Android One, for those who don’t recall, is Google’s ambitious plan to improve the user experience in the low echelon segment. Announced at the I/O developer conference last year, for Android One project, the company has partnered with a number of smartphone manufacturers. Google provides these companies with design guidelines — including hardware specs — that manufacturers have to follow. Among other interesting USPs, Android One handsets run on stock Android and receive updates directly from Google....

It will let you create three different types of lists which include, Favorites, Starred Places, and Want to Go (places you want to visit). The goal is to provide a more social feel to Google Maps. Google Maps Product Manager, Zach Maier writes: The app is required to create a list of places, however, people can still search for lists from the desktop. You can also download lists for offline viewing in case there isn’t a data connection nearby....

Google will soon be bringing a major new feature to its Maps app for iOS: full offline support. Google Maps has some utility already when used offline, but an upcoming update will make it much more robust when used without Internet access. For example, before you could see an area on Google Maps offline but not do much else with it. Coming soon, Google will enable features including navigation and business information lookup without requiring an active Internet connection....

Google today has rolled out an update its Maps application on iOS, bringing with it a pair of new features. The update bumps the app to version 4.12.0 and includes support for adding missing businesses to the app’s database and spoken traffic alerts. The latter of the two is the far more interesting addition of this update. Spoken traffic alerts mean that Google Maps will now alert you about upcoming traffic congestion and traffic incidents as you use the Navigation feature of the app....

Last year, Google was taking steps to further safeguard its services. Better known as Advanced Protection Program, the company is looking to protect users data in Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive. Before today, Google’s program was only available via its own web and mobile apps. Now, this protection program extends beyond Google’s own apps, supporting iOS’ native Mail, Calendar, and Contacts apps, reports TechCrunch. With Google now supporting Apple’s own apps, adoption will likely grow at a more substantial rate....

Gotham has finally confirmed viewers’ suspicions that the newest, youngest member of the cast is, in fact, Barbara Gordon, who will eventually take up the mantle of Batgirl. In the Batman comic books, Barbara is the daughter of Commissioner Jim Gordon and decides to follow Batman’s example in becoming a vigilante, taking to the streets under the name of Batgirl in an attempt to help fight crime in a way that her father cannot....

There’s no telling what’s in the water over at Rockstar North, but science definitely needs to put some money into researching it. It could probably be distilled into a magical elixir, one that instantly makes even the laziest of us perform at 1000% in our jobs. What other explanation could there be for Grand Theft Auto V? At the time of its original release in 2013, the Hype Train had been barrelling along for some time (it was a new Grand Theft Auto game, after all), and it arrived on shelves with Earth-shattering force....

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 tops fans’ list as their most-anticipated future Marvel Studios film. It’s been a tumultuous last several months for the MCU cosmic sub-franchise, having been put through the wringer after director and writer James Gunn was booted out of the job last year when his past offensive tweets were unearthed. For quite a time, the job was up for grabs, but in an unprecedented move, Disney reconsidered and hired Gunn back....

Guerrilla Games managing director Hermen Hulst is moving to a new role as head of PlayStation Worldwide Studios. The move comes a little more than a month after the departure of Shawn Layden from his position as Worldwide Studios chairman. These big moves at PlayStation come as Sony prepares for the launch of the PlayStation 5 in 2020. In October, Sony officially announced the PS5 and revealed that it would be out next holiday season....

Android devices come with a lot of cool features, but Google always had some extra features which they never gave out for devices from other manufacturers. From the time of Nexus devices, Google always added some extra features to these devices. This trend had followed through to the Pixel 2 series devices launch in 2017. Users of non-Google devices have been trying for a long time to get the Pixel experience for a long time....

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone first released in 1997. The story of the young wizard Harry Potter exceeded expectations as readers swarmed bookstores all over the world to buy a copy of the first installment in the Harry Potter series. In 2001, the film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was released, sending those same fans to movie theaters to see how director, Chris Columbus, producer, David Heyman, and screenwriter, Steve Kloves adapted the wizarding world and how they brought Hogwarts to life....

He might have defeated the Dark Lord many times and came down in the Wizarding World as “the boy who lived,” but Harry Potter is by no means the best student in Hogwarts’ history. In the Harry Potter books and movies, many rival his skill, surpass his intelligence, and even compete with his feats. Some of them are even within the same batch or generation as Harry himself. In that regard, many of them could theoretically defeat Potter, whether in a fair duel or even a life and death situation....

Harry Potter’s time at school was harrowing, to say the least. There were multiple assaults, basilisks, werewolves, prisoners, and evils around every corner. It makes sense the students were desperate to take action. While within the walls of Hogwarts, one of the few ways students felt they could fight back was through Dumbledore’s Army. This was an organization started by Harry, Ron, and Hermione to teach their peers the things they learned while fighting off evil....

Update: Giveaway winners!! Shoot me an email (jordan@9to5mac.com) with your shipping info using the same email you used to enter. Congrats! Reform Backpack bundle – Keith Jones Reform Action Camera Pack bundle – Randy Fang Reform Sling bundle – Robert a Stine III In addition, you’ll also be automatically entered into a giveaway to win an Incase bag full of accessories for your Apple devices (details below). First look at Incase’s Reform Collection w/ Ecoya Fabric: Incase’s Reform collection uses the company’s new eco-friendly Ecoya Fabric....

If you do a lot of travelling and like your travel apps, you can now get some paid iPhone apps free of charge through a new Media Lounge feature in the Expedia app. To access the offers, you need to download the free Expedia Hotels & Flights app, complete your traveller profile and then hit Extras to see what’s on offer. The first offer is Over, an app that allows you to create customized artwork from your travel photos....

The 2020 Golden Globes broadcast kicks off awards season Sunday, January 5, and here are all our predictions for the film categories of this year’s ceremony. The Golden Globes, sponsored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and hosted this year by Ricky Gervais, has always shaped the conversation heading into awards season and served as a predictor for the Academy Awards nominations, which will be released on January 13 this year....

Blogger, a blog-publishing service, has been around since 1999 and it has gotten pretty popular since Google acquired them in 2003. Strange enough, the search firm neglected the iOS app until today, when Blogger for iPhone debuted as a free download on the App Store. Google says in a post over at the official Blogger blog that the app lets you write a new blog post and publish it immediately or save it as a draft right from your iOS device....

Google has released an updated version of the Google Chrome application for iOS today, bringing at least one interesting new feature to the app: mobile websites that have Cast support will now work with all of your Cast-capable devices. It’s unclear how the feature works at the moment, but according to the release notes, developers are going to need to add support to their webpages before they can take advantage of the feature....

In the run up to Google I/O tomorrow, Google is releasing information on its Cloud offerings for both video and Music. Earlier today, Google said it would be renting 3000 Hollywood feature videos through its Youtube service. There will be more to come and some videos will be free with advertisements – just like regular old TV, which YouTube aims to replace. That news isn’t exactly new but it has finally become official....

Earlier this month, Google announced it will spend a cool £730m ($1bn) on its office space in central London. The tech giant also expects its headcount to increase from 6,400 to 10,000, with Google UK boss, Ronan Harris, telling the BBC that the company is keen to see a return to office life and people behind desks. Harris said the new Google workspaces would be reimagined for new hybrid and flexible-working preferences....