Posts Tagged ‘Google’
Time Waster: Play Atari Breakout In Google Image Search
Author: jos
By searching ‘Atari Breakout’ in Google images you can play the game and stick it to the man for a couple minutes while at work. Or on your lunch break if you care about keeping your job. I took the time to beat the whole first stage to see if the level changes, but it does not. It’s just level one over and over and over again until you die. It’s like a metaphor for life. Oh boy, oh boy, here comes a new level! NOPE.
Thanks to Jon, who agrees we should class-action lawsuit Google for the loss of profits due to a sudden drop in worker productivity.
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Google I/O 2013: everything you need to know
Author: Mark Jeffries
Google’s biggest event of the year will be taking place from Wednesday, May 15th through Friday the 17th. Though the annual conference is aimed at developers, the company uses it to announce new details on Android releases, Nexus hardware, Glass, and more. We have a couple ideas about what to expect this year, but you can follow along here for the latest.
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Exclusive: Google readies its Spotify competitor with Universal and Sony now on board
Author: Natalie Wood
Google will unveil new subscription music services tomorrow at the Google I/O conference, sources close to the company said. Google has now signed separate licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment for both YouTube and Google Play, setting the stage for such an announcement, music industry sources told The Verge.
Google plans to add separate music subscription services to YouTube and Google Play, the entertainment hub for the Android operating system. Earlier this year, Fortune magazine reported that Google had already struck similar licensing agreements with Warner Music Group, the smallest of the top three record labels. But landing Universal Music and Sony gives Google access to the two largest record…
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Google reportedly signs deal with Sony and Universal ahead of launching music streaming service
Author: Melissa Shroeder
Sure, Google I/O may not focus on new products, but it might just take a moment to unveil the firm’s take on music streaming. According to The Verge, industry sources say that Mountain View has inked licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment for YouTube and Google Play. With Fortune having reported that a similar deal with Warner Music Group is already in the can, it’s entirely possible that the search titan could reveal its Spotify-like service at the developer event. Page & Co.’s dev shindig may not have skydivers this year, but on-demand music may be on the program.
Filed under: Internet, Sony, Google
Source: The Verge
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Google I/O 2013′s opening keynote is live tomorrow, get your liveblog right here!
Author: Tiffany Shoman
Who can forget last year’s Google I/O opening keynote? With skydivers and a plethora of extreme antics all culminating in the on-stage unveiling of Google Glass, it will go down in history as one of the most exciting product unveilings of all time. Can Google top that this year? It’s certainly going to try, and rather than hosting multiple keynotes on multiple days big G is doing it all in one shot. One three hour shot. Set your alarms and make sure you find a comfortable chair then join us at the URL below for the 9:00am PT (12:00pm ET) liveblog tomorrow, May 15th.
Google I/O 2013 opening keynote
Filed under: Google
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Google Play now lets all developers respond to user reviews
Author: Jamie Colby
Relations between those who build mobile apps and their customers are getting a leg up today with Google’s announcement that all developers will now be able to reply to user reviews in the Play store. The company made the announcement on the Android Developers blog, discussing best practices like identifying and prioritizing bugs based on user impact and getting ideas for new improvements and features. The ability to respond to user reviews first started rolling out nearly a year ago, but now appears to finally be complete, following a false start in January.
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Google+ now offers suggested content as you browse mobile news sites
Author: Tiffany Shoman
The next time you browse the mobile version of a news website, Google+ may step in to guide you to related content. The tool’s new recommendation feature, available on Android and iOS, can suggest similar articles, or posts by the same author, with direct access to an abbreviated version of that individual’s Google+ page. To implement the feature, web developers simply need to add a single line of JavaScript to their mobile website. Forbes appears to be Mountain View’s launch partner with this latest endeavor — you should be able to take it for a spin by visiting any article page on the news organization’s mobile site. Desk jockeys can preview the new recommendations engine as well — snag a closer look in the demo video just past the break.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Google
Source: Google+ Blog
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Why The FBI Will Love Google Glass
Author: Rod Sutherland
As we enter the era of wearable computing, government requests for user data are at an all-time high.
Via: slate.com
According to Google’s Transparency Report, the company received 14,201 government requests for user data in 2010 and complied with 76% of them. In 2012, Google complied with only 66%, but due to the growing number (21,389 in 2012) of requests, Google actually forfeited user data thousands more times.
Google, and other tech giants, have been fighting back, but the trend is clear: Every year, more data is flowing from tech companies to the government.
Via: google.com
During this same period, Google conceived of and announced its next big product: Google Glass, a wearable, connected device with a camera.
Now, imagine for a moment that wearable computing finally has its breakthrough moment. That a cheap version of Google Glass, after it becomes available to the masses, turns millions of users into full-time documentarians — of any and all things.
Then, imagine the FBI has access to that information.
Public reception of Glass has been mixed. The vast majority of people haven’t tried it, or anything like it, but the concept is new and discomforting. For many, concerns center around Glass' inconspicuous ability to outwardly surveil the unsuspecting. With Glass there is no “point and shoot” — there's just “shoot.”
Two decades ago, the FBI lobbied aggressively for Congress to pass the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), mandating that all telephone switches be “wiretap friendly” in the event that the FBI needed to listen in on phone lines. In 2004, CALEA was extended to some broadband providers, like colleges, but larger web companies were not included.
CALEA set the stage for what's known as the FBI backdoor, the idea that the government — with legal authorization — can monitor communications through connected devices, often times without the user's knowledge.
Last year, one federal judge estimated there are probably around to 30,000 secret electronic surveillance orders issued by federal courts every year. Similarly, Wired reported the FBI was lobbying big tech companies like Yahoo, Facebook, and Google to request cooperation with backdoors for surveillance.
As with most surveillance, it's hard to know just how easy it is to gain access to user information. In 2012, Ars Technica found that it is highly unlikely that Apple could surrender encrypted data on an iPhone to authorities but noted that information in the cloud was much easier to obtain. (Since then, Apple, like Google, has actively encouraged users to migrate their iPhone's contents to the cloud.)
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Helplessness, despair, and Street View come together in ‘GeoGuessr’ Google Maps game
Author: Charity Woods
Google Maps is usually for helping you navigate, but a new game based on Street View is about being almost hopelessly lost. GeoGuessr drops you at a random Street View location across the earth, leaving you to move around the map as much as you’d like before ultimately taking a guess at where you’re actually standing. Though you’ll occasionally get lucky and start off right in front of a hotel billboard printed with a city’s name on it, for the most part you’ll be wandering around country roads, scrounging hints off of signs and license plates, and trying to make it back to civilization. Though GeoGuessr a relatively simple game, it almost recalls the confusion and wonder of Myst, right in our own world. The game runs through five rounds…
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‘Google Play Games’ uncovered as Android’s home for invites, achievements and more
Author: Mark Jeffries
A Google-built alternative to Game Center on iOS and Games Hub on Windows Phone surfaced last month, and we know even more about it. Android Police dug into a new Play Services (an Android component you don’t access directly, but does things like update Google apps) APK, and found the latest version hid a massive update getting ready for Google Play Games. Although it’s not directly accessible yet, so far it’s revealed support for system wide notifications, standardized notifications managed by Google+, and cloud synced game saves to work across multiple devices. Also built in are the other parts of any modern gaming service like matchmaking, leaderboards, achievements, lobbies and such. Exactly how all this works and how devs will put it to use will probably be revealed next week at Google I/O, but for now there are a few more screenshots beyond the source link.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google
Source: Android Police
