Category Archives: Apple

Google app for iOS gained keyboard shortcuts


This week’s update to the Google app for iOS adds keyboard shortcuts if you have a physical keyboard for your iPad. This is what I see if I press and hold the Command key on an Apple Smart Keyboard when viewing the default Google start screen. If you are in the search text box, Command L cancels the search.

Command L = Quick search

Command Y = Recent pages

Command O = Voice search

MobileViews Podcast 158: Is the sky falling (for Apple)?

AAPL 2016.04.29

  1. Is the sky falling on Apple? First drop in iPhone sales. Ref: USA Today
  2. Steve Jobs once told Tim Cook never ask what he would do and just do things right (Ref: TIME. One has to wonder if that is what’s happening, though. Or , if not, should it be happening despite Jobs’ advice?
  3. More falling skies: Intel’s Atom Cancellation Has Big Ramifications for a Surface Phone on Thurrott.com
  4. Google Play Store and “over a million apps” could be headed to Chrome OS. Ref: ars technica. Ron Amadeo also speculated a year or so ago that Chrome OS and Android would somehow be merged. I would buy a ChromeBook if I could run Android apps on it.
  5. Wearable Discussion: Jon’s impressions after a year with the Apple Watch, Todd’s after 6 months with the Moto 360. Giz article claims “Doesn’t really do anything that anybody needs” Ref: Gizmodo
  6. Somewhat disappointed I can’t use Google’s new MODE wrist bands for Android Wear watches. Ref: Official Android Blog

And, finally, this is not a tech topic. However, Jon mentioned he often plays with a pen by spinning it and I mentioned the amazing pen spinning videos from Japan. Here’s a video that collects a number of pen spinning demonstrations.

MobileViews mini-podcast 25: Testing the Podbean iOS app

This is the first mini-podcast I’ve created since July 8, 2011 (nearly 5 years ago). So, why now? I recently learned that Podbean’s iOS app can record and publish a podcast directly from an iPhone. It can’t record from a network connection. So, it can’t be used to record Skype or Google Hangouts conversations. However, I can use it to record anything or anyone within earshot. So, I may use it while traveling.

The setup for recording this mini-podcast is very simple: An iPhone running the free Podbean app with a Bluetooth headset/microphone to record sounds. The app lets me upload the audio file directly to Podbean to publish a podcast. Text editing appears limited to writing a podcast title. So, descriptions, tags, and other information has to be modified after the podcast is live.

MobileViews Podcast 146

  • Paul Thurrott’s Surface Pro 4/Sufrace Book rant: Ref: Thurrott.com
  • Greatly improved weather search results in Android Google app. Ref: Google Inside Search Blog
  • How much has the free Google Android OS earned? $31 billion! Ref: Bloomberg Business
  • Office 365 for iPad & iPad Pro adds new inking tools. Ref: Microsoft Office Blog
  • Apple Music Memos for iOS app. Free. Much simpler than Garageband. Not perfect. But, still impressive
  • iPhone 5se. 4-inch display. Features of 6s line. Ref: 9to5mac
  • Conversation on our mobile setup circa 2016 compared to say 2006
  • Jon’s app pick of the week: “Copied” on iOS and MacOS copiedapp.com

    • TIL: Amazon Echo’s Bluetooth can pair with Apple OS/X computers but not Microsoft Windows 10 PCs

    echo_osx_bt_20151213

    Amazon tells us that is Echo intelligent speaker can pair with mobile devices? But, I wondered what about desktop PCs and notebooks? It turns out that it pairs and works fine with Macs running Apple’s OS/X (I tested it with the current El Capitan release). However, Microsoft’s Windows 10 Bluetooth stack couldn’t even detect the Echo let alone pair with it.

    So, if you have a Windows PC and want to use the Echo as a wireless speaker, you are out of luck. However, if you run OS/X on a Mac, it works fine.