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...

The Google Authenticator app used to store one-time access codes for account security now supports backups and syncing across devices using a Google Account, Google announced today. With Google Account support, one-time passwords can be saved in the cloud, so if you lose the device with your Google Authenticator app installed, you won't lose access to all of your authentication codes. Prior...

Google today shared details on several optimizations that have been added to the Chrome browser on the Mac, which have made the browser "faster than ever" on Apple's Speedometer browser benchmark. Google says that with the latest release of Chrome, the company went "deep under the hood" to find new opportunities to increase speed and efficiency. Google implemented improved HTML parsing for...

Google today began allowing users to sign up to use Bard, its AI-powered chatbot that rivals Microsoft's Bing chatbot. First announced back in February, Bard is an experimental conversational AI service for Google Search. Those interested in Bard can join Google's waitlist to get access, and some users have reported getting invitation emails just hours after signing up. There are a long list ...

Google today announced that its Google VPN feature is expanding to all Google One subscribers, instead of being limited to those who subscribe to the Premium 2TB Google One plan. VPN by Google One is designed to mask a user's IP address, preventing sites and apps from collecting that information for location tracking and monitoring activity across the web. It also offers protection from...

The latest version of the Google Chrome browser designed for Macs includes optimizations that are designed to preserve battery life. In a blog post shared today, Google says that with a single full charge, a 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro running Chrome can be used to browse the internet for 17 hours or watch YouTube for 18 hours. With improvements to Energy Saver mode, browsing time is extended for ...

Google today announced several new features that are available to Google One subscribers who have the Google Photos app, including the Magic Eraser tool that was previously only available on the Google Pixel 6 and the Google Pixel 7. Google One members on all plans can use the Magic Eraser tool to remove unwanted objects and people from their photos in the Google ‌Photos‌ app for iPhone and i...

Google allegedly pays Apple a portion of all search revenue from Chrome for iOS in what appears to be a non-compete deal, The Register reports. According to a source said to be familiar with the matter who spoke to The Register, Google has been paying Apple a portion of search revenue generated by Chrome users on iOS in return for being the default search provider in Safari and other...

The growing popularity of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot has inspired Microsoft and Google to add conversational AI functionality into their search products, with both companies making AI-related announcements this week. Google yesterday introduced Bard, a chatbot AI project that has been in the works for some time. Powered by Google's Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), Bard is an...

Google's Chromium developers are working on an experimental web browser for iOS that would break Apple's browser engine restrictions, The Register reports. The experimental browser, which is being actively pursued by developers, uses Google's Blink engine. Yet if Google attempted to release it on the App Store, it would not pass Apple's App Review process. Apple's ‌App Store‌ rules...

Apple has filed an appeal against an investigation by the UK's competition authority into the company's dominance of mobile browsers and restrictions on cloud gaming (via Reuters). In November, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a market investigation reference into Apple and Google's cloud gaming and mobile browser restrictions. The CMA has examined Apple and Google's "effe...

Google is officially shutting down its Stadia cloud gaming service today, Wednesday, January 18, after having failed to gain the traction that the company was expecting. Google servers that host the service are due to shut down at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. Launched in November 2019, the service was designed to allow for cloud-based gaming across a range of devices, including PCs, Chromebooks, ...

Google is working on its own location tracking tag to compete with Apple AirTags and Tile trackers, according to developer and leaker Kuba Wojciechowski (via The Verge). The developer claims to have discovered references to the upcoming first-party tags in Google's Fast Pair method for quickly pairing nearby Bluetooth devices. The device is said to be codenamed "Grogu," after the baby Yoda...

Google is continuing on with its #GetTheMessage campaign attempting to convince Apple to adopt the RCS messaging protocol, this time taking out a large New Year's-themed ad at Harmon Corner in Las Vegas. The digital billboard urges Apple not to "drop the ball" on fixing its "pixelated photos and videos."Hey Apple, it's Android the ball may have dropped on 2022, but you don't have to drop...

The Google Chrome app for Mac was today updated with new Memory Saver and Energy Saver modes, which are designed to give users more control over memory usage and battery life. Memory Saver mode frees up memory from tabs that are not being actively used, allowing for a smoother experience for tabs that are in use. Google says that this mode is particularly useful when doing other system...

Google search queries on desktop will now return results in a continuous scroll instead of being divided into several pages, the company announced today (via The Verge). The change is reminiscent of the way modern social media feeds work, although Google's version isn't quite the "infinite scroll" that social network users will be familiar with. Google says a search will now return six pages ...

Google is continuing on with its attempt to convince Apple to adopt the RCS messaging standard, publishing a new "it's time for ‌RCS‌" blog post. Promoted heavily by Google, ‌RCS‌ or Rich Communication Services is a messaging standard that is designed to replace the current SMS messaging standard. It provides support for higher resolution photos and videos, audio messages, and bigger file...

The UK's competition watchdog has begun its investigation into the market dominance of Apple and Google's mobile browsers, months after it said it was considering a high-level probe. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced Tuesday that responses to its June consultation had revealed "substantial support" for a full investigation into how Apple and Google dominate the market and ...

Google today announced that popular streaming music service Spotify will be able to bill Android users directly in the Google Play version of Spotify without needing to go through the Google Play billing system. Spotify is Google's first partner for "User Choice Billing," a feature that allows Android users to make purchases using the payment option they prefer. User Choice Billing is...

Google in October launched the Pixel 7 Pro, its newest high-end flagship smartphone. The Pixel 7 Pro came out just weeks after Apple's new iPhone 14 Pro Max, so we thought we'd compare the cameras of the two smartphones, pitting the high-end iPhone against the high-end Pixel 7. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. On paper, the ‌iPhone 14‌ Pro Max and the Pixel 7 Pro...

Google today announced that Android users will be able to add emoji reactions to SMS texts received from iPhone users in Google's Messages app. This feature and other improvements to the app will begin rolling out in the coming weeks. Given that the Messages app on iOS lacks support for the Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol, emoji reactions from Android users will appear as annoying ...