Items tagged with NASDAQ:GOOG
Once upon a time, if you had a question about something and hoped to find the answer on the web, you might have been compelled to Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com) for the answer. These days, Google is so popular that its search functionality has become a verb, as in, "Why don't you Google it?" Bing is the other big search engine, but could Apple—and by extension Siri—be next? Quite possibly. We already know that Apple loves to have control everything, from the custom iPhone and iPad chips it builds, to whatever else it can manufacturer and manage in-house. Even its Mac systems are moving away from Intel chips, in favor of Apple's own custom silicon (based on Arm). And on the software side,...
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Last month, it was announced EA Play, and Xbox Game Pass were partnering to provide an expansive game library. Now, Ubisoft is partnering with Amazon Luna and Google Stadia to provide competition in the cloud gaming sphere with Ubisoft+, the rebranded UPLAY+. This service will launch with a beta on the Amazon Luna platform on November 10th and will cost $14.99 per month. Cloud gaming has become one of the hot topics of the year, and everyone wants in. At $14.99 per month with unlimited access to over 100 games, Ubisoft+ is comparable to Xbox’s Game Pass Ultimate subscription. Conveniently, this new subscription from Ubisoft is launching the same day as the Xbox and EA Play subscription,...
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Android has millions of users around the world, and a percentage of those users are children. When it comes to making apps for kids, developers have to abide by government rules like the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as well as Google’s own rules. When apps do not follow these rules to the letter, they get reported and swiftly removed from the Android app store, like Princess Salon, Number Coloring, and Cats & Cosplay have. These three apps have become the center of attention after a nonprofit digital watchdog, International Digital Accountability Council (IDAC), found the apps breaking the rules. The apps could...
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Have you ever wanted to get a Pixel device but found they were just a bit too expensive? Google Fi is now offering a phone subscription program that allows you to get your hands on a Pixel 4a for only $9 monthly. Over two years, you get to pay off the Pixel 4a and keep it when you are done, then upgrade to the next Pixel device offered for subscription. Phones have been increasing in price over the past few years. It is not out of the realm of possibility to spend $1000 on a phone these days but Google Fi is offering perhaps a more sensible way to pay for a decent device. At $9 a month over two years, Google is offering a Pixel 4a for just $216. If you want to make sure your device is protected,...
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Google’s recently released versions of Chrome and Chrome OS had a bit of an Achilles heel: a rather pesky zero-day vulnerability that could corrupt the system’s memory from the browser or OS. The bug has been given CVE-2020-15999, but has not even been given an official score yet. Google gives the exploit a "high" level of criticality, and it has already been found in the wild, so users need to patch their systems ASAP. CVE-2020-15999 was discovered on October 19th by Sergei Glazunov at Google Project Zero. The Project Zero team is tasked with finding zero-day exploits in Googles's own products (and competitors), and with this bug, the team found issues with FreeType,...
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Most smart device users are accustomed to needing to activate their smart assistant through a “wake” word. How would users feel if this inconvenience could be eliminated? Google is reportedly working on allowing users to merely approach their Nest Hub to activate the device. The feature is codenamed “Blue Steel” and appears under “Dogfood Features” in the Nest Hub Max settings. It is unclear how exactly Blue Steel functions, but some have argued that it takes advantage of the Google Nest Hub’s ultrasound sensing technology. This technology uses ultrasonic pulses to sense activity. Others theorize that Blue Steel is utilizing the Nest Hub’s camera...
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Is Mozilla trying to have its cake and eat it too? That certainly seems to be the case with its commentary surrounding the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust lawsuit brought yesterday against Google. The DOJ has alleged that Google has partaken in a number of monopolistic practices specifically related to the search market in the United States. The DOJ specifically alleged in yesterday's press release that Google is "generally using monopoly profits to buy preferential treatment for its search engine on devices, web browsers, and other search access points, creating a continuous and self-reinforcing cycle of monopolization." This is of course in references to search deals that Google...
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Today, the Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Google in what is the largest tech antitrust case since Microsoft came under fire two decades ago. The lawsuit claims that Google has “stifled competition” with its online search and advertisement businesses, arguably the most significant parts of Google as a whole. Eleven states have backed the lawsuit as outcry (and support) for the lawsuit floods Twitter from various sources. Previously, we reported on the Department of Justice (DoJ) lawsuit against Google has been expected from the Trump administration. According to the Department of Justice, "Google is the monopoly gatekeeper to the internet for billions...
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The Google Pixel (and preceding Nexus) family of smartphones have been plagued with various quality control issues over the years, and it appears that the latest flagship -- the Pixel 5 -- has been unable to escape this curse. Customers are just now receiving the device and have noticed some unsightly gaps between the body and the display. Users from around the globe have been reporting their findings both on the official Google Pixel Phone Help forum, and via other places like the XDA-Developers forums. One thing that is clear from the pictures is that this isn't an instance where there is a tolerance lapse in just one area that is mirrored on all devices....
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Smart Displays, according to Google, are becoming “a hub that entertains and connects the whole home and whole family, all day (and night) long.” Google's updates need to reflect that sentiment, so Google has implemented ten new features to make Smart Displays a little better. These updates help to create a “brand new experience that builds on the smarts of Google and visual capabilities of Smart Displays.” To start your day off right, Google introduced the “Your Morning” page to get reminders for meetings, morning news, and weather for the day. If you are not feeling like getting out of bed, you can turn up the temperature or turn on some lights in the “Home...
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When Apple announced its iPhone 12 family early last week, the iPhone 12 Pro Max was no doubt the most feature-filled and impressive model on display. The smartphone features a massive 6.7-inch OLED display, triple rear cameras (including sensor shift optical image stabilization for the wide-angle lens), and a LIDAR sensor among other enhancements. However, equally as important was the new iPhone 12 mini, which reverses a trend that has become commonplace in today's smartphones. Smartphones today seem to have at least a 6-inch display, with most measuring in at 6.4 to 6.7 inches in size. Smartphone OEMs claim that most people want larger screens for gaming, watching movies, and looking...
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Yesterday, we brought you news of the new 3DMark WildLife graphics benchmark, which is the latest cross-platform test from the folks at UL Benchmarks. UL explains that WildLife is primarily tasked with measuring GPU performance across platforms, and two distinct tests are available. The standard WildLife test is designed to give feedback on how a game performs over a short period of time. With mobile games, people typically play in brief spurts when they find some free time; be it on the bus, on the subway, or a quick battle royale session on your lunch break, but not always. The 3DMark WildLife Stress Test, on the other hand, shows how a device performs over a longer stretch...
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Google’s phone strategy has always been a bit of a mystery. While it successfully entered the mid-range market with last year’s Pixel 3a and -- more recently -- the $349 Pixel 4a and $499 Pixel 4a 5G, it’s been struggling to find its place at the high-end. Pixel flagships have always been interesting options in the market, especially for those who want a stock Android experience. However, they're sometimes overpriced, with high-end configurations in some ways (processors) but also lacking in some areas (RAM and storage options). So, Google appears to be taking a gamble and trying something different this year. It’s targeting the popular $600 to $750 price range and joining...
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When Google releases a new iteration of its popular Android operating system, we expect to see the typical generation-over-generation features and security enhancements that make the experience more powerful and capable. Also, if we’re lucky, we might even expect see some performance gains from time to time as Google's mobile OS is optimized to fully harness the increasingly more powerful mobile platforms that are being shoehorned into evermore sophisticated smartphone designs. But what we weren’t expecting with the release of Android 11, however, is what appears to be a notable regression in performance compared to Android 10. This realization isn’t something that we sought...
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Google has long been on the radar screen of the U.S. Department of Justice for potential antitrust violations. In the past two decades, the company has become a tech behemoth covering search, advertising, smartphones, web browsers, hardware and various other sectors while maintaining a vast global footprint. Meanwhile, the U.S. House antitrust subcommittee has been investigating alleged antitrust violations by Google and its tech counterparts like Apple, Amazon and Facebook for the past 16 months. Now, we're learning that the DOJ is reportedly taking steps to breakup up Google, and it could send shockwaves through the tech sphere. The news comes from Politico, which is...
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Google is launching a new thermostat for home users, and it's the company's cheapest offering yet. Nest revolutionized what was seemingly a stagnant and rather boring market when it launched its original Learning Thermostat back in 2011, and Google clearly saw the potential when it bought the company in 2014. Nest has been fully absorbed into Google now, and the expansion of the Nest-branded family continues with the arrive of the newest Nest Thermostat. The Nest Thermostat is a new, low-cost offering that is priced at just $129.99, making it $40 cheaper than the Nest Thermostat E. It's also $120 less than the flagship third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat. Google is promoting an easy setup...
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There is very little worse than knowing you've just lost everything to ransomware. When it happens on our phones, where so much of our identity and our lives live, the situation can feel hopeless. It's a never-ending battle for platform owners like Google, Microsoft, and Apple. Every time a company creates new security measures, attackers try to find a way to circumvent them. That's what Microsoft warns Android users about in a new security blog post from the Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team. Unlike ransomware that hits Windows machines, Android devices rarely actually get their data encrypted. Instead, a malicious app will present itself when the phone gets locked, blocking access...
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When you are arrested for an alleged crime, police are supposed to issue a Miranda warning (often referred to as Miranda rights), letting suspects know they have the right to remain silent and anything they say can be used against them in a court of law. Well, guess what? Your search history can damning as well, and Google finds itself in another privacy controversy after assisting law enforcement with the identifies of people who searched for a specific keyword phrase. Let's back up a moment. Two months ago, police issued warrants for and ultimately arrested three associates of singer and accused sex offender R. Kelly, for "crimes relating to their efforts to harass, intimidate, threaten, or...
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Up until now, Google Fi customers who wanted to use a Samsung phone with the service had to purchase an unlocked model elsewhere. And that is certainly still an option. However, Google has now expanded the range of compatible Google Fi phones it sells to customers, to include half a dozen 5G Samsung Galaxy handsets. They include the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G as shown above, along with the Galaxy Note 20 5G, Galaxy S20 5G, Galaxy Note S20+ 5G, Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, and Galaxy A71 5G. In addition, Google added a couple of its own phones to the mix, specifically the recently announced Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G. And of course you can still use any unlocked phone that is compatible with T-Mobile's 5G network,...
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The Google Suite of products for productivity is getting a new look under the new name of Google Workspace. The new identity is meant to show “a new deeply integrated product experience, plus new editions to purchase tailored to customers' needs.” This new brand will roll out to business customers immediately and will come to regular customers in the coming months. Javier Soltero, Vice President and General Manager of Google Workspace, says that “This is the end of the 'office' as we know it.” COVID-19 has put the regular office and school experience into a tailspin, so classes and teams need to work effectively without meeting in person. Soltero states that “Google...
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Apparently, phone-based VR experiences were not the right call, for Google at least. Today, the company has announced it is sunsetting Daydream VR software and terminating sales of the headsets. After Android 11, the Daydream app may no longer work on mobile devices. However, third-party software may continue working on the platform. Back in 2016, the Google Daydream View VR headset began to ship. At the time, the possibilities for Google pushing VR were high. Google announced that apps such as “HBO NOW, HBO GO, and Netflix” would be coming to the platform. It was not just for content consumption, though. You could play games such as “LEGO BrickHeadz Builder VR, Underworld...
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Earlier this week, Google unloaded a number of new hardware products including the Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, the Nest Audio smart speaker, and the all-new Chromecast. The Chromecast is by far the cheapest offering of the four new products, coming in at $49.99. If you have your eye on the Chromecast, but haven’t yet pulled the trigger, Google has an offer that might be just enough to change your mind (if you meet certain criteria). Google is currently running a promotion that will give you a free Chromecast if you purchase just a single month of YouTube TV. According to the terms and conditions, you have to subscribe to YouTube TV between October 15th and December 31st 2020...
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