Items tagged with Google
Amazon Prime Day is officially open for business, and there are plenty of deals to be had on a wide range of products in various categories. If you’re looking for a new smartphone, Amazon is doing its best to pull you in with some enticing deals on a number of popular devices. Starting off with smartphones from Samsung’s camp, Amazon is running some crazy deals on unlocked devices. You can grab a Galaxy S10e for just $549, which is $200 off its normal price. The next step up – the Galaxy S10 – is ringing in at a low $599, which represents a $300 discount. Likewise, the Galaxy S10+ will set you back only 699, which again is a $300 discount...
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We all have that friend who is addicted to something, whether it is a love interest that does not reciprocate the affection, sports betting, chocolate, or even drugs. For Google, the addiction is making runs in the social networking space. Following the closure of Google+ (to regular users), Google is introducing another social networking product, called Shoelace. To be clear, Shoelace is not a rebirth of Google+ (which still exists for businesses and schools through G Suite, by the way). It is also not another take on Google Buzz or a messaging service like Google Wave, to name just a couple of the social experiments Google ultimately ended up shuttering. So, what exactly is Shoelace, then?...
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Google's DeepMind division has had considerable success competing against and crushing human competitors in Starcraft II. The DeepMind AlphaStar artificial intelligence (AI) trounced Grzegorz "MaNa" Komincz of Team Liquid back in January 5-0 in a professional match on a competitive ladder. However, in that matchup, MaNa knew that he was going up against AI ahead of time, so there were no surprises. Google will now enter its AlphaStar into a Starcraft II European competitive ladder in the near future where it will essentially be going undercover to battle against human opponents. "For scientific test purposes, DeepMind will be benchmarking AlphaStar’s performance by...
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Google shocked us all when it decided to "leak" its upcoming Pixel 4 XL flagship Android Q smartphone back in early June. Unauthorized leaks had already flooded the internet at that point, so Google just decided to get in on the action. After Google’s official photo release of the Pixel 4 XL, the leaks have continued, and we were treated to a good look at the front of the device earlier this week. Now, an artist by the name of Jonas Daehnert has released new renders based on the most recent design leak. While these are renders, they about as close to the real thing as we could possibly get. The back of the smartphone is pretty much a known quantity at this point after...
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A shocking report by a news agency in Belgium claims that contractors paid by Google to transcribe audio recordings uploaded by Google Home smart speakers have also been able to hear private conversations that should have never been recorded in the first place. The recordings run the gamut from bedroom conversations to professional phone calls containing private information. We already know that Google thrives on data collection. That is how the company is able to tailor its services to users, including obviously its search engine, but also its AI assistant. In a related FAQ, Google explains that it "collects data that's meant to make our services faster, smarter, and more relevant, and more...
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Android fans looking forward to trying out the next beta edition of Android Q can download Beta 5 today. To get the beta operating system, the users do have to be in the Android Q Beta Program. Beta 5 is the first release candidate for devs to use for testing apps before the final version of Android Q launches this summer. There are a couple of notable changes in Beta 5; the corner-in gesture to activate the Assistant is now official. Google has also rolled in a new "peek" behavior for the back gesture that will work better with apps that feature slide-out navigation drawers. That latter change is an important one because it fixes a problem with the edge swipe to go back that conflicted with...
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On July 16th, 1969 the Apollo 11 mission commenced, shooting Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin into an orbit around the Moon. Four days later, the Apollo Lunar Module “Eagle” touched down on the Moon, after which Armstrong first stepped onto the surface to deliver this historic phrase: “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Leading up the actual anniversary, Google is paying homage to Apollo 11 starting with a new augmented reality (AR) experience. In order to join in on the action, you will need to have an AR-capable smartphone in your possession and search for “Apollo 11” in Google Search. From there, you should see...
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We've simply grown accustomed to reading about Android malware on a regular basis, but this latest entry is both intriguing and incredibly dastardly in its deeds. Called Agent Smith, this malware has already infected 25 million Android devices globally with adware. Of those 25 million devices, India has been hit the hardest, taking the brunt of the attacks with 15 million infected devices. Agent Smith, which was first observed in the wild by Check Point Research earlier this year, has been coursing through the Google Play Store. After monitoring the its attack vector, Check Point Research was able to summarize Agent Smith's modus operandi into three parts. First, the malware lurks in...
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Amazon and Google have settled their spat that has been going on for over a year now. YouTube was pulled from Amazon Fire TV devices back in late 2017. Google pulled YouTube from Fire TV devices in part because of Amazon's business practices that involved not selling Google products like Chromecast and not offering Prime Video for Chromecast users. Things have turned around, and the spat is now over with Google announcing the availability of Prime Video on Chromecast and Android TV. Google says that YouTube is also back on Fire TV devices; the apps are on both platforms starting today. Google brags that Chromecast and Chromecast built-in users now have access to over 2,000 apps for...
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The unsettling fact of the digital age is that we do not truly own any of our purchased content. Having access to movies, music, and games purchased in digital form rely on a number of factors, and there are plenty of examples where things have gone sideways. That said, Google is promising that users of its Stadia gaming service need not worry about developers and publishers pulling the plug. In an updated FAQ section pertaining to Stadia, Google states in no uncertain terms that any game you purchase will always be playable on the service. Here is the pertinent section... Question: What happens to a game I bought if the publisher stops supporting Stadia in the future? Can I still play the game?...
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How much data are Android apps gathering from your device? A recent study concluded that over 1,000 Android apps are able to take a user’s data even if that user has denied permissions. These apps are able to harvest geolocation data and other identifiers. Researchers at the International Computer Science Institute studied 88,000 apps from the Google Play store and discovered that 1,325 of these apps are able to gather data even if they have been denied permissions. Their research was presented at the Federal Trade Commission's PrivacyCon this past June. Serge Egelman, director of usable security and privacy research at ICSI, remarked at the conference that, "If app developers can just...
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A fresh set of Pixel 4 XL renders have hit the web, and if they are to be believed, Google will in fact ditch the display notch in favor of a traditional bezel this time around. That is a bit of a surprise, given that smartphone makers have largely favored moving on from the bezel, whether utilizing a notch, a punch-hole cutout, or even an under-display camera. None of those appear to be the case for the upcoming Pixel 4 XL, and presumably the Pixel 4 as well. Google had adopted a notched design (made popular by Apple with its iPhone X series) with its Pixel 3 XL and Pixel 3 phones, but the new set of renders once again point to a bezel at the top of the Pixel 4 XL to house the front cameras...
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Google is testing an new media control button in its Chrome browser that, when enabled, would allow users to pause and resume playing videos in tabs. As shown in the image above, the button appears in the upper-right side of the browser, next to the URL bar, and is accessible even for videos that are playing in background tabs. The feature is called Global Media Controls (GMC) and is available to test in the Canary build. You can install the Canary version of Chrome without overwriting your main Chrome installation (if you use that browser), as they can coexist without interrupting each other—it is like having a totally separate browser installed. As currently implemented, the play/pause...
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Comedy sometimes ensues when rival companies try to sway consumers through advertising, like the old back-and-forth referee commercials between Anheuser-Busch and Miller (anyone remember those?), or the Mac and PC ads. As such, Apple is having some fun at the expense of Google—the Cupertino company has strategically placed another billboard trolling its competitor, just like it did at CES earlier this year. Image Source: CTV News Toronto The new billboard reads, "We're in the business of staying out of yours. Privacy. That's iPhone." The giant text sits next to an outline of an iPhone XS (or iPhone XS Max), and is clearly visible from outside a Sidewalk Labs building. Sidewalk Labs, if...
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