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11 Aug, 2015

Hangouts design changes

Design Change0 Comments

Google changes its hangouts design for android phones and adds some new features. It is now easier to send attachments. The new design also allows to send more than one photo at a time. Composing messages is more intuitive. The changes also include tweaks that will improve battery life, improve speed and fix a few bugs.

3 Mar, 2015

Android Pay announcement

Announcement0 Comments

Android-PayGoogle announces Android Pay at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The new feature is not a new product but a framework that allows secure payments support from other companies which works in physical stores and also apps. It also supports NFC and biometrics.

We are doing it in a way in which anybody else can build a payments service on top of Android. So, in places like China and Africa we hope that people will use Android Pay to build innovative services.

2 Sep, 2014

Moto 360 smartwatch

Product Release0 Comments

untitledMotorola Moto 360 smartwatches are set to hit the market. Smartwatches so far have had rectangular faces, a shape that has turned off many consumers. This watch is circular, like other watches. The watches will use Google’s Android Wear operating system, which includes voice control features for basic functions. It has not been confirmed how many apps will be available, but at least thousands of the more than 1 million Google store programs, have been updated to support Wear. The price for the watch starts at $250.

29 Jul, 2014

Android fake ID security flaw

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Bluebox Security releases a report that shows that Android’s application ID system does not properly check to make sure application IDs are legitimate. This makes it so that, for instance, a fake Google Wallet application could be created to steal people’s money:

Every Android application has its own unique identity, typically inherited from the corporate developer’s identity. The Bluebox Security research team, Bluebox Labs, recently discovered a new vulnerability in Android, which allows these identities to be copied and used for nefarious purposes.

18 Jul, 2014

Modifies application price categories

Announcement0 Comments

The European Comission announces that Google agrees to classify games that offer in-app purchases as paid instead of free, even if they do not require any payment upfront. This is done to comply with a European Commission guideline set to prevent children from accidentally making in-app purchases:

Google has decided on a number of changes. Implementation is underway and will be completed by the end of September 2014. These include not using the word “free” at all when games contain in-app purchases, developing targeted guidelines for its app developers to prevent direct exhortation to children as defined under EU law and time-framed measures to help monitor apparent breaches of EU consumer laws.

15 Jul, 2014

Free Android development course

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Google releases a course called Developing Android Apps: Android Fundamentals on the e-learning platform Udacity. The course is aimed at people who are new to developing for Android but have some programming experience. It is taught by three Android developers, Reto Meier, Dan Galpin and Katherine Kuan, and features videos, quizzes, and forums.

Developing Android Apps

8 Jul, 2014

Study: Factory reset not effective

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A study conducted by security software company Avast shows that Android’s stock factory reset feature does not clear all of the data from the device. The researchers say they are easily able to view users’ personal files using publicly available software even when it seems the factory reset is successful:

Although at first glance the phones appeared thoroughly erased, we quickly retrieved a lot of private data. In most cases, we got to the low-level analysis, which helped us recover SMS and chat messages.

27 Jun, 2014

Burke: Nexus not ending

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Dave Burke, Google’s engineering chief, responds to speculation that they intend to replace the Nexus line of products with a rumored line of products called Android Silver:

People have been commenting about Nexus because there is something else and they think that means the end of Nexus. That is the totally wrong conclusion to make…Android Silver is not something that we are commenting on right now.

25 Jun, 2014

Android Auto

Product Release0 Comments

Google announces Android Auto, which is a platform that integrates Android phones into the driving experience. Users can use voice commands to get directions, play music, set reminders, and call contacts while driving. The platform is expected be available at the end of 2014.

Android Auto: The right information for the road ahead

Android One

Product Release0 Comments

Google announces the Android One, a sub-$100 smartphone aimed at India and other developing nations. The phone will have a 4.5 inch display, dual SIM card slots, and an FM radio. Sundar Pichai, head of Google’s Android division, discusses the phone at Google’s I/O conference:

Our goal is to reach the next five billion people in the world. In India and other countries like that, it’s disappointing that less than 10 percent of the population have access to smartphones.

Google Shows Off 'L', Android One

19 Jun, 2014

Google Auto Link

Announcement0 Comments

Google introduces Google Auto Link (GAL), an in-car system that will be able to sync with Google Android smartphones. The system will rival Apple’s current Apple Car Play. It is the first product developed under its new partnership with Open Automotive Alliance. The partnership includes Audi, Honda, General Motors, Hyundai and chipmaker NVIDIA Corp . Developers who attend the Google I/O Conference in late June will be able to view the interface and a demonstration.

17 Jun, 2014

Google removes ‘Dawn’ app

Announcement0 Comments

Google removes the ISIS app ‘Dawn of Glad Tidings’ from the Play store after it is widely reported by media. The app, which posts ISIS-created content including hashtags, links and images over users’ Twitter accounts, has been available for around two months and has been downloaded thousands of times. Google spokesman:

We remove any applications that breach our community guidelines.

6 Jun, 2014

Open Automotive Alliance

Announcement0 Comments

Google creates the Open Automative Alliance to bring the Android system to cars. The companies in the alliance include Google, GM, Honda, Audi, Hyundai and Nvidia. The group’s focus is to integrate Android into the entertainment system. They will develop new features that will allow developers to add car modes to the apps. The alliance plans to launch the first cars in late 2014.

2 Jun, 2014

Android ‘dominates malware market’

Makes Statement0 Comments

Cook criticizes Google for not encouraging users to upgrade to a new version of Android. He says that nine out of ten iDevice users have upgraded to the latest version of iOS, but fewer than one out of ten Android users have the latest version, which introduces security risks:

This [upgrading] is particularly important for Android, which dominates the mobile malware market.

10 Apr, 2014

Continuous virus scanning

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Google updates its Verify Apps virus scanner to include post-installation scans, which ensure that applications do not become malicious after installation:

Building on Verify apps, which already protects people when they’re installing apps outside of Google Play at the time of installation, we’re rolling out a new enhancement which will now continually check devices to make sure that all apps are behaving in a safe manner, even after installation.