Category Archives: Google

Google's latest Play Services is heavily focused on its digital Wallet app, adding a new card on Fitbit as its payment service prepares to conclude.

As detailed in its System patch notes, Google Play Services version 24.25 brings Wallet support for American Express cards on Fitbit devices (via 9to5Google). The update extends Wallet updates to Android devices, with the company stating new features have arrived for users adding an ID to their digital wallet.

Wallet on Android picks up Pix support as an alternative payment method for shoppers. Additionally, users receive support for adding an e-wallet as a payment method through Google Wallet.

Alternatively, users can use a paired e-wallet in Google Pay to complete a transaction.

These new features for Wallet on Android and the new card support in Fitbit Pay rolling out and should soon become more widely available.

Google's newfound American Express support for Fitbit users arrives as the company is preparing to conclude Fitbit Pay services in July. The company informed users via an email in May that Google Wallet will succeed all Fitbit Pay app functions on the wearable company's devices on July 29.

Google stated that the movie should "benefit" the user as it opens up a portfolio containing around 5,000 supported banks and cards to add. Fitbit Pay's impending shutdown will affect the following devices: Fitbit Charge 6, Charge 5, Charge 4, Charge 3, Sense 2, Sense, Versa 4, Versa 3, Versa 2, and the Versa.

Get the latest news from Android Central, your trusted companion in the world of Android

Fitbit encourages users to begin transferring their paired cards and banks to Wallet ahead of the July 29 cut-off date. Users have retained the ability to utilize the Fitbit Pay app on their trackers and watches since May. However, the option to add cards was removed.

Google's absorption of Fitbit into its ecosystem continues as the company recently shut down the wearable's standalone online store.

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Google Wallet supports American Express as the end of Fitbit Pay looms - Android Central

The Google Pixel Fold is one of the best foldable smartphones that money can buy right now, especially if youre in the US, where the selection of foldables is fairly limited comnpared to regions like the EU. That said, there are still a few noteworthy devices available, most of which are available at similar prices, and with similar benefits.

However, the Pixel Fold stands out with its wider design, which can unfold to reveal a large landscape main display that measures 7.6-inches. Its excellent for browsing, multitasking, and even gaming. However, given its been over a year since the Pixel Fold's debut, its time to ask whether its still worth buying it today, or if you should wait for the Pixel Fold 2, rumored to release as early as, potentially, Google's August 13th Pixel event.

Google's first foldable fails to live up to its full potential

As a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold user who also tried the Pixel Fold for a short time, I can attest that Google has nailed the essentials with this device. The Android system features a dock and the ability to run two apps side-by-side, among other useful functions. It's a smooth experience, and while power users like myself may occasionally use three or four apps when the phone is unfolded, its not necessary for most tasks.

Thats why its only fine for the most part, though. While Google has done a great job optimizing the software experience for most users, its not great for power users who want to have their notes, a specific app, and a calculator open, for example. Or any other combination of apps.

These are niche use cases, but the Fold is for a niche audience. Its more expensive than conventional devices, and its best suited for those who can take advantage of the massive display. Therefore, Google shouldve done a little more.

The Pixel Fold received a lot of mixed press initially, due to the display breaking for some users, and the phone's inability to fully open. It wasnt a good start, despite the phone working well for most people. Months later, the issues have seemingly disappeared, but the damage was already done, and most power users still joke about the Pixel Fold not being able to fully open, or requiring too much force to do so.

At this point, its probably fair to say the hardware wasnt as solid as most people thought, but it still worked as intended. While, yes, it required some force to open completely, the rest of the hardware worked well, and it still holds up today. It's why we still recommend it as one of the best foldable devices around.

The Pixel Fold boasts a 5.8-inch cover and a 7.6-inch main display. Its plenty bright, colorful, and large enough to handle most tasks. But one of the main reasons why it wasn't the best device is due to Googles decision to make it open in a horizontal state. While this goes against my first point, it wasnt entirely on Google for the Fold's lack of success.

Developers didnt optimize their apps to work in that mode, and many applications didnt play well in that orientation. Apps would often have empty spaces on the sides, and apps sometimes opened in a traditional aspect ratio, as if it were a normal smartphone without the folding element.

It wasnt a great experience, especially compared to the likes of Samsung or OnePlus' foldables, which used vertical orientations when their devices were unfolded.

But not all hope is lost. The original Pixel Fold showed us that Google wants a slice of the pie, and it did a lot of things right. It showed us the company can design its own foldable that can mostly track the quality of other competing devices, even though it was technically the first generation of its kind.

It has likely provided Google with valuable experience, enabling them to do better for the next iteration. And we might just be in for a treat. Assuming the rumors are true, the next Pixel Fold could feature major upgrades.

This year's Pixel Fold successor might be all new, right down to its very name

For one, the design will move from a horizontal experience to a vertical one, more closely resembling a traditional foldable phone. It wont be as wide as the first-generation Fold, either, so the phone should play nicer with apps when unfolded. Leaked photos and renders mostly show it taking inspiration from devices like the OnePlus Open, which is good, as OnePlus first foldable remains one of our favorite devices.

Theres still a lot to learn about the Google Pixel Fold 2, with some rumors even claiming it could be called the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. However, as things stand, it looks like the Fold 2 could be a massive upgrade, coming with hardware improvements that could appeal to even more people, and have better software that presents apps in a way thats more user-friendly. Unless you find an amazing deal on the Google Pixel Fold, its almost certainly best to wait for other foldables.

The original Pixel Fold might not have the reputation as the best foldable device, but its the best phone Google has to offer. Its powerful and full, comes with two large and bright displays, a decent camera setup, and a day-long battery life. It provides benefits to both power users and those who prefer a more minimalist approach to software.

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Should you buy the Google Pixel Fold, or wait for the Pixel Fold 2? - Android Police

In a statement provided to Mishaal Rahman, a senior contributor to sites like Android Authority and Android Police, which they shared on X, Google acknowledged the concerns over its Find My Device network. We are actively working to roll out enhancements to how the Find My Device network operates that will improve the speed and ability of locating lost items over the coming weeks. Devices are continuing to join the new Find My Device network, and we expect the network to grow, which will also help improve lost device findability.

The performance of crowdsourced tracking networks like Androids Find My Device is dependent on the number of users actively using the service out in the wild. Initially only available in the US and Canada, the upgraded Find My Device network rollout has been slow and only recently expanded to the United Kingdom last month.

As Google states, the networks performance will improve as it continues to grow, but in its statement to Rahman, it also suggested that users could improve it ahead of the planned enhancements by changing their Find My Device network setting to With network in all areas.

The Find My Device network setting defaults to With network in high-traffic areas only, which will wait until multiple Android devices have detected a lost item before sharing its location as calculated from several different location reports. As the name implies, that approach works best in busy locations like shopping malls or airports where multiple devices detect a lost item, with an extra layer of privacy for the Android devices sharing location info.

Changing that setting to With network in all areas can potentially help locate lost items faster in lower-traffic areas because instead of aggregating its location from several Android devices that have detected it, the location from just a single device is used. The reason With network in all areas isnt the default setting is because it requires users to opt in to sharing location info through the network, according to Google, which some may be hesitant to do over privacy concerns.

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Google will address Android's Find My Device network issues over the coming weeks - The Verge

A product of Googles Area 120 incubator, Stack was one of those overlooked gems that was just, well, useful: it allowed you to create or import PDFs and store them in different categories that it called Stacks: tax, insurance, medical, etc. The app would pick up data from the PDF to suggest a title, add searchable details like the date of the document, the amount (if it was a receipt), or the organization that issued it, and there was also a field to add notes.

According to Googles support page, Stacks functionality has been incorporated into the Google Drive app. As someone who used Stack to save and then easily locate a number of PDFs that I needed quick access to, I could argue with that, but hey it isnt as if Google isnt known for its graveyard of abandoned apps.

If youve been using Stack to create and track your PDFs, youre going to want to move some or all of your documents. Google suggests that you move them to Google Drive and has incorporated a feature into Stack to make that an easy two-step process:

When you go to Drive, youll find a folder labeled Stack Export; all your PDFs will be within that folder. Unfortunately, if youre a Stack user and youve been carefully categorizing and labeling your PDFs, youll find it was wasted effort the folder will simply contain all the PDFs with none of the categorization or additional text included.

If you dont want to keep your documents in Drive, the easiest thing to do is to send them all to Drive and move them out from there. However, you can also export them from Stack wherever youd like; its just a more arduous method:

Once youve moved your PDFs out of Stack, you can go to the apps Settings > Delete page to get rid of all those carefully organized documents.

Finally, from someone who really liked this particular app: thanks a lot, Google.

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PDF organizer Stack is the latest app to hit the Google graveyard - The Verge

Google Keep logo | Image credit Google

This means you can have two Keep windows open side-by-side, each logged into a different Google account. This is particularly handy for users who manage both personal and work accounts, or for those who simply have multiple Google accounts.

Now, with multi-account support, each of these split-screen instances can be logged into a different Google account. This opens up a whole new level of productivity and flexibility for Google Keep users on large-screen Android devices.

Having side by side Google Keep instance with different accounts will now be possible | Images credit Google

This feature is available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as Workspace Individual Subscribers and users with personal Google accounts. So, no matter what type of Google account you have, if you're using Google Keep on a large-screen Android device, you'll be able to take advantage of this new multi-account support.

This update is just the latest in a series of improvements that Google has been making to its Workspace apps. It's clear that Googlewants to make its productivity tools as useful as possible for users of large screen devices.

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Google Keep now supports using two accounts side by side on Android tablets and foldables - PhoneArena

Enlarge / The logo for PaLM 2, a Google large language model.

Google

Google announced today that it has added support for 110 new languages to Google Translate, nearly doubling the number of languages that can be translated.

The company used the PaLM 2 large language model to facilitate these additions.

He noted that about a quarter of the languages originate in Africa, "representing our largest expansion of African languages to date."

The blog post also went into some light detail about Google's philosophy for choosing languages and deciding which dialects to support:

Languages have an immense amount of variation: regional varieties, dialects, different spelling standards. In fact, many languages have no one standard form, so its impossible to pick a right variety. Our approach has been to prioritize the most commonly used varieties of each language. For example, Romani is a language that has many dialects all throughout Europe. Our models produce text that is closest to Southern Vlax Romani, a commonly used variety online. But it also mixes in elements from others, like Northern Vlax and Balkan Romani.

This update brings the total number of languages supported by Google Translate to 243, which is just the beginning of the company's publicized initiative to ultimately support 1,000 languages through the use of AI. You can see the full list of languages added in a help page published by Google.

By contrast, Apple Translate supports 21 languages, though that number includes both US and UK English as distinct options. Apple recently announced plans to add Hindi to its Translate app. Of course, Apple and Google take very different approaches toand have different levels of investment inthese tools.

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Google Translate just nearly doubled its number of supported languages - Ars Technica

Google said in a press briefing Wednesday that its latest AI model, Gemini 1.5 Flash, is 20% faster than OpenAIs newest bot, ChatGPT-4o.

Apple has fixed multiple security issues with its devices this year

Google announced Thursday that Gemini 1.5 Flash is now available to the general public. The AI chatbot was first announced at Google I/O in May and has been available in public preview meaning customers have been able to test the product and provide feedback for the last month. Gemini 1.5 Flash can analyze one hour of video, 11 hours of audio, or more than 700,000 words in one query, rather than users having to break their questions up into chunks. In a presentation to journalists, Google showed how the bot could analyze a 14-minute video in one minute.

Google said the latest AI bot is also 40% faster than ChatGPT-3.5-turbo and has a higher capacity for information. In other words, users can include a lot more context whether its audio, video, code, or text in their questions for Gemini 1.5 Flash and, in return, apparently get more accurate answers.

Its the fastest model at the best price to performance option in the market, said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. Gemini 1.5 Flash is available for developers in a limited capacity for free and, beyond that, at variable prices depending on how much data users want to input.

Gemini 1.5 Pro is about 10 times as expensive but described by Google as its overall best model. It can take in even more context: 22 hours of audio and 1.5 million words. You can reason across an entire companys history, which could be 10 years worth of financial statements in one query, said Kurian.

Google stated that its recent updates to Gemini 1.5 Flash, its flagship model Gemini 1.5 Pro, and its image-generator Imagen 3 make its AI software bundle the most enterprise-ready generative AI platform on the market. It named several enterprise customers using its products, including UberEats, Moodys, and Shutterstock.

Those customers are turning to Google in part due to one particular new update to its AI: accelerated grounding abilities, announced Thursday. Gemini models now show answers grounded (e.g. attached) to a source with a link. Those answers are also given a grounding (e.g. trustworthiness) score.

...these elements are designed to improve factuality, substantially reduce hallucination. Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian on the companys new fact-checking, or grounding features.

Moodys Analytics Chief Product Officer Nick Reed told reporters, Grounding is a pretty fundamental process in being able to use generative AI for decision making processes, particularly in financial services. The financial services company is a customer of Google Gemini 1.5 Flash.

Google said it will also launch a new industry-specific grounding tool in the third quarter, which will allow financial analysts, for example, to ground their AI queries against Moodys data or legal experts to ground questions against Thomson Reuters sources.

60%: About how much Google profits rose in the first quarter, partly thanks to AI.

22: Hours of audio Gemini 1.5 Pro can analyze.

1: Minutes it takes Gemini 1.5 Flash to analyze a 14-minute video.

20%: How much faster Gemini 1.5 Flash is compared to ChatGPT-4o, according to Google.

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Google says its latest Gemini AI is 20% faster than the newest ChatGPT - Quartz

Google is shutting down its VPN by Google One service, according to a vague customer email seen by Android Authority, less than four years after it was rolled out in October 2020. The email doesnt specify when this will happen, only that the VPN service will be discontinued later this year.

Subscription prices for Google Ones VPN start at $1.99, with availability on Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. The company told 9to5Google that it is killing the service because people simply werent using it. Perhaps its customers were simply spoilt for choice, given this is actually one of three VPN services provided by Google alongside the VPN offerings still available via Google Fi, and Pixel devices from the Pixel 7 on up.

VPN by Google One is the latest offering to get tossed into the infamous Google Graveyard just weeks after the Google One cloud storage service announced it had hit a 100 million subscriber milestone. Google mentioned in its shutdown email that the VPN was being phased out to focus on providing the most in-demand features and benefits, which may relate to all the Gemini AI stuff that the company is shoving into Google One.

Continued here:

The Google One VPN service is heading to the Google graveyard - The Verge

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

Ive been a Google One subscriber for a couple of years now. At first, I tried to avoid the subscription as long as I could because I dont like accruing monthly or yearly payments. But as my Google Photos storage started to fill up over years of traveling, attending concerts, watching sports games, and visiting interesting places around Paris, it became clear that my free Google quota wasnt going to cut it anymore.

I made the jump and thought I was getting a decent deal with my $20 100GB One storage plan. Extra space for my photos and videos so I can keep all my memories and people in one place, plus a decent Google One VPN service, all for less than $2 a month. Sure, I felt a bit sour to see Google offer One subscribers extra features in the US, but Im so used to being snuffed that I forgot about it.

101 votes

Yes, and I plan to keep my subscription.

36 %

Yes, but I'm questioning my subscription.

32 %

No, I tried it and quit.

4 %

No, I never subscribed to Google One.

29 %

Things were great for over a year. I set up automatic backups of my media and files to my own Synology NAS drive, so I wasnt solely relying on Google Drive and Photos. Thats why I kept my Photos uploads locked to the compressed quality. I also used the VPN when I needed it. And I used my One storage to keep backups of my Android phones, tablets, and Wear OS watches.

But some recent changes are starting to make me question the value of my One subscription. First, Google announced that all WhatsApp backups would start counting against One storage. Thats one feature Google had previously offered for free and was now sweeping away under our noses. I dont have an issue with companies making money from their services, but I have an issue with the bait-and-switch approach. Just tell me something will be free for a couple of years and paid later, so I can make an informed decision by committing to it.

With that decision, Google took back 3.48GB from my One storage. Its not much, but I hadnt counted on losing 3.5% of the 100GB I was paying for. And thats considering I dont back up videos. Anyone who uses WhatsApp a lot more than me and hangs on to their videos will be out a lot more than just 3-4GB. Thats why some people are receiving an email telling them theyll run out of One storage in 30 days.

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

Then, a couple of days ago, Google started emailing One subscribers to tell them that VPN by Google One is shutting down. One more service for the Google graveyard, but this one is something we were paying for. Unlike random free offshoots like Google Podcasts, Inbox, or even Reader (RIP), this one was part of a paid subscription. Its not the first time Google has shut down a paid service Stadia, Nest Secure, and Play Music say hi but this one did come out of the blue.

Googles VPN wasnt perfect as a standalone VPN service, but it had its fans, and it was the one nifty extra perk of Google One over other cloud storage services. When we asked you about it, over 53% of 8000+ Android Authority readers told us they use Google One, with 33% specifying they used it very often. Its rare to get this much endorsement for a Google service, and this one seems to have its fans.

But apparently, not enough to justify Googles investment. Now, those who mightve picked Google One over other cloud services because of its extra perks will be left without it. They could move to other providers soon.

For me, the death of this feature and the WhatsApp change both make Google One less appealing than it ever was. At this point, the only thing keeping me locked or even practically imprisoned in Googles cloud service is Photos. All my memories are so perfectly indexed there, thanks to Googles automatic face, place, and thing grouping and my personally curated albums. It would take me weeks to recreate this in any other photo service, no matter how much cheaper it is or how many extra features it offers.

I bet Google knows this, too. It knows it can kill every other One perk, and people would still pay for the storage because of Google Photos, wouldnt they?

See original here:

Google One is losing a lot of its appeal, but Photos has me locked in - Android Authority

Google may be shaking things up with the launch of the Pixel 9 series later this year because we could see four individual models, including a renamed Pixel 9 Pro Fold. This nugget of information comes from a Google insider who spoke to Android Authority. According to their source, the quartet consists of the base Pixel 9, the Pixel 9 Pro, a new Pixel 9 Pro XL, and the aforementioned foldable. Not much is known about the individual devices. Neither specs nor features were mentioned in the leak. However, all four together in the same lineup suggests they deliver similar performance, which will be a big deal for Pixel Fold fans in particular.

You see, the original Pixel Fold was a bit of a disappointments. It's still a solid smartphone, but the Tensor G2 chipset in the Pixel Fold and Pixel 7 series proved to be a dud. Performance is decent but not amazing, and phones with the Tensor G2 tend to have poor battery life. Plus, in our experience, those devices can run unusually hot. Remember, when it launched the Fold cost $1,800 in the US. You cant fault people for wanting more.

It was assumed up until recently that the Pixel Fold 2 would adopt the Tensor G3 chipset and address all of the previous models problems. But we're still waiting for the next foldable to be unveiled.

Its hard to say for sure what kind of the hardware will be found under the hood. To reiterate, device specs were not in the report. An earlier leak suggests the next phones will use an expected Tensor G4 chipset. That system on a chip (SoC) is slated to be on the Pixel 9 and the 9 Pro. Logic dictates itll be the same hardware on a Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Design-wise, Android Authority claims the Pixel 9 Pro Fold will look similar to the other three models. The site says they saw renders of the smartphone, but didnt share any of them. They instead posted an image of what was then known as the Pixel Fold 2 from yet another leak from late February.

While were on the topic of names, theres a possibility "Pixel 9 Pro Fold" will not be the official name at launch. Android Authority says the name change from "Fold 2" to the current moniker was a recent development. The current branding may simply be a placeholder until a proper title has been finalized.

As always, take this leak with a grain of salt. Things could always change. We wont have to wait long to learn more as Google I/O 2024 kicks off in about a month. At the event, we expect to see the Pixel 8a plus a teaser for the new series.

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In the meantime, check out TechRadar's roundup of the best Pixel phones for 2024.

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Google's next foldable could be the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and finally get flagship specs - TechRadar