While California’s highways and byways are filling up with self-driving prototypes right now, the state Department of Motor Vehicles is laying down some rules of the road that, if finalized, will mean it could take longer for the public to get their hands on driverless cars. [More]
Google Play Music Now Offering Six-Person Family Plan, Free YouTube Red Service
By 12.9.15
After two months of testing a family plan for its streaming music service, Google announced that it would make the six-person program a permanent option for Google Play Music users. [More]
Google Testing Ads That Let You Try Mobile Games Before Downloading Them
By 12.3.15
Sometimes, a mobile game may catch your eye — all bright, blinking, beguiling colors — but after you’ve downloaded it, it turns out to be rather… meh. Yes, you can simply delete it from your phone easily enough — but if wasn’t a free game, that might smart a bit. In an attempt to defeat downloader’s remorse, Google is playing around with ads that would allow folks to try games before they’ve taken the leap to install them on their mobile devices. [More]
YouTube Wants To Be Your New Netflix, Seeks Rights To TV And Movies
By 12.3.15
If you want to curl up on the sofa on a cold winter night and watch a movie, that’s what Netflix is for. And if you want to watch music videos, mash-ups, or cats doing foolish things, you’ve got your YouTube. That’s how it’s been since approximately the dawn of time, by which we mean roughly the last five or six years. But it looks like the times, they are a-changing, and YouTube wants to be your one-stop shop for video of any and all sorts. [More]
Google Launches Tool That Lets Users Save Images Directly To Their Mobile Browser
By 12.2.15
While you’re searching the web for ideas on “Game of Thrones braided hairstyles” or “How to set the table like an adult,” you might come across photos that show exactly what you’re looking for. Many folks may then use Pinterest to save those images in a convenient spot for further study later. But Google wants to be your Pinterest, with a new tool that allows users to save images directly to their mobile web browser. [More]
Google Accused Of Snooping On Students’ Internet Activity
By 12.1.15
Google is one of more than 200 companies that have signed on to the “Student Privacy Pledge,” in which it promises to, among other things, “Not collect, maintain, use or share student personal information beyond that needed for authorized educational/school purposes.” But a new complaint accuses the Internet biggie of breaking its oath and spying on kids’ online activity. [More]
Google’s Latest Secret Prototype: A Communicator Straight Out Of Star Trek
By 11.23.15
In the future, you talk to your computers. That’s what Star Trek taught us, anyway, so I’m just going to go ahead and assume it’s true. And apparently some engineers over at Google, who actually can make it so, feel the exact same way. [More]
YouTube Is Helping Some Video Creators To Fight Unfair Copyright Claims
By 11.19.15
Copyright is pretty murky territory. We all know you can’t steal someone’s stuff, but there are times when you’re allowed to use it. Unfortunately, some copyright holders don’t seem to get that “fair use” exists, and respond with takedown claims and legal threats. For some YouTube users facing threats over legal work, though, that fight may just have gotten a little easier. [More]
Google Relaunching Google+ In Attempt To Convince People To Actually Use It
By 11.18.15
Remember when Google wanted people use Google+ for all their social media, photos and video needs? Then you probably also remember that it didn’t work out quite so well for Google, which ended up cutting up the platform into its most useful parts, like the photos feature. But the technology giant isn’t quite ready to give up on the social service yet, and is instead launching it anew. [More]
Google Maps Will Give You 1TB Of Free Storage In Exchange For Restaurant Reviews
By 11.16.15
What’s a technology company trying to break into the restaurant review game to do when not enough people are willing to submit restaurant reviews? If you’re Google, you give out a bunch of free storage. [More]
Google Self-Driving Car Pulled Over For Going Too Slow
By 11.13.15
You probably know the feeling: you’re driving along happily at the speed limit, on your way to work or school or that new mud-wrestling pit that just opened up, when suddenly, you’re forced to slow down to a veritable crawl, stuck puttering onward below the speed limit because one driver is moving at a snail’s pace. Who could be such a sadist? It could be a self-driving car, like the Google vehicle police pulled over yesterday. [More]
Apple, Google Pull Unofficial Instagram App That Harvests Usernames And Passwords
By 11.11.15
In yet another example of why unofficial apps aren’t always to be trusted, Apple and Google have yanked an app from their app stores that was supposed to let users know who was viewing their profiles. That’s not a thing, and a developer says that the app instead acted as malware, secretly collecting usernames and passwords and using them to post spam to users’ accounts. [More]
Google Maps Launches Offline Navigation And Search Options
By 11.10.15
As it was foretold back in May, so it has come to pass: for all those times when you need to know where you’re going but don’t have great Internet service, Google Maps has introduced offline navigation and search. [More]
Google Maps & Search Results Now List Businesses’ Holiday Hours
By 11.6.15
Google is once again revamping its Maps and Search platforms, adding functionality to make the services more useful for consumers – especially those doing a little holiday shopping. [More]
Gmail Wants To Reply To Your Emails For You With Artificial Intelligence
By 11.3.15
While we’re committed to a future serving as underlings to artificially intelligent lifeforms, we might as well enjoy some of the time-saving benefits, right? Like answering emails on the go — who wants to do that when there other more important things to do, like finally beat level 478 of Sugarsweet Smashtastic Kerplosion? Google wants to take on that task, with artificial intelligence that can read and reply to emails on your smartphone. [More]
Google Is Not Opening A Real-Life Store After All
By 11.2.15
Sorry to disappoint you, tech fans, but you will not be able to visit New York City and go on a strange technology tour by visting flagship stores from Apple, Google, and Microsoft. While Google was reportedly planning to open its first store, even leasing and renovating a space in Manhattan, they seem to have changed their minds. [More]
Google: Delivery Drones Could Be A Reality By 2017
By 11.2.15
In the race to fill the skies with commercial drones, Google X Labs, the technology research arm of newly-formed company Alphabet, is throwing a potential date for when it could possibly start operating a drone delivery powered by its own drones: packages could be falling from above by 2017, says the company’s drone project leader. [More]
Shortlist Of Future Google Fiber Cities Keeps Getting Longer, Three More Cities Added
By 10.29.15
Broadband competition in the U.S. still stinks almost everywhere and most of us are nowhere near gigabit connections. Google, of course, is the biggest — or at least, most popular — name out there trying to change both those things at once, and they’ve announced another three locales where they might plop fiber down if all goes well. [More]
