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Shoppers hoping to get one of Google’s recently-unveiled Nexus Players may need to wait a little longer. A change to the product listing on the Play Store (via Android Police) now lists the device as being out of stock. A notice hidden in the fine print on the Player website points out that the Android TV box has not yet been approved for sale by the FCC.

Until the FCC gives Google the greenlight, the device won’t be able to be sold in the United States, though international markets will have different criteria that may or may not already be met. Understandably, Google hasn’t been able to give a time frame for when this approval might come, as the entire process operates on the FCC’s schedule.

Motorola to drop affiliation with speaker/headphone maker Sol Republic

Stephen Hall Oct 17 2014 - 1:36 pm PT

Sol Republic, makers of a wide variety of speakers and headphones, announced in August 2013—alongside the announcement of the Moto X—that it would be partnering with Motorola “to redefine the music experience,” and “change the way music fans experience and share music.” 9to5Google has learned, however, this partnership may not have worked out so well. According to people familiar with the partnership, Motorola will soon be dropping its affiliation and contract with Sol Republic.

Chrome and Android get just that much closer with management shakeup

Stephen Hall Oct 17 2014 - 12:52 pm PT

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Sergey Brin has said in the past that Chrome and Android were likely to one day conjoin, but that it was likely going to be a slow process that occurred over time. According to a report this afternoon from The Wall Street Journal, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google’s VP of engineering for Android, has now been put in charge of overseeing the Chrome engineering team as well.

Google posts 8 minute video showing how far we’ve come with speech recognition

Mark Hearn Oct 17 2014 - 12:47 pm PT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxxRAHVtafI&feature=youtu.be

Behind the Mic: The Science of Talking with Computers

Language. Easy for humans to understand (most of the time), but not so easy for computers. This is a short film about speech recognition, language understanding, neural nets, and using our voices to communicate with the technology around us.

Just in case you didn’t get the memo, Google is really big on voice search. The company’s voice command-friendly Google Now tech is available across multiple platforms and according to some recent research, teenagers are crazy about talking to their smartphones, but how does it all work?

Speaking to your mobile devices are starting to become more commonplace, however there’s a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into developing speech recognition.

Nexus 7 and 10 reportedly set to get Android 5.0 Lollipop on Nov. 3, Nexus 4 and 5 to follow

Chance Miller Oct 16 2014 - 5:25 pm PT

Following this morning’s report that Android Wear 2.0 would drop on November 3rd, Android Police now reports that Google is planning to release Android 5.0 Lollipop to a trio of Nexus devices on that same day. The report claims that Lollipop will hit the 2012 WiFi-only Nexus 7, the 2013 WiFi-only Nexus 7, and the Nexus 10 on November 3rd.

Google Fiber launching in Austin this December, 3 months behind schedule

Stephen Hall Oct 16 2014 - 9:28 am PT

Google Fiber is about ready to launch in its third city, according to The Wall Street Journal. The service is apparently about 3 months behind original schedule, and sign ups will be launched this December focusing on the south and southeastern parts of the city. The company’s original announcement touted “mid-2014” for launch, but it looks like laying groundwork for a fiber internet service isn’t exactly an easy task.

Android 5 Lollipop statue makes its way to Google’s campus

Seth Weintraub Oct 15 2014 - 11:18 am PT

As is tradition, Google now has a Loli statue in its Android statue garden commemorating the 5.0 L release of Android. Via +AlexRuiz.

Update: Here’s the video unveil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTxTLyLUjP4&feature=youtu.be

Latest Google Glass update allows automatic display of phone notifications

Ben Lovejoy Oct 15 2014 - 3:57 am PT

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq1wl5jQO8s]

Google has announced that Glass owners will soon be able to immediately view any notification from their Android phone using a new feature, Notification Sync.

Max sent you a WhatsApp message, marycam81 tagged you in a photo, your Lyft has arrived… these are just some of the reasons for pulling out your phone. You want to know about the things that matter to you, but you don’t want to be distracted by your phone when you could be enjoying the moment.

Today we’re launching Notification Sync on Glass, which means you can see your Android phone app notifications at a glance …

AT&T outs its Nexus 6 variant, possible cost of $49.99 on contract

Chance Miller Oct 14 2014 - 8:05 pm PT

Earlier today it was reported that Google would finally unveil the Nexus 6 for all to see tomorrow, October 15th. Thanks a variety of leaks, including one of our own, we already know almost everything about it except for pricing and carrier availability. This evening, however, AT&T appears to have inadvertently outed the device on its website, revealing some of that information.

Report: Google to announce Nexus 9 and Nexus 6 tomorrow, retail availability in November

Chance Miller Oct 14 2014 - 9:36 am PT

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According to a new report out of Forbes, Google will announce both the Nexus 9 tablet and Nexus 6 smartphone tomorrow. The report claims that Google had originally planned to hold an event for the devices, but decided it against it due to it wanting to continue to fine tweak Android “L” until the last-minute. Instead, both of the devices will be announced via a blog post.

Google is investigating a Drive service disruption this morning

Jordan Kahn Oct 14 2014 - 8:30 am PT

Update: Resolved.

Google Drive is currently experiencing a service disruption for many users. Google first confirmed the problem earlier this morning noting that it’s “investigating reports of an issue with Google Drive.” Users trying to access various Google Drive services might receive a “500 errors and latency,” according to Google’s App Status Dashboard.

Google’s latest update on the outage through its Google Apps status website said the company is continuing to investigate and will provide an update later today with more information on the issue.

The service isn’t down for everyone, but we’ll update here when Google resolves the problem or provides any further updates. You can check the status of Google Apps through its Apps Status Dashboard here.

FBI director continues push against Google & Apple on smartphone encryption (Video)

Zac Hall Oct 13 2014 - 7:17 am PT

FBI Director James Comey isn’t backing down from his position that Google and Apple are wrong to encrypt customer smartphone data preventing law enforcement agencies the possibility of access if requested. After last month sharing that the FBI was in talks with the two companies to discuss concerns with marketing devices as being inaccessible to third-parties including the government, the FBI Director spoke with CBS News in an interview where he continued to make the case against such encryption…
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Google trialling free video chats with doctors when you search for symptoms

Ben Lovejoy Oct 13 2014 - 4:41 am PT

Google has confirmed to Engadget that it is trialling a feature which detects when someone is searching for symptoms of an illness, and proactively offers a video chat with a doctor.

The message states that “all costs are covered by Google during this limited trial,” suggesting that the service will be a paid one if and when it launches …
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Google Play Store app updated with Material Design interface, clearer What’s New section

Ben Lovejoy Oct 10 2014 - 6:45 am PT

Google has updated its Play Store app with a more comprehensive Material Design makeover, and a What’s New section that is both clearer and easier to use.

Version 5.0.31 sees a new, flat Play Store logo, together with flatter icons in the sidebar, and the categories now use the bright colors of the Material Design palette …
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Google’s updated ‘right to be forgotten’ stats: 497k links evaluated, 42% removed

Ben Lovejoy Oct 10 2014 - 4:26 am PT

Google has updated its transparency report for the controversial ‘right to be forgotten‘ ruling, requiring it to remove links to sensitive information about individuals when it is considered out-dated or irrelevant.

The company revealed that it has now received 144,907 requests to evaluate almost half a million links, and that it has so far removed 41.8% of those. Links to facebook topped the list, with 3,331 URLs removed from search results …
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WSJ: Google to unveil 5.9-inch Nexus 6 this month

Chance Miller Oct 9 2014 - 3:08 pm PT

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The Wall Street Journal has published a new report claiming that Google plans to release the Nexus 6 at some point this month. The article, citing three sources, is incredibly sparse on details, but does corroborate all of what we exclusively reported last month.

You can now add interactive polls to your Google+ posts

Mark Hearn Oct 9 2014 - 10:01 am PT

Most likely a nod to Google’s recent investment in Polar, Google+ members can now create interactive polls for their friends and followers on the company’s social network. Polls are limited to five choices and can be decorated with photos to make them unique and appealing. Topics can be just about anything you can dream up, but we’re expecting to see a lot about food, sports, pop culture and of course technology.

Chromecast now supports news, weather, & Google+ photos as a backdrop

Zac Hall Oct 8 2014 - 9:34 am PT

(<a href="http://chrome.blogspot.ca/2014/10/turn-your-tv-screen-into-beautiful.html" target="_blank">via Chrome blog</a>)

Google today updated the Chromecast app for Android users adding a feature announced earlier this year at Google I/O called Backdrop. When the Chromecast HDMI streaming stick isn’t playing content like Netflix or Pandora Radio through your TV, it already displays the current time and featured photos as a screen saver, but now Chromecast users can display additional content like weather conditions and news headlines on Chromecast-connected TVs. Chromecast also now supports using your own photos from Google+ albums as the backdrop.
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Google mapped out an Arabian desert in Street View using camels

Zac Hall Oct 8 2014 - 7:59 am PT

No, that’s not where Apple Maps will take you when you ask for directions to Starbucks, but close! It’s the Liwa Desert in the United Arab Emirates, and Google Maps has captured the site in detail for exploring through Street View thanks in part to camels:

To bring this stunning desert to Street View, we fashioned the Trekker to rest on a camel, which gathered imagery as it walked. Using camels for the collection allowed us to collect authentic imagery and minimize our disruption of this fragile environment.

Google announces that you can now pre-order movies on Google Play

Chance Miller Oct 7 2014 - 5:16 pm PT

In a post on Google+ this evening, Google has announced that starting today users in the United States can now pre-oder feature films from Google Play. This means that customers can get their copy of movies before they’re released digitally or on DVD to the rest of the United States.

Pre-order movies have arrived on Google Play! Excited about an awesome big-screen blockbuster? Now you can reserve your copy of box-office hits before they’re released digitally or on DVD!

A look at Google’s plans for an Android split-screen multitasking mode

Jordan Kahn Oct 7 2014 - 12:25 pm PT

AndroidPolice has posted renders that it says are based on a split-screen multitasking mode that Google has been experimenting with for Android. It’s a feature Samsung has implemented into its own version of Android and used as a selling point in marketing over the competition. It’s also something that Apple is experimenting with for iPad.
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Google’s head of social reiterates Google+ is not going away, ‘very happy’ with progress

Benjamin Mayo Oct 7 2014 - 5:21 am PT

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Re/code has posted an interview with Google’s ‘new’ head of social at the company, David Besbris, after taking over from Vic Gundotra. The interview ranges in scope, but most notably it opens with a direct question about the future of Google+ with many rumors circulating that Google intends to kill off the ‘failure’.

Unsurprisingly, Besbris denies the claims and says that Google made a long-term bet. It has no intentions to drop Google+ from its offerings.

Is Google+ going away anytime soon?

We’re actually very happy with the progress of Google+, [CEO Larry Page] said this at the time that Vic transitioned that he’s going to continue working on building this stuff, that he’s very happy with it. The company is behind it. I have no idea where these rumors come from to be honest with you.

Google Voice finally gains MMS support on T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, more

Chance Miller Oct 6 2014 - 4:52 pm PT

Since its inception, one of the biggest pitfalls of Google Voice has been its lack of MMS support. In an era of time when nearly everyone has a smartphone, not being able to share videos and pictures with counterparts was a huge feature gap. This evening, however, Google employee Alex Wiesen announced on Google+ that Voice now supports MMS on more than a 100 North American carriers.

Google announces Code-In 2014 and Summer of Code 2015

Chance Miller Oct 6 2014 - 2:12 pm PT

Google this afternoon, in a blog post on its Open Source Blog, announced the details for two of its upcoming coding challenges. Google Code-In 2014 and Summer of Code 2015 are two ways in which Google hopes to encourage students to design and participate in open source projects, while also attempting to win contests and learn from their peers.