Posts tagged google

Google Maps for Android received an update today to add a few more features to an already amazing app. In today’s release, users will be treated to indoor walking directions, nearby offers, and 360° panoramas of the insides of participating restaurants and stores. Unfortunately, if you live outside of the U.S., most of these features will be unavailable.

Yes, it’s true — well, at least the part about iOS getting a beautiful Google+ app update before Android. The only logical explanation I could come up with for this travesty is that Vic lost a bet during a friendly game of golf with Tim. At least that’s the story I’m telling myself as I weep in a dark corner.

Kidding aside, the new Google+ app looks beautiful, and although iOS users get to use it now, it will be coming to Android soon enough — and is supposed to include a few extra surprises for us Android folks (that won’t win me back Vic! — Okay, maybe it will).

Google has remained highly committed to the Google+ experience and are continually pushing out new features to improve upon it. Today, they’ve added the ability to reply to Google+ notifications from within Gmail. This is a great feature that allows you to comment, share, and +1 without leaving your inbox. It can be tedious sometimes to receive an email notification and then have to open up the app or navigate to the web client just to +1 a comment. This new feature should boost user engagement and make for a more enjoyable experience.

Google announced it will be extending carrier billing services to include all types of content on Google Play. Carrier billing is a “convenient” way to charge digital content directly to your carrier phone bill versus having to use a credit card or separate payment method. While it can be seen as more convenient, it’s also a dangerous road to go down. Our phone bills are already mini-car payments and adding digital content purchases to it can result in astronomical monthly bills.

Google is well known for their awesome Easter Eggs and today’s will have you Starcraft faithful Zerging in your pants. If you do a Google search for “Zerg Rush” you’ll soon find yourself defending your page against the ravaging appetites of ominous Os. It’s a fun and geeky reference to the overwhelming scale of attack carried out by the mass-producing “Zerg” race from the popular RTS game Starcraft.

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