Google Updates: Nest outage, news update, free Android apps

TIME ONCE again for the rest of the Google News this week. The main stories of the week and beyond are at this link. This is the goss, the rumours and the stuff that couldn't warrant more writers' cramp.

First this week, Nest - the company which was recently absorbed back into the Google Hardware Division - suffered a significant outage this week. The three-hour outage is a long time for users not to be able to connect to the cloud, especially as nobody is 100 per cent sure if people's alarms were functioning at the time.

We've received reports from Nest Secure and Nest x Yale Lock customers who are unable to arm/disarm or lock/unlock via the Nest app. Physical controls aren't affected. We're currently investigating this issue and will provide more info when available.

— Nest Support (@nestsupport) May 17, 2018

 

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Hitman: Sniper (£0.79)

This week's Three-For-Free are a bit different. Two long-term paid apps gone free for good, and a way of using one app to access hundreds more.

Firstly  - Hitman: Sniper - which although around a while, remains hugely popular and is about to get a second lease of life as it's now free! Take out high-profile targets with a range of fantasy guns, or if that makes you uncomfortable, go to survival mode and face off with zombies. Just an average night in, really.

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Google WiFi, the whole home mesh router which despite a few niggles remains an INQ favourite, has a new feature. As well as being able to test your internet connection and your mesh network, in the next few weeks you'll be able to test the connection of any device that sits on the network, from the app. Troubleshooting has never been so easy. 

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Autodesk Sketchbook (£4.99)

An absolute steal here - one of our favourite art/CAD packages for Android (and other platforms too) is now free of charge, so there's no excuse for not embracing your inner artist. Up to now, functionality was limited without paying up, but Autodesk seems to think that giving us one app for free will help sell the myriad of others. Perhaps it will, perhaps it won't, but this is an essential app, either way.

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Good news for Nvidia Shield users - the GeForce Now game streaming service has gone free for an unspecified amount of time. Doubtless a nod to the arrival of Steam Link (see below), this is still big news for Shield users and brings a second lease of life to the console that was always capable of more, but seems to have stalled on development.

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Steam Link (Free)

The Beta of the streaming app from Steam is here and it doesn't disappoint. At the moment it's limited to streaming your game collection from your computer to an Android device on the same local network, but we hope that eventually, we'll see 4G support too. Either way, it's a no-hassle way of playing Steam games on your TV and brings hundreds of titles that aren't otherwise on Android.

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Google News has started rolling out its big update on the web, as well as rebranding Google Newsstand. One of the new features is called "Full Coverage". That means you won't just see your favourites. You won't just get "your kind" of media. Get out of your bubble, all. You'll soon be seeing a more complete picture of the news. Though it may leave you feeling dirty and angry with the world.

That's your lot for now - more next week. And by the way, it's definitely Yanny. µ  

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