Google

Last year, for the safety of their workers, Google shifted to work from home, closing their offices across the United States. With the ongoing rollout of vaccines in the US, Google is now looking likely to begin returning to working in-person and in-office.

Many in the industry pulled the plug on April Fools’ Day pranks in 2020 as tension from the emerging COVID-19 pandemic was high, Google included. Now, for the second year in a row, Google is skipping April Fools’ Day 2021.

Google and T-Mobile today announced a big partnership that sees the carrier promote key services like RCS, Google One, and YouTube TV, as well as the Pixel line.

Google today announced that it’s “doubling down” on custom chips as “one way to boost performance and efficiency now that Moore’s Law no longer provides rapid improvements for everyone.” The company hired a new engineering vice president, formerly of Intel, to lead a design team — focused on SoCs — in Israel.

One big focus for Google today is making products for what it dubs the Next Billion Users in countries just coming online. The initiative has been led by Caesar Sengupta who announced today that he’s leaving Google after nearly 15 years.

Sundar Pichai today provided the 2021 update on Google’s US investments. The company will spend over $7 billion for new offices and data centers, as well as expansions, across the country.

From Maps Live View to 3D Animals and other models in Search, Google’s current work in augmented reality is focused on phones. The other big investment is Google Lens, with it emerging today that the product is losing lead Aparna Chennapragada to Robinhood.

Microsoft famously started running the Scroogled attack ad campaign almost a decade ago, and has recently been targeting Google again in front of governments in the realm of the news media. Ahead of congressional testimony today from Redmond’s president, Google published a scathing rebuttal that goes after Microsoft’s “naked corporate opportunism.”

The vast majority of Google’s iOS apps have not been updated since early December. A trio of smaller Google applications saw new versions towards the end of last month, while YouTube for iPhone and iPad was just updated this evening.

Google hasn’t updated the vast majority of its iOS services since December. Those apps are now throwing up “This app is out of date” messages when attempting a Google sign-in.

Alphabet today announced Q4 2020 earnings with $56.9 billion in revenue. These numbers range from October to December, and include the holiday season.

Ford this morning announced a wide-ranging partnership with Google to help the automaker adapt to “seismic changes as new technology transforms the way people move.” Ford and Lincoln cars will soon use Android Automotive, while there’s also a cloud component to this deal.

It’s standard practice for developers to pause app updates over the December holidays and resume in early January. That was the case for Google this year, but the lack of new iOS releases oddly continued for almost the entire month until app updates resumed yesterday and today. 

Google and Fitbit proudly announced yesterday that their $2.1 billion acquisition had been completed after months of regulatory scrutiny. Unfortunately for that deal, though, it may still face legal trouble as Google didn’t wait on approval from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) or Australian regulatory authorities before completing the Fitbit buyout.

In late 2019, Google announced a deal with Fitbit to acquire the company for over $2 billion, but in the time since, the deal has had to get the approval of multiple regulatory authorities. After getting a thumbs-up from the EU last month, Google has officially completed its acquisition of Fitbit today.

Video sharing platform Rumble is suing Google, accusing the YouTube-owner of abusing its power in the search and mobile market by promoting its own platforms.

Following the firing of AI researcher Timnit Gebru in December, more than 225 Google employees in the United States have announced that they have formed a union, a first within Alphabet’s umbrella.

Alphabet was one of the first companies to mandate remote work back in March and is continually pushing back office reopening. As a free benefit, Google is now letting employees request weekly, home COVID-19 tests.

After over a year in the works, Google has finally won EU approval for its acquisition of Fitbit that was originally announced in late 2019, on just one major condition.