Tag: google

BlackBerry Looking To Rope In Google, Cisco, SAP For Potential Sale

Another round of big name organizations are reportedly interested in BlackBerry. According to a report in Reuters today, Cisco Systems, Google and SAP are all ‘in talks’ with BlackBerry and considering purchasing the companies assets, specifically its secure server network and patent portfolio.

In addition, the report also notes that BlackBerry ‘has asked for preliminary expressions of interest from potential strategic buyers, which also include Intel Corp and Asian companies LG and Samsung.’ This is particularly interesting as Samsung has repeatedly declared they have no interest in the Waterloo-based company.

A week ago BlackBerry announced a $4.7 billion bid from Toronto-based Fairfax Financial, but the clause still ‘entitled to go-shop’ for other potential offers. New York-based Cerberus, who apparently specializes in investing in troubled organizations, is nowhere close to closing a deal and ‘is aiming to sign a confidentiality agreement that would allow it to access BlackBerry’s private financial information.’

The WSJ also reports that there’s another ‘distressed-investing firm’ interested in snatching up BlackBerry, but the ‘person familiar with the matter’ didn’t want to disclose the name. In addition, as previously rumoured, BlackBerry co-founder, Mike Lazaridis is considering a bid for the business.

BlackBerry declined to comment on the potential investor, stating “We do not intend to disclose further developments with the respect to the process until we approve a specific transaction or otherwise conclude the review of strategic alternatives.”

October 5, 2013
Google Acquires ‘Flutter’ the Company Which Builds Gesture Recognition Technology

Google acquires Flutter, a company which builds gesture recognition technology for computers. This came up an year back as Flutter started to build software allowing users to control their computers by making gestures in front of their webcams.

This technology can be used in the company’s Chromebook line of laptops. This is what the company says after being acquired by Google:

When we started three years ago, our dream to build a ubiquitous and power-efficient gesture recognition technology was considered by many as just “a dream”, not a real possibility. Since then, we have strived to build the best machine vision algorithms and a delightful user experience.

Even after we launched our first app, we didn’t stop our research; your enthusiasm and support pushed us to continue to do better. We’re inspired everyday when we hear, for example, that Flutter makes you feel like a superhero — because any sufficiently advanced technology should be indistinguishable from magic, right?

Today, we are thrilled to announce that we will be continuing our research at Google. We share Google’s passion for 10x thinking, and we’re excited to add their rocket fuel to our journey.

We’d like to extend a special thank you to all of our users; your feedback and evangelism inspire us every day. Flutter users will be able to continue to use the app, and stay tuned for future updates.

A Google spokesperson confirmed the deal to the media, “We’re really impressed by the Flutter team’s ability to design new technology based on cutting-edge research. We look forward to supporting and collaborating on their research efforts at Google.”

This deal might bring up the Gmail motion live, the company released a video long back in 2011 showing this technology:

[youtube id=”Bu927_ul_X0″ width=”100%” height=”300px”]

October 3, 2013
Apple is Worlds Top Brand, Coca-Cola Left Behind

The Best Global Brands report is coming up since 2000, the previous brand which was at the top most position was Coca-Cola which now fell to number 3. For the first time in its 13-year history, Best Global Brands have a new leader of its annual study of the most valuable brand names, which is Apple.

Not only has Apple replaced Coca-Cola as first among the 100 most valuable brands based on criteria that include financial performance as well. Apple came over Coca-Cola, which had led the study since it began in 2000, with a brand value Interbrand assessed at $98.3 billion. However, Google came in at second place with a brand value of $93.3 billion, ahead of the soft drink maker’s $79.2 billion value.

Other positions of different brands can be seen below:

September 30, 2013
Google Improves Search Accuracy Via Hummingbird Update

Marking Google’s 15th birthday, the Hummingbird update was release which is the biggest change to the inner workings of the world’s most popular search engine since Google’s “Caffeine” update in 2010, which sped up Google’s indexing of sites and delivery of search results.

The Hummingbird update focuses more on Google’s Knowledge Graph – an encyclopaedia of about 570m concepts and relationships that allows Google to anticipate facts and figures you might want to know about your search term.

When you search Google it no longer just searches for individual keywords; it can now respond to questions and statements in the same way a human might, by looking at the whole query – even if it doesn’t have an exact answer.

Apart from ‘Hummingbird’, several other updates have been announced, with most aiming at providing the data more concisely to allow people not to navigate to another website to find out more – which can prove difficult on small smart phone screens.

“Remember what it was like to search in 1998? You’d sit down and boot up your bulky computer, dial up on your squawky modem, type in some keywords, and get 10 blue links to websites that had those words,” Senior vice president Amit Singhal wrote in a separate blog post.

“The world has changed so much since then: billions of people have come online, the web has grown exponentially, and now you can ask any question on the powerful little device in your pocket.”

These changes mainly affect the ‘Knowledge Graph’, a box that appears on top or alongside other search results. In particular, its new version will be able to compare the attributes of two different things. ‘Google Now’, a virtual assistant that provides for the user the information about his interests and location, will start flagging new developments – for example, in the life of a celebrity – that interest the user.

September 28, 2013
Google To Pay €300,000 Fine for Privacy Violations to a French Agency

France’s National Commission on Computing and Freedom (CNIL) threatened Google with a €300,000 fine due to the company’s lack of compliance with a June decision aimed at protecting users’ private data. The French agency that regulates information technology says Google had not satisfactorily responded to its June decision giving the company three months to be more upfront about the data it collects from users.

In a statement Friday, France’s National Commission on Computing and Freedom, known as CNIL, said:

Google hasn’t made requested changes, including specifying to users what it uses personal data for, and how long it’s held. CNIL said it will now launch formal sanction proceedings, a process that could take months.

On the other hand, Google spokesman Al Verney said:

Our privacy policy respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services. We have engaged fully with CNIL throughout this process and will continue to do so going forward.”

The National Commission on Computing and Freedom said five other European countries are also taking similar steps in a staggered offensive against Google’s privacy policy between now and the end of July. It said Google has largely ignored earlier recommendations from European regulators. Similar actions are underway in Spain, Germany, Britain, Italy and Netherlands.

September 28, 2013
Google Introduces The Most Addictive Doodle Ever

Google, the search engine giant, was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, students of Stanford University. Although the company was founded a few weeks earlier but September 27 is celebrated as its birthday.

Google has always been famous for some interactive doodles, today Google is celebrating its 15th birthday with yet another amazing doodle game.

Google has featured an addictive playful doodle which shows the popular Mexican birthday game pinata, it is a addictive game as you get some tries to make the highest score.

Did you try your hands-on it yet ?

September 27, 2013
Google Unveils Upgrade to Search Algorithm: ‘Hummingbird’

Google said it has updated the way its search engine functions so that it can respond better to more complicated and human-like queries, as it faces competition from services like Apple’s Siri, that seek to simplify searching for information.

The new algorithm which is codenamed as Hummingbird, is the first major upgrade in the last three years. It has already been in use for about a month, and affects about 90% of Google searches.

Google stressed that a new algorithm is important as users expect more natural and conversational interactions with a search engine, Hummingbird is focused on ranking information based on a more intelligent understanding of search requests, unlike its predecessor, Caffeine, which was targeted at better indexing of websites.

It is more capable of understanding concepts and the relationships between them rather than simply words, which can lead to more fluid interactions. It is an extension of Google’s “Knowledge Graph” concept introduced last year aimed at making interactions more human.

In an example, shown at the presentation, a Google executive showed off a voice search through her mobile phone, asking for pictures of the Eiffel Tower. After the pictures appeared, she then asked how tall it was. After Google correctly spoke back the correct answer, she then asked “show me pictures of the construction” and then a list of images appeared.

Google said in a blog post that it is expanding the results users get for questions without simple answers like “Tell me about Impressionist artists.” Such a search will yield links to sites with information about the artists and their paintings.

At the event, Google also announced an updated search app on Apple’s iOS, as well as a more visible presence for voice search on its home page.

September 27, 2013
Google Updates Navigation Bar and other Products as well

Google introduced a new navigation bar, which will be rolling out across most Google properties over the next few weeks, Manager(Google), Eddie Kessler wrote in a blog post.

“Getting around Google should be seamless, and once you’re inside an app, you don’t want any distractions,” Kessler wrote. “So we’re introducing an updated Google bar that streamlines your experience across products and devices.”

There will also be a new app launcher from which you can easily access all your Google apps, like Gmail, Maps, Search, YouTube, News etc. The new app launcher is located at the top right of the screen and will also be present on Android devices and Chromebooks.

Google also released a new version of its Chrome Web browser for Apple’s iOS 7. The updated mobile browser sports a new design and makes it easier to switch between Chrome and other Google apps on your iOS device.

September 21, 2013
AirPlay Mirroring From an Android Phone Demonstrated

Koushik Dutta VP of Engineering at CyanogenMod just posted a video showing off AirPlay Mirroring from an Android phone(HTC One). There are other apps in the Play Store that connect Android devices over AirPlay, but the mirroring support integrated into the Operating System is something new.

He is been working on Android streaming support to various protocols/devices for the “AllCast” media streaming app since Google’s changes cut it off from the Chromecast, and Apple’s screen sharing feature is the latest target for him. AllCast support is already in place for pushing media to Roku and DLNA-compatible hardware, and he further says this mirroring feature is “coming soon to a CyanogenMod near you.”

You can watch the demonstration below:

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

[via,via]

September 21, 2013
Google ‘Freeing Quickoffice for Everyone’, With 10 GB Google Drive Storage

Google is adding 10 GB of free storage to your Google Drive account when you log into your Google account with the new Google Quickoffice before September 26, 2013.

As per Google blog, you can get the new, free Quickoffice app for Android and iOS phones and tablets on Google Play and in the App Store. Simply sign in with your Google Account to start editing Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets and presentations on mobile. You will also notice a number of new features, including a refreshed icon, the ability to create .ZIP folders, and view charts in Excel and PowerPoint files.

As per the blog by Alan Warren(Engineering VP, Google), the free 10 GB will be available for two years and Google has discontinued previous versions of Quickoffice apps from play store as well as app store.

September 20, 2013
Now Get Handwriting Support in Google Translate for iOS devices

Google Translate app for iOS has got a slow but useful update today, which added a new look and gave handwriting support. This feature was already available on the Android app two years ago, and also to its web app earlier this year, but after this update your iOS device will also be able to recognize what you have written on the screen.

The user interface and icons have been changed and now fit in with the newly available iOS 7’s landscape and now the app supports more than 70 languages, which includes seven new languages.(including Marathi)

Google says handwriting is now supported in 49 languages, which should be a boon for the world’s travelers, and at the low price of free is worth throwing on your phone on the off chance you’ll need it. It’s available to download now on iPhones and iPads running iOS 5.1 or later, or if you’re running iOS 7, you can just lie back and let the background update do its thing.

September 20, 2013
Google Announces Calico, a New Company Focused on Health and Well-being

Google today announced Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being, in particular the challenge of aging and associated diseases. Arthur D. Levinson, Chairman and former CEO of Genentech and Chairman of Apple, will be Chief Executive Officer and a founding investor.

Announcing this new investment, Larry Page, Google CEO said:

Illness and aging affect all our families. With some longer term, moonshot thinking around healthcare and biotechnology, I believe we can improve millions of lives. It’s impossible to imagine anyone better than Art—one of the leading scientists, entrepreneurs and CEOs of our generation—to take this new venture forward.”

Arthur Levinson will remain Chairman of Genentech and a director of Hoffmann-La Roche, as well as Chairman of Apple. “ I’ve devoted much of my life to science and technology, with the goal of improving human health. Larry’s focus on outsized improvements has inspired me, and I’m tremendously excited about what’s next.”

Tim Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Apple, said:

For too many of our friends and family, life has been cut short or the quality of their life is too often lacking. Art(Arthur) is one of the crazy ones who thinks it doesn’t have to be this way. There is no one better suited to lead this mission and I am excited to see the results.”

Larry Page further mentioned on his Google+ post, This is a lot different from what Google does today. But as we explained in our first letter to shareholders, there’s tremendous potential for technology more generally to improve people’s lives. So don’t be surprised if we invest in projects that seem strange or speculative compared with our existing Internet businesses. And please remember that new investments like this are very small by comparison to our core business.

Calcio is California Life Company!

September 19, 2013
YouTube Testing Chromecast support

Anyone wanting to stream YouTube videos through a Chromecast currently has to visit YouTube’s website or run one of its mobile apps. However, YouTube has started to add support for Chromecast to its embedded web player, allowing Chromecast users to beam videos displayed on third-party websites straight from their browser to their TV.

Google has confirmed to GigaOM that it is publicly testing Chromecast support for embedded YouTube clips on third-party web pages. Currently, the access to stream YouTube videos is random, as the (send to) button shows up some times, and may not be available for everyone.

The company says it is monitoring feedback from these experiments and it could offer embedded video support to more Chromecast owners if all goes well. As said by a YouTube spokesperson:

With more videos coming to YouTube every minute we’re always experimenting with ways to help people more easily find, watch and share the videos that matter most to them. As always, we’ll consider rolling changes out more broadly based on feedback on these experiments.”

September 17, 2013
Google Acquires Content Sharing App Bump

Bump, the contact and media sharing app for Android and iOS, has been acquired by Google.

Bump co-founder and chief executive David Lieb said the company was “thrilled” to join Google, citing similar passions for sharing information between people and devices.

In September 2011, the company announced it had 50 million downloaders and 10 million active “bumpers.” Just less than a year later, more than 600 million photos were shared by “bumping” phones. Later it released an iPhone-only version photo-sharing app dubbed Flock (not to be confused with the social browser of the same name).

It’s worth adding here that Bump doesn’t use NFC, merely “whatever Internet connection is available on your device”, be that WiFi or cellular. The mobile app uses the phone’s sensors to “feel” the bump, thus actioning the actual transfer.

“The Bump team has demonstrated a strong ability to quickly build and develop products that users love, and we think they’ll be a great fit at Google,” said a Google spokesperson. Google declined to comment on what team Bump will be joining.

The full announcement on the Bump blog is as follows.

[toggle title=”Announcement”]“We’re excited to announce that the Bump team is joining Google!
Our mission at Bump has always been to build the simplest tools for sharing the information you care about with other people and devices. We strive to create experiences that feel like magic, enabled behind the scene with innovations in math, data processing, and algorithms. So we couldn’t be more thrilled to join Google, a company that shares our belief that the application of computing to difficult problems can fundamentally change the way that we interact with one another and the world.
Bump and Flock will continue to work as they always have for now; stay tuned for future updates.
We’d like to extend a special thank you to all of you who have used our products so far. It continues to be a pleasure to serve you, and your feedback and evangelism inspire us every day.
David Lieb
CEO and cofounder
Bump
We also want to thank our investors, advisors, and supporters — Marc Andreessen and all of a16z; Greg McAdoo, Tim Lee and all of Sequoia; Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, and everyone at Y Combinator; Ron Conway and SV Angel; Ram Shriram of Sherpalo; Aydin Senkut of Felicis — and our friends and family who have encouraged us to dream big and push the world forward.”[/toggle]

[Via]

September 16, 2013
Report: Nexus 5 And Android KitKat Will Launch On October 14th

With the Nexus 4 being sold out at Google Play and it receiving its carrier ‘end of life’ status, rumours are that the leaked ‘Nexus 5 will be officially unveiled in October. The first sign of a potential release date comes with Android-focussed site AusDriod stating that Google and LG will unveil the Nexus 5 on Monday, October 14th – which is 1-month away.

Documents on the FCC reveal that the phone will have a 4.96-inch diagonal display and will be just 131.9 mm x 68.2 mm.

In addition to this date, it’s also expected that the Nexus 5 will bring the availability of Android OS 4.4 KitKat to the masses. Little is known about the specific features Google will rollout, but the upgrade is rumoured to bring the following:

– New notification widgets
– Firmware availability to older phones
– Fragmentation changes (screen resizing)
– Miracast updates
– New Gallery Visualisation
– New APIs regarding animations
– Change android default blue to other preset palette colours

Of course as we do with all rumours, we suggest you take this one with a healthy grain of salt. At any rate, an October release is sounding more than likely.

[Via]

September 16, 2013