Rumor: Google Now Potentially Getting Update To Set Timers Instead Of Just Alarms

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Google Now may not be as new anymore, but it still continues to delight us with the new features it receives, and even when we’re greeted by old ones. Seeing package tracking information or flight information pop up in your status bar thanks to Google Now is still exciting for those of us who don’t see those pop up as often, but we love new features. New features are great, and with that said, there is a rumor going around that Google Now will at some point in the near future be able to use voice search to set a timer for any allotted amount of time you wish. Within reason of course. For example, say you’re cooking something on the stove and you need to attend to it in 15 minutes. With this new rumored feature you can simply use voice search within Google Now to set a timer for 15 minutes and Google Now would set that timer within your devices clock app. The clock app already has a built in timer so Google Now wouldn’t need to do much work.

Google Now already has a similar functionality that allows users to set an alarm, but that is of course inherently different than setting the timer itself. You can still at this point in time use Google Now to set an alarm for the time that you need, but that would only set up an alarm to go off after the time you requested and not he countdown timer itself. So if it’s 6:30 and you need 15 minutes, than you’d set an alarm for 6:45. As we said this is still a little different than setting an actual timer, so it’ll be nice if we get the ability for Google Now to properly set a timer instead of alarms.

Google Now is one of those ever updating features that plenty of people get many uses out of. While this feature seems like a no brainer and seems like something Google would love to add in, rumors are still rumors. The images posted here are also just our own interpretations of how this feature would look if already available. Would you find this feature useful if it was already something usable within Google Now?

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Google Play Movies Updated to v3.1 With Slightly Updated Slide-Out Menu

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As #UpdateWednesday continues, we’re looking at an update to Google Play Movies and TV, which brings it to version 3.1. It brings a few smaller tweaks to the UI, including the slide-out menu. It has a slide-out menu similar to the Google Play Music and Google Play Store. So you’ve got the Watch Now, My Movies, My TV Shows, On Device, and Shop there. But you’ve also got the Settings and Help & Feedback on there as well. Which with this update, Google has made the physical menu button useless on phones like the Galaxy S4, LG G2, and a few other devices.

There’s a few more changes to the app as well which is the improved seeking behavior, closed caption system override, closed caption indicator icon and the episode synopsis. Additionally, Google has added the new Chromecast icon which we saw them announce and change in the design guidelines a few weeks ago. I’d expect to see that icon in more Google apps as well, as that’s their new guidelines for Chromecast functionality.

For those of you interested, we do have the APK to side load onto your device to get v3.1. For those that don’t know, you can simply download the APK onto your phone, make sure Unknown Sources is enabled in the Settings > Security, then just follow the on-screen prompts. It’s just that easy. The APK is about 3.9MB in size, so if your download is a bit smaller, you may want to retry the download again as your download was likely corrupted.

The Google Play Movies & TV app is a pretty nice app, but it’s nice to see these smaller updates for the Google Play Movies & TV. How many of you are side loading the updated onto your smartphone or tablet? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.

Download: Google Play Movies & TV v3.1

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Say Goodbye To Shelfies, Say Hello To Custom Gmail Themes Instead

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Among all the April Fools pranks from yesterday one of the more tame things we saw came from Google with the Shelfie Gmail theme. Gmail themes themselves weren’t new, but seeing as how the selfie was a popular topic and word usage to describe people taking pictures of themselves, Gmail thought it would be hilarious to create a new theme for Gmail for yesterdays pranks, allowing users to either create their own custom shelfie theme or use one from the selected list of trending shelfies. What exactly is a shelfie? As Google described it, it’s a selfie that you share hence the name shelfie. April Fools is over and Shelfies are now long gone, but Google got an overwhelming positive response to the idea of using custom themes inside Gmail, so they decided to make it an ongoing thing.

We can now create our own custom themes and share them with whomever we like. Your custom themes can be of just about anything. A trip to the beach, that perfect sunrise, pets, cats, you name it. Google even points out that custom themes can still be made up of selfies. Indeed since you can create your own custom theme now for Gmail and share it, you can take a selfie and make that your theme and share it with the world. It won’t be a shelfie anymore though.

Google and the Gmail team are urging us to share our own custom themes since Shelfies are so yesterday. Really.. they were yesterday. Not only do we get custom themes, but the Gmail Google+ page is also holding a Theme Tuesday where every week they’ll be sharing some of their favorite custom themes. Think you got a great custom theme? Share it and it could end up on Gmails G+ page. Custom themes within Gmail will definitely add another layer of individuality to one of our favorite Google services, and there should end up being some really awesome themes to come. I already have a few in mind myself. If you already have a custom theme set and you want to share it, doing that is simple. All you have to do is go to your themes page under settings inside Gmail, and there will be a new button for you to click(clicky things are good, we love clicky things) that will allow you to share it Google+ of course, through Gmail if you want it going to specific people, or you can just copy and paste the link where ever you like.

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Samsung is Seeing High Sales Numbers For The Galaxy S5 at Home

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We are getting an early look at what Samsung sales will look at for the Galaxy S5. Though the results may be a bit biased since the numbers are only coming from the home of Samsung, South Korea. However, if these numbers are indicative of what we will see everywhere, Samsung will have nothing to worry about with the sales of the S5.

You may remember that in South Korea, the launch date of the S5 was moved up. This was due to some restrictions being placed on South Korea’s carriers. The first carrier to launch the S5 was SK Telecom, who launched the device on March 27th. The other carriers, LG U+ and KT launched very soon after SK Telecom. Now, reports from South Korea are showing that over 7,000 S5 device have been sold every day since the initial launch of the S5. If this keeps up, that would make over 1 million devices sold in five months time.

Even better for Samsung, these numbers only represent South Korea, and are right up there with the sales of past Samsung devices. The Galaxy S4 sold around 8,000 devices a day, which was reported to be “remarkable” from those who pay close attention to the sales aspect of these devices. So even if the S5 is behind by about 1,000 devices a day in comparison to the S4, these numbers are still great. There is also an excuse to why the S5 is a bit behind the S4, that is the new regulations being held on South Korea’s carriers.

Currently, only one carrier can sell new devices to anyone, and that is SK Telecom, the other two, LG U+ and KT are only allowed to sell to “users with handsets two years or older, or those who lost or misplaced their device.” Which is part of the rules being set by Korean authorities. Again, these rules and numbers are coming from South Korea alone, we still don’t know what pre-orders are looking like elsewhere.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is due to launch in the US on April 11th which is the same date in other markets as well. In the Us, the device will be available on all four major carriers, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. Though for those numbers we will have to wait to find out if South Korea set the bar for S5 sales. We won’t ask again if you are planning on buying the S5, instead, let’s hear your thoughts on the numbers. Do you think the numbers in South Korea for S5 sales are what we will see elsewhere? Or do you think these numbers are solely due to a home field advantage? Let us know down there or on our G+ page.

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Report: Google Working on new Gmail App for Android

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We’ve known for a while that the Gmail app on iOS looks and works a lot better than it does on Android. But that might change rather soon as a new report is out today suggesting that the Gmail app for Android is about to get a much needed overhaul. The Gmail app hasn’t really gotten a big UI change since Ice Cream Sandwich. We’ve just had small tweaks since then. The new look of the app, shown above, looks much different from what it does now. Which leads me to believe that it’s due to their acquisition about two years ago of Sparrow. Sparrow was a popular third-party email client on iOS and Mac. It was a great looking email client that everyone using the Apple ecosystem loved.

The new UI looks pretty flat and looks really nice, at least in my opinion. Still has the slide out menu on the left side, along with all the tabs that you’ve got on the desktop. There’s also a new feature, where you can pin certain emails to the top of your inbox. Say for instance there’s an email that you want to deal with when you get to work tomorrow, just pin it to the top of your inbox so you don’t forget, as long as that works on the desktop as well, it could be a really useful feature.

I’m definitely excited to see this new Gmail app come out. At this point, there’s no word as to when it’ll be available but we should see it rather soon. Who knows, we may see at Google I/O in June. We’ll just have to be patient – which is definitely the hard part about this business. How many of you are interested in this new version of the Gmail for Android app? Let us know in the comments below.

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Amazon FireTV’s Competition: Chromecast, Roku, and Apple TV

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Today’s Amazon event saw Amazon bashing quite a few of their competitors. That would be Google’s Chromecast, the Roku and Apple TV. All of which have their strengths and weaknesses, as I’m sure you are all aware of. But we’ve been getting a lot of questions as to which device is the best for your living room. And while Amazon has a table all made up comparing the four devices, we figured we’d use their table.

The Chromecast is a favorite around here because of the price tag and everything it can do. For only $35 it’s hard to go wrong with the Chromecast. Roku also has their own HDMI dongle on sale for just $50, which is meant to compete with the Chromecast from Google. The Amazon FireTV is almost like an All-in-One, since it does do gaming as well. Amazon just bought their own game studio not too long ago which they are using to build some games on FireTV. But they have also partnered with some other game studios for some games on the FireTV like 2K Sports. So let’s grab some popcorn and watch something on the Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku or FireTV.

So the million dollar question, FireTV, Chromecast, Roku or Apple TV? Well since we are an Android blog, we won’t be recommending the Apple TV since it’s kinda useless with Android devices. But as far as FireTV, Chromecast and Roku go, you really can’t go wrong with any of them, although the FireTV has some pretty interesting features like Freetime, which is going to be huge with parents of little ones. But whichever you choose, be sure to let us know in the comments down below why you choose that one. As for me, I’ll be sticking with my Chromecast, at least for now.

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Amazon’s FireTV Game Controller Set to go on Sale for $40

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This morning Amazon announced their FireTV set-top box. So far there’s no pricing on it yet, but we do have pricing on their game controller, which we saw leak out a few weeks ago. It actually looks a lot like the Nyko Playpad controller, which we reviewed earlier this year. The game controller for the FireTV is going to set you back about $40, but does come with 1000 Amazon coins.

The Amazon FireTV supports basically all Android-based games, and a few others like Minecraft. Amazon execs are on stage now demoing Minecraft and Gameloft’s Asphalt 8 on the FireTV and it looks really nice. Once more, Amazon’s gaming studio – which they bought a few months ago – are building games specifically for the FireTV. Which is going to be rather interesting. Not sure if it’s going to help Amazon sell more FireTV units or not. Of course, they’ll sell more if they actually announce the pricing for the FireTV. Amazon also has game studios like 2k, Ubisoft and Take-Two on-board for developing titles for the FireTV.

So far, we haven’t been amazed by the FireTV, but Amazon is still announcing the set-top box at their event right now. So we may change our minds soon. There may not be a big reason to switch from Roku or Chromecast to the FireTV, especially if you can’t use your Android smartphone or tablet with it.

Are any of you thinking of picking up the new FireTV from Amazon when it goes on sale? Or does it depend on the pricing for this set-top box? Let us know in the comments down below.

Developing…

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