Tag: Google

Google Lens Visual Search Assistant Feature Starts Rolling Out on Pixel, Pixel 2 Phones

Loknath Das

Google has started rolling out visual search feature Google Lens in Assistant for the first batch of Pixel and Pixel 2 smartphones. “The first users have spotted the visual search feature up and running on their Pixel and Pixel 2 phones,” 9to5Google reported late on Friday. At first built into the Photos app, with the launch of the Pixel XL 2, Google Lens can recognise things like addresses and books, among others. In Photos, the feature can be activated when viewing any image or screenshot. However, in Google Assistant, it is integrated right into the sheet that pops up after holding…

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India will have to wait longer for Android Pay as Google shifts focus to Tez, its digital payment app

Loknath Das

Google is not going to roll out its Android Pay service in India any time soon. The company is rather focused on pushing its new app – Google Tez, a Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based digital payment application, in the country. During a Q&A session following the launch of Google Tez app on Monday, company’s senior executive Caesar Sengupta told the media that the company has no immediate plans to launch the Android Pay service in India. He cited lack of wider availability of (Near Field Connectivity) NFC-enabled smartphones and penetration of…

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Google opens Expeditions VR education app to the public

Loknath Das

Google has long sold its Cardboard VR format as a super accessible platform for getting people into virtual reality. One of their major initiatives for it has been in education markets through its Google Expeditions program, which allows students to get in the center of 360 photos and 3D scenes with historical importance. The program has enabled trips to the TaJ Mahal, Colosseum and behind the scenes of Alexander Hamilton’s life. Today, the company announced it is opening the educational VR tours to the public through a new Expeditions App. All you need…

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Google, GE Appliances Partner to Expand Smart Home Ambitions

Loknath Das

GE Appliances announced a deal with Google Wednesday enabling the US tech giant’s voice control home hub to be used for cooking, cleaning and other functions. The deal enables GE’s “Geneva” to communicate with the Google Assistant, so users can say: “Ok Google, ask Geneva Home to set the oven timer for 10 minutes.” The announcement comes nearly a year after GE Appliances unveiled a similar tie-up with Amazon’s Alexa-powered speakers.   It also comes as Google was expected to unveil more partnerships and initiatives in artificial intelligence at its…

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How Google Took Over the Classroom

Loknath Das

CHICAGO — The sixth graders at Newton Bateman, a public elementary school here with a classic red brick facade, know the Google drill. In a social-science class last year, the students each grabbed a Google-powered laptop. They opened Google Classroom, an app where teachers make assignments. Then they clicked on Google Docs, a writing program, and began composing essays. Looking up from her laptop, Masuma Khan, then 11 years old, said her essay explored how schooling in ancient Athens differed from her own. “Back then, they had wooden tablets and…

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Google embraces 360-degree video with new Street View certification for cameras

Loknath Das

Google’s Street View is one of those amazing things we take for granted. At the tap of a button we can be transported to millions of places around around the globe and take a 360-degree look around as if we were standing right there. And now Google wants to put the power of Street View right in your hands. On its Keyword blog, Google has announced a new “Street View ready” certification standard that will let anyone publish an interactive tour fit for Maps. Previously, creating 360-degree videos required a…

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Google Duo Aims to Make Video Calling Super-Easy

subhadip

Google on Monday launched Google Duo, a one-on-one video calling app that runs on iOS and Android. The app will be available worldwide in the next few days, said Justin Uberti, principal software engineer at Google. Duo switches from cellular service to WiFi, and transitions from high-speed to lower speed wireless service smoothly, promising to let users continue video calls irrespective of their location and service speeds, although video degradation may be apparent on slower services. A separate account isn’t necessary to sign up for the app — a phone…

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Alphabet Loses Google Ventures Founder Bill Maris, But ‘Everything Is Great’

subhadip

Bill Maris, the founder and CEO of Alphabet’s GV (formerly known as Google Ventures), is leaving the company. GV is the venture capital investment arm of Alphabet, which was founded in 2009. GV has made investments in many companies such as ride-hailing service Uber, health food company Impossible Foods, discount online retailer Jet.com, which was recentlyacquired by Walmart for $3.3 billion, and more. During an interview with Recode, Maris revealed that he had spent about eight years in GV and he is leaving to spend time with his family. “I have…

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Google ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ to Be Applied More Widely

subhadip

Google will start scrubbing search results across all its websites when accessed from a European country to soothe the objections of Europe’s privacy regulators to its implementation of a landmark E.U. ruling, a person close to the company said. The U.S. company has been at loggerheads with several European Union data protection authorities since the European Court of Justice ruled in May 2014 that people could ask search engines such as Google and Microsoft’s Bing to remove inadequate or irrelevant information that appears under searches for their name — dubbed…

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Android M Developer Preview 3 delayed, will be a “near final” release

nhdownyflake

Following Android M Developer Preview 2, this month, Google was supposed to launch Android M Developer Preview 3 for select Nexus devices. However, we’re now learning that the release is being delayed. The info was shared by a Google employee via the Android M Developer Preview community page on Google+, so it’s as official as it gets. The reason for the delay is that Google wants Android M Developer Preview 3 to be “a near final release”, and needs a little bit more time to work on it. In other…

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