Items tagged with Google
We’re just five days away from Google’s big fall event to announce new hardware. As is usually the case, nearly everything surrounding the event has already including both the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 along with the all-new Chromecast and Nest Audio smart speaker. One thing has remained a mystery up until this point is pricing for the Pixel 5. Google already confirmed that the Pixel 4a 5G will be priced at $499, so that means that the Pixel 5 will be priced somewhere north of that price point. Now, gadget leaker Jon Prosser is alleging with 100 percent certainty that the Pixel 5 will be priced at $699 with 128GB of storage. A $699 price tag would make it $100 less than...
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Earlier this week, we took a look at some official renders of the Google Pixel 5, and now it's time for its launch partner -- the Pixel 4a 5G -- to get the same treatment. In this case, the Pixel 4a 5G leaked via UK retailer John Lewis. The retailer by mistake managed to mix in images of the Pixel 4a 5G into a product listing for the lesser Pixel 4a, which is 4G LTE-only. You can tell that this is the Pixel 4a 5G by the fact that there is a little “5G” symbol up in the status bar. Other items that we spy include the usual contrasting power button, a hole punch selfie camera, two cameras on the back along with an old school fingerprint reader (if it ain’t broke,...
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Google might as well go ahead and launch its Nest Audio smart speaker, because some of its retail partners are not in the mood to wait. The unreleased smart speaker has been spotted on store shelves at Walmart, and there is a product page at Lowe's, though the latter is not actually accepting orders at the moment. Presumably a launch is imminent. It is not clear if Walmart has been actively selling the Nest Audio in stores. Twitter user Marcos Frausto posted the image above (click to enlarge for a full view), saying it "looks like Walmart jumped the gun on the unreleased speaker from Google." In a follow-up tweet, he said Walmart did not put a price on the product. So perhaps the retail chain...
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We’re roughly a week away from when Google is set to unveil its new Pixel 5 flagship, and the lesser Pixel 4a (5G). However, unlike previous years, Google is not using a top-of-the-line Qualcomm SoC for its flagship, which means that we won’t see the Snapdragon 865 or Snapdragon 865+. The folks over at WinFuture have managed to not only grab confirmed specs for the upcoming Pixel 5, but they also have obtained new renders of the smartphone. The star of the show of course will be Qualcomm’s mid-range Snapdragon 765G SoC, which will come with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The inclusion of the Snapdragon 765G also means that the Google 5 is technically capable...
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It was only a few weeks ago now that Intel 11th generation Tiger Lake processors [officially] went on the prowl. Intel claims these new processors are the world’s best for thin-and-light devices. Thus, it is not surprising Tiger Lake processors are going to bring power and performance to Chrome OS soon. Intel states they “engineer our silicon to excel in performance across the widest variety of use cases, workloads and form factors.” As Chromebooks are a mainstay in an educational setting and are making their way as work-from-home devices, the performance Intel boasts is necessary for learning and productivity. By Intel’s testing, multi-tasking and overall performance...
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Google is supposedly giving their Chromecast an upgrade with an announcement coming at Google Launch Night In. The Google dongle is getting a full Android TV interface and some new buttons on the controller making it more versatile for users. In June, we reported on a leak of the new Chromecast codenamed Sabrina. Previously, the Google Chromecast was mainly a device for casting videos from device to a TV, but now it will come with a controller. The dongle itself is not all that interesting, as the hardware has not changed much. The controller, on the other hand, has gotten some new features since June that are worth a look. Leaked Image From June Looking at the leaked renders from WinFuture,...
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Google’s Account Protection Program is their strongest level of account security for those who are at higher risk for attack. Now, Google Chrome is expanding protections for the Advanced Protection users by improving download scanning options. According to Google, Advanced Protection members have been guarded from phishing attempts well enough that attackers are taking to malicious downloads for their attacks. In August 2019, Chrome started to warn people about potentially malicious downloads. With an update to Chrome, Google is giving Advanced Protection users the ability to send in their potentially malicious files to be scanned by the Safe Browsing suite of malware detection. When first...
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It’s been a while since we’ve talked about Google Fiber, after Google scaled back its ambitious plans of spreading 1Gbps internet to millions of Americans. However, Google Fiber is back in the news again this week and this time it’s not because it’s pulling out of an existing market or canceling previously-announced Google Fiber Cities — instead, Google is announcing that a big speed increase to 2Gbps is coming. Although Google Fiber was among the first to offer 1Gbps fiber service in the United States, many other ISPs including AT&T and Comcast have countered with similar (or faster speeds). In order to make its service more attractive, Google...
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Since COVID-19 has halted events around the world, Google has had to become creative with the way they are launching new products. On Wednesday, September 30th, Google will be hosting “Launch Night In” to showcase “a new Chromecast, the latest smart speaker, and new Pixel Phones.” Earlier this month, a leak from Vodafone confirmed that both the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a (5G) would launch at the end of September, so an announcement like Google’s comes as no surprise. In the coming days, we should expect Google to hand out more details to the public on this event, but for now, the big topic is the upcoming Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a (5G) which are expected to be announced....
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Google is working toe decouple its Chrome browser from the Chrome OS window manager and system UI, and while on the surface that might sound like a puzzling move, there is a method the company's madness. By separating Chrome from Chrome OS, Google could theoretically extend the relevancy of an aging Chromebook. Chrome and Chrome OS are intertwined. The system UI and browser share the same binary. Where this can become problematic is when a Chromebook reaches its Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date, At that point, automatic updates are no longer doled out, and owners of an affected model could lose some key functionality. "Chrome devices that have not reached their AUE date will continue to receive...
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Back in late July, we reported of issues that Pixel 4 XL owners were having with the back glass panel on their phones separating from the frame. At the time, the issue appeared to primarily be limited to the larger Pixel 4 XL and not the standard Pixel 4. According to a representative for the uBreakiFix store, a faulty connector within the device was causing the battery to swell while charging, which in turn pressed against the back glass causing it to separate. At the time, Google made the following statement regarding the issue: We’ve investigated the issue and concluded that this is not related to the Pixel battery. If you’re experiencing back glass lift on your Pixel...
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Tim Sweeney is not one to mince words, and if he has a strong opinion on something, he will let it be known. That includes speaking out against big companies and their practices. Microsoft has mostly caught his verbal wrath, though more recently, Sweeney has turned his attention to Apple and Google, saying they exploit Epic Games and other developers, and must be stopped. His comments are rooted in the current dispute between Epic Games and both Apple and Google, over their respective app stores and the royalties associated with them. The dispute with Apple has dominated the headlines, as the two spar in court. It started when Epic Games suddenly decided to update Fortnite so that players could...
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Android 11 is being released today and it is turning the feature set “up to 11.” This new Android version has a focus of three themes: people, controls, and privacy. This update is dropping for Pixel devices from the Pixel 2 onward. As mentioned, the three themes are the most important talking points of the update. The first point, people, is all about improving conversations and discussion flow while multitasking. Notifications for conversations pop up in a dedicated space in the notifications shade. Bubbles are a new feature which allow conversation “shortcuts” to be placed on screen for easy access back to the conversation. Finally, they have consolidated keyboard...
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If you've had your eyes on the non-nonsense competence and value of the Google Pixel 4a, but want a little bit more power and 5G connectivity, then we've got some good news for you. It looks as though the upcoming Pixel 5 flagship and its cheaper Pixel 4a (5G) counterpart might be launching later this month; slightly earlier than then the October timeframe we were originally expecting. This information comes from wireless carriers Vodafone Germany, which says that both the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a (5G) will launch on September 25th. This date is also 5 days earlier than what gadget leaker Jon Prosser revealed back on August 19th. Vodafone also says that the Pixel 5 and...
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Update (8/31/2020): It is now coming out that "misconfiguration at a major external network provider" led to the issues. The article has been updated to reflect this. As it goes, if something is not supposed to break, it probably will. This morning, some people had trouble getting to websites across the internet. DownDetector showed a large spike in people reporting issues, and it appears it all came down to a problem with an external network provider. Around 6:30am CST, a rather large spike in issues began to crop up across the web, from Starbucks to Call of Duty multiplayer sessions. Video streaming, log-in services, and whole websites themselves were having problems. For the...
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Google Chrome, destroyer of RAM, is getting some updates this week that make it a little more conservative. Included in the update are “under-the-hood” performance boosts, tab grouping, mobile UI redesigns, and more. First up is the performance uplift. For quite some time, Google Chrome has been known as a bit of a resource hog. Now, Google aims to change some of that with this update and claims that you could see “Chrome tabs load up to 10 percent faster.” To do this, the Chrome team implemented two things: Profile Guided Optimization and Tab Throttling. The profile guided optimization is a way in which code is compiled and allowed to run faster for commonly run...
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We've got quite a bit of news to present to you from the Google Pixel front today, as information on both the upcoming flagship Pixel 5 and its cheaper Pixel 4 (5G) sibling have leaked. The first bit of info comes in the form of a single photograph that shows the two smartphones side-by-side, but only from the back. In the image above, the Pixel 5 is allegedly the smaller device on the left, while the Pixel 4A (5G) is on the right. It's rather peculiar that the Pixel 4a (5G) is the larger of the two, but from what we can tell, both have two cameras on the rear like the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. Unfortunately, there are no live shots of the phones from the front. However, based...
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While the Samsung Galaxy S20 and OnePlus 8/8 Pro families hogged much of the limelight during the first half of 2020 for flagship Android smartphones, Google is looking to make its mark during the back half of the year. We’re of course talking about the Pixel 5, which will be the solitary follow-up to the discontinued Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. Thankfully, we’re getting some new renders of the device courtesy of @OnLeaks which seemingly confirm some of the physical details that we first learned about in early July. For starters, the Pixel 5 has a single hole punch in the top left corner of the display for the selfie camera – just like the mid-range Pixel 4a. This is a...
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Now that Google has pulled the wraps off its mid-range Pixel 4a smartphone, all eyes are laser-focused on the upcoming Pixel 4a (5G) and the flagship Pixel 5. We had previously seen reporting via a leak on Google’s French website that the smartphones could debut in early October, which would be in keeping with previous Pixel smartphone launches. However, gadget leaker Jon Prosser is giving us more insight into the Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5, including the fact that both smartphones are expected to debut on September 30th, which is a little over a month from now. Prosser goes on to say that the Pixel 5 will be available in both black and green colors, while the Pixel 4a (5G) will...
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Nest has announced that it's rolling out new multi-room audio controls. The company says that users can already manually group devices in order to play the same music on various speakers at the same time. The new multi-room control allows users to dynamically group multiple cast-enabled Devices such as speakers, smart displays, and Chromecasts in real-time to fill multiple rooms with music or podcasts. The multi-room control works with all of the user's favorite audio apps, including YouTube Music, Pandora, and Spotify. Users can add or remove devices throughout the home when more than one Google Assistant-enabled smart speaker or Smart Display is available by tapping the icon in the bottom left...
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Google’s new Pixel 4a mid-range smartphone has been well-received thanks to its low price ($349), excellent camera, and respectable overall performance. As a result, many are looking forward to what the flagship Pixel 5 will offer when it is released this fall. However, a new leak is alleging that the use of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G SoC won’t be the only compromise for this flagship smartphone. A respected source of previous Pixel rumors, the Pixel 5 will only have a 3,080 mAh battery. For comparison, the already-discontinued Pixel 4 XL features a much larger 3,700 mAh battery. According to the source, @ImjustSayingJC, Google thinks that it can achieve greater efficiency...
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Google is continuing to develop new ways to preserve the battery life of your laptop. Google’s new Battery-Savings Meta Tag would allow websites to ask that Chrome enable various battery-saving features. The Battery-Savings Meta Tag will likely make an appearance in Chrome v86 and v87. Users can currently experiment with this feature through the Origin Trials platform for developers. Some websites can be very resource-intensive, including video or video-conferencing websites that have become especially popular during the current COVID-19 health crisis. Google Chrome in particular has a reputation for being power hungry (many users will even avoid using Chrome if their device is low on battery...
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