It’s the forgotten app on Android, after appearing in Android 2.0 the Google News and Weather app, along with its associated widget hasn’t received any love since then, but with a major design updates to Android since its release and another on the way, Google must have realised that it’s time.
The update is available now in Google Play, or should appear as an update if you’ve had it installed all this time. The update includes a new Google Now card style design update, as well as tablet support and a new resizeable homescreen widget. The complete list of new features include :
- Enjoy news.google.com personalization by signing in with your Google account
- Tablet support
- Expand stories for snippets and related articles, including genres E.g. Opinion, In-depth
- Navigate sections via the menu or simple swipes
- Change editions for news in different languages and countries
- Weather and local news for multiple places
- New resizable homescreen widget
The app is location based, so you should automatically receive the latest updates that will matter to you, if you have location services enabled. You can add to the topic or location list as well to get more news and weather delivered.
Head on over to Google Play to get the update, or install it again and see what you think.
Note: Some people are reporting that the update is not showing as available. It’s possible the update is rolling out slowly. In the meantime have a couple of mirrors :
Mirror 1
Mirror 2
[pb-app-box pname=’com.google.android.apps.genie.geniewidget’ name=’Google News & Weather’ theme=’discover’ lang=’en’]
