Google

Leading up to Google I/O this year, we’ve seen a handful of leaks regarding the design of Android. We’ve seen redesigned apps leak, such as calendar, the dialer, and Gmail, as well as updated icons. According to a new report out of Android Police, all off these recent design leaks and updates have been apart of a new program within Google called Quantum Paper.

Portland moves closer to Google Fiber as City Council approves franchise agreement

Zac Hall Jun 11 2014 - 12:31 pm PT

Earlier this year we told you that a number of additional cities were on the map for Google Fiber’s super high-speed Internet service including Portland, Oregon. Today, Portland’s City Council voted unanimously in approval of bringing Google’s gigabit Internet service to the area, The Oregonian reports. While the Portland commissioners did deliver approval for Google Fiber’s terms of the deal, the report notes that Google will “decide by the end of the year” if it will deliver on servicing Portland…
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Google I/O 2014 Android app now available, keynote and session streams supported

Chance Miller Jun 11 2014 - 9:17 am PT

Google I/O 2014 is set to kick off on June 25th and in preparation for the event, Google has released its official app for I/O. The app allows you to easily and quickly view the conference agenda with details such as topics, speakers, and partners for each event. You can also add events to your schedule and receive reminder notifications before they start.

New ‘Google My Business’ service allows businesses to manage Search, Maps and Google+ information

Chance Miller Jun 11 2014 - 9:04 am PT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LCzri4tXuF0

Google, in a post on its “Google and Your Business” blog, has just unveiled a new service for small business. Dubbed Google My Business, the service is essentially a central location for small business owners to control how their businesses appear in Google search results, Maps, and more.

Google+ Photos app update automatically sends Chromebook pics to the cloud

Mark Hearn Jun 11 2014 - 8:37 am PT

Chrome OS devices typically run light on local storage space, but as a portal to the internet, they’re often tasked with managing a person’s media experience. So when your growing photo collection starts to outnumber your machine’s gigabyte count, you’ll likely want to move things to the cloud, but this can be a tedious task. Enter the Google+ Photo app. Weighing in at a lean 15.52MB, Mountain View’s new software automatically uploads photos from your SD card to a private Google+ folder, even when the app is closed.

Google acquires satellite imaging company SkyBox for $500 million, will eventually use it for Internet access

Chance Miller Jun 10 2014 - 10:48 am PT

Satellite company SkyBox just announced that it has been acquired by Google for $500 million. The two have been in talks for several months now, with the deal finally being announced today. SkyBox Imaging is a company that takes high resolution photos using satellites. Google, in a statement, had the following to say about the company:

“Skybox’s satellites will help keep Google Maps accurate with up-to-date imagery. Over time, we also hope that Skybox’s team and technology will be able to help improve Internet access and disaster relief — areas Google has long been interested in.”

LG G Watch rumored to be given away to developers at Google I/O 2014

Chance Miller Jun 10 2014 - 10:33 am PT

Every year at Google I/O the company gives away a few gadgets to the attendees of the event. Last year, Google gave away the $1,500 Chromebook Pixel to attendees, among other things. According to a report from Android Authority, Google this year plans to give out the LG G Watch for free to all the people in attendance.

Google Cultural Institute now digitally preserving street art through new section

Stephen Hall Jun 10 2014 - 7:38 am PT

The Google Cultural Institute is a partnership between hundreds of museums and the Mountain View company, allowing countless works to be preserved digitally. This collection is growing today with the addition of a Street Art section (via TheNextWeb), housing more than 5,000 different images of art from a variety of locales around the world.
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Shocker: Alamo Drafthouse bans customers from wearing Google Glass to the movies

Stephen Hall Jun 9 2014 - 7:46 pm PT

It doesn’t come at any surprise, but Alamo Drafthouse — a large American movie theater chain — has decided to implement a company-wide policy banning customers from using Google Glass (via Deadline) once trailers have begun rolling. CEO Tim League just today made the policy official, but he deserves some major respect for the amount of patience he had before making the call on this new technology.
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VLC soon adding Chromecast support to its Android, iOS, and desktop apps

Chance Miller Jun 9 2014 - 7:33 am PT

Google’s $35 Chromecast has slowly built up its app portfolio since it was released, and now the device looks like it will be getting another huge service implemented. According to a post on the official VideoLAN forum, discovered by GigaOM, VLC’s developers are currently working on implementing Chromecast support to its media player.

“In addition to the iOS variant, we are also working on a Windows / Linux / Mac implementation, which will take a bit longer because it’s harder.”

LGBT-related searches get rainbow banner on Google for Pride Month

Stephen Hall Jun 6 2014 - 6:07 pm PT

As has happened every June for the last several years, Google has dressed up searches for many LGBT-related queries with a rainbow design. We’ve tried a variety of searches, seeing the above banner when typing queries such as LGBT, LA pride, SF pride, gay pride, marriage equality, and more. June was declared LGBT Pride Month by U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013, as well as this year. Also worth noting is that this is Google’s second move (at least) of support for the LGBT community; the company put a doodle up earlier this year showing support for LGBT olympians.

Report: Google in talks to acquire music streaming service Songza for $15 million

Chance Miller Jun 6 2014 - 11:04 am PT

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Hot on the heels of Apple buying Beats Music, the NY Post is reporting that Google is in talks to acquire the music streaming company Songza. According to the report, Google is currently offering Songza $15 million. That seems on the low side when compared to the $3 billion Apple paid for Beats, although only $500 million of that was for the smaller Beats streaming service. The NY Post also correctly reported on the Beats acquisition before it happened.

Google marks the 70th anniversary of D-Day with massive collection of photos, letters & more

Ben Lovejoy Jun 6 2014 - 4:30 am PT

Google has created a new Cultural Institute collection to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings that were instrumental in the allies winning World War 2.

The massive collection of hundreds of photos, letters and documents helps bring to life the largest seaborne invasion in history, with 130,000 British, American and Canadian troops landing on the beaches of Normandy, France. Almost one in ten of them were killed.

The collection includes Franklin D. Roosevelt’s prayer, complete with handwritten amendments, and top-secret progress reports from Eisenhower to Marshall …
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Google’s browsers eclipse Microsoft to become the most popular in the U.S.

Chance Miller Jun 5 2014 - 11:02 am PT

Over the past couple of years, Chrome has gained and fallen in terms of browser marketshare. Google’s browser briefly eclipsed Internet Explorer as the most popular browser in the world, but Microsoft quickly regained that crown. Now, Adobe has issued a report claiming that Chrome, on both mobile and the desktop, has finally eclipsed Internet Explorer as the world’s most popular browser.

Google announces Project Tango prototype tablet, coming later this year for $1024

Chance Miller Jun 5 2014 - 9:24 am PT

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Google has just announced a official development kit for its Project Tango. The tablet is incredibly powerful, packing an NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor and 4GB of RAM. It’s also got 128GB of storage under the hood. There’s also all kinds of sensors, insulting motion tracking cameras, integrated depth sending, and LTE. There are three cameras on the back of the device for motion tracking, too.

AT&T offering $50 Google Play credit with purchase of an Android device

Chance Miller Jun 5 2014 - 8:19 am PT

Last week, Google, Amazon, and Sonos teamed up to offer 6 months free of Google Play All Access and a $50 Amazon credit with the purchases of a Sonos speaker. Now, Google is partnering with AT&T for another deal. Starting today, you will get $50 in Google Play credit when you purchase a qualifying Android smartphone from AT&T. The credit is valid towards anything in the Play Store, such as apps, movies, music, and TV.

Every Android device AT&T sells qualifies, while iPhones Windows Phones obviously do not. The deal is also valid with all of AT&T’s contract options, including two-year agreements and AT&T Next. The deal will run until July 17th and is available on AT&T’s website only, not in stores. A new line of service is required, as well.

AT&T is selling a variety of popular smartphones right now, including the HTC One M8, Moto X, and Galaxy S5. You can read more about this offer on AT&T’s website.

Smartphone maker Xiaomi continues to grow, outsells Apple in China during Q1 2014

Chance Miller Jun 5 2014 - 7:30 am PT

A new video out of Bloomberg details just exactly how a once unknown Chinese phone company has able to leapfrog the household names in technology and become the sixth largest mobile handset company in the world, and the third largest in China. Xiaomi was founded back in 2010 and went the total opposite direction in terms of strategy from Apple and Samsung. Making Android powered devices, Xiaomi has focused devices with high build quality and excellent performance.

Google Street View time machine images show the sad decline of Detroit from 2009 to 2013

Ben Lovejoy Jun 5 2014 - 5:55 am PT

WebUrbanist drew our attention to a Tumblr blog that captures the sad decline of Detroit from 2009 to 2013 using images captured from Google’s Street View time machine.

Back in April, Google added a clock icon to the top-left corner of images, which opens out into a slider that allows you to see the same image photographed at different times …
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YouTube for Android update finally adds ability to manually choose a streaming quality

Chance Miller Jun 4 2014 - 7:18 pm PT

Google this evening released a minor update to the YouTube for Android app, bumping it to version 5.7. The update doesn’t add much, but does finally add one long awaited feature. With YouTube 5.7, you can now manually choose the quality in which you want a video to playback.

In previous versions of the app, you could only toggle between HD and HQ. Now, you can choose from 144p, 240p, 360p, and 720p. 1080p support appears to still be missing. The auto option will presumably choose the best stream based on your internet connection at the time of playback. To bring up the quality toggle, click the action button on the upper right corner of a video, then click the settings gear icon.

The update is rolling out slowly to Android devices, so it may take a little while to hit your device. In the mean time, keep an eye on the Play Store.

Chrome Web Store adds ability to view only apps with Android versions

Chance Miller Jun 4 2014 - 5:33 pm PT

Google, looking to unify its Chrome and Android products, updated its Chrome Web Store today with the ability to filter app results by those that also have an Android counterpart. Along the top of the homepage and on the side of search result pages, you can now narrow the results by “For Android,” in addition to the runs offline, by Google, and free criteria that have been there for a while.

This means, that if you are searching for, say, a note taking app, you could narrow it down by those that have both a version for Chrome and Android. It’s not a huge feature by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s certainly useful for those who are looking to unify their experiences on Android and Chrome.

You can try it out for yourself on the Chrome Web Store.

Google Drive experiencing outage, Google investigating

Chance Miller Jun 4 2014 - 8:03 am PT

Update: Google Drive appears to be back up for most users. Google says it will continue to investigate what caused the issue and provide more updates on the Status Dashboard.

The problem with Google Drive should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better.

According to a plethora of tweets, Google Drive is experiencing what appears to be a somewhat major outage. Google confirmed that the service is experiencing issues on its Status Dashboard. Google acknowledged the outage at 10:32 AM, though some Twitter reports note that it started a tad earlier.

It shouldn’t take Google long to restore service, but a 30 minute outage is relatively significant for Google. Keep on eye on the Status Dashboard to see when Google Drive goes back up.

Satirical Conan video suggests Google’s self-driving car has a few bugs

Ben Lovejoy Jun 4 2014 - 3:55 am PT

[protected-iframe id=”e03354dba6c1b69417ffc4c258ab9702-22427743-8994189″ info=”http://teamcoco.com/embed/v/82656″ width=”640″ height=”415″ frameborder=”0″]

After Google demonstrated a prototype of a purpose-built self-driving car, Conan made a few edits …

Google wanted to show what an autonomous car might look like without any manual driving controls, and to see what people made of it. What Conan made of it was this one-minute amusing video.

The reality, of course, is that Google’s self-driving cars have clocked up 700,000 accident-free miles without anyone having had to use the emergency stop button.

The DMV is looking at the issue of how driving infringements by autonomous vehicles might be handled, and California is close to issuing the cars with driver’s licences.

Google breaks down how much email is encrypted during transit, launches End-to-End encryption tool

Jordan Kahn Jun 3 2014 - 1:29 pm PT

Google wants you to know exactly how much email you send and receive is encrypted during transit, so today it launched a new section in its Transparency Report that does exactly that:

When you mail a letter to your friend, you hope she’ll be the only person who reads it. But a lot could happen to that letter on its way from you to her, and prying eyes might try to take a look. That’s why we send important messages in sealed envelopes, rather than on postcards… Email works in a similar way. Emails that are encrypted as they’re routed from sender to receiver are like sealed envelopes, and less vulnerable to snooping—whether by bad actors or through government surveillance—than postcards.

Google notes that Gmail has always used encryption in transit using Transport Layer Security (TLS), but that doesn’t do much if the email client on the other end isn’t doing the same. Around 40 to 50 percent of emails between Gmail and others aren’t encrypted, according to Google, and it provided the following chart of what services are using encryption:
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Motorola announces Moto Stream hardware for wirelessly streaming music to any speaker

Jordan Kahn Jun 3 2014 - 8:55 am PT