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1,031 'Google' stories August 2010 - May 2014

Google Play Music iOS app updated with editable playlists and more

Ben Lovejoy May 30 2014 - 6:26 am PT

The iOS version of the Google Play Music app has been updated, allowing you to edit playlists directly in the app rather than having to login to the website to do it.

Google has also introduced a few more goodies: Shuffle Artist, which does exactly what the name suggests, and a filter to show only the music you’ve actually downloaded – handy when you want to narrow your selection to your favourites.

Google Play Music is a free download from iTunes.

Apple’s home automation system will be less of a hub, more of a ‘made for iPhone’ program

Mike Beasley May 29 2014 - 2:55 pm PT

9 Comments

Acquiring the Nest Learning Thermostat was Google’s big step into home automation

As first reported on Monday, Apple is said to be preparing a home automation system for debut at WWDC next week. While this was the first anyone had heard of any such plans, several different sources have quickly come together to give an idea of how an “Apple Smart Home” will likely function.

On Monday, as noted above, the Financial Times first reported that Apple’s new program would not consist of a group of first-party automated appliances or other devices connected to an iPhone. Instead, the program will work similarly to Apple’s existing “Made for iPhone” program. Essentially the only role Apple will play is to grant special branding to compliant devices.

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Google: Digital Creative Agency Fred & Farid replaces Macs w/ Chromebooks

Jordan Kahn May 29 2014 - 11:10 am PT

6 Comments

Google loves to highlight its work getting Chromebooks into the hands of business customers and a lot of the time that also means a switch from Windows and Microsoft Office products to Chrome OS and Google Apps. It’s not as often, however, that we hear about companies that decide to replace their Macs with Chromebooks. Today Google published a guest blog post from CIO of digital creative group Fred & Farid Group about the company’s decision to do exactly that, replace Macs with Chromebooks for around 60 percent of its employees:

Macs are a popular choice among the creative team. But I soon realized not everyone needs a Mac, especially the 60 percent of our employees who work in office roles like marketing, sales, IT, and administration. We recently rolled out 10 Samsung Chromebooks in a small pilot and plan to have 200 employees on Chromebooks by the end of the year. Our decision to adopt Chromebooks wasn’t based solely on price — though we expect to save a significant amount compared to deploying Macs — but also a desire to have faster collaboration. When you have a Chromebook, you think less about downloading stuff to your hard drive and more about sharing information in the cloud. With Google Drive, we’re able to store, sync and share all our important files easily, whether it’s when we’re on our Chromebooks or on our phones and tablets on the go.

Like with those switching from Windows, relying on mostly Google Apps is one of the reasons the company decided Macs weren’t necessary for many of its employees: We use Google Hangouts for all our voice communications — we don’t even have phone lines in our offices anymore. In the Paris office alone, we conduct more than 50 Hangouts each day. Of course, we also use Drive for document sharing and Calendar for scheduling.

More on the Google Enterprise Blog here.

Adobe Revel now gives users 2 GB of free storage for photo uploads

Benjamin Mayo May 27 2014 - 9:48 am PT

0 Comments

Alongside a minor update to the app, Adobe Revel has changed their business model slightly. Before, free accounts were limited to uploading just 50 photos every month. Going forward, free accounts get 2 GB of fixed storage for uploads.

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Google-owned VirusTotal releases Mac-compatible version of malware detection app

Mike Beasley May 26 2014 - 4:25 pm PT

7 Comments

Google-owned VirusTotal today released a version of the VirusTotal uploader application (via The Next Web) compatible with Mac OS X. Previously the software was only available for Windows-based machines.

VirusTotal Uploader works in conjunction with the VirusTotal web service to check files and links for malware. Google hopes that the release of the software for the Mac will help users more easily detect attacks on Apple’s platform. From the VirusTotal blog:

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Osmo for iPad combines physical puzzles and games with interactive apps

Zac Hall May 22 2014 - 9:26 am PT

4 Comments

Parents who share their iPads with their kids for playing games and other entertainment will want to check out this novel idea from the startup company Tangible Play. The product is a combination of iPad game apps and iPad accessories that use the front-facing camera to connect real world gameplay and interactions with what is happening within the compatible apps. At launch, three apps will be available: Tangram, Newton, and Words.

As TechCrunch points out, the company behind Osmo is founded by former Google employees:

The company was founded by ex-Googlers, including Pramod Sharma, who had earlier seen the the intersection of physical and digital when he helped build Google’s book-scanning machine, and Jérôme Scholler, who had worked on Chrome for Android.

For parents and iPad owners interested in Osmo, the game set is currently available for pre-order in a crowdsourcing campaign to raise funds for development. Early backers can join in on the fun at $49 and the final product is expected to ship later this fall. Osmo will be regularly priced at $99 starting June 22nd, so interested backers will want to jump in soon.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbwIJMz9PAQ]

Apple preparing expansion into new 290,000 square foot Sunnyvale campus

Mike Beasley May 21 2014 - 4:20 pm PT

1 Comment

Image via Mercury News

A San Jose Mercury News report reveals that Apple is planning to expand its operations to a new Sunnyvale, CA campus. At 290,000 square feet, the Sunnyvale Crossing is a bit smaller than Apple’s previous 350,000 square foot Sunnyvale expansion (though it has one more building than the previous expansion).

Apple is currently in the process of constructing its new “spaceship” headquarters, which is expected to be completed by 2016 and will help alleviate some of the need for these external campuses and allow the company to bring more of its corporate team together in one place. However, the lease on this new space is reportedly somewhere between 7-10 years, so it’s likely that Apple plans to continue using the space for quite some time.

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Google tells the SEC it could soon be serving ads on thermostats and other devices (Update: Google says no ad-based Nest)

Ben Lovejoy May 21 2014 - 5:56 am PT

22 Comments

Those who expressed concern about Google’s acquisition of Nest may have have been right: the company has told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it may choose to serve ads on “refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google made the statement in support of its contention that it shouldn’t have to break out ad revenue from mobile devices.

Google argued that it doesn’t make sense to break out mobile revenue since the definition of mobile will “continue to evolve” as more “smart” devices roll out.

“Our expectation is that users will be using our services and viewing our ads on an increasingly wide diversity of devices in the future,” the company said in the filing.

While the statement is purely a defensive one – the company not wanting to share more data than it has to with competitors – the specific thermostat example seems unlikely to have been chosen completely randomly.

Google added the Nest smart thermostat to Google Play three months after purchasing the company. Nest remains on sale in Apple stores, both retail and online.

Nest was created by former Apple engineer Tony Fadell, the man dubbed ‘father of the iPod.’ Fadell sought to allay concerns about Google’s acquisition of the company soon after it was announced, promising that all data collected by Nest was used only to improve the product, and that any changes to that policy would be opt-in. Nothing was said about serving non-personalized ads, however.

Update: Google gave the following statement to Engadget…

“We are in contact with the SEC to clarify the language in this 2013 filing, which does not reflect Google’s product roadmap. Nest, which we acquired after this filing was made, does not have an ads-based model and has never had any such plans.”

Italian authorities give Apple & others 20 days to submit defence to “unfair” in-app purchase claims

Ben Lovejoy May 21 2014 - 4:08 am PT

4 Comments

An Italian competition organization has given Apple, Google, Amazon and Gameloft twenty days to submit a defence to its investigation into in-app purchases or face a fine of up to €5M ($6.9M), reports ZDNet.

The companies now have 20 days to comply with the requests for information that came with the letter, and to respond with their defences to the allegations. If the alleged violations proved to be true, the three internet giants and the European game developer could each face a fine up to €5m — although the Italian watchdog told ZDNet that the punishment would be proportional to each company’s size.

The complaint is based on two concerns. First, whether consumers are clear about the likely total cost of the app at the time they download it. Second, whether sufficient information is provided about how to prevent or limit in-app purchases, especially in games played by children.

Apple settled a similar complaint with the FTC in January, after last year offering refunds to parents whose children had made in-app purchases. At that time, Tim Cook pointed to the safeguards in place, which include the ability to disable in-app purchases with a single switch, and requiring a password for any purchases made more than 15 minutes after downloading the app.

iOS also now alerts customers that further purchases can be made within 15 minutes without re-entering their iTunes password, and all iTunes apps that offer in-app purchases are labelled as such in the App Store.

Google overtakes Apple as ‘most valuable brand’ of 2014 in new study

Mike Beasley May 20 2014 - 7:25 pm PT

49 Comments

Millward Brown’s annual BrandZ study, which was released today, points to Apple as the second most valuable brand just below Google. This is a reversal from the previous study, which found Apple ranked just above Google.

In the study, Google’s brand value was calculated at $158,843,000, while Apple came in at only $147,880,000.

Of course, this study doesn’t actually point to which company is the most valuable. Instead, Millward Brown uses a combination of financial information—including projected future sales—and customer surveys to determine how much a brand is worth—or how much of the company’s value comes from customers’ views of that company. The entire process of determing a brand’s value is explained in detail on the Millward Brown website.

Essentially, information from customer surveys is used to determine a “brand contribution” number for each company. This number refers to how likely customers are to remain loyal to a company and other similar factors. This “brand contribution” is then multiplied by certain financial figures and the resulting figure is “brand value.”

This “brand value” represents how much of the company’s overall value comes from its brand. If it sounds a non-scientific, that’s probably because it is. Still, it’s interesting to see how consumers and firms like Millward Brown rank these companies.

Samsung’s lawyers calling Apple a “Jihadist” and the trial “Apple’s Vietnam” not helping settlement talks …

Ben Lovejoy May 20 2014 - 5:40 am PT

10 Comments

While FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller may be confident of Apple and Samsung reaching an early settlement on their patent disputes, a court-mandated update on the talks seems to tell a different story, with each side explaining why talks were not going well, reports The Verge.

For Apple, that includes statements made by Samsung’s lead attorney John Quinn, who referred to Apple as a “jihadist” and called the protracted trial “Apple’s Vietnam” in a pair of interviews …

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Apple in talks with Samsung to settle all future patent disputes out of court

Ben Lovejoy May 19 2014 - 5:02 am PT

18 Comments

Korea Times (via Fortune) is reporting that Apple and Samsung are in talks designed to settle all future patent disputes out of court. FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller believes that a settlement will be reached “very soon.”

“Things should come to an end during the summer. Apple doesn’t have an endgame strategy. Its agreement with Google shows that its management is looking for a face-saving exit strategy from Steve Jobs’ thermonuclear ambitions,” Mueller said …

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Apple under fire from Italian antitrust regulator over freemium app sales model

Mike Beasley May 16 2014 - 10:15 pm PT

21 Comments

Italy’s Antitrust and Competition Authority says it is investigating “freemium” apps offered in Apple’s App Store along with similar stores operated by Google and Amazon, saying that customers could be misled by the “free” label, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

According to the regulatory group, users who download these apps for free could believe that the game is completely free and not know when downloading the app how much it will actually cost.

If Apple is found to have misled customers, the company could be fined as much as €5 million. It’s not likely to put a big dent in Apple’s cash reserve, but the Italian antitrust committee has previously convinced Apple to change its policy regarding AppleCare marketing.

Apple and Google agree to settle patent litigation, but will not cross license

Chance Miller May 16 2014 - 4:41 pm PT

6 Comments

Photo: USA Today

According to a court filing discovered by Reuters, Apple and Google’s Motorola Mobility unit have agreed to settle their ongoing smartphone patent litigation battle against each other. In a statement, the two companies said that this agreement does not include the ability cross license each other’s patents, but rather the promise to “work together in some areas of patent reform.”

The two tech giants have been battling it out over various patents for several years now, both directly and indirectly. It’s important to note, however, that this agreement is solely between Apple, Google, and its Motorola Mobility unit. This does not apply to any lawsuits between Android device manufacturers, such as Samsung and HTC, and Apple. Although theoretically, it would apply to patents owned by Google that device manufacturers are licensing.

A verdict was reached in the latest Apple v Samsung battle just a few weeks ago, with Apple being ruled as the victor, albeit small. The court ruled that Samsung owed Apple $119 million, which is far less than the $2 billion it was seeking.

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Google acquires Word Lens app recently featured in Apple’s iPhone ad “Powerful”

Zac Hall May 16 2014 - 11:18 am PT

31 Comments

Google just bought the company behind a smartphone app called Word Lens that visually translates text in real life scenarios right on your device using the camera and some behind-the-scenes intelligence.

With Word Lens, we’ve seen the beginnings of what’s possible when we harness the power of mobile devices to “see the world in your language.”

By joining Google, we can incorporate Quest Visual’s technology into Google Translate’s broad language coverage and translation capabilities in the future.

As a thank you to everybody who supported us on our journey, we’ve made both the app and the language packs free to download for a limited time while we transition to Google.

We’re looking forward to continuing our work at Google – stay tuned!

The kicker? Word Lens was recently featured rather prominently in Apple’s latest iPhone ad “Powerful” and even listed on Apple’s microsite promoting the film as an app to explore.
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EFF marks Apple’s ‘remarkable improvement’ in protecting customer data from governments

Mark Gurman May 15 2014 - 3:39 pm PT

3 Comments

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today published its annual “Who Has Your Back?” report that rates and compares how major corporations deal with government data requests. The EFF’s ranking of technology company data request transparency is notable because the organization is the “leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world.” The report ranks companies based on six categories: requires a warrant for content, tells users about data requests, publishes transparency reports, publishes law enforcement guidelines, fights for users’ privacy in courts, fights for users’ privacy for rights in Congress. This year, Apple received a star for each of the six categories.

This compares to many other technology companies, including Google, Yahoo, and Facebook, that received stars across the board:

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How blatant? Xiaomi announces ‘Mi Pad’ iPad mini clone [Video]

Ben Lovejoy May 15 2014 - 6:50 am PT

15 Comments

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVp34KQbAqk]

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, the company which specialises in imitating Apple’s marketing for its Android handsets, has launched its first tablet, reports Reuters – and it’s an iPad mini clone. The company has even named it the Mi Pad.

The Mi Pad is essentially a colorful plastic version of the iPad mini with Retina display design, and even has an identical screen resolution of 2048×1536. The tablet has a 2.2GHz Nvidia K1 processor, 2GB RAM and a choice of 16GB or 64GB storage. A heavily-forked version of Android attempts to complete the iPad emulation with an iOS-like look to it.

Xiaomi started life making low-cost, low-spec Android handsets for the Chinese market, but has gradually upped its game to higher-end phones. Last August, Google’s former VP of Hugo Barra joined the company in August of last year (amidst a certain amount of gossip).

Xiaomi has long blatantly copied Apple’s marketing approach, down to its CEO Lei Jun copying Steve Jobs’ trademark blue jeans and black turtleneck shirt at Apple-like product launches.

The $240 Mi Pad will initially be sold only in China, but it’s believed the company plans to expand later into other developing markets, with India, Brazil and Mexico among those suggested. The Mi Pad is said to begin “public testing” in June. No date has yet been given for it to go on public sale.

Columbia University students create software allowing native iOS apps to run on Android devices

Mike Beasley May 13 2014 - 8:20 pm PT

27 Comments

Photo: Reuters

For some time now, iOS users have cited the quality and quantity of third-party software available for the platform as an important factor in their choice of mobile devices. Over the years Android has amassed its own collection of apps and users have continued butting heads over which system had the better selection.

Now, six Columbia University students have bridged the gap between the two platforms with something called Cider (via The Next Web). Not to be confused with the other Cider software (for OS X), the Android version of Cider essentially fools iOS applications into believing they’re running on an actual iPhone or iPad.

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Google Search for iOS 4.0 adds new voice search options, more relevant results, and more

Mike Beasley May 13 2014 - 12:12 pm PT

4 Comments

Google has updated its iOS search app to version 4.0, which introduces a variety of new and useful changes. The app now recognizes new voice search cues and conversational input similar to the way Siri works. For example, Google says you can ask the app “What’s the weather like?” and follow up with “How about this weekend?” to get results relevant to the weekend rather than the current day.

The app will now also alert you when you new articles on certain topics appear. The feature is powered by Google Now, which learns your favorite authors, blogs, and more to provide you with customized alerts.

Finally, a few other changes to the app include faster loading, cricket sports data for Google Now, and an updated images search page.

Google Search is available for free on the App Store. The full change log is below:

What’s New in Version 4.0.0

With today’s update, you can ask questions with your voice & get updates on topics you care about.

Have a smarter conversation with Google:
• Tap the microphone or say “Ok Google” to start
• Ask questions such as “What’s the weather like?”
• Then follow up with “How about this weekend?”

At Google, we know the web well. With Google Now, we’ll tell you when there’s an interesting article for:
• Your favorite topics
• Your upcoming trips
• Your favorite authors and blogs

Smaller updates include:
• Cricket sports cards in Google Now
• Faster loading of Google Search and Google Now
• More beautiful and fluid image results

Google Play Music iPad app hidden inside iPhone version, public release likely soon

Dom Esposito May 11 2014 - 6:17 pm PT

8 Comments

We’re hearing that Google Play Music for iPad is getting close to release and a tipster has sent in a few videos showcasing what he/she claims is a pre-release of the new app. We’ve heard independently that Play Music for iPad was getting close to delivery and our tipster says this is a development build (see update below). The app will function similarly to the iPhone version, but redesigned for iPad.

We are still somewhat skeptical of the screenshots below, but the app’s functionality (shown in the videos) seems to be very similar to the iPhone version and it would make sense for Google to release it for iPad. Though we’re still unsure if the update will arrive as a universal build or if Google will have separate versions available in the App Store.

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Microsoft, Google, and others stand together to voice support for net neutrality, Apple declines to join

Chance Miller May 7 2014 - 4:43 pm PT

31 Comments

Following a proposal that many fear threatens net neutrality, a plethora of tech companies today have come together to support net neutrality in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission. The group is led by Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix, and Twitter, as well as many others. Notably missing, however, is Apple.

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Opinion: With all of the new Apple data centers, is it time for iCloud to get serious about storage?

Ben Lovejoy May 7 2014 - 7:26 am PT

56 Comments

The Apple ecosystem is a large part of why I stick to an all-Apple line-up for my laptops, tablet and phone. iCloud is key to that, of course, providing seamless backup and syncing between devices.

Whether it’s my calendar, contacts, reminders, notes, ebooks or Safari bookmarks, all are available on all devices within a minute or two of me updating any of them. Documents I create in Pages, Numbers or Keynote are again available from any of my devices providing I choose to store them on iCloud. As I pay the extra for iTunes Match, I’m also able to stream any of my music from any device.

In some respects, Apple clearly takes the cloud seriously. It has invested massively in expanding its network of data centers, including a $1B investment in Reno, expansion in Maiden and new data centers as far afield as Hong Kong and the Netherlands. Yet, central as it is to the ecosystem, iCloud still feels a bit like it deserves the tag Steve Jobs famously applied to Apple TV: a hobby …

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Google Maps for iOS updated with lane guidance, improved offline maps, Uber integration

Zac Hall May 6 2014 - 9:17 am PT

23 Comments

Google released a major feature update to Google Maps for iOS today bringing a handful of useful features for navigation and travel with your iPhone and iPad including integration with the private transportation service Uber.

First up is a feature found on many dedicated GPS devices: lane guidance. The feature will present which lane is necessary with current directions to help you avoid missing important turns. Notably, Apple’s Maps software does not currently offer this feature. Google says lane guidance is currently only available for users in the US and Canada…
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Patent jury foreman advises Apple to sue Google directly

Ben Lovejoy May 6 2014 - 4:16 am PT

54 Comments

Photo: technobuffalo.com

The foreman of the jury that awarded Apple just 5.5 percent of the $2.2B it claimed Samsung owed for patent infringements said yesterday that Apple should sue Google rather than handset manufacturers, reports the WSJ.

If you really feel that Google is the cause behind this, as I think everybody has observed, then don’t beat around the bush,” said Tom Dunham, whose job at IBM was to oversee developers expected to file patents. “Let the courts decide. But a more direct approach may be something to think about” …

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