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Google Checkout is checking out

Seth Weintraub

Yet another Google service bites the dust.  This one’s not as cut and dry as Google reader, for instance, because some of the Google Checkout functionality will transfer to Google Wallet.

Merchants can continue to accept payments using Google Checkout until November 20, 2013.

  • If you don’t have your own payment processing, you will need to transition to a different solution within six months. To make things easier, we’ve partnered with Braintree, Shopify and Freshbooks to offer you discounted migration options.

  • If you are a U.S. merchant that does have payment processing, you can apply for Google Wallet Instant Buy, which offers a fast buying experience to Google Wallet shoppers.

At some point, Google’s brand is going to get tarnished by these closures. How am I going to feel comfortable getting behind a new Google product if I know there’s a better than 50% chance it will close.  Read more

Google confirms voice calling will return to Gmail, says Hangouts is “the future of Google Voice”

Jordan Kahn

Hangouts-in-Gmail

Some of you might have noticed that updating to Google’s new unified Hangouts chat service in Gmail meant giving up the Google Voice calling capabilities that were previously available to users in the US and Canada. We suspected Google had plans to bring the feature back and users currently have the option of reverting back to the old Gmail chat in order to access the feature. Now Google has responded to concerns by promising that “Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice, and making/receiving phone calls” will return in a future update.

Google’s Nikhyl Singhal had this to say about Voice integration in Hangouts: Read more

Google ‘welcomes international tax reform debate’, says Eric Schmidt

Ben Lovejoy

eric-schmidt

Google, one of a number of companies to come under fire for alleged tax-avoidance practices, says that it welcomes debate on how international tax treaties can be reformed so that multinational companies pay the right amount of tax in each of the countries in which they operate.

In a comment piece on the Observer UK newspaper website, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt says he understands the controversy.

At a time when families are having to tighten their belts and funding for vital public services is under pressure, corporate taxation is rightly a hot topic. And as a company that has always aspired to do the right thing, we understand why Google is at the centre of that debate. In the interests of moving the argument forward – away from accusation and toward action – here are three principles we hope most people can agree upon … Read more

Google+ for Android updated with Auto photo editing features, improved location sharing, & related hashtags

Jordan Kahn

Screen Shot 2013-05-20 at 12.22.39 PM

Following showing off a redesigned three column version of Google+ for the web and new “Auto Awesome” photo editing features at I/O, Google is today bringing some of the new features to its Google+ for Android app.

The updated app, which should be hitting Google Play some time today, will include a number of new photo editing features including the new Auto Awesome effects, auto backup for photos, and other photo editing tools from Snapseed:

  • Auto Backup, to safely and privately store your photos as you snap them
  • Auto Highlight, to browse a selection of top shots from every set of photos you add
  • Auto Enhance, to make subtle improvements to the people and places in your images, automatically
  • Auto Awesome, to create fun new versions of your pictures (like animations and panoramas) based on the photos in your library

The updated Google+ for Android app will also offer improved location sharing with a new Locations section that lets you view your friends’ current locations on a map.

Lastly, after updating you’ll have the ability to access Google’s new intelligent related hashtags feature:

Read more

LG claims 5-inch flexible, plastic phone display is unbreakable

Ben Lovejoy

Flexible-Display-1024x546

It’s always a dangerous claim to make, especially around tech journalists who like nothing better than to put such claims to the test. Sonim probably still regrets the time they invited BBC journalist Dan Simmons to try breaking their ‘unbreakable phone’: he did, and he did.

But LG is indeed claiming that its latest 5-inch OLED phone display – which looks similar to that in the Optimus G Pro – is not only flexible, but also unbreakable … Read more