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I have to admit, when I first saw Sue Googe’s name in this font, I thought her name was Sue Google. That made me think at first that maybe this had something to do with the ongoing Oracle dispute. But it’s not, and it has nothing to do with Oracle. Her name is just Sue Googe, she’s running for North Carolina’s 4th District seat in the U.S. Congress, and she’s pretty much using Google’s logo to do it…

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If you’re fond of purchasing new apps, movies and music on your Android smartphone, you might be interested in a less-than-well-known app from Google called Opinion Rewards. You’re obviously not going to get rich quick, but it’s a great way to earn small amounts of Google Play Credit a quarter at a time by answering quick 2-5 question surveys. Today, Google has expanded the app to three new countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden…

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Google‘s upcoming I/O event gathers a lot of anticipation from developers all over the world. Likewise, Android enthusiasts that are not directly involved in coding still very much look forward to the event.
That means — despite their relatively hefty price tag — when tickets become available, they generally sell out in minutes. However, as an Android Police tipster shows, it looks like Google is still pushing out last-minute invites to some lucky applicants…
And it seems as if HTC’s downward spiral continues. The latest in its seemingly never-ending doomsday news cycle comes today in the form of a pair of reports from Focus Taiwan, with the former suggesting that the lower-specced HTC 10 has been an absolute flop in China and the latter saying that the company has formed a completely separate company for its VR ambitions…
Google has announced today that direct carrier billing, or DCB for short, is coming to India. In collaboration with Idea Cellular, the feature allows people to pay for content in Google Play by way of their phone bill, removing the need for a credit card…
In case you’re unaware, Google publishes a sometimes interesting but usually mundane report on its self-driving car project every month. Last month the company detailed its mapping system and a minor accident in Austin, and this month the April report describes the experience of one of its test drivers as well as two more accidents — neither of which were Google’s fault.

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We’re nearing the end of the first half of 2016, and that means a lot of new Android smartphones have been announced. Starting off the year was the Huawei Mate 8 and Honor 5X at CES in January, of course followed later by Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 edge as well as the LG G5 in February at Mobile World Congress. But which ones are the best buys? Keep reading to find out…

Following a report this morning from Bloomberg suggesting that Google and Chrysler were about to announce a deal that would see Google’s self-driving technology being implemented in Chrysler’s upcoming new Pacifica minivan, the CEOs of both companies have now confirmed an agreement albeit not exactly what was being discussed earlier today.
While this morning’s report suggested a plan to work on a few “dozens of self-driving prototypes” in order to later bring the technology to the production version of the Pacifica, instead the deal would now see Google buying about 100 Pacifica minivans from Chrysler to use as prototypes, but no exactly like it does with its current Lexus SUVs, and the Mountain View company will provide a “technological crash course” in self-driving technology to Chrysler though the new partnership.

Four months ago, Chrysler unveiled its 2017 Pacifica minivan range at the Detroit Auto Show. If a report from Bloomberg is anything to go by, this Pacifica Hybrid range could feature Google’s self-driving technology, bringing weeks/months of rumors to fruition. The deal could be signed by Tuesday…
With the mass distribution of NFC chips (and even fingerprint readers) in most phones, mobile payments are becoming increasingly popular.
Google‘s own Android Pay — as well as a series of other services, like Samsung‘s — has been live for some time in the US, and it looks like Uber is now sending emails out to customers regarding their own implementation of the payments service…

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Apple 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro (Newest Version) 2.2GHz/16GB/256GB: $1,600 shipped (Reg. $1,999)
After Chinese company Huawei introduced the phone for the US in January of this year, I gave the Honor 5X a full review. But maybe you can’t even call it that. More than a review, it was mostly just some thoughts on the phone that I had pent up after an exhausting week at CES. Basically, the gist was this (although I recommend you read the whole thing): You get a lot for your money ($200) on the hardware side of things with the Honor 5X, but the software leaves a lot (and, really, I mean a lot) to be desired. After that, the phone sat in my drawer and I hadn’t touched it since.
Until yesterday…
In flagship devices today, a fingerprint reader is almost a given. We use it for not just unlocking our device, but also a slew of security features which allow us not to deal with the hassle of passwords, and now a series of mobile payment services — notably Chase banking and Google‘s own Android Pay — are making their way to our phones.
In all handsets, these scanners usually hide underneath a physical home button, or are otherwise implemented on the back of the phones via a dedicated sensor. However, LG‘s subsidiary Innotek has developed an under-glass fingerprint sensor module, which could come into production as early as this year…

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Update: In a comment made to TNW, a Telegram spokesperson denied all acquisition rumors with a strongly-worded rebuttal.
“This is complete bullshit. There were no acquisition talks, no plans for any such thing either.”
You may remember quite a few years ago, it was rumored that Google was looking in to buying WhatsApp for $1 billion, and again later on for $10 billion. Both times, those rumors were denied by Google and — of course — we now know that even if they did bid, the deal didn’t go down.
Facebook bought the popular messaging app for a cool $19B, but Google seemingly hasn’t given up on strengthening its messaging portfolio. Reports from Russia are claiming that Google chief, Sundar Pichai once met with Telegram’s founder to discuss a $1 billion acquisition.
A report from AutoExtremist (later corroborated by The Wall Street Journal) says today that Alphabet/Google is in the late stages of discussing an “advanced technical partnership” with London-based Fiat Chrysler, citing sources with direct knowledge of the discussions…

Every year, Larry Page and Sergey Brin write a Founders’ Letter to inform stockholders of recent developments and their vision for the future. For 2016, Page had recently-anointed Google CEO Sundar Pichai write the letter as a majority of ‘bets’ are under his purview. The letter focuses on six main areas.

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Yesterday we told you that the Nexus 9 was abruptly pulled from the Google Store, and now the Mountain View company has pulled another device from sale. The Moto 360 Sport, which we recently reviewed and has only been on the Google Store for a few months, is now listed as “Not available”…
Albeit not being full-fledged PCs, Chromebooks are becoming increasingly interesting machines for a lot of people, given that the extremely simple and lightweight Chrome OS generally leads in reliability, ease of use and usually highly affordable prices.

However, a few of these computers have stood out for things like higher-end specs and interesting industrial designs — namely Google‘s own Pixels — and it looks like HP may have found a really sweet spot with today’s announcement. Partnering with the Mountain View company, the two are today unveiling the Chromebook 13, an all-metal machine with truly impressive specs and price…