Google Maps update lets you know when your destination will close
Not everybody has a great sense of direction or knows all the ways. Google Maps help save the day by taking you to your preferred destinations without any hassle. But every once in a while, it so happens that we have to go to our favorite restaurant or any other place and imagine the dilemma when you reach there and find out that the place is closed.
Well, Google has addressed to this issue in their latest Google Maps update. From now on, whenever one asks for directions in the Google Maps, it shows if the place will be closed before your estimated arrival time. A simple pop-up notification informs you about the operational hours of the destination along with the estimated time of your arrival.
There is also an option to cancel the navigation in the notification or you can go ahead with it if you really want to be speed racer.
Another feature of this new update brings the ability for Google Maps to be able to use the data from car rental-related emails. It can be accessed under the “my events” section. And definitely, there the usual bug fixes.
Over the last few years navigation has become an important part of our travelling itinerary. Google has brought forth a lot of improvement to their maps app with the inclusion of features such as navigation sharing, real-time transit information and the upcoming offline maps features.
Check out the Play Store link below, and update your Google Maps right now! Share your experiences with us in the comments section below.
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Amazon: Hey public, can you deliver this package for us?
Amazon may be considering yet another way to get packages from its distribution centers to your front door. No, it doesn’t involve more drones or warehouse bots. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon wants to hire members of the general public to act as impromptu delivery drivers — kind of like what Sidecar does — rather than paying UPS to deliver the goods. The service, which could be called “On My Way”, would store packages at local brick-and-mortar retailers in urban areas where the company’s new couriers could grab them.
This idea comes after Amazon saw its shipping costs jumped a whopping 31 percent last year. The company, much like Google and eBay have, is looking to save money on that last and most expensive leg of the deliver: getting it to your door. But given that UPS charges just $8 a pop for the 3.5 million parcels Amazon sends out every day, Amazon will need to hire a lot of drivers if it wants to see any sort of significant cost savings. There’s also the issue of who’d be responsible for lost or damaged packages. As such, Amazon has no timeline for moving forward or any guarantees that it won’t scrap the idea entirely.
[Image Credit: shutterstock]
Filed under: Internet, Google, Amazon
Source: Walls Street Journal
Google’s rewards program tackles Android security flaws
The folks in Mountain View have been paying security researchers who find flaws in Google’s software for years. After announcing a program that specifically targeted Chrome, the company is looking to find vulnerabilities in its mobile OS. The Android Security Rewards program will pay researchers who “find, fix and prevent vulnerabilities” that exist inside the operating system. When it comes to issues affecting Nexus devices sold through Google Play, Google will pay per step that’s needed to fix the problem — including patches and testing. Just finding a critical bug will earn you $2,000, for example. The largest rewards are available to those who figure out how to go around Android’s security features like ASLR, NX and sandboxing. In 2015, Google shelled out over $1.5 million to researchers who found bugs, with the largest individual reward totaling $150,000. If you’re looking to join the hunt, you can browse all the detailed info right here.
Source: Google
Google paying out cash bounties for identifying and solving Android vulnerabilities
Google takes security very seriously, and now that’s more true than ever. The company has offered bounties for anyone that could find or solve vulnerabilities in Chrome and their websites with their Security Rewards program, and today they’re extending that to cover Android, too.
Just how it works with other apps and services, if you find or fix a vulnerability in Android Google will pay out a bounty depending on how severe the bug or vulnerability is. Identifying a bug nets you anywhere from $500 to $2000 based on how severe the issue is. Providing test cases or patches for those bugs drastically increases the payout, topping out at around $8k for very critical vulnerabilities. If you can find a functional exploit via a third-party app installed on a device, Google will shell out upwards of $20k. Those are some pretty high rewards if you think you can slip through Android’s current state of security.
The only conditions to these bounties are that it must apply to the Nexus 6 or Nexus 9 AOSP or OEM code. They’ll also only be rewarding the first instance of a bug being disclosed. There are a handful of other rules and exceptions to read up on if you’re interested in taking a crack at snagging one of these bounties.
source: Android Security Rewards
Come comment on this article: Google paying out cash bounties for identifying and solving Android vulnerabilities
Google will pay up to $8000 to researchers disclosing Android vulnerabilities
Google is extending its bug bounty program to cover vulnerabilities found on Android devices sold through its store.
The new Android Security Rewards program covers vulnerabilities found on current Nexus phones and tablets that are available in the Google Store (formerly, the hardware section of Play Store). Currently that means the Nexus 6 and the Nexus 9. The program supplements Google’s other bug bounty schemes, such as the Patch Rewards program, which launched in 2013 and includes AOSP and many other projects.
“Eligible bugs include those in AOSP code, OEM code (libraries and drivers), the kernel, and the TrustZone OS and modules. Vulnerabilities in other non-Android code, such as the code that runs in chipset firmware, may be eligible if they impact the security of the Android OS.”
Google will only reward the first reporter of a specific bug, with bounties varying based on the severity of the issue, and whether or not the reporter offered a test case and/or a fix for the vulnerability.
For verified exploits that can lead to the kernel or boot being compromised, Google is willing to raise the bounty by up to an extra $30,000. The company will match any bounty that reporters opt to donate to a charity of their choosing.
Google launched its first bug bounty program in 2010, and since then, it paid $4 million to researchers, with $1.5 million in 2014 alone.
Installed on four out of every five smartphones in the world, Android has become the primary target of mobile malware developers, though the security measures implemented by Google ensure that only a very small number of malware-ridden apps compromise user devices. But it’s not just malware that Google worries about – a recent report revealed that the NSA was very interested in using the Play Store to surreptitiously deliver spyware on target devices, though it’s not clear what came of that program.
Unfortunately, Google’s efforts alone are not enough to ensure that bugs are exterminated in a timely fashion. Carriers and OEMs have the power – and responsibility – to deliver security patches for most devices, but time and again, they proved uninterested in doing the right thing for the customer.
Google displays the nutritional values of fast food meals
Google wants to count calories in your food photos someday, but until that happens, it can at least help you speed-search popular fast food meals. Say, you want to know what exactly you’re consuming when you eat a Big Mac — just type “calories in a Big Mac” or say it out loud after “OK, Google” using voice search on your mobile app. A box containing the food’s complete nutritional information (calories, carbs, fats, etc.), similar to what you see on calorie-counting apps like MyFitnessPal, will then show up on the results page. You can also search for a fast food chain’s full menu and click on each item to show its nutritional values. For instance, you can type in “Burger King calories” for a quick check before you order. That way, you won’t end up buying a Triple Whopper if you’re not ready to consume a whopping 1,160 calories in one sitting.
Source: Google+
Google Photos: Should you be worried about privacy?
There has been a fair bit of discussion about online privacy recently, specifically with regard to the new Google Photos service. It offers free, unlimited space to automatically back up all of your photos and videos online. There is no definitive answer to the question of whether you should be worried about your privacy if you decide to use the service. It all depends on how much you care about privacy in general, and how much you trust Google specifically.
Before we get into the privacy implications, let’s take a look at why you might want the service in the first place.
What is Google Photos?
We had an idea that Google might be breaking the photo component out of Google+, but there were a few surprises in store when Google Photos was offically unveilved at I/O this year. The service allows you to automatically upload all of your photos and videos to the cloud, for free and without a limit on storage, with a couple of limitations:
- Photos cannot be bigger than 16MP (they’ll be automatically down-scaled if they are)
- Videos must be 1080p resolution or lower
If you do want to store photos in their original, full quality, or you want to upload 4K video, then you can buy extra space at $2 per month for 100GB, and $10 per month for 1TB.
Google Photos is available as an app on Android or iOS, and you can access it through your browser. It provides you with a single location for all of your photos that’s accessible from all of your devices.
There are lots of services that are trying to solve the same problem, but Google Photos has some major advantages over the competition – it’s free, unlimited, and it’s really good at organizing your photos, making them searchable, and curating them. That means you can search by location, by date, by event, or using a variety of keywords. For example, type “beach” into the search box and you’ll see all your photos with a beach in them.
Google Photos can identify search terms like “cat,” though it still needs work when it comes to recognizing colors
The Photos Assistant also creates wee highlight videos and gifs for you to share, taking the pain out of editing things together yourself. This isn’t a new idea, but, as with so many things, Google is a little better at doing it than most of the competition.
You are the product
We’ve all heard the idea that if you’re not paying, you’re the product, not the customer. Google makes the lion’s share of its income from advertising. It collects data and analyzes it in all sorts of interesting ways, but the main aim is usually to better target ads at you.
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It wasn’t a huge surprise to find Apple’s Tim Cook speaking out against the new service, “We believe the customer should be in control of their own information. You might like these so-called free services, but we don’t think they’re worth having your email, your search history and now even your family photos data mined and sold off for god knows what advertising purpose. And we think some day, customers will see this for what it is.”
Hypocrisy aside, does he have a point?
A product like Google Photos, falls under Google Terms of Service. That means that when you upload your photos you are giving the tech giant license to “host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works, communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute” those photos.
That’s classic legalese, and Google spokespeople have already stated that they won’t use your photos for commercial or promotional purposes without obtaining explicit permission. They’ve also said that there are no plans afoot to monetize this service. But those reassurances don’t rule out such a move in the future, or give you any real legal protection.
What’s the risk?
You may wonder what the fuss is about anyway. So what if Google scans your photos to find out that you like to wear Nike trainers, and then uses that information to target a Nike ad at you? Photos actually has the potential to enhance Google Now considerably. The more Google learns about you, the more accurate and helpful its predictions or suggestions will be. Where’s the harm?
The risks here reach beyond a simple point of principle about personal privacy, though that will be reason enough for some people to avoid the service. Information can leak, or be stolen. Companies can share data behind our backs. Government agencies can snoop. Google can decide to leverage legal rights you’ve effectively already given it at any time. That doesn’t mean to say that it will ever happen, but you can’t rule it out.
Realistically, it comes down to trust. Do you trust Google?
The question is, do you trust Google?
If you were already using the backup service in Google+ for photos on Android, then Photos is nothing new. If you’re happy to use Google Maps, Gmail, Google Now, and all the other services that Google offers for free, then you’re already putting your trust in the company. It is already collecting data about you and using it in ways that you may not understand. It’s worth doing Google’s Privacy Checkup to find out more.
You could argue that it doesn’t matter anyway, because everyone else is doing the same thing, and that’s hard to disagree with. If you browse online without protection, then you are being tracked. If you communicate online without encryption, then your messages aren’t really private. If you use Facebook and Twitter, you are giving away lots of information about yourself and you don’t know for sure how it will be used.
At the end of the day, many of us will see the convenience and quality of a service like Google Photos as a fair trade-off for giving up tighter control over our privacy.
What about you? Will you be using Google Photos? Why or why not?
FDP 020: Apple Music, BlackBerry Android, S6 Plus, and more
Hot off the heels of Apple’s WWDC 2015, the gang gets together for the weekly talk about all things Android! We know, that sounds a little off the rail, but with all that happened on stage at the keynote, the guys just had to react – mostly to Apple Music. But a number of different rumors and announcements appeared since and thus topics in this episode of the FDP range from a potential BlackBerry Android and a potential Galaxy S6 Edge Note! It’s a jam-packed episode so hit that play button!
The FDP by Android Authority – discussing hot topics in Android every week.
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Apple Music is making its way to Android devices this fall
Apple’s other Android app will help you switch to iOS, “recycle” your Android for free
Spotify intends to match Apple Music’s discount family plan
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Recorded on June 12, 2015 – Hosted and Produced by Joshua Vergara
Google shuts down new Chrome Bookmark Manager, goes back to previous version
Remember that new Chrome Bookmark Manager we reported on last October? It was interesting and unique when we first saw it, back when it was just an extension you could opt to use or not. Then Google went trigger happy and decided to integrate the new page to the Chrome browser. It was a mess and people hated it, which is likely the main reason why the Search Giant has just decided to kill it and revert back to the previous Bookmark Manager.
We know many of you will be happy about this. That Bookmark Manager simply wasn’t ready to hit the market. It was slow, confusing, cluttered and flashy. It just made no sense to have it on a browser that is known for speed and simplicity, which is the complete opposite of what this page was.
I would understand part of pleasing the consumer is giving them attractive products, but this really made no sense. Yes, it was good looking and eye-catching, but come on… it’s just a bookmark manager. There is no need to complicate it. I mean, people barely ever use it! Many of you will only really notice changes to the star (bookmarking) menu, which is also back to the previous version.
And so Google takes it all back and decides to give us that simple and clean (and arguably ugly) Bookmark Manager that we all loved. It’s in the latest update to Chrome, so go and hit your browser’s menu button to see if your update is ready.
If you are a fan of the new Bookmark Manager and really don’t want to let it go, it’s still in the Chrome Web Store. That’s where it belongs, really. At least until Google can figure out a way to make it more intuitive and seamless. But what do you guys think about this new Bookmark Manager? Did you hate it too, or were you actually a fan? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
Google Maps will let you know if a place will be closed by the time you arrive
Showing up somewhere late is bad and showing up somewhere that is closed is even worse. You could have saved yourself a trip having known the hours. Now, Google Maps will help prevent any of that from happening. Google Maps will alert you when a place you are plan to head to will be closed by the time of your arrival.
In addition to this, Google Maps added car rental reservations to search results of personal events.
Hit the break for the changelog and download links.
What’s New
– Receiving a warning when you are able to navigate to a place that is closed at time of arrival.
– Searching for ‘my events’ now also shows car rental reservations from your GMail, in addition to flights and hotels.
– Bug fixes
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