Google

Android Maps Are Getting Way Better Battery Life and Location Services

Google has some new stuff coming up for Maps for Android. Details aren’t super detailed right now, and of course we’ll believe some of this when we see it, but the claims are pretty incredible. First, is Fused Location Provider. This uses all your phone’s sensors to find your location. Google’s claiming that the location…

Google Play Games Just Made Android Gaming Awesome(r)

Gaming on Android just got a way more legit. Google’s just announced its new “Google Play Games” app and service at I/O today, and that comes with a whole bunch of features from achievements to leaderboards to matchmaking, multiplayer, and even cloud saves. https://gizmodo.com/google-i-o-whats-new-in-android-chrome-and-beyond-506734952 Any serious gaming platform nowadays has its own social network to…

Google I/O: What’s New in Android, Chrome, and Beyond

Well, it’s here at last, Google’s annual orgy for developers and fanboys alike. Rumors have been flying, but we’re about to find out what’s what for real. https://gizmodo.com/google-i-o-rumors-whats-next-for-android-chrome-nex-504621953 We’ve got a wishlist for everything we’re hoping will be coming to Android, and while there supposedly won’t be much in the way of hardware, it’s still…

Watch the Google I/O Keynote Right Here, Right Now

It’s Google Day! Google I/O, that magical time of year when everybody’s favorite search megalopolis shows off its latest doodads and Doodles. And you can watch the keynote unfold in real-time right here, starting at 12pm EST/9am PST. https://gizmodo.com/google-i-o-whats-new-in-android-chrome-and-beyond-506734952 We’re covering the event live from San Francisco’s Moscone Center here, but in the meantime feel…

Google I/O Rumors: What’s Next for Android, Chrome, Nexus, and More

Google I/O, the company’s mammoth annual developer hoopla, goes down this week. Here’s what you can expect to learn and see from Google during the three-hour keynote extravaganza in just a few hours. (Updated) Not Much New Hardware? While last year’s I/O was a parade of Nexus devices, Chrome/Android chief Sundar Pichai told Wired that…

What Do You Want Google to Announce Later Today?

Google’s I/O event kicks off today, and with it will come a slew of announcements about new products and services. But what are you most excited about? A shiny new version of Android? Updated web services like Maps? A unified chat system to end them all? A Spotify-like streaming service? New hardware? Or something else…

New Google Maps Features Leak Ahead of I/O

Ahead of Google’s I/O event later today, details of a bunch of new Maps features have leaked. A sign-up page for the new features briefly went live, before being swiftly retracted. Fortunately the guys at Droid Life captured some screen shots, which reveal some of the new features. The main thrust appears to be making…

HP SlateBook x2: An Android Notebook With Sweet Tegra 4 Guts

On the heels of its very first Android tablet after a long affair with webOS, HP’s just announced its second device running the Google operating system, and it’s ushering in that Android notebook fad we’ve all heard whispers about. Enter the SlateBook x2, the first Tegra 4-powered, 10-inch Android convertible. https://gizmodo.com/hp-slate-7-hands-on-a-better-way-to-do-android-5986538 We only got to…

What the Future of Google Glass Could Look Like

Right now, Google Glass is just a pair of weird looking specs that’s pretty much only used to take blurry photos and Instagram selfies. And that’s okay! The real promise is what comes next. Developers have been getting their hands on Google Glass and have begun to see what they can build with it. It’s…

15 Android Fixes We Want to See This Week

Google I/O is almost upon us, and that means, presumably, some updates to Android. We might not see a full-on update to a new version (5.0) announced at tomorrow’s keynote, but we do expect some changes. And while the wishlist might not be as long as it has been in years past, there’s still plenty…

You Can Play Atari Breakout on Google Image Search and It’s Awesome

Google is famous for the Easter eggs stashed in its products. What seems an ordinary interface reveals itself to be something else entirely with the right set of keystrokes. This newly discovered gem might be one of the most entertaining we’ve ever seen. Head over to Google Image Search and punch in a query for…

Your Gmail, Drive, and Google+ Storage Is Now One Big 15 GB Chunk

It used to be that you’d have 10 GB of storage for your Gmail account, and 5 GB to share between your Google Drive and your Google+ pictures. Not anymore: Google just unified all three into a shared pool of 15 GB. This is great because now you’ll be able to make better use of…

This Sony Xperia Is Waterproof to 5 Feet

Snorkelers rejoice: Sony’s decided to push its current trend for water-resistant phones to new heights, with the launch of the Xperia ZR which is waterproof to 5 feet. The 4.6-inch Android phone even has a big ol’ camera button on its side to make sure its easy to take pictures and film HD video while…

Google Axed SMS Search Thinking People Wouldn’t Notice

Shocking no one, or very very few people, Google turned off its SMS search service on Friday. Reports of the outage have begun to sloooowly trickle in on Google forums and Reddit, but for the most part the spacetime continuum seems to be holding up. Google created SMS Search as a way for users with…

Where Do You Chat?

Real-time chat has been everywhere for, you know, forever now and has swallowed everything in its path. Integrating chat platforms and finding a way to coherently deal with texting vs. chatting has become a major issue. Other than venting here in hallowed Gizmodo chatroom posts, how do you manage all the Google chat options, Facebook…

10 Tricks to Make Yourself a Google+ Master

Unless you happen to work for the search giant that created it, Google+ is probably not your social network of choice. Nevertheless, there’s a ton of functionality hidden behind its walls, covering everything from photos to local searches as the influence of Google+ stretches across the company’s multitude of other products. Here’s how to get…

Report: Google’s Unified Chat Hub Will Be Called Google Hangouts

Word on the street is that Google’s incoming unified messaging service has ditched its Babel moniker. According to a source talking to TechRadar it will hit our handsets simply called Google Hangouts, which already exists, so isn’t really new, then? Oh, and that it’ll be launched at Google I/O next week. [TechRadar]

Expense Manager: Make Budgeting Suck (Somewhat) Less

Anyone struggling to balance their finances these days is going to find themselves at a loss for an excuse. All the money managing, counting, and advising apps floating around can be beneficial, sure, but the sheer volume both in design and function makes picking the perfect one for you a daunting task. Expense manager, though,…

Google’s new “Save to Drive” feature is a script you can embed into your webpage that allows readers to instantly save a file—PDFs, images, what have you—to Google Drive with the click of a button. You can go check it out on Google’s blog.

See the Last 20 Years of the Whole World in the Biggest Timelapse Yet

Google Earth wasn’t around until about 2005, but with the power of archival satellite footage, Google’s whipped up the most comprehensive timelapse known to man, covering the past 20 years of Earth. The ultimate, beautiful conclusion of this little project? Dope GIFs. A joint effort between Google, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and TIME,…