Items tagged with Google
All of the posts, advertisements, and suggestions presented to users on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram are not happy little accidents. The Facebook platform uses complex algorithms and AI that analyze usage and engagement patterns, which then infer the type of content that the user is most-likely to engage with. It is that curated content that is presented to users – interspersed with the social media platform’s preferred bias du jour, of course. The specific content presented to users is at the crux of the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s disclosures last week. Haugen, a former data scientist and product manager at Facebook, contends that Facebook knowingly...
Read more...
Google is set to launch the Pixel 6 and it has a focus on delivering perhaps the biggest camera overhaul the lineup has seen to date. Google has been a leader in terms of cell phone camera innovation, and now they are once again pushing the envelope with a new feature called the "Magic Eraser," which may even leave Apple iPhone users a bit envious. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are both going to include a 50MP primary sensor that Google says can capture 150 percent more light compared to what was in the Pixel 5. The new sensor is indeed larger than its predecessor and a bigger sensor leads to better low light pictures and natural bokeh (background blur). The Pixel 6 Pro will also have a 12MP ultrawide...
Read more...
Passwords have become part of our everyday life. It seems everything requires one and we are often left scratching our head trying to remember if it was “password123” or “123password”. Having a strong password, however, is the first line of defense for our digital lives. Google is sharing how it is making your sign-ins safer during Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Google checks 1 billion passwords daily to protect accounts from being hacked. Chrome, Android and the Google App have Google’s Password Manager built directly into them with the latest technology to keep your passwords safe. Password Manager also helps to keep us from having to scratch our heads as it makes...
Read more...
We now have an official launch date for Google's flagship Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro Android 12 smartphones. In a tweet this afternoon, Google revealed that the new devices would debut at an online event on October 19th at 1 pm ET. Google first announced the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro in early August, and the October 19th launch has been rumored since early September. We'd imagine this date will also closely align with the public availability of Android 12 for existing Pixel smartphones. The Pixel 6 Family Will Debut Google's New Tensor SoC The centerpiece of the new Pixel 6 family will be Google's new custom Tensor SoC, which Samsung manufactures. According to numerous benchmark and specs leaks, Tensor...
Read more...
Google announced this week that Android 12 has been released to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). This announcement comes after Google championed that over 225,000 people participated during the developer/beta phase to submit nearly 50,000 bug reports to help polish the mobile operating system before release. Although Android 12 has is now available under the AOSP, it will officially roll out to Google Pixel phones in the next few weeks. Samsung Galaxy, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Tecno, Vivo, and Xiaomi devices will receive the update later this year. Android 12 comes with an updated UI, and users can expect to see refreshed app widgets that make them more useful, beautiful,...
Read more...
The upcoming Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will inevitably introduce an upgraded camera arrangement, and as always, we are interested in how the photo taking capabilities will shake out. Pixel phones have generally been very good in that regard. If some leaked photos supposedly taken with a Pixel 6 Pro are indicative of what's to come, Google's next-gen handsets will be a worthy successor in that department. Google has yet to reveal the full specifications of its Pixel 6 series, which marks the company's return to the flagship phone space. The highlight of the upcoming launch is the inclusion of Google's in-house Tensor system-on-chip that will power both models. If going by recent leaks, it will consist...
Read more...
Google has added a mini-player on the web that will now allow you to quickly “Continue watching” YouTube videos originally started from your phone and other devices. With the new feature you can quickly get back to the video you were watching when mom called to see how you were doing. All you need to do is open YouTube on the web and the previous video will display in the bottom-right corner. It will be cued to a second or so before you paused and will display “Continue watching” instead of the video title. If you tap on the play button the video will automatically start in the shrunken down view. If you want to go to the full page view it is just a click away. This feature...
Read more...
In mid-September, Google patched some actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities discovered in Google Chrome. Now, the web search giant has done it again with several new security fixes in the 11th hour of September, and you should patch right now. Published on Thursday, the stable channel update for Google Chrome, denoted by version number 94.0.4606.71, has quite a few fixes or changes. However, the four security fixes are front and center, the first of which being CVE-2021-37974 reported by Weipeng Jiang from the Codesafe Team of Legendsec at Qi'anxin Group. This vulnerability is a "use after free" issue, meaning problems stem from using dynamic memory allocation and deallocation that does...
Read more...
Google's bet on a custom processor for its upcoming Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro flagship smartphones is probably the most interesting phone news for a while, especially considering how the iPhone 13 went. Official details on the so-called "Tensor" system-on-a-chip (SoC) are basically non-existent, but leaks abound. Supposedly, the Tensor will include two ARM Cortex-X1 cores, two Cortex-A76 cores, and then four low-power Cortex-A55 cores. In theory, having two big X1 cores could give it a considerable performance advantage over competitors like the Snapdragon 888, which has a single Cortex-X1, three Cortex-A78s, and four Cortex-A55s. Theory doesn't necessarily align with reality, unfortunately. The...
Read more...
Now the Apple iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro hype train has slowed down, all attention in the smartphone realm is shifting towards Google's Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. The two smartphones mark Google's triumphant return to the flagship Android smartphone space after playing it safe in the mid-range market with the Pixel 5 in 2020. We now have some newly leaked information surrounding the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro regarding pricing and a potential launch date. When it comes to pricing, Google hardware chief Rick Osterloh said in early August, "We've definitively not been in the flagship tier for the past couple years; this will be different. It will certainly be a premium-priced product." M. Brandon Lee...
Read more...
If you've ever done any livestreaming on Twitch, YouTube, or similar services, you're probably already familiar with Open Broadcaster Software (better known as "OBS"). The application has more-or-less conquered the streaming software space, likely in large part because it is both free and open-source. The facts that it's easy to set up and it works like a charm don't hurt, either. OBS has had Twitch integration since early in 2019, allowing users to sign into Twitch through the application and manage their stream that way, instead of having to have a separate window open just to manage stream settings. Folks who stream to YouTube have been stuck doing it the old way —until today, that is....
Read more...
Misery loves company, right? Just ask Google—the company is seething over a massive fine over Android abuses that was imposed by the European Union three years ago, and has lashed out at the group for essentially turning a blind eye to the "real competitive dynamic" that exists between it and rival Apple. The EU has so far not been swayed. Back in 2018, the EU fined Google 4.34 billion euros, which converts to more than $5 billion in US currency. The EU's ruling took issue with some of Google's requirements for device makers who want to sell Android phones and tablets. It was not on board with Google making it mandatory that Chrome and its on Search be included if allowing access to the...
Read more...
YouTube TV subscribers could see a lower monthly bill, albeit perhaps only temporarily. That's the good news (sans the temporary part). Unfortunately, the cheaper bill would come at a different type of cost—the loss of NBC programming. Google's agreement with NBC Universal is about to expire, and two sides have not been able to reach an agreement on an extension. This happens on occasion between service providers and networks, and it is always the customer that gets caught in the cross fire. Usually, these negotiations stay out of the public eye. But when two sides fail to reach agreeable terms with each other, they take the feud public (well, semi-public) and each one tries to persuade...
Read more...
I am in total agreement that I shouldn't quit my day job and pursue a full-time gig manipulating images in Photoshop, as the above example makes painfully obvious. But let's not get distracted from the intent at hand—to show a folding Pixel phone. Preposterous? Perhaps not—rumor has it Google is working on at least two folding smartphones. Rumors of Google getting into the folding phone game have been around for quite some time, but are now gaining steam with some new information and leaks. And it probably doesn't hurt that Samsung is seeing some success in the area. Enough so that it recently added a couple of new folding phones to the mix (see our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 review,...
Read more...
Google parent company Alphabet had an ambitious plan to provide internet to underserved regions across the globe via Project Loon. Project Loon involved the use of high-altitude balloons that hovered in the Earth's stratosphere and provided internet connectivity to people on the ground. Commercial service first kicked off in Kenya, and balloons were later stationed to provide internet coverage following natural disasters in Peru and Puerto Rico. While Project Loon has since been dissolved, the underlying technology is still beneficial in the communications field. For example, through the use of wireless optical communication (WOC) technology, Alphabet's Project Taara initiative can provide a...
Read more...
Have you updated your Chrome browser lately? Assuming you use Chrome, now would be a good time to force the issue, as the latest update brings with it patches for nearly a dozen security flaws, including a pair of zero-day vulnerabilities that Google says are actively being exploited in the wild. So, yeah, take two seconds to update your browser. The latest Chrome release for Windows, Mac, and Linux is 93.0.4577.82. Chrome does a good job of updating itself, and in this case, Google says the latest version will roll out to PCs over the coming days and weeks. You don't necessarily have to wait, however, you can have Chrome manually fetch the update right now. Click to Enlarge To do that, click...
Read more...
Just a few days ago, Google released its Android 12 Beta 5 build with Pixel 5a support, and as we commented at the time, a final build is now only weeks away. How many weeks, exactly? Google has not given any official indication, but if a leaked document is anything to go by, Android 12's AOSP (Android Open Source Project) source code will land on the public's lab on Monday, October 4. That is precisely three weeks from the time of this writing. While nothing is chiseled in stone, Google typically makes its Android source code publicly available to developers slightly ahead of its Pixel launches. They also coincide with when new Android builds launch to existing Pixel phones. The timing is according...
Read more...
Google's Pixel 6 Tensor Processor Could Pack Two Arm Cortex-X1 Prime Cores For Performance Dominance
When Google announced the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro in early August, the company said that the flagship smartphones would be powered by an in-house designed Tensor SoC. Unfortunately, Google didn't provide us with any specifications for the chip, other than that Samsung would manufacture it. Now, thanks to leaker Digital Chat Station, we're learning that Tensor could be a performance powerhouse thanks to its core configuration compared to existing flagship SoCs like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. The Snapdragon 888 features a single Cortex-X1 prime core clocked at 2.84GHz, three additional Cortex-A78 performance cores clocked at up to 2.42GHz, and four Cortex-A55 efficiency cores that can run at...
Read more...
Google recently launched its Pixel 5a mid-range 5G smartphone a few weeks ago, but the company isn't done yet. It still has to release the flagship Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, the flag bearers for the upcoming Android 12 operating system. Although Google previously showed us slick renders of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, it has posted a quick teaser video showing some brief glimpses of the phones being used in the real world. The fast-paced video is looking to appeal to young adults constantly on the move, as it asks, "What if your phone saw you for who you are?" It goes on to say that the Pixel 6 is constantly "learning, evolving and adapting" to your needs. We should also mention that Google's...
Read more...
For the billions of Android users out there, the arrival of a significant operating system update is an exciting moment. Earlier this year, Google launched the first developer preview for Android 12 and has steadily tweaked and massaged the operating system to make it fit for public consumption. The latest step in the “platform stability” phase comes with Android 12 Beta 5, the final beta release for the operating system. The next step will be to release the final Android 12 build, which will be available to eligible current hardware and will ship with all-new smartphones (and tablets). "All app-facing surfaces are final, including SDK and NDK APIs, app-facing system behaviors, and...
Read more...
Taking some apparent inspiration from Apple, Google is reportedly planning to design its own custom central processing units (CPUs) for future Chromebook models, and also for use in tablets. The chips will be based on Arm, but designed in-house to Google's own specifications, which could allow greater integration between hardware and software. Apple is in the midst of doing the same thing, having embarked on a two-year transition plan to move entirely way from Intel's x86 processors and become wholly reliant on its own Arm-based designs. This has manifested with the first Apple Silicon design dubbed M1 currently found in a handful of devices, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini,...
Read more...
For those that were expecting to get your hands on Google's next-generation Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro smartphones soon, we have some bad news for you. If the latest reporting from Jon Prosser is accurate, the new flagship smartphones won't launch until October 28th. To put that date in perspective, the Pixel 5 launched on October 15th, 2020, and the Pixel 4 launched on October 24th, 2019. So, the late October launch isn't unprecedented, but it is a bit disappointing given that Google already showed its hand with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro on August 2nd. Prosser's reporting also shoots down the previously rumored September 13th launch, which would have seen the new Pixel debut a day before Apple's...
Read more...
