By November 24, 2013

What has Google been up to?

google-appsGoogle are busy as always tinkering with their massive array of products and we are going to have a quick look at what has been modified, moved and removed from Google’s catalogue. The Nexus 5 is out, most of us are on Android 4.4, is Google sitting back and having a rest? Nope.

Chromecast 

teaser_google_chromecast_appGoogle has recent made small alterations to their Chromecast app. It’s still the configuration app for the Chromecast HDMI stick, however, the recent update is easing navigation, improves time zone display, displays the Chromecast MAC address and fixes a crash when launching device settings screen.

Google Play

teaser_google_playWe have seen a roll-out of some previously announced changes for the Google Play store that are said to make it even easier for tablet users to discover apps and games – designed and optimized for Android tablets. However, unlike Google’s integration on Google TV, where users only see for Google TV developed apps, in this case Google is first presenting tablet optimized apps by showing tablet users a “Designed for tablets” section as the default view in top lists.

Google Play Newsstand

teaser_google_play_newsstandWe can say goodbye to Google Play Magazines and the beastly Google Play Currents Android apps. With Google Play Newsstand users can discover more of the news and magazines they care about, all in one app for Android tablet or phone. It displays breaking news and in-depth articles featuring audio, video and more. From sports, business, cooking, entertainment, fashion and more – Google Play Newsstand offers both, free and paid news plus the ability to subscribe to full HD magazines. With hundreds of premier publishers – it’s all there, easy to follow, read, and share. In addition, it allows to add own own news channels, for instance from RSS feeds or Google Play Currents.

Google Translate

teaser_google_translateGoogle has announced Google Translate is to launch a new Google Translate app for Android. The app is now featuring faster and simpler speech translations, additional language support and a sleek new look. Google Translate for Android works as before, all it needs is to open the Translate app and press the microphone icon. Google has also added gesture support now, so with a simple turn of the screen, it’s possible to switch back and forth between languages.

Google RSA migration

chrome-security-logoGoogle‘s security engineer Dan Dulay announced that the tech giant has successfully upgraded all its SSL certificates to the longer 2048-bit RSA. Google has sought to strengthen its SSL certificates by switching from 1024-bit to 2048-bit RSA keys. Doubling the key length will, hopefully, make it much harder to crack the encryption of sensitive data such as banking transactions, email, and others. The company announced in May that it has started the migration and expects to finish by the end of the year. It seems that Google has managed to finish earlier and will now start the next phase, that of issuing 2048-bit certificates for its websites and online services.

Posted in: Apps & Games, News, Phones, Tablets
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Seasoned tech blogger. Host of the Tech Addicts podcast.
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