Google has been updating all their products to their new Material Design look for awhile now, and recently, the Material Design has been worked on for the Google Chrome web browser for Chrome OS, Windows, Linux and now Mac!  

To get a live look at the new Material Design makeover in progress, you'll need to install Google's test build version of Chrome, designed for developers and early adopters - Chrome Canary. Note: This program is NOT recommend for your everyday use - it is an experimental build and can completely break down. 

To switch on the new Material Design look, type into the address bar:  chrome://flags

Then find the title "Material design in the browser's top chrome". Then from the drop down menu, select "Material".   

At the moment on Mac, the main differences implemented are to the Navigation Bar with lighter and flatter colors and a new sharper edged shape on the tabs. There is also a new darker theme added to Incognito mode.  

Hating the new Material Look to Google Chrome? Don't worry, remember, this is a work-in-progress and far from the final look and version that will ship out at a later date in the stable Chrome release.

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UPDATE (March 10th 2016): A progress report - here is what Material Design on Chrome Canary for Mac currently looks like:

Having some issues loading YouTube videos in HD? Why not check what your connection speed on YouTube is downloading at! 

It's simple to do on a desktop or laptop computer. Play a video, then right click on the video. Select "Stats for Nerds". Then see, "Connection Speed".  

The speed is listed in Kbps (kilobits per second) not Kb/s (kilobytes per second) which is what you are probably more familiar with (the speed shown when downloading a file, for example). If you want to know the the Kb/s speed is, you can search Google for "Kbps to Kb/s" and use their conversion tool.

Another great way to test your internet's download and upload speed is by using the website and app Speedtest.net

Google has today released it's YouTube Kids app internationally for certain countries outside the U.S.A. at the moment including; the UK, Ireland and Australia. YouTube Kids launched in the USA nine months ago.

YouTube Kids is a free app, designed for kids aged 5 and under. The app is designed to exclude content that may not be appropriate for a young audience - however YouTube notes that not all videos are manually reviewed.

When setting up at app, parents can choose whether they want to allow search. If you allow search, kids can search through millions of videos on YouTube (with restrictions). With search off, only the videos on the apps home screen and recommendations will be shown. However the security that keeps search off is four written numbers that the apps asks you to type in. So, if your kid can read numbers...  

The app is divided into four sections: Shows, Music, Learning, and Explore. Videos that can be expected on the app are favorites like; Thomas & Friends, Hi-5, Banana's in Pajamas, Sesame Street and more.

Also it's important to note that this app is not advertisement free. YouTube writes that the app "...contains paid ads in order to offer the app for free. Your child may also see videos with commercial content from YouTube creators that are not paid ads."

> View YouTube Kids app on the iTunes App Store. 

Google Music App Icon

In today's age, music is now all about streaming rather than buying. But some people still like to 'own' music and maybe already have an extensive library. But even when you have a hard-driver full of music, you still probably want them: 1 - backed up somewhere safe and 2 - able to access from all your smart-devices, including your iPhone, iPad, and Computer. But storing what may be gigs of data on these devices is just not practical and then you also might run into syncing issues.

It'd be simpler to have a copy / backup of all your music stored in a cloud somewhere - where you can pull down the files when you want them - from whatever device you are currently using. Apple does have iTunes Match. This service will match your iTunes library with songs on Apple's music collection and upload the songs that it doesn't match. This is a yearly paid service. This, with Apple's new music streaming service is pretty sweet. But, for this blog post - we are looking for a free service and don't care about streaming new music - we want to create a online library of our own collection. So since we are looking for a free option, this also rules out cloud services like Dropbox and Copy. But there is one service that will actually do exactly want we want - and for free.

Google Music.

Google Music offers streaming of their catalog of music, like Apple Music or Spotify, etc... Google Music's price for their streaming, standard "All Access" plan, is US$9.99 per month. Google has a catalog of 30 million songs available, is available in 58 counties, and even has a 30-day-free-trial to test it out and see if it's right for you. Again, this option is also pretty sweet. You don't have to buy new music, although you can, you can just stream whatever you want from their catalog of music.

Now to the free part. Google Music also offers a free plan that maybe you didn't know about. This free plan gives users the ability to store and listen to - up to 50,000 song - of the users own music collection. That's right, you can store 50,000 songs in Google's cloud. That's, I think, more than enough for most people. Even if you have entire albums, that's still 2,777 albums with 18 tracks each.

After installing the Google Music app or Chrome extension, you'll set the folder (location) where your songs are kept and Google will scan through your music, much like iTunes Match, matching songs with Google's own catalog and uploading the songs it doesn't already have or can't identify. This part does take awhile, also depending on the size of your music library and internet speed. You can also then login on the web and edit any missing details on tracks or upload missing album art. Google's suggest features help make this a lot easier too.

The Google Music app is also pretty cool. You can play your music on shuffle, or sort by playlists, artists, albums, songs, genres, or just search. You are also not limited to just playing songs on shuffle on mobile or anything like that. You can play what you want, when you want. Playing music displays the album art work. You can quickly flip through songs by swiping across the screen. There's a lot of great features. You can also download your uploaded songs back to your computer. This can be a handy backup feature. However, a song can only ever be downloaded two times on a computer that is not running the Google Music app with your original collection. So this is not a music storage replacement app. You still need your original collection stored on a computer or hard-drive. But in the situation that you do say, lose it all, I suppose you can re-download the music from Google, provided it's still within the limit.

Google Music is very fair, I think, with its plans. US$9.99 for streaming anything in its music catalog and / or 50,000 songs uploaded from the users own collection for free. Check out more details about Google Music and plans on their website.

> Go to: Google Music

Google has today released its Material Design makeover for its YouTube app for iOS devices, months after the update was released for Android devices.

The new update brings a redesign that skewers away from the iOS 'look' of the previous version in favor of a Android look.

The redesign offers a new three part system: Home, Subscriptions, and Account, with the buttons in a huge red bar that unnecessarily takes up around one quarter of the screen (on iPhone).

Also included in the update is new in-app editing tool, making it easy for users to create and edit a video on the fly. There is also a new app icon which is the red YouTube play button logo on a white background, matching other Google apps on iOS.

The update is slowing roiling out to users in the App Store, even the redesign may not appear immediately after updating.

> YouTube for iOS is available for free from the App Store.

Android Wear App For iOS

If you ever wanted a smartwatch to pair with your iPhone, but didn't like the Apple Watch, good news! Today Google has announced that Android Wear, Google's smartwatch software, is available for iOS users!

Android Wear has similar features to the Apple Watch: You can answer and dismiss phone calls (that's not talk from your watch, just answer for your iPhone), view message notifications, other app notifications, set fitness goals and view daily or weekly progress reports, measure your heart rate, timely tips from Google Now, and your questions answered just by saying "Ok Google".

The downside to Android Wear (on iPhone); you can not install third-party apps to Android Wear. There are other features that the Apple Watch can do, that you can not do on a Android Wear watch, like answer a call and talk from your smartwatch, use Siri, and much more. And while you can see that notification of an iMessage, you can't reply or send a new message. Maybe on Google Hangouts? Who knows?!

While Google may be hoping that potential customers go for looks and first impressions, here's to hoping that people actually do a little research into the features, when deciding between a Apple Watch or Android Wear watch.

Another downside, at the moment, Android Wear for iOS is only official supported by the LG Watch Urbane. But Google says all future models including Asus, Huawei and Motorola smartwatches will be supported.

At the end of the day, if you own an iPhone and want a smartwatch, your best option is still to go with the Apple Watch. You'll have better features, all the third-party-apps, and it'll be designed for everything to work, to and from, your iPhone.

Android Wear (for iPhone) is compatible with the iPhone 5 and up, running iOS 8.2 and up. To pair your iPhone with a supported Android Wear smartwatch, you'll need to download the new Android Wear iOS app.

-> View Android Wear on the iTunes App Store.

Material Design was announced back in June of 2014, and is Google's latest visual design language. It aims to provide good design with innovation that gives users a unified experience across platforms.

Google has slowly been implementing Material Design to all their products. We seen changes most notably on Android Lollipop, Google Now, recently to the YouTube app (iOS update coming soon), Google's Inbox mail app, Google Drive and Google Docs, and the Chrome web browser on iOS and Android.

Now work has also begun to implement the Material Design look and feel to the Google Chrome web browser. While at the moment the changes are still very minimal, users and developers who want to check out and follow the changes can do so on the Developer Google Chrome Canary channel.

Note, Google Chrome Canary, is a developer build and is not recommended for use by the general public, and definitely not for everyday use. Only install, if you are familiar with very beta software and understand the risks.

Chrome Canary on Windows 7

To check out the changes in-progress to add Material Design on Google Chrome, type: Chrome://flags into your address/search bar. Then search for Material Design and look for "Material design in the browser's top Chrome". There will be a drop down with a few options; Non-material (standard), Material, and Material Hybrid (a mix of the two).

The biggest changes so far are on the Chrome OS version, with some new flatter buttons, but even on Windows 7 you can see small changes like extra spacing around the navigation buttons.

Remember, this is a work in progress, so expect a lot more to change in the future. Nothing here is anywhere near final.

At the moment, it seems the Material Design changes for Google Chrome are being worked on for Windows, Chrome OS, and Linux. But, I'd expect changes to Mac OS X as well, sometime in the future.

Have you ever sent an email that you immediately regretted, or realized you made a mistake on and wished you could undo that email? Well in Google's Gmail, you can!

Gmail has a recently new feature that allows users to add up to a 30 second buffer zone on sent emails - allowing you to stop an email from sending within that timeframe.

The first thing you'll need to do is switch this feature on:

1. Open Gmail on a desktop computer, then click the Settings Gear.
2. Then click "Settings".
3. On the "General" tab, scroll down and find "Undo Send".
4. Check "Enable Undo Send", then change the time period to your desired time, (between 5 seconds to 30 seconds).
5. After sending an email, on the yellow notification that your message has been sent, there will be an option to "Undo".

A new feature added to the YouTube app on iOS allows users to get notifications when their favorite Channels are updated.

A new bell icon has been added to your subscriptions' YouTube channel - that when pressed, allows notifications to be sent to you.

The first thing you may need to do is make sure you have notifications enabled for the YouTube app, in your iOS Notifications Settings. You can do this by going to: Settings > Notifications > YouTube.

Then in the YouTube app you can customize your Notifications settings. Tap the Hamburger Menu (Three Horizontal Lines), then the Settings gear, then tap Notifications.

You can choose to allow; occasional subscription updates, recommended videos, and comments and replies. To get notified from a certain YouTube channel - go to their page, then tap the 'Bell button' next to the 'Subscribe button'. This can be undone by pressing the 'Bell', again.

A new app from Google brings you the latest advances in mobile technology; 360� spherical story telling.

'Google Spotlight Stories', brings engineers and critically-acclaimed filmmakers together to create 3D and 2D, 360 degree cinema-quality video with sound sphere audio, and sensor fusion techniques.

Using the accelerometers on your iPhone, you can enter into the world of the story with the ability to look around in any direction.

At the moment, Google Spotlight Stories movie theater features 4 stories; Help (free for a limited time), Duet, Buggy Night, and Windy Day.

'Help' directed by Justin Lin, is the first live-action Spotlight Story. In the middle of downtown Los Angeles a unexpected meteor shower hits the streets of Chinatown. The next unfolding events sees a young women trying desperately to escape.

While the 360 degree video is cool, you can look anywhere and see the whole place as if you're really there, I don't know if it's really great for story telling. Most of the time you're just moving around trying to follow with the story - because the story is moving. It can actually be quite dizzying.

So, cool technology, definitely check it out, but I don't think I'm sold on the idea. I'd still prefer to watch movies on a TV or in a normal cinema - without all the twisting and turning.

-> Google Spotlight Stories is free to download, available from the iTunes App Store.

New YouTube Mobile App Redesign (Android) 

Today the YouTube mobile app has gotten a new 'material design' upgrade, with added new features. The new interface is available for Android users now, with the iOS update coming soon.

The new update features include a simplified three new tab interface; Home, Subscriptions, and Account.

Also, we may hate when people record video in vertical mode, but before it was even more frustrating trying to view the thin videos on a mobile device. Well, todays new update (iOS included) also adds support to play vertical videos in fullscreen mode.

Another new added feature to the redesigned YouTube app is a new set of video creation tools. You can now use the YouTube app to trim your footage, add filters, music, and upload - all from within the one app.

-> Read more about the new YouTube app on the Official YouTube Blog.  

Google Chrome for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad has received an update recently that adds a much welcome feature to the web browser; the ability to swipe to navigate back and forward through pages. 

iOS users would know of the handy gestures in Safari of simply swiping from the right side of the screen to the middle to go back to the previous page (or the opposite way to go forward). Google Chrome on iOS was missing this gesture previously, as swiping the screen instead used to switch to different open tabs.  But now with the latest update, you can navigate with gestures - just like in Apple's Safari.  

-> Google Chrome for iOS is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store.