If growing up on Star Trek: The Next Generation reruns taught us anything, it’s that the future would be brought to us by computers that could recognize our voice commands and do whatever we asked. And while none of the products on the market today sound like the late Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, we are still surrounded by machine-generated female voices that answer our questions, queue up our favorite tunes, and dim our room lights on request. But the dominant player in that space is one that, just a few years ago, nobody would have expected — because it’s Amazon, not Google, connecting homes. [More]
Google Expands Waze Ride-Sharing Test To San Francisco
By 9.30.16
What’s that sound? It’s Google knocking on Uber and Lyft’s doors to tell them it’s come out to play: the technology giant is taking one step further into providing transportation by expanding its pilot ride-sharing program to San Francisco. [More]
Twitter Sales Rumors Heat Up, But Is A Deal Around The Corner?
By 9.26.16
In the three days since reports began to surface that Twitter was looking to sell itself — possibly to Google or professional networking site Salesforce — rumors, ranging from a $16 billion list price to a sale happening right this minute, have heated up significantly. [More]
Google Self-Driving Car Involved In Another Crash
By 9.26.16
One of Google’s self-driving vehicles has been involved in another crash while cruising the streets of Mountain View, CA, the company confirmed, after another driver ran a red light and crashed into the Lexus RX 450h. [More]
Report: Twitter Looking To Sell Itself — Maybe To Google
By 9.23.16
Twitter might be a hugely popular social media platform, but for all its influence and reach, the company is not exactly minting money. So it may not come as a surprise that Twitter is once again the subject of merger rumors. [More]
Apple Reportedly Looking To Create Competitor To Amazon Echo
By 9.23.16
With the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, Apple led the charge to make new personal digital products accessible, popular, and now all but necessary. But the electronics giant may now be playing catch-up to Amazon in the connected-home market, as the e-tailer’s Echo device and its various spinoffs become more affordable and functional. Now comes news that Apple is looking to build a connected-home speaker/assistant of its own to go head-to-head with Echo. [More]
AT&T Taking Nashville To Court To Try To Slow Down Google Fiber
By 9.23.16
They said they’d do it, and so, by gum, they’re doing it: Surprising basically nobody, AT&T has filed a lawsuit against the city of Nashville and its officials, seeking to block a recently-passed law that would make it possible for Google Fiber to come to town. [More]
Nashville Council Adopts Law To Let Google Fiber Come To Town; AT&T Prepares To Sue
By 9.21.16
Google Fiber is one step closer to being physically able to bring their service to Nashville, which is great news for Nashvillians. It’s less good news for Comcast and AT&T, which do not want more competition in town, and which are revving up their legal engines to fight it as much as possible. [More]
Comcast, AT&T Try Again To Stall Google Fiber In Nashville By Writing Law To Slow It Down
By 9.20.16
There’s been a fight a-brewing in local politics in Nashville for weeks. At its most basic, it’s some disagreement about utility regulation. But it’s also, an another level, every fight about broadband competition — and the lack thereof — going on in the U.S. right now, distilled down into one city. Our players? Google, Comcast, AT&T, and the Nashville metro council. [More]
Google Debuts Personalized Travel Planner Dubbed “Google Trips”
By 9.19.16
As anyone who’s ever found themselves standing around a police station in Spain at 3 a.m. calling mom back in the U.S. for their own hotel info can attest, it can be really tough when you’re lost in a foreign country or city without an Internet-connected device. Google wants to make those kinds of experiences easier and help travelers coordinate their activities with a new travel planning app called “Google Trips.” [More]
Waze Will Now Point You To The Best Parking Spots
By 9.19.16
Google’s traffic app Waze has long been used by commuters looking for the best possible route from point A to point B. Now, some of those drivers can use the app to find the best parking spot at the end of their trip. [More]
Chrome Will Start Giving You A Heads’ Up If That Site You’re On Isn’t Secure Enough
By 9.8.16
Google is on a mission to make using the internet a safer experience for even the least techie surfers. One feature at a time, it’s been trying to highlight not just when something is safe, but when it’s not. And soon, another one of those tweaks is coming to Chrome. [More]
Google Maps Adding Lyft, Gett To List Of Ride-Hail Options
By 9.8.16
The next time you ask Google Maps for directions, you’ll find a few more travel options: in Google’s recently-introduced tab dedicated to ride-hailing services, Lyft and Gett fares and time estimates will also be available alongside Uber, depending on where you live. [More]
Google Will Actually Deliver Burritos By Drone To Some Lucky College Kids
By 9.8.16
The eternal college conundrum: I am hungry, but too tired, busy, lazy, hungry, or hung-over to go to the place where the food I want is being sold. Why can’t lunch just appear on command and drop out of the sky? [More]
Nashville Advances Proposal To Let Google Fiber In Despite AT&T, Comcast Protests
By 9.8.16
Google Fiber wants to come to Nashville. Nashville wants to let it. But incumbent providers — AT&T and Comcast — really hate letting more competitors horn in on their game. And all of that is the stage upon which this week city politicians advanced their proposal to let Google Fiber come to town. [More]
Google’s New “Shop The Look” Lets You Buy Clothes, Furniture From Image Search Results
By 9.6.16
A number of fashion and celebrity gossip sites have long tinkered with “get the look” features that try to turn paparazzi pics into e-commerce gold, and now Google has introduced a “Shop the Look” program for mobile that aims to put a price tag on the clothes and furnishings you see in your search results. [More]
Report: Google Scrapping Modular Smartphone Project
By 9.2.16
Remember that fancy-pants, fully modular, user-customizable smartphone Google was working on? Well, if you do, you may as well go ahead and forget it now, because the project has been cancelled. [More]
Google Launching Actual Ride-Sharing Pilot To Compete With Uber, Lyft
By 8.31.16
When Uber was new, it may have claimed to be a ride-sharing service, but these days it’s a high-tech, glorified, unlicensed taxi app. So Google’s planning to start competing against it in San Francisco, with… an actual ride-sharing service. [More]
