Google

At long last, Google has finally launched its first implementation of ARCore on the Pixel 2 handsets in the form of AR stickers. These sticker packs include characters from Star Wars, Stranger Things, and several of the company’s own creations. Here’s a quick hands-on to show you how they work…

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Early last month, Broadcom announced a $105 billion offer to buy Qualcomm. The latter chipmaker has rejected the initial bid in an attempt to possibly get a better offer. However, a new report today reveals that Google and others in the industry are worried about such a deal due to innovation concerns, as well as the purchase aiding Apple.

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As we move forward into December, we are quickly approaching the holiday season. As it’s 2017, there are applications and smart home products that can help you not only get into the holiday spirit but also help you control your decorations using your phone and Google Assistant. Here are just a handful of apps and products to help you make it through the festivities…

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Despite mocking the iPhone last year over the lack of a headphone jack, Google decided to remove the 3.5mm port from its latest flagship smartphones. Because of this, users either have to convert to USB-C or Bluetooth headphones or use the included USB-C to 3.5mm adapter. But what if you want to charge and listen to music at the same time with wired headphones? Moshi has you covered, but it won’t come cheap…

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Leading up to Google’s October 4 event, we knew that Google was planning to introduce a pair of wireless earbuds that would compete with the likes of Apple’s AirPods. The key differentiator for Pixel Buds — besides Android optimizations — is the Google Assistant. They seemed more sophisticated and feature packed than the competition even with the wire connecting the buds.

As we wrote in the Pixel Buds’ review, these are the smartest earbuds you can buy, but with some clear flaws. Unfortunately, though, those flaws were enough for me to return my personal set and switch back to using AirPods with my Pixel 2…

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Following reports of sexualised videos of children attracting hundreds of comments from suspected pedophiles, YouTube has announced that it will be boosting its content moderator team to 10,000 people – but only by the end of 2018. The current team is reported to be around 8,000 people.

A Times investigation first uncovered the scale of the problem eleven days ago, with volunteer flaggers claiming that YouTube wasn’t taking the problem seriously …

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Google is officially off-setting 100% of its energy usage with either wind or solar power. The company signed contracts on three wind power plants in recent days to bring them over 3GW of production capacity.

Google’s energy infrastructure investments have totaled over $3.5 billion globally, with about two-thirds being in the US.

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Brits who used an iPhone between June 2011 and February 2012 could receive as much as £500 ($672) each from Google as compensation for the search giant bypassing Safari privacy settings between those dates.

A British campaign group has launched a ‘representative action’ (the UK equivalent of a class action lawsuit) on behalf of the 5.4M iPhone users in England and Wales affected by what is known as Google’s ‘Safari workaround.’ The lawsuit could cost Google as much as £2.7B ($3.63B) in total …

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Early yesterday, a report surfaced that Andy Rubin, the co-creator of Android, left Google shortly after a human resources investigation found him maintaining an inappropriate relationship with a lower-level employee. Now, thanks to an investigation by The Information, it appears that relationships and misconduct had by leadership within the company has created a hostile climate, primarily for female employees…

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Although unlimited data plans are becoming more and more popular in the US, the rest of the world still actively relies on cellular plans with limited data caps. Google wants to help users control their data usage and plans do so with its latest app called Datally…

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Andy Rubin, most notably known for being the co-creator of Android, made headlines back in 2013 when he left the mobile OS project as well as when he left Google entirely in 2014. While most have believed he left to start other ventures such as Essential, according to a report from The Information, Rubin departed from the search giant shortly after an internal investigation found evidence of him maintaining an “inappropriate relationship” with a female employee who worked for him…

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Our smartphones are full of personal information and sensitive data, and sometimes, we have to pull up info that we don’t want others to see. However, in a public setting, it’s not all that difficult for someone to look over your shoulder and see everything you are. Now, a couple of Google researchers have figured out a way to detect when someone is looking at your phone.

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As most know, the Pixel 2 and especially the Pixel 2 XL have been plagued with bugs and issues since being released back in October. Thankfully, Google isn’t ignoring customer complaints and has been working on fixes. According to several people running the second Developer Preview of Android 8.1, it appears that Google has rolled out a patch that addresses a weird microphone bug that created audio distortion when capturing video…

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Most companies, especially those the size of Google, are always coming up with new ideas and filing patents to maintain ownership of the design or product. Because of this, Google owns the patents on some interesting designs, but that doesn’t mean they’ll ever actually get incorporated into a real product.

A new patent just granted to Google, though, is something we could actually envision coming to a Chromebook or Pixelbook in the future…

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Although the Trump administration is pressing ahead with plans to remove net neutrality, there’s still time for you to play your part in preventing it.

The proposal still needs to pass a vote in Congress, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation has provided a webpage allowing you to instantly lobby your representative …

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There are a lot of cases on the market right now for the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, with some of the best being a part of the Made for Google accessory program. But when it comes to the very best as far as looks, feel, and function, Incipio’s collection of cases are some of the best. Here are our favorites…

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An investigation has revealed that Android phones have been collecting and sending location back to Google even when location services are disabled. Google confirmed that it has been doing this since the beginning of 2017, and say that it will end the practice by the end of this month.

Google says that Android phones collect the addresses of nearby cellular towers and transmit the information back to its servers, but claims that the data is ‘never used or stored’ …

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Firefox Quantum brought a major update to Mozilla’s browser and it makes a lot of changes for the better. One of those changes is minor, but definitely an improvement — Google is once again the default search engine.

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