Google teams up with GSK to develop ‘bioelectronic medicines’
By forcing startups like Google X, Fiber and Nest to behave like companies and take financial accountability, Alphabet believes that its subsidiaries are more likely to invest in projects that will ultimately make it money. Being in the expensive healthcare business, Verily — formerly Google Life Sciences — often needs to speculate to accumulate, but for its latest venture, the company is dreaming big. It’s teaming up with British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to develop bioelectronic medicines that can “harness electrical signals in the body to treat chronic disease.”
Under the agreement, both companies will invest up to £540 million ($715 million) to form a new company, Galvani Bioelectronics. It’s named after Luigi Aloisio Galvani, an 18th century Italian scientist who was one of the early pioneers of bioelectricity (he was also the guy who found that frogs legs twitch when exposed to an electric current). According to GSK’s press release, it’ll be headquartered in the UK, with a second research hub in San Francisco, and will primarily focus on the “research, development and commercialization” of bioelectronics.
GSK believes that biomedicines can treat conditions like arthritis and asthma, but one of Galvani Bioelectronics’ first projects will focus on the development of “miniaturised precision devices” that can help remedy “inflammatory, metabolic and endocrine disorders” including type 2 diabetes. GSK will fuse its drug discovery and development prowess with Verily’s expertise in developing tiny low power electronics.
Initially, Galvani will employ 30 scientists, engineers and clinicians, who will utilise treatments developed by both parent companies, academic institutions and other R&D companies. They’ll have to wait until the deal is approved by competition regulators before they do, but both parties expect that to happen before the end of the year.
Source: GSK
Google brings Maps’ multi-stop feature to iOS
Google is rolling out Maps’ multi-stop feature to the iOS app, making it easy to plan for road trips or even for a dreary day of running errands. The tech titan introduced the ability to set multiple destinations on Android back in June. Now that it’s also out for Apple’s mobile platform, you can simply tap “Add stop” and even rearrange destinations by holding and dragging them around if you have an iPhone. Just like when it was initially released, you might not be able to access the feature immediately. It might take a few days or so for the update to show up — for now, you’ll just have to plot routes the old way.
Source: Google Maps
Google is turning on HSTS encryption on its domain
Google has taken additional measures to strengthen its data encryption by implementing HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS).
While most of Google’s data is already encrypted, Google’s utilization of HSTS goes a step further by preventing users from mistakenly heading to HTTP URLs by converting potentially unsafe HTTP URLs into more secure HTTPS URLs. For instance, you might accidentally type in a URL without protocols and find yourself redirected to an unsafe destination. HSTS help curb those issues, especially among less internet-savvy users.
Google is looking to deploy the changes as soon as possible, but there’s still some additional work to be done before it’s ready to go. HSTS is now active for Google’s domain, however, in the meantime. It will be extended to additional domains and Google products soon.
Source: Google
Google is turning on HSTS encryption across the web
Google has taken additional measures to strengthen its data encryption by implementing HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS).
While most of Google’s data is already encrypted, Google’s utilization of HSTS goes a step further by preventing users from mistakenly heading to HTTP URLs by converting potentially unsafe HTTP URLs into more secure HTTPS URLs. For instance, you might accidentally type in a URL without protocols and find yourself redirected to an unsafe destination. HSTS help curb those issues, especially among less internet-savvy users.
Google is looking to deploy the changes as soon as possible, but there’s still some additional work to be done before it’s ready to go. HSTS is now active for Google.com, however, in the meantime. It will be extended to additional domains and Google products soon.
Source: Google
The best multiroom wireless speaker system
By Chris Heinonen
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read the full article here.
We’ve spent hundreds of hours over several months using six multiroom wireless speaker systems in every possible room and even outside, and determined that Sonos is the best. It has a class-leading music ecosystem, excellent sound quality, and unparalleled ease of use. Because Sonos has a variety of great-sounding speakers at different prices, just about anyone can get into a Sonos system with room to grow.
Who should get this
Multiroom wireless speaker systems are for people who want to be able to play music all over their house and easily control it from their phone, tablet, or computer. They let you play different songs on each speaker, or group speakers together to play the same song in multiple rooms. They support both local media libraries and streaming services, allowing you to play music from almost any source. They make it easy to expand your system by just adding another speaker or zone.
If you care only about music in a single room, or don’t care about multiple sources, other options—like Bluetooth and AirPlay speakers—will work for less money, although they require your phone, tablet, or computer to be the streaming source. (Multiroom wireless audio solutions access the music sources directly, so they won’t wear down your phone’s battery life.)
How we picked and tested
We spent several months using six speaker systems in every room (and even outside) to find the best multiroom wireless speaker system. Photo: Chris Heinonen
We looked for audio systems that could be set up in multiple rooms, either as speakers or as sources for an existing audio system. We wanted systems that could play back local music (your MP3s, for example) and stream music from online sources (Spotify and the like) completely from your smartphone or tablet so that you would never need to physically access the speaker. Each speaker, or “zone,” needed to be able to play from a different source than other speakers, or to be grouped with those other speakers for all of them to play from the same source. The ideal multiroom wireless speaker system is reliable and easy to install and update. It should also offer a large variety of products at a wide range of prices, as well as support for Bluetooth or AirPlay.
We researched all the models currently available, and we spoke to Ty Pendlebury of CNET and Darryl Wilkinson of Sound & Vision, who review multiroom wireless speaker systems. We then picked the most promising systems, and for each one we brought in at least two zones’ worth of equipment for testing.
Once we got everything in, we put the speakers all around the house, from the basement to upstairs, to make sure range wasn’t an issue. We listened to local files and the main streaming services (Spotify, Pandora, Amazon, Apple Music) on all of the contenders. In the case of soundbars, we watched movies and TV as well. With systems that had a 3.5-millimeter line-in, we used a switcher to send the same music to all the speakers and directly compare them.
Our pick
Sonos has done the multiroom wireless speaker system thing longer than anyone, and the company’s experience shows. Photo: Chris Heinonen
Sonos is the best multiroom wireless speaker system because it supports the most streaming services, has a wide selection of great-sounding speakers, offers thorough search features, and comes with a well-organized app that runs on almost all major platforms. Sonos keeps its platform current by adding more services regularly, introducing new features such as Trueplay room-correction technology, and updating its models. The Sonos user experience is the best of any of the multiroom wireless speaker systems available.
Sonos offers speakers that start at the low end with the small Play:1 and extend to the Playbar soundbar for use with a TV. You can use a single speaker, combine two into a stereo pair, or even build a 5.1-channel home theater system using the Playbar, two other speakers for surrounds, and the matching Sub. If you already have speakers that require an amp, you can use the Connect to add them into a Sonos system. The Connect also has a stereo input if you want to connect a turntable, tape deck, or Bluetooth receiver. Passive speakers, like our favorite bookshelf speakers, can be added by using the Connect:Amp, but if you’re looking for a stereo solution you can get a pair of the impressive Play:1s for less. The most serious audiophiles might consider upgrading to a pair of Play:5s.
Currently, Sonos supports 48 streaming services, whereas many other multiroom systems offer a half dozen or fewer. That selection covers all the major ones, including Spotify, Pandora, Amazon, Google Play, and Apple Music. You can also play back your local music library and subscribe to podcasts. No matter how or where you get your music, the odds are that Sonos will support it. Plus, Sonos keeps all of its services inside a single, well-designed app for your computer or smartphone, which makes it easy to search across every service you subscribe to.
Budget pick
Google Chromecast Audio makes it easy to affordably convert sound systems around your house into a whole-home audio system.
If you aren’t ready to invest a few hundred dollars into a Sonos system, the Google Chromecast Audio offers an affordable and compelling alternative. You get an Oreo-sized puck with a single 3.5-mm output that is both analog and optical. It lets you stream from a huge number of iOS and Android apps (Spotify, TuneIn, Google Play, Plex, Pandora, and more), supports grouping rooms together, and offers high-resolution audio.
However, it doesn’t have the simple, single app that Sonos offers (instead, it’s integrated into individual apps and browsers). Also, some services still don’t work with it, and because it isn’t a unified hardware-and-software system, you’ll need to turn on a separate speaker each time you want to listen. Sonos handles all of that directly inside the app. But you can forgive a lot of its downsides at this price.
This guide may have been updated by The Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.
Google announces add-ons for Docs and Sheets’ mobile apps
Ever wish you could do even more work on your phone? Then today’s your day. Google just announced third-party add-on support for its Docs and Sheets Android app, allowing the mobile version of its office suite to seamlessly integrate with other productivity tools. Starting today, users will be able to sign documents, import CRM data or create apps from spreadsheets — so long as they download the appropriate add-on, that is.
Want to be able to sign documents on the go? You can download the Android DocuSign app and prepare documents for signatures from inside the Google Docs interface. Need to add complex annotations to a document while riding the train? Use EasyBib to streamline the process. Users can add ProsperWorks to import CRM data, AppSheet to generate mobile apps from data sheets, Scanbot to capture physical documents with your smartphone camera and more.
While these add-ons seem like a great way to be more productive on your phone, there’s not very many of them. Google’s Docs and Sheets add-on page on Google Play lists just nine compatible apps — a far cry from the massive library available to desktop users — but it’s a start. Check out Google’s announcement post for more details.
Source: Google for Work
Google reports big profits as it continues to invest in mobile
It’s been nearly a year since Google underwent a major organization do-over, with a renaming of the overall parent company to Alphabet, while Google itself was now just a sub-firm within. But, as its latest earnings results suggest, a majority of Alphabet’s profits still come from regular ol’ Google. Of the $21.5 billion it made in revenue, $21.3 billion was from Google-related ventures like search and advertising. Also, that $21.5 billion number? That’s a whopping 21 percent increase from this time last year.
Its “Other Bets” segments — which include Nest, Google Fiber and Google X — made money too, but it lost more than it gained. Specifically, it made $185 million in total but lost $859 million in expenditure. Which isn’t too surprising considering the experimental nature of most of these businesses, plus the loss is a drop in the bucket when compared to the company’s overall revenue and profit.
One of the reasons for such growth is Google’s big push in mobile. As CEO Sundar Pichai said during the investor call, mobile is the “engine” that drives much of the business. That includes advertising, YouTube, its platforms such as Chrome and Android, the cloud and of course mobile search. Indeed, CFO Ruth Porat says that ad revenue from mobile search was a big reason for the increase in profits this past quarter.
Going forward, expect to see a lot more investment in AI. Already, the company has put quite a bit of money in the area, using AI to improve everything from search to core Google products. “It’s a pivotal and transformational moment” in machine learning, Pichai said on the call. Search is smarter and more useful, he said, while GBoard (its IOS keyboard) and Google Photos are just a couple of Google products that are enhanced with machine learning and natural language processing. “Advances like these make searches even more relevant,” he said.
Pichai also called out AMP, its internal effort to make the mobile web experience faster and its work with YouTube. He says YouTube is a “thriving home for creators” and that the big part of its focus in recent years has been on live video. Though YouTube is a little late to the game as far as mobile live video streaming, Pichai says that the company is definitely committed to pushing it forward. A recent livestream of the Champion’s League in the UK, for example, was the country’s biggest ever livestream event.
As to what to expect the rest of the year, Pichai gave us few hints. He did, however, mention Daydream, Google’s VR platform. He says Google has been working with partners to turn out several Daydream-ready phones, controllers and headsets that’ll be ready by fall.
Source: Alphabet
Google brings Family Library sharing to the Play Store
The Google Play Store’s rumored Family Library feature officially goes live today with expanded sharing options for all of your apps, movies, TV shows and books. With a little bit of setup, your Google Play Store purchases are now available across every device in your household.
When you sign up for Family Library, you’ll be asked to enter a credit card to cover any purchases made by your family, but the account administrator/keeper of the family finances will be able to approve purchases for the other users or allow them to use their own credit cards or gift cards. The primary account holder also has final say on which purchased items will be shared to the communal library and which they can keep only on their device.
While all Google Play apps and media will sync across any of your family’s Android devices, only books, TV shows and movies will be available to iOS users. (In other words, you can’t sync that Android copy of “Monument Valley” to your sister’s iPhone.) The service is live as of Wednesday morning, but will be rolling out to users over the next 48 hours if it doesn’t immediately show up.
Finally, it’s also worth nothing that Family Library is still separate from the Google Play Music family plan the company launched last December. Those subscriptions won’t change, but that service is now available in 12 countries, including Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and Mexico.
Google searches omitted key US presidential candidates
Google has been a rich, impartial resource for US election info so far, but it’s apparently not perfect. NBC notes that certain searches for would-be Presidents (such as “presidential candidates” or “US president candidates”) weren’t turning up major candidates in the list of active campaigns, including Republican nominee Donald Trump and Libertarian pick Gary Johnson. Moreover, they still included Bernie Sanders — odd when his party has nominated Hillary Clinton.
We’ve asked Google for its take on what happened, and we’ll let you know if it has a comment. As it stands, the issue might be resolved by the time you read this, as the cards disappeared entirely during the writing of this article. However, it’s doubtful that there’s a sinister conspiracy here. Regular search results still mention the missing candidates, and Google has historically shown results for other hopefuls. Most likely, this is an error — albeit one that’s bound to raise eyebrows.
Via: NBC4i.com
Source: Google
Google Play gives Android app developers more categories
Two months after giving VR its own category, Google Play will soon expand the list of Android app subcategories with additional general interest ones, allowing developers to more accurately slot theirs. Here’s the full list of new ones: Art & Design, Auto & Vehicles, Dating, Events, Food & Drink, House & Home and Parenting. Ideally, the increased specificity will improve the relevance of Google Play’s search results.
They’ve also renamed a few of the old subcategories to avoid confusion with the new, so ‘Transportation’ is now ‘Maps & Navigation’ while ‘Media & Video’ will now be ‘Video Players & Editors.’ The change will go into effect over the next 60 days.
Source: Android Developers Blog
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