Blog posts now current

With reference to my post on 13 October 2018, I have now reposted all the chosen articles from my Bits & Pieces Google+ Collection to this Google Blog. This has been necessary as Google has decided to close Google+ in April 2019. All future posts in this Bits & Pieces Google Blog will now be current.

If you would like to follow me on Twitter, you can find me at twitter.com/psfowler51 where I also share these posts plus other more general tweets!

Google Assistant Directory

Directory for Google Assistant Apps. Great idea! Makes it much easier to browse or search for Google Assistant Apps.

Google Assistant apps now have a web directory to view on your desktop – Ausdroid: Google Home has been a massive success for Google, selling more than one Google Home device every second since the Mini launched in October. Finding apps has been a difficult experience up until no…

MS Software Quality Problem

Microsoft needs give up on two releases per year. Using the Insider Program and consumers as their main software testing is non professional but it is cheap!

Microsoft Has A Software Quality Problem - Thurrott.com: Windows 10 October 2018 Update rollout highlights a fundamental problem with Microsoft's testing process.

Another Apple Quality Problem

Apple's not so good hardware. Apple makes huge margins on the sale of its hardware but it appears they are getting even greedier with sloppy design and falling manufacturing quality.

Oops, Apple Has Another Quality Problem - Thurrott.com: In yet another hit to its reputation for quality, Apple this week admitted to a manufacturing defect in the iPhone 8.

Downloading YouTube Videos

Downloading YouTube Videos. A common question I get asked is "how do you download YouTube videos?" There are obvious legal issues here that are discussed in the article. If you still want to download videos the article presents a number of alternatives.

How to Download YouTube Videos - PCMag Australia: Tons of footage is uploaded to YouTube every minute. But what if you want to download a video? Here's how.

Chrome OS to Tablets

Chrome OS finds its way to Tablets. I guess this was inevitable now that Chrome OS supports Android Apps.

Google Brings Chrome OS to Tablets - Thurrott.com: Google announced today what many have suspected since the Pixelbook release: It will now rely on Chrome OS, and not Android, for its tablets efforts.

Old pictures on Google Photos

How to upload old pictures to Google Photos from your PC.

How to upload old pictures to Google Photos from your PC | Drippler - Apps, Games, News, Updates & Accessories: I'm all about the Google Photos app for automatically backing up the photos I take on my smartphone. Thanks to its unlimited free storage and high quality, iCloud doesn't even begin to compete. And, when it comes to the hundreds of photos stored in shoeboxes in my closet, Google Photos also happens to...

Facebook loses $120 billion

Beginning of the end for Facebook?? Facebook has certainly got its work cut to stop the slide and its worsening credibility.

Facebook loses $120 billion in market cap after awful Q2 earnings | TechCrunch: Facebook’s share price fell more than 20 percent in after-hours trading today after the company announced its slowest-ever user growth rate and a scary warning that its revenue growth would rapidly decelerate. Before today’s brutal Q2 earnings, Facebook’s share price closed today …

Microsoft wants consumers

Microsoft knows it has lost consumers. Concentrating on "prosumers" in the future will not save the company. Microsoft is losing all segments to smartphones, tablets and Chromebooks. Education, Government and Industry are all looking at alternatives to expensive PCs that are based on 35 year old software.

Microsoft wants to win back the consumers it let down - The Verge

Microsoft's consumer business

Microsoft has given up on consumers? The Microsoft consumer market is little more than beta testers for Windows 10.

Microsoft offers three unconvincing reasons why its consumer business isn't dead yet | PCWorld: Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella tried to respond to concerns that Microsoft's consumer strategy may be floundering, though his response wasn't especially convincing.