Ben Lovejoy

Google seems to be on a major push to increase take-up of its Google Photos service. A little over a week ago, it ran a video ad focused on how useful it is to be able to recover space on your phone by removing photos already stored on Google. It’s now running a new ad on the value of automatic backups.

The ad shows someone jumping into a pool, and realizing while he’s in mid-air that his phone is still in the pocket of his shorts. The voiceover says that, sure, you can get a new phone, but what about the photos on the soaked one? ‘What will you do?’ the narrator asks … ?

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We learned back in April that Google was planning to experiment with wireless Fiber service to extend the reach of its high-speed broadband service beyond cities, but the company wouldn’t be drawn on where it had in mind. An FCC filing spotted by Business Insider now appears to provide the answer.

A table in the filing reveals 24 locations spanning 17 states where Google is seeking permission to conduct tests, which are a mix of Fiber and non-Fiber locations …

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Four separate vulnerabilities in Qualcomm chips – used in 80% of Android devices – could allow a rogue app to provide an attacker with complete control of the unit, including camera and microphone.

The combined flaws, dubbed Quadrooter, were discovered by CheckPoint researcher Adam Donenfeld, and presented yesterday at the Def Con 24 hacking conference …

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Just when you think there can’t possibly be room for yet another messaging app, along comes Disney with what looks like a decent attempt to prove us wrong. Disney Mix is a new messaging app designed for use by kids as young as four, using the tagline ‘chat, share, play.’

The free app offers stickers from just about every Disney movie you could name, customized cartoon avatars, built-in games and safety features designed to keep things family-friendly …

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Most of us have cursed poor mobile connectivity in our home towns at some point or other, but if you want to know whether you really have something to complain about, the latest RootMetrics report has the answers.

RootMetrics is a mobile analytics company that tests cell networks across the USA, measuring reliability, speed and performance across data, calls and text to come up with an overall performance ranking for 125 metro areas …

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It doesn’t seem that long ago when putting tiny machines into people’s bodies to cure or manage diseases was the stuff of science-fiction, but bioelectronics is a real – if very new – field of medicine. Alphabet’s Verily Life Sciences (formerly Google Life Sciences) and pharma company GSK are teaming up to invest $715M in the tech over the next seven years.

Bioelectronic medicine is a relatively new scientific field that aims to tackle a wide range of chronic diseases using miniaturised, implantable devices that can modify electrical signals that pass along nerves in the body, including irregular or altered impulses that occur in many illnesses. GSK has been active in this field since 2012 and believes certain chronic conditions such as arthritis, diabetes and asthma could potentially be treated using these devices … 

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Illustrative results only …

If you’re looking forward to following the Rio Olympics, which open this week, Google has made some enhancements to ensure that the information you’re after is front and center in search results. When using the Android or iOS Google app, you’ll also be offered an option to receive automatic updates on results.

Google has announced that it will be highlighting three types of information in search results …

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The latest market share stats from Strategy Analytics show that Samsung strengthened its lead in the global smartphone market, increasing its market share from 21.3% in Q2 2015 to 22.8% the same quarter this year. The company’s total worldwide sales for the quarter were 77.6M handsets.

Second-placed Apple saw its own market share slip from 14.1% to 11.9%, with a total of 40.4M sales. Xiaomi also dropped significantly, from 5.9% to 4.3%, while Huawei saw a slight rise to 9.4%.

The big winner in terms of growth, however, was Chinese maker Oppo …

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Samsung’s Q2 earnings report show that the company enjoyed its most profitable quarter in two years, building on the progress it made in the first quarter of the year. Year-on-year revenue was up 5% at 50.94T won ($45.2B), with profit up 18% to 8.14T won ($7.2B). The company credited strong sales of its flagship Galaxy S7 and S7 edge for the turnaround, with the edge model accounting for more than half of S7 sales.

The company believes the launch of the Galaxy Note 7 will help it maintain momentum into Q3, saying that it expects total smartphone sales to increase, though it does acknowledge that it won’t all be smooth sailing, with a veiled reference to Apple’s new iPhone launch this September …

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The default option for Google’s two-factor authentication (2FA) is to have a code sent to you via SMS. The US National Institute for Standards and Technology, which sets the standards for authentication software, says that text messaging is not sufficiently secure, and that its use for two-factor authentication will in future be barred …

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Ford announced back in January that all 2017 models would offer Android Auto compatibility through its Sync 3 infotainment system, and the company has today confirmed that this applies across its full range of vehicles: cars, SUVs, light trucks and electrified vehicles. You will, of course, have to purchase Sync 3 as an option if it is not included as standard in your chosen vehicle.

The first 2017 models are already on sale at dealerships, including the Escape, Fusion, Mustang and Explorer, with others due later this year. In addition, the company has promised to bring Android Auto to 2016 models equipped with Sync 3, though the wording – ‘opportunity to upgrade’ – sounds like you’ll have to pay for the privilege …

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Google last year took the title of world’s favorite company from Apple, but this year has lost out heavily – potentially on a technicality.

Each year, FutureBrand looks at the world’s 100 largest companies and asks 3,000 consumers and industry professionals to score them on a range of factors, and to explain how they feel about their preferred companies. However, with Google’s reorganization, only parent company Alphabet is big enough to make it onto the top 100 shortlist – as CNET notes, Google itself doesn’t qualify.

As for Alphabet, that only managed 21st place, likely due to not having the same brand awareness as Google. There was also more difficulty in attributing specific qualities to such a diverse company – as evidenced by the feelings respondents had toward the company …

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In its Android Developer’s blog, Google has explained that the company has boosted the system integrity protection in Android Nougat to prevent a compromised phone booting, or only allow it to boot in a limited capacity. This is a step up from Android Marshmallow, which carries out this check, but merely warns users and allows them to continue with the boot if they wish.

The good news, then, is that your phone will refuse to boot if infected with some types of malware, protecting your data. The bad news, says Google, is that some non-malicious data corruption may also result in a phone that won’t boot …

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Google’s latest Transparency Report, in which it discloses statistical data on government and court requests for user data, show that the number of requests continues to climb, up 18% on the preceding six months. Google’s compliance – the percentage of time where it hands over at least some data – is holding steady at around 64%.

The law requires companies to delay their reporting by six months, so the latest data is for the second half of 2015, where 40,677 requests were received relating to 81,311 accounts. The greatest number of requests came from the U.S. government, followed by Germany, France, the UK, India, Singapore and Australia.

For requests relating to national security, Google has to be much more vague in the information it is permitted to share …

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Good news for Pokémon Go fans in Canada: the game has officially rolled out to the country. Bad news for fans of the game everywhere: the extra load seems to have killed the servers again.

Niantic made the Canadian announcement on Twitter and on the game’s official Facebook page, but so far the company hasn’t responded to complaints that users are again unable to login. It did acknowledge the server problems experienced over the weekend …

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ARM, the British chip designer responsible for the processors in loads of mobile devices, looks set to be bought by Japanese telecoms company Softbank.

The deal will need to be approved by shareholders, but with ARM recommending it and a valuation 43% above last week’s closing price, it looks likely to go through. It is, however, possible that other companies may make their own bid for the company.

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Facebook Messenger is the latest app to adopt end-to-end encryption for its chats, ensuring that conversations cannot be accessed even by Facebook. It’s just in testing so far, but the company says that it will be made available more widely in the course of the summer.

We are starting to test the ability to create one-to-one secret conversations in Messenger that will be end-to-end encrypted and which can only be read on one device of the person you’re communicating with. That means the messages are intended just for you and the other person — not anyone else, including us.

While Apple uses end-to-end encryption as standard for both iMessages and FaceTime, and WhatsApp followed suit in April, Facebook is taking a slightly different approach …

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