Tag: google

Google Maps For iOS Updated To Version 1.1

Google has released its first update to Google Maps for iOS, bringing some features over from Android and the web.

Version 1.1, available on the App Store on Tuesday, now allows users to search for addresses based on their Google Contacts if they choose to log into their Google accounts. Additionally, the app now allows users to search for general categories like “restaurants,” “bars,” “gas stations,” and so on. Non-US users will also rejoice at the ability to choose between kilometers and miles for the app’s distance estimates.

Users can now sync up previously-searched locations based on contact information, so if you have an address saved under Mom, searching by name will point you to the place on the map.

Google asks customers to note that some of these features “may not be available in all countries.”

Google Maps is a free download from the App Store.

[toggle_box title=”Change Log” width=”Width of toggle box”]

Full change log for Google Maps version 1.1:

– Search your Google Contacts; sign in to have your saved addresses show up when you search for friends and family by name.
– Quickly search for local places by selecting popular categories such as restaurants, bars, cafes, gas stations, etc.
– Choose between Kilometers or Miles for your preferred distance units.
– Note that some features may not be available in all countries.

[/toggle_box]

March 6, 2013
Report : Google Testing Data Compression To Speed Up Chrome for Android

Google’s Chrome for Android team is experimenting with a new data compression proxy feature to speed up browsing similar to the methods used by Opera Turbo and Amazon Silk. The feature is currently optional but could one day be flipped on by default if Google deems it ready, significantly helping those on slow connections.

The latest build of Chromium, the open source browser project which Chrome is built upon, sports this new functionality. The feature was first spotted by developer Francois Beaufort, who talked about it in a Google+ post.

“Reduce data consumption by loading optimized web pages via Google proxy servers,” Google describes the feature.

The feature is still in early testing, users can enable it in Chrome for Android via a command line flag, which means they’ll need to be able to run a command like shell on their phones, either remotely via adb or via a terminal emulator on the device.

It’s unclear whether the technology actually works at this point or whether it’s just a placeholder.

There are several ways in which Google could lighten the load on the connection and speed up website loading. For one, as the name suggests, Chrome will connect to the Google cloud via SPDY, reducing some of the overhead.

What’s more, using the proxy means that Chrome will connect to the closest Google data center rather than to a server which may be halfway around the world. Popular websites would also be cached by Google ensuring faster load times.

Both Opera Turbo and Silk use pre-processing on their respective company’s servers to optimize a web page, reducing the amount of data that is sent to the browser by compression and other methods.

[TNW]

March 4, 2013
Google Glass Preview Video Shows New Functionality

Fresh details about Google’s eagerly-anticipated smart glasses have been released by the company.

A YouTube video uploaded by the company shows Google Glass in action – including the interface which appears in the wearer’s line of sight.

The search giant has also opened up the trial of the product to “creative individuals” and developers.

[quote]”We’re looking for bold, creative individuals who want to join us and be a part of shaping the future of Glass,” Google said “We’re still in the early stages and, while we can’t promise everything will be perfect, we can promise it will be exciting.”[/quote]

Users will say, “OK, glass” to initiate verbal input, and will be able to search the web, get directions, share video and photos, and more. This isn’t the open UI of Android; Google is wisely keeping Glass a closed ecosystem, limited to a few core functions. Of course, Google Now will play a big part, providing information about attractions, directions and more when relevant to the user.

Some examples of how the glasses can be used include turn-by-turn navigation, taking photos and translating languages on the spot.

The video depicts a combination of people going about their everyday lives and other adventures, like skydiving, and shows them using Glass to record video, take pictures or navigate.

According to Google’s website, Google Glass will come in five colors: charcoal, tangerine, shale, cotton and sky.

Google is asking users who want one to compose a short story around the hashtag #ifihadglass and post it to Google+ or Twitter. Once selected, customers will have to pay $1500+tax for the privilege.

February 22, 2013
Google Brings Chrome App Launcher To Windows

Google on Wednesday announced a significant bridging of the gap between Chrome and Chrome OS: the app launcher, a little window that features all your apps in one place. The company has ported the dedicated “home for your apps” from Chrome OS to its Chrome browser.

Available now in a developer preview, the launcher experience is similar to that available on Chrome OS. Users can scroll their mouse over the Chrome icon on the task bar and be provided with a list of Chrome apps to launch them quickly.

In the developer preview, Google has included its own Chrome web apps such as Gmail and YouTube, as well as packaged Chrome apps downloaded by users from the Chrome Web Store. Packaged apps deliver an experience as capable as a native app, written in HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS – usually meant to work offline.

As of now the app launcher is available only for Windows, but the Chrome team said the feature would come to Mac OS X and Linux soon.

The Next Web also said users can continue using the Chrome browser as just that – a browser – without having an extra menu.

For those wondering, Google is expected to release Chrome 25 this week or next. This feature won’t be ready till Chrome 26 or Chrome 27, however, meaning it will arrive in April at the earliest.

[The Next Web]

February 21, 2013
Google Search App For Android Update Brings Google Now Widget, Movie Ratings And More

Google has issued an update to its Search app for Android, bringing the rumoured widget functionality to devices running Jelly Bean and higher. The update brings in fresh data, and adds support for movie tickets from Fandango.

The update, for Android 4.1 and higher, will now provide users with movie ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, and real estate information from Zillow, when a house is listed on the markets and resides in that provider’s database. Also, if you live in the United States, and use the app, you will now be provided with a music button a song is currently employed and the app is in voice mode.

What’s in this version:
For Android 4.1+ (Jelly Bean):
– Google Now widget for home screen or lock screen.
– Movie passes from Fandango
– Movies now includes ratings from Rotten Tomatoes
– Real estate listings from Zillow when in the market for a home
– Music button when a song is playing in voice mode (US only)
– Support for US college sports

Google, which made the widget announcement in an Android blog post, assured that Now is just getting started, so we’re sure to see many more updates and improvements hit the pipeline before long.

The Google Search app for Android is available as a free download from the Google Play Store.

February 15, 2013
Report : Google To Pay Apple $1 Billion To Be Default Search Engine

Despite their continuing legal battles, new reports have suggested search giant Google will pay bitter rival Apple as much as $1 billion (£638.24 million) to be the default search browser on the company’s market dominating hardware ranges. In 2009, the search giants paid only $82 million for the privilege.

It seemed like an impressive win for Mozilla when the new three-year, $900 million deal with Googlewas announced. The Foundation derives the bulk of its funding from that search deal and in return Google gets billions of search hits. But that deal may pale in comparison to what it pays Apple.

Business Insider brings a little hyperbole into the equation, saying that if the iPad continues to grow that it’ll surpass PCs in 5 years — at which point an Apple switch to another search provider could be devastating for Google. They base this speculation on the recent news that iPhoto has dropped Google Maps as a location provider, which some feel is an indication that Apple no longer needs Google at all.

For every dollar of revenue Google makes on iOS thanks to advertising and data collection, Apple gets 75 cents from Google. The number is only going to increase in the coming years if iOS sales keep growing.

Are you an Apple iDevice or Mac user? Do you stick strictly to the Google search options of your device or make use of alternatives such as Bing?

[Business Insider]

February 12, 2013
Android 4.2.2 Rolling Out For Nexus Devices

Nexus owners may have a reason to stay up tonight, as a couple of Reddit users report that Android 4.2.2 has begun rolling out to the GSM Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 7. This is a release Google was rumoured to start shipping in Brazilian Nexus 4?s over a month ago, but nothing ever came of that assertion.

The report mentions that the update is being rolled out to select devices, carrying the JDQ39 build number.

We had earlier reported that the update is expected to roll out by the mid of February, so it doesn’t really come as a surprise that Google has started seeding it out.

The update comes in at little over 46MB and considering the fairly significant size may feature plenty more under-the-hood changes. Android 4.2.2 is currently rolling out in waves and will likely hit the Nexus 4 in the following days if previous deployments are of any indication. For Galaxy Nexus owners there is an OTA Android 4.2.2 update file that can be manually downloaded and installed afterwards using ADB Sideload in the recovery.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing too exciting to report, as the update provides mainly performance and stability fixes, and allegedly fixes a bug related to streaming music over a Bluetooth connection.

It’s not surprising that the update doesn’t deliver many new features, as Google is widely expected to announce the next major release of its Android mobile operating system, which is likely to be named Android 5.0, at its Google I/O conference in May.

Via: Reddit

February 12, 2013
The Chromebook Pixel With 2560×1700 Touchscreen May Just Turn Out To Be Real

We’re still not sure whether the high-resolution Chromebook Pixel purportedly leaked in a video last week is real, but developer François Beaufort — who’s leaked Chome OS information before — has unearthed a piece of potential evidence. Beaufort has posted a link to a piece of documentation for a multi-colored “lightbar scheme.” Here’s part of the description:

[quote]

Yet another set of tweaks to the lightbar patterns:

At Startup or wake from sleep, Google colors cycle in.

While running, > 25% power level in the battery: All blue, in a breathing effect (cycle up and down 30%).

While running,

Shutting down, or going into sleep: Cycle out the Google colors

[/quote]

Based on the above, the feature certainly isn’t in existing Chromebooks, and it’s consistent with a shot of the Pixel in the earlier leaked video.

The world took to the idea of the Chromebook Pixel as it was tipped to support a massive quantity of pixels, perhaps more than four million, allowing the laptop to have a 2560 x 1700 display. That, as part of a machine that the video intoned again and again was ‘designed by Google’ snapped the world to attention.

In an odd world in which software and service companies are becoming OEMs to compete, having Google enter this space with a machine under its own flag would be no small market event.

Even more, the Chromebook Pixel could sport a touchscreen display. The video itself shows off a user touching the screen, pinching to zoom in on a jellyfish.

If Chrome OS is ever going to be a mainstream success, it needs to make a move now, because its best chance is ticking away.

You can watch the video below :

[The Verge, TNW]

February 10, 2013
Ouch! Microsoft Hits Out At Gmail Over Privacy In Latest “Scroogled” Campaign

Microsoft has taken aim at Google before with its ‘Scroogled’ advertising campaign, and now it’s revived the attack tactics, slating Gmail’s policy of reading your emails to target ads.

“Think Google respects your privacy? Think again,” says Microsoft’s advert. It says that nasty Google goes through your every email, reading every word, so it can target ads to you based on what you’re writing about.

[quote]”Emails are personal — and people feel that reading through their emails to sell ads is out of bounds,” said Stefan Weitz, senior director of Online Services at Microsoft in a statement. “We honor the privacy of our Outlook.com users, and we are concerned that Google violates that privacy every time an Outlook.com user exchanges messages with someone on Gmail. This campaign is as much about protecting Outlook.com users from Gmail as it is about making sure Gmail users know what Google’s doing.”[/quote]

To illustrate this, Microsoft has a pair of shifty-looking eyes reading an email. Outlook.com, however, “prioritises privacy”, according to the ad.

In a press release pushed out today, Microsoft said the Scroogled campaign is also an attempt to educate Americans on some of the bad practices used by email providers. A study commissioned by Microsoft reveals that 70% of consumers “don’t know that major email providers routinely engage in the practice of reading through their personal email to sell ads”, while a larger 88% disapprove of the practice.

Previously Microsoft has used the “Scroogled” catch-phrase to warn users against Google Shopping’s practices, but today sees the campaign expanded into a much wider attack on Google and their advertising methods. Gmail has been targeted this time around, but it’s likely more services will be highlighted in future campaigns.

[Tech Radar]

February 7, 2013
Report : Android 4.2.2 Update Coming Later This Month

As we wait for the next big version of Android to appear — Key Lime Pie is rumoured to debut at Google I/O in May — Google hasn’t slowed down its sprucing and pruning of the current version.

According to a recent article on ibtimes.com, Google might be set to make the new platform version available by mid-February, after concluding internal testing for it.

The story goes that Google has been having employees test the 4.2.2 update on all of the Nexus devices – Galaxy, 4, 7, and 10 – and that the update is close to being released. There isn’t a lot to the update, which is expected to be very minimal. The only major issue that is expected to be fixed is the “stuttering” audio issue when using a Bluetooth headset with the Nexus 7.

Multiple reports and videos have surfaced showing at least the latest LG Nexus 4 running 4.2.2 Jelly Bean for a select few. Google hasn’t pushed 4.2.2 to AOSP and it hasn’t been confirmed, but either way it’s coming soon.

News of this forthcoming version of Jelly Bean comes not long after Google updated the Android version share page. According to the data, Jelly Bean–both versions 4.1 and 4.2–has grown by 3.2 per cent since last month. This new update will probably see more Jelly Bean devices being activated, giving a firm foothold to Jelly Bean before the next version of Android is released.

[Android Community]

February 7, 2013
Apple Still Leader In Tablet Market, But Samsung Closing In

Apple’s share of the tablet market declined again in the fourth quarter of 2012 but the company still has twice the share of its nearest rival, Samsung.

Research firm IDC and their latest numbers are showing that current market leader Apple with their iPad are losing tablet market share. Apple’s tablet market share dropped from 51.7% to 43.6%, where in the last three months of 2012 Samsung jumped up to 15.1%.

When taking in consideration the year-over-year numbers, Samsung’s growth has been huge where a year ago they sold just 2.2 million tablets, and twelve months later they’re seeing sales of 7.9 million units.

IDC said the strongest growth came from Android, including tablets made by South Korea’s Samsung and Taiwan’s Asus, which makes a Google-branded Nexus tablet.

The survey found that Microsoft, which launched its new Surface tablet in the quarter, failed to break into the top five sellers and shipped a modest 900,000 of the devices in the quarter.

IDC said Amazon, which does not provide its own sales data, delivered some six million tablets in the quarter to retain its spot as the number three vendor.

That represented 26.8 percent growth, giving Amazon a market share of 11.5 percent, IDC said.

Fourth place belonged to Asus, which sold 3.1 million tablets, year-on-year growth of more than 400 percent. That gave the Taiwan-based firm a 5.8 percent market share. Barnes & Noble sold one million of its Nook tablets and accounted to 1.9 percent of the market, the survey found.

The tablet market is expected to get much more serious this year, with multiple Nexus tablets from Google, as well as Microsoft’s upcoming Surface Pro slate.

February 3, 2013
Google+ And Google Play Music For Android Updated
Google on Wednesday released updates to two of its Android apps, Google+ and Google Play Music. You can download the latest versions now directly from the Google Play Store: here and here.

The former now displays notifications in the top right corner, much like its web-based counterpart. This makes more sense when scrolling through the app, as Google+ relies so heavily on them. Google+ users can now also insert links into their posts, and Community Moderators have more options when administrating a page.

The Google Play Music update is more significant. This makes sense given that the service is even newer than Google+, if you can believe it.

Instant mixes finally go beyond 25 songs (an arbitrary limit that should never have been there in the first place) and the app now features new album art. As for new features, the homescreen widget has gained a previous button and you can now shuffle an album, artist, or playlist.

There’s a new widget design and, thankfully, freezing fixes for the Galaxy S III.

Changelog for version 4.5.910I:
- Instant mixes continue playing beyond 25 songs.
- Added ability to shuffle an album, artist or playlist.
- New default album art.
- Previous button added to widget.
- Pinning progress now shown on album and playlist pages.
- Fix for the Galaxy S3 freezing issue.
Again, neither of these updates are particularly breathtaking but they are part of what makes using Google’s apps so enjoyable. Everyone likes regular updates that bring in more functionality for free. In both the social networking and music streaming spaces, Google has to keep iterating to fight the competition.

[The Next Web]
February 1, 2013
Google’s Q4 Revenue Jumps 36 Percent

Google eked out slightly higher earnings in the fourth quarter, despite a financial drag caused by the Internet search leader’s expansion into device manufacturing and a decline in digital ad prices as more people gaze into the smaller screens of smartphones.

The results announced Tuesday pleased investors, helping to lift Google’s stock by nearly 5 percent in extended trading. The performance lifted Google’s stock by $34.14, or 4.9 percent, to $737.01 in Tuesday’s extended trading.

The company earned $2.89 billion in profit on revenue of $14.42 billion, a staggering number that was up 36% over the previous year and 8% from the prior quarter.

Motorola Mobile, the newly-acquired handset division, earned $1.51 billion in revenue but lost $353 million overall. In comparison to last quarter, Motorola Mobility lost less money but earned significantly less revenue, so we’re hoping that Google stops the bleeding somehow. A Motorola X Phone may help the situation immensely.

2012 was the company’s first $50 billion year, which is pretty incredible, and Google now has 37,544 employees, though it’s set to lose 5204 as it sells Motorola’s Home division in the coming months. The company’s market cap is roughly $231 billion based on the last share price, though it should spike on the good news.

January 23, 2013
LG Denies New Nexus Phone After Rumours Surface

Getting hold of an LG Nexus 4 through Google’s official device store hasn’t been an easy task. It’s been two months since release day, and throughout most of that time the device has been either sold out or on back-order. It’s safe to say that the Google Play buying experience has been less than ideal for many.

Last week, some sites reported on a new rumour out of the LG camp. It was a thin rumour with little evidence to back it up, but it went like this: LG is not having trouble producing Nexus 4?s, but is rather ramping down production in order to replace it with a new Nexus phone, likely a Nexus 5, in time for Mobile World Congress.

There are some shaky rumours out there — heck, even we report on some from time to time — but this one was just ridiculous. The truth is out there, folks, and that story contained none of it. Instead, it looks like LG is producing Nexus 4?s as fast as it can make them, and there are other reasons why they’re not getting into users’ hands. And it’s pretty simple. LG has said that the rumors about the company working on a new Nexus device are “unfounded”.

[quote]LG is cranking out Nexus 4?s as quickly as it can make them; according to a company representative, there is nothing fishy going on. “There is no problem [with] supply,” he said, indicating the company’s Pyeongtaek factory is producing the device “without a hitch.” We should see more stock in the Play Store soon — that sales channel isn’t going anywhere, and will still be the preferred method for most people — but it will also expand into new areas.[/quote]

Yes, it’s frustrating that you can’t buy one today in India, and likely won’t be able to in the coming future.

[Android Central]

January 15, 2013
Google Nexus 4 Gets Android 4.2.2 in Brazil and Malaysia

While most of the world is seeing Android 4.2.1 as the latest version of Jelly Bean, it looks like Google has quietly begun rolling out something a bit newer. According to new reports, Google has begun rolling out Android 4.2.2 in select countries. So far the reports are pinpointing just two countries — Brazil and Malaysia.

According to a recent report, LG Mobile’s production facility situated in Taubaté, Brazil has already started churning out Nexus 4 smartphones today in hopes of catching up with the overwhelming demands, an interesting twist to this story is that at least a thousand of these quad-core packing monsters have — purportedly — been loaded with Google’s latest version of the Android Jelly Bean platform so don’t be surprised if the Nexus 4 you have ordered via the Play Store portal will come running the Android 4.2.2 operating system.

Also, a new leak reveals the LG Nexus 4 in Malaysia running the new, unannounced software from Google.

True or not, we suggest taking this news with a grain of salt since it’s still unknown if the leaked image is legitimate — but, like we’ve previously mentioned, the fact that Google has stopped letting users download the Android 4.1.2 may give us a vague clue as to what Google is really hiding up its sleeves and the Android 4.2.2 may just be the answer we’ve been waiting for.

source: Adrenaline.uol.com.br

January 12, 2013