Apps and Updates

Google has just updated its Google I/O app in preparation for Google I/O 2016 (which is set to kick off in Mountain View in just a couple weeks!), and while it’s not a complete overhaul like the update we saw for 2015, it’s a nice to see the app updated for this year’s conference…
From testing Material Design on the web to using neural networks to recommend videos, YouTube has seen quite a few updates lately. The Google company is now adding (via Android Police) the video Autoplay feature found on the web to Android.
Despite being announced over a year ago, the revamped Google Contacts still remains a preview. An update to the web app today adds the ability to import contacts from a variety of popular third-party services.
Twitter has been A/B testing a re-designed Android app for nearly a month with a launch likely coming soon as more people are seeing it. In the mean time, Twitter has completely overhauled its mobile site with a new design that matches the Android revamp.
From 9to5Toys.com:
Amazon is once again offering a promotion for first time users of its Underground App Store that yields a $5 credit when select free apps are downloaded. The promotional credit can only be used to “purchase physical goods” at Amazon and expires 10 days after it is distributed. Full Terms and Conditions below. This is a great chance to load up your new $40 Fire Tablet with some top-rated games.
To redeem your $5 promotional credit, simply follow these directions:
Amazon first launched the Underground app store last August with over $10,000 worth of free titles for Android users. Learn more in our coverage here.
Many Nintendo fans were disappointed when the company chose to launch a new game Miitomo for its first move into mobile, rather than the popular Super Mario series. The company later revealed that it will be bringing existing Nintendo game franchises to iOS later this year, but again, no sign of Mario. Instead, we can expect Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem.
Engadget notes that Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima has offered some explanation for the decision.
Google just released the biggest update to its stock Google Keyboard in quite some time, and it’s rolling out on the Play Store now. If you haven’t had a chance to try it out for yourself quite yet, we put together this quick video rounding up the biggest new features. Among them are a one-handed mode, new emoji suggestions, and the ability to show key borders…
A major update to Google Keyboard is now rolling out, marking the first since June of last year. Version 5.0 features various design tweaks, a ton of customization, and many new features like a one-handed mode and the ability to adjust keyboard height.
eBay has begun rolling out major UI and overall app improvements to its mobile applications today. Most notable will be both iOS and Android apps seeing a redesign of the main navigation menu. Previous versions of both mobile apps utilized a custom navigation menu: a mix between a top navigation bar and hamburger menu. The app update rolling out from today utilizes standard UI navigation elements for both iOS and Android. Android will be seeing the update released today, and the iOS update will be available in the coming days.
Most, if not all, of Google’s Android apps have received a Material redesign. With the Chrome OS update rolling out, YouTube on the web is the next and one of the last major products to get Material Design. Google appears to be A/B testing (via Android Police) the update with a small set of users, but it is quite easy for anyone to enable. Here’s how to do it…
In this week’s top Google stories: new Android device news surrounding the Galaxy Note 6, the death of the Nexus 9, Huawei’s upcoming P9 flagship, and more. And we went hands-on with LeEco’s new Snapdragon 820-powered Le Max2 w/ 6GB of RAM, the BlackBerry PRIV running Android Marshmallow, and the Oppo F1 Plus in this week’s top videos.
In addition, HP and Google launched the impressive new Chromebook 13, and a handful of notable Google and Android app updates arrived as well as news of a completely overhauled design for Instagram in testing.
Head below for all of the quick links to this weeks top stories, videos and more.
With Chrome 50 fully rolled out to browsers and Android, version 51 is now in the beta channel. One of the key features in this version is a new API that improves the website login experience and a more power efficient way to render a page.
Update: You can now grab the Google Trips APK from APKMirror.
One of Inbox’s most convenient features are Travel bundles that organize reservations and other related emails in an easy to read manner. Google is now testing (via Androidworld) a Trips app that organizes every aspect of your travels and offers useful suggestions.
In an interesting update, Google’s OnHub routers now has integration with automation service IFTTT. If This Then That allows users to easily initiate a command that is set off by pre-programmed action. OnHub’s IFTTT channel is already live with an OTA update rolling out now.
Smartphones and tablets can be great educational tools and sources of entertainment for kids, but finding appropriate games and content can be tricky sometimes. PBS is helping make that easier with its new PBS Kids Games mobile apps for Android and iOS.
Update: According to a post on Google+, this update adds the ability to customize automatically created movies with your own music, photos, and videos. It’s also now possible to rename or delete device folders and manage photos on SD cards.
Rolling out to users now, version 1.19 of Google Photos brings quite a few design tweaks to the Android app. The biggest change replaces the floating action button (FAB) with a search bar that is reminiscent of a recent A/B test to Play Music.
After its most recent update, the Google app now opens search results as Chrome Custom Tabs. This feature has been a long time coming, but it appears that pages suggested by Google Now still open up in the default browser.
The Mountain View company has today launched a new feature for its Calendar app that lets you find the perfect meeting time that works for everyone. After adding the people who are attending the event, the new “Find a time” option analyzes schedules and suggests a time with no conflicts…
Having already released its first mobile game Miitomo, a bespoke social networking game, Nintendo is now teasing the next round of games headed to mobile devices. Notably, unlike Miitomo, these are going to be versions of existing successful Nintendo franchises: Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem.
Although Animal Crossing is not quite on the same podium as Super Mario, it is still major first-party intellectual property for Nintendo to release on non-Nintendo consoles for the first time. The new smartphone and tablet titles are expected to be released later this year, around October.
Samsung is starting its Developer Conference 2016 with live streams of the keynote addresses including the opening keynote scheduled to kick things off today at 9:30am PST/12:30pm EST.
We told you last month when the first gameplay from Niantic Labs and The Pokemon Company’s upcoming mobile game surfaced, and now even more footage has popped up on YouTube showing the first full 9 minutes of the experience…
YouTube is rolling out a redesigned Home interface for the Android and iOS app. The new design is cleaner and simpler, but also takes advantage of deep neural networks to better recommend videos for users to watch.
Nokia announced today plans to purchase Withings, maker of many popular healthcare related accessories and companion apps for Android smartphones and other mobile devices.
The company said the 170 million Euro purchase would see Withings become part of its Nokia Technologies business and help jump-start its new efforts at Digital Health products.
Update: And it’s back. It seems Twitter has extended grace and granted the developer more tokens.
Fenix is without a doubt one of the most popular Twitter clients for Android, but it looks like the app’s days are numbered (if not already depleted). Announced today on Twitter, the developer says that the app has run out of Twitter API tokens and will no longer be accepting new users (although current users of the app may continue using it of course)…