Some YouTube creators are finding an extra button in their YouTube app this week. This new button is relatively massive, appearing with a camera-like icon and a music symbol, suggesting users take advantage of the collaborative powers of the platform. The button allows the user to create a 15-second Short video.
In the past, the National Park Service maintained a separate app for each national park or landmark around the United States. The challenge of keeping all those updated was probably significant, but that has now changed. The National Park Service now has a unified app for all parks allowing people to research and monitor hundreds of landmarks in a single location.
Web browsers on mobile are sometimes considered to be watered-down versions of their desktop counterparts. That's often due to limitations on the platform itself, limitations in the user interface, or limitations in hardware resources. Vivaldi, however, throws that convention out of the water just like it does on desktops, trying to offer power user features that don't require add-ons. Its latest trick on Android is to give users the ability to change how web pages look, just because they can.
Using your smartphone's camera and built-in sensors of several sorts, Google's added a couple of basic health monitoring systems to Google Fit. Heart Rate and Respiratory Rate can now be measured with Google Fit thanks to Google's fancy footwork with Pixel phone cameras. Google suggested that they'll add these features to more devices than just the Pixel, courtesy of Google Fit.
Microsoft has announced an updated OneDrive for Android home screen experience and improved support for other photo and video formats. Newly supported photo and video features include Samsung Motion Photos and 8K resolution video playback. One of the biggest new features is the ability to pick up where you left off on recent and off-line files from Android smartphones.
There seems to be a growing trend among PC makers to acknowledge the critical role smartphones play even while people are using their desktops or laptops. From Microsoft to Dell to LG, those in the Windows PC world are starting to catch up with what Apple has long been doing, allowing for deeper integration between mobile devices and computers. Although extremely late, Google is also following suit and is very slowly starting to roll out its new Phone Hub to sync Android phones with Chromebooks.
Instagram is adding the ability to retrieve deleted posts, with its new Recently Deleted feature bringing back accidentally or intentionally removed photos and videos. The new tool is not just intended for those who have a change of heart, the Facebook-owned social network says, but also as a way for those recovering an account after it was hacked to restore their original content.
Over a year ago, Google finally launched its response to Apple's Arcade subscription service. Going beyond just games, however, Google Play Pass also gives access to productivity and utility apps as well. Unlike Google's other apps and services, however, Play Pass doesn't always make it to headlines after its initial launch. Some might have the idea that the subscription service has quietly disappeared into the background but the company's latest update tries to convince you otherwise.
Microsoft introduced the Your Phone Windows app as a way to bridge PCs and mobile but the best features that it offers are currently exclusive to Samsung's phones. There are more phones in the market than Samsung's, of course, leaving many other phone brands out of the party. LG has apparently decided to take matters into its own hands and has silently released a slightly similar software though, in reality, it is pretty much a rebranded Dell Mobile Connect.
Until the day comes when we have a single computing device to rule them all, we will most likely bounce between our phone and at least one computer to get things done, be it for work or even for play. As if multitasking between programs on a desktop or laptop weren't enough of a distraction, having to juggle our attention between these two devices as well. Microsoft's solution is to actually have those phone apps directly accessible on Windows but only if you're using certain Samsung Galaxy phones.
WhatsApp, the popular messaging app that many users have abandoned for alternatives, is now using Status messages in an effort to reassure users that their data is safe. Put simply, Status messages are the same as Stories found on other platforms like Instagram -- and WhatsApp plans to use them to talk about privacy.
If you've ever wanted to watch Netflix on a timer, you might soon get your wish. Netflix is apparently testing that very functionality in its Android app, allowing users to effectively place a time limit on their viewing sessions. Not only could this be a good thing for people who want to put limits on screen time, but it could also be a nice feature for those who tend to fall asleep to Netflix and don't want TV episodes to continue autoplaying throughout the night.