Items tagged with Google
You would think that 10 years is plenty of time to beta test a product, tweak it, and roll out a stable release. Well, think again. Google Cloud Print has been in beta for a decade, and rather than continue to modify the service as it works towards a non-beta release, Google has decided to hit the 'Off' button...permanently. If you have a spare ink cartridge sitting around, pour out a dab for Google Cloud Print. Actually, don't, it's bad for the environment and ink is expensive enough without wasting it. But in any event, the handy service will soon be extinct. Anyone who uses the service will need to make other arrangements before January 1, 2020. "Cloud Print, Google’s cloud-based printing...
Read more...
We are all looking to be more productive these days, but clicking through an endless number of emails and pages can definitely interrupt your workflow This past winter Google introduced dynamic emails for Gmail on the web to help users interact “dynamically” with their messages. Gmail dynamic emails are also now available for Gmail on Android and iOS. Google shared a preview of dynamic emails this past February and the feature began rolling out this past spring for Gmail on the web. Their accelerated mobile pages (AMP) for Email or “dynamic” emails allows companies and other senders to include web-like features and experiences directly in emails. The purpose of this feature...
Read more...
Google Assistant has gained a new capability that movie fans will appreciate courtesy of Google Duplex technology. On Android phones, Google Assistant can now help users to buy movie tickets online. Users can get times and buy tickets starting with "Hey Google, showtimes for [movie] in [city] this weekend." Google also notes that movie fans can search for movie times from the Google app on Android. Once the list of theaters in the area turns up, users can choose a theater and time that they want. The option to buy tickets will be offered from within the Assistant and supports more than 70 cinemas and ticketing services. Supported ticketing services include Fandango, movietickets.com, AMC, or...
Read more...
Google's Android bug bounty program has come a long way since its humble roots back in mid-2015. At the time, the search and software giant offered a maximum payout of $38,000 for specific exploits that compromised the world's most popular operating system. Today, Google has announced that its maximum payout now weighs in at up to a staggering $1.5 million if certain exploit conditions are met. Google previously offered payouts that maxed out at $200,000, but the new "baseline" top prize is $1 million. The $1.5 million maximum payout is achieved with a $500,000 bonus that will likely be incredibly tough to pull off. The purpose of the bug bounty is to help beef up the security of both its first-party...
Read more...
Maybe in six months or 12 months, Stadia will be the service Google hyped prior to launch. In the early going, though, delayed features and hiccups like missing invite codes have somewhat marred both Stadia and the idea of cloud gaming (to some extent), and the issues keep coming. On top of everything else, some users are now complaining that their Chromecast Ultras are getting really hot, and even shutting down in some cases, when using Stadia. It's not clear how widespread the problem actually is, though over on Reddit, multiple users have complained that their Chromecast Ultra dongles are "overheating" when using the cloud gaming service. "I was in the middle of a fight in Destiny 2 when suddenly...
Read more...
Google's new Pixelbook Go is a bit of an anomaly in the company's line of Chromebooks. Neither a folding, swiveling ultra-premium device like the original Google Pixelbook, nor a tablet like the Pixel Slate, the company's newest release is a traditional clamshell design, although one that features a touch-enabled display. It looks, feels, and behaves like a conventional laptop, but with its magnesium chassis, 1080p touchscreen, and quiet "Hush Keys," one that's small, light, feature-rich and well-made. That said, though its premium mobile laptop is fairly conventional, Google's Pixelbook line takes a somewhat unconventional cloud-first approach to computing on the go. Pixelbook Go...
Read more...
After all of the hype and anticipation—and there was plenty of both—Google's cloud gaming Stadia service has arrived, and some early adopters are pretty pissed at what has been delivered versus what was advertised. Part of it boils down to the usual growing pains, especially for a project this ambitious. Still, the annoyances are starting to pile up. One of the big complaints has nothing to do with gameplay or performance, but missing access codes. Some of the people who preordered Stadia—a group referred to as founders, because they purchased the Stadia Founder's Edition—are still without their access codes days after the service launched. "We're aware that some of you...
Read more...
The thought of a stranger hijacking your camera and being able to see what you are doing without your knowledge is the stuff of nightmares for most people. Our phones tend to follow us into every area of our lives. Checkmarx decided to see if the cameras that are built into Android phones might be vulnerable to hacking. For their testing, the team took a Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 3 smartphone and began to probe the Google Camera app. The team found that there were a number of "concerning vulnerabilities" in the Google Camera app. They also found that the same vulnerabilities impact the camera apps of other smartphone vendors in the Android ecosystem. They specifically cited Samsung's camera app as...
Read more...
If going by the calendar, Black Friday is about a week and a half away. The deals have already started to trickle out, and we suspect as Thursday, November 28 gets even closer in view, more bargains will make early debuts. In the meantime, companies have started previewing upcoming Black Friday discounts, including Google, which will be offering a range of gadgets on sale. One of the highlights is a $200 discount on unlocked Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL models. The slashed pricing will actually go into effect on Sunday, November 24, bringing the cost of entry down from $799 to $599 for the Pixel 4, and from $899 to $699 for the Pixel 4 XL. This presumably will apply to all three color options, those...
Read more...
Oh, the joys of marketing. Here we are just a day away from the launch of Stadia, Google's highly anticipated cloud gaming service, and we have just learned it will debut with nearly double the number of games from what was original announced. This addresses one of the points of initial criticism, and there's little doubt in my mind that the sudden uptick in day-one titles is a strategic announcement. That's to say, I have a hard time believing there was anything technical behind this announcement, which might have made possible a greater number of games suddenly being available. Not that it matters—when Stadia launches tomorrow, it will have 22 games available to play, 10 more than previously...
Read more...
Flagship smartphones have nudged themselves into four-digit pricing territory, with some of the top models commanding a grand, or more. Fortunately, you don't have to go nuts spending a premium on a high-end smartphone to get a capable handset. Google's Pixel 3a is a mid-range phone with plenty of spunk, and it's on sale right. You can find Google's Pixel 3a for $299.00 on Amazon with free shipping. That's 25 percent (save $100) below its list price. It's a fantastic deal, and might just be the bargain to beat in the smartphone category once the wave of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals arrive later this month (we'll be keeping an eye out for bargains, so be sure check back often). The Pixel...
Read more...
The most flexible controller option for Google's upcoming Stadia cloud gaming service is the company's own Stadia Controller, which is available in Clearly White, Just Black, and Wasabit color options (each one is priced at $69). As Stadia's launch day fast approaches, Google has posted a comprehensive guide on how to use the controller. Google also posted a guide on setting up the Stadia Controller. To do that, you need to have the Stadia app installed on your mobile device. The app uses Location access, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth to find and configure the controller, and if any of those are turned off when setting it up, you will be asked to turn them on. How To Set Up Google's Stadia Controller...
Read more...
According to a new report that was published today, there are some big concerns surrounding Google's efforts to further expand its reach into the healthcare sector. The report, which comes to us via The Washington Post, says that Google was on the verge of making over 100,000 chest X-rays of patients public before having to back down over serious privacy concerns. Back in 2017, Google partnered with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to analyze 112,000 chest X-rays from over 30,000 patients. According to the Post, many of these patients were afflicted with some form of lung disease. Google's aim was to host these images publicly, then use TensorFlow machine learning to identify...
Read more...
After beta testing an experimental feature in Chrome for several months without any major issues, Google decided to flip the switch in its main Stable release, and chaos ensued for hundreds of organizations and thousands of machines. Apparently the experimental feature was not quite ready for prime time, as IT admins suddenly had to contend with a mysteriously broken browser. For those affected, it was not immediately clear what exactly caused all the ruckus. All they really knew was that tabs were suddenly crashing and showing up as blank. This is referred to as a white screen of death (WSOD) error. The issue manifested itself on Chrome browsers running on Windows Server terminal setups and...
Read more...
