Google rebrands Android Wear to 'Wear OS by Google'

There's been a long lull in Android Wear news, specially since smartphone companies left the platform in droves while traditional consumer watchmakers adopted the format bringing down the price and expanding the variety of connected timepieces available. No one seemed to notice.

The biggest issue with Android Wear is that it is stuck in circa 2014 hardware from Qualcomm, heavily limiting modern software features. Now rebranded as 'Wear OS by Google,' it looks like they are hoping to kickstart interest in the wearable platform. This isn't a great time for Google to mount an offensive. The Apple Watch is already the dominant smart watch (even as it is limited to iPhone use) and Fitbit has proven to be the master of fitness trackers now stepping up into the smartwatch space with more modest pricing.

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Intuit's app helps self-employed workers invoice, manage expenses, and file taxes

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Self-employed workers are faced with a lot of pain points when tax time comes around. Not only do they need to carefully monitor expenses as well as send and follow up on invoices for jobs, getting all the necessary information to file taxes accurately and on time is a constant challenge. Intuit's QuickBooks Self-Employed mobile app eliminates the pain points associated with financial management and helps self-employed workers easily manage their operations from anywhere.

"We identified this new market, the independent contractor and we noticed that there wasn't a quick adoption of the traditional QuickBooks App.  We did a ton of research and identified what their unique needs were. Rather than needing a full financial picture of their business, the things that were important to them were being able to keep track of their expenses and getting ready for tax time," says Melika Hope, Senior Product Manager at Intuit.

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Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ flagships now available in Canada

Samsung's Galaxy S9 and the larger S9+ are now available in Canada. The new flagships boast powerful new processors, class leading cameras with Dual Aperture lenses offering the best low-light performance we've seen in a smartphone yet at the F1.5 setting. Also outstanding is the super slow-motion video recording which manages 960 frames per seconds on HD recording.

Aside from a fingerprint reader, the Galaxy S9 also has iris and face recognition access control. Check out our full review of the smaller Galaxy S9 here. 

The Galaxy S9 and S9+ sell unlocked for $960 and $1,100, respectively. Canadians who trade in their old phones will also get a minimum of $100 off in addition to the trade in value when you purchase the Galaxy S9 or S9+ February 25 through April 9, 2018. Also available today are new Disney AREmoji featuring Mickie and Minnie Mouse, showing Samsung's openness to third party content providers.

Google Lens featuring visual search and assistance coming to iOS via Google Photos app

iOS users will soon have the visual search functionality of Google Lens with visual search and assistance which will be added on to the Google Photos app. Previously an exclusive feature to Google Pixel handsets, Google Lens has rolled out to other Android devices and now works with iOS.

Google Lens, like Assistant, is an extension of Google Search. It can analyze what’s in an image and provide relevant actions and search results. For example, when analyzing a picture with a phone number or address, it will provide suggestions to call and get directions.

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