Account Activity shows where and how you use Google services

Google today introduced "Account Activity", a feature that will track account holders' monthly usage of Google services. Each month, Google will send you a password-protected report that will statistics on your email usage, search history, and latitude check ins and plot the data against your usage during the previous month. The service incorporates your usage across all devices, including Android products, and allows you to see where, when, and on which device your account was accessed.

Right now the report works with your Gmail, web, and latitude usage, though Google says it will add more of its services in the coming months, which presumably leaves room for tracking Android-specific stats. You can opt in through "Account Settings" in your Google account, and opt out at any time. For more information, visit Google's official blog at the source link.

Source: Google Blog

HTCSense.com sync service shutting down from April 30 to make way for new cloud services

The message above is currently displayed on HTCSense.com, informing visitors that HTC's online sync service will be shutting down from April 30. This gives HTCSense.com users just over a month to log in and download any contacts, text messages or other personal data on their account. The message is also being sent out by email to HTCSense.com account holders.

HTC says the move away from HTCSense.com is part of the transition to "new and improved" online services it's working on. With carriers preparing to launch the One X in Europe in just over a week, we'd guess that phone may be the first to see whatever HTC's cooking up.

In addition to the purge of personal data, HTC tells us that the online security and backup services are currently unavailable too, and that users should head to Google Play to download a replacement. Security apps like Lookout offer similar services, for a price.

In the meantime, we'll have to wait and see what HTC's future cloud plans entail. And we'll be hoping that the new service is a little more reliable than HTCSense.com. In our experience the service, which first launched on the Desire HD in late 2010, was temperamental at the best of times.

More: HTCSense.com