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Should Google offer a dark theme on all of its apps? [Poll]

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Android is all about customization and allowing users to change the operating system to fit their style. For this reason, custom builds of Android allow for users to enable dark themes throughout the operating system and some app developers have also built dark themes into their apps.

Although it isn’t live in the YouTube mobile app, today we did see the option pop up allowing for a dark theme on the desktop. Do you think Google should build dark themes into all of the company’s applications?


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Google’s new ‘Similar items’ feature in Image Search uses machine learning to see products

Have you ever been looking at images on Google Images, notice something interesting (like an object within a specific photo), and wish you could dive deeper and get to know what exactly that object is?

Well, it looks like the folks over at Mountain View did, and as a result they’re rolling out a new feature, “Similar items”, within Google Image Search on both the mobile web as well as Android‘s Google app…


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Alphabet’s Waymo is pushing for its lawsuit against Uber to be played out publicly

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A little over a month ago, Google‘s parent company Alphabet — or, more specifically, its Waymo subsidiary — filed a lawsuit against Uber, which allegedly stole key information with regard to its self-driving technology.

Given that, beyond the lawsuit itself, Uber’s reputation is at stake, the ride-hailing company has tried to deny the accusations and kept things as quiet as possible ever since, but the Mountain View giant doesn’t seem to be exactly on the same page…


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Google’s Chief Game Designer departs, cites ‘big, consequential games’ that ‘failed to materialize’

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Back in 2013, Google hired a Chief Game Designer after releasing augmented reality title Ingress under its Niantic division the year prior. Noah Falstein announced yesterday that he’s left the position, while alluding to the seeming state of games at Google: that the company has no particular interest in making them…


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Google expanding Fact Check worldwide, in all languages, in Search as well as News

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Google has today announced a major expansion of the Fact Check tool it first introduced back in October of last year to help counter fake news. The tool was initially limited to Google News, and restricted to just two countries, the UK and USA.

Google says that it is now making the tool available in Search as well as News, and rolling it out globally in all languages.

With thousands of new articles published online every minute of every day, the amount of content confronting people online can be overwhelming.  And unfortunately, not all of it is factual or true, making it hard for people to distinguish fact from fiction. That’s why last October, along with our partners at Jigsaw, we announced that in a few countries we would start enabling publishers to show a “Fact Check” tag in Google News for news stories. This label identifies articles that include information fact checked by news publishers and fact-checking organizations.

After assessing feedback from both users and publishers, we’re making the Fact Check label in Google News available everywhere, and expanding it into Search globally in all languages

You won’t, however, be offered a Fact Check for every single search you conduct …


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Google doesn’t expect Trump’s H-1B visa reform to have an impact on its employees

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Following the Trump Administration rolling out a variety of policy changes that make it more difficult for tech companies to hire foreign workers through the the H-1B work visa program, Google is saying the move won’t affect its employees. As noted in a report from Recode, Google has informed employees that it doesn’t expect “an impact to Googlers.”


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What feature does Allo need to add before you really use the app? [Poll]

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Last year at Google’s developer conference, the tech giant introduced two new messaging applications: Allo and Duo. While Duo offers a cross-platform and simplistic video conferencing app, Allo was meant to be the go-to messenger application. Due to its very limited nature, however, the app never took off.

What features do you want to have added before you would consider using Allo as your main messaging application?


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Google urges developers to update apps to work with 18:9 aspect ratio devices

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A trend we are seeing with this year’s flagship smartphones is the adoption of 18:9 aspect ratio displays or 2:1 for the least common denominator types. So far we’ve seen the LG G6 with an 18:9 aspect ratio and now the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ with an 18.5:9 screen size. Now Google is urging developers to update their apps to better work with these new screen sizes…


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Google & Howard University launch Computer Science residency in diversity push

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Google has partnered with Howard University to launch a new school campus called Howard West right within its own Mountain View campus. Google says undergraduate students from Howard’s computer science program will have the opportunity to attend the campus-within-a-campus for hands-on learning direct from both Howard staff and Google’s own engineers…


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Google’s search app now gives you quick shortcuts to its various web apps [Video]

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Google is all about incorporating all of its different services into a single app, and that is what the company has done with the search app. Now, either when you swipe over to Google Now or launch the Google app, you will see a list of icons below the search bar. Tap on the arrow button on the right side of these to open an app drawer full of different web services…


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YouTube responds to ad boycott by announcing new policies, enforcement measures & controls

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YouTube has responded to a growing ad boycott by major brands and government departments in the UK. The boycott was prompted by ads being embedded within and alongside hate videos.

In a blog post, Google apologized for the failure in its policies and filters, and explained the three measures it was taking in response …


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Do you think Google should be playing ads within the Assistant? [Poll]

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The internet was in an uproar today after finding out that Google had added a “Beauty and the Beast” segment to the “My Day” feature found within Assistant on the Google Home and Pixel. Although Google claims that this stunt wasn’t actually an advertisement, the negative public opinion was enough for the Beauty and the Beast piece to get removed.

Do you think Google should have ads read by the Assistant?


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If Google releases three different sized phones, which would you buy? [Poll]

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Today, it was reported that Google is currently working on a third phone alongside the two-second generation Pixel devices. While not much is known about this codenamed “taimen” device, we have heard that it will be even larger than the updated Pixel XL. If you were to purchase one of these phones, which size would you choose?


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Supersonic Fun Voice Messenger is the first Google Area 120 app to hit the Play Store

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Yesterday we got our first look at Uptime, a Googler-created application that allows you to watch YouTube videos with your friends. The biggest downside was that one of the first apps coming out of Google’s Area 120 business incubator was an iPhone exclusive. Today, we are getting a look at the first app from Area 120 to hit the Play Store, called Supersonic Fun Voice Messenger


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Googler-created app for watching YouTube forgets about Android in 2017

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Google gives its employees (Googlers) the opportunity to spend 20 percent of their time working on side projects – some of which like Gmail and Google Maps have become some of the company’s core applications. The latest 20 percent project to go live is an app called Uptime which lets you use the app’s odd user interface to watch YouTube videos with friends. Strangely, though, it is only available for iPhone and not Android…


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Kickstarter campaign asks to fund iPhone case that runs a full version of Android [Video]

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Android is a versatile operating system, everyone knows that. In its various forms, it runs on all kinds of devices, from phones and tablets to smartwatches and even fridges. But have you ever thought about a phone case that uses Google‘s OS? Let alone an iPhone case? Well, it looks like someone has, and that someone is willing to kickstart mass production of the so-called “Eye”


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