If there's one feature that Google Home owners have been missing since the device's launch, it's Bluetooth audio streaming. The Home speaker was said to feature Bluetooth streaming when it was first announced in May, and even shipped with a Bluetooth chip inside. Well, good news is here, as Google has finally enabled the feature on its smart home speaker with an update that's rolling out now.
The feature we first saw hints of weeks ago has started to go live on Android. The company is introducing video previews in its search results on mobile, causing videos to auto-play once they load. Though they're just arriving on Android at the moment, Google plans to expand the feature to other platforms in the future, and to languages other than English.
Augmented Reality through 3D-projected images (holograms) are just one part of Samsung's newly revealed headset plans. Glasses, that is to say, or as Samsung called it, a "holographic see-through optical device." That's about as simple as they make it in the plans we're looking at - a new way to look at the world through augmented reality. This is not the first glasses or "glass" that we've seen from Samsung, but it is the first that makes augmented reality and holograms a part of its main objective.
Watermarking photos may be the go-to route to prevent copyright theft, but Google researchers have figured out a clever way to remove watermarks altogether, automatically. Watermarking, where a logo is placed somewhere on a photo to show who took it, varies in intrusiveness from a small caption in one corner to the sort of full-image obscuring lines, text, and other graphics that stock image companies often plaster their previews with. As the researchers found, though, the very ubiquity of that strategy might be its undoing.
Google has some good ideas for the Solar Eclipse that's about to blast its way over the United States, one of which involves Android. Users with devices like the Google Pixel will see an update to Android O (whose name will also be revealed) when the Solar Eclipse takes place. There'll be a big event in New York City to make the release of Android O all the more powerful.
Google Home's vast collection of device and service connections expands today with Spotify Free. This is the version of Spotify users can take advantage of (for free) with commercials and slightly lower-quality audio than a paid account. This update should be made today to add to the ever-growing list of voice-controlled services and devices shown below.
YouTube TV, the company's livestreaming television service, has just expanded to another fourteen markets. This expansion follows a recent one that brought the television option to a number of major cities, and it will be followed up in 'coming weeks' with another expansion into an additional 17 markets. This time around, YouTube TV has gone live in big and moderately large cities like Boston, the Seattle-Tacoma region, Las Vegas, Cincinnati, and others.
Today users are finding the Google App completely re-done in Google's latest image of what a system app should be. This app is accessed on Pixel phones by swiping all the way to the left on one's own home screen. This app is also known simply as "Google" in the Google Play app store.
Now that the Internet has a pretty good idea of what the iPhone 8 is going to look like, pictures like these are coming in quick. What we've got here is a series of images which use the iPhone 8's body - also a concept based on leaks as a base. This series of images makes a user interface that's built "based on an Android user's expectations."
![Google Search Lite in limited testing in some markets [APK Download]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/search-lite-0.jpg)
One of Google’s key points at its I/O conference last May was making Android more accessible for emerging markets, especially those with phones with very constrained hardware. Part of that “Android Go” thrust is a suite of apps that are supposed to be smarter in making use of those limited resources while still offering the same core experience as their full-blown counterparts. Following the likes of YouTube Go, Google seems to be testing what is calling Search Lite. Don’t be surprised if you don’t see it yet, since it’s currently available, at least for now, in Indonesia.
The Google Docs family - that is, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides - is getting a pretty significant update today. Much of this update is focused on streamlining collaboration between you and your co-workers, especially in documents that are open to multiple editors. There are also some bonuses for folks who like to make use of Google Docs' templates and those who need to work across multiple Google services quickly.
Google is firing up free voice calls on the Google Home, turning the smart speaker into a speakerphone. The feature allows for voice calls to any US or Canadian number, including landlines or cellphones. However, some users may find their friends are reluctant to answer the phone.
