's short-lived Million Second Quiz game show/app and the Xbox Live game 1 vs. 100. There are other games like Trivia Crack and Quiz Up, but they don't have the same live event hook, while Family Feud Live features tournaments for cash prizes but also contains subscription fees and pushes in-app purchases heavily.
Microsoft's Whiteboard Preview app is all about collaboration
In the quest to release better collaboration tools, Microsoft released its Whiteboard Preview app in a private beta. The software lets teams mark up multiple boards with cute skeumorphic details to ease users into working on a shared digital canvas. Now Microsoft is publicly rolling it out for all Windows 10 users to download, which will soon go live on the Windows Store.
Fitbit's Ionic will let you play Deezer from your wrist
Fitbit's Ionic smartwatch suffers from a dearth of apps, we noted in our Engadget review, but the wearable firm is trying to flip that equation with an update to its Fitbit OS. It will bring over 100 new watch faces and 60 apps, including Yelp, Nest, Hue Lights and Flipboard. The most interesting one is Deezer, coming in 2018, as it will run on the Ionic without a smartphone, lightening the load for runners and other athletes. The company also launched Fitbit Labs, a new effort to create apps that motivate athlete behavior changes and accelerate Fitbit's pace of innovation.
Google embraces the notch with iPhone X Gmail update
First released on November 3rd, the iPhone X forced developers to scramble to adapt apps to that famous notch and the lack of a home button. Google is no exception, and after optimizing its productivity suite last week (Docs, Sheets and Slides), it's now Gmail's turn. No longer will you have to put up with a letterboxed view of your communications, as Google's mail app now integrates the cutout in its top rail.
MyFitnessPal's founders leave Under Armour
Under Armour's $475 million buyout of MyFitnessPal in 2015 may have put a major health app under its wing, but it didn't secure the undying loyalty of the smaller company's founders. Albert Lee and Mike Lee are leaving Under Armour in January to "pursue their next entrepreneurial ventures." Just what they're doing next isn't clear (unsurprisingly, both Albert and Mike still show on LinkedIn as working for UA). With that said, it's safe to say that their next project will draw attention.
Android will flag snooping apps that don’t warn users
Google, a company that known to keep uncomfortably close tabs on users, is taking new measures to ensure that other Android apps don't do the same without proper warning. The company's Safe Browsing team has unveiled stricter enforcement of its "unwanted software policy," warning users off apps that collect your personal data without consent. Google's search engine will even scare users away from websites that offer up apps violating its policies.
Google cracks down on apps with shady lock screen ads
Following years of complaints by users, Google is cracking down on Android apps that show shady ads on your lock screen, according to a new developer policy spotted by Android Police. That includes very popular ones like ES File Explorer, which has over 100 million downloads to date. They often force annoying, obtrusive and even spyware ads to pop up for games, iffy anti-virus tools and other dreck.
Waze adds hands-free navigation to keep your eyes on the road
Waze has a number of measures to reduce distractions and keep your eyes on the road ahead, but there has been one inescapable distraction: you usually have to touch the screen to get things done. That's a problem, especially in areas where distracted driving laws make it illegal to poke at your phone while on the move. It shouldn't be a problem for much longer. Waze's latest update includes a hands-free navigation option that lets you handle most tasks using only your voice. Say "OK, Waze" and you can navigate to a destination or report a traffic jam without losing focus.
Samsung made an app that adjusts its TVs for color blindness
Samsung has launched an app that makes watching TV a more vibrant experience for people with color vision deficiency (CVD) -- the inability to distinguish certain shades of color (also known as color blindness). Through the SeeColors app, users can test their visual color spectrum, and based on their unique diagnosis their QLED TV will adjust settings to give a more accurate color display (something a number of video games have been working on for a while, too).
Google Docs, Slides and Sheets now feature drag-and-drop on iPad
It was nice to see Google integrate its Drive apps into iOS 11's document-consolidating Files, but it seems they're not done refining. This morning, the search giant updated several of its productivity suite apps for iOS to add two features: Compatibility with iPhone X and drag-and-drop functionality on iPad.
Newton's simple-is-better email app gets a calendar counterpart
The Newton app is a quality (if pricey) email client that offers simplicity on the surface and intelligence underneath, but it has at least one glaring flaw: that design philosophy doesn't carry over when you need to check your schedule. The Android app had a calendar feature, but it was bolted on. You might not have to make that trade-off for much longer. The developer has introduced a separate Newton Calendar app for iOS, and it continues that less-is-more strategy while adding some thoughtful touches. Most notably, you don't have to wade through the usual forms to add an event -- you tap the date, type in the time and title and you're set.