Google

The Google Pixel and Pixel XL easily became our picks for the best smartphones of 2016, but they’ve not been without faults ─ and a lot of them. Since release, Google has been dealing with issues such as battery hiccups, speaker popping, camera bugs, and much more. Now, some Pixel owners are reporting a new issue with their microphones.

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Google has issued a statement stating that ‘many’ of the Android exploits reportedly used by the CIA have already been addressed. Google’s statement used similar wording to one issued earlier by Apple.

As we’ve reviewed the documents, we’re confident that security updates and protections in both Chrome and Android already shield users from many of these alleged vulnerabilities. Our analysis is ongoing.

But the WSJ reports that they and other tech companies are being hampered by two factors …

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We haven’t heard anything about Google & Levi’s plans for a Jacqurd-equipped jacket since Google I/O last year, but now there’s hope that might change in the coming days. As per the schedule for SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas this coming weekend, the two companies are jointly holding a party to “celebrate” the forthcoming Levi’s Commuter jacket…

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Google has today made some replacement facepads available for its Daydream View VR headset. You can pick them up right now on the Google Store for $15.

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Removing 3.5mm headphone jacks has been a bit of a trend with flagship devices on the market, but now it seems there’s a possibility that Google could also be ditching the jack with the next-generation Pixel. The big question about this rumor is obvious: Would you still consider purchasing the “Pixel 2” if it didn’t have a headphone jack?

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It’s hard to think of a job more important that determining whether or not a patient has cancer. Yet the magnitude of the task facing pathologists is so vast that agreement between different clinicians studying the same slides can be as low as 48%.

There can be many slides per patient, each of which is 10+ gigapixels when digitized at 40X magnification. Imagine having to go through a thousand 10 megapixel (MP) photos, and having to be responsible for every pixel. Needless to say, this is a lot of data to cover, and often time is limited.

Which is why Google is working on automating the task with a Deep Learning AI project – with incredibly exciting results …

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Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain has been in full gear all week, and that means almost all of the biggest Android OEMs are getting together to show off their latest phones, tablets, and other gadgets. Now that things are winding down here in the last couple days of the show floor being open, let’s take a look at all the devices that were announced by Samsung, LG, Sony, Huawei and others…

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Google has a lot invested in VR, specifically in mobile VR. Its Daydream platform has been the star of the show for the past several months, but before that came Google Cardboard, an affordable VR experience for every phone. Believe it or not, that system debuted almost three years ago, and today Google is announcing that it has shipped over 10 million Cardboard headsets.

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Update: Google has acknowledged that they experienced an issue with the Google Accounts engine which reverted some user’s Google Wi-Fi and OnHub routers to their initial state. Unfortunately, if yours was reset, you will have to set it up again for it to work.

For the last couple of hours, users have been receiving Google account notifications stating that account action was required. If you’re like us, we immediately thought that someone was trying to hack into our emails. Thankfully, Google has now confirmed that they’ve received reports of these incidents but not to worry as it isn’t due to suspicious activity…
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Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL are both fantastic devices, but they aren’t without flaws. Since launch, we’ve seen several issues pop up on the devices, including the speaker and problems with the camera. Google has been able to fix some of those via software updates, but now another issue is popping up ─ random Bluetooth disconnects.

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Oreo has today rolled out a new mobile game — or marketing campaign, depending on how you look at it — called the “Oreo Dunk Challenge”. Essentially, the game uses a variety of mobile web technologies, including some from Google, to let players fling a virtual Oreo across the world for the ultimate dunk into a glass of milk thousands of miles away.

It’s an amusing concept, but it’s all the more interesting when you realize just how much the Mountain View company had to do with its inception…

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Prepare for a cuteness overload-induced meltdown. Because if this letter (whose veracity has been certified by Business Insider), sent by 7-year old Chloe Bridgewater, doesn’t make you go all “awwwww”, then you’re probably a terrible human being. But the best part of it is still its receiver, who actually got to read it and eventually responded, too…

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Google Brain’s work with neural networks has led to a plethora of interesting projects. Over the past several months, the team has been working on using these neural networks to enhance images, and now, it has been able to bring the infamous “zoom and enhance” abilities from sci-fi to reality…

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It wasn’t that long ago that I thought the two smartwatches Google is set to introduce were actually going to be solely Google-branded, just like the Pixel phones. It would make sense with Google’s new hardware division — which is surely but slowly becoming a more serious business — that the Mountain View company would go all-in on smartwatches, offering a top-to-bottom lineup just like Apple.

It very well may have been the plan at one point for these to be “Nexus” watches, but today we learned exactly how they’re not going to be Nexus watches. We already knew that they would be LG-branded, but now we know where the Google comes in: a “Designed with our friends at Google” label. At the very least, this is interesting to consider in the broader realm of Google & OEM partnerships…

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Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages project, otherwise known as AMP, has made a huge difference for users of the mobile web by providing a streamlined, super quick browsing experience. However, it’s not perfect. One of the biggest flaws for many with AMP is that you have no way to share links to articles viewed in AMP to other services. Starting today, though, you can.

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New York Fashion Week starts this Thursday and to celebrate, Google has partnered with the digital fashion house, Ivyrevel, on a new project. “Coded Couture” uses Google’s Awareness API — which launched last summer — to monitor a user’s daily habits and activities. The Coded Couture application takes that awareness data and creates a custom Ivyrevel dresses made specifically for the wearer…

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Right from the start, Google had inventory issues and delayed Pixel orders because the company hadn’t expected the high demand for its smartphones. The delays have been so bad, in fact, that rumors started going around that Google had even stopped production. While this obviously isn’t true, Verizon has started to give away Daydream View headsets as an apology to customers who had their shipments delayed…

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