If you weren’t able to follow along live earlier today, Google’s just posted an archive of today’s event. So block out your next 4 hours or just skip to CEO Larry Page’s impromptu Q&A at the end like me. Read more
Google I/O 2013 Keynote posted to Youtube
‘MedRef’ Google Glass facial recognition app for doctors now available for download
When talking about potential applications for Google Glass, the ability to use facial recognition is one area that we’ve seen discussed in many patents and projects from Google and others. Today, SelfScreens.com points us to perhaps the first facial recognition Glassware available with info on a new app dubbed MedRef for Glass that was recently created at a medical hackathon. The app, which was designed to allow doctors to pull up info on patients with Glass by simply recognizing their face, is being made available to download by its creators who also discussed the app in detail on their blog.
The app lets you find and create patient folders by voice, add photo and voice notes, view previous notes, and also find patient folders by facial recognition! Very exciting.Some people I talked to said hospitals are full of very busy people, often with their hands full, working with a lot of information – so Google Glass making it wearable is especially looked forward to there!”
One of the developers also gives us a walkthrough of an early build of the app in the video above showing how doctors can quickly notes about a patient that will be called up later when Glass recognizes the patient’s face. Read more
Google partners with SoundCloud, Fandango, Deezer & more to bring app activity from Google+ to Search
Google announced today on its Google+ Developers Blog that it will be working with app and site developers to integrate what it is calling “app activities” into search results. In other words, when searching for an app or site through Google search such as SoundCloud, users will now be greeted with a section to the right of search results showing related SoundCloud content that’s popular among Google+ users. Google is initially teaming up with music and movie apps Deezer, Fandango, Flixster, Slacker Radio, Songza,SoundCloud and TuneIn but plans to add more soon as the feature begins to roll out on desktops in the coming weeks.
Below Google compares the current search results for Fandango to the new improved results page with app activities: Read more
Hackers confirm Google Glass “root is easy”, let the modding begin (Update: Google says it left Glass unlocked intentionally)
looks like root is easy too: reboot-bootloader gives you fastboot oem unlock. There is fun to be had here…—
Liam McLoughlin (@Hexxeh) April 26, 2013
Update: A post from Google employee Dan Morrill clarifies that, although the original developer claimed a “root is easy”, the process developers are using is actually a ‘fastboot oem unlock’. Rather than exposing a security exploit, Google has actually intentionally left Glass open for devs to tinker with, as further explained by Googler Stephen Lau:
Not to bring anybody down… but seriously… we intentionally left the device unlocked so you guys could hack it and do crazy fun shit with it. I mean, FFS, you paid $1500 for it… go to town on it. Show me something cool.
Updated 2: Founder of the Cydia jailbreak store @saurik provided some clarification on his earlier tweets, informing us that he did not use fastboot oem unlock:
Actually, my device’s bootloader is still locked: I did not use fastboot oem unlock, and in fact that would not have been useful without the source code to the Glass kernel, which was not made available until this morning. I relied on a race condition in the adb restore process, a bug that existed in Android 4.0 (and even Android 4.1). As the Glass ships with Android 4.0.4, the bug was easy to exploit. This exploit was not one that I found, to be clear (unless you count “using Google” ;P): I pulled apart an implementation by@Bin4ryDigit, and adapted it for use on Glass (which required very small modifications to the backup; the entire process of learning the exploit and fixing it took 2 hours).
Saurik later published an article explaining some of the ins and outs of the potential for writing apps for Glass and the exploit he originally took advantage of.
Have you been wondering how long until developers crack into Google Glass to provide full root access and start creating some interesting mods? It appears we might not be too far off with Google intern on the Chrome OS team and hacker Liam McLoughlin confirming on Twitter that a root might be easier than many people think (via selfscreens).
McLoughlin first tweeted that, “There’s a “debug mode” option on Glass that appears to enable ADB access. I got a shell on my Glass (no root yet!).” Shortly after it appears he also figured out a root method, tweeting, “looks like root is easy too: reboot-bootloader gives you fastboot oem unlock. There is fun to be had here…”
He isn’t the only one working on a root for Google Glass, hacker @chpwn tweeted today that founder of the Cydia jailbreak store @saurik is in the process of unlocking his Google Glass and Saurik later confirmed: Read more
Former iOS jailbreak developer Comex headed to Google for internship
In other news, I’m going to intern for Google in a few weeks.—
(@comex) April 24, 2013
Former notable iOS jailbreak developer Comex announced on Twitter that he will be heading to Google for an internship position.
Comex previously interned for Apple, but left the company after failing to respond to an email to renew his contract with the company. It is also notable amidst a time where people are speculating that Apple is losing people resources to competitors such as Google.
Comex, whose real name is Nicholas Allegra, developed a notable Jailbreak.me hack that could jailbreak an iOS device via a simple website.
Microsoft’s latest Scroogled ad warns against downloading apps on Google Play
If you don’t know by now, since early February Microsoft has been running its “Scroogled” smear campaign spending 7 figures on a series of print and online ads attacking various Google services. The ads originally focused on Gmail and how Google displays ads based on the content of user’s emails, but Microsoft’s latest Scroogled ad (above) takes on another Google app– Google Play.
The ad is currently featured on the front page of Microsoft’s Scroogled website and features a warning that Google passes off personal information about users to app makers without consent from users:
When you buy an Android app from the Google app store, they give the app maker your full name, email address and the neighborhood where you live. This occurs without clear warning every single time you buy an app. If you can’t trust Google’s app store, how can you trust them for anything?
We expect Google will be issuing a response to Microsoft’s claims shortly. Another Scroogled ad claiming Google Play sends personal data to app makers below: Read more
