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Google is today rolling out Chrome 40 for iOS and with it bringing Material Design to Chrome users on iDevices, OS X Handoff support, and optimizations for iOS 8 and the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
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According to a new report from The Information, Google is currently considering investing in SpaceX, Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s privately funded company working to make advancements in space travel. Rather than SpaceX projects looking to enable low-cost space travel, Google’s potential investment, according to the report, would be to help “support the development of SpaceX satellites that could beam low-cost Internet around the globe to billions who don’t have it.”
It appears that Google could soon release its promised redesigned Calendar app for iPhone after first making the announcement and releasing the app for Android last November. The Next Web this morning shared a handful of leaked screenshots that provide a first look at Google Calendar for iOS, including info cards that indicate Gmail, Photos and Maps integration will be key features of the app.
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Performer search left, venue search right
If you search for a band or live venue, there’s a high chance it’s because you want to buy tickets for an upcoming show. Google is now making that easier by displaying upcoming events in the search results, with a direct link to purchase tickets.
It may take a few days to start seeing these results, as Google has just explained to webmasters for bands and venues the steps they need to take to ensure the information shows up in searches. They can either add a little HTML to their webpages, or install a widget that does it for them …
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Google has today relaunched its review program previously called City Experts as Local Guides, and hopes to engage the community and get more people involved through what looks to be some much more friendly branding and fun new features. While Google previously touted the “exclusive benefits” you could receive through the program and required “50 high-quality reviews” for entry, the new program instead suggests that you “help others and support businesses” and encourages you to “be yourself.”
As noticed by Search Engine Land, Google recently added a new section to its Knowledge Graph for brands searches. As you can see in the screenshot above, searching for a brand like McDonald’s will show a new “Profiles” section including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Instagram accounts. As of today, the same is not true about celebrity Knowledge Graph results. Updates to the Knowledge Graph usually sneak in under the radar, but they seem to keep coming nonetheless. This update follows last month’s Knowledge Graph update, which added a new lyrics section.
PwC—short for PricewaterhouseCoopers—is a large multinational professional services network, and the company announced in October of last year that it would begin working with Google to bring “a variety of new and innovative technologies to companies around the world.” Reading that sounds unspecific and, frankly, because Google is always working on new technology, these kinds of announcements don’t really catch the eye of the public.
Today, though, PwC has announced a specific venture that Google is joining, and this one intends to reimagine the military health system in the United States…
A Google patent could mean that you never again have to remember to switch to incognito mode when searching for presents for your wife (other uses for incognito mode are available). The patent was applied for in 2011 and granted this week.
The patent describes a method by which your browser (presumably Chrome) can work out whether privacy is required “based on the plurality of identifiers.” A diagram in the patent application shows that the browser would analyze the URL, metadata and page content in order to determine whether incognito mode may be appropriate.
The sole example given curiously doesn’t mention browsing online stores for gifts.
Metadata that identifies adult content may automatically trigger that webpage [to] be opened in the privacy mode.
The patent was first spotted by Patent Yogi (via TNW).
Google is getting serious about its self-driving car initiative.
Reuters reports on Wednesday that Google has entered discussions with several top automative manufacturers about self-driving cars, including General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen and Daimler, the German company behind Mercedes-Benz. The company has also partnered with a number of auto suppliers to develop and refine self-driving systems and components, such as Continental AG, Robert Bosch, LG Electronics and Nvidia.
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The second developer conference for Google’s Project Ara is happening today, and the ATAP team took some time this morning to show the world the second iteration of the modular smartphone—dubbed Spiral 2. While the hardware for the updated prototype is said to be complete at this point, the firmware still needs a bit work, as mentioned on stage by ATAP’s Paul Eremenko. But that aside, this new version continues to usher in the Project Ara mentality that consumers should be free to use hardware (much like we use software) to build a phone based on their needs—not the needs a company has determined they likely have.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2fC7yrj984]
Google announced today that it’s releasing mobile apps for its Google Classroom service for both Android and iOS devices. The company officially launched Classroom to its Apps for Education customers in the US during the summer offering them a web-based platform for planning lessons, handing out assignments, and working alongside students. Teachers and students will now be able to access those features from mobile devices through the new apps and Google is also adding a could of new features to the platform.
In addition to a new teacher assignments page and archiving functions for Classroom, Google notes that the mobile apps will let users snap a photo to share or attach to assignments, share content from other apps, and access content cached for offline viewing.
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The latest numbers from app metrics tracking firm AppFigures reveal that Google’s Play Store topped Apple’s App Store based on total number of apps and developers for the first time in 2014. Google moved ahead of Apple with 1.43 million Android apps in the Play Store, compared to 1.21 million on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
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Microsoft’s sleazy and highly publicized Scroogled ad campaign has been its primary marketing effort against Google for two years now, but it appears that the program is finally dead. Speculation began to arise last year that Microsoft was slowly killing the controversial ad campaign after corporate restructuring.
Today, Winbeta noticed that the Scroogled website is no longer live, and instead redirects to a new “Why Microsoft” page. The Scroogled page had been live up until very recently, but without much publicity from Microsoft. The death of the Scroogled webpage also comes with no comment from Microsoft, who appears to want to act like it never happened in the first place.
First announced in July of 2014, Google has this week launched—in partnership with Motiv and the city of Mountain View—a free shuttle service to help residents of the Santa Clara city get around town. Besides being completely free to the public, the service touts the fact that its first four shuttles are completely electric, can seat up to 16 passengers, have free WiFi for all riders, and have bike racks as well as wheelchair access.
While the American auto market has been dominated by the Big Three in Ford, General Motors and Chrysler for several decades, the landscape is beginning to change as technology-based competitors like Tesla and Google enter the scene. To keep up with the breakthrough pace of innovation, it may be necessary for the trio of auto makers to partner up with their new rivals in the coming years.
Right on queue with that idea, Time reports on Tuesday that General Motors is open to working with Google on developing self-driving car technologies. “I’m not in charge of deciding what we will and won’t do, but I’d say we’d certainly be open to having a discussion with them,” Jon Lauckner, Chief Technology Officer at General Motors, said in an interview at the Detroit Auto Show this week.
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According to a report this morning from Reuters, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun sat down with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to talk about a potential investment in October, but nothing came of the talks. Facebook being banned in China—the home and birthplace of Xiaomi—was one of the main discussion points, with both CEOs considering what the implications would be of the international investment. While Xiaomi was definitely worried of the “political fallout” that could come of the deal, China’s largest smartphone maker also considered its important relationship with Google–as the company’s phones all run Android—as a reason to distance itself from Facebook.
Forbes reports that nearly one billion Android smartphone users that are not running the latest Lollipop operating system are at risk of malicious attacks due to Google no longer releasing security updates for the WebView tool on Android versions at or below 4.3 Jelly Bean. Research firm Rapid7 discovered that Google started the process of ending support for WebView late last year for devices not running Android 5.0 Lollipop.
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Falcon Pro was one of the most notorious Android Twitter clients for quite some time, but development of the app got pushed aside when it started running into its Twitter API token limits. But the app’s developer Joaquim Verges has now brought it back with the release of version 3, which has been completely rewritten and re-imagined, and packs a gorgeous new dark-skinned Material Design aesthetic.
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Image via Hallam Internet Limited
Google, which is known for dabbling in a variety of consumer fields, is apparently looking to begin selling automotive insurance in the United States. Google currently helps users buy insurance in Europe, but according to a variety of evidence collected by research blog Forrester, is looking to expand at least its automotive insurance efforts to the United States (via WSJ).
Fifteen Google partners are handing out Android pins at CES 2015, meaning that the Mountain View corporation itself is not completely absent from the world’s largest trade show after all.
According to representatives from the partner companies in question, Google sent out several employees to CES booths yesterday to hand out plastic Android mascot stands and hundreds of pins. All of the companies Google has partnered with are showing off Android on their devices in some way here at CES, including Sony, Samsung, Pioneer, Chevrolet, Dell, Hyundai, JVC Kenwood, Razer, Nvidia, Panasonic, Parrot, Intel, LG, Qualcomm, and Sharp.
Google today released what it calls “a guide to activating technology in schools” as part of its education efforts. Intended to assist teachers and IT administrators, Google says the new guide based on what other schools processes provides schools with the following frameworks to bring the web into the classroom.
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Google’s share of the US search market has fallen to its lowest level since at least 2008 following the deal in which Mozilla switched the default Firefox search engine from Google to Yahoo in November. Yahoo saw its share increase from 8.6% to 10.4% in the one month since the deal was signed.
The figure was revealed by StatCounter, who said that Firefox users represented just over 12% of US Internet users as of last month …
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The Google app on Android has received an update today, as part of the company’s Update Wednesday regimen. The update bumps the app to version 4.1.21.1657903 and includes a handful of notable new features, including new Google Now card settings and “Ok Google” setting tweaks.
$GOOG on January 5, 2015
Google announced today that it will share its Q4 2014 financial results on Thursday, January 29th, 2015. Following the financial report, Google will host its quarterly conference call with investors and analysts to discuss its reported results. The call will take place at 4:30 PM EST, 1:30 PM PST, with a webcast available online at investor.google.com/webcast.html. 9to5Google will bring you full coverage of both the financial results and the conference call on that date.
Google previously reported its quarterly earnings on October 16th.