Category: Google

Google Fined In Germany Over Street View Data Collection

A German privacy regulator fined Google €145,000 on Monday for its systematic, illegal collection of personal data while it was creating its Street View mapping service, and it called on European lawmakers to significantly raise fines for violations of data protection laws.

It found that while specially equipped Google vehicles took city snapshots between 2008 and 2010 for its Street View function, which supplements its standard map service, they had also picked up data from unsecured wireless networks.

“Among the information gathered in the drive-bys were significant amounts of personal data of varying quality. For example emails, passwords, photos and chat protocols were collected,” the Hamburg authorities said in a statement.

Hamburg data regulator Johannes Caspar explained: “In my view, this is one of the biggest data protection rules violations known,” said Caspar. Google’s “internal control mechanisms must have severely failed.”

It not the first time Google as been fined for such a breach of data protection, with the French privacy regulator levying a €100,000 penalty on Google in 2011. However Google has now tightened up its policy with using the Google Street View car systems to address issues raised in the latest data protection violation, Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel, said in a statement.

The commissioner also ordered Google to delete all the data it had gathered. A third party verified that Google indeed deleted the data.

Google said it would not appeal the fine.

[The Guardian]

April 22, 2013
Google MyGlass App Leak Reveals Multiplayer Gaming In Upcoming Android

A teardown of the MyGlass Google Glass companion app reveals that Google may have plans for a gaming service similar to Apple’s Game Center.

Android Police discovered the complete feature list for a gaming service when tearing down the MyGlass application that will accompany the Google Glass AR specs.

According to the website, Google usually ships apps with a few Google-powered components that some apps depend on to work but Google accidentally shipped all of them, even though the service has no connection with Google Glass.

The underground Games service will feature support for real-time multiplayer games allowing users to play games with other connected players, as per the website. It would also apparently support turn-based multiplayer games such as board games where players take chances to play, and the teardown reveals that users will also get notifications when it’s their turn.

Users would also be able to chat with other players within the game in real-time multiplayer mode, in addition to offering leader boards and allowing users to keep a track of achievements.

The game service will bring in the ability to invite friends and will come with a ‘Lobbies’ feature through which users will be able to chat before a game begins, plan strategies, rules, and choose teams.

If Google could create their own gaming service for Android and include some killer features, it could look much more attractive than iOS’s gaming offerings.

Android Police has concluded that this gaming service is nearly finished, speculating that we might be able to learn more about it during Google I/O.

[Android Police, SlashGear]

April 19, 2013
Google Reveals $14 Billion Revenue In Q1 Earnings

Google presented its Q1 2013 earnings today and, overall, the company looks to be in good shape. Revenues of $13.97 billion were down slightly from the always-hot previous quarter, but that number was in line with analysts’ expectations. More impressive was the $3.35 billion net income, which was up over 30% from the same period a year ago.

Motorola Mobility continued to shed money, gross revenue of $1.02 billion and a net loss of $271 million. Patrick Pichette, Google’s CFO, said, ”We’re pleased with the velocity of change at Motorola Mobility. We’re excited about the future, but results will continue to be variable.” The amounts of lower, both in revenue and money lost, than the previous quarter, which means internal money-saving measures, in addition to the substantial number of jobs shed, are making a difference.

The company hasn’t released a product since September of last year, but 2013 promises to be one of big changes in the company. Now fully integrated into Google, we’re hearing rumours that the X-Phone will be “phenomenal” and come in up to 20 colours (don’t hold your breath), in addition to being much more manageably-sized. Motorola has also promised to stick fairly close to the stock Android experience, though whether that, along with Google’s help, will be enough to regain much of its lost brand recognition and market share remains to be seen.

Last year was Google’s first $50 billion revenue year, and CEO Larry Page said that the three pillars of the business — Chrome, Android and Ads — would continue to be the focus in 2013. The company is activating 1.5 million Android devices every day and with the release of Google Glass to developers this week, there’s yet another platform on which users can expect to see Google dominate.

April 19, 2013
You Can Buy Your Very Own Pair Of Google Glass! If You Have Rs 4,87,4400

Google Glass is nearing it’s completion and will very soon be available to to the 2,000 developers who had pre-ordered the device last year. Also, the people who’d taken part in Google’s #ifihadglass contest, and won a pair of these technological marvels, are beginning to receive their units.

Google’s #ifihadglass contest advertised for “bold, creative individuals” to start carrying pre-production builds of Glass later this year. The contest apparently also looked for prosperous individuals willing to pay $1,500 for the prize, plus travel expense to pick it up.

If you weren’t one of the lucky winners, the chosen ones, then you don’t need to feel disappointed. You can own your very own pair of Google Glass now! If you have Rs. 4,87,4400/- that is.

As Engadget reports, a seller on eBay has put up his unit for sale and has priced it at $90,000. The seller is an eBay member since 2004, and has a 100% positive feedback.

It’s not quite clear how Google will respond to this listing, as it had clearly laid out the terms to the developers receiving the devices that they were not to be gifted or sold.

Guess we will find out!

In terms of specs, Google Glass will feature a 640 x 360 display, which according to Google is “equivalent of a 25 inch high definition screen from eight feet away,” The device will come with a 5 megapixel camera, that’s capable of shooting videos in 720p.

The device gets 16GB of onboard storage, out of which only 12GB is accessible by the user and it will sync with Google’s cloud storage service.

[Engadget]

April 17, 2013
Google : 1.5 Million Android Devices Are Being Activated Everyday

Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, has confirmed to the press that the company is activating 1.5 million Android devices every day.

That’s 200,000 additional devices per day than the most recent status update, when Google shared in September that 1.3 million Android devices were being activated daily.

Schmidt made these remarks during All Things D’s Dive Into Mobile conference, where he stated that Android has 700,000 apps available.

Schmidt also talked about some things that would hep spur on more growth. Pricing is definitely on their mind, and device for the $100 price point is something that Google will be hitting quickly. Could we assume a new Nexus tablet at Google I/O that is $99? Quite possibly.

The vocal CEO also stated he believes there will be one billion Android phones in the world by the end of the year, up from a projected 750 million stated some time ago.

Of course, Schmidt didn’t just talk numbers the entire time, because that would be boring. He touched on subjects like Facebook Home and the Maps situation with Apple.

When asked if Google was worried about Facebook Home, Schmidt dismissed the idea entirely.

“We’re phenomenally happy that people are using Android in these ways. You can’t have half-open source. It’s open source,” Schmidt said.

“From our perspective, we really want them to use [Google Maps],” Schmidt said. “It’d be easy to take the app in the store and use it as their basic one.”

[Engadget]

April 17, 2013
Blackberry Ahead Of iOS And Android! In A ‘Don’t Want’ Poll.

Blackberry finally has the lead on Android and iOS! Well at least in a poll where people voted for the things they “didn’t want”.

71.4% of the respondents agreed that “nothing would get them to buy a BlackBerry.” Only 31.3% said the same thing about Android and for the iPhone the number was even lower at 19.7%. Interestingly, Windows Phone does not appear in that survey conducted by research house Raymond James.

Here is a brief excerpt from the piece, explaining in greater detail:

“Here’s a novel way of polling consumer sentiment in the smartphone market: Don’t ask people which handset they prefer to use; ask them which one they would never use.

Research In Motion/BlackBerry is having a difficult time convincing consumers that its new operating systems, coupled with fresh smartphones, is an alternative to the top players in the market. This Raymond James survey appears to back up that claim.

As AllThingsD reports, it’s interesting to see purchasing sentiment gauged in terms of what smartphones consumers are adamantly opposed to using. If the smartphone market is truly so factionalized that some consumers say that nothing could convince them to switch away from their preferred device, then upstart platforms like Windows Phone and the like have a steep uphill climb, indeed.

What do you think about the operating system, do you feel the same way about it as the respondents of this survey?

[All Things D, Raymond James]

April 11, 2013
Google Play For Android Redesigned with Cleaner Look, Rollout To Start This Week

Google has made many changes to Google Play since it debuted in 2008 under its former “Android Market” title. The latest update delivers an all-new design that aims to simplify the discovery process and more closely resemble Google’s changing aesthetics.

The company said in a blog post that the new format is rolling out Tuesday in the U.S. to Android smartphone and tablets running Android 2.2 (Froyo). International users should see the changes in coming weeks.

The new look also puts the mobile version of Google Play more in line with its Web counterpart. The older version of the Android store uses black as its main color and has an overall dark hue throughout. That is being replaced with a lighter set of colors, like the ones found when accessing Google Play through the Web. This should make Google Play for Android easier on users’ eyes.

Besides a redesign, Google also said it has sped up the checkout process so users can begin to enjoy their content more quickly. Users can purchase music, movies, TV shows, books and magazines from the digital store.

Apps are undoubtedly big business. Revenue for the world’s top app marketplaces hit $2.2 billion in the first quarter of 2013 alone, analysis firm Canalys firm said, with downloads across the major four app stores topping the 13 billion mark, reports Washington Post. According to the report, that’s roughly an 11 percent increase between the last quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013.

April 10, 2013
Reuters : Google Nexus 7 Successor Coming This July

Internet giant Google is reportedly gearing up for the launch of a successor for last year’s Nexus 7 tablet PC, and might release it on shelves as soon as July, a new report from Reuters on the matter suggests.

We have already reported on a possible new 7-inch Nexus tablet coming from Google and ASUS, with no official confirmation on the matter available as of now, but it seems that we might indeed be nearing a formal unveiling of the device.

The latest version will have a higher screen resolution, a thinner bezel design and adopt Qualcomm’s chip in place of Nvidia Corp’s Tegra 3, which was used in the first Nexus 7s released last year, the sources said, declining to be identified because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

In a blow to Nvidia, Google weighed both U.S. chipmakers’ processors but finally decided on Qualcomm’s for power reasons, one of the sources added.

Qualcomm and Nvidia are competing aggressively in the tablet market as they seek to expand from their traditional strongholds of cellphones and PCs respectively.

Google will maintain an aggressive pricing strategy, however the two sources are split on exactly how that will be achieved: the new Nexus could come in at $199, with the older model seeing a discount, or $149, obviating the elder Nexus 7 entirely.

The tablet would likely be equipped with Google’s next Android version, Key Lime Pie, so there’s plenty to look forward to.

[Reuters]

April 3, 2013
Android Jelly Bean Now On 25% Devices As Google Counts Active Users

Every month Google releases stats that give a glimpse into the distribution of the various versions of Android. Like clockwork, the percentages of the older versions (Donut, Eclair or Froyo) tend to trail off, while newer versions such as Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean amass greater authority.

Last month’s data

Starting with the release of the new charts, Google has changed the way it collects information for the monthly Dashboard release. Back in the day when Froyo and Eclair were the current builds, Google took information from Android phones each time they checked in to Google servers. Now, the data comes from phones as they visit the Google Play Store. This should result in more accurate information.

Jelly Bean has reached 25 per cent marketshare, but is still not in the lead with the most active users. Android 3.2 Gingerbread, released in 2010, leads with more than 40 percent of users, followed by Ice Cream Sandwich with 29 per cent of users.

Before the change in the way Google counts, Jelly Bean sat at roughly 15 percent marketshare, which makes for a considerable jump. Android has long been blamed for taking longer to seed its latest update to new devices than Apple’s iOS. The new numbers, while aimed at developers, definitely paint a better picture to the public.

At any rate, developers now have a better understanding of who to target their apps to.

April 3, 2013
Google Unified Privacy Policy To Lead To Fines

Google’s privacy policies are to be investigated by Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to see if they are illegal under UK law.

The move comes after French data protection regulatory CNIL confirmed that Google had made no attempt to meets it concerns over its renewed privacy policies, first unveiled in March 2012, despite its numerous complaints that the changes were illegal.

In a statement on its website, the CNIL confirmed that despite meeting with Google, the firm had refused to take any action to appease its concerns.

“On 19 March 2013, representatives of Google were invited at their request to meet with the taskforce led by the CNIL and composed of data protection authorities of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK. Following this meeting, no change has been seen,” it said.

Google did not implement the recommendations within the allotted four months, even after a meeting in March with CNIL and data protection authorities (DPAs) from Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. And now we see the result. According to a CNIL statement on Tuesday:

“It is now up to each national data protection authority to carry out further investigations according to the provisions of its national law transposing European legislation. Consequently, all the authorities composing the taskforce have launched actions on 2 April 2013 on the basis of the provisions laid down in their respective national legislation (investigations, inspections, etc.)

“In particular, the CNIL notified Google of the initiation of an inspection procedure and that it had set up an international administrative cooperation procedure with its counterparts in the taskforce.”

This latest brush with Europe’s data protection watchdogs was triggered by Google’s action last year to consolidate more than 60 separate product privacy notices into one unified policy. After an investigation, European privacy regulators published a list of privacy recommendations for Google, including suggesting the company should make it clearer to users how their personal information may be used, and how it is collected and collated from different services. They also wanted Google to offer users an opt-out. It is these recommendations that Google has apparently failed to comply with, resulting in today’s actions.

[V3, TechCrunch]

April 2, 2013
YouTube plays april fools, Will delete every thing on Youtube

Youtube’s latest creative endeavor is to delete everything on Youtube to get rid of all the content everyone has been uploading, as part of their contest to find the best video in the world.

The supposed contest is now over and at midnight March 31st 2013, the dawn of 1st April Youtube will end accepting videos for Youtube as a whole.

Check out the Video!

[youtube id=”H542nLTTbu0″ width=”100%” height=”300px”]

April 1, 2013
Google+ Now Supports Animated GIF Profile Pictures

Google is taking a page out of Facebook’s book and is pushing images as a main part of Google+. As part of this initiative, it has added support for Gifs to be used as Google+ profile pictures.

[pullquote_left] “Our gif to you. You can now use animated gifs for your profile photo,” the official Google+ account announced on Monday. [/pullquote_left]

Some users are happy about the new feature, taking advantage of it to post animated snippets of themselves in various states as an avatar 2.0 kind of deal. Others, however, are expressing displeasure at the change, stating that animated profile pictures are distracting and ugly, and detract from the Google+ experience.

According to the announcement, animated Gifs are now supported on both desktop and mobile devices. However, TNW reports that this feature does not apply to iOS devices as of now.

As Matt Steiner, the person who first posted that Gifs are now supported, said, “[it is] like newspapers in Harry Potter.” We imagine some creative people will make use of this to do some funny and interesting things, much like people did with Facebook cover photos when they were first introduced.

Google also provides a link directing users to a search on “How to make a GIF” in an attempt to encourage users to have one such animated image of their own.

[Via Google+, Slashgear]

March 26, 2013
Google Play Store Version 4.0 Leaked

Google Play, previously known as the Android Market, has over 700,000 available apps and has seen over 25 billion downloads. The Google Play app design has come a long way over the years and it looks like a refresh is once again in the works. Droid-Life has posted some images and a video of the upcoming Google Play 4.0 app (4.0.16). While it seems that Google is still working on the fine details, the UI has been completely overhauled in a Holo-focused design with brighter colours (now matching what’s on Google Play), bigger icons and bigger pictures.

The settings pane has also been slightly changed around, making it slightly simpler to customize how items are displayed and downloaded.

The update is expected to be unveiled at this year’s I/O event, alongside an update to Android itself, either 4.3, or maybe even 5.0.

According to Distimo’s year-end review, Google Play experienced an aggregated daily revenue growth of 43 percent across 20 of the largest markets where the store is available.

To celebrate its success, and its first birthday, early this month, the Android shop offered users limited-time deals on music, movies, books, magazines, TV shows, and games.

The guys over at Droid-Life were kind enough to record a preview of Google Play Store 4.0, so without any further ado check out the video below.

[Droid-Life]

March 22, 2013
YouTube counts more than 1 Billion Unique Users each month

Chances are you probably first met with iGyaan on Youtube, and there is good reason for that. Since the 8 years Youtube has been live it has been the most popular video streaming and sharing service in the world. Now YouTube rakes in over 1 billion unique visitors every month globally. Even though that is considerably less than the population in India, it is still massive in comparison to the online world stats.

Funnily enough, if most of China was not blocked, this number would have been at least double.

[toggle title=”YouTube Statement”]In the last eight years you’ve come to YouTube to watch, share and fall in love with videos from all over the world. Tens of thousands of partners have created channels that have found and built businesses for passionate, engaged audiences. Advertisers have taken notice: all of the Ad Age Top 100 brands are now running campaigns on YouTube. And today, we’re announcing a new milestone: YouTube now has more than a billion unique users every single month.

What does a billion people tuning into YouTube look like?
Nearly one out of every two people on the Internet visits YouTube.
Our monthly viewership is the equivalent of roughly ten Super Bowl audiences.
If YouTube were a country, we’d be the third largest in the world after China and India.
PSY and Madonna would have to repeat their Madison Square Garden performance in front of a packed house 200,000 more times. That’s a lot of Gangnam Style!
From the aspiring filmmaker in his basement and the next great pop musician, to the fans all around the world who tune in, subscribe and share their favorite videos with the planet, thank you for making YouTube what it is today. You have truly created something special.

The YouTube Team[/toggle]

March 21, 2013
Rumour : Next Nexus 5 Phone To Have A Nikon Camera Module

The Nexus 4 is coming on half a year old and, as is tradition in the industry, rumours of its demise and successor are already making the rounds. The latest rumour to surface places the fifth Nexus smartphone once more in the grasp of LG who, along with Google, are working with Nikon to create the ultimate smartphone-based camera sensor and lens combo.

Nikon is getting serious about the growing smart phone market: last year the company released their first Andorid based camera. Just last month Nikon signed a patent agreement with Microsoft involving patents for cameras running on the Android operating system.

Of course the Nexus 5, or whatever it will be called, will be upgraded to a 1080p display — you can expect all high-end Android phones to join the Full HD ranks soon enough — but, along with the high-res display, bringing it to 5-inches may put it in the phablet space more than the smartphone one.

Other rumours point to a Snapdragon 600 processor (Snapdragon 800 is going into an eventual Google Nexus 10.2, they iterate), 2 GB of RAM, 8/16 GB of storage, and a 3140 mAh battery.

No point in getting ahead of ourselves, though; the next Nexus announcement is likely months away, at the very least.

Last year, in November, Google released the Nexus 4 to great demand. The device, which combines high-end hardware with the latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean software and a cheap unlocked and on-contract price, was extremely hard to find for its first few months of existence and remains one of the best Android smartphone options on the market.

[PhoneArena. Mobile Syrup]

March 19, 2013