Top 10 Android Stories of the Week (May 20th)
There is already an overwhelming amount of Android news in a normal week, but especially when Google I/O is going on. You can follow the best of the best with an app called EarlyBird – News for Android. It includes all of the Android news you crave and lets users (like you) vote on what matters most to them.
You can download the app on the Google Play Store or for desktop users, find related discussion in the Android Forums News section. Here’s what you picked as your favorite news stories for the week of May 20th:
10. Google Home is officially announced at Google I/O 2016, will compete with Amazon’s Echo
38 Likes – We’ve seen reports of this Google Home product for weeks now and Google has finally made it official.
Google Home is a direct competitor to products like the Amazon Echo. There isn’t an available price or release date just yet. But you can visit the source link and sign up to receive notifications when more details are available.
9. Google officially announces Android apps for Chromebooks, launching later this year
39 Likes – There have been multiple leaks that suggested Google was going to bring Android applications to Chrome OS, but today they’ve officially announced it.
The feature is said to launch “later this year,” and instead of using the previously developed ARC implementation, Google will be packaging up the required libraries with each application.
8. Hands-on look at Android Wear 2.0
39 Likes – Android Central went hands on with the biggest update for Android Wear, version 2.0. We get a look at all of the announced features from earlier today like the new notifications UI, app launcher, Android Wear Complications, and the new text input system.
7. Top programmer describes Android’s nuts and bolts in Oracle v. Google
39 Likes – Dan Bornstein, a former developer at Google, was brought to the stand during the Oracle and Google trial. At the trial, he was asked how Android developers attempted to use lines of code that were not licensed by any other company.
Bornstein returns to the stand Monday, where the case between Oracle and Google will continue.
6. Google Spaces helps you and your friends share things
40 Likes – Google has announced a brand new app. It’s called Google Spaces, a communication tool designed for small groups of friends, families and acquaintances to share things like information, video, picture and more.
You may think this is duplicating the functionality of Google+ Communities or Hangouts, but Google’s goal here is to let you and your friends make an easy, private communication space where their thoughts and words won’t get lost in a huge sea of other posts.
5. Chromebook sales overtake Macs for the first time in the US
42 Likes – Google mentioned Chromebooks have been a huge success. The Verge reports that the IDC has revealed metrics about Chromebook performance for the first time.
The company confirmed that there were more Chromebooks sold in the US than Mac computers. This is the first time that has ever happened. Apple sold 1.75 million Macs last quarter, so that means Chromebook sales were close to 2 million.
4. Google Keyboard in Android N’s latest developer preview has a theme feature
44 Likes – Google has rolled out OTA updates for the Android N Developer Preview and it’s already started hitting devices around the world.
Someone started playing with the Google Keyboard settings and discovered that you can now theme the keyboard with different color templates, or even add in your own photo as the background.
3. Android N will have seamless updates like we have on Chrome OS
46 Likes – We already know most of the new features that will be coming with Android N thanks to the developer previews. However, today we learned about a new feature that wasn’t known about before.
Android devices will be able to download OTA updates in the background and then automatically install them once you reboot the smartphone. The days of manually downloading and applying updates will be gone with Android N
2. Google announces a new video calling application called Duo
46 Likes – Not only are we getting a new messaging app this Summer called Allo, but Google has also announced a new app for video calling.
This app is called Duos and it will come with a “knock” feature that will let you find out if someone is available for a video call without having to call them first.
1. Google releases yet another messaging app, this one is called Allo
46 Likes – Google Allo is the company’s latest mobile messaging platform. The app seems similar to WhatsApp, but also adds in their Google Assistant for added convenience.
It doesn’t seem like Hangouts is going anywhere though. So if you still prefer Google Hangouts then you won’t have to worry about it going away anytime soon.
What’s YOUR top news item for the week?
Disagree with the Top 10? Let us know in the comments and vote for yourself every day by downloading EarlyBird on Google Play!