Google

HP Chromebook 11

Since its release, Google has touted that Chrome OS is incredibly secure and can be used for any type of use case. In a blog post on the Chromium Blog, the company announced today that it is offering a total of $2.71 million USD to anyone that exploit Chrome OS. In order to compete for a portion of that pot, developers have travel to the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, which takes place in March.

The criteria for this Pwnium contest, which Google has been holding for years, is pretty specific. Developers and hackers won’t get money for exploiting any portion of the operating system. Instead, Google has guidelines for how much they will be paid, depending on how deep the exploit is.

• $110,000 USD: browser or system-level compromise in guest mode or as a logged-in user, delivered via a web page.
• $150,000 USD: compromise with device persistence: guest to guest with interim reboot, delivered via a web page.

Google will also consider cash bonuses for demonstrating a particularly impressive or surprising exploit. Hackers will be able to choose between the Haswell-based Acer C720 and the ARM-based HP Chromebook 11.

If this sounds like something you want to try, Google requires that interested parties register ahead of the even by emailing security@chromium.org. Registration will close at 5:00 P.M PST on March 10th.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Next Friday, January 31st, President Obama will embark on a Presidential Hangout Road Trip promoting his State of the Union address to Congress and responding to questions submitted via Google+ and YouTube.

The Presidential Hangout Road Trip is actually a Google+ Hangouts session allowing the President to respond online to user submitted questions and topics he addressed in Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech.

YouTube will be live streaming both the SOTU address and the Republican response starting at 9pm EST next Tuesday. Check below for how to submit a question to the President during the Hangout Road Trip:
Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi-ljpuEGnA]

The latest area to be added to Google Street View is the test track from the original British version of Top Gear, with the imagery featuring The Stig challenging the Google car to a race in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Early last year, Google announced its intentions to make Provo, Utah its third Fiber city. In October, the company opened up sign-ups for a few customers along the local Veracity Networks provider, but told everyone else they would have to wait. Today, Google has announced that customers that live along the former iProvo can start signing up for Google Fiber.

Expand
Expanding
Close

It’s no secret that 2013 was the best year that Motorola has had for quite a while, even contending for the crown of the best OEM of the year. Much of the company’s success is thanks to its CEO, Dennis Woodside. Woodside has made headlines for his comments before, and just recently, he conducted an interview with Trusted Reviews, during which he made some very interesting comments regarding the pricing of phones, as well as customization. Motorola has revolutionized both of these categories already, with Moto Maker and the Moto X and the $179 Moto G (via Droid Life).

First, Woodside commented on how even the $179 price tag for the Moto G is considered a lot of money in many parts of the world. He adds that the company is looking for ways to further trim down the prices of devices.

“In much of the world $179 is a lot of money so there’s a big market at a price point of less than $179. We’re going to look at that and just delivering on that value promise is super important. I mean why can’t these devices be $50? There’s no reason that can’t happen so we’re going to push that.”

Expand
Expanding
Close

While there have been cases of Google Glass wearers being told they must remove them to enter anywhere from bars to workplaces, and even one ticketed by police for wearing them while driving, you wouldn’t generally expect wearing them on a night out to lead to being questioned by the Department of Homeland Security. But that’s exactly what happened to one man, who wore a pair of prescription Glass to a movie theatre, in an email to The Gadgeteer.

About an hour into the movie, a guy comes near my seat, shoves a badge that had some sort of a shield on it, yanks the Google Glass off my face and says “follow me outside immediately”. It was quite embarrassing and outside of the theater there were about 5-10 cops and mall cops … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Google today announced a new project designed to test the quality and connection speeds of internet service providers. The service, known as Google’s Video Quality Report, will be available in Canada  first, though it should expand to more countries as time progresses.

To perform the test, Google uses data related to how well the ISP can handle playing back a high definition YouTube video. The ISPs are graded based on the performance of other providers in a given area. If the ISP is able to load 90% of 720p YouTube videos, then it will be branded as “YouTube HD Verified” for the area and be at the top of the verification scale.

Expand
Expanding
Close

From 9to5toys.com

For a limited time only, Google is offering 25% off of select Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 accessories on the Play Store. Unfortunately not every accessory qualifies for the deal, but many of the most popular ones do. The Nexus 7 sleeve, case, and folio are all available for 25% percent off, while the Nexus 5 bumper and QuickCover qualify for the offer.

• Nexus 7 Sleeve – $22.49
• Nexus 7 Case – $37.49
• Nexus 7 Folio – $37.49
• LG QuickCover for Nexus 5 – $37.49
• Nexus 5 Bumper Case – $26.24

Of course, even with the 25% discount, all of these accessories are still considerably more expensive than they should be. You can find much better cases and folios, for both the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7, a lot cheaper on Amazon. If you want official, Google/LG made products, however, than this deal is certainly nothing to complain about.

Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPbZy2wrTGk]

If ever there were a rock-solid case for needing hands-free information fast, firefighting would be it. Full-time firefighter and spare-time Glass developer Patrick Jackson has already developed two of the apps shown in this video, and is working on two others, reports The Verge … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Photo: websummit.net

Nest CEO Tony Fadell has responded to data privacy concerns expressed after the company was acquired by Google, stating that there have not yet been any changes to the data collected by the smart thermostat and smoke detector, and that any future changes would be both transparent and opt-in.

At this point, there are no changes. The data that we collect is all about our products and improving them.

If there were ever any changes whatsoever, we would be sure to be transparent about it, number one, and number two for you to opt-in to it … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

We’re not fans of manufacturer overlays, preferring our Android experience undiluted, but a leaked screenshot suggests that a revamped version of Samsung’s TouchWiz user-interface may actually be both attractive and useful.

Leaked by usually reliable source @evleaks, the screenshot shows live updates covering everything from flight delays to delivery notifications. It’s not known whether Samsung is grabbing the data from Google Now, and merely overlaying its own user-interface, or creating its own data feeds … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

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

Vivek Ranadivé, owner of the Sacramento Kings, has tweeted that selected players, cheerleaders and announcers will be wearing Google Glass at Friday’s NBA game against the Indiana Pacers, allowing fans to “see the game from an entirely new perspective” … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Google has been known to do some interesting things with the data it collects from users, and here is yet another example of that. The company has found a way to visualize the data collected from Play Music users and display it on a Google Music Timeline. This timeline offers a visual representation on the growth and decline of certain genres of music (via Google Operating System Blog).

The graph displays a colored stripe for each genre of music. The thickness of each stripe represents the popularity of that genre in a given year. The data is collected from the music uploaded to Play Music by users. For instance, the Jazz stripe is thickest in the 1950s because many users have Jazz content released in that time period in their library.

The Music Timeline shows genres of music waxing and waning, based on how many Google Play Music users have an artist or album in their music library, and other data (such as album release dates). Each stripe on the graph represents a genre; the thickness of the stripe tells you roughly the popularity of music released in a given year in that genre. (For example, the “jazz” stripe is thick in the 1950s since many users’ libraries contain jazz albums released in the ’50s.) Click on the stripes to zoom into more specialized genres.

Google published a blog post today detailing its newest project: a smart contact lens that can monitor glucose levels for diabetic users. The lens uses a small embedded sensor to measure the glucose in tears and a set of LED lights to signal when levels reach certain thresholds. Google says it has experimented with prototypes that can take readings up to an incredible once per second and completed several clinical trials.

Earlier this month, Google X employees met with the FDA staff responsible for biosensors and medical apps, and it was speculated that the company could be working on a smart contact lens. Google has said it is still discussing the future of such a product with the FDA, and that it will take time before a product like this is mature enough to release to the general public. When the time finally comes for this project to go to market, Google plans to work with unnamed partners to manufacture the devices and get them into the hands of patients and doctors.

And if you think Google is going to stop at glucose monitors, check out the Solve for (X) video below with one of the heads of Google Glass discussing putting the hardware in your contact lens…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6g581tJ7bM]

Fortune‘s annual survey of the 100 best companies to work for found that Google topped the list for the third year running, and the fifth time in all.

Google tops Fortune’s 17th annual ranking of the best workplaces in corporate America once again, marking its eighth appearance on the list and fifth time as No. 1.

Software company SAS took second place, with The Boston Consulting Group number three … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

There have been indications for a long time that Google Now was eventually coming to the Chrome browser on the desktop. Via the Google Operating System Blog, the service has finally surfaced in the most recent release of Chrome Canary (Google’s name for the app’s ‘alpha’ channel builds).

As expected, Google Now in Chrome closely mirrors Google Now on Android. The contextually-relevant cards (which show information such as weather, news or upcoming flights) appear in Chrome’s Notification Center on the desktop. This area be found in the Window’s taskbar or the Mac’s menubar, represented by a bell icon.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Exploring cities in Google Maps or Google Earth can be a great way to get a sense of a place leading up to a planned trip, as well as a way to enjoy a vicarious visit to places you’re never likely to visit in person. Exploring Tokyo in Google Maps just got a whole lot more interesting thanks to 3D imagery just added by Google … 
Expand
Expanding
Close