Chance currently writes for both 9to5Google and 9to5Mac, in addition to 9to5Toys. He has previously written for several other online publications. He uses a Nexus 5, iPhone 5s, iPad Air, Hackintosh, and Macbook Air.
Announced in a press release today, Google Fiber has acquired fellow gigabit internet provider Webpass. For those unfamiliar, Webpass was founded in 2003 with a focus on providing gigabit internet connectivity for customers around the United States, in both commercial and residential areas, although the biggest focus was commercial.
Popular Bluetooth speaker company Ultimate Ears announced today that it is adding Siri and Google Now integration to its lineup of speakers. With this feature, users can access their music directly from the speaker, making it even easier to change songs, artists, and more.
Prior to WWDC, a report emerged claiming that Apple would at long last unveil iMessage for Android. Seeing how Apple had made its streaming music service available on Android, many found this report to be somewhat plausible. As you’re probably aware of by now, however, iMessage for Android was nowhere to be found at WWDC this week. Now, we’ve gotten a little bit of insight into Apple’s reasoning for not bringing its messaging service to Google’s smartphone platform…
The TED Android app has received a significant update today that brings with it a host of new features and a new interface. The update is the first major redesign the TED Android app has received since it was released in 2012 and bumps it to version 3.0.
Google today partnered with six library Toronto public libraries to offer free take-home WiFi. Google is partnering with the city to loan out portable WiFi hotspots for six months at a time. The libraries are all located in low-income areas as Toronto is working to supply internet to everyone in the city (via CBC).
Speaking during Alphabet’s annual stockholder meeting today, Eric Schmidt responded to an audience question regarding the reality of self-driving cars. The usually very open executive was a bit more candid in his comments this time, but he still gave us something.
Nick Lee, CTO of development studio Tendigi, previously was able to get Windows 95 running on an Apple Watch and now he’s back at it again with a new project. As he details in this blog post, Lee was able to get Android running on an iPhone thanks to a custom-built case.
Accelerated Mobile Pages launched in Google Search with support for ads earlier this year, and now the AMP team has shared a blog post detailing the future of ads on the platform. In the blog post, the AMP team explains that it has four central principles when it comes to ads:
Google this week has published a new version of its TensorFlow machine learning software that adds support for iOS. Google initially teased that it was working on iOS support for TensorFlow last November, but said it was unable to give a timeline. An early version of TensorFlow version 0.9 was released yesterday on GitHub, however, and it brings iOS support.
It’s been essentially confirmed in the past, but today the Unicode Consortium officially unveiled the 72 new emoji that will be made available in Unicode 9. The latest batch of emoji include a variety of new foods, faces, objects, and sports. Unicode 9 is set to be released on June 21st, which means we may see these new emoji in Android N when it’s released to the public.
Facebook announced today that it is adding over 1,500 new emoji to Facebook Messenger. The company made the announcement on the Messenger Facebook page, explaining that the new emoji bring a lot more diversity to the service.
Not long after unveiling the Stylus 2, LG this evening has officially taken the wraps off of the Stylus 2 Plus. LG says the device is available now in Taiwan and will be available in Asia, South America, North America, and Europe over the coming weeks.
Microsoft and Xiaomi have announced today what they are calling the start of a long-term partnership. As part of the agreement, Microsoft is selling about 1,500 of its patents to Xiaomi, while the deal also includes a cross-licensing arrangement for other patents. Additionally, Xiaomi has agreed to preinstall Microsoft Office and Skype on its Android devices.
A week after the conference wrapped up, Google this evening has made videos of the majority of the Google I/O sessions available on YouTube. The company has created a playlist with 168 videos, all of which are from Google I/O and cover a variety of topics across a variety of Google’s YouTube channels.
Google today announced that it will open a self-driving car technology development center in Novi, Michigan, which is about 30 miles outside of Detroit. Google has had teams working from Detroit for the past few years, but this marks the company’s first physical presence in the area.
Update: The ‘MotoMods’ in the image, from left to right (as revealed by Blass) are: The pico projector, JBL speakers and a Hasselblad camera. The latter appears to cover the built-in Moto Z camera, replacing it with the optical zoom-equipped lens system.
Last week, a report claimed that alongside its new smartphones, Lenovo would unveil new modular backplates for the devices called MotoMods. The report claimed that the company was at work on several of them, including a battery pack, camera grip with optical zoom and flash, stereo speakers, and pico projector. Now, Evan Blass has shared an image of a trio of MotoMods to his Twitter page…
During a trip to South Korea earlier this year, Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt was caught using an iPhone 6s to take pictures of Google’s AlphaGo AI system playing the world Go champion. At the time, this led many to wonder if Schmidt was always an iPhone user or if he just got caught red handed in a slip up. Speaking at Startup Fest in Amsterdam today, however, Schmidt admitted that he does in fact use an iPhone 6s.
Google I/O officially kicks off tomorrow, but this evening AT&T has taken some wind out of the company’s sails. AT&T has announced that it is brining its Google Fiber competitor to the Bay Area in California. The company says that its GigaPower service is now available in “parts of” San Francisco, San Jose, Dublin, Mountain View, Santa Clara and San Ramon.
Last week we heard that Google was preparing a voice-activated home device to compete with products like the Amazon Echo. Now, The New York Times reports that Google will introduce the product tomorrow at Google I/O and that it will be called Google Home.
In addition to releasing a new iOS update, Yahoo today has also released a new version of Yahoo Mail for Android. The update greatly improves the ability to keep track of all of your contacts thanks to improved syncing capabilities and a new complete directory view.
A new report from CBC News details the progress being made to unlock the FM radio chip that many smartphones feature. Many smartphones have an untapped FM chip inside them that users are unable to take advantage of and while many Android devices are confirmed to have the chip, the iPhone also has despite Apple not officially recognizing it.
A petition has been running in the United States to urge carriers and manufacturers to unlock the hidden FM chip in smartphones. The campaign has gained significant steam since its inception, so much so that carriers are starting to agree to unlock the chip.
10 months after launching the service in Israel, Google-owned mapping service Waze is expanding its carpooling service to San Francisco to help solve the city’s traffic problems. The service, which is called RideWith in Israel, is simply called Waze Carpool here in the United States and is open to a select number of employers and their commuters in San Fransisco.
Google today has posted a new job listing looking for “self-driving vehicle operators” in Phoenix, Arizona. The job listing says that the job would consist of riding around in a self-driving car for 6-8 hours per day, five days a week, monitoring the car’s performance and being prepared to take over should anything happen.
LG this evening has announced the Action CAM with LTE and YouTube Live support. LG says that this is the “first” action camera to be available globally with LTE connectivity built-in. With LTE connectivity, users are able to stream directly to sites like YouTube Live without the need for a smartphone.
