Google brings fingerprint support on Chrome beta for Android and Mac

The latest update for Chrome beta is bringing an extra layer of security for Android and Mac devices. The app will use Android fingerprint sensors and the MacBook Pro’s Touch ID sensors for biometrics. It isn’t indicated though if other biometric security options like Windows Hello fingerprint scanners or Touch ID on older iOS devices will be supported as well.

Chrome 70 beta brings with it some other features, too. It’ll exit full-screen mode when dialog boxes for payments, authentication prompts, or file pickers show up so you get a better view of what you’re filling out. Web Bluetooth support comes to Windows 10, letting Chrome communicate with other nearby Bluetooth devices. There’s also a new experimental Shape Detection API that will let you identify barcodes, QR codes, text in images, and faces, among other things.

Source: The Verge

Spotify raises download limit to 10,000 songs per device

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If you listen to Spotify everywhere, have multiple devices (say, five), you can get up to 50,000 tracks saved for offline listening. That’s a lot of music and as Spotify tells NME it is “more akin to what it was in the age of owning music and not just leasing it.” Now, instead of the 3,333 download limit for three devices, Spotify raised this limit to 10,000 for five devices. Unfortunately, the number of tracks you can save in your library is still stuck at 10,000 tracks. Here’s to hoping Spotify listens to its users once again and raises this limit, too.

Apple HomePod update adds Canadian French support, among other new Siri-related features

Apple’s HomePod speaker recently got a software update that brings some useful new features to it. One is that it now gets support for Canadian French in Canada and Spanish in the U.S., Spain, and Mexico. On top of this, you can now ask Siri to do more. You can now ask it to search songs by lyrics (in English), set multiple timers, make or receive calls, help locate your iPhone with Find My iPhone feature, and access Siri Shortcuts. An example Apple gives is, you can say “Hey Siri, good morning” and it can go through your morning routine and do things like “order coffee from a coffee shop’s app, turn on the kitchen lights from the Home app, and share the first few calendar appointments for the day—all with one simple, customizable command.”

Google to shut down Inbox app by March 2019

If you stuck by Inbox all these years as an alternative to email, we’re sad to say but you have less than five months with the app. Google just announced it was shuttering the app by March 2019 so it could focus on Gmail. The company reasons that a lot of the popular features in Inbox—like snoozing emails, Smart Reply, connected task lists, and high-priority notifications—have made or are making their way to Gmail. “Bundles” or those that group similar emails together into a single block haven’t made its way to Gmail yet, but is said to be coming at a later date.

Inbox was a fun experiment in trying to redesign the email experience. Unfortunately, it looks like that experiment didn’t quite pan out. Redesigned Gmail does incorporate a lot of ideas, though, so for you loyal Inbox users, it might not be as painful a switch. According to The Verge, there will be no layoffs related to this shut down as the employees working on the app have already been “well-integrated” into the Gmail team.