Apps

Despite still being one of the big names in the web browser market, Firefox has been struggling to increase its share on mobile, especially on Android. Part of that is Google’s strategy of having Chrome installed on every certified device, a strategy that has been legally questioned in Europe. The other part of that is the perceived stagnation of the mobile app and its slower performance, which Mozilla is addressing by eventually gutting out Firefox for Android and replacing it with Fenix, available now as Firefox Preview on Android.

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Ever since Apple Music launched four years ago, it's been gunning for Spotify's spot at the top of the heap. At the time, it seemed like a monumental task, in whole or in part because Spotify had already established itself as the music streaming service by the time Apple Music first became available. What seemed hopeless then feels a little more doable now, as Apple Music has just passed another subscriber milestone.

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Google has updated Google Maps with new features that make life easier for users who rely on public transportation. The transportation and navigation app already provides details on trains and bus schedules, but the company acknowledges that these transit options aren't always running on time. To help with this, Google Maps now shows real-time traffic delays and predictions about how crowded the vehicles will be.

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For some people, the browser wars have mostly been reduced to a fight between Chrome and everyone else. That “everyone else” fortunately has a lot of room for all sorts of browsers with priorities beyond becoming the world’s #1. Opera might still dream of eventually dominating the browser market but it is doing so via a rather unconventional route. Instead of trying to appeal to the masses, it is pushing its resources towards supporting the Web users of the future. That mostly means supporting blockchains and distributed systems, features that have finally landed on its iOS app.

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YouTube Music was created to address what the company discovered to be one of the service’s biggest use cases. But organizing playlists by hand can be a daunting task, especially when the subscription service boasts of thousands of songs. If you’re the type to prefer spontaneity and surprise in your music selection, the app’s new Smart Downloads feature might tickle your fancy. Either that or make you be more careful about the songs you Liked.

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Before Facebook grabbed the unwanted spotlight, Google was the one always on the hot seat over privacy concerns. To its credit, the company has made it easier for users to control what data Google gathers from them, even if it continues to collect that data. Its latest attempt at simplifying those controls is to automatically delete the location data it gathered from your Web activities. That is, if you remember to set it in the first place.

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If you sometimes feel like the algorithm that generates YouTube's recommendations has gone off the rails, you definitely aren't alone. While it's often good at recommending videos you might want to watch, sometimes you get recommendations for things you have no interest in. Then, of course, we've got people on both ends of the political spectrum accusing YouTube of bias in its recommendations, with some claiming that the company either props up or buries videos from one side or the other.

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The best alternative to basically any other chat app in the world today is Telegram - that's my word. Today they've added several features that push the most-secret chat app into the future, including the ability to transfer group ownership, a new theme picker, and a new set of Siri shortcuts. Some of these updates work with iOS only for now, but will be on Android soon. Except Siri, of course, because Siri is an iPhone joint.

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Google never misses a chance to talk about improved security on Android and, to some extent Chrome, especially when it means talking about AI and machine learning to no end. News after news of malicious apps getting into Google Play Store, however, almost throws all of that out the window. Google Play Store is supposed to be Android's most secure and safest source of apps but a new study shows that more than 2,000 of those apps are not only counterfeits but potentially harmful apps as well.

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From the very beginning, Chrome OS and Chromebooks were envisioned to be cloud-centric, which is why the early models had very measly internal storage. It may have been a bit ahead of its time and Chromebook makers eventually crammed more gigabytes inside devices. Fast-forward a few years later, cloud storage has become a critical piece of modern workers' lives and now Chrome OS is putting them these services to the forefront of its native Files app. That is if their Android app supports its.

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Google has introduced an update to its 'Google My Business' tools, adding multiple improvements that help business owners attract users and, as a result, enhance the experience for Google Maps users looking for new destinations. The update increases Google Maps' competition with Facebook Pages, improving the user experience and adding welcome offers for new business followers.

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Today Slack hit Wall Street and closed at over 48% in its first day of trading. If you do not know what Slack is, chances are you work with people that you see five days a week. Slack is a chat system with which business place employees communicate - through an app, usually. This system is successful because they got to this space nearly-first and did the right things at the right times over the past several years.

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