Privacy concerns with smart speakers
These days, it seems like “Alexa” has become the most common name in millions of homes.
YouTube to pay $170M fine after violating kids' privacy law
WASHINGTON — Google will pay $170 million to settle allegations its YouTube video service collected personal data on children without their parents' consent.The company agreed to work with video creators to label material aimed at kids and said it will limit data collection when users view such videos, regardless of their age.Some lawmakers and children's advocacy groups, however, complained that the settlement terms aren't strong enough to rein in a company whose parent, Alphabet, made a profit of $30.7 billion last year on revenue of $136.8 billion, mostly from targeted ads.Google will pay $136 million to the Federal Trade Commission and $34 million to New York state, which had a similar investigation.
Ex-Google worker charged with stealing secrets sold to Uber
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A former Google engineer was charged Tuesday with stealing closely guarded secrets that he later sold to Uber as the ride-hailing service scrambled to catch up in the high-stakes race to build robotic vehicles.The indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney's office in San Jose, California, is an offshoot of a lawsuit filed in 2017 by Waymo, a self-driving car pioneer spun off from Google.
Google will now pay you if the price of your airfare drops
Google will now pay you if the price of your airfare drops!Google has several new features to try including a way to search for podcasts and a new way to navigate using Google Maps, but the most compelling new feature is a "flight price guarantee" that refunds you the difference if the price of your flight goes down after you book!Podcasts are now in Google SearchAre you listening to podcasts?
YouTube, Snapchat, other services down Sunday due to eastern US congestion
NEW YORK — Google officials said users of YouTube and other services were seeing errors or slow performance Sunday, June 2 due to high levels of network congestion in the eastern United States.YouTube, Google Cloud and G Suite services were affected, but Google officials said they believed they has identified the cause of the congestion, and expected to return to normal service shortly.
'Talk like a Legend:' John Legend makes cameo as Google Assistant voice
Google announced Wednesday that for a limited time in the United States, John Legend’s voice will be an option in its Google Assistant feature.To access Legend’s voice, Google said you can tell any device that has the Google Assistant, including Google Home speakers, Smart Displays and mobile apps, “Hey Google, talk like a Legend.” You can also switch voices in Assistant Settings.The singer’s voice, recorded using speech synthesis model WaveNet, is available for select content, such as jokes, the forecast and questions like “Why is the sky blue?” and “Who is Chrissy Teigen?” All other responses will continue to be in one of the regular Assistant voices.Google said in a statement that cameo voices have been one of the top requests for its Assistant feature.To read more on Legend’s vocal cameo, click here.
1st artificial intelligence Google Doodle features Bach
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google is celebrating composer Johann Sebastian Bach with its first artificial intelligence-powered Doodle.Thursday's animated Google Doodle shows the composer playing an organ in celebration of his March 21, 1685, birthday under the old Julian calendar.
Iowa State Trooper credited with preventing potential Google headquarters attack
ADAIR COUNTY, Iowa — An Iowa State Trooper is being credited for potentially stopping an attack on Google's headquarters in California.Upset that his YouTube channel had been shut down, Kyle Long was traveling from his home in Maine to San Francisco to confront Google officials.Last Friday, he crashed into a ditch on I-80 and, while speaking with Trooper Ryan Zenor, dropped details of his plans.“Had we not encountered this individual or had he not gone in the ditch Friday morning on the interstate, who knows what would have happened.
Macaulay Culkin is 'Home Alone' again, recreating classic scenes in Google commercial
Almost 30 years after his shenanigans as Kevin McCallister, Macaulay Culkin is "Home Alone" again.This time, he's 38 and uses Google Assistant to help him fend off the wet bandits.The minute-long ad recreates, frame by frame, many of the classic scenes from the original movie.It starts off with an older Kevin coming down from the bed in attic, saying: "Mom?
Silicon Valley East: Google plans $1B expansion in New York
NEW YORK -- Google announced Monday it will spend more than $1 billion to build a new office complex in New York City that will allow the internet search giant to double the number of people it employs there.It is the tech industry's latest major expansion beyond the Seattle-San Francisco Bay corridor.
Google expands Pixel phone screens, undercuts Apple on price
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Google's new Pixel phones mirror the industry trend moving the devices toward lusher, bigger screens and add new twists on the camera for taking better selfies and other pictures.The Pixels have barely made a dent in the market since their debut two years ago, but Google is hoping to change that with the latest models unveiled Tuesday at an event in New York.Google uses the phones to highlight what it considers to be best features of its Android operating system, while challenging Apple and Samsung with a device tailored for affluent consumers.
Google Plus to close after bug leaks personal information
SAN FRANCISCO — Google is shutting down its long-shunned Plus social network for consumers, following its disclosure of a flaw discovered in March that could have exposed some personal information of up to 500,000 people.The announcement came in a Monday blog post , which marked Google's first public description of the privacy bug.Google deliberately avoided disclosing the problem at the time, in part to avoid drawing regulatory scrutiny and damaging its reputation, according to a Wall Street Journal storythat cited anonymous individuals and documents.The Mountain View, California, company declined to comment on the Journal's report, and didn't fully explain in its blog post why it held off on revealing the bug until Monday.The Google Plus flaw could have allowed up to 438 external apps to scoop up user names, email addresses, occupations, genders and ages without authorization.
Too much screen time? New phone controls for you and kids
NEW YORK — Apple and Google want to help you spend less time on their phones — really.
Google tracks your movements, like it or not
SAN FRANCISCO — Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you've used a privacy setting that says it will prevent Google from doing so.Computer-science researchers at Princeton confirmed these findings at the AP's request.For the most part, Google is upfront about asking permission to use your location information.
Google announces new features to come at developers conference
Google held it's annual developers conference this week and made lots of big announcements.
Google to verify identity of US political ad buyers
SAN FRANCISCO — Google says it will do a better job of verifying the identity of political ad buyers in the U.S. by requiring a copy of a government-issued ID and other information.Google will also require the disclosure of who is paying for the ad.
Testing the Real Time Translation feature on Google Pixel Buds Headphones
We try out the neat real-time foreign language translation feature on Google's Pixel Buds headphones.
Cameras compared: Samsung Galaxy S9 vs iPhone X vs Pixel 2
Comparing the cameras on the top smartphones on the market including the Samsung Galaxy S9, Apple’s iPhone X and Google’s Pixel 2.We’ve moved past megapixels and now most of us just want to know if a smartphone takes good photos in a variety of conditions.
Google’s new gadgets: Artificial intelligence everywhere
A look at Google's upcoming products including new Pixel smartphones, smart speakers and even headphones that offer real time translation.Google unveiled a bunch of new products at a recent event in San Francisco.
Google vies to make even smarter phones, speakers, cameras
SAN FRANCISCO — Google's upgrades to its Pixel smartphones and other gadgets are its latest steps toward turning its digital services into your backup brain.The products the company unveiled on Wednesday are packed with artificial intelligence that Google has accumulated from those very same services.