Google Launched Areo app for Food Delivery with Home Services in India

Google has launched its new app called Area for food delivery and home services in India. Google targets Indian food lovers for online food delivery along with hyper local business like home services. Google Areo app offers users can get food delivery from your favorite restaurants, providers and chefs. Also it provides Home services from local electricians, painters, cleaners, plumbers and more.

Google Areo app features a lot of service providers including restaurants, chefs, local electricians, painters, cleaners, plumbers and more. You can simply search for your need and order your service like food at your office, cleaner for your home and a plumber for your family member’s home. The app allows users can order to their current address, another address or multiple locations.

Also See: Airtel Internet TV with DTH, 4K Enabled Android Platform Launched

Users can book services and schedule as per their convenient time. The app supports all payment methods including Debit/Credit cards, Net banking and also Cash on delivery. Also it offers Rs.200 discount on food deliveries for a limited period as an introductory offer.  There are many companies already in this business in India and now Google also competing with them such as Zomato,Food Panda, Swiggy and more.  

Google Areo app Features: 

•    Single app for Food delivery and Home services
•    Fast and Easy search by dish or restaurant
•    Filter by Veg and Non-Veg Food options
•    Payment options including Debit/Credit cards, Netbanking and Cash on Delivery
•    Book and schedule your deliveries and services at your convenient time
•    User detailed reviews are all in one place to get good services.

Also See: Youtube Go app to Watch Viedoes with Low Internet

The app is free for all but currently limited to Mumbai and Bengaluru cities only.

Download Areo app

Google Launched Sprayscape Virtual Reality based Camera App for Android

Google has launched its Android Experiments project last year to develop creative things in Android platform. There are so many experiments processing in that project and now Google released an experiment of Virtual Reality based camera app for Android smartphones. The app is called Sprayscape that allows users to capture 360-degree sphere photos.

How to take VR based Sprayscapes from your Phone?

The app allows you can point your phones at the subject and simply tapping the screen to capture the frame and tap again to complete the picture. It also allows you to spray photos using with your fingers to capture different parts of the places. After taking VR-ish images, you can view your sprayscapes by waving your phone simply.

Google says Sprayscape is a quick hack using the phone’s gyroscope to take pictures on the inside of a 360-degree sphere. Just point your phone and tap the screen to spray faces, places, environments or anything else. The app reads data from your gyroscope to determine positioning and it does not stitch photos like using panorama.

Users can easily share their sprayscape VR images via a link in a text message or social media with friends. They have to look around using their phones or using VR devices like Google Cardboard to view a sprayscape properly with better experience

Download app from Playstore

Google Android Wear Platform Released for Smartwatches

Google has officially launched Android Wear, a modified Android operating system for wearable devices. Android wear is especially designed for wearable devices and now starts with most familiar wearable device – smart watches. The device is mainly focusing to provide information on the right time when you need it and it will responds to voice commands similar to Google Now.

Android smartphones can be connected easily to get your all phone notifications on the smartwatch. You will get notifications for emails,text messages, voice calls, social updates and other app messages also. Google Now feature is integrated with smartwatches and you can activate the voice input by saying “OK Google” command and get answers for your spoken questions.

Android Wear Features:

• Get useful information when you need it – Android Wear shows you info and suggestions you need, right when you need them.

• Receive latest posts and updates from social apps, chats from messing apps, notifications from news apps, social apps and more.

• Straight answers to spoken questions – Just say “Ok Google” to activate voice input and get answers or perform your works sending text, making a reservation or setting an alarm.

• Monitor your Health and Fitness – Your favorite fitness apps can give you real-time speed, distance travelled, time information and calories burned and more options on your wrist whether you are cycling, running or walking.

•  Access and control other devices from your wrist – you can fire up a music playlist on your phone or cast your favorite movie to your TV.

Also Read:Facebook Messenger App gets Free Voice Call Feature in India

Google is already working with some manufacturers including LG, Motorola, Asus, HTC and Samsung to introduce smartwatches powered by Android Wear later this year. According to news, LG G Watch will be the first smartwatch shipped with Android Wear platform. The developers can download a Developer Preview copy of Android Wear and test existing app notifications.

Gmail adds Quick Action buttons for Dropbox, Docs, YouTube and more

Google has updated Quick Action buttons for Gmail with more new actions which was launched earlier in this year. Quick Action buttons lets you perform some actions without opening a particular mail, so you can open a link or check a flight details from the subject line. Now web users can access even more quick action buttons in Gmail.

New Gmail Quick Action buttons: 

The Quick Action button will be placed on the right side of the emails. Other site actions included with an arrow button that lets you go directly to a page linked to in the message.

Read Also: Download RedBus App for Book Bus Tickets from Mobiles 

• Users can rate and review restaurants on Seamless and view your OpenTable reservations. Also you can modify your dinner reservations from the inbox. You can do this action quickly by Review button. Not only the restaurants, you will review goods, movies, music or any other products. 
• Save promotions or offers from Google Offers with one click 
• You can directly open files and documents from Dropbox, Google docs, sheets and slides from your inbox which shared via your email. 
• Video uploaders can directly view the videos from YouTube and Vimeo when new video uploads finished 

Gmail now supports a variety of actions and the action buttons can be determined by the sender. The sender will select one of those action types and provide information to set it up correctly. Google is continuing to add even more quick action buttons to use Gmail easier, so Facebook, Twitter and other services will be connected on this feature soon.

How to Get Custom URL for your Google Plus Profiles / Pages

Google rolled out custom URL (vanity URL) feature to Google Plus profiles and pages. Google Plus profiles have long numbers in URLs, which is hard to remember and sharing with others. Before this feature only available for famous people, Google employees and other special users. So all of the users were used third party services like GPlus.to to shorten their page URLs. Now anyone can get short and custom URL for your pages and profiles too.

How to Get Custom URL for your Google Plus Profile? 

Your profile must have a photo, minimum 10 followers and your account age is more than 30 days. These are the requirements for setting a custom URL for your Google+ profile.

1. Go to About tab of your profile and you will see the message “Your profile is preapproved for the custom URL: google.com/+PonmalarS” on top of the page. Alternatively you can get it from Links section. Click on “Get URL” button.

 
2. Tick the checkbox near “I agree to the terms of service” on the next window. If you don’t want the pre-assigned URL by Google, you can change your URL name by click on the link “Request a different one” [Google providing this based on your first and last name]

3. Click on Change URL and Confirm Choice buttons. Now I got phone verification code in my Phone and entered the code to verify this process. I think that happened because of using two-way security for my Google account.

After verifying process, I got my Google+ profile custom URL : google.com/+PonmalarS. I was tried to simplify my name, but I can’t get one. So hurry up and get your Custom URL before anyone claims it.

How to Get Custom URL for Google+ Pages? 

Your page should have linked with with your website or blog. So add your site link in your Google+ Page and add a badge to your site. Google is providing pre-assigned Custom URLs based on the site’s URL, so blogspot users may get the URL ending with “Blogspot”. And you cannot change this later. If you don’t want this URL, you have to wait for some time for more options.

Read: How to Create Google+ Pages

1. Go to your Google+ page and make sure you are using Google+ as your page.

2. You can see the message “Your page is preapproved for the custom URL: google.com/+Techstumps” on the top of the page.

3. Click on “Get URL” button and tick the checkbox near “I agree to the terms of service” on the next window.

4. Click on “Change URL” and “Confirm Choice” buttons. That’s it.

My site got the Custom URL: google.com/+Techstumps. If you don’t see the above message yet, don’t worry. Google is rolling out this feature for all users within this week.

More Google+ Tips:

1. How to Automatically Share Blogger Posts to Google Plus
2. How to Embed Google+ posts to your Website
3. How to Add Google+ Comment Box System to Blogger Blogs
4. How to Tag your Google+ Friends on Blogger posts
5. How to Create Google Plus Badge for your Blog?

Blogger's Default Comment Form Redesigned with New Look

Blogger is the most popular blogging platform has redesigned its default comment form with new look and more simple. Blogger did not announced about this change officially on the web and I noticed this change in my blog today. It is automatically rolled out for Blogger blogs so you need not change anything in code or settings.

Here is the screenshot of Blogger Comment Form old:

And here is the changed Blogger comment box new:

The new comment box for blogs updated with new design including Publish button, Preview button, Sign out button and Notify me option. “Notify me” option lets you to get comment updates and replies to your mail directly.

Here is the Comment Preview screenshot: 

There are many comment systems available for webmasters such as Disqus and Facebook comments, so Google also released Google+ comments for blogs and sites. However now blogger has also better comment form, so the bloggers reconsider to switch back to Blogger comments. And we can use Blogger comments and Google+ comments simultaneously.

Which comment system are you using now? Share your comments below.

Read : How to Add Google+ Comment Box to your Blogs

Google Quickoffice for Android and iOS Now Available for Free

Quickoffice is a popular document application that was acquired by Google in June 2012. The app is previously available free for Google Apps enterprise users. Now Google updates Quickoffice app with new features and makes free to everyone including Android and iOS users. But you have to sign in with your Google account to use this app.

Quickoffice lets you to view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents directly from your smartphones and tablets. The app is integrated with Google Drive, so you can save your files and access your files from any device or computer. There is an offer if you sign in to Quickoffice by September 26, you will get an extra 10 GB of cloud storage for two years.

Quickoffice for iOS and Android Features:

• Works on Android, iOS phones, tablets and iPad
• Create and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files
• Access files in Google Drive from any device
• Open and view PDF files
• Improved Google Drive integration (with up to 15GB of free storage)
• Create .Zip folders
• View Charts in Excel and Power point
• Attach files to emails

Download QuickOffice for Android

Download QuickOffice for iPhone and iPad

How to Embed Google+ posts to your Website

Google introduced two new features in Google+, one is Embed your posts and another is Author Attribution for Wordpress users. Now the site owners and bloggers can embed your Google+ posts or any public posts to anywhere on the web. So you can expand your audience across the web easily with embedding your Google+ shares on your blog.

Google+ posts can be embedded as a primary source or highlight your point of view in your articles. This feature allows you to embed Google+ posts including links, images and videos with follow button, +1 button and comments. Embedded posts can be seen by anyone there is no need of Google account.

How to add your Google+ posts to your Blog?

• Select your post or search public posts in Google Plus
• Click the options menu button at right of your specific post

• Choose Embed post in the drop down menu
• You will get an iframe window that contains code to embed the posts. • Copy the code and paste to your blog / site.

Note: Users can embed all type of public posts except the posts from within a community, restricted posts to a Google Apps domain, private posts, Events and Google+ Hangouts on Air posts.

Look below the live example of Google+ posts: ( You can follow me, +1 or comment here also )

Google Chromecast : Stream Videos and Web Content on your TV from Any Device

Google has launched a new product called Chromecast like Apple's AirPlay that lets you stream videos, music and web contents to your TV using your mobiles, tablets or laptop. Chromecast is a HDMI dongle that allows you to cast mobile contents on your TV by simply plugging the dongle. It works with some popular streaming apps such as YouTube, Google Play Movies, Netflix, Chrome and more.

Chromecast dongle works over HDMI and should be plugged on your HD TV. And it requires Wi-Fi connection enabled device to connect the dongle. Turn on WiFi connection from your any devices like mobile or tablet or laptop to display the contents to your TV.

There you can control the playback options such as play, pause, volume increase and more. It supports multi-tasking feature so you can do any other works while playing videos. You can send a Google+ photos slideshow, YouTube videos or any other Chrome apps to your TV via your Chrome browser. It does not require a remote to handling device.

Chromecast works with Android, iOS and Chrome (Windows, Mac). It is priced at $35 only and it is currently available for US only on Google Play Store and Amazon online. It will be coming to other countries soon.

Chromecast on Play Store 

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean Officially Announced – What’s New Features

Google has officially announced Android 4.3 update to existing Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS at a press event in San Francisco. The new version is not a major version so it is also called in the name of Jelly Bean. Android 4.3 comes with performance optimizations and brings a number of improvements for users and developers.

The Android 4.3 update has main highlights including Restricted profiles, Bluetooth 4.0 low energy support, smoother animations, redesigned camera interface, OpenGL ES 3.0 support, dial-pad auto complete and more. 

Android 4.3 Update Features: 

1.Restricted Profiles – This is the multi-user feature in a single device so you can create separate profiles for your kids and family. You can restrict the apps and contents to each one like parental controls.

2. Faster and Smoother – Android 4.3 has the faster performance improvements such as rendering for shapes and text, improved window buffer allocation and more.

3. OpenGL ES 3.0 Support - It provides games and other apps with highest performance 2D and 3D graphics capabilities on supported devices. So you can play games with high-performance graphics.

4. Enhanced Bluetooth Connectivity – Bluetooth Smart or Bluetooth Low Energy feature is the latest standard that allows you to connect the devices like Smart Watches. It will takes less power so you can stay connected for long time without worrying of battery life.

5.Wi-Fi scan only mode – It’s a new feature that lets users keep Wi-Fi scan without connecting to a Wi-Fi network, to improve location accuracy while conserving battery.

6. Dial-pad auto complete –you can easily dial numbers without typing full phone numbers. Auto complete suggests your contacts when you are dialing.

Android 4.3 will be available on the New Nexus 7 and it is the first device installed with this new update. And over-the-air update is also available on other Nexus devices such as Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10 and Galaxy Nexus. If you have a Nexus phone or tablet, you can update your device to latest Android 4.3 update starting from today.

See also : Google’s New Nexus 7 (2013) Android 4.3 Tablet

How to Import Google Reader data to Digg Reader

Google Reader is officially stopped recently so we have to go for alternative readers to read our favorite stories on the web. Fortunately the other readers provide the support for import your Google Reader data to build your favorite list of sites and starred items. Google only allows downloading your data until July 15, so you have to export your data from Google Takeout. 

After the exporting your data, you can import the all old items into your alternative feed readers like Feedly, Digg Reader and more. Digg Reader is developed by Digg social news site and it is becoming one of the popular readers now. Here are the steps to import your Google Reader feeds into Digg Reader.

How to Upload Google Reader Data to Digg Reader?

1. First download your Google Reader Data from Google Takeout

2. Sign in to your Digg Reader Account. If you do not have one, you can simply create through your Facebook, Twitter or Google accounts.

3. Click on the top right icon to view the settings. In the Digg Reader section, click the “Upload” button.

4. Click on “Upload your data” button and then select your downloaded zip archive file of Google Reader data. Digg Reader also supports importing OPML XML files, which most readers services will export.

After the import process completes, you will see and access all of your old Google Reader subscriptions including your starred items from the saved section.

Google Stock Keyboard App for Android Devices

Many of the Android mobile users using third party keyboard apps such as Swiftkey, Swype and more for typing in mobile. Now Google has launched its new stock Android keyboard app on Google Play Store. Google Keyboard helps you type faster and more accurately on all your Android devices, which is surely better than Swiptkey, Swype and other third party apps. 

 

Google Keyboard comes with many features like Gesture Typing, which allows you glide through letters to form a word. You have to just lift your finger to enter a space. Also it has automatic error correction, word predictions and voice typing. It comes with dictionary support for 26 languages.

 Google Keyboard Features: 

• Gesture Typing with dynamic floating preview
• Voice Typing
• Next-word suggestions and current-word completions
• Dictionaries for 26 languages.
• Advanced keyboard layouts
• Works with all Android tablets and phones

Download Google Keyboard on Google Play Store 

Note: The app requires Android 4.0 or newer versions.

Google+ Hangouts Chat Application – What’s New Features

Google has launched its new service Google+ Hangouts at the Google I/O Event 2013. Hangouts app will be the unified messaging system and it replaces all other Google chat services such as Gmail chat, Google+ chat and Google Talk. Hangouts lets you to send text messages, share photos, make free video calls up to 10 friends at once and across the various devices like Android, iOS and your PC. 

Features of Google+ Hangouts: 

• Send photos and emoji makes conversations more fun.
• All of your conversations saved in chat history. You can swipe back and get all messages.
• No more annoying notifications - You will see notification on any one device only.
 • You can make free video calls with one or group of your friends.
• You can continue your conversation from one device to another instantly.

 How to Use Google+ Hangouts in Gmail? 

Google+ Hangouts replaces Gmail Talk app, so you can use Hangouts instead of Google Talk in your Gmail. You will see the notification message that shows upgrade to new Google+ Hangouts app. Alternatively you can switch to Hangouts by simply click on your profile picture and click on “Try the new Hangouts” menu. Then you will be upgraded to use and you can see the chat window that containing babble like profiles in the order of most recent conversations.

Download Google+ Hangouts for Android and iOS 

Google launched the apps for using Hangouts in Android and iOS mobiles, tablets and iPads. Also you can download the extension to use in Chrome browser in your computer. You can download the new Hangouts chat application for your devices below.

Google+ Hangouts for Android | Google+ Hangouts for iOS

Google+ Hangouts for Chrome

Google Now Available for iOS Devices with Google Search App

Google launched Google Now for iPhone and iPad finally and its available as part of the updated Google Search app. The Google Search version 3.0 updated with Google Now feature which provides many services in a card based interface within the Search app. Also Google voice search enhanced with this update, you can get search results instantly without typing.

With Google Now you can get full informations such as weather of the day, traffic alerts, directions, reminders, breaking news,favorite sports team, flight details, stories and more. You can dismiss the cards by just swiping away on your phone. There is an option for turn on or off the single cards and Google Now has a lot of settings for customize the each cards as you want.

Google Now was launched for Android Jelly Bean 4.1 version before some months. Google Now for iOS app has most of the features and looks same as the Android version. But this app cannot give you latest notification alerts of cards like the Android version, so you need to open the application to see the new informations.

Download Google Now for iOS

(Google Now for iOS requires the iOS version 5.0 and above)

Gmail Supports 6 Indic Languages on Feature Phones

Gmail rolled out support for using Gmail in 6 Indic languages on basic feature phones. So basic model phone users can use the Gmail interface in 6 Indic languages is Tamil, Marathi, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada and Gujarati. Generally the basic model mobiles show the interface in English only. Most users already using Gmail system in their own language but the feature phones does not support above languages previously.

Now you can communicate and use the Gmail in your own language from your handset browser without any tricks. Here is how you can change your language in Gmail in your basic model feature phones.

 • Click on a Gear icon in the top right and select Settings
• Go to Display Language and select your language in the drop down menu.
• Finally click on “Save Changes” button at the bottom.

Now your Gmail interface will be displayed in the selected language in your phone browser. Here is an important point, the display language of Gmail does not affect the language of your mails which are sent or received.

Here is a screenshot of my Gmail account in Tamil language on my feature phone

 Enjoy :-)

Google Translate for Android updated with Offline Mode

Google Translate is a language translation service that allows you to translate your language to another one. It is a useful service when you visit foreign countries or if you want learn some other languages. Google translate is an online service so you need an internet connection to translate your text.

Google now released the updated version of Translator app for Android with offline feature. You can use Google Translate in offline mode if you have an Android phone or tablet. This offline Google Translator enables you to translate text and speech between more than 60 world languages without internet connection.

You can see all the offline languages currently available from the menu “Offline Languages”. If you want translate between any two languages, you have to select them in offline languages list. Then offline translator files will be downloaded to your device and stored in your memory card. After that you can translate your text in offline mode easily. Enjoy :-)

Download Google Translate for Android

Goolge Play Movies Now Available in India – Buy or Rent Movies

Google extended their Google Play Movies service into two new countries, India and Mexico. Now Indian users can buy or rent the movies on Google Play available from today. It seems Google takes India a little seriously, after the launches of Google Play books and Nexus 7 tablet in India.

In Google Play, you have to rent or buy the movie to watch or download. To rent a movie in India Store, the pricing is Rs. 80 or Rs. 120. Otherwise if you want to buy a movie in standard definition is priced for Rs. 190 and Rs. 490 to buy a high definition version (HD movies)

Android mobile and tablet users can download the app “Google Play Movies & TV” for watching videos online. Also you can download the videos and watch later offline from your device.

Movies are now available on Google Play in the 13 countries are US, UK, India, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Korea, France, Australia, Russia and Spain.

Google Play Movies Web

Google Play Movies & TV App for Android

Google Keep – Google Launched Note Taking Service like Evernote

Google launched an app for note taking service like Evernote called “Google Keep”. Google Keep allows you to take notes for your important events, dates. You can take notes by text, checklists, photos and voice memos. You can also add notes by voice, the voice memos are only on mobile app.

All of your notes will be saved to your Google Drive account safely and synced to all your devices so you can always access them at anywhere.There is a super power search engine that helps to search your notes quickly. If you are finished with a note, you can archive or delete it easily.

You can change priority of the notes by simply drag the mouse. And there is a option to set various colors to your notes to identify easily.

Google Keep is available on both web and mobile. You can download Google Keep app from Google Play, if you are using Android 4.0 version or above. And also you can access, create and edit notes on the web at drive.google.com/keep. In the coming weeks you can do the same directly from Google Drive.

Google Keep 

Download Google Keep for Android

What are Best Alternatives for Google Reader?

Google has recently announced that they will retire their popular Google Reader RSS service with some services from July 1, 2013. This will be the sad news for internet users because Google Reader is only the best to read the posts from our favorite sites. Let’s see some alternate ways or services for Google Reader.

Google Reader Alternatives for Web:

1. Feedly – This is good RSS news reader available for Web, Android and iOS devices. It is a responsive site, so you can read the blog list in any devices clearly. They are giving option for transferring your data from Google Reader to Feedly easily. You can sync and transfer your Google reader data until June 30th.

2. Strymr - It is web based reader with easy navigations and it has thumbnail user interface

3. Taptu – It is also good alternative to Google reader available for all platforms like web, Android and iOS

 Google Reader Alternatives for Mobiles:

1. NewsRob for Android - This app easily sync with your Google Reader account. It will show the unread contents, so you can easily get and read the new items.

2. Feed Me for Android – It supports offline reading.

3. Slide Reader for iOS – It supports many number of feeds and has good user interface.

4. Reeder for iOS – It will also sync automatically with your Google account.

5. FlipBoard - You can read the news by flip, also videos Android | iOS

You can try all the readers and use it your favorite one. Let me know your liked Rss Reader service by posting comments below.

Google Hindi Input App to type Hindi on Android devices

Google has recently launched the Google Hindi Input app that allows you to type Hindi words in your Android device. You may already know Google Indic Transliteration service, this app also the same concept for mobiles and tablets. If you can read नमस्ते correctly on your phone, you can install this app in your phone; otherwise your phone does not support Hindi language.

How to type Hindi on Android Phone? 

You can type messages, update your status on social networks and compose emails on your Android phone. This app works as transliteration service of Google, so you have to type Hindi words in English characters. The app will convert them into Hindi word and also a meaningful word. For instance, type “Hindi” and you will get the word “हिंदी”.

And you can get suggested words in Hindi language when you type some letters only. This will save your time and no need to type full Hindi words.

For this you have to turn on the Transliteration mode by clicking the “a->अ” button on the app. If you click the button again, the transliteration mode will turn off and now you can type in English. This is the toggle button to turn on/off the transliteration service and switch your language between English and Hindi.
Google released this app only for Hindi language. We are expecting Google will soon release the transliteration app for other Indic languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and etc. Currently there are 11 Indian languages supported in Google Input Tools for desktop version.

Download Google Hindi Input App for Android