This tour of Google’s NY HQ was shot with the new Nexuses
Curious about the new Nexus 5X and 6P smartphones and what goes on inside Google’s New York headquarters? Well, Youtuber’s Nat and Lo can help you with both, as they have taken the two new smartphones out for a test run around Google’s offices, using them to film the entire video above without the use of any additional filter effects.
The tour gives us a glimpse into various Google offices, along with plenty of kooky decorations which paint the company as a rather relaxed looking place to work. I won’t spoil anything else, as the video is certainly worth a look at yourself.
The camera module inside the two new Nexus smartphones has as already scored very well in DxOMark’s smartphone rankings, placing it right up near the top along with the Sony Xperia Z5 and Samsung Galaxy S6 range of handsets. The footage certainly turns out pretty well in this video too, including a selection of sped up and slow motion shots.
See also: Android dominates DxOMark as iPhone 6S ranks 10th
What do you think about the video and Google’s HQ?
You can now pre-order the 128GB Nexus 6P directly from Huawei
You may have noticed that the Huawei-made Nexus 6P is in short supply. If you were hankering after a Nexus 6P with 128GB of storage, Huawei is now offering the model up for pre-order via its online store in Aluminum and Graphite colour options. Instead of joining the waiting list on the Google Store and waiting and wondering when the model will become available again, if you pre-order directly from Huawei the estimated shipping time is late November.
It’s a question of rolling the dice. Pre-ordering from Huawei gives you a timeframe as to when the order will ship, while if you join the Google Store waiting list, the device may become available sooner, or it might not.
Huawei’s online store has the 32GB ($499), 64GB($549), and 128GB($649) variants of the Nexus 6P up for pre-order in both Aluminum and Graphite colours. The 32GB and 64GB variants have an estimated shipping time of early November, as opposed to late November.
It’s worth noting as well that Huawei offer a financing option via Affirm if you would like to pay off the cost of the phone in installments.
Source: GetHuawei
Via: AndroidCentral
Come comment on this article: You can now pre-order the 128GB Nexus 6P directly from Huawei
Google shares how the Marshmallow wallpapers were made and give away two new ones
Not too long ago, Google released all of the Marshmallow wallpapers, but how exactly did they make them? Google has decided to share that information with us and it’s a lot more fascinating than you may have thought.
The designer is Carl Kleiner, and he makes these backgrounds in an unusual way. I, and I am sure you too, would of thought the backgrounds were just made in a computer program. However, we would be wrong. Each background is made by hand crafting each piece and photographing it. Literally taking multiple paper-types and with careful lighting, layering, and considered color blocking, made into wallpapers.
Kleiner says:
“We wanted to work with surfaces that have a subtle and sophisticated texture. Organic to the touch and graphic in composition…Painted surfaces, color pigment powders, floating ink and the like”
Google decided to limit the color palette to only the core Google brand colors with pops of neutral grey. The geometric designs are quite complex. To add a sense of depth, colored water was used to create troughs, and grainy powders to suggest pixelation.
I have personally made tons of backgrounds, many for mobile devices, and it is a lot harder than it may seem. The difficult part about them is the other elements on-screen, such as, the icons and text. Kleiner and Google agree, saying:
“To create a robust and thoughtful visual language, imagery needs to be considered as thoughtfully as the graphic UX elements.”
I obviously find it very interesting to learn about how others work and exactly why large companies make certain decisions. However, Google is also happy to share the info. So happy that they are giving away two new exclusive wallpapers!
Source: Google Design
Come comment on this article: Google shares how the Marshmallow wallpapers were made and give away two new ones
Google lures your workplace away from Office by covering app costs
Google really, really wants your company to jump from Microsoft Office to Docs. So much so, in fact, that it’s willing to pay a lot to make sure that happens. It just launched a promo that will cover your firm’s Docs costs so long as it’s stuck in an enterprise agreement with someone else — your workplace only starts paying when the old contract runs out. That’s no small offer when Docs costs at least $50 per person per year, which could add up to tens of thousands of dollars at an outfit with hundreds of employees.
The internet giant might not have much of a choice. Microsoft is pushing hard to get businesses using Office 365, including steep discounts on anything else they buy. If Google doesn’t give companies a strong incentive to jump ship before their agreements are done, they may never leave at all. This campaign won’t do much for those who think Docs is too lightweight, but it might do the trick for those who feel that Office is overkill.
[Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
Via: The Register
Source: Official Google for Work Blog
Google Photos has hit 100 million active users
Within roughly five months, Google Photos has reached 100 million active users. Very impressive accomplishment to achieve in such a short amount of time. Google even decided to make a video to thank everyone.
Click here to view the embedded video.
I have to say, it’s a pretty poor celebration video for reaching such a huge amount of active users. Snapchat has around the same amount of users and they have been working at it since 2011. To be fair, 100 million is an impressive number for anyone to hit, except for Google. All their other apps have billions of downloads and I am sure we will be hearing another announcement from them shortly about it reaching 500 million.
Google also have some other interesting facts about Google Photos. People are the number one most taken subject, but food pictures are close behind. Dogs are the most photographed animal, after people and food, cars are the next most taken photos, and Paris is the top photographed place in the world. Google lists a bunch of other interesting facts, so be sure to read them all on their blog.
Source: Google Blog
Come comment on this article: Google Photos has hit 100 million active users
Google will provide some of Yahoo’s search results
Yahoo clearly isn’t wasting time now that it’s free to partner with search firms besides Microsoft. The internet pioneer has revealed a partnership that will have Google providing some search results (including images) and search-based ads. It’s not certain just how many queries the crew in Mountain View will handle, but the deal is “non-exclusive.” If it wants, Yahoo can draw on Microsoft’s Bing or any other provider. The pact lasts until the end of 2018, too, so the company isn’t committed on the same level as it was when it struck the Bing deal in 2009.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Via: GeekWire
Google Maps now makes pit stops easier, also adds gas pricing
There’s a lot to love about Google Maps, but one feature it has long been missing is the ability to add pit stops to your final destination. In the past, if you need to head to a gas station or grab a bite to eat, you had to cancel everything, input the gas station as a new destination and when done put back in your original destination. But no longer!
Starting today, Google Maps v9.16 is making its way to Google Play, making the ability to add secondary destinations a cinch. Basically, all you have to do is tap on the magnifying glass found in the top right corner of the display while in navigation mode. A drop down will appear with several options such as gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants and more. There’s even an option that lets you type or voice search your own custom pit stop by address or name.
What’s interesting is that if you add a gas station to the stop, you’ll also be given pricing information, helping you pick out the one with the lowest price. The same prices will also be found now when searching for a gas station in regular search results.
The latest version of Google Maps is technically a minor update, but the addition of ‘pit stops’ is a feature that I personally am super excited for and one of the few things I ever complained about when it comes to Google Maps. As you’d expect, the update will be rolling out slowly over the next several weeks. If any of our readers have the APK and can share a link with us and other readers, we’d greatly appreciate it.
What do you think of the new Maps feature? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Here’s what you need for a fingerprint reader in Android Marshmallow
Google made sure that the Nexus 5X and 6P take advantage of Android Marshmallow’s fingerprint reader support, but have you wondered what it’ll take to get that digit scanning support in third-party hardware? You don’t have to guess any longer. Google has listed the requirements for fingerprint readers in its latest platform, and they’re unsurprisingly quite strict. The reader’s false acceptance rate has to be virtually non-existent, and the rejection rate should be less than 10 percent. It also needs a hardware-based approach to matching fingerprints, and it must be impossible to access that data outside of the chip. Clearly, Google doesn’t want a repeat of the lax security that made it easy to steal fingerprint data from some earlier Android phones.
This doesn’t preclude vendors from trotting out their own approaches to fingerprint readers — just ask OnePlus or Samsung. However, the requirements set an important baseline for those phone makers that either want Google’s official blessing or can’t justify building a biometric security solution from scratch. You may well see a wave of Android phones with reliable, secure readers, even from tiny outfits that couldn’t have justified the technology before.
Via: Android Police
Source: Google (PDF)
South Korean government eyes new Google Tax for next year
One of the challenges that is confronting governments around the world is how to deal with increasing globalization and companies that are no longer primarily confined to operating within one country or even one region of the world. More and more, companies like Google, Apple, Samsung and others are becoming major industries in all markets where they operate. Even though they operate in many countries, often generating significant revenues in those markets, they are often sophisticated enough to take advantage of existing tax laws to greatly minimize the taxes they may pay in any given jurisdiction. The G20 plans to take up this issue next month at a meeting in Turkey, but South Korea appears to be ready to implement new tax provisions a year earlier than what the G20 is looking at by moving forward with the so-called “Google Tax” starting in 2016.
To demonstrate the challenge for national governments, in South Korea in 2013 there were 90 companies that generated more than 1 trillion won (approximately $889 million USD) in sales. Out of those 90 companies, 15 of them paid no taxes for 2013. South Korea also had 9,532 overseas corporations conducting business in the country in 2013 and 49.9 percent, or 4,752 of them, did not pay any corporate taxes.
The avoidance of taxes is part of a set of strategies that multinational companies engage in to minimize their tax burden that are called BEPS for Base Erosion and Profit Sharing. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates countries that belong to OECD missed out on $240 Billion USD in tax revenues due to these multinational companies successfully navigating the international tax requirements.
According to a statement from the South Korean Ministry of Planning and Finance, “If Google tax is a worldwide trend, the Korean government will implement the system preemptively. We will implement it earlier, check problems, and make improvements.” The “Google Tax” is slated to be considered at the G20 Summit in Turkey next month after the G20 Financial Ministers Meeting last month in Peru approved the basic set of countermeasures against BEPS and provided their rationalization for the recommended steps. If approved, the G20 countries are expected to introduce and implement the Google Tax in 2017. South Korea’s move will get it moving on the Google Tax one year earlier than the other G20 countries.
source: BusinessKorea
Come comment on this article: South Korean government eyes new Google Tax for next year
The Ora-X smart headphones include a flippable AR display
Google Glass was, by all accounts, a spectacular flop in the eyes of potential consumers. Now, another company hopes to succeed where Google has failed by incorporating an AR display into a device people are far more familiar with: over-ear headphones.
They’re called the Ora-X and are the first product from Optivent, which is launching a $150,000 Indiegogo campaign today. The Ora-X, which initially debuted as a concept piece at CES last January, is essentially a wearable tablet. The device is powered by Android 4.4 (Kitkat) and is capable of both running standalone apps or streaming media from a Bluetooth-enabled device. Like Glass, the Ora-X is controlled via a touchscreen mounted on the right ear cup, though the screen can be flipped over for left-handers as well. Its full-color AR screen offers a 22 degree field of view, which is the equivalent of looking at a 70 inch display from 15 feet away. Additionally, the Ora-X mounts an autofocusing, forward-facing video camera on the screen arm, which will allow users to capture POV video.
The early prototype that Optivent showed me during a recent demo at the Engadget San Francisco office was still pretty rough and only offered limited functionality but the concept seems well-founded at least. The image quality of the screen won’t be overtaking your Mac’s Retina display anytime soon but the version I saw played music videos from YouTube with surprising clarity and minimal flicker. Also neat is the fact that you don’t have to break your natural line of sight to use the screen, as you would with Google Glass. Since the screen is completely transparent, you can overlay whatever you’re watching directly in front of whatever you’re looking at (note: driving, riding or even running with these things on is a very bad idea).
The headphones themselves are powered by 50 mm drivers. Perhaps the coolest feature is that the entire headset can run independently of other devices, which means that it’s not simply an extension of your phone like the Apple Watch but a fully-functional complimentary device. Once the company opens its API to third party developers (assuming it gets funded, of course) I’m excited to see what sort of novel uses people find for it.
Source: Optivent (Indiegogo)
AIVAnet 