Google

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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Following Google’s denial of being involved in the PRISM surveillance claims in which the National Security Agency was accused of tapping into servers of 9 tech companies for details of user activity, Google today published a letter it just sent to the U.S. government requesting the release of more national security request data.

Google this morning sent a letter to the Attorney General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation asking that it be allowed to publish “aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures—in terms of both the number we receive and their scope.”

Assertions in the press that our compliance with these requests gives the U.S. government unfettered access to our users’ data are simply untrue. However, government nondisclosure obligations regarding the number of FISA national security requests that Google receives, as well as the number of accounts covered by those requests, fuel that speculation.

Google continued by noting that the numbers “would clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made. Google has nothing to hide.”

The full letter is below:
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Microsoft must be pretty happy with Apple’s decision to include Bing as the default search engine powered web results in Apple’s revamped Siri application heading to iOS 7 this fall. However, what does this all mean for Google? It could very well signal Apple’s increasing desire to cut its reliance on services powered by its biggest competitor in the smartphone space.

Before iOS 7, searching for something with Siri would often turn up the option to search for web results. Doing so would give you results through Safari using your default search engine (which by default is set to Google). Now, in iOS 7, web results will be displayed right in the Siri app, however, they will be powered by Microsoft’s Bing– and not Google. 
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Well, I did it. I got my hands on a White Nexus 4 to review. And, as you probably would have guessed it is a lot like the black version. In fact that’s pretty much all I have to say for this ‘review’: It is white and just as, if not more, attractive than the original – and that’s the back. The front is identical and still black. See gallery above.

But there are some things to note here, not the least of which is the white bumper that came along with it. It is great! Fits like a glove, and will help prevent breakage. The downside is that it adds a bit of size to the phone and doesn’t completely cover the glass backside.

Also, the Nexus 4 has been my daily driver since I got it in October. It is still my go to phone after reviewing such beauties as the HTC One or the Samsung Galaxy S4 or even its recent cousin the LG Optimus Pro. How is the Nexus 4 holding up and why do I like it more than the ‘superphones’ released this year?
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After sending a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google, and others questioning if the companies could be doing more to prevent increasing thefts of smartphones, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has now scheduled a face to face meeting with the companies to discuss the issue.

NYDailyNews reports Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon will meet with representatives from Apple, Google, Motorola, Samsung and Microsoft at a June 13 “smartphone summit” in New York.

Schneiderman wants the same thing that San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón has been pushing device makers on in recent months– a ‘kill switch’ that would render a device inoperable and discourage thefts of devices:
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As expected, Google just started rolling out its brand new inbox to iOS users after first introducing us to the new category-based design last week. While its not a tabbed design like on the desktop, much like the Android app that just started rolling out iOS users can now access the new feature that groups emails into separate inboxes by selecting categories from the app’s side navigation bar.

 Meet the new inbox: If you’ve enabled the new inbox, your mail is now grouped into categories so that you can see what’s new at a glance and decide which emails you want to read when. Primary mail is shown first and it’s easy to access and keep track of email in other categories by opening the menu. Configure this feature by going to Gmail.com on your computer.

Today’s Gmail update also brings improved notifications allowing you to customize what emails you receive notifications for:
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Google announced its new HTML5 creation tool called Web Designer (via Tech Crunch) that it says will ship “in the coming months.”

Google Web Designer will empower creative professionals to create cutting-edge advertising as well as engaging web content like sites and applications – for free.

In its announcement, Google notes that “90% of multiple device owners switch between screens to complete tasks,” emphasizing the importance of HTML5 based content to reach users on mobile devices.
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We haven’t been getting a lot of updates on the Google TV front lately, but today Google made an announcement on its blog that the Redbox Instant by Verizon movie streaming subscription service is coming to Google TV.

The app delivers the full Redbox Instant by Verizon experience right to your living room. This includes access to your subscription disc and streaming package, and ability to purchase and rent the latest new releases from the Redbox Instant store.

On top of streaming, purchases and rentals, the Redbox app for Google TV will also allow users to reserve a disc for local pickup.

The service will initially be rolling out to select devices including: the 47G2 and 55G2 Google TV-enabled Smart TVs from LG, NETGEAR’s NeoTV Prime with Google TV, the Sony Internet Player NSZ-GS7, and the Vizio Co-Star.

The Redbox Instant by Verizon app for Google TV is available on Google Play now. Google TV users can sign up for the service now through the app on their device or on the web here. 
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“Don’t Be Evil”

Last week we showed you a company looking to revolutionize adult content creation using Google Glass, but it looks like Google thought that was just too creepy.

Google updated its developer guidelines over the weekend to ban ‘sexually explicit material’ from the Glass ecosystem, something it doesn’t seem to mind on its Android platform:

Sexually Explicit Material: We don’t allow Glassware content that contains nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material. Google has a zero-tolerance policy against child pornography. If we become aware of content with child pornography, we will report it to the appropriate authorities and delete the Google Accounts of those involved with the distribution.

This development came as a surprise to MiKandi, the company behind the first pornographic app for Glass, according to Tech Hive:

MiKandi only became aware of the new developer policies after its app was launched. As of press time, they had not been directly contacted by Google. As for whether the updated policies may change the company’s plans, “we’re discussing that right now,” said MiKandi co-founder and Glass porn developer Jesse Adams.

Google decidedly banned facial recognition software from its Glass platform the same day MiKandi’s explicit app was making the rounds in the press, signaling Google’s intent to curate its Glass platform much like Apple curates its App Store on its hardware.

It appears Google is taking its “Don’t Be Evil” corporate motto as serious as ever with Google Glass.
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We already knew a new white version of the Nexus 4 would begin rolling out after LG confirmed as much earlier this week. It first launched in Hong Kong on Wednesday, and today the device has finally hit both Google Play and T-Mobile’s online store for customers in the US.

You can grab the device now in both 16GB ($349) and 8GB ($299) variants from Google Play. Google is also offering a free white bumper with your purchase.

T-Mobile also began offering the device on its online store store today with a list price of $427. According to the often reliable TmoNews.com, the pricing and note of the device not being eligible for a monthly payment plan is a mistake:

Barring the error in pricing on the website, the Nexus 4 will set you back a $19.99 down payment and 24 monthly payments of $17.

Your #Nexus4 should be as stylish as you! Check out the new white finish and pick up yours online today: http://t.co/U3vpPgvH6k

— T-Mobile (@TMobile) May 31, 2013

The device is expected to roll out to other retails across Asia, the US, and Europe in the coming weeks.