Android Pay hits the web via Chrome
Android Pay is about to work in many, many more places. As promised, Google is bringing Android Pay to the web. If you use Chrome to shop at online stores like 1-800-Flowers and Groupon, you can soon rely on Android’s official mobile payment system to check out faster and more securely than usual (it doesn’t share account info with stores, for one thing). Also, you may want to get in the habit of using Android Pay if you’re fond of ridesharing. It’s the first mobile wallet to tie into Uber’s Payment Rewards program, giving you discounts when you use Android Pay. Uber is marking the occasion with a US promo that gives travelers half of 10 of their rides when they use Android Pay with the service.
This latest expansion also adds some much-needed support for major banks. Americans can finally use Chase’s numerous Visa cards with Android Pay, while British users will get to add Santander or TSB cards in the “coming weeks.” Google’s tap-to-pay tech still has a limited reach at this stage (just ask anyone outside of the US and UK), but it’s definitely growing.
Source: Android Official Blog, Uber
Project Ara’s death is bad news for the weird side of Google
Last week, Google announced that it was killing Project Ara, the company’s modular smartphone initiative. Ara was easily one of the coolest and strangest things Google was working on, but the project always felt like a bit of a longshot. In this world of carefully-built, sealed-up iPhones and Galaxy devices, it didn’t feel like there was much room for Ara’s intriguing but bizarre swappable hardware modules. But Ara was one of the best examples out there of “Weird Google,” and Ara’s death is the latest clue that the experimental side of the company might be in trouble.
To fully understand this weird side of the company, let’s step back to Google I/O 2013. Larry Page made one of the more bizarre speeches you might hear from a CEO of one of the world’s biggest organizations. Page (now CEO of Google parent company Alphabet) advocated setting aside part of the world for unregulated experimentation. “There are many exciting things you could do that are illegal or not allowed by regulation,” Page said. “And that’s good, we don’t want to change the world. But maybe we can set aside a part of the world.” That pretty much sums up what I think of when I talk about what makes Google (pleasantly) weird.
Or I should say weird Alphabet. Most of the company’s more radical initiatives are now technically under the parent company rather than Google itself. But, just about all of the curious things came out when it was all known as Google. Sure, the company’s traditional products — Search, Android, Maps, Gmail and the massive ad business that pays for everything — are both extremely successful and exciting to see develop. But it was always the off-beat side of the company where a lot of fascinating projects were born — and it feels like that part of Alphabet and Google is going away.
Project Ara’s shutdown came after a year of back-and-forth about the initiative’s future. Last year’s pilot launch in Puerto Rico was cancelled, and rumors swirled about the project’s future for a while after that. Despite that, just three months, Ara made a surprise appearance ago at Google I/O. Staff showed off working phones and said that a developer model would be ready by the end of 2016. It even said a consumer-ready product would be on sale in 2017.
But eventually Google switched course, and there’s a lot to read into about Ara’s demise. The reason that this particular death is so significant to the weird Google trend is what it says about the Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group where Ara was born. The modular phone initiative was its most visible and potentially useful concept project. Especially now that the augmented reality Project Tango is in products shipping to consumers soon. Without Ara, it’s easy to feel like ATAP is a bit adrift. Sure, that Project Jacquard Levi’s jacket with sensor fabric is cool, but it’s not exactly a mainstream product just yet.
Further reinforcing the issue is the loss of ATAP head Regina Dugan, who recently left the group for the relatively safe and stable confines of Facebook. Dugan came to Google from DARPA, a secretive research department in the Pentagon, and quickly became a huge advocate for the ATAP group — under her direction, the group publicly proclaimed they were a “band of pirates trying to do epic shit,” and they lived up to that promise with ideas like Ara and Tango.
But now Dugan’s gone, Ara is dead, and a number of Google’s more experimental high-profile projects are struggling. Recode reported a few weeks ago that Alphabet’s secretive “moonshot” X lab was struggling to get products out of the experimental phase and out the door, with the Google / Alphabet reorganization imposing more red tape and difficulties on the team.
Google Fiber, the company’s superfast home internet initiative, is having trouble launching in cities where it has promised to deliver — and Page reportedly wants to cut the size of the team in half. Page and fellow Google co-founder Sergey Brin are both said to be concerned about the costs associated with deploying the fiber-optic internet networks, and another report claims the company is forgoing fiber and using wireless to deliver internet when it launches in Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas.
Image credit: Reuters/George Frey
There’s also the departure of Nest CEO Tony Fadell, which came after reports of infighting between Fadell and Dropcam CEO Greg Duffy — who came on board when Google bought the security camera company. Fadell claimed some members of the Dropcam team were “not as good as we’d hoped” in an interview with The Information; Duffy then publicly challenged Fadell to release Nest’s financials and show just how the division was doing. Oh, and this all happened before Fadell even left Nest.
Speaking of Nest, Google Glass ended up part of the same division after the original pilot program unceremoniously shut down in January of 2015. We’ve heard basically nothing substantive about the project since. And Google also sold off Niantic, the company first responsible for the augmented reality game Ingress that has now built a little title you may have heard of: Pokémon Go.
Image credit: Sait Serkan Gurbuz/Reuters
Of course, turmoil and difficulty is to be expected when you’re working on wild projects, many of them right out in the public eye. Companies like Apple would never put something like Ara or Glass through what amounts to very pubic alpha and beta test programs, so it’s not surprising that things need to be rethought or shuttered entirely. There’s still Alphabet’s fascinating self-driving cars, Project Loon’s internet-via-balloon program and the super-cheap Project Fi cell phone service to be excited about, to name just a few of Alphabet’s more disruptive plans. And the company’s huge ad business still pays for nearly everything happening at Alphabet, allowing for this sort of experimentation.
But from a business perspective, the Google division continues to earn money hand over fist while Alphabet hasn’t found any other area that can reliably make a profit yet. Perhaps the turmoil of the last year or so has been to refocus on the experimental bets that are most likely to pay off in the long run. The strategy could end up proving itself to be a smart one — but that doesn’t mean we won’t miss Project Ara and the other initiatives that used to be the hallmark of Weird Google.
Google helps your favorite websites fight hackers
Google’s Safe Browsing initiative already prevents you from accessing shady websites, among other things. Now, the initiative is also making it easier for your favorite online destinations to combat various security issues as soon as they hit. The Safe Browsing console has expanded its Security Issues report to provide website owners with more context and detailed explanations about a particular security problem it finds. That could be any of the six types it can detect, including malware, deceptive pages, and harmful or uncommon downloads.
Besides the detailed reports, the Safe Browsing console now also recommends different courses of action website owners can take, along with sample URLs they can use to unearth the source of the problem. These new features could help website developers fight off hackers and address potential security breaches as soon as possible, which can keep you and your information safe in turn.
The team’s announcement post comes with a call to register for developers who haven’t taken advantage of Safe Browsing yet:
“We on the Safe Browsing team definitely recommend registering your site in Search Console even if it is not currently experiencing a security issue. We send notifications through Search Console so webmasters can address any issues that appear as quickly as possible.”
Source: Google
‘Inspirational’ fashion ads sell exactly the look you’re Googling
Google is changing the way it indexes fashion-related content as part of an experiment involving outfits posted by fashion bloggers. Shop the Look culls various products from outfit searches so you can purchase pieces of said outfit as seen in the photo. You’ll be able to tap through the image and explore what’s available in a visually similar manner to the outfit via Shopping ads.
For instance, if you searched for an outfit like “little black dress,” Google would offer up search results from social influencers that match the terms. If you’re in the US on a mobile device, you’ll see a blogger wearing a dress, glasses and shoes that link to online shops where you can purchase them.
If you’re in the business of fashion and want your products to be seen, this might be a great way to go in the future. Given how often potential clothes buyers tend to search for images of the outfits they want to wear, ads that show exactly what they’re looking for are a natural fit.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Google
Google hits back at claims of sub-par Chrome battery life
Google isn’t buying Microsoft’s claims that Chrome’s battery life is terrible. The search pioneer has posted a video showing the battery life improvements between last year’s Chrome 46 and the just-launched Chrome 53, and it’s clear that Google is taking a dig at Microsoft testing that favored Edge. The result shows the newer browser (conveniently running on Surface Books, like in Microsoft’s clip) offering 2 hours and 12 minutes of additional runtime when streaming Vimeo footage non-stop. It lasted a healthy 10 hours and 39 minutes, which might be enough to get through your favorite movie trilogy.
Just as with Microsoft, though, you won’t want to accept the results at face value. This isn’t an apples-to-oranges comparison — Google and Microsoft are using different video services, and Microsoft also touches on web surfing power consumption that isn’t mentioned here. They’re both choosing tests that play to their browsers’ strengths, and your real-life experience is bound to produce different results in both cases. The only definitive conclusion is that the latest Chrome release is more battery-friendly than the version you were using several months ago. It could be worth revisiting Chrome if you were burned by its previous energy demands, but something tells us this won’t change many minds.
Source: Google Chrome (YouTube), Chrome Blog
Warner Bros. asks that its own sites be removed from Google
Warner Bros. is in the business of keeping its content from being pirated, and in the past has been working on ways to accomplish just that.
The studio has taken to Google in the past to see this lofty goal through, alleging that the search engine makes it far too simple for users to seek out and obtain pirated content. In the past, Warner Bros. has even asked that Google remove destinations for torrent fans like The Pirate Bay from its search results.
Now, Warner Bros. is taking matters into its own hands by collecting pirated content and its corresponding URLs to report to Google while requesting that it gets de-indexed. However, it looks like the studio has also flagged its own URLs for censorship via anti-piracy partner Vobile.
For example, screenshots from DMCA notices for both The Dark Knight and The Matrix note official publicity URLs for both movies located at Warnerbros.com. Recently, a DMCA takedown notice for the movie The Lucky One was submitted with yet another Warnerbros.com URL. It’s happening again and again, which only places the spotlight on the problem with automating takedowns. Warner Bros. is essentially making it more difficult for fans to visit pages related to its properties and, in some cases, purchase them according to Amazon URLs on the same notices.
Google decided to leave the URLs up, but it’s possible that may not be the case going forward forever. It looks like Warner Bros. will have to be more discerning in the future when it comes to combating piracy through means it deems necessary.
Via: TorrentFreak
Google might be readying a successor to the Nexus 7 tablet
Android tablets over the years have typically been hit or miss, but Google found a place in the crowded market with the Nexus 7, particularly the 2013 model. The combo of a low price, great display, solid hardware and a form factor that stood out as distinctly different than the iPad made it a winner. But it was discontinued well over a year ago, with no direct replacement in sight. That might change this fall: Evan Blass claims that a 7-inch Huawei 7P tablet is being manufactured for Google and will be released before the end of the year.
Google’s Huawei-built 7-inch tablet, with 4GB RAM, on track for release before the end of the year.
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) September 5, 2016
Blass, who has successfully predicted the launch of many gadgets in his day, said the tablet would include 4GB of RAM — but didn’t include any other specs or any photos or renders. There hasn’t been much other buzz around this tablet; Tech Times noted a similar rumor way back in December, and Huawei filed a trademark for the 7P earlier this year. A theoretical Nexus 7P would follow the current naming scheme with Google’s Nexus phones. But with massive phones becoming more and more commonplace, the market for smaller tablets (like the older Nexus 7) appears to have shrank significantly.
Also, it’s not clear that the next phones Google releases will be branded “Nexus” at all. Recent rumors point out that the next Google phones might feature the Pixel brand, which has thus far been reserved for high-end Chromebooks and an Android tablet. Google’s only Android tablet for sale now is the Pixel C, so it’s starting to seem possible that all of the company’s home-made hardware will be grouped under the Pixel brand going forward. In any event, we should know more soon — Google is rumored to be holding an event to show off its latest hardware on October 4th.
Via: The Verge
Source: Evan Blass (Twitter)
The best of the rest at IFA 2016
Now that we’ve said goodbye to IFA 2016, it’s time to bring you highlights of the most interesting devices at the event. In this particular edition, you’ll find some that aren’t smartphones or wearables. We’re talking virtual reality massage chairs, fridges with built-in tablets, as well as adorable robots and drones. Acer’s ridiculous 21-inch gaming laptop is there too, along with its new convertible Chromebook. But that’s just part of it, so check out the slideshow and think about which items you want the most.
We’re live all week from Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
Amazon, Apple and Google back Microsoft fight over US gag orders
Microsoft isn’t going it alone in its lawsuit fighting gag orders for data requests. Amazon, Apple, Google and Mozilla have contributed to a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Microsoft’s case against the US government over the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which lets officials bar companies from telling customers when officials want their info. In theory, the brief could sway the court’s decision and have it deem the ECPA a violation of the constitutional right to be informed about searches and seizures.
It’s not just tech industry giants contributing, either. Supporters range from oil giant BP through to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Fox News. Even five former Department of Justice and FBI officials are supporting Microsoft.
There’s no guarantee this will work. The Justice Department insists that Microsoft has no grounds for its lawsuit, that there are steps to protect rights and that there’s a “compelling” interest in keeping criminal investigations secretive. However, as with tech companies supporting Apple in its battle against the FBI, the brief is a reminder that any ruling will have an effect on the rights of many people, not just Microsoft’s users.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Reuters, Mozilla Blog
After Math: Call me, maybe
It’s been a banner week for mobile devices not made by Apple (you’ll have to wait until the 7th for those). Samsung, quite literally, blew its chance to gain ground on Apple, given the new iPhone’s reputed lackluster feature set. Google likely killed off Project Ara, its modular smartphone. Verizon and T-Mobile both rolled out new service plans aimed at stretching subscribers’ data plans. Hasselblad actually made a photography device that won’t require the life of your first born to obtain. And Nubia unveiled its newest flagship phone — but where’s the bezel. Numbers, because how else would we determine market share?
AIVAnet 