Nexus factory images with February security fixes are available today
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Right on cue, Google has today released new Nexus factory images which contain the security patch fixes for February. The images will have build numbers of either MMB29Q, MMB29U or MMB29R, and are available to download for the usual suspects: the Nexus 6P, 5X, 6, 9, 5, 7 and Player. Naturally, the software version number stays at Android 6.0.1, but as for what is actually fixed in this release, Google says it’s resolved some Critical security flaws:
“The most severe of these issues is a Critical security vulnerability that could enable remote code execution on an affected device through multiple methods such as email, web browsing, and MMS when processing media files. The Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in Broadcom’s Wi-Fi driver is also Critical severity as it could allow remote code execution on an affected device while connected to the same network as the attacker.”
To get the full, technical low-down, you can check out the rest of Google’s security bulletin here. And for those of you who want to flash the factory images to your device, you can get them from the Google Developers site. As always, make sure to back up your data before attempting this, otherwise sit tight and wait for the OTAs to start flowing.
What do you think about this month’s security patch? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Google Developers, Android via Android Police
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One seventh of all human beings actively use Gmail
As part of the company’s Q4 2015 earnings report, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company’s massively popular email service Gmail has passed the 1 billion user mark. This is active, monthly users, not just downloads or sporadic users. This means that if you’re a human being reading this news article, then there’s at least a 14 percent chance you’re a Gmail user.
This isn’t the first time a Google service has netted over a billion users. There are six others: Search, Chrome, Android, Google Play, Maps, and YouTube can all boast this claim. There’s no question that Google is a large part of many of our lives, and our handing over this much data to the company is potentially fuelling their artificial intelligence research. AI is increasingly being used in the search giant’s services, including Gmail. In fact, in the same announcement, Pichai revealed that an astounding number of all replies on their email service are written by AI technology.
See also: Latest Inbox by Gmail update will help you find important info much faster
Back in November, we covered how Inbox reads your emails and uses AI algorithms to generate “smart replies,” which are canned replies written using your own diction. Apparently, the smart reply system has seen an incredible adoption rate, as 10 percent of all email replies coming from the mobile app are composed this way.
What are your thoughts of Google’s increased role in our lives and the subtle presence of AI technology being integrated with services we use on a daily basis? Is this the prologue of a Terminator franchise or are we on the cusp of a technologically fascinating future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Next: Google posts Q4 and full year 2015 earnings – $74.5 billion in revenue for the year
Google posts Q4 and full year 2015 earnings – $74.5 billion in revenue for the year
Many of the major tech companies have been posting their Q4 and full year 2015 financial earnings results over the past few weeks, and it looks like Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is next on the list. This past year has shown great financial growth for the company year over year, as well as a big jump in revenue just in Q4 alone.
Before we get into the details, we should clarify a few things. Now that Google has a parent company, things are going to be a bit different when it comes to financial results. Alphabet has separated its core businesses – Search, Maps, YouTube, Apps, Cloud, Ads, Commerce, Android, Chrome, Google Play and hardware sales – from its more farfetched endeavors, or “Other Bets.” Alphabet’s core businesses are still referred to as Google, the company we all know and love.
Now that we have all of that cleared up, let’s get into some numbers. Taking a look at Google’s revenues alone, the company has posted a full year revenue of $74.5 billion, up 13 percent year-over-year, as well as a total of $23.42 billion in profit for the full year. The company has earned $21.33 billion in revenue in Q4 2015, up 18 percent year-over-year, with a Q4 net income of $4.9 billion, up from $4.6 billion at the same time last year. Those are the important numbers when it comes to Google’s businesses, so let’s move on to the Other Bets.
Alphabet’s Other Bets consist of other projects such as Google Fiber, Nest, Calico, GV (Google Ventures), Google Capital, X (Google X) and a few other important initiatives. For all of 2015, the company’s Other Bets earned a total of $448 million in revenue, up from $327 million year-over-year. These numbers aren’t all that high, especially when considering the Other Bets operating loss of $3.57 billion for the full year. Of course, these are largely experimental projects, so it shouldn’t really be a surprise that these businesses didn’t make the company any money.
For more financial details, follow the source link below.
Alphabet’s Q4 2015 numbers are in: it’s now the most valuable company in the world
Alphabet, the holding company formed by Google in August, was the center of attention on Monday after disclosing the results of its Q4 2015 operations. Revenue in the quarter came in at $21.3 billion, an 18% jump over the same period a year prior. It was enough to push Alphabet to nearly $5 billion in net income.
The spot formerly held by Apple as the most valuable company is the world now belongs to Alphabet.
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Alphabet’s market cap sits at $558 billion, putting it higher than Apple’s $535 billion. This figure values a publicly traded company by multiplying its share price with the number of shares issued.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai was ecstatic to announce Gmail is joining Android, Chrome, Google Search, Google Play, Google Maps, and YouTube as services with one billion monthly active users.
Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s CFO, said the following about the company’s performance to finish off the year:
“Our very strong revenue growth in Q4 reflects the vibrancy of our business, driven by mobile search as well as YouTube and programmatic advertising, all areas in which we’ve been investing for many years. We’re excited about the opportunities we have across Google and Other Bets to use technology to improve the lives of billions of people.”
Other Bets, which includes highly ambitious projects, made $448 million in 2015 but didn’t come in profitable. Although Google Fiber and Nest contributed to most of that, Alphabet saw the group lose money. The company notes that it will continue to invest in Other Bets as long as its core business continues succeeding.
Source: Alphabet
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There are 1 billion monthly active users of Gmail
Another one of Google’s products has reached the illustrious mark of 1 billion monthly active users. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced the milestone for Gmail during its quarterly earnings report earlier today.
Thanks a billion for helping us make Gmail better and better!https://t.co/Rd82YqwGjl
— Gmail (@gmail) February 1, 2016
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
It was only eight months ago when Gmail had 900 million monthly active users, meaning 100 million people either returned to or joined Google’s email platform since May. Gmail has been around for more than a decade, so maintaining 100 million additional monthly active users in eight months is an impressive feat.
This puts Gmail up there with Android, Chrome, Google Search, Google Play, Google Maps, and YouTube as Google’s services with 1 billion monthly active users.
The other little statistic mentioned by Alphabet is that somewhere around 10% of replies from Google Inbox are automated.
Source: Gmail (Twitter)
Click here to view the embedded video.
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Google Nexus phones may be going the way of Apple
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Up till now, Google Nexus phones have been built through a healthy working relationship between Google and an Android device manufacturer. The symbiotic relationship allows Google to showcase its vanilla Android experience, and the manufacturer is allowed to demonstrate its formidable hardware capabilities. However, reports are saying that Google may be changing its relationship with manufacturers moving forward, adopting a more Apple-esque approach where Google designs both the hardware and software and just contracts out the manufacturing of the device.
While that sounds unthinkable for most Android manufacturers – especially for those who have provided such brilliant Nexus devices – there are manufacturers who would jump at the opportunity. While Google has taken a 15% cut in the past leaving little for the manufacturer itself, it’s rumoured that HTC would be willing to partake in such a scheme as it would give the struggling company a boost in short term revenue, even if their name doesn’t end up on the device itself. It will be very interesting to see how this all pans out in the future as the competition heats up between Google and Apple.
What do you think about Google Nexus phones with hardware and software designed by Google? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: The Information via engadget
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Gmail has over 1 billion active users
Does it feel like virtually everyone you know has a Gmail address? You’re not alone. While discussing its latest fiscal results, Alphabet has confirmed that there are now over 1 billion active Gmail users per month, or 100 million more than there were last May. That’s a big milestone, but it’s almost surprising that Google’s email service didn’t hit the magic figure earlier. After all, Facebook reached the 1 billion mark last summer, and it’s a non-essential social network — you’d think a vital tool like email would get there first. Clearly, Facebook is a more common bond that transcends your choice of email providers.
That’s not the only tidbit Alphabet wanted to crow about, though. It also noted that about 10 percent of replies from Google Inbox users are automatic. There’s a real chance that your Inbox-toting friend responded to your thoughtful, carefully-written email with a quick AI-generated message. That doesn’t bode well for the future of human interaction, but it does suggest that Autoreply is more than a mere novelty.
Thanks a billion for helping us make Gmail better and better!https://t.co/24Fzk9bG31
— Gmail (@gmail) February 1, 2016
Source: Alphabet (YouTube)
Google may take total control over making the Nexus
Most people in the Android community have heard of the Nexus line. Their software is totally stock from Google and their hardware is from some other manufacture. However, that all could change in the future.
Google seems to be continuing forward with its plan to completely control the Nexus line to compete directly with the iPhone. It would still run stock Android, but hardware would now be made by Google as well. Of course, they will probably source parts from other manufactures like everyone else, but overall, the device would be theirs.
Google makes huge money off of Android as is, but reports say Google is still worried about Apple. They feel this may be the only way to deliver an Android product that consumers will love in order to take away business from the iPhone. Doing this would also make everything work even smoother together than before. That is the main reason people enjoy their iPhones so much.
There still isn’t a ton of proof showing Google will do this, but they did already do this with their Pixel line of Chromebooks and tablets. Doing a similar strategy with the Nexus doesn’t seem to far-fetched.
Source: The Information
Via: Phandroid
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Alphabet earnings shows just how much Google’s ‘other bets’ are losing
The newly-minted Alphabet (made up of Google proper and the variety of ventures that make up the “Other Bets” the company is involved in) has just released its first full quarter of financial data under its new structure. At a high level, Alphabet continued the growth that Google has seen over the last year or so — the company is reporting $21.3 billion of revenue with profits of 4.9 billion. That marks an 18 percent yearly increase in revenue and a 5 percent increase in net income, both decent gains for the company.
What’s more interesting than these numbers is the fact that Alphabet is breaking out its earnings across Google proper as well as its Other Bets category. In the past, all of this was lumped under Google, but the new company structure provides greater insight into what’s working and what isn’t at Alphabet.
To sum it up, Google is making money and Other Bets are not. In 2015 as a whole, Google earned $74.5 billion in revenue with $23.4 billion of operating income, both up over the year before. But “Other Bets” was a money-loser: the “Other Bets” companies made $448 million in revenue over the course of the year but failed to turn a profit. Those companies lost $3.6 billion in 2015.
That’s not really unexpected — the whole point of Other Bets is to let Alphabet develop new companies and technologies outside of the Google umbrella. Things like Google Life Sciences (now known as Verily), the Ventures investment group, Nest, Calico and so forth are a lot less proven and experimental than Google’s core advertising business and Android, both of which fall under the traditional “Google” banner. The Alphabet team was certainly not expecting these companies to be big money-earners yet.
Another category worth keeping an eye on is Google’s “other revenues” — that’s where the company puts things like Google Play and its lineup of hardware. Revenues for that category grew to $2.1 billion in Q4 2015, up 24 percent year over year. We’re hoping to get more details on what drove growth there in Alphabet’s earnings call, which is set to kick off in just a few minutes. We’ll update this post with any details that come out of it.
Source: Alphabet
Google Briefly Surpasses Apple as World’s Most Valuable Company
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is encroaching on Apple’s status as the most valuable company in the world, reports CNN. While Apple is currently on top, a surge in Alphabet shares today gave it a market valuation of $533.4 billion, briefly surpassing Apple’s valuation of $532.7 billion on a 1 percent stock drop.
Alphabet shares dropped shortly after, leaving Apple at a higher valuation, but the numbers could shift again tomorrow following Alphabet’s first financial earnings report this afternoon. Alphabet is expected to announce overall revenue growth of close to 15 percent with a 20 percent increase in earnings per share.
Over the course of the last several months, Apple shares have fallen steadily, dropping its peak valuation of $740 billion to ~$540 billion. Despite record earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2016, with revenue of $75.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $18.4 billion, Apple has not bounced back from rumors that the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s are not selling well and concerns that the company has reached “peak iPhone” with no replacement product on the horizon.
Apple is in for a rough second quarter as the company is expected to announce its first ever decline in iPhone sales and its first year-over-year revenue drop in thirteen years. Currency headwinds caused by a strong U.S. dollar are costing Apple a significant percent of its earnings compared to the year-ago quarter.
Update 1:05 PM: Alphabet is up another 8 percent in after hours trading following a strong earnings report, meaning Alphabet will almost certainly open trading tomorrow at a higher valuation than Apple.
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