Google

When Apple Music first launched in 2015, playing it on anything other than an Apple device was impossible. Thankfully though, over the years Apple has made its streaming service available to access through third-party devices and speakers, including Amazon Echo and Google-owned speakers. This article focuses on Google devices. If you have a Google Home mini or a newer Nest-branded smart...

Google includes a Live Captions transcription feature in version 89 of its Chrome browser for desktop. Live Captions uses machine learning to create a real-time transcription for videos or audio played through the browser, which can make online media more accessible for members of the Deaf community and other people with hearing loss. Once enabled, Live Captions appear in a box in the bottom ...

If you buy a new iPhone to replace your existing one and you use the Google Authenticator app to access online accounts protected by two-factor authentication (2FA), you should transfer those accounts to your new phone as soon as possible, because without the 2FA codes close at hand, you could find yourself locked out of your online accounts. 2FA adds an extra layer of security to your...

Google Lens can now recognize over a billion items in the world around us, the search engine giant announced this week. That's four times as many things that the AI-powered feature could identify when it was first launched last year, thanks partly to a huge number of Google Shopping products which have been added to its knowledge base. While its optical character recognition engine has...

In Chrome 66, rolling out now for Mac and iOS, Google has added a password export option to the web browser so that you can easily migrate your login details to another browser via a third-party password manager app. In this article, we'll show you how to export your passwords from Chrome on Mac and iOS. At the end of the process, you'll be left with a CSV file containing all your login...

Google has announced plans to strengthen user privacy on Android with a new initiative that will put an end to cross-app tracking on Android over the next two years, making it more difficult for advertisers to track users across other apps. In a blog post, Google announced a multi-year project named "Privacy Sandbox" that introduces "more private advertising solutions" for mobile apps. The...

Google has announced early access to Chrome OS Flex, a method of replacing the operating system on older PCs and Macs "within minutes" to essentially turn them into Chromebooks. The company is encouraging individuals, schools, and businesses to download Chrome OS Flex so they can "easily try modern computing with cloud-based management" while extending the lifespan of older devices, thereby ...

Google today announced that its Google One VPN is available to iPhone and iPad users, one and a half years after promising to bring it to iOS devices. The service, which has on Android smartphones and tablets since October 2020, is available for Google One members who have the 2TB Premium plan. Google One Premium is priced at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, and in addition to VPN...

Google has internally kickstarted the development of an augmented reality headset that will "blend computer graphics with a video feed of the real world" to deliver an immersive AR experience, with a launch tentatively set for 2024, according to a report from The Verge. The report describes the headset, codenamed Project Iris, as a "tightly kept secret" at Google with around 300 employees...

Google today announced its 2022 product plans for the Android operating system, and several of the upcoming additions clearly mirror existing Apple features. The new functionality will allow Android smartphones and Google products to match capabilities already available with the Apple devices. Fast Pair, a Google feature that enables Bluetooth accessories to instantly pair to an Android...

Apple has an agreement with Google that it won't develop its own internet search engine so long as Google pays it to remain the default option in Safari, a new class action alleges. Filed in a California court earlier this week against Apple, Google, and their respective CEOs, the lawsuit alleges the two companies have a non-compete agreement in the internet search business that violates US...

If you have been good this year, you may be interested to know that Google today launched its annual Santa tracking feature, allowing Santa to be tracked in real time on his mythical journey to the North Pole as he prepares to deliver presents to kids around the world. Google's Santa Tracker continues an 18-year tradition for the company, allowing excited children (and parents!) to keep up...

Google is planning to launch its first smartwatch next year, according to a new report from Business Insider, signaling Google's expansion into creating smartwatch hardware rather than just software. Google has so far only developed wearOS, an operating system that the company has partnered with Samsung and others to implement into smartwatch offerings. Next year, however, Google is planning ...

Last Friday, code suggested Google would soon roll out an update for Google Messages that would display iMessage Reactions from iPhone users as emoji on Android devices, and now that update has started rolling out. Screenshots from 9to5Google reader Jvolkman According to 9to5Google, some Android users are beginning to see iMessage reactions in Google Messages as emoji that are linked to the...

The Google Messages app on Android devices may soon start showing iMessage reactions as emoji characters instead of text, according to some digging done by 9to5Google. In the Messages app on iOS and Mac devices, users can add a reaction like a heart, thumbs up, thumbs down, a laugh, a question mark, or an exclamation, all of which show up as annotations to an iMessage. These reactions can...

The United Kingdom's Supreme Court today sided with Google in restoring its appeal against a lawsuit that accused it of wrongly tracking users within the iPhone's Safari browser without their consent. According to the ruling, the judge believed that the lawsuit, which sought to ask for compensation from Google for millions of users allegedly affected by its tracking practices, is "officious" ...

The South Korean government recently passed a law that bans Apple and Google from requiring developers to use their in-app purchase systems in the App Store and Google Play respectively, and Google has now announced changes to comply with the law. In a blog post, Google said it will be giving developers the option to add an alternative in-app billing system alongside the Play Store's billing ...

Shortly after the launch of the new iPhone 13 models in September, Google came out with the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro, its latest flagship devices, which are feature rich and priced at $599 and $899 respectively. We picked up the Pixel 6 Pro, which has the most advanced lens system, and thought we'd compare it to the iPhone 13 Pro Max to see the similarities and differences between the two...

After lowering its Play Store commission from 30 percent to 15 percent in March, Google today announced that it is making the same change to subscription fees, an update applicable to all app developers, reports The Verge. At the current time, Google's subscription policy works like Apple's. Google collects 30 percent from a subscription during the first year, and then drops that to 15...

Google today announced its latest flagship smartphones, the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro. The two new devices are already garnering positive reviews for their high-end feature set available at an affordable price tag. Priced at $599 and $899, respectively, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are Google's first smartphones that are equipped with the Google Tensor system-on-a-chip, which Google...

Google is winding down its Material Design custom UI for iOS apps to switch to pure UIKit, according to Google's design chief for Apple platforms Jeff Verkoeyen. Google's suite of apps for iOS and iPadOS, including Gmail, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Drive, and YouTube, have used custom user interfaces that mirror the experience on Android for almost a decade. The purpose of these...

A Google executive is extending an open hand to help Apple adopt RCS, a new communication protocol called Rich Communication Services to iPhone and iPad, that would replace standard SMS and offer improved cross-platform messaging capabilities. In a tweet, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google's senior vice president of Android, said that "group chats don't need to break this way," referring to a...

A bug in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 is preventing Safari from loading AMP links for Google search results, but the issue is not intentional and Google is preparing a fix that's set to be released in the near future. Developer Jeff Johnson today published a blog post speculating on whether Google had intentionally disabled AMP links for Google search results in Safari on devices running ‌iOS 15‌...

In a new blog post titled "Bring the best of Google to your iPhone," Google is on an endeavor to convince new iPhone 13 users to transform their ‌device’s home screen to look like Android. The blog post, written by Google's director for the iOS platform, features screenshots of an ‌iPhone 13‌ home screen filled with Google apps and widgets. The post implies that customers should possibly...

Google today lambasted European Union regulators for ignoring Apple and the rivalry between Apple and Android in the antitrust accusations that have been levied against Google, reports Reuters. Apple was brought up as part of Google's attempt to get a massive 4.34 billion euro ($5.1 billion) fine annulled. The European Commission first levied the fine against Google in 2018 because Google...