Google is trying to compete with Yahoo in the acquisition spree and after a stellar purchase of Nest, a hardware company that produces smart home products, Google has now acquired a software startup – SlickLogin, whose chief area of expertise is a sound based login. Just six months after they showcased their product at TechCrunch Disrupt, Google acquired them.
Continue reading “Google acquires a sound based login startup, SlickLogin”
“Ok Google, Call Mom!” is now possible thanks to a new update for Google Now Voice Search. Being one of the more popular features that worked well in Apple’s Siri ever since its first release, Google Now finally steps it up in this department. The feature incorporates specific contact look up through voice, in case you have saved it by the same name, or even help you set up specific titles for you close ones. If you call it out, Google Now will pick that nick name first, and only then will look up names generally. This makes the contextual assistant more personal, and makes the process of calling so much easier. This update comes at a time when Android is gearing up to be inside cars, in which Google Now’s voice control would play a major role. With Siri already set to be inside cars, with its own mapping, Google’s efforts seem directly aimed at it.
Continue reading “Google Now can now directly let you call or text your loved ones”
When Google announced Android 4.4 KitKat on their latest flagship Google Nexus 5, they showcased the then Google Experience launcher that was exclusive to Nexus 5. Google Experience launcher brought along the goodness of Google Now right into the homescreen. With Google Experience launcher, you were just a swipe away from accessing Google Now which provides contextual information cards.
Continue reading “Google Now Launcher coming soon, not exclusive to Google Nexus 5 anymore”
Google Maps app for iPhone, iPad and Android already shows you alternate routes when you request for it while navigating. Google has updated these apps to show notifications if there’s a faster route. Google maps already shows bands of red, yellow and green along your route based on traffic conditions. The new notification option now lets you reach the destination faster with dynamic rerouting so that you can avoid heavy traffic in your chosen route. Continue reading “Google Maps for iOS and Android updated with faster route notification”
Hankering for a bit of color in your favorite Google edition device? The Nexus 5 in red is now available on the Play Store in the same 16 and 32GB capacities as the other variants. The phone has a dual tone finish with the front being black, and the matte red finish extending to the edges. The specifications of the phone remain identical to the black and white versions and are detailed below. Continue reading “Google Nexus 5 in Bright Red goes official, available in India now”
Google is working on its photography suite seriously and it was pretty evident after the Mountain View company acquired Snapseed photo editing app. In the latest move to strength its photography team, Google has pocketed Adobe’s John Nack.
John Nack has been associated with Adobe and one of its primary offering – Adobe Photoshop. John Nack was the Senior Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop. He had been associated with Adobe for 14 years and was the man to lead the company’s first public beta – CS3. Apart from that, he was also responsible for features inside Photoshop like Smart Objects.
In a blog post at Adobe’s website, John Nack bid his former company a adieu and hopes for a great experience at Google. He also said that the two companies have been in good terms and are working to make the best for photographers to tell their tales.
Google announced their 35$ dongle – Chromecast at the Google I/O 2013 event last year. At launch, Chromecast was restricted to US and eventually started rolling out to other countries. It is officially available in India and is priced around Rs. 3,300 from Amazon. What this Chromecast does is that it lets you stream content from your iOS or Android device or PC to your TV via WiFi.
Continue reading “Google opens up Chromecast for developers, makes streaming main stream”
Not long ago, we saw that the UK retail box of the red Google Nexus 5 leaked out. It was an interesting colour choice for the popular smartphone, which released with only two colours – Black or White, back in October. We had compared the two colours and found that the material used for them are vastly different with each providing a different level of build quality and handling. Now, we have a new red coloured version which looks like the real deal, as the press image leaked by evleaks showcases it in bleeding red. Riding the colour wave started by Nokia with its Lumia series of devices, the Nexus 5 in red might be really tempting for people who are still holding back on the purchase because of the lack of colour choices.
Continue reading “Red Google Nexus 5 leaks again in a press image”
When Android KitKat rolled out we got our first glimpse of what could be the new runtime heading to Android. Dubbed ART, it was introduced as a preview for enthusiast users and came with a fare share of warnings. Code changes spotted in a recent commit to the AOSP ie Android Open Source Project suggest that the switchover from Dalvik to ART may be coming sooner rather than later. Owing to the rapid adoption in the community, numerous bug reports, it is quite possible that the Android team has managed to get the runtime ready for primetime sooner than expected. Continue reading “AOSP commit suggests Android to replace Dalvik with ART in upcoming release”
Games are usually the best examples to showcase any new platform. The iPhone got a ton of mini apps and games that showed off its accelerometer and touch screen, which were novel at that time. Similarly, Google has developed 5 mini games for its innovative “Glass” wearable product, to showcase the hardware’s unique capabilities. As of now, the Glass can already let you make calls, get directions and so on, but games are something new. Having unboxed the Glass and found it to work really well, we can’t wait to test these mini games which might give us a glimpse of the kind of apps that Google will let developers make for the wearable product, that just got a lot more socially acceptable with new frames for prescription lenses. Anyways, here is a video representation of the 5 mini games Google has developed –
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9naxeHGIaRY
Continue reading “Google releases 5 mini games for Glass, wants devs to make more”
Out of nowhere Google is sold off its Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for a deal worth close to 3 billion USD earlier today. The almost 3 billion USD sale doesn’t include the Advanced Technology and Projects group led by former DARPA director Regina Dugan. The Verge was able to confirm this and according to the sources, the team will be integrated with Google’s Android team which is headed by Sundar Pichai. Regina Dugan will reportedly report to Sundar Pichai, but is expected to maintain an individual role.
Continue reading “Google keeps Project Ara after selling off Motorola”
Hot on the heels of the news that Google might be planning to offload Motorola to Lenovo comes the official announcement. Google today revealed that Lenovo plans to acquire the Motorola Mobility smartphone business for $2.91 billion. Google had acquired Motorola for a whopping 12.5 billion dollars which makes the sale price seem suspiciously low. That said, Google will retain control of Motorola Mobility’s patent portfolio which seems to have been the intention all along. Lenovo will receive a license to get access to this patent portfolio. It remains unclear if this will be an exclusive license however, Lenovo will also receive over 2,000 patent assets as well as the brand and trademark portfolio for Motorola Mobility. Continue reading “Google makes it official: sells Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91bn, retains patents”
Lenovo, the world’s no. 1 PC maker and one of the top 5 Smartphone vendors in the world, is reportedly buying out Motorola’s Mobility division from Google for close 3 billion USD, reports Reuters. With final talks between Lenovo and Google going on, Reuters adds that the Motorola mobility division is the one that makes the Moto X and the recently launched popular budget device, Moto G. Lenovo will also be getting its hands on certain patents as a part of the deal, reportedly. Google created a lot of flutter, not long ago, when it announced that it will acquire Motorola’s mobility division for a whopping 12.5 billion USD. It was assumed that the money was for all the patents, but Motorola(under Google’s leadership) announced the Moto X and the Moto G, with very few tweaks and modifications, which possibly signaled more Google intervention than ever, but it looks like that was not the case then, nor is it now.
Lenovo and Google have just made the acquisition official, read here for more details.
Continue reading “Lenovo to buy Motorola from Google for 3 billion USD”
Samsung, the world’s biggest Android manufacturer, is reportedly toning down its TouchWiz UI tweaks and own custom apps due to pressure from Google, reports re/code. Not long before, the Korean Chaebol unveiled a range of new Android devices at the Consumer Electronics Show, all featuring the company’s latest and heavily modified Touchwiz “Magazine” UX, that looked nothing like Android. And then we saw a couple more leaks of its adaptation for the mobile form factor, and even that was a drastic departure from the previous version of TouchWiz, let alone stock Android. This might have set Google off and reportedly, the two companies have come to a compromise(among many other things) in which Samsung will tone down its UI tweaks and replacement apps for Google’s services, going forward.
The image above, taken from a Ars Technica opinion piece paints a clear picture of how Samsung had its own ecosystem around Android, replacing almost every little Google service possible. It is all set to change soon.
Google Chrome apps for iOS and Android are coming, as the company has just quietly unveiled, in its Chromium blog, that it is finally ready to extend the reach of Chrome apps to mobile platforms. It was previously rumoured to happen, but Google remained quiet even after the news spread fast. But now that it’s official, it is seen as a landmark announcement, as this might be a strategic move for all things Google, going forward. With Chromebooks gaining ground in the notebook space, thanks to several OEMs backing it up with some really interesting products, Google is now taking the bustling platform to mobile. This is a move that the whole industry has been expecting, ever since Google replaced Andy Rubin with Sundar Pichai, the Chrome boss at the Mountain View company. Having developed a tool chain for packaging Chrome apps into native shells for both iOS and Android, this Google-blessed offering will be a dream come true for many developers.
Continue reading “Google Chrome Apps for iOS and Android are coming”
