19 Jan 2021
TalkAndroid
[Deal] The Zhiyun Smooth-X Gimbal Stabilizer with a built-in selfie stick is down to just $42 on Amazon
How many times have you recorded a video of a special moment only to discover that it's a shaky mess when you play it back? A gimbal stabilizer is a great way to create a smooth and steady video but its size makes it somewhat cumbersome to carry around the whole time. This is where […]
Come comment on this article: [Deal] The Zhiyun Smooth-X Gimbal Stabilizer with a built-in selfie stick is down to just $42 on Amazon
19 Jan 2021 2:00pm GMT
Android 11 OTA is rolling out to the TCL 10L
Having launched running Android 10 in 2020, it seems that the Android 11 update is now rolling out to the TCL 10L, which is great to see on a $250 handset. We've got the changelog for you after the break. The Android 11 OTA was discovered by HDblog, coming in with a 2.8GB file size […]
Come comment on this article: Android 11 OTA is rolling out to the TCL 10L
19 Jan 2021 1:46pm GMT
18 Jan 2021
TalkAndroid
Check out these Galaxy S21 pre-order deals in the US and the UK
Samsung launched its brand new Galaxy S21 series on January 14th with pre-orders going live after the virtual Unpacked event finished. Those who pre-order one of the three Galaxy S21 handsets will also snag themselves a free Galaxy SmartTag, Galaxy Buds Live, or Galaxy Buds Pro depending on the model they purchase. But which Galaxy […]
Come comment on this article: Check out these Galaxy S21 pre-order deals in the US and the UK
18 Jan 2021 11:14pm GMT
The Official Google Blog
Still Dreaming: A tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today, we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through reflecting on our history and volunteering our time to help our communities. At Google, we see his enormous contributions and his impact on the fight for equality as reflected in Americans' search interests. He's the most-searched civil rights movement leader to date, and search interest for his "I Have a Dream" speech spikes in the U.S. every January, the month of his birthday.
This year, in honor of Dr. King, we invite you to visit "Still Dreaming," a miniature gallery created by Tammie Knight, designer and owner of Small Matters Miniatures, with photography from Google Arts & Culture archives curated by mixed-media artist Adrian Octavius Walker.
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The front door of the miniature gallery featuring an image of Dr. King.
Creating the front door of the miniature gallery. Photo by Nathaniel King.
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An archival photo of Dr. King with President Lyndon B. Johnson.
President Lyndon B. Johnson and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Credit: Yoichi Okamoto, U.S. National Archives
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A woman with short hair and glasses looking down while working.
Tammie Knight, Designer and Owner of Small Matters Miniatures. Photo by Nathaniel King.
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Tammie Knight in her home creative studio. Photo by Nathaniel King.
Inside the miniature gallery, "Still Dreaming." Photo by Nathaniel King.
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A woman, seen from behind, sitting at a desk near a window working.
Tammie Knight in her home creative studio. Photo by Nathaniel King.
The gallery takes viewers on a journey through Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy. It features rare photos of him taken throughout his lifetime, and you can explore the gallery thanks to footage taken by Nathaniel King.
"Dr. King was determined to fulfill his dream of one day being treated as an equal. He continuously took action in service of that dream, even when the outcome was uncertain," Walker says. "These images capture his drive and passion that inspired others to dream of equality in the face of uncertainty, both then and now."
The miniature gallery also features today's annual Google Doodle, created by Pittsburgh-based guest artist Noa Denmon. With artwork depicting parallel scenes from the 1960s and modern times, the Doodle celebrates the civil rights activist who has inspired multiple generations to join in the pursuit of equality and social justice.
Since 2004, the most searched topic in the U.S. for quotations by Dr. King is "love," bringing to mind one of his most-remembered quotations, from his 1963 book, "Strength to Love:" "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
Head to MLKDay.gov to learn about the MLK Day of Service and to find volunteer opportunities in your area.
18 Jan 2021 2:00pm GMT
17 Jan 2021
The Official Google Blog
Google's $53 billion impact in Australia
Today, I'm pleased to launch Google's 2020 Economic Impact Report - a look at our role in Australia which shows we're providing businesses and our users with a combined $53 billion in benefits every year.
Key findings:
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1.3 million businesses receive $39 billion in benefits through increased revenues, millions of connections with customers and greater efficiencies, saving time and money
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Consumers receive $14 billion in benefits via productivity, convenience and access to information
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Search saves users almost 5 days a year, drivers save 5.6 hours per year using Google Maps
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Australian app developers earned $639 million through Google Play reaching 1 billion users globally
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60% go to small to medium businesses; 90% of benefits go to non-technology industries
Google's economic impact in Australia
Google started our first Australian office in a Sydney lounge room almost twenty years ago and in that time there's been incredible change. Our team in 2002 - just one person at the time - has now grown to be 1,800 strong and by enabling business expansion, our digital services like Google Ads and Google Play support an additional 116,200 jobs across the country. And many of our products, which were simply ideas back then, have grown to become an important part of the everyday lives of millions of Australians.
In all of that time, there's never been a year with so much change as we've just seen in 2020. The impacts of the pandemic and its effects on businesses has been overwhelming.
But at the same time, it's been inspiring to watch the way businesses across Australia have managed those challenges to cope. Our Economic Impact Report shows how businesses have increasingly moved online in this difficult year to provide vital services and succeed.
As our report demonstrates, there are now more than 1.3 million businesses in Australia using Google's free tools and services-to reach new customers, advertise effectively where they couldn't before and make use of new digital skills.
Helping businesses stay connected during the coronavirus pandemic
One of those companies using Google's tools is Bliss Gifts and Homewares, based on the South Coast of New South Wales. Early in 2020, the business was impacted by the devastating bushfire crisis before the coronavirus pandemic compounded the situation.
For a small business like Bliss located in a tourist town, the effects of the bushfires and COVID should have been devastating. But due to the fact they were already online and with the help of tools like Google Ads, owner Melissa Stone was remarkably able to not only grow the business but saw their revenue jump by 70% during COVID. Bliss' online presence is now 90 per cent of the business with the help of Google's tools.
All over Australia, businesses like Melissa's shared a total of $39 billion in benefits through increased revenues, millions of connections with customers and greater efficiencies, saving time and money
90 per cent of those benefits went to industries outside of technology - like retail, construction and professional services. And 60 per cent were shared among small to medium businesses.
The report shows Australian app developers earned around $639 million through Google Play, reaching more than one billion users worldwide.
Helping our users save time and access important information
Google's products also provided $14 billion in annual benefits to consumers through increased productivity, convenience and improved access to information.
On average, Australians using Google Search save almost five days a year thanks to access to instantaneous information, while Australian drivers using Google Maps saved 5.6 hours on roads each year by optimising trips through our technology.
We're humbled by these findings and have been inspired by the resilience and spirit of the people in businesses across the country. Australia has ambitions to be a leading digital economy and we look forward to continuing to support that ambition.
You can read more about these benefits here.
17 Jan 2021 10:00pm GMT
AG Paxton’s misleading attack on our ad tech business
In December, Texas Attorney General Paxton filed a complaint about our ad tech business and hired contingency-fee plaintiff lawyers to handle the case. We look forward to showing in court why AG Paxton's allegations are wrong. But given some of the misleading claims that have been circulating-in particular, the inaccurate portrayal of our well-publicized "Open Bidding" agreement with Facebook-we wanted to set the record straight.
About our ad services
Ad tech helps websites and apps make money and fund high-quality content. It also helps our advertising partners-most of whom are small merchants-reach customers and grow their businesses.
AG Paxton tries to paint Google's involvement in this industry as nefarious. The opposite is true. Unlike some B2B companies in this space, a consumer internet company like Google has an incentive to maintain a positive user experience and a sustainable internet that works for all-consumers, advertisers and publishers.
For example, as we've built our ad tech products, we have given people granular controls over how their information is used to personalize ads and limited the sharing of personal data to safeguard people's privacy. We've invested in detecting and blocking harmful ads that violate our policies. We also build tools that load content and ads faster; block scammy ad experiences like pop-ups; and reduce the number of intrusive, annoying ads through innovations like skippable ads. Those tools not only help people, but by building trust, promote the sustainability of the free and open internet.
We've worked to be open and upfront with the industry about the improvements we make to our technologies. We try to do the right thing as we balance the concerns of publishers, advertisers, and the people who use our services. Our ad tech rivals and large partners may not always like every decision we make-we're never going to be able to please everybody. But that's hardly evidence of wrongdoing and certainly not a credible basis for an antitrust lawsuit.
Here are just a few of the things AG Paxton's complaint gets wrong:
Myth: Google "dominates the online advertising landscape for image-based web display ads."
Fact: The ad tech industry is incredibly crowded and competitive.
Competition in online advertising has made ads more affordable and relevant, reduced ad tech fees, and expanded options for publishers and advertisers.
The online advertising space is famously crowded. We compete with household names like Adobe, Amazon, AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Oracle, Twitter and Verizon. Facebook, for example, is the largest seller of display ads and Amazon last month surpassed us as the preferred ad buying platform for advertisers. We compete fiercely with those companies and others such as Mediaocean, Amobee, MediaMath, Centro, Magnite, The Trade Desk, Index Exchange, OpenX, PubMatic and countless more. A growing number of retail brands such as Walmart, Walgreens, Best Buy, Kroger and Target are also offering their own ad tech.
Myth: Google "extracts a very high ... percent of the ad dollars otherwise flowing to online publishers."
Fact: Our fees are actually lower than reported industry averages.
Our ad tech fees are lower than reported industry averages. Publishers keep about 70 percent of the revenue when using our products, and for some types of advertising, publishers keep even more-that's more money in publishers' pockets to fund their creation of high-quality content.
Myth: We created an alternative to header bidding that "secretly stacks the deck in Google's favor."
Fact: We created Open Bidding to address the drawbacks of header bidding.
Header bidding refers to running an auction among multiple ad exchanges for given ad space. You won't read this in AG Paxton's complaint, but the technology has real drawbacks: Header bidding auctions take place within the browser, on your computer or mobile phone, so they require the device to use more data in order to work. This can lead to problems like webpages taking longer to load and device batteries draining faster. And the multilayered complexity of header bidding can lead to fraud and other problems that can artificially increase prices for advertisers, as well as billing discrepancies that can hurt publisher revenue.
So we created an alternative to header bidding, called Open Bidding, which runs within the ad server instead of on your device. This solves many of the problems associated with header bidding. Open Bidding provides publishers access to demand from dozens of networks and exchanges. This helps increase demand for publisher inventory and competition for ad space, which enables publishers to drive more revenue. In fact, our data shows that publishers who decide to use Open Bidding on Ad Manager typically see double-digit revenue increases across our partners and exchange-and they can measure this for themselves.
Additionally, our publisher platform has always integrated with header bidding, so publishers have the choice to use their preferred bidding solution. Publishers can and do bring bids from non-Google header bidding tools into our platform.
Since we launched Open Bidding, traditional header bidding has continued to grow. In fact, a recent survey shows about 90 percent of publishers currently use header bidding for desktop and 60 percent use header bidding for mobile in-app or in-stream video. Amazon also launched an entirely new competitive header bidding solution, which uses the same server-side approach that we do. Header bidding is an evolving and growing space-and now, as a result of our work, there are alternatives to header bidding that improve the user experience.
Myth: Our Open Bidding agreement with Facebook harms publishers.
Fact: Facebook is one of over 25 partners in Open Bidding, and their participation actually helps publishers.
AG Paxton also makes misleading claims about Facebook's participation in our Open Bidding program. Facebook Audience Network (FAN)'s involvement isn't a secret. In fact, it was well-publicized and FAN is one of over 25 partners participating in Open Bidding. Our agreement with FAN simply enables them (and the advertisers they represent) to participate in Open Bidding. Of course we want FAN to participate because the whole goal of Open Bidding is to work with a range of ad networks and exchanges to increase demand for publishers' ad space, which helps those publishers earn more revenue. FAN's participation helps that. But to be clear, Open Bidding is still an extremely small part of our ad tech business, accounting for less than 4 percent of the display ads we place.
AG Paxton inaccurately claims that we manipulate the Open Bidding auction in FAN's favor. We absolutely don't. FAN must make the highest bid to win a given impression. If another eligible network or exchange bids higher, they win the auction. FAN's participation in Open Bidding doesn't prevent Facebook from participating in header bidding or any other similar system. In fact, FAN participates in several similar auctions on rival platforms.
And AG Paxton's claims about how much we charge other Open Bidding partners are mistaken-our standard revenue share for Open Bidding is 5-10 percent.
Myth: AMP was designed to hurt header bidding.
Fact: AMP was designed in partnership with publishers to improve the mobile web.
AG Paxton's claims about AMP and header bidding are just false. Engineers at Google designed AMP in partnership with publishers and other tech companies to help webpages load faster and improve the user experience on mobile devices-not to harm header bidding.
AMP supports a range of monetization options, including header bidding. Publishers are free to use both AMP and header bidding technologies together if they choose. The use of header bidding doesn't factor into publisher search rankings.
Myth: We force partners to use Google tools.
Fact: Partners can readily use our tools and other technologies side by side.
This claim isn't accurate either. Publishers and advertisers often use multiple technologies simultaneously. In fact, surveys show the average large publisher uses six different platforms to sell ads on its site, and plans to use even more this year. And the top 100 advertisers use an average of four or more platforms to buy ads.
All of this is why we build our technologies to be interoperable with more than 700 rival platforms for advertisers and 80 rival platforms for publishers.
AG Paxton's complaint talks about the idea that we offer tools for both advertisers and publishers as if that's unusual or problematic. But that reflects a lack of knowledge of the online ads industry, where serving both advertisers and publishers is actually commonplace. Many firms with competing ad tech businesses, such as AT&T, Amazon, Twitter, Verizon, Comcast and others, offer ad platforms and tools like ours that cater to both advertisers and publishers. We don't require either advertisers or publishers to use our whole "stack," and many don't. Ultimately, advertisers and publishers can choose what works best for their needs.
Myth: "Google uses privacy concerns to advantage itself."
Fact: Consumers expect us to secure their data-and we do.
AG Paxton misrepresents our privacy initiatives. We're committed to operating our advertising business in a way that gives people transparency into and control over how their data is used. Consumers also increasingly expect, and data privacy laws require, strict controls over ad tracking tools like cookies and ad identifiers. So we're focused on meeting those expectations and requirements. As we do so, we've created privacy-protecting solutions that enable other ad tech companies to continue to operate and introduced an open and collaborative industry initiative called the Privacy Sandbox, which is working on alternatives to cookies that preserve privacy while protecting free content. Other web browsers have likewise taken similar steps to limit the use of cookies and protect user privacy.
More information
There are many other things this complaint simply gets wrong. You can read more about our ad tech business by visiting our competition website.
We look forward to defending ourselves in court. In the meantime, we'll continue our work to help publishers and advertisers grow with digital ads and create a sustainable advertising industry that supports free content for everyone.
17 Jan 2021 4:00pm GMT
15 Jan 2021
Android Developers Blog
MAD Skills Kotlin and Jetpack: wrap-up
Posted by Florina Muntenescu, Developer Relations Engineer
We just wrapped up another series of MAD Skills videos and articles - this time on Kotlin and Jetpack. We covered different ways in which we made Android code more expressive and concise, safer, and easy to run asynchronous code with Kotlin.
Check out the episodes below to level up your Kotlin and Jetpack knowledge! Each episode covers a specific set of APIs, talking both about how to use the APIs but also showing how APIs work under the hood. All the episodes have accompanying blog posts and most of them link to either a sample or a codelab to make it easier to follow and dig deeper into the content. We also had a live Q&A featuring Jetpack and Kotlin engineers.
Episode 1 - Using KTX libraries
In this episode we looked at how you can make your Android and Jetpack coding easy, pleasant and Kotlin-idiomatic with Jetpack KTX extensions. Currently, more than 20 libraries have a KTX version. This episode covers some of the most important ones: core-ktx that provides idiomatic Kotlin functionality for APIs coming from the Android platform, plus a few Jetpack KTX libraries that allow us to have a better user experience when working with APIs like LiveData and ViewModel.
Check out the video or the article:
Episode 2 - Simplifying APIs with coroutines and Flow
Episode 2, covers how to simplify APIs using coroutines and Flow as well as how to build your own adapter using suspendCancellableCoroutine and callbackFlow APIs. To get hands-on with this topic, check out the Building a Kotlin extensions library codelab.
Watch the video or read the article:
Episode 3 - Using and testing Room Kotlin APIs
This episode opens the door to Room, peeking in to see how to create Room tables and databases in Kotlin and how to implement one-shot suspend operations like insert, and observable queries using Flow. When using coroutines and Flow, Room moves all the database operations onto the background thread for you. Check out the video or blog post to find out how to implement and test Room queries. For more hands-on work - check out the Room with a view codelab.
Episode 4 - Using WorkManager Kotlin APIs
Episode 4 makes your job easier with WorkManager, for scheduling asynchronous tasks for immediate or deferred execution that are expected to run even if the app is closed or the device restarts. In this episode we go over the basics of WorkManager and look a bit more in depth at the Kotlin APIs, like CoroutineWorker.
Find the video here and the article here, but nothing compares to practical experience so go through the WorkManager codelab.
Episode 5 - Community tip
Episode 5 is by Magda Miu - a Google Developer Expert on Android who shared her experience of leveraging foundational Kotlin APIs with CameraX. Check it out here:
Episode 6 - Live Q&A
In the final episode we launched into a live Q&A, hosted by Chet Haase, with guests Yigit Boyar - Architecture Components tech lead, David Winer - Kotlin product manager, and developer relations engineers Manuel Vivo and myself. We answered questions from you on YouTube, Twitter and elsewhere.
15 Jan 2021 2:08pm GMT
16 Dec 2020
Android Developers Blog
Treble Plus One Equals Four
Posted by Iliyan Malchev (Project Treble Architect), Amith Dsouza (Technical Account Manager) , and Veerendra Bhora (Strategic Partnerships Manager)
Extending Android updates on Qualcomm's Mobile Platforms
In the past few years, the latest Android OS has been adopted earlier by OEMs and deployed in larger numbers to our users. The growth in adoption has been driven by OEMs delivering faster OS updates, taking advantage of the architecture introduced by Project Treble.
At the time Android 11 launched there were 667M active users on Android 10, 82% of whom got their Android 10 build via an over the air (OTA) update. Despite the events throughout 2020, there is a continued momentum among our partners to either launch their devices on Android 11 or offer Android 11 OTAs on their devices earlier.
Our efforts till now have been focussed on making OS updates easier and faster to deploy. The other side of this coin is supporting updates for a longer period of time, and today we'd like to provide an overview of the changes we are making to help our partners achieve this.
Project Treble was an ambitious re-architecture of Android that created a split between the OS framework and device-specific low-level software (called the vendor implementation) through a well-defined, stable vendor interface. As a part of this split, the Android OS framework guarantees backward compatibility with the vendor implementation, which is checked through a standardized compliance test suite - VTS. With each Android release, Project Treble publishes Generic System Images (GSIs) that are built from AOSP sources, and are guaranteed to be backwards-compatible with the previous 3 versions of vendor implementations, in addition of course to the current release-for a total span of four years. Devices launching with the new Android release must have vendor implementations compatible with that GSI. This is the primary vehicle for reducing fragmentation within the OS framework. While we allow and encourage our partners to modify the framework itself, the modifications post-Treble must be done in a way that reduces upgrade costs from one version to the next.
Besides the reuse of a vendor implementation across OS updates, the Treble architecture also facilitates the re-use of the same OS framework code across different vendor implementations.
Another important change introduced by Project Treble is that new vendor-impacting requirements for Android devices are never retroactive. They apply only to devices launching on that Android version and not to devices upgrading from an older version. The term vendor-impacting here refers to requirements for new HALs, or for the shipping of a newer Linux kernel, to the device's vendor implementation. A good example might be a new revision of the camera HAL to support multiple rear camera sensors. Since the Android framework guarantees compatibility with the older HALs, we enable older vendor implementations to be reused by OEMs for upgrades without the considerable cost of updating them with new requirements.
This principle, combined with the backwards-compatibility guarantee, gives device manufacturers (OEMs) the flexibility to support upgrades both faster (since they have to upgrade just the framework, which would cover all of their devices, including those with older versions of the vendor implementation), as well as at a lower cost (since they do not have to touch the older vendor implementations).
However, seen from a System-on-Chip manufacturers' perspective, this design introduces additional complexity. For each SoC model, the SoC manufacturers now needed to create multiple combinations of vendor implementations to support OEMs who would use that chipset to launch new devices and deploy OS upgrades on previously launched devices.
The result is that three years beyond the launch of a chipset, the SoC vendor would have to support up to 6 combinations of OS framework software and vendor implementations. The engineering costs associated with this support limited the duration for which SoC vendors offered Android OS software support on a chipset. For every single chipset, the software support timeline would look like this:
Considering that SoC providers have dozens of SoC models at any point of time, the full picture looks closer to this:
The crux of the problem was that, while device requirements were never retroactive, the requirements for SoCs were. For example on Android Pie, SoCs had to support two versions of the Camera HAL API on a chipset if it was used to support new device launches and upgrades.
From this perspective, the solution was simple: we had to extend the no-retroactivity principle to the SoCs as well as to devices. With this change, the SoC provider would be able to support Android with the same vendor implementations on their SoCs for device launches as well as upgrades.
During the past year, we have been working hard to implement this solution. Building on our deep collaboration with our colleagues at Qualcomm, today we're announcing the results of this work. Going forward, all new Qualcomm mobile platforms that take advantage of the no-retroactivity principle for SoCs will support 4 Android OS versions and 4 years of security updates. All Qualcomm customers will be able to take advantage of this stability to further lower both the costs of upgrades as well as launches and can now support their devices for longer periods of time.
Going one step further, we're also reusing the same OS framework software across multiple Qualcomm chipsets. This dramatically lowers the number of OS framework and vendor implementation combinations that Qualcomm has to support across their mobile platforms and results in lowered engineering, development, and deployment costs. The diagram below indicates how significant the simplification is. From a software-support perspective, it's an altogether different situation:
This change is taking effect with all SoCs launching with Android 11 and later. By working closely with Qualcomm to offer an extended period of OS and security updates, we are looking forward to delivering the best of Android to our users faster, and with greater security for an extended period of time.
16 Dec 2020 6:03pm GMT
Opening the Google Play Store for more car apps
Posted by Eric Bahna, Product Manager
In October, we published the Android for Cars App Library to beta so you could start bringing your navigation, parking, and charging apps to Android Auto. Thanks for sending your feedback with our issue tracker, so we know where to improve and clarify things. Now we're ready to take the next step in delivering great in-car experiences.
Today, you can publish your apps to closed testing tracks in the Google Play Store. This is a great way to get feedback on how well your app meets the app quality guidelines, plus get your in-car experience in front of your first Android Auto users.
Three of our early access partners: T map, PlugShare,and 2GIS
We're preparing the Play Store for open testing tracks soon. You can get your app ready today by publishing to closed testing. We're eager to see what you've built!
16 Dec 2020 4:53pm GMT
21 Oct 2019
Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO
All the Fitbit activity badges
Fitbit has discontinued their Fitbit One step trackers, which seems like a good opportunity to step back and reflect on wearing one for the last decade or so. I've enjoyed using Fitbit trackers, but the One devices seemed like they broke down way too often. I'm pretty proud that I ended up earning all the […]
21 Oct 2019 3:06am GMT
04 Nov 2018
Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO
Halloween 2018: Crab claws!
Do you need something to cheer you up? You got it: I should explain this costume a little bit. At the US Digital Service, we do a thing called "crab claws." Crab claws is like visual applause-you pinch your fingers up and down to say "great job" or "congratulations" or "way to go." We do […]
04 Nov 2018 8:02pm GMT
08 Mar 2018
Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO
Some terrible personal news
Cindy Cutts, my wife and best friend, passed away earlier this week. While I was traveling for work recently, Cindy went to visit her family in Omaha, Nebraska. On Sunday, while enjoying time with family, Cindy started having trouble breathing. Her family quickly called 911 and paramedics took Cindy to the hospital, but Cindy lost […]
08 Mar 2018 12:17am GMT
01 Apr 2017
Google Operating System
Google April Fools' Day 2017
April Fools' Day should probably be called Google Fools' Day, since there are so many Google hoaxes.
Google Japan developed a "bubble wrap" version of the Japanese keyboard. "The Google Japanese input bubble wrap version is a keyboard that realizes 'I want to press in my mind, I want to keep pressing'," according to Google Translate.
Another product for your smart home? Meet Google Gnome, "a voice-activated, hands-free tool designed to make backyard living effortless. Need to know what animal is squeaking in your bushes? Stay still and ask Gnome what sound an opossum makes. Running low on birdseed? That's where Gnome comes in. You can even use Gnome's proprietary high-intensity lasers to trim your hedges into whatever shape your heart desires."
The Chrome OS team brings the most popular mobile accessories to the Chromebook, which already blurs the line between mobile and desktop. Chromebook Groupie Stick, Chromebook Cardboard, Chromebook Workout Armband will soon be available in the Google Store. "To take advantage of beautiful, high-resolution displays, as well as great photo editing apps, we've carefully engineered the first Chromebook-sized selfie stick. Never again will you miss the perfect groupie."
Haptic Helpers make VR even more immersive. "We're taking VR to the next level with Haptic Helpers. Using a modest set of everyday tools, these VR virtuosos can simulate more than 10,000 unique experiences, all from the comfort of your own home. Smell the roses. Listen to the ocean. Feel a fluffy dog!"
You can now play the classic arcade game MS. PAC-MAN in Google Maps. "Avoid Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Sue as you swerve the streets of real places around the world. But eat the pac-dots fast, because this game will only be around for a little while." Just go to the Google Maps site or open the Google Maps app for Android or iOS and click or tap MS. PAC-MAN at the bottom.
Google Cloud Platform expands to Mars. "By opening a dedicated extraterrestrial cloud region, we're bringing the power of Google's compute, network, and storage to the rest of the solar system, unlocking a plethora of possibilities for astronomy research, exploration of Martian natural resources and interplanetary life sciences. This region will also serve as an important node in an extensive network throughout the solar system. Our first interplanetary data center - affectionately nicknamed 'Ziggy Stardust' - will open in 2018," mentions Google.
Google Netherlands came up with Google Wind, a machine learning technology that controls the weather. "The Netherlands has many windmills, some no longer in use, we can connect to Google Cloud Platform. So we use the existing Dutch infrastructure, machine learning, weather patterns to control the network of windmills when rain is approaching. The first test results are very promising: we seem to be able to provide sun and clear skies for everyone in the Netherlands," mentions Google Netherlands blog.
Google's search app for iOS is now optimized for cats and dogs. "On the Google app for iOS, you can now use 3D Touch on the app icon or head to settings and select I'm Feeling Woof or I'm Feeling Meow to let your dogs and cats get info on topics they care about-whether that means squeaky toys or a bowl of milk!"
Google also launched Google Play for Pets, a new category of Android games designed for cats, dogs and other pets.
Google Translate's Word Lens feature supports a new language: Heptapod B, the alien language from the movie "Arrival". "The challenge with understanding Heptapod B is its nonlinear orthography. Fortunately, Google's neural machine translation system employs an encoder/decoder system that internally represents sentences as high-dimensional vectors. These vectors map well to the non-linear orthography of the Heptapod language and they are really the enabling technical factor in translating Heptapod B."
01 Apr 2017 7:25am GMT
19 Feb 2017
Google Operating System
Gmail Blocks JavaScript Attachments
If you try to send a JavaScript attachment using Gmail or if you want to download a .js attachment, you'll get a new anti-virus warning: "Blocked for security reasons", "1 attachment contains a virus or blocked file. Downloading this attachment is disabled".
.JS has been added to the long list of file types that are blocked by Gmail for security reasons. The full list: .ADE, .ADP, .BAT, .CHM, .CMD, .COM, .CPL, .EXE, .HTA, .INS, .ISP, .JAR, .JS (NEW), .JSE, .LIB, .LNK, .MDE, .MSC, .MSI, .MSP, .MST, .NSH .PIF, .SCR, .SCT, .SHB, .SYS, .VB, .VBE, .VBS, .VXD, .WSC, .WSF, .WSH. "To prevent against potential viruses, Gmail doesn't allow you to attach certain types of files, including: certain file types (listed above), including their compressed form (like .gz or .bz2 files) or when found within archives (like .zip or .tgz files), documents with malicious macros, archives whose listed file content is password protected, archives whose content includes a password protected archive."
The GSuite Blog informs that "for inbound mail, senders will get a bounce message explaining why the email was blocked. If you still need to send .js files for legitimate reasons, you can use Google Drive, Google Cloud Storage, or other storage solutions to share or send your files."
You can still send JavaScript files using Gmail if you change the extension. What about downloading old .js attachments? Try the workarounds from this post.
19 Feb 2017 10:39am GMT
25 Jan 2017
Google Operating System
Google Image Search Shows Colorful Suggestions
Google Image Search has a different way to display suggestions: it now shows a long list of colorful boxes with related searches. You can click one or more boxes to dynamically refine search results.
For example, when searching for [sportswear], Google shows suggestions like: [women basketball], [tennis], [badminton], [golf], [volleyball], [nike woman], [alexander wang], [adidas], [fashion], [performance], [vintage], [trendy], [urban], [school], [gym], [90's], [70's], [vogue], [luxe], [avant garde], [korean], [italian], [french] and more. It's interesting to notice that each category of suggestions has a different color.
Here's the old interface, which had fewer suggestions and displayed thumbnails next to suggestions:
25 Jan 2017 9:39pm GMT
10 Nov 2011
Android Forums
Latest action game INC from OrangePixel now available!
From the developer of Meganoid and Stardash comes a new action arcade game: INC! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j5OEG-3RyM Get it from the...
10 Nov 2011 9:31am GMT
Free online video chat
More than 1000 broadcast cameras for you online - the most incendiary models in Russia. 1000 girls, 1000, the temptations, 1000, full of desire - all...
10 Nov 2011 7:48am GMT
Layout problem
Hi Friends I decided to work with a tab layout application. Program consist of 3 tabs and a button. I like to place the button below the tab. ...
10 Nov 2011 5:20am GMT
26 Aug 2011
Google Blogoscoped
The Emperor's Garden
The Emperor instructed the gardener to set up the new court's garden. "I want you to plant five trees growing the Crataan fruit," the Emperor said, "Because we asked people what fruit they like best, and most named the Crataan fruit!" The gardener replied, "Emperor, that is excellent thinking! But let me make some suggestions: First, how about we make one of the five trees bear the Muran fruit. Only one out of ten citizens loves it, but those peculiar citizens tend to love multiple times as much!" "Second," the gardener continued, "How about we make one of the five trees bear the Dratean fruit. No one loves it, but that's because no one knows it yet!" "Third," the gardener said, "How about we leave one spot in the garden empty. Who knows what new type of tree we'll discover that we can put there in the fut ...
26 Aug 2011 12:12pm GMT
15 Aug 2011
Google Blogoscoped
Color Sound Machine (and what else I've been doing lately)
For those of you who've been wondering whether I had turned to stone, fallen into a bottomless pit, or been climbing the Himalaya... no, none of that is true, even though you probably did notice I'm not actively blogging about Google here anymore*! Just now, a new iPad app I've been working on called Color Sound Machine went live, and this -- and all the other apps and games at Versus Pad** -- are actually what I am doing while not blogoscoping. *I've drafted unpublished posts explaining much more about past, present and future of Blogoscoped, and the history of Google news reporting, but ... oh, for now le ...
15 Aug 2011 4:00pm GMT
25 Feb 2011
Google Blogoscoped
Google drops reverse phone number lookup
One of the earliest specialist services provided by Google was reverse phone number lookup. If you used the "phonebook:" or "rphonebook:" operators together with a 10-digit US phone number, Google would show you the owner of that phone number, unless the number was unlisted. Google no longer provides that service. Not surprisingly, there was no press release marking the closure, but Google employee Daniel Russell has acknowledged the closure of the service in his blog. He hints at the possible pressures leading to the shuttering of the service: "As you can imagine, this was an endless source of hassles for people (who were surprised to see themselves searchable on Google) and for Google (who had to constantly de ...
25 Feb 2011 11:23am GMT