Google

When Apple Music first launched in 2015, playing it on anything other than an Apple device was impossible. Thankfully though, over the years Apple has made its streaming service available to access through third-party devices and speakers, including Amazon Echo and Google-owned speakers. This article focuses on Google devices. If you have a Google Home mini or a newer Nest-branded smart...

Google includes a Live Captions transcription feature in version 89 of its Chrome browser for desktop. Live Captions uses machine learning to create a real-time transcription for videos or audio played through the browser, which can make online media more accessible for members of the Deaf community and other people with hearing loss. Once enabled, Live Captions appear in a box in the bottom ...

If you buy a new iPhone to replace your existing one and you use the Google Authenticator app to access online accounts protected by two-factor authentication (2FA), you should transfer those accounts to your new phone as soon as possible, because without the 2FA codes close at hand, you could find yourself locked out of your online accounts. 2FA adds an extra layer of security to your...

Google Lens can now recognize over a billion items in the world around us, the search engine giant announced this week. That's four times as many things that the AI-powered feature could identify when it was first launched last year, thanks partly to a huge number of Google Shopping products which have been added to its knowledge base. While its optical character recognition engine has...

In Chrome 66, rolling out now for Mac and iOS, Google has added a password export option to the web browser so that you can easily migrate your login details to another browser via a third-party password manager app. In this article, we'll show you how to export your passwords from Chrome on Mac and iOS. At the end of the process, you'll be left with a CSV file containing all your login...

Google has added a new feature to its Search app that allows you to hum a song that's stuck in your head, and then use the company's machine learning algorithm to try and identify it. In the Google app or using the Google Search widget, tap the mic icon and say "what's this song?" or click the "Search a song" button. Then start humming the tune for 10-15 seconds. When you're done, the...

The Gmail app is set to get a new icon as part of a broader rebrand of Google's G Suite software, which includes Gmail, Docs, Meet, Sheets, and Calendar. Replacing the classic Gmail envelope logo is an M made out of Google's blue, red, yellow, and green brand colors. The new design aligns Gmail with Google's core brand as well as Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Chrome, and other Google...

Ahead of Apple's rumored October event that will see the unveiling of the new iPhone 12 lineup, Google today held a virtual event to unveil its latest flagship smartphones, the 5G-enabled Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a with 5G. Priced starting at $699, the Pixel 5 features a 6-inch OLED display, 8GB RAM, 128GB of storage, a 4080mAh battery, an aluminum body, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chip with 5G ...

Google plans to introduce updated Play Store guidelines that emphasize the requirement for most apps to use the company's billing system for in-app purchases as early as next week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. While this requirement has existed for years, the report notes that some major developers like Netflix, Spotify, and Tinder have circumvented the rule by prompting customers...

Australia is now investigating app store policies as part of yet another antitrust inquiry into Apple and Google (via Gizmodo). The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced that it will investigate the competition between the Google Play store and Apple's App Store, access to platforms and consumers, fee structures, data collection, and price transparency. The...

Multiple startup companies in Korea are calling for an investigation into Apple and Google's in-app purchase practices, reports The Korea Herald. An alliance of app developers and small companies submitted a petition to the Korea Communications Commission earlier today, asking for an investigation into whether Apple and Google may be violating Korean laws on in-app purchases and...

Google plans to release a foldable Pixel phone in the fourth quarter of next year, according to leaked internal documents (via 9to5Google). Codenamed "Passport," the device is explicitly referred to as "foldable," and appears alongside a list of past and future Pixel devices. MacRumors concept Google confirmed last year that it is developing technology that could be used in foldable...

Google has announced a handful of mobile enhancements for its Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps that are active now or will be rolling out on iOS soon. First up, Google has completed the rollout of dynamic email in the Gmail iOS app. Google says dynamic email brings the richness and interactivity of AMP to mobile devices, allowing users to take action directly within a message. So instead of...

Google today announced the launch of its latest smartphone, the Pixel 4a, which has a $349 price tag and is designed to compete with lower-cost devices like Apple's $399 iPhone SE. The Pixel 4a features a 5.81-inch display that's all screen, with a small front-facing pinhole camera at the top left, a square-shaped camera bump at the rear, and fingerprint biometrics on the back. Design...

Google today announced the launch of a new Google One app for iOS, which is designed to let users store photos, video, contacts, and calendar events for backup purposes. Content can be backed up to Google One using the 15GB of free storage that comes with a Google Account. A Storage Manager in the app provides access to storage space used by Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos to make it...

Australia's competition regulator has today accused Google of misleading users to get permission for use of their personal data for targeted advertising, reports Reuters. In Australian Federal Court, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) accused Google of not explicitly getting consent or properly informing consumers of a 2016 move to combine personal information in...

Google pays Apple to be the default search engine on Apple's Safari web browser on iPhones and Macs, which causes a "significant barrier to entry and expansion" for rivals in the search engine market, said the UK Competition and Markets Authority in a report released today (via Reuters). The relationship between Apple and Google impacts Microsoft's Bing, Verizon's Yahoo, and independent...

Google Meet will soon allow users to add images or a blur effect to backgrounds on video calls, reports 9to5Google. In addition, Google told The Verge that it is working on several other features that should make Meet more competitive against rival videoconferencing platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. These new options include real-time captioning, a low-light mode, hand-raising,...

Google made its premium Meet videoconferencing service free to use last month, and now the company has announced that it's bringing Meet to the Gmail app for iOS and Android. Google Meet offers many of the features that have made Zoom so popular in recent weeks, including video conferencing for up to 100 participants, the option to schedule meetings, and screen-sharing capabilities. In...

Apple should purchase a search engine to put pressure on Google, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said Monday in a research report that was shared by Barron's. Apple and Google don't share details on the amount of money that Google pays to be the default search engine for iOS and Siri, but Sacconaghi estimates that it's around $7 to $8 billion per year, or 30 percent of the estimated $25...

Google has added a new content highlighting feature to its search engine that aims to make it easier to find key information on webpages, reports SearchEngineLand (via The Verge). The feature works with Google's Featured Snippets, which appear at the top of search results. Clicking a snippet takes the user to the source webpage, but now the browser automatically scrolls down the page to...

Google today announced native support for the W3C WebAuthn implementation for Google Accounts on Apple devices running iOS 13.3 and above, which improves the security key experience on iOS and allows more security key types to be used with Google accounts and Google's Advanced Protection Program. With the change, iOS users are able to use Google's Titan Security Keys with NFC, tapping the...

A proposed class action lawsuit in the U.S. has accused Google of violating federal wiretap laws by tracking the online activities of users when in Incognito mode. According to Reuters, the class action argues that by surreptitiously collecting information about what people view online and where they browse when they use Chrome's private browsing mode, Google has been intentionally deceiving...

Google Fi has begun rolling out eSIM support for current iPhone subscribers, which will let them use the dual-SIM technology that comes in certain models of Apple's smartphones. In April, Google started allowing new users to sign up for Google Fi's mobile virtual network service using the eSIM integrated into ‌iPhone‌ XR, XS, XS Max, 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max and 2020 iPhone SE models....

Google is adding Dark Mode support to its Google Search apps for iOS and Android, with the new feature to begin rolling out tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Google says that it wants to give search app users more options to customize their Search experience, and when ‌Dark Mode‌ is enabled on Android 10 and iOS 13, the Search app will be displayed in ‌Dark Mode‌. The same goes for ...