Chrome, Google Drive and Play Magazines all receive updates

Google is continuing its recent streak of updating core apps and services on Android today, rolling out updates to Chrome, Google Drive and Google Play Magazines.

Following major updates to Talk (Hangouts), Google Play Music and Google Plus over the last week, a new batch of Android apps, including Chrome, Google Drive and Play Magazines, are getting the revamp treatment today. Major highlights include a card style UI for both Drive and Play Magazines, a full screen mode for Google Chrome, and bug fixes all around.

The breakdown of exactly what each update contains is as follows:

Chrome

Fullscreen on phones – Scroll to hide the toolbar
Simplified search – View and refine your query directly in the omnibox
Tab history on tablets – Long press the browser’s back button to view your tab history
Several stability improvements

Google Drive

New grid view makes it easier to find your files
New quick preview lets you view photos and other files from within the app
Scan documents, receipts and letters for safe keeping in Drive; then search by contents once uploaded
Download a copy of files to your local device (Honeycomb+)
Spreadsheet editor now supports changing fonts, colors and cell alignment
View properties of files from within the editors
Bug fixes and visual improvements

Google Play Magazines

Completely redone magazines library UI
Bug fixes

We’ve already discussed how Google used I/O to show off how their core services and apps are now separated from Android, allowing them to update your Android experience without updating the OS itself. Today’s round of updates further enforces this. Including these latest updates, Google has been able to update messaging, cloud storage, social networking, music and web browsing, all without updating Android itself.

To grab the updated versions of Chrome, Drive and Play Magazines, hit up Google Play on your device now.

Fresh Meat: 10 new Android apps worth checking out

New apps need lovin’ too, right? Every day there are thousands of new entries on the Google Play store, but many go unnoticed and never receive the attention they deserve. We have shown in the past that this community can discover great apps and launch them to new heights. So, we’re bringing back our weekly column Fresh Meat that highlights new apps with less than 100k installs. Browse our new Android app picks below and let us know which ones you enjoy.

Textra

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Pitch: Let’s face it the stock Android Messaging app really sucks! So time for something new, something pretty damn special, right? It’s here! It’s called Textra; a feature rich complete SMS and MMS replacement app. Textra is a seriously beautiful way to text.

Textra SMS FreeDelicious Inc. PLAY QR

Whisper

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Pitch: Whisper is an anonymous social network that lets you share confessions, express yourself and meet new people. With Whisper you can connect with other people who think & feel the same way you do about things. Whisper is a great place to meet people, whether you’re looking for new friends, searching for your soulmate, or just someone to laugh with!

whisper FreeWhisperText LLC PLAY QR

Listen & Speak

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Pitch: Speak the foreign language like a native with “Listen & Speak”. It uses an advanced learning technique where short language patterns are read, understood, and pronounced in sequence. The application then analyzes your pronunciation, telling you how well you have done. You can also directly compare your recording to the reference version. By going through the set of such patterns you quickly built up the necessary skills and become proficient in speaking freely the language of your choice.

Listen & Speak Free9Spikes.com PLAY QR

EasilyDo

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Pitch: EasilyDo gets you the right information and gets things done. It tells you when to leave to arrive on time, monitors for important emails and friends’ news, warns you of bad weather, tracks packages, files receipts, and even helps you celebrate birthdays. Information automatically appears when you need it – no more digging through multiple apps!

EasilyDo Smart Assistant FreeEasilyDo Inc. PLAY QR

TasteFilter

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Pitch: What if you could navigate the vast musical universe by swiping your fingertip across a screen? To get started, all you have to do is enter an artist or music genre. Then Taste Filter springs into action, delving into a database that includes thousands of musicians and millions of songs to instantly suggest similar music that you may enjoy.

TasteFilter FreeTaste Filter PLAY QR

ParkMe

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Pitch: Park your car smarter and faster with ParkMe, the world’s largest and most accurate database of parking info. View informative maps of parking lots and garages in your area. Check parking rates, see prices laid out on the map and compare costs. See real-time info on exactly how many spots are open in a particular garage or lot.

ParkMe FreeParkMe PLAY QR

Fraction Plus

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Pitch: I’m Fraction Calculator Plus and I’m the best and easiest way to deal with everyday fraction problems. Whether you’re checking homework, preparing recipes, or working on craft or even construction projects, I can help.

Fraction Calculator Plus Free FreeDigitalchemy, LLC PLAY QR

Clueful

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Pitch: Clueful for Android is a free product that shows you how installed apps use, and possibly abuse, your personal information and treat your privacy. You’d be surprised how many things an app can learn about you. Without you ever knowing it. Clueful is like your own personal “Privacy Consultant” giving you detailed info as to what your installed apps are doing in the background without your knowledge.

Clueful FreeBitdefender PLAY QR

CellMaps

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Pitch: With CellMaps Mobile Coverage, you can quickly map network coverage by operator and technology on your Android device. This application does not use crowd-sourced data or your device’s current signal strength for displaying cellular information; it provides a view of each operator’s marketed coverage area and the ability to check and compare networks in the premium version.

CellMaps Mobile Coverage FreeMosaik Solutions PLAY QR

Soundhalo

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Pitch: Soundhalo is an evolutionary new platform that allows music lovers to buy, share and own artist endorsed live video and audio recordings as it happens. Fans can now purchase and download the actual performance as it unfolds, whether they are at the gig or on the other side of the globe.

Soundhalo FreeSoundhalo PLAY QR

Jennifer Lopez and Verizon announce Viva Móvil

Today at CTIA in Las Vegas, Jennifer Lopez and Verizon Wireless announced Viva Movil, a retail brand that will offer Verizon’s services and cater to the Latino market. Jennifer Lopez is the Co-founder and majority stakeholder, and she will also play the role of Chief Creative Officer.

Viva Movil will offer the same devices and plans as Verizon, but they will have premium retail stores that are better designed to serve the Latino customers. This includes employees that speak Spanish, kid-friendly areas in all of their stores for parents who shop with their children, and a unique social shopping experience through its Facebook page. Viva Movil will also offer exclusive accessories designed by Jennifer Lopez.

The first Viva Movil store will open June 15th in New York City. Additional retail stores will be coming soon to Los Angeles, Miami, and other locations.

Verizon fans were hoping to hear about the rumored launch of the HTC One, so this news is a little disappointing. If you are an Android fan who happens to be Latino, let us know what you think of today’s announcement in the comments below.

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Tune in live to Verizon’s CTIA 2013 press event

The CTIA show is almost irrelevant to Android fans, but Verizon Wireless has a press event scheduled for today, and there is some mystery around what will be announced. One of our sources said we could hear about a new no-contract offering, but others are saying there might be something HTC related or even details about VoLTE (Voice Over LTE). Tune in at 1 PM ET to see what happens.

AT&T to enable video chat over cellular connection on all applications by year end

While Google Hangouts has a few flaws, there are countless things it does right. Besides group messaging, video calling is probably one of the most compelling features of Google’s new messaging app. We’ve taken video calls out for a spin a few times and it’s worked flawlessly in nearly every situation. The only time the service did not work was when we tried a video call with a friend who owns an iPhone on AT&T. We could take a jab at Apple, but the issue lies with AT&T’s policies regarding video calling on its 3G and 4G network.

As of now, Apple, Samsung and Blackberry are the only companies which have approved pre-installed applications which can operate on AT&T’s Mobile Share or Tiered plans. But things are about to change. Starting in mid-June, those same applications will also be able to make video calls on unlimited LTE plans with all pre-loaded video chat apps gaining access to AT&T’s network by the end of this year.

It’s nice to see AT&T change its stance on video calling, but we’re sure you’d agree that they’re a little late to the game.

Show Press Release

For video chat apps that come pre-loaded on devices, we currently give all OS and device makers the ability for those apps to work over cellular for our customers who are on Mobile Share or Tiered plans. Apple, Samsung and Blackberry have chosen to enable this for their pre-loaded video chat apps. And by mid-June, we’ll have enabled those apps over cellular for our unlimited plan customers who have LTE devices from those three manufacturers.

Throughout the second half of this year, we plan to enable pre-loaded video chat apps over cellular for all our customers, regardless of data plan or device; that work is expected to be complete by yearend.

Today, all of our customers can use any mobile video chat app that they download from the Internet, such as Skype.

Google Plus update brings the web’s best new features to Android

Last night, Google’s Vic Gundotra took to Google Plus to write that he was having a hard time falling asleep because he was excited about something that was set to happen today. This morning, like clockwork, a huge update for the Google Plus Android app was released with photography, location and discovery enhancements, putting the app on par with the website which was revamped at Google I/O.

Probably the biggest changes in the new Google Plus app for Android are the photography features. At Google I/O, Google introduced several useful new utilities for Plus that made your photos look better, and made them easier to share. The new Android app focuses on three major areas of photography, and automates them all.

The first area is editing. Google Plus’ new auto enhance feature does just what it sounds like. By tweaking a few simple things, like contrast or adding some smoothing, your photos are automatically improved when uploaded to Google Plus. You don’t have to leave them auto-enhanced, but in my experience, Google Plus actually does a fantastic job. Also related to photo editing, the new Plus app includes built-in Snapseed editing, for those that want more control over the changes made to their photos.

The second photography related feature is auto highlight. After a long day of photo taking, Google Plus will go through the photographs that have been auto-uploaded to Plus, and find the best ones, making it easier to share highlights. Auto highlight is a neat feature, especially for those days when you’ve taken a ton of pictures, and don’t have anything in particular you want to share.

The last major photography feature is auto awesome. Auto awesome goes through your photos, and makes things like animations and panoramas, which Google apparently considers Awesome. Until we spend more time with auto awesome, we won’t know just how awesome it really is. It could certainly turn out to be a neat feature.

Outside of photography features, the new Google Plus app has made some changes to location sharing, and content discovery within the app. With the locations tab in the new Plus app, if users are sharing their location, you’ll see exactly where they are, in either a list view, or a handy map view. To bolster content discovery, Google has added auto-hashtags to posts from the Android app now. With posts being auto-tagged, more of Google Plus will be categorized, making it easier to find content relevant to your interests.

There have been some issues in rolling out the update to Google Plus, but rest assured, they are being worked on. Once you get your hands on the new update, let us know how you like it either in the comments, or on the Android and Me Google Plus page.

Hangouts is the the future of Google Voice, desktop calling will be back

Back when Hangouts was still a rumor, we were under the distinct impression that it would unify off all of Google’s messaging services. The cold hard truth is, Hangouts is merely a replacement for Google Talk. It didn’t do much to alleviate the confusion of Google’s various messaging apps, and has even stripped some well liked functionality, like desktop calling from Gmail.

Fortunately, Google isn’t even close to being finished with Hangouts. We’ve already heard that SMS integration is a high-priority for the Hangouts team, and now we know that not only is desktop calling making a comeback, but tight Google Voice integration is on the horizon.

In a Google Plus post from this morning, Google’s manager of real-time communication products, Nikhyl Singhal, explained the status of desktop calling from Gmail, which was lost in the move to Hangouts, and the future of Google Voice. According to Singhal, inbound and outbound calls are being worked on. For now, users can still take advantage of inbound calling in Voice, and stick with the old Talk in Gmail. Other than that, users are stuck playing the waiting game.

Singhal also took a moment to address Google Voice a little more in-depth, saying that, “Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice, and making/receiving phone calls is just the beginning. Future versions of Hangouts will integrate Google Voice more seamlessly.”

Hangouts may not be the unified messaging service we were originally hoping for, but it’s being worked on. By the end of the year, I imagine Hangouts will finally combine Google Talk, Google Voice, Google Plus Hangouts, SMS and MMS messaging into one handy app. Until then, things may get little rough while everything is being ironed out.

HTC J One heads to Japan with microSD card support

The HTC One is one of the most respected Android devices on the planet. Yet, quite a few people seem to think the Galaxy S4 has a slight edge thanks to its removable battery and microSD card slot. The new HTC J One (KDDI’s variant of the HTC One for Japan) may not sport a removable battery, but HTC has managed to cram in a microSDXC card slot, which gives the 32GB device the ability to store an extra 64GB of data. Unfortunately, the hardware components needed to include microSD card support have forced HTC to chop up the aluminum frame of the HTC J One (note the back-panel latch in the image above). The thickness and weight of the device also had to be increased by 10% (69 x 138 x 10.5mm at 157g compared to 68.2 x 137.4x 9.3mm size at 143g).

A 10% bump in thickness and weight may not sound like much, but the difference is certainly noticeable. The HTC J One is 33% thicker than the Samsung Galaxy S4. How many of you would be willing to compromise the HTC One’s current size and weight in order to gain expandable storage?

View in Google Play

COMING SOON

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The Nexus Experience Galaxy S4 is most likely a software modified T-Mobile S4

When Google announced the Nexus Experience Galaxy S4 (which shall henceforth be referred to as the NES4), information on exactly which hardware variant Google was using for the device left something to be desired. We know that it includes 16GB of storage, has a removable battery, a microSD slot, appears to retain its physical button configuration and has access to T-Mobile and AT&T LTE. By process of elimination, we’re fairly certain at this point that the NES4 is merely a software modded T-Mobile Galaxy S 4.

What makes us think the NES4 is a T-Mobile Galaxy S 4? Good question. After poking around online, in my own personal research, I found that the T-Mobile Galaxy S4 is the only variant of the device capable of supporting all the necessary bands for T-Mobile and AT&T. Both AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s Galaxy S 4 variants are essentially the same phone, but AT&T has some locks in place that keep the S4 stuck on AT&T. I wasn’t positive how these locks worked, or if that even was the case, but research from AnandTech’s Brian Klug seems to confirm and explain why the SGH M919, or T-Mobile Galaxy S4, is most likely the same device as the NES4.

SGH-M919 has always included support for LTE on Bands 2, 4, 5, and 17 (that's 1900 PCS, 1700/2100 AWS, 850 Cellular, and 700 Lower B and C) and WCDMA on Bands 2, 4, and 5. At another level, this is the same hardware as the AT&T variant but without the arbitrary RAT (Radio Access Technology) locking that AT&T has put in place to restrict use of Band 4 WCDMA which T-Mobile needs for a good experience. This translates to that support for AT&T and T-Mobile LTE and WCDMA. That also means Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064AB) and no Exynos 5.Brian KlugAnandTech

The chances that the NES4 is an entirely new model of Galaxy S4 are slim to none. There’s no way Google is having Samsung manufacture a new model of GS4, just to keep the same exact hardware configuration. Hugo Barra, who was spotted walking around I/O with the device, said the software wasn’t finished yet. Another good sign Google simply took an existing device and is working away on it.

At this point, you may be wondering what this means for you. If the NES4 really is an SGH M919, then a simple software flash should turn your T-Mobile S4 into Nexus Experience device, complete with updates directly from Google and all. If the NES4 is an entirely different device, which again, we don’t think it is, then you’d be out of luck. There are still AOSP ROMs for the T-Mobile S4 as it is, so it won’t be that big of a change either way. Still, for someone like me who doesn’t mess with custom ROMs much anymore, an Odin flash to a Nexus Experience device where Google will take care of the updates sounds very nice. Especially on a device that can be bought with T-Mobile installation plans, not $650 upfront.

We’ll be following news around the Nexus Experience S4 closely, so stay tuned for more.