Google

Since it was purchased by Google, Motorola has been undergoing a major shift as a company. We’ve seen very few devices released over the last year, and up until the D11 conference, everyone inside the company had been very quiet. As part of the overhaul, however, Motorola looks to have a new logo. The new logo made its first appearance on the site of Techweek, an event Motorola is co-sponsoring this week. Now, this does make us wonder if the logo is here to stay or if it just for the conference, but we’re inclined to say that it’s here for good. Companies don’t change their logos all that often, as they are not something taken lightly.

The new logo is much simpler than Motorola’s old look, which was a bolded, italicized “MOTOROLA.” Now, everything is in lowercase font with a much softer color. The classic red “M” is now the same color as everything else and is surrounded by a wheel of colors. The most notable change, however, is what is underneath. To show off its new bosses, Motorola is now advertising that it is “a Google company.” 
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Google has released an update for its Google Search app for Android that adds a host of new features purely for Jelly Bean users. First off, the app will now show you information about show you are watching via an internet connected TV. This feature is only available in the United States, however, and Google wouldn’t say when it is going to roll it out to other nations. Your device also has to be connected to the same network as your TV, which means you won’t be able to get show information while on the go.

The update also adds the ability to control your music via a voice actions and new voice action tips.

The full change log is below:

For Android 4.1+ (Jelly Bean):

• Information about shows you’re watching on your internet-connected TV (US only)*
• Saved offers when nearby a redemption location
• New voice action: play music from your phone or the Play Store
• Voice actions tips

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Google on Tuesday released a new Google+ Photos app for the Chromebook Pixel. The company originally demoed the app when the Pixel was announced, but is just now releasing it to the public. The app lets you log in with your Goolge+ account and backup any photos on your Chromebook to the service.

For example, if you plug-in an external SD card the app will automatically back the pictures up to the Google+ servers. You can choose to upload them in either full resolution or Google’s default 2048 pixel wide format, though there’s a cap when it comes to uploading at full resolution. When offline, you have the ability to view your most recently uploaded photos, as well as anything on your external storage device. All your images that are uploaded are private at first, but you have the ability to share them with the public or individual people, as well.
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Following the original announcement of the Galaxy S4, Samsung stated that a developer edition variant would come soon after launch for both AT&T and Verizon, and it looks like one of those models is finally here. Samsung has quietly added the Black Mist Galaxy S4 Developer Edition for Verizon to its website. The device will run you a steep $649 and is exactly the same as the normal Verizon Galaxy S4 except for the fact that it comes with the ability to unlock the bootloader.

The Developer Edition is good for people who like to quickly hack and mod their devices, which is not easy with Verizon’s strict bootloader policies. Keep in mind that the Google Edition Galaxy S4 launches on June 26th and will also be hack-friendly, so it might be a better option for those on a GSM network and prefer stock Android.
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In a post on the official Gmail blog, Google has announced that the new Google Groups interface is now available to everyone and it is retiring the old look effective today. The new design is totally different than before and with the new look comes a host of new features. For example, you can now create an inbox that lets you share and track responsibilities with other team members.

One of the recently improved features is the ability to create an inbox that allows you to collaboratively share, distribute and track responsibilities with others. Imagine you and a few friends are organizing an event for your school and want a single email address to coordinate with vendors, parents, and volunteers. Members of the group can work together to manage email, assign items to each other, and mark items resolved. This can be a great feature for teams seeking a really simple way to get things done without sharing passwords or losing track.

The experience for moderating a Google Group has also gotten much better and faster. Moderators can now browse and manage their group on the go via the new mobile site design. They can also now use canned responses to make the moderating process even quicker. 
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Google’s run-ins with the law in Europe have not gone unnoticed. Earlier this week, the company was ordered to fix its privacy issues in France to avoid facing fines, and now a UK regulator is ordering the company to delete all remaining Street View data within 35 days to avoid facing criminal charges, the ICO reports. Should Google find any further data, then it must inform the ICO immediately.

Today’s enforcement notice strengthens the action already taken by our office, placing a legal requirement on Google to delete the remaining payload data identified last year within the next 35 days and immediately inform the ICO if any further disks are found. Failure to abide by the notice will be considered as contempt of court, which is a criminal offense.

Back in 2010, Google had reached an agreement with the IOC over the WiFi data its Street View cars had accidentally collected. Earlier this year, however, Google stated that had not deleted all the data the first time around, which the IOC was not pleased with. Should Google fail to delete the remaining data within the given time period, it will be hit with a criminal offense. 
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According a report from the Unofficial Google Operating System blog, Google is preparing a new service called “Mine” that is heavily integrated into Google+. The service will supposedly allow you to keep track of the items you own or would like to have. As you would expect,  Google Mine will allow you to share those items to your Google+ circles and discuss them. The Operating System blog also dug up some code from the service that shows some of the keywords it will use, including things like “lent”, “given away”, “got it back”, “lost it”, “had in the past.” Basically, it is a lot like the gadget sharing and rating site GDGT.

Google Mine lets you share your belongings with your friends and keep up to date with what your friends are sharing. It enables you to control which of your Google+ Circles you share an item with. It also lets you rate and review the items, upload photos of them and share updates on the Google+ Stream where your friends get to see and comment on them.

The full feature list from Google is below: 
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Google is once again leveraging its technology in the interest of aiding in humanitarian efforts. Yesterday the Mountain View company made a Person Finder available to provide a bridge for those affected by the floods in India, and today Google added a crisis map illustrating which areas were hit the hardest and noting points where attention is most needed.

This crisis map is only an early version aimed at providing quick information, such as, places affected, relief centers and road closures. As always, in times of such disaster, accurate information is hard to come by and our Crisis Response team has relied on scantily available information where available. For now, you’ll find the following information. We are hoping to add more as we go along.

• Areas impacted by the floods
• Relief centers and shelters
• Medical Centers
• Road closure information

Google encourages people to submit any information that could be helpful to uttarakhand-crisis@googlegroups.com to further support the mission to bring those affected by the floods in Uttarakhand back to stability.
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Ben Barreth, owner of the Homes for Hackers house

When Google first announced Fiber, thousands of cities jockeyed to be the first test location, but to many people’s dismay, Kansas City was eventually named the winner. For the past year, internet service in the area has been booming thanks to the network, which in turn has made it a popular area for startups and entrepreneurs, according to a new report from CNET. When Google announced Fiber, web designer and Kansas City local Ben Barreth bought a house in the startup district in hopes of being one of the first people to be connected to the network. In order to pay for the house, he started it up as the “Home for Hackers,” which he says is a place for startups and entrepreneurs to rent out a space to work and be connected the incredibly fast internet service.
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Google has run into trouble with the French government yet again for its privacy tactics. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the company has three months to change its policy surrounding its users’ data to avoid being fined. Five other European countries will supposedly follow France’s actions by the end of July. The country says Google is violating its privacy laws because it “prevents individuals from knowing how their personal data may be used and from controlling such use.”

Google, of course, denies these allegations and said that its “privacy policy respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services” and it has “engaged fully with the data protection authorities involved throughout this process and will continue to do so going forward.”

The French data protection watchdog ordered the company to spell out for users why it collects information “to understand practically the processing of their personal data,” better inform users of its privacy policy, and “define retention periods of personal data processed that do not exceed the period necessary for the purposes for which they are collected.” CNIL is also asking the owner of the Gmail messaging system to request users’ permission for “the potentially unlimited combination” of their data, ask users’ approval to collect their data with tools such as the “Doubleclick” and “Analytics” cookies, “+1” buttons or any other Google service on third-party websites, and “inform users and then obtain their consent in particular before storing cookies in their terminal.”

Google can be fined a maximum of 150,000 euros, or $198,000, and 300,000 euros in for a repeated offense. Spain, the U.K., and Germany are all expected to take action soon, as well. This all comes on the heels of five countries ordering for more information about Google Glass privacy yesterday. 
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David Drummond, Google’s top legal chief

A lot of false facts were spread around when the original news regarding the NSA’s relationship with technology companies broke. Since then, Google, Apple, and other others have been on a mission to repair their public image. In an interview with the Guardian, Google’s top legal chief reaffirmed the fact that the company is not “in cahoots” with the NSA, nor does it give the government direct access to its servers.

“We’re not in cahoots with the NSA and there is no government programme that Google participates in that allows the kind of access that the media originally reported,” David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, said. “There is no free-for-all, no direct access, no indirect access, no back door, no drop box,” Drummond reaffirmed.

“We didn’t know [Prism] existed,” he said, suggesting that Google was just as surprised by the leaked reports as citizens were.
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The NSA’s $2b data centre in Bluffdale, Utah (source: businessweek.com)

Last week, we reported on a letter Google had sent to the U.S. government in which it asked for the release of national security request data. A week later, the company is now asking for the secretive Foreign Intelligence Court to lift a gag order, claiming that it has the constitutional right to clear its name after openly discussing government data requests.

A Google spokesperson says the company is asking the court to let it “publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately,” because “lumping national security requests together with criminal requests – as some companies have been permitted to do – would be a backward step for our users.” Google is essentially asking for more leeway to describe its relationship with the government following the NSA leak two weeks ago. It wants to publish the total numbers of requests the court makes and which users are affected. The company says that the First Amendment gives it the right to disclose the information it is forced to hand over to the government.

The full statement from Google follows:

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Google announced today that it is rolling out a new interactive carousel for restaurants and other local places directly in search results on the desktop. Users will be able to click on thumbnails in the carousel to quickly get more info on a specific place, including: “overall review-based score, address and photos.” The feature was previously available to some Nexus tablet and iPad users since rolling out back in December, but today it’s rolling out to everyone through Google search on the desktop:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8K8YlA7–dk

As we told you last week, Google’s ad business brings in a lot of money, and today, it will celebrate the ten year anniversary of one of its most successful platforms to date. In a post on the official Google blog, Susan Wojcicki, Google’s SVP of ads and commerce, announced that ten years ago today, the company launched AdSense to help publishers earn money by placing ads on their websites. Fast forward 10 years and AdSense is now used by more than 2 million publishers, who earned a combined total of more than $7 billion last year alone.

Happy birthday @AdSense! 10 years after launch, more than 2 million publishers earn money from AdSense http://t.co/IAVeeBvkxl

— Google (@Google) June 18, 2013

Google touts that people have been able to live their dream job thanks to the money AdSense gets them.
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When Google announced it was shutting down Reader, struggling web company Digg announced that they would develop a replacement service. In a blog post on Monday, the company announced that its much-awaited RSS service would open to the public on June 26th.

The service, which will be called Digg Reader, will have very basic functions, including a feature that allows users to vote stories to the top that they believe are important. When the company surveyed more than 18,000 users, many wanted the service to be clean, simple, and fast. Digg, of course, says it has met all of those demands.

Within 60 days of the launch, many features will continue to be released, including:
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A few weeks ago, Google unveiled a new tabbed interface for Gmail that divides your inbox into several tabs, including primary, promotions, and updates. It looks like the company has some bigger plans for revenue with the third of those sections, however.

According to a new report from the Google System blog, the company is testing ads that resemble emails in the promotion tab. The ads look exactly like other emails in the inbox, but have a small ad logo below the sender’s name.

“It’s a new type of ad which you can forward to a friend, or star to save it to your inbox. If you dismiss this ad, you won’t see it again,” informs Google. You can click “dismiss” or use the “x” icon to remove an ad. If you want to see all the sponsored promotions for your account, go to this page.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=m96tYpEk1Ao

We’ve seen several reports of Google wanting to bring Internet access to emerging-countries, and the company has now announced a project that will greatly help it accomplish that goal. In a post on the official Google blog,  Mike Cassidy announced the next “moonshot” from Google’s mysterious X lab, balloon-powered Internet access.

Google believes that it might be possible to build a ring of balloons that travel around the globe on the stratospheric winds and provide Internet service to the earth below. The company does warn us that this idea is still in the very early days of development, but says that it has built a system that uses balloons carried by winds at altitudes as high as planes and beams Internet at speeds as fast or faster than current 3G networks. 
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According to a new report out of the Financial Times, Google is being investigated by European officials due to allegations that it has anti-competitive deals set up with select smartphone manufacturers. This isn’t the first time Google has run into trouble with the EU, as the company has been investigated for antitrust issues in the past.

Microsoft and Nokia made these allegations and claim that Google is forcing Android manufacturers to delay the launch of devices running their two operating systems. The European Union is also looking into claims that Google requires manufacturers to preload its services on their devices.
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There’s no doubting that we are going to see a new Nexus tablet at some point this year, but the main question surrounds when we will see it. Now that Google I/O has come and gone, it’s even more up in the air. If a recent FCC filing discovered by Engadget is anything to go by, however, then we aren’t too far away from a launch at this point.
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