Gmail gets visual cues to alert you to suspect emails
Google is making an annual event out of Safer Internet Day, offering tools and incentives to help keep its users safe. Today, Mountain View is adding a couple of visual cues to Gmail to alert you to potential email risks. First, you’ll notice a broken red lock icon in the corner of the compose window when responding to a source that’s not encrypted. Clicking the icon will remind you to double check before passing along sensitive info. Second, if you receive and email from an unauthenticated sender, the profile image will be replaced by a question mark. Of course, not all messages that Gmail flags will be malicious, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious.
Google offered 2GB of free Drive space last year if you were willing to complete its Security Checkup for your account. This year, it’s doing the same. All you have to do is check over your recovery email and phone number, confirm the list of connected devices and glance over the list of apps and sites that have permission to access your account. It takes about two minutes, even less if you’re familiar with the process from last year. Once you’re all done, you’ll receive a confirmation and those 2GB of cloud storage will be added to your account soon after. Heck, it’s free, so there’s no reason not to do it. And even if you glanced over things last year, you’ll receive an additional 2GB of storage for doing so once more.
Flood Alerts comes to India with Google Public Alerts
Google announced today that it’s bringing Flood Alerts to its Google Public Alerts service. This new feature will provide real-time flooding data to users in India, which will be served up via Google web search, Google Now cards, the Google app, Google Maps, and on the Public Alerts home page.
As part of this new tool for India, the search giant says that they’re using data from the Central Water Commission (CWC) so that users can find accurate flood information with river levels in over 170 areas where the CWC has an observation status.
Users will be able to click or tap on these alerts to find more information, such as a map, an expected timeline, and some helpful tips to stay out of harm’s way.
Public Alerts has been around for awhile now, but Google was just able to specifically bring Flood Alerts to India, as the CWC only recently made flood alerts available. The India Meteorological Department also recently made cyclone alerts available, which will allow Google to serve up warnings and helpful tips for that as well.
source: Google
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Google VR headset is coming this year as rival to Gear VR
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A number of job applications submitted by Google a few weeks ago suggested that the tech company was hiring for a virtual reality (VR) project within its walls. While nothing has been officially confirmed, the evidence is mounting and a new report from Financial Times has once again suggested the existence of a Google VR headset. Such a headset would compete with the Samsung Gear VR headset as it would require the use of a smartphone to achieve its VR experience. The report is also keen to mention that the quality of this Google VR headset will be significantly better than the Google Cardboard.
It’s also been suggested that Google is building in VR features into Android, making it an integral part of its ecosystem. This would make support much easier, particularly when you consider that this would reduce lag. This Google VR headset would be launched in 2016, which suggests any such software improvements to Android would be included in Android N – we’ll have to see whether Google will reveal any of its VR plans at Google I/O in May.
What do you think about a Google VR headset coming this year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Financial Times via engadget
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Sundar Pichai just became the highest paid CEO in the U.S.
Talk about a bonus – Google CEO Sundar Pichai just got a friendly slap on the back to the tune of a $199 million Alphabet stock grant, making him the highest paid CEO in America. A recent SEC filing revealed the record grant, the highest ever paid to a Google executive officer.
Pichai was awarded the stock just six months after accepting the role of Google CEO as Larry Page moved onto to run its newly-formed parent company Alphabet Inc. The stock grant, which will vest in quarterly increments until 2019 if Pichai remains at Google, reportedly brings Pichai’s holdings in the company to around the $650 million mark.
See also: Alphabet is now the world’s most valuable company, toppling Apple
Other high-value stock grants listed at the SEC included $42.8 million for Diane Greene, Google’s cloud business chief and $38.3 million for Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s CFO. Google reportedly only offers stock grants once every two years, to encourage executives to take a long-term view of the business. Former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, who held the CEO position for a decade, walked away with over $3 billion in shares.
What’s the best bonus you’ve ever received from your boss?
Google CEO Sundar Pichai makes more in 1 year than you’ll ever make in your life
Since Alphabet was created, Google needed a new CEO. The man they decided to run things was Sundar Pichai. So how much does the CEO of Google make in a year? A lot!
It has been revealed that Pichai has been awarded the equivalent of about $199 million in stock. This brings his total Alphabet earnings to roughly $650 million. However, he will not be awarded it all at once, but instead over the course of quarterly increments through 2019, and as long as he stays at his current position. This now makes Pichai the highest paid CEO in the US.
Since Alphabet was in a good mood, they also decided to give Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat roughly $38.3 million worth of shares, and Google cloud chief, Diane Greene, around $42.8 million worth of shares. I don’t know about you guys, but suddenly my life feels a lot less significant…
Source: Bloomberg
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Google has the best-paid CEO in the US
Google is an enormous company by most standards, but it now has one more notch under its belt: the US’ best-paid CEO. A company SEC filing has revealed that Sundar Pichai received the equivalent of $199 million in stock earlier in February, giving him a total $650 million stake in Alphabet. He won’t get to cash that in all at once (the shares vest in quarterly phases through 2019), but that’s a lot of money for three years’ work. In comparison, Apple’s Tim Cook got “just” $376.2 million when he assumed the CEO role.
Pichai isn’t the wealthiest person in Alphabet. As the Guardian explains, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are both worth about $34 billion; ex-CEO Eric Schmidt has about $3 billion in stock. However, the avalanche of shares says a lot about Alphabet’s determination to keep Pichai around for the long term. It really doesn’t want to lose the executive that has taken Android, Chrome and web search to new heights, especially not when rivals like Facebook could afford to poach him. Unless Pichai has a sudden change of heart, he’ll have plenty of incentives to stick around for a long, long while.
Source: SEC
Google brings back Security Checkup reward scheme just in time for Safer Internet Day
In preparation for Safer Internet Day which is will take place tomorrow Tuesday, February 9, Google has brought back its popular free storage reward. If you happened to miss the celebration last year, the search engine giant offered all users 2GB of additional Drive space to participate in a simple security checkup. The same scheme will run this year, but a couple of extra steps have been added in order to make your account more secure than ever before.
The audit itself takes around 2-to-3 minutes and requires you to sift through your account recovery options, trusted devices, permissions and 2-step verification settings. If everything appears to be in order and it doesn’t look like any of your details have been compromised, simply read through the Staying Safe tips, hit the OK button and Google will credit your account with the free storage.
It’s important to note, however, that tons of people all round the world will be partaking in this program, so if you notice that the extra space hasn’t shown up on your account immediately, don’t worry. It can take up to 24-hours for the system to process your request, verify that you have completed the checkup and credit your account.
Source: Google Security Checkup
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New VR headset from Google to expand audience
Declaring virtual reality to be “too important and too powerful a medium to be accessible to only a few” in an interview last month, Google’s Clay Bavor is ready to see the search giant broaden their front in the virtual reality market with the introduction of a new headset. Google already has a virtual reality headset, the Google Cardboard platform, which can literally be constructed out of cardboard. However, the company is now working on a new device with plans to embed VR support into the Android operating system.
Google Cardboard has proven to be quite popular with over 5 million units shipped for users who want to give VR a try without dropping a huge amount of money. To make it work though, Google has to rely on sensors built into smartphones and separate apps to help with chores like head tracking. The new device, besides being constructed of plastic, will come with its own built-in sensors. Google is also planning to embed the software that helps make VR work in the Android operating system itself, which should help make their solution compatible with a larger number of devices.
Part of Google’s work in this arena is to combat Samsung and Facebook, both of whom are producing their own VR headsets. However, those devices have limitations like the Gear VR only working with certain Samsung devices.
Google hopes to control costs and make the pool of potential devices and users much larger by producing a more open platform. Sources think Google may employee a strategy similar to their Nexus line of smartphones where Google produces a model that embodies the standard while making it possible for other manufacturers to produce their own devices.
There are some people who think Google may be ready to reveal their work in the VR area as soon as Google I/O this year followed by the release of an actual device later in the fall.
source: Financial Times
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The UK wants Google to test its self-driving cars in London
Google’s self-driving cars have already racked up more than a million miles, however all of them have taken place in the US. What about other parts of the world, such as those where people drive on the left? According to Sky News, some London officials have been trying to persuade the company to test in Britain for precisely these purposes. The last meeting took place “a few weeks ago,” according to Isabel Dedring, London’s deputy mayor for transport, following “at least half a dozen” talks over the last three years. Clearly, they haven’t been able to work something out.
“It’s still very early days but we would be keen for trials to happen in London whenever Google are ready to move them into other countries.”
The UK government is desperate for Britain to be a research haven for autonomous transportation. In Decemeber 2014, it part-funded a small number of research projects that included electric shuttle buses and two-person pods, virtual simulators and LIDAR-equipped jeeps. Soon, these will be joined by eight new programmes that are designed to test, among others, the public’s reaction to self-driving vehicles and a 41-mile “connected corridor.” While useful, none of these have quite the same panache as Google’s project. It does, therefore, make sense for politicians to try to court the company, as this would expose and legitimise its other efforts, while attracting new companies to bring their R&D to the UK.
Source: Sky News
Google is reportedly releasing a VR headset this year
There were hints that Google was interested in making virtual reality hardware, and now some of the first details of that gear seem to be trickling out. Financial Times sources claim that Google’s first true VR headset is effectively a more open rival to Samsung’s Gear VR — you slot in a phone from your brand of choice into a plastic housing that has its own movement sensors. It’s miles above Cardboard, according to the tip. If the leak is accurate, you’d see it arrive sometime this year… alongside software that could be just as (if not more) important to the experience.
The same insiders claim that Google is baking VR into Android itself, rather than relying on third-party apps like Cardboard does today. This wouldn’t just make support easier, but would fight common VR problems like lag — the smaller the delay, the less likely you are to be nauseous after a prolonged session. Google hasn’t confirmed either the Android VR support or the hardware, but it wouldn’t be shocking to get at least a sneak peek at this technology at Google I/O in May.
Source: Financial Times
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