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Google’s ‘Project Aura’ could be the beginnings of the next Glass

Avatar for Chance Miller Sep 16 2015 - 4:31 pm PT
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According to a new report out of Business Insider, Google over the summer started a new wearable technology effort called Project Aura. The group is reportedly spearheaded by Nest CEO Tony Fadell, but it’s unclear if that will still be the case when Nest becomes a separate Alphabet company. Project Aura, however, will remain within Google and not be folded into an Alphabet company.


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The OldNYC Project takes historic photos of NYC and overlays them onto Google Maps

Avatar for Chance Miller Sep 16 2015 - 4:02 pm PT
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An interesting project has emerged this week that uses Google Maps to plot historic data from the New York Public Library’s digital collection of photographs taken by Percy Loomis Sperr between 1931 and 1942 and various other photographers between 1870 and 1970. The photos all depict New York City’s various streets and buildings and the OldNYC project aims to integrate those images into Google Maps (via LaughingSquid).


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Google Slides on Android updated w/ interactive lock screen notifications

Avatar for Chance Miller Sep 16 2015 - 3:26 pm PT
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Earlier this year, Google Slides on Android was updated with support for presenting slide shows over both the Chromecast and Apple TV and today the company is expanding on that capability and making it easier for presenters to stay engaged with the audience. With today’s update, presenters can now control their slide shows directly from the lock screen of their Android device.


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Google invites Ahmed to the Google Science Fair after clock incident

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 16 2015 - 1:44 pm PT
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Update: Yep, he went.

An Irving, Texas ninth grader was arrested for bringing a clock — which some teachers and school administrators apparently thought was a bomb — to school yesterday, and now just about everyone wants to show him support by inviting him places. Yes, even Barack Obama invited him to the White House and called his clock “cool”.

The Mountain View company also wants to show its support for him, taking to Twitter to invite him to the Google Science Fair. “We’re saving a seat for you at this weekend’s Google Science Fair,” Google said. “Bring your clock!” And apparently, an organization by the name of Windsor Circle is prepared to pick up the tab if he goes.

https://twitter.com/googlescifair/status/644219471469629440

The Google Science Fair is an annual program calling on all of the best science talent from various grade levels, all leading up to a finalist awards ceremony where the winners are chosen. That event is scheduled for September 21st at 7 PM PT, and Ahmed has evidently been invited. For those of us that aren’t Ahmed, Google has provided a live stream.

9to5Toys Lunch Break: LG G Flex 2 (unlocked) $250, QNAP NAS hard drives $135, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 16 2015 - 12:49 pm PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

LG G Flex 2 silver (unlocked) 4G LTE w/ curved OLED: $300 shipped (Reg. $330) | eBay

QNAP NAS hard drives: TS-131 1-Bay $135 (Orig. $215), HS-210 2-Bay Fanless $155 (Orig. $289), more

LG G3 D850 32 GB unlocked new 32 GB: $250 shipped (Reg. $450) | eBay

Download 10 tracks of Latin Vibes for free over at Google Play

Kanto YU5 Bluetooth 4.0 Bookshelf Speakers in five colors: $250 shipped (Reg. $350)

Giveaway: Schoolhouse Electric makes the clock cool again, $290 value

More new gear from today:

This Star Wars Battlefront Deluxe bundle includes a working Han Solo mini fridge

Games/Apps: LEGO Jurassic World $38, iTunes gift cards 15% off, COD games for Mac 50% off, freebies, more

More deals still alive:

Portable Bluetooth Speakers: Bose SoundLink Mini $159 (Orig. $200), Sony SRSX3 $60 (Orig. $140)

New products & more:

Wilson��s X Connected Basketball is a simple shot tracking solution

Sony takes the wraps off a new gold DualShock controller (and other colors too)

New shots of the upcoming BlackBerry ‘Venice’ Android slider phone surface [Gallery]

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 16 2015 - 10:51 am PT
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The BlackBerry “Venice” is no secret; we’ve been seeing leaks left and right for a few weeks now. Even just three days ago, we got yet another look at the phone thanks to someone’s crafty spy shot skills at the Toronto Film Festival. Now, thanks to sources for Android Authority, we have what is perhaps our most comprehensive look yet…
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Google’s OnHub router gets an iFixit teardown, scores 4/10 in repairability

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 16 2015 - 9:42 am PT
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In case you didn’t know, iFixit, known for its disassembly instructions and teardowns, does more than just smartphones. We may find the repairability of of our handsets to be just one more benchmark to compare different brands, but who says we can’t do that with routers too? Google’s OnHub router is one of the first of its kind, and it turns out that it’s not super easy to repair…

Hardware over the years has definitely become more attractive to the eye, but repairing these devices has gotten a lot more difficult at the expense of unibody designs and huge glass screens. The OnHub is kind of similar. Unlike the routers of old that were basically just a couple of screws away from full disassembly, the OnHub is held together with clips and has fragile parts.

To give you an idea, iFixit only listed one thing clearly positive about the OnHub: The device’s speaker is replaceable. But it’s all downhill from there. Assembled mostly with clips that iFixit found to be easily broken, the OnHub has most ports on one board (meaning solder will likely be needed), tiny fragile antenna connectors, and its build is overall fairly complex.

If you want to read more about the details of the OnHub’s hardware, head over to iFixit.

Nexus 5 (2015) shows up again in leaked pics, purportedly in ‘mint green’ color

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 16 2015 - 6:17 am PT
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A couple of new photos have popped up on a Korean blog today, purporting to show LG’s upcoming Nexus 5 (X? 2015?). There’s nothing much here that we haven’t seen already, but the blog does claim that the phone will come in a “mint green” color variant. We believe that this is likely just a matter of a photo that needs a bit of color correction, however…
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Google launches new donation-matching campaign to raise upwards of $11M for refugees

Avatar for Chance Miller Sep 15 2015 - 5:12 pm PT
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Google today has announced a new donation-matching campaign that it hopes will help it raise more than $11 million to aid the thousands of refugees currently living in European nations. In a blog post, Google employee Rita Masoud announced the new donation-matching program. Masoud is not a Google executive, but rather wrote the blog post due to her own experience fleeing Kabul with her family when she was seven-years-old.


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Google has no intentions on becoming a car manufacturer, European executive says

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 15 2015 - 3:26 pm PT
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A report yesterday confirmed that Google has hired John Krafcik, former Hyundai CEO and a car industry veteran, to head up the company’s self-driving car program. It’s still unclear exactly what the implications of this move will be, however. While it seems clear that this effectively confirms Google’s intentions of more broadly rolling out the self-driving car at some point in the future, a Google executive has come out to clarify some things on Tuesday at the Frankfurt auto show…
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HTC throws some hot deals our way: One M9+$100 Google Play Cred: $486, $239 Nexus 9, Re: Cam $100, more

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Sep 15 2015 - 7:38 am PT
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From 9to5Toys:

HTC is hosting a pretty good set of markdowns this morning at the company store.

If you are looking to get into HTC at a discount or add some kit to your current HTC setup, this might be a good time.

Hate the Facebook app? You can now get push notifications thru Chrome on Android

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Sep 15 2015 - 5:37 am PT
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If you’re someone who loves Facebook but hates the Android app, using a browser just got better – at least, if you’re using Chrome. Chrome users on Android can now opt-in to push notifications from Facebook, reports TechCrunch. So now you can see when someone likes your cat video without having to run the app.

Google expects browser-based push notifications to be most popular in developing markets, as Chrome uses less data than the Facebook app.

Facebook is also working on its own Google Now competitor, built into the Messenger app.

Google Maps is testing climate change sea rise maps in some coastal areas [Update: Maybe not]

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 14 2015 - 1:33 pm PT
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Update: Maybe not. A Google spokesperson just sent over the following information, suggesting that this might have been a glitch in the system after all.

The various types of data found in Google Maps come from a wide range of sources. Our basemap data – things like ocean, road networks, and place names comes from a combination of third-party providers, public sources, and user contributions. Overall, this provides a very comprehensive and up-to-date map, but there are occasional inaccuracies that arise from any of those sources.

Before the weekend I just happened to look up Santa Monica on Google Maps and saw that the ocean was somehow extending onto the land. Dismissing it as an old — albeit uncommon — glitch in Google’s mapping app, I went about my day. Apparently, there’s a little more to this than just programming error, and it has to do with global warming.

Sea level rise as a result of climate change could have devastating effects for low-lying coastal areas (and pretty much everyone, really), and as Mic.com pointed out on Friday, Google was showing users the potential damage of climate change by way of Google Maps — in far more areas than just Santa Monica. Other areas around LA were showing up with underwater houses and streets…
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Google celebrates the birthday of Super Mario Bros. w/ new Easter egg [Video]

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 14 2015 - 8:58 am PT
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It was the birthday of Super Mario Bros. yesterday, and Google is celebrating with a new Easter egg in search. It’s not as extravagant as some other permanent jokes (like the infamous “Do a barrel roll”), but it’s pretty cute nonetheless.

Head over to Google and search for “Super Mario Bros” and then check out the right hand side of the page. Right below the box art and screenshots, you’ll find a familiar question mark box. Of course, clicking it will get you 200 points.

Check out the video below:

Google AdSense for iOS hits 3.0 w/ iPhone 6 & 6 Plus support, Material Design, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 14 2015 - 8:17 am PT
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Google has this morning pushed an update to AdSense for iOS, bringing many features that other apps in the Mountain View company’s catalog received months ago. While it may not be the most popular app outside of publishing and creative circles, the AdSense app has today been updated with support for Native iPhone 6 and 6 Plus resolution, Material Design, and more.

Rounding out the update is support for Hindi and Malay, a new icon for the Home Screen, more metrics, and a today center widget. The last of these, in case you aren’t aware, is a new widget for the Today section of Notification Center. On it, you’ll find four metrics for quick access: Today so far, Page views, Clicks, and Page RPM. It also tells you when the widget was last updated.

While Google’s apps for iOS have always been known for being well-polished (and sometimes just generally better than their Android counterparts), they usually come at a much slower pace. AdSense 3.0 for Android with many of the same new features was released on Android four weeks ago, and you can read more about that update here.

Here’s the full change log:

What’s New in Version 3.0

This time we’re bringing you:
– Support for Hindi and Malay;
– Native iPhone 6 and 6+ resolution;
– A today center widget;
– Our lovely new AdSense logo;
– More metrics!
– A little something we like to call Material Design.

Head over to the App Store to grab the latest version for free.

Google hire of ex-Hyundai CEO effectively confirms plans for full-scale launch of self-driving car

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Sep 14 2015 - 5:26 am PT
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If there were any remaining question about whether Google plans to actually proceed to a full-scale commercial launch of its self-driving car at some point, a hire reported late last night by Automotive News seems to remove any doubt. It reports that Google has hired John Krafcik, former Hyundai CEO and a car industry veteran, to head up the program.

Krafcick refers in an email to the cars being used by “millions” of people.

“This is a great opportunity to help Google develop the enormous potential of self-driving cars,” Krafcik wrote in an email to Automotive News. “This technology can save thousands of lives, give millions of people greater mobility, and free us from a lot of the things we find frustrating about driving today. I can’t wait to get started.” 


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Talking Schmidt: Makes thinly-veiled attack on Apple Music as elitist and out of date, scores own goal

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Sep 14 2015 - 4:15 am PT
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Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet, has made a thinly-veiled attack on Apple Music in a BBC op-ed on artificial intelligence. He described human-curated music selections as a decade out of data and an elitist approach.

A decade ago, to launch a digital music service, you probably would have enlisted a handful of elite tastemakers to pick the hottest new music.

Today, you’re much better off building a smart system that can learn from the real world – what actual listeners are most likely to like next – and help you predict who and where the next Adele might be … 


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BlackBerry ‘Venice’ running Android’s stock Messenger app spotted in the flesh

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 13 2015 - 4:36 pm PT
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Evleaks’ <a href="http://9to5google.com/2015/08/19/android-blackberry-venice-leak-keyboard/">renders</a> of the BlackBerry Venice slider

More evidence that an Android slider from BlackBerry in on the way — probably the “Venice” device that we’ve been telling you about for quite a while — has now surfaced . As seen in a new spy shot originally shared by BerryFlow, BlackBerry looks to be pushing the “Venice” slider running some build of Lollipop out into the field for testing. This time, we’ve caught the phone running what looks to be the stock Messenger app…

The above blurry cam picture taken at the Toronto Film Festival, which assumably was snapped very quickly as to not make its photographer seem too stalk-ish, shows the Venice phone we’ve seen before, but with what looks to be case attached. Along the right side of the device, you can see two buttons aligned just like the ones of the Venice images that just surfaced two weeks ago.

And while the most recent imagery has shown the device running a full-fledged Android OS (meaning there’s not any real reason to doubt that this is the real deal), this is the first image we’ve seen of the phone in public. It’s not perfectly clear, but the app that’s running on-screen looks just like Android Lollipop’s stock Messenger app — with its blue navigation bar and all.

With the leaks continuing to stream in, it’s probably not going to be long before we see the announcement of what might be BlackBerry’s last ditch effort to catch at least a tiny part of the consumer smartphone market.

References to ‘Nexus Protect’ appear on the Google Store

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 13 2015 - 4:14 pm PT
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While Google is set to announce a new set of Nexus devices at the end of the month, some new references to something called “Nexus Protect” have started appearing on the online Google Store’s web page source code (via Android Police)…

It’s not clear quite yet what Nexus Protect might be, but it’s possible that Google could be preparing to launch an Apple Care or HTC “Uh Oh!”-like program for protecting accidental damage to your Nexus device. That would be interesting, especially considering that Google has been known to sometimes absorb the cost of accidental damage replacements for the Nexus 5 and other devices.

Clearly, Google is implementing some kind of limitation on the phones you’re ordering when purchasing Nexus Protect. As can be seen in the above image — which shows a pop up surfaced thanks to some page source tinkering — you can’t add a phone to your cart unless it has the same “Nexus Protect choice” as other phones currently in your Google Store cart.

While details are definitely a little light at the moment, we’ll probably be hearing more about Nexus Protect at Google’s Nexus event — which is reportedly scheduled for September 29th.

Google moving towards wider production of its electric self-driving cars, making a ‘few hundred’

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 12 2015 - 9:29 am PT
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When Google originally showcased the newer low-speed “cute-mobile” self-driving car, it mentioned a goal of having about 100 of them on the road for testing within a couple years. Now, as the company is bringing its low-speed electric prototypes to Austin a year later, Sarah Hunter, head of policy for Google [X], has revealed that the company is expanding production of the cars (via The Guardian). Hunter says that Google is now producing at least a “few hundred” and hints at a potential future of mass-production…
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Cyanogen is bringing OS-level Microsoft Cortana integration to Android

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 11 2015 - 3:01 pm PT
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Cortana is currently a lackluster excuse for a voice assistant in the form of a recently-released beta app, but that might change soon. According to a report from the IB Times, Cyanogen — thanks to a partnership that was announced earlier this year — is working with the Redmond company to deeply integrate its voice assistant into the next distribution of its Cyanogen OS…
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9to5Toys Lunch Break: ASUS Chromebox $200, Samsung 64GB MicroSDXC card $19, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 11 2015 - 1:08 pm PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

ASUS Chromebox 1.7GHz/4GB/16GB Desktop PC: $200 shipped (Reg. $230)

Samsung Storage: 64GB MicroSDXC $19 (Reg. $23+), 850 Pro 1TB SSD $420 (Reg. $450), more

Google Play offers free downloads of Sia’s 1000 Forms Of Fear album ($10 value)

Asus ZenWatch Android Wear Waterproof Smartwatch: $130 (Reg. $200)

Refurbished Samsung Gear Fit Watch: $54 shipped w/ code NEXTIME5 (Reg. $100) | A4C

Daily Deals: Toshiba Canvio Basics 1TB Portable Hard Drive $45, Photive Water Resistant Bluetooth Speaker $40, more

Blue Microphones: Yeti USB (silver or platinum) $85 shipped (Reg. $130), more

More new gear from today:

Brother Wireless Monochrome Laser Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax with AirPrint: $150 shipped (Reg. $200)

More deals still alive:

Brand new FitBit Flex: $60 shipped (Reg. $100)

[tweet https://twitter.com/9to5toys/status/642057385071255552 align=’center’]

New products & more:

A new Star Wars merchandise subscription service launches while Amazon discounts Force Awaken toys

The new Gamevice MFi game controllers will fit your iPad Air and iPhone 6s just right

Elephone’s rumored Android Wear smartwatch could be part of Google’s China plan

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 11 2015 - 9:47 am PT
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China-based Elephone isn’t known for making any high-end hardware, and besides being yet another maker of really cheap Chinese phones, they aren’t known for much of anything at all. But that might change soon, as the company is purportedly preparing to launch a smartwatch running Google’s Android Wear. And while that alone might not be all too exciting (other Chinese OEMs like Huawei have beaten them to the punch), this could — knowing Elephone’s target market — be part of Google’s bigger plan to make a move back into mainland China…
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9to5Toys Lunch Break: Refurb Samsung Gear Fit $54, Beats Studio Wireless $264, more

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 10 2015 - 1:02 pm PT
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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Refurbished Samsung Gear Fit Watch: $54 shipped w/ code NEXTIME5 (Reg. $100) | A4C

Bluetooth Headphones: Beats Studio Over-Ear $264 (Reg. $300+), Sport In-Ear $16 (Reg. $24), more

Brand new FitBit Flex: $60 shipped (Reg. $100)

DJI Phantom 3 Standard Quadcopter Drone w/ 2.7K Video Camera: $699 shipped (Reg. $799)

More new gear from today:

Lumsing 8000mAh Power Bank $11 (Reg. $15), Dual-port wall charger and MFi Lightning cable $9 Prime shipped

Games/Apps: Madden NFL 16 (all platforms) $40, Star Walk HD $1, iOS freebies, more

More deals still alive:

Motorola Nexus 6 Unlocked 32GB in Cloud White/Midnight Blue: $350 shipped (Orig. $650)

[tweet https://twitter.com/9to5toys/status/641698383128850432 align=’center’]

New products & more:

Jawbone reformulates its UP2 fitness tracker with a new fashion-forward design

Review: JBL’s new Flip 3 Bluetooth speaker slims down for an ultra-portable form factor