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New Google employee John Nack took to Google+ this morning to announce a handful of new features coming to the photos area of Google’s social network. Nack was a former Adobe team member, Photoshop evangelist, and blogger prior to joining Google back in February. In his post, Nack announced that Google+ on the web now supports the ability to edit your previous edits and has received some new Auto-Awesome features.

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Google this morning announced that its $35 streaming stick now supports four new services. Starting today, you can now cast content from PBS Kids, DailyBurn, Stevie, and Deezer to the Chromecast. DailyBurn users will now have access to all of the service’s HD workout videos to stream to the Chromecast. DailyBurn offers virtual workout classes raining from 15 minutes to over an hour-long with a variety of activities, such as cardio, yoga, and dancing.

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New data from App Annie shows that revenue from apps downloaded via the Google Play store more than doubled between the first quarters of 2013 and 2014 – and that a staggering 98 percent of it comes from in-app purchases in apps that were free to download.

Games continue to dominate the charts, accounting for 40 percent of all downloads but 90 percent of revenues, up from 80 percent last year … 
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Google CEO Larry Page (centre) with Nest co-founders Matt Rogers amd Tony Fadell (photo: technologyreview.com)

Google and Nest have big plans for their partnership, the Wall Street Journal reports. The two companies plan to team up to offer a development platform around the Nest learning thermostat and Nest Protect smoke/CO detector in what appears to be the next step in Google’s connected home efforts following the Mountain View company’s $555 million acquisition of Dropcam a few days ago.

The system as it is currently said to exist allows users to issue voice commands to a smartphone to change settings on the Nest lineup or change a house’s temperature based on the owner’s proximity (so the air comes on when you’re almost home). However, the “Works with Nest” program will soon be expanded to support third-party remotes and appliances.

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Reddit user Doopl has come across two screenshots of what appears to be the “L” release of Android. The screenshots come via the Chromium Issue Tracker, which has been the source of leaks many times in the past. The images show a Google login dialog box that looks entirely different than what you’ll currently see on an Android 4.4 device.

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Photo: Associated Press

Google this afternoon announced that it is launching a new Google Domains service. In an effort to continue its reach to small businesses, the company has announced that it is, for the first time, offering a domain registration service. Google says that its small business-focused division decided to create Google Domains because, according to its research, 55 percent of small businesses still do not have a website.

Google Domains is still in an early, invite only beta, but the company says that it hopes to launch to all consumers soon. Currently, website creation tools Wix, Weebly, Shopify, and Squarespace have all signed up as partners. In addition to being able to register a new web address with Google Domains, you’ll also have the ability to transfer for names from other services into Google’s offering.

One big advantage to Google Domains is that it won’t charge extra for setting an address private. Google will offer 100 email addresses on the domain for free, in addition as many as 100 sub-domains. Google Domains will also use the company’s own DNS servers, which should make for fast response times.

You can request an invite code for the beta now. Read Google’s full announcement below:

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Google’s latest doodle focuses on the event that has sports fans everywhere on the edge of their seat on a daily basis. The doodle depicts a group of employes sitting around a TV watching the ongoing World Cup. The employes spell out ‘Google’ in the classic colors. When the boss walks by, the employes quickly switch back to a business presentation.

If you click on the doodle, you’ll be redirected to a Google search for the Chile vs Netherlands match that took place today. (Spoiler: It didn’t end in a tie).

You can check out the doodle for yourself on Google’s website. According to NBC News, the World Cup in 2010 cost the U.S. economy $121.7 million due to people watching the matches during work. So let’s face it, you’re probably doing exactly what the doodle suggests.

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Update: Google Glass is now available on the Play Store in the UK for £1,000 and is available in black, red, white, charcoal and blue. Google says the device will ship from its warehouse in one or two business days. Glass still carries the Explorer tag and does not appear to be any different than the U.S. variant. You can view Glass on the Play Store here.

Original post: Ahead of Google I/O this week, Google Glass is now listed as being available in the United Kingdom on the Play Store support page. When the Nest Thermostat became available on Google Play, it too was prematurely posted on the Play Store support page for country availability. Should the support page be correct, the UK would be the first country besides the United States in which you can purchase Glass.

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Politico has an interesting look at the lobbying Google need to do to ensure that it’s technological plans don’t get outlawed by legislation.

We’ve mentioned before one obvious need for lobbying: ensuring that self-driving cars are legal to use once they are eventually ready to go on sale to the public.

Google’s self-driving car has posed that particular challenge: Twelve states this year alone have explored some new regulation of those vehicles on local roadways, according to data compiled for POLITICO by the National Conference of State Legislatures. And in almost each of those capitals, Google has lobbied intensely to stave off any new, onerous restrictions …

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The Diane von Furstenberg frames and sunglasses for Google Glass first leaked earlier this month have now gone on sale.

If you already have Glass, you can buy the frames and shades from the Google Glass Store. The frames are $225 while the shades are $120 … 
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The fate of the Nexus line of devices has been up in the air for sometime now due to rumors of the Android Silver program and an LG executive saying that his company had no plans on manufacturing the next Nexus device. Android Police, however, has now published information regarding an upcoming Nexus tablet. According to the report, Google and HTC have teamed up to develop the next Nexus tablet, dubbed the Volantis. The device has an 8.9-inch screen and looks to potentially replace the Nexus 10.

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Google, as noticed by GeekWire, has just acquired the networking start-up Alpental Technologies. The start-up is relatively unknown and never received too much press attention. Alpental was founded by former Clearwire executives, Pete Gelbman and Mike Hart. The former worked at Clearwire for seven years as a founding member of the company’s CTO group. He also oversaw the company’s systems engineering, intellectual property, and corporate research.

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In what comes as somewhat of a surprising move, Google has just posted Android 4.4.4 factory image for several Nexus devices. The release comes not too long after 4.4.3 was rolled out. Android 4.4.3 was a highly antipciated release that we saw several leaks of, but 4.4.4 comes as a surprise.

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According to a report from PC World, both Google and Microsoft are planning to announce plans to add a smartphone kill switch to their mobile software in an effort to combat device theft. The feature would allow users with stolen devices to report their device as missing and disable it from being used without specific credentials in an incident of theft. This feature has already proven to deter theft of iPhones as iOS recently introduced a similar functionality.

The news comes after The New York Times released data from the city’s police pointing to a 19 percent decline in iPhone thefts in 2014 compared to the same period in 2013 which considers Apple’s Activation Lock feature introduced to the public last fall with iOS 7. The report from PC World notes that thefts of Samsung devices have risen by more than 40 percent.

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo11JJgj1cU]

Google today announced that it’s launching a new initiative dubbed Made with Code that hopes to inspire girls to learn code and support computer science programs. While announcing the new program, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki noted in a blog post today that “fewer than one percent of high school girls express interest in majoring in computer science.” Here’s what girls that sign-up to participate will get through the program:
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Rumors of Google working on an in-car entertainment system have been around for a while now, with alleged images of the interface leaking last month. Now, AutoNews is reporting that Google plans to unveil its in-car solution at I/O 2014 later this month. According to the report, Google has developed a service that “projects” data from an Android device onto a car’s dashboard display.

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According to an interview done by LG’s director of communications Ken Hong with a Dutch news outlet (via Phone Arena), the company currently has no plans on making the next Nexus device. LG, of course, made both the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 devices, but Hong says that the company is not making the next Nexus device, “at least not yet.”

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Google recently expanded its Apps services for enterprise users by making its premium communication features available to everyone. Apps customers can now broadcast a 15 person Hangout chat session with HD video quality, a perk previously unavailable to standard subscribers. Furthermore, these new premium features introduce enhanced privacy controls that let admins restrict a Google+ post’s visibility, along with the option to hide employee profiles from external searches.

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