Google

When using the word ‘google-y,’ there are more than a few things that usually come to mind. One of them is, indubitably, creativity. And creativity is at the core of Google’s new app “Toontastic 3D”, launching today on Android and iOS…

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Android notifications are great, and they are getting better. However, it happens from time to time that, as Google enriches and improves them, OEMs don’t necessarily follow. And fortunately, that is about to change…

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Following the launch of Google’s umpteenth messaging apps — Allo and Duo — many questioned if Google would keep its Hangouts platform alive. The company was quick to answer that Hangouts would indeed stick around, but would shift its focus to the enterprise user instead of the consumer. Today, we’re seeing the first big change from that new focus, the death of the Hangouts app API…

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Google today has been hit with a lawsuit by the United States Department of Labor for withholding data in an ongoing audit centered on anti-discrimination efforts.

It’s important to note that the lawsuit doesn’t accuse Google of actually engaging in discrimination, but rather that it is not being as forward as the Department of Labor would like through the audit process.

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According to a report out of Music Business Worldwide, Google is the “current favorite” among potential acquirers of the struggling Berlin-based music streaming company, SoundCloud. This comes after Spotify considered picking up the service earlier this year, a deal that ultimately died last month.

SoundCloud still needs a buyer, though, as it struggles to compete with the mainstream music streaming players like Apple and Google itself…

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Google had a big year. Many people may consider the Pixel phone and the company’s many hardware launches among the most standout moves that the Mountain View company made in 2016, and they would be right, but 2016 was even bigger than that. It marked the first full year of Google operating under the umbrella of Alphabet, it marked a clear shift of focus for Google towards artificial intelligence, it brought the tenth anniversary of the Google I/O developers’ conference, and more.

But now that it’s 2017, let’s take a quick look into what really stood out as Google’s biggest wins of the year. From the flurry of official blog posts that come every week to the big press events at Google I/O 2016 to the fall Google event that saw the introduction of Google’s first solely self-branded smartphone, there’s a lot to talk about. In short: Google has long dabbled in hardware and AI, but in 2016 it became plainly obvious that these two areas will shape the company’s future…

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We are in the midst of the holiday season which means that many of you are getting brand new devices. If you happen to have received or picked up one of Google’s brand new Pixel phones, you might be considering a case to protect your new handset. If so, look no further than the five cases that we’ve handpicked below.

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There are nearly 1.5 million applications currently on Google Play and with so many to choose from, finding interesting new experiences can be a hassle. As we have the last several months now, today we’ll be showing you another 5 Android apps that you should definitely give a shot…

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Just over a year ago, Google announced plans to put free, high-speed, public Wi-Fi into over 400 railway stations across India. However, that is an ongoing process that is far from over. Google wanted to expand the coverage to 100 stations by the end of 2016, and now with just a few days left in the year, it has lived up to that promise.

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As Apple defends its own actions related to its Ireland tax maneuvering, new filings from Google show that it saved $3.6 billion in worldwide taxes during 2015 by using infamous Dutch & Irish tax loopholes. The move is a continuation of a scheme Google has been running since 2004.

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Software often handles delicate and private information, requiring some level of encryption to help protect information from attacks. Unfortunately, no matter how good cryptography is, new vulnerabilities are found almost daily, requiring constant patching. Project Wycheproof hopes to make it easier for software engineers to find bugs by letting them test their software libraries against previously identified vulnerabilities and then fix them before they might be exploited…

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If it wasn’t clear enough, AI, and more specifically the machine learning sub-branch, is a big deal — and not just for Google. It’s not much of a “next big thing” aimed at supplanting everything that has come before it from above, but rather a more silent revolution branching out from underneath.

And it’s being used everywhere…

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An electric self-driving Chrysler Pacifica is Google’s first confirmed partnership

Google has long said that it has no plans to manufacture self-driving cars itself, instead partnering with auto makers, but it had been thought that it might press ahead with cars without steering wheels or pedals. However, a new report from The Information suggests that parent company Alphabet has now ‘backed off’ these plans in favor of something more conventional.

The report also echoes a much earlier one on the company’s intentions for the self-driving car project …

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Google chairman Eric Schmidt represented the Mountain View company in an agreement signed with the Cuban government’s telecom monopoly ETECSA today, which will hopefully provide residents of the island faster access to Google’s sites and services through the Google Global Cache network (via Reuters).

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For some reason, until now, asking to change your house’s temperature with a Nest thermostat worked just fine with Google Assistant on a Home device, but not from a Pixel. However, as Android Police reports, this should not be the case anymore…

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Update: Google has made these updates official on its blog.

Google is currently trying to sell people on the idea of a world in which everything can be controlled by their voice. To do this, though, they have to convince customers to purchase their $130 Google Home with built-in Assistant. Just three days ago, Google launched Actions which will allow third-party developers to start integrating their services into Google Assistant.

Based on what we’re seeing now, it would appear that Netflix and Google Photos are the first to take full advantage of this opportunity…

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